Shadows -text

Shadows

By: Elaine

Rating: NC-17
Genre: Drama, Romance

Summary: Did you ever wonder how Terra Prime knew to steal Trip and T'Pol's DNA?

Note: This story started out as a little smut biscuit--more like a smut cookie, or a smut crouton, maybe--and took on a life of its own. Part of the premise is that Trip and T'Pol had an ongoing relationship from the events of “E2” (when Really!Old!T'Pol tells her younger counterpart "I can't imagine life without him" up until “Home” when she marries Boring!Fat!Koss (Remember how Trip asked T'Pol what she told her mother "about us"? That was totally a boyfriend thing to say, in my opinion.) As far as I can tell, nothing in onscreen canon contradicts the idea that they were together, and if you know of something I don't, well, don't tell me because I don't wanna know.

This takes place in the beginning of Season 4, after they've restored the timeline in "Shockwave, Part II" and before they've all left Enterprise to return to Earth. Or, y'know, Vulcan.

Thanks to Trippy, Boussh, and persianmouse for their on-call beta work.

***

Ensign Masaro sat motionless in the shadows, contemplating his treachery.

He knew without a doubt his actions were right and proper. If Terra Prime did not take drastic measures to protect Earth, the day would soon come when his home would be overrun by aliens. He despised the Vulcans in particular and had long ago decided he would never be subservient to the calculating, pointy-eared machines. Paxton was right; enough was enough. It was time to draw the line.

Knowing what must be done and actually carrying out the deed were two entirely different matters, however. Masaro acutely felt the weight of betraying his ship and his captain. The deed was done; the samples he had stolen were safely stowed in his carryall, awaiting Enterprise's return to Earth in less than 72 hours, after they were cleared at Jupiter station. Once in Paxton's hands, the DNA of Archer and his Vulcan first officer would be combined to create a...

Not baby, Masaro told himself. Specimen.

Once the specimen was revealed to the world, the repercussions would be immediate and devastating. The speculation and innuendo would rock both Starfleet and the Vulcan High Command to its core. It would likely end Jonathan Archer's career.

Masaro knew his actions would destroy the career of an innocent man. He accepted that it was necessary. It did not mean, however, that he liked it.

Thus, the weight of his conscience sent him to the hiding place he had found, deep in the bowels of Engineering. Merely a cranny, really, tucked away near the recesses of the intermix chamber. The only access to the intermix area was by the ladder at the front of the chamber, and Engineering personnel seldom came up here unless there was a specific task to be performed. Even then, from Masaro's secret area he could see anyone who came up, but they could not see him unless they looked exactly in the right spot, leaning over far to the right and looking up about sixty degrees.

No one ever had any reason to look in that direction. For all intents and purposes, he was invisible.

Perched in his hideaway, for a passing moment he was reminded of the storybook creature Gollum.

Is that what I've become? A sniveling, spineless traitor who lives in the shadows?

No, he decided. He was doing what must be done to save humanity. If he had to condemn an innocent man and give up his soul in the process, it was worth the price. His actions would rid Earth of the Vulcan taint forever...

Masaro's ruminations were interrupted by the clang of boots on metal rungs. He shrank back even further in the shadows, but his eyes remained fixed on the access ladder. A familiar blond head appeared; the Commander, of course. Who else would come up here at this time of night to run a Level 3 diagnostic on the intermix?

Then he heard their voices. Commander Tucker was not alone.

He heard a familiar female monotone. "I fail to see why you require me to observe the intermix chamber."

"You came down here personally for a status report, Commander...so I intend to personally show you what I've been working on."

Tucker reached the top of the ladder and moved to the catwalk, extending a hand to T'Pol as she climbed the last rung. Masaro was shocked to see her accept his assistance without hesitation. As her purple-catsuited figure fully emerged at the top of the ladder, Masaro couldn't help but admire her physical attributes. Damn good thing they're emotionless robots, he thought, Otherwise they're wouldn't be a man alive who could resist that.

"D'ya hear that?" Tucker asked her. Masaro froze. Had he been discovered?

"I hear nothing out of the ordinary, Commander."

"Shh, listen…you can't hear that?"

"Hear what, Commander?"

"The intermix ratio is off."

"I find it highly unlikely that you can hear an imbalance in the intermix ratio."

"Yeah, well, I thought so, too. But I knew it just sounded...off. My diagnostic showed nothin', but then I tweaked one of the algorithms and--here, take a look." He took her hand and tugged her toward the workstation. He tapped in a series of commands, and T'Pol bent to peer at the console.

"Fascinating. You are indeed correct."

