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Aye, There's the Rub...

Posted on Thu Jun 22nd, 2017 @ 10:08pm by Commander Mal Xustos & Maica III 47

Mission: Death is in the Details
Location: Maica's Parlor
Timeline: Before the Slingshot

Ouch. That was the word that kept coming to Mal's mind as he tried to stretch. For some reason his muscles were extremely tense and tight. He had knots in his back, shoulders, and neck. He wasn't really sure what specific thing had him all tied up in knots, literally, but he couldn't take the physical symptoms the stress was causing him any longer. The Captain had recommended that he get a massage from her wife, Maica. Mal hadn't really had a chance to arrange one yet. Now seemed a perfect time. He hoped she'd be able to get him in today, but even if he had to wait a day or if absolutely necessary, two, he had to do something.

"Commander Xustos to Maica," he said, tapping his commbadge.

=/\="Yes Commander, go ahead,"=/\= came Maica's voice from the communicator.

"Your...uhm...your wife suggested I make an appointment with you for a massage," Mal said. "I've been meaning to but I haven't had the time. The thing is I seem to have knotted myself up and I'm in quite a bit of discomfort. Do you have time to see me today?"

=/\="I should be finished up with Crewman Daniels in about ten minutes if you want to come by and help yourself to a cup of tea while you wait."=/\= Maica replied.

"Thank you!" Mal said, the relief obvious in his voice. "I'll be down directly."

Mal headed over to Maica's parlor and entered when the door opened before him. The decor was impressive, the reds very vivid.

Daytona would love this place! Mal said.

He saw the teapots aligned along the wall. He lifted the lids of each one and sniffed the contents of each, delicately, so as to best judge the aroma. He found one that smell like he thought good tea should taste and he poured himself a cup. He took it over to a chair where he sat and sipped at it while he waited. It was quite good. Refreshing, even while it made him feel relaxed. Mal sat back and settled in to wait for a massage that would hopefully bring relief to his tense muscles.

About the time Mal finished his tea, Maica and a human crewmember wearing a twenty second century Starfleet jumpsuit walked out of the back room. "Thank you so very much. You have no idea how much this means to me," He said, shaking her hand as he back pedaled towards the door. Maica was curiously nude, her spectacular and massive curves on display for all to see.

"I'm sure I will someday though," Maica replied with her brightest smile as Crewman Daniels nodded to both Maica and Mal and headed out of the parlor. "If you're ready, I took the liberty of warming the hot stones for you. I heard that Pomtolii enjoy a nice relaxing session with them. There are lockers in the restroom you can secure your uniform as well, if you wish. Are there any other options, you'd enjoy?"

Mal raised an eyebrow at Maica's state of undress, but made no comment.

"I leave myself entirely at your mercy," he said. "Do you need me to put on a robe or something? It makes no difference to me, but I don't want to offend you or do something you'd feel was inappropriate."

Maica chuckled softly as she pulled aside the curtain to the back room. "Your comfort is my priority. If you prefer to wear a robe... and if you prefer I be clothed... Then that is what we shall do. But I find it much easier to work as a masseuse when both parties are fully disrobed."

"I would find that more enjoyable as well," Mal said. "I'll be back in a moment."

Mal went into the bathroom, removed his uniform, and placed it in a locker. When he was done, he walked back into Maica's treatment room.

"Face down first?" he asked. Maica was very attractive. Fortunately Mal had plenty of practice training himself to react as little as possible to attractive women, unlike at home where the natural male reaction to an attractive woman, particularly a naked one, was just taken in stride. What was considered normal on Pomtol, however, was not always considered impolite on other Federation societies. He couldn't guarantee he wouldn't react, but he would at least make the effort. He was pretty certain that Maica, being modeled after an Orion, would take whatever happened in stride.

"Yes please," Maica replied as she moved a few of the smaller stones around in the heater to give Mal time to get up on the massage table. As soon as he was up on it, she placed a few of the larger stones to either side of his neck and behind his horns to help him relax through the radiant heat and started her massage in his shoulders.

Even though Mal knew it was coming, the heat from the rocks surprised him and he drew in a breath when they made contact with his skin and tensed for a second. Almost immediately, however, he relaxed a bit and let the heat soak into his aching muscles.

