Nebula

"Very well," said Sienae, "let's do it."

"Sooner you than me," said Akilah, stepping towards the door, "best of luck."

"Yeah," agreed Lugmilla, "you two science the heck out of each other. We'll be back."

That, thought Svetlana, was an odd way of phrasing it.

--***--

The station was quiet without the others, and, now that the problem with the heating was fixed, it was even easier to concentrate on the incoming data from the sensors. Satra was a great help; she did not have the in-depth knowledge of astrophysics that Svetlana did, but her knowledge of sensor systems in general, and Romulan-built ones in particular, was greatly superior. She was able to suggest ways of tweaking the settings as well as interpreting the results, and she was also useful for just bouncing ideas off of.

They were sitting in the control room at the top of the station, collecting the data from the readouts and analysing them on their PADDs. It was simpler than using the station's computers for everything, since they weren't designed for anything more than collecting and transmitting raw data; they could have been adjusted with new programming, but it was quicker not to bother. It did, however, mean that Satra was sitting very close to the Svetlana, so much so that they often brushed against one another.

The human woman was doing her best not be distracted by the proximity. Fortunately, the science they were gathering was fascinating enough that that wasn't too hard. She was beginning to get a sense for how weak energy fields were nonetheless giving the entities cohesion, although she had barely scratched the surface of their metabolism or sensory mechanism. That was something that would take far longer than 24 hours.

At one point, Satra leaned in close, to take a look at something on her co-worker's PADD. Without thinking, or so it seemed to Svetlana, her arm went round the human woman's shoulder, just casually lying there. The Starfleet office turned, finding her face just centimetres from the Romulan's own, conscious of the way that the curve of Satra's left breast rested against her side. She gazed into deep blue eyes, saw the green lipstick on slightly parted, and oh-so-tempting lips. For a moment, she instinctively moved closer...

And then pulled away, remembering where she was and who she was with. There were a whole number of reasons why the Romulan couldn't really be interested, and, besides, it wasn't appropriate. They were here for other reasons, and the looks of her alien partner had nothing to do with them.

"Yes... uh..." she said, spluttering a little as she moved her attention back to the display, "you can see from this graph how the relationship between the local field strength..." She carried on, and with a quiet sigh, Satra removed her arm, shifted her body so that she wasn't quite so close, and the moment - whatever it had been - was gone.

Svetlana was back with her equations, with the dance of elemental ions and the stark beauty of subatomic physics. She felt comfortable again, and it seemed that the Romulan could sense it. The work went on, and the time seemed to fly by.

So much so that she was taken by surprise when Satra suddenly stood up and put away her own PADD.

"It's getting late," said the Romulan woman, "don't you think we should..." she paused meaningfully for a second, "go to bed?" Then she stretched, yawning, pushing her already prominent chest forward until her waistcoat creaked in protest.

Svetlana blushed, while the analytical part of her mind was secretly impressed that none of the buttons had popped. Glancing down at her PADD to avoid staring, she realised that it wasn't even that late yet. Satra was apparently just worn out by the events of the day.

"You go ahead," she said, "I'll join you later - just a few more simulations to run." It wasn't entirely a lie, since there was more she could do, but she also reflected that, with luck, this meant that she wouldn't have to hide her interest as Satra undressed. Not that she didn't, deep down, really want to see the Romulan with less clothing on, but she would rather avoid the temptation that that would inspire.

"Right," said Satra, sounding a little put out, and visibly deflating. She walked to the door, then turned at the last moment, "don't be too long."

Svetlana shook her head. She only really needed to be sure that the Romulan had gone to sleep before joining her in the only bunk room. It might be hard to get to sleep knowing how close she was, but at least she hoped it would be better if she didn't have to look at anything. She could relax again properly once she was back on the Endeavour... in the meantime, she really could run those simulations, and see what they told her.

They proved, unfortunately, more engrossing than she had expected. It was often that way with her; once her mind was caught on a problem, she often lost track of time, sometimes even forgetting to eat or sleep, at least for a few hours. Or, as in this case, forgetting that she was not entirely alone.

"You're still busy?"