"I love it when you admit that I'm right."

"How do you propose to correct the problem?"

"Tomorrow I'll write a subroutine. Now that I know where the problem is, should be a piece of cake to fix." Tucker stood behind T'Pol, his hands on her shoulders.

My eyes must be playing tricks on me, Masaro thought. It's just not possible. Everyone knew better than to touch a Vulcan...but T'Pol did not stiffen or pull away. Tucker rubbed her shoulders in slow, lazy circles.

"Now what I wanna know is…why did you come down here at Oh-one-thirty for a progress report that I could have sent to your workstation in the morning?"

"I wished to learn what has been taking up so much of your time. You have spent twenty-two of the past thirty-six hours in engineering."

"Been goin' over the nacelles with the boys from Jupiter Station. You missed me?"

"Not at all. I was merely....curious."

"Oh yeah?" Tucker was bent over behind her and kissed T'Pol where her earlobe met her jaw. "I think someone's been lonely."

"That is illogical," said T'Pol; her voice was deeper, huskier. "Vulcans do not experience loneliness." She closed her eyes and visibly trembled as Tucker traced the outline of her pointed ear with his tongue.

"Well, humans do, and darlin', I haven't been too busy to miss you like crazy..." Tucker continued to caress T'Pol's ear with his tongue as his hands roamed from her shoulders to the front of her catsuit, caressing her breasts as she panted and squirmed under his ministrations.

Masaro was frozen in shock. The salacious rumors, the gossip he had dismissed as too outrageous to believe....

It was true. The Chief Engineer was fucking the Vulcan. In fact, if the scene unfolding before him was any indication, it looked like they been involved for some time.

Tucker's hands moved from T'Pol's breasts to her hips, pulling her into him as he ground himself slowly against her backside. One hand stayed on her hip for balance as the other moved to the zipper at the back of her uniform. Her eyes opened as the sound of the zipper seemed to bring her back to reality.

"Trip...this is a public area. We're in uniform. We must stop."

"Sweetheart, there's only one ladder up here, you can hear or smell anyone coming a mile away... and technically we're off duty.” Tucker continued to move against her as he eased down the zipper. "Considerin' we're equal in rank, we're not breakin' any rules 'long as we don't get caught." He moved the zipper down to the small of her back and slipped his hand inside. T'Pol bit her lip to stifle a moan as his fingers found and played with one of her nipples while his teeth nibbled at her neck and shoulder.

Masaro was not a voyeur by nature; however, he was pinned where he was, with no way to leave without being seen. He contemplated closing his eyes to give them some iota of privacy; however, he was aroused despite himself, his eyes glued to the look of ecstasy on the Vulcan's face as her human pleasured her.

Pleasure. He had not thought Vulcans were capable of pleasure. He hadn't thought of them as sexual creatures at all; in fact, he had rather pictured them as smooth and featureless between their legs as plastic dolls. He realized he had been terribly mistaken; not only were they capable of sexual pleasure, they were apparently able and willing to take human lovers as well.

His anger rose in him and mingled with his arousal as he realized Vulcans were much more complex and dangerous than he had known.

Masaro watched, unwilling and unable to look away, as Tucker's other hand slipped into T'Pol's uniform and down between her thighs. As she gasped and her hips twitched, he found himself wondering if their anatomy down there was the same as a human female's. He felt a fleeting sense of revulsion and shame as he realized how much he wanted to find out for himself...

T'Pol moaned aloud at the touch of her lover's fingers, in time with his increasingly intense thrusts against her. Tucker had her almost fully bent against the console now, and his eyes were closed and his face enraptured as he brought her closer and closer to her climax.

His fingers worked her flesh more roughly, and her hips bucked as she came hard, moaning his name as he bit her shoulder and moved with her, riding the waves with her as she shuddered again and again. He stayed with her, slower and gentler this time, until she came again, this time muttering incoherently in her alien tongue as her body spasmed against his hand. When her tremors subsided, Tucker slipped his hands out of her open uniform, gently fastened the zipper, and turned her to face him.

Masaro stared, transfixed, at the face of the Vulcan woman. The blank, icy mask he had seen was gone, replaced by the flushed, glowing face of a woman in the throes of passion. She pulled Tucker's head down to meet her own and captured his lips in a searing, hungry kiss.

Her slim, fine hands roamed greedily over Tucker's torso, finally tugging open his blue uniform and slipping it off his shoulders. Breaking the kiss, she slid off the console and knelt in front of him, tugging the coveralls off his slim hips.

"T'Pol..." Tucker's voice was ragged with arousal. "Are you sure?"