"Ahhh...." he said. "That's...hm...nice...sorry, very tense. Yes, that's...very...nice."

Mal focused on letting his body relax. It wasn't easy. He was so tensed up that while what Maica was doing was for the best and was helping release all of the tension, at times it bordered on painful. Mal breathed deep and let Maica work.

"This mission has you wound up tighter than a Denobulan spring beetle. You seriously need an outlet for all this tension." Maica commented as she worked her way inward toward Mal's neck, trying to get him to relax and adding hot stones as she went.

"Hmm...yes...mission," Mal said, following this with a tremendous groan when Maica hit a particularly tense spot. "Sorry. Yes. I try to exercise regularly, and I play several musical instruments. I've been spending time with Clio, Lieutenant Commander Enaes, which I find relaxing...except when it's supposed to be exciting. But we've both been rather busy with the mission prep these last few days. I...hmmm...I'm a bit frustrated that I can't go on the Away Teams. That's the executive officer's job. Head off into the unknown, lead in the field, you know? But I'm going to be sidelined often on this ship, I think. I stand out in a crowd. I'm not really built for sneaking. Makes me wonder if Starfleet sent me here to be comic relief only. You...oh yes, right there...satyr in a kilt playing his lyre and his flutes and making everyone smile and laugh?"

"On the contrary, I have it on good authority that you are now and will be in the future a valued and dear member of this crew. You'll get many chances to lead away missions. You just have to stay home on this one, is all." Maica started massaging down Mal's back, pressing his vertebrae a bit here and there to pop them. They all seemed to be in place so far thankfully.

"Hmm...ow!" Mal said. "No, it's okay. I'm fine. Please, if you have any mercy in your heart at all, don't stop...Gods that feels good! But...thank you. I know that, really, if I were to be honest, but like most people, no matter the species, I can't just come out and say 'Hey, I'm feeling worthless, can you please say nice things to me about how useful and valuable I am? Thanks.' No, I have let myself get super tense and garner sympathy by feeling sorry for myself. Hmmm....I think next time I'll just skip straight to the massage and forget about all of the mind fucking."

"That's why I'm here, you know. I have a few hot squids as well, if you're interested in one for your lower back. They can be quite relaxing as well. My Bolian clients love them, though they don't have any hair..." As Maica worked lower, she added even more hot stones and as she reached Mal's lower back, she swapped the ones behind his horns and on his neck for fresh ones.

"Uhm..." Mal said. "I think a squid would look very funny with hair. Oh! You meant that the Bolians don't have hair! Squids...uh? I've uhm...never had anyone use squids on me before, but why not? Wait, are they naturally hot or did you cook them?"

"They're naturally hot. Bolian squids prefer to live near volcanic vents and are more akin to Earth starfish in several aspects. The species that I have has been selectively bred to be docile and perfect for massage therapy and can stay at a relatively constant temperature for almost an hour even though it's considered still a baby." Finishing up the massage portion of his lower back, Maica moved to the hot squid tank and unsealed it, the bubbling audible as she reached in for one of the three squids inside.

"This may feel a little weird..." She commented as she dangled the fat tentacles over his lower back. The squid instinctively spread itself over the area it was placed over and started to knead with its suckers. She let the body droop and lay on a few of the hot stones leading up Mal's back while the tentacles spread across his sides and the soft mouth softly kneaded at the small of his back. "How does that feel?"

Mal was surprised at first by the sensation of the hot squid attaching itself to his lower back, then again by the sensation of the squid's mouth essentially sucking on the small of his back. After the initial weirdness, though, he found he rather enjoyed the feeling.

"That...uhm...feels better than I thought it would," Mal said. "I was expecting something...slimier for some reason. But this is...ahhh...yes...that is very, very nice."

Along with the heat of the stones, the heat from the squid worked its way deep into the tissues of his back, warming his muscles and causing them to relax.

"I could stay here like this for quite sometime, left to my own devices," Mal said.

Maica giggled softly as she moved to rubbing Mal's legs. "Can I interest you in a hooficure then? Maybe some clear polish and some trim work on the bottom?"

"Sure," Mal said. "Why not? I'd appreciate that very much. There are many places where the deck plating isn't covered with carpeting and my hooves take a real beating when I have to go to those places. They really weren't meant for walking on metal floors."