Svetlana hadn't even heard the door swish open. She looked up with surprise, realising that she had no idea how late it now was. Then, seeing Satra, she felt a warm glow reach her cheeks as she blushed with a combination of embarrassment and supressed desire.

The gorgeous Romulan woman was still wearing her blouse... but very little else. She leaned, seductively, in the doorway, bare legs slightly akimbo, the soft olive tone entrancing on her perfectly rounded thighs. No longer held in by the waistband of her trousers, the blouse hung loose to just below her hips - the way that it failed to touch them in front, if anything, emphasising Satra's bust more than it had when it had been tightly stretched.

Svetlana couldn't think of anything to say.

"Because I think," said Satra, flicking up the hem of her blouse to show a flash of black knickers, "that's it's definitely bed time."

"I... I... uh..." Svetlana knew that she was bright crimson now, as she tried to look everywhere but at the woman in front of her.

"Oh, for...!" the Romulan let out a shout of frustration, and strode forward to stand right in front of her, hands on hips, "what is your problem? I have seen the way you look at me, so I know it isn't a lack of desire."

"Because you're just teasing!" blurted out the young science officer.

Satra seemed genuinely taken aback. "Whatever gave you that idea?" she asked, in a puzzled voice.

"Well, for one," began Svetlana, glad to be finally getting it out in the open, "you're a Romulan. Romulans are the same species as Vulcans, and Vulcans only have sex once every seven years, so you can't really be interested."

Satra sat down beside her, the annoyance having vanished from her face as she tried to process how to deal with the objection. "We do have the Pon Farr, yes," she said eventually, "but that doesn't mean it's the only time we can... well... I don't know about Vulcans, but we're perfectly capable of having sex at any time. And enjoying it."

Svetlana wasn't entirely sure how to take that, although, if Satra really was teasing, it seemed that the joke should have been over by now. "But Romulans and humans don't..." she began weakly, "I mean... I didn't think that you could be..."

"Attracted to you?" Satra leaned in, looking a little cross again, "what's it going to take to convince you I'm not kidding? Will you only realise I'm serious when my tongue's between your legs? Because, believe me, I seriously want to explore every single centimetre of that hot little bod of yours, and have you make me cum in your arms. Now leave the PADD, join me downstairs, and let's FUCK."

With that, she grabbed the science officer's head, pulled it into hers and planted a big kiss on her lips. Surprised at first, it didn't take long for the human to respond, and soon their tongues were wrapped together, arms hugging one another, breath coming hard and fast. Any tiny objections that Svetlana had had entirely evaporated in a haze of heady desire.

The kiss seemed to go on for a long time, but eventually they broke free for a breath. Satra immediately pulled away, stood up, and strode to the door. This time, Svetlana was hard on her heels.

The Romulan, it turned out, had been busy, pushing no less than three of the bunks together in the middle of the room to make a single, king-size one, albeit with three mattresses. As soon as they were through the door, she picked up Svetlana by the waist and deposited her on the makeshift bed, pushing her back as she kissed the human passionately, her hands busy pulling away the blue uniform jacket.

For the second time, the kiss lingered, neither of them willing to be the first to end it. One of Svetlana's hands was lost in the Romulan's long black tresses, holding their heads - and their lips - together, while the other darted under the base of her blouse, feeling the soft skin of the alien's bare back. It felt, she thought, slightly cooler than that of a human, but decidedly pleasant.

It wasn't, to be honest, as if she had much experience at this sort of thing. She'd known her preferences for what seemed like forever, but had always been too busy with her studies to really act on them, beyond some fevered teenage imaginings in the privacy of her own bedroom.

That had finally changed at Starfleet Academy, when she had met a security cadet named Steff Ehrenburg. It was the first time she'd had sex with a woman, or indeed anyone, and she had to admit that it had felt pretty damn good. The relationship lasted a couple of years before they completed their training, and Ensign Ehrenburg had been assigned to a ship far from hers.

They hadn't seen one another since, and Svetlana had never hooked up with anyone else. Looking back, it had been fun while it lasted, but it had never been likely to blossom into a truly long-term relationship. There had been tears when they parted, but they'd both gotten over it, and, the last she'd heard, Steff was with some Korean engineering officer.