She looked up at her lover. "Quite certain, Commander." In the dim blue glow of the console, it almost looked like a smile was playing at the corner of her lips.

Reverently, she caressed the hard ridge straining the front of his blue shorts, causing him to exhale sharply. Slowly, teasingly, she pulled down his underwear, freeing him from the constraints of fabric. She took him in her hand and ran her tongue along the underside of his shaft, then took the entire length of him in her mouth. He moaned and took her head in his hands, weaving his fingers in her dark silky hair.

Masaro had thought he had reached the depths of his shock. But nothing he had ever thought or felt about Vulcans had prepared him for the sight of the gorgeous woman on her knees in front of the Chief Engineer, lovingly sucking his cock. He grew agonizingly hard himself, shifting minutely in the cramped space he occupied.

Those damn pointed ears. T'Pol stopped and pulled away, head tilted as she attempted to determine where the sound had originated.

Tucker moaned at the loss of friction. "T'Pol...?"

Masaro held his breath. He knew that if the Vulcan was in her right mind at the moment, he would surely have been discovered. But her attention was...elsewhere. T'Pol shook her head minutely and bent again to her ministrations, caressing Tucker's thigh with one hand as she stroked his shaft with the other, her tongue gently circling the head. His hands, gently entwined in her hair, urged her on. Again she took him in deeply and suckled him as he thrust against her, his eyes closed in ecstasy as he made love to her mouth.

"Oh, darlin'..." he whispered. “Oh, T’Pol, that feels so good..." His thrusts became more intense. "Oh God, yes, I'm so close...I'm so close...I...." his body tensed and he moaned gutturally as he came, jerking over and over again as her mouth engulfed him. As he stilled, she swallowed and released him from her mouth, kissing him tenderly on his belly before rising to her feet, pulling up his shorts and coveralls as she kissed him again on the mouth.

His arms encircled her as his breathing calmed. "That was amazing, darlin'." He chuckled against her neck. "We're bein' pretty foolish, huh?"

"Indeed. If we had been caught, the repercussions would be severe."

He kissed her on the forehead. "Sometimes, that's part of the fun."

She regarded him evenly, one eyebrow raised. "It is quite illogical, but it does seem that the possibility of discovery serves to heighten the...excitement."

Tucker slipped his arms into his coveralls and zipped. He flashed her a suggestive grin.

"So the risk of getting caught turns you on, huh?"

"Apparently so. I cannot discern any other logical reason we continue to engage in such dangerous activities."

"Apparently so." Trip raised an eyebrow, matching her own, and smiled. "Well, Commander, if you're done bein' kinky--"

"I believe, Commander, that you were the instigating party in our recent encounter..."

"Po-ta-to, po-tah-to. Whatever. Anyway, if we're done here, I missed dinner and I'm starving. You wanna go see what's left in the mess hall?"

"I ate my dinner at a reasonable hour. However, I will join you so I can learn more about the ratio imbalance you discovered."

"Hey, there's no need to go overboard with the sweet talk. Watch that first rung."

"I am more than capable of navigating a ladder without your advice, Commander."

Bickering amiably, the couple made their way down the ladder, leaving behind their unseen observer.

Masaro sat unmoving, unseeing. Shock, revulsion and excitement mingled in his gut. If others knew what he had just seen...that Vulcans were passionate, sexual creatures, compatible in that most intimate way with humans...what did it mean?

It means the situation is even more dire than Paxton realizes. The era of humans and aliens interbreeding, of humans ceasing to be human...is not a distant possibility. It is here.

A realization began to dawn. The plan had been to create a specimen from the DNA of the captain and first officer, and let innuendo and speculation do the damage.

But how much better...how much more devastating...would the repercussions be if the specimen was the offspring of the Vulcan and her actual human lover?

Masaro slipped out of shadows and made his way to the console where the pair had conducted their tryst. He scanned the workstation. There was no evidence of Tucker's more...basic...DNA material; The Vulcan's willing mouth took care of that, he thought with a shiver of aroused disgust. But there might be, somewhere around here...he found what he was looking for and held it to the light.

Masaro examined the fine, straight golden hair. The root was still intact, providing all the lovely live DNA Paxton's scientists could possibly need.

A moment of guilt washed over the man; Tucker was his commanding officer, and a fine engineer. But then he remembered what he had just witnessed and felt the anger and revulsion flare. A human and a Vulcan. No matter how beautiful she was, it was wrong. It was obscene.

Unlike the captain, Trip Tucker was no innocent victim.

The man could have his pick of human women, thought Masaro, and he chooses to screw an alien.