"Then a hooficure you shall have. Computer, begin replicating nail resin mix nineteen with a half inch brush." Soon Maica was finished with Mal's legs and had retrieved her files and larger mani/pedi tools and begun work on his hooves.

Mal suddenly got an image of Nexi's reaction to his getting a hoofcure and chuckled to himself. He hoped she didn't find out about this. She had a hard enough time taking him seriously as it was. If she saw this she'd say something that would result in her being placed in the brig for a night or two.

Mal just lay there and enjoyed himself. Clio was very generous with her affections, but this was different. There was no give and take here. Maica wasn't expecting anything from him, so he could just lay back and enjoy himself.

"Where did you learn to do a hoofcure, Maica?" he asked. He assumed she downloaded the information into her program from somewhere, maybe some agricultural software, but he felt that for him to say so might give her the impression he thought of her as just a hologram, rather than a living being.

Maica continued her work a bit while considering her answer. "To be perfectly honest with you... I had to cobble the research together from a few different sources, including a sheep fetish ranch. I wanted to be prepared in case you requested one though, so I researched away. I can also have hoof-cap shoes replicated as well, if you like, though those might be uncomfortable. if you need grip on ice or metal deck plating though..."

"I can manage without the hoof-caps," Mal said. "But thank you. And thank you for thinking of me. The personal touch is appreciated. How is your niece settling in? I've been meaning to check up on her, and I will after this mission, but if you think there's something I should know about before then, please feel free to tell me about it."

Maica worked skillfully as she spoke. "Just that you keep an eye on her. I mean, yes she's an adult but she's only four months old. Even for my kind that's not enough time to figure out who you are and she didn't have the experience of numerous forks to go off of. She just has the leftover memories of her father and whatever the USS Katana saw fit to dump into her databases from the backups her mothers made. On top of that, as I understand it, her father was a rather reclusive sort and for a being of her magnitude she really needs to stretch herself socially, especially in her younger, formative times. Enalia and I both worry about her development but we're in a difficult position. Her mothers are as well. Akira has to learn to fly on her own and find the joys in life. Find love and laughter. Eat some good food. Drink some good wine. Listen to some good opera. Live life and find out who she is. Do you know what I mean?"

"Hmm..." Mal said, very contented at the moment. "Yes. Life without love and laughter is a terrible thing. Good food, good drink, good friends, good lovers, a career that makes you feel that there is a purpose to your existence, these things make life worth living. The more of them you have in your life, the better you feel about living."

Mal chuckled.

"Sheep fetish farm..." he said. "I was the first Pomtoli to attend the Academy. When I got there, some of the more obnoxious cadets would post still pictures and video of goats mating with the caption 'From the porn collection of Mal Xustos'. I actually wasn't sure what they meant by 'porn' when I first saw it. We have erotica in various forms of media, but we don't think of it as what these cadets were calling 'porn'. Sculpture, paintings, holograms, both still and active, film, literature and poetry, dramatic works. It's all normal. When I figured out what the insult was supposed to mean, that I was some kind of rutting animal, I got quite upset. I got over it, though. As I made friends, both intimate and platonic, and began to explore my surroundings when I had liberty time to spend, I really started to enjoy my time at the academy. Eventually I stopped seeing the offensive media being posted and that was that."

"I'm surprised none of the Vulcan lecturers pulled them aside for extra cultural sensitivity training. Or perhaps they wanted you to see that side of society so you'd be aware of it and be prepared in case you ran into it in the field and to see how you'd react in a more controlled environment." Finishing up the filing, Maica retrieved the resin from the small replicator in the back room and set about applying the resin polish to Mal's goaty hooves. "Were there any other oddly culturally upsetting things during your academy years that you can recall?"