Still, it did mean that Svetlana's experience was rather limited. She only really knew what Steff had liked, and had no idea how well that applied to other human women, still less a Romulan. Could she possibly live up to what Satra expected?

For Satra was nothing if not enthusiastic. Having disposed of the jacket, her hands were now tugging at the Starfleet officer's vest, pulling it clear from her uniform trousers and up to her ribs. There she was halted by their entwined arms, and Svetlana's desire to keep the alien's heavy breasts pressed against her own, even separated by their clothing. Instead, her hands roamed over the petite human's belly and back, reluctant to break the lingering kiss.

But eventually, they had to, Satra managing to pull herself up with her arms, leaning over her partner, their legs still lightly tangled, and breathing heavily as she did so. Svetlana reached up to pull the Romulan down again, but she evaded, and after a brief moment of manoeuvring, had the vest up and over the human's head. The science officer eagerly reached for the loose blouse, but Satra was there first, quickly slipping it off to reveal the decorative black bra underneath.

It was the first real look that Svetlana had got at the Romulan's cleavage, and it was impressive indeed (certainly more so than Steff's, she reflected, not that that had mattered at the time). As they moved in for another kiss, Svetlana idly wondered about her new partner's cup size. It was always a difficult thing to judge, and even if she had been willing to ask Satra, the Romulan woman wouldn't have had a useful frame of reference with which to answer the question. So all that the Czech woman knew was that it had to be at least a couple of sizes larger than her own 'B'.

Slowly, Satra moved away from the deep kiss, sucking slightly on Svetlana's lower lip before raining kisses over the cheeks, down to her chin, and then along her neck. The human sighed quietly to herself, melting into the sensation, the analysis of the nucleogenic life-forms now quite gone from her mind.

The kisses moved lower, as Satra quietly muttered, "...every centimetre of your body," lips pressing against shoulder and collar bone, and then down to the small valley between her breasts. Svetlana tilted her head to watch, brushing aside one long train of jet black hair to reveal the pointed ear beneath, then glancing down lower to see where the Romulan's delightful cleavage lay pressed against her belly.

Svetlana raised her arms to let Satra remove her sensible white bra and toss it casually to one side. Raising herself up again, the Romulan looked down with evident admiration at the light-skinned body beneath her. Svetlana's attention moved back to her face, watching the deep blue eyes drink in the curve of her naked breasts, saw the tongue slide over those green-painted lips. Satra was, undeniably beautiful, one of the most gorgeous women she had ever seen. And, right now, she was all hers.

Satra gently ran a finger around the curve of one of the human's small but perky breasts, her eyes fixed on Svetlana's, taking in every nuance of her expression. Then she bent down, and planted a soft kiss on the under-curve of one side. Slowly, glancing up every now and then to take in the science officer's rapt gaze, she moved her lips across the swell of the breast, circling, darting into the valley between, the tip of her tongue sometimes lapping briefly against the skin.

Svetlana's breath was heavy, making her breasts rise and fall as the gentle progress continued, the circles moving ever inward. At last, Satra pecked a kiss on her pert, pale pink nipple. "Is that good?" she whispered, and the young astrophysicist could only nod.

The Romulan's tongue was circling around the nipple now, darting back to flick the tip. Svetlana sighed in pleasure, and Satra took that as a cue to move in, planting a full-on kiss, taking the hard nipple into her mouth, sucking on it, her nose pressing against Svetlana's soft flesh as she nuzzled gently. One of her hands came up to the other breast, stroking, kneading, rubbing the other nipple with her thumb.

Svetlana whimpered.

All too soon, it was over, and Satra's kisses, more passionate now, wandered down over her partner's belly, dipping into her navel, and then lower still. Svetlana stroked the Romulan's arms, still up on either side of her, but soon they were taken from her grasp, too, as Satra began to undo the fastening on her trousers, and pull them loose.

It was a little awkward, with Svetlana trying to free her feet from her boots at the same time, but soon she struggled free, and Satra leaned back on her knees, now entirely out of arm's reach. On the positive side, this gave the human a better view of her partner's body, allowing her to see not just how the black, lacey bra strained against its cargo, but the perfect hourglass of Satra's waist, a silver stud decorating the Romulan's navel.