Tucker was a traitor to his very species, and as such, deserved what he would get. He deserved to be exposed, humiliated. He deserved to suffer...and suffer he would. Terra Prime would make sure of that.

Masaro smiled to himself, not realizing how ugly his face had become in the dim blue light.

Paxton would be very, very pleased.

-FIN-

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A whole mess of folks have made comments

cool... i get to be the first! :D
loved this story... so hot I'm off to find a cold shower!
Liked the way you managed to mix in a bit of a story as well. You captured the mind of the bad guy perfectly, in my opinion.

Very good. I like how he switched targets from Archer to Tucker.

Yes...a very good smut crouton! lol!

A very interesting take on the way they discovered Trip and T'Pol's relationship--well done!

Oh, and Masro's evil voyerism...that was sheer brilliance!

Nice! It also explains how Paxton and crew knew about Trip and T'Pol. Who'd a thunk she's a swallower? :)

wow, good story, well done, you hit the spot exactly ... please continue

These third person fics are always interesting. I love the interaction between T/T... the in the gutter portion and the banter afterwards. :) I also loved the sinister portrayal of Masaro. You definitely infused the end of that fic with the disturbing emotions stirred up by the xenophobes. Good job.

What a great thread to pick up and expand upon! Wow! And I agree with boushh, I love third person fics! And the characterization was spot on, imho.

Very satisfying!

Wow! I'd say that was more of a piece of smut cake... or maybe pecan pie. Definitely too yummy to be just a crouton! LOL... It was even just a little romantic. I suppose it's hard to be romantic on top of the intermix chamber with a woman who has no clue about what romance is... but a little sentiment is always nice mixed in with the smut. Very in character for everyone. Good job!

Excellent Smut crouton, indeed. Loved the look into Masaro's thoughts. helps to make so much more sense out of how Paxton knew to target Trip and T'Pol. You need to make certain to follow through if you get any more of these croutons in your salad, lol. :D

Wow! What a great plot/premise! Masaro was such a scum, and even more so if he was the person portrayed in your fic... very, very nice!

Definitely not just a crouton! That was fantastic! And oooh-so-yummy, even with the dark twist of Masaro lurking in the shadows. Gollum, yes!

Great work, Elaine!

Greaaaaaaaaat!! LOL Now Im turned on an pissed of at the same time,,that ensign earned that phaser pulse he gave himself to the head.,,,,, Great smutt fic.

Yowza! *fans self*

I liked the explanation about why they chose Trip & T'Pol's DNA. Very nice.

Wow. Masaro should know that Trip had already boffed plenty of alien women before getting a shot at T'Pol. Lets face it, the guy is a sailor.

Uhmmm, is it hot in here or is it just me?..

wow...;-)

Loved the fic. This was so well written that it really didn't seem all that smutty...just, well, natural. The only thing that bothered me about it was the apparently deserted Engineering. My son-in-law is in Engineering on a Trident nuclear submarine, a pretty close present-day match for a futuristic spaceship. There is no off-shift there. Some full shift is there 24/7. Engineering has to supply not only propulsion for the ship but also electrical power for the lights, air recyclers, galley, hair dryers, environmental heating and cooling, everything! It would never be that unpopulated. Put 'em somewhere else for their little trysts.

Graybear,

I actually thought of that...they are in dry-dock at Jupiter Station, skeleton crew only. Eh, I know, still unlikely...but accept it for what it is..;)

Great to see another story of yours here. A question: This isn't the sequel/prequel to your other story, is it? Not that I'm complaining, but I was looking foward to that and I'm confused?

Nah...still working on that...this is just what popped up in my head the other day to INTERFERE with the sequel to Incursions (named "Complications", BTW...watch for it!)

I'll definitely be watching for your next story! This one was excellent -- much more than a smut crouton (love that phrase!). I especially liked the "amiable arguing" between TnT (it's the core of their relationship and you captured it perfectly) and your description of Masaro's utter shock! Like the others, I like third-person fics very much. Now I'm off to look for Incursions . . . .

Well done!! Smut with a plot (of sorts ) tied into canon. Geez...way to overachieve. :-) Seriously, though, I loved it. Please write more.

Whoa! Definitely the sexiest story I've read where they hardly even got undressed!

Great job, as usual. Now get back to work on the sequel to Incursions already! [/pointystick]

Trip Tucker - Intergalatic Hussy ;)

good stuff!

Ooooo hot! Very intricate with the interweavings of Masaro's bigotry being fueled by TnT's little tryst. Personally I think he was just jealous that Trip had the hot Vulcan and not him.