"I was once invited to a party once," Mal replied. "A classmate's family had a farm nearby and he was inviting friends. I was excited, both because it was a chance to socialize with people I didn't normally interact with and because the classmate told me there was a girl who wanted to meet me. The classmate told me the girl asked me to meet her in the stables. I was a little suspicious, but I let it go. When I got to the stables and opened the door, there was a goat tied to a pole with a note saying 'Mal's Perfect Date' on it. Well, I got my revenge. I discovered that this person frequently sneaked off into the woods to rendezvous with a girl. I can be remarkably stealthy when I want to be, and I used technology when I needed to. I recorded him sneaking out and all of his rendezvouses with the other cadet. I also gathered footage and other evidence of the cadet using academy science equipment to synthesize a stimulant that he sold to students who felt they needed something to give them an edge. I caught several others involved with the scheme. I then sent all of my evidence to both SFCIS and the Federation News Service. Several students, including my tormentor were expelled. Criminal charges were brought and my tormentor and several others did time in a penal colony. No one ever knew it was me. I covered my tracks. But I knew, and that was all that mattered."

"Revenge is sweet and best served cold, as they say. Hence revenge is ice cream. At least you handled it in a mature manner." Finishing up the coating, Maica set the resin aside and picked up a UV light, flashing it over the resin so it would set as hard as the rest of his hooves and as shiny as the surface of a console. As an extra measure, she added a little polishing compound and started to shine the now cured resin to a mirror finish. "How are those rocks feeling? Still warm enough?"

"They're cooling off a bit," Mal replied. "Surprisingly, the squid is nearly as hot as when you placed him? Her? It? Anyway, it's still hot as when you put it in place. Whoa! I just got a tentacle where it didn't belong, but it moved away now so I'm fine. Revenge. Yes, well, in retrospect it was a rather childish response on my part...petty. And I'm fortunate no one found out or they would have never trusted me and I'd have had no friends at all at the academy. I think some people suspected. Some of those avoided me, some of those respected me for what I did. In general, things improved rather quickly for me from that point forward."

"And now you're second in command of one of Starfleet's finest and most secretive ships. Your hooves are absolutely stunning. I hope you love them." Maica then started removing the stones and placing them back in their heater. Once they were all removed, she started the process of pulling the squid off as well, trying not to take too much hair with it. "We're running a bit long on time. Do you want a frontal massage as well? How are you feeling?"

"Well," Mal said. "If you do have the time, I would love a frontal massage. But if you've got to wrap this up now, we can save that for next time."

"For you, I will make the time," Maica replied. "If you could flip over for me, please."

"Of course," Mal said. " And thank you for making the time. I appreciate it very much."

The tall satyr flipped over carefully so as not to fall off of the massage table. It wasn't exactly a graceful display of agility, but it got the job done. Once positioned properly, he lay back to enjoy the rest of his massage.

Maica got busy with massaging Mal, starting at his shoulders and working her way across his chest. "If you don't mind my asking... Do all Pomtolii look like they're chiseled from marble and brought to life?"

Mal chuckled.

"Thank you," he said. "You've just swelled my ego considerably. To answer your question...well...I suppose many of us do, though I haven't really made a study of it. Physical activity is an integral part of our culture, along with art, music, literature, and theatre. Frolicking is good exercise, after all, and it's practically a national pastime among my people."

"I do not doubt that in the slightest," Grinning widely, Maica continued massaging professionally down Mal's torso, skipping over his nethers to massage his legs. "Before I forget, I do have something you might be interested in. A bottle of wine brewed right here on the ship with berries from the Captain's homeworld."

"That sounds lovely," Mal replied. "That's very kind of you."

Mal sighed. He hadn't felt this good, at least in a platonic situation, in a very long time. The tension seemed to drain from his muscles with Maica's every touch.

Soon she had finished even his legs and was admiring her reflection in his hooficure, the bottle of wine in hand. "Is there anything else I can do for you today, Commander?"

Mal sighed contentedly again, letting himself just melt into the massage table for a moment. Slowly and carefully he swung his legs around so that he was sitting sideways on the table with his hooves dangling a few centimeters from the floor. From that position, he stood up and stretched and let loose a whopper of a yawn, loosening his diaphragm and lungs and chest. He blinked once, twice, three times. Then he turned to Maica.

"That was truly lovely, Maica," Mal said. "Thank you. And thank you for the wine."

Mal walked out of Maica's treatment room and out of her parlor. A moment later there was a feminine squeal and he came back in.

"I should probably put my uniform back on," Mal said, heading for the bathroom. "I'm not sure, but it's possible, and I know how narcissistic this sounds, I say it's possible I ruined all other men for that poor girl I just ran into in the corridor."

 

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