If she couldn't reach with her arms - at least not with getting up from the relaxing position she was currently in - she could at least use her legs. The small science officer slid her foot up the Romulan's flank, flicking her feet against the bra strap. Satra smiled, pressing the leg in, stroking it with one of her own hands, then bent down and pulled off Svetlana's sock with her mouth, spitting it out to fall abandoned to one side.

The science officer's legs were short, with slightly plump thighs that she thought far from her best feature. But Satra didn't seem to mind, running her nose over the soles of Svetlana's feet, then popping each of her toes into her mouth one at a time. She quickly moved to the other leg, removing the remaining sock in the same manner, as she continued to stroke almost the length of it, always stopping just above the mid-point of the thigh.

Her kisses moved to the ankle, and then down the inside of Svetlana's shin, nuzzling and licking the back of her knee before having to adjust her position on the bed to move lower. The human was entranced, as the kisses and caressing hand both moved up, now beyond the point where they had stopped before. If Satra thought her partner's thighs were fat, she clearly didn't care, as her green lips pressed themselves against the tender flesh and Svetlana let out another involuntary, high-pitched gasp.

Surprised at herself, when things still had so much further to go, she raised a hand to her mouth, fastening her lips on the knuckle to muffle any further cries.

The Romulan continued her wandering kisses, moving now around Svetlana's hips, the top of her thighs, and the base of her belly, tongue even tasting the fabric of her plain white knickers. Slowly, eyes fixed on the human's own, she pulled down one side of the garment, exposing more of her hip, kissing and licking that, then running her finger along the elastic, probing just a centimetre beyond.

Satra raised one sculpted, sloping eyebrow, as if asking for permission, although surely none was needed at this point. Svetlana nodded anyway, and the Romulan slowly pulled down the human's last remaining garment, sliding it over her knees and dropping it over the side of the bed to land on the bare metal of the bunk room floor. Then she turned back to her partner, easing her knees apart, smiling happily as she did so.

Steff, surprisingly enough, had been keen to use her fingers, but little else. It perhaps said something of the vanilla nature of Svetlana's sexual experiences that she had never had another woman go down on her, not properly, just some brief fumbling now and then. Satra, from her expression, did not have the same self-imposed restriction.

She kissed the top of the science officer's hip, running her lips down the crease at the top of her legs, then stopped to blow softly into Svetlana's blonde thatch, stroking her mound gently with one hand. The human watched her, eyes wide, hips twitching with anticipation, mouth dry, other parts extremely wet.

She let out a long sigh as Satra's tongue slid once along the length of her slit, not parting the lips yet, but still a most pleasurable sensation. The Romulan made an appreciative noise, and was soon lapping all around those swollen lips, savouring the alien taste on her tongue. Svetlana reflected that she was, already, about as wet as she had ever been, and her partner apparently liked that.

Satra adjusted the human's legs to pull her thighs further apart, and then bowed her head between them. Svetlana let out a yelp as the Romulan pressed herself in, tongue quickly moving deep between her folds. She adjusted her hand to put the whole palm across her mouth, just before her body bucked as the lapping tongue found her clit.

The human officer threw her head back, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling as she clamped her hand down harder to stifle her cries. What Satra was doing down there was incredible, making her squirm with delight as the kissing, sucking, and licking continued to torment her most intimate area.

"You don't need to do that," said the raven-haired Romulan, softly, lifting her head from Svetlana's aching core, "there's nobody within a light year to hear us."

Svetlana blushed, the flush running down to the top of her shoulders. It was something she'd always done, back in the Academy days. She hadn't even thought about it this time. Satra gently, but firmly, pulled her hand away from her mouth.

"But I'd like to hear you," she said, "and watch you."

Svetlana pulled herself up a little, gazing down at the woman in front of her, dark hair framing her heart-shaped face, one pointed ear still free. Satra smiled again, and ducked down, pushing her tongue back inside, lapping up towards her partner's clit.

The petite science officer let out a cry, unhindered by her hand this time, and was surprised at how loud it sounded in the metal-walled room. She watched as the Romulan continued to pleasure her, lost herself in those deep blue eyes, dazzled by her beauty as much as by the sensations washing over her young, inexperienced, body.