The Honeymooners

Posted on Sat Sep 15th, 2018 @ 12:00pm by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Sonak

Mission: Holographic Horrors
Location: Kabul 3, Cape of Grolnax, beachfront
Timeline: 2395, Stardate 72701.2

Walking down the beach at late afternoon, holding hands, the casually clad young lovers moved with no urgency. It seemed they had all the time in the world- picking up seashells from the sand, chasing into the surf and enjoying the sea breeze and the warmth of the sun.

At a casual glance there was nothing remarkable about them. But closer inspection would reveal that the young woman was rather improbably curvaceous, wearing a bright blue bikini that showcased that fact. However, she had covered it with a macrame short robe that let the sun and wind through, yet still offered a nod to modesty. A large straw hat was wedged onto her head, in a constant battle with the wind.

The male, a Vulcan, wore the swim trunks she had suggested to him. The sun on this location was tame and dim compared to that of his homeworld, and thus was of no inconvenience to his physiology which had evolved on a dry rocky planet. The sea, however, was quite a novel experience for him. Vulcan barely had any great bodies of water, and its inhabitants were not at all enticed to it. Contrary to humans, Vulcans had no compulsion whatsoever to go near, or into, water. All nautical sports were virtually unknown to them, and of no interest for the most part. Having come from a planet that had no moon and no romantic tradition, this beach walk was as alien an experience to him as moonwalks had been for the first astronauts of Earth.

It did not evoke anything in him except curiosity, but he knew that she was enjoying it. He could observe a myriad of signs how she was relaxed and content. For him, especially at this moment, it was all that mattered.

The sound of the surf calmed Rita Paris, as it always did- not that she had anything to be stressed about. Their hotel was no luxury resort- it was serviceable, which somehow made her happier than a high-end suite. They had shopped for tourist clothes, eaten local food and drank fruity drinks and danced to live music performed by the locals. It was time away- no one knew who they were, no one called upon them for any sort of responsibility, and their time was completely their own.

It was, as she remarked, the first time in memory that she could say such a thing.

Through it all, she was genuinely and thoroughly happy. She enjoyed seeing his scientific mind analyze new foods, new experiences, new stimuli. That impenetrable calm of his was now tinged with a sense of humor, almost a mild sarcasm, that she found added spice to his already robust personality.

As they were on their own, away from the starship and the crew and their positions of responsibility, she touched him, constantly. Sensation was desperately important to the girl who'd spent years as an immaterial ghost, and while they distanced themselves professionally, they were under no such strictures here. She held his hand, wrapped her arms about him, kissed him, snuggled him, sometimes just reaching out for him because he was there.

Some small part of her kept waiting for the universe to pull the rug out from under her, and reveal this was all a dream or a hoax of some sort.

Yet he persisted, and she leaned her shoulder into him as they walked, blissfully content to be beside him.

For his part, Sonak felt and understood her unease. Because of their bond, it was beyond the mere knowledge of the dramatic and unlikely events of her existence. He had literally shared her memories, her feelings, her fears, her hopes, her despair and her joy as their souls had touched so often through their numerous mind meldings.

The emotionless mind of Sonak could not process those emotions in particular; but what he could do was share with her his own memories, his musings, his thinking. His serenity in knowing through logic and learning, and experimenting that the chaos of the universe was but an illusion. That chaos was an order in itself and it could be faced, understood, dealt with, even utilized. Just like the seemingly random and overpowering waves of the seemingly limitless sea beside them, chaos could be navigated, even harnessed; with resolve, composure, knowledge and reason.

This he radiated from his consciousness to hers as they touched. As she offered him new horizons to explore and navigate, he gave her that anchor to reality and to herself she so very much needed.

They needed each other; and they gave to each other, like the coast and the sea.

Had he been able to do so, Sonak would have smiled. This walk on the beach she had proposed was proving to be most... stimulating.

They would eat, they would dine, then they would spend time alone, bonding in the physical and mentally intimate ways which still delighted and surprised her. The emotionless kolinahr master had possessed unexpected enthusiasm for her, in that he was both capable and willing to fulfill her physical and emotional needs. It had been her life experience that few human men she had encountered were capable of either of those tasks, never both.

Yet from the start, Sonak had tended to her needs, not out of any sort of obligation or guilt, but simply because she had asked. There was curiosity, yes- but he did not view her as a specimen on a petrie dish, an anomaly to his existence to be studied dispassionately. Instead he had embraced her, in every possible way- her culture, her emotions, her sexuality. Seemingly inexhaustible and endlessly patient, what she considered insatiable was merely a challenge for him. He bore her joy, her ecstasy and her hungers as easily as he bore her tears, her anxieties and her fears.

In her, he found a wonder. In him, she found confirmation of her suspicion that there were, in point of fact, good men to be found in the universe.

Another walk along the shore, this time by moonlight, was another novelty to him, yet was something familiar and romantic to her. It was something she had dreamed of as a girl, now realized far from where she had begun, both in distance and in time. While they were establishing lives in the far-flung future where he had followed her, Rita's universe revolved around Sonak, even as he let her chart the course of their lives together. As evidenced by the formalization of their union.

"You know that Vulcan has no moon," Sonak said in a matter of fact tone, looking at the scenery. "I seem to recall someone once long ago using that to explain the coldness of the Vulcan heart."

"An interesting analogy to draw. Is it because without the tides the Vulcan body does not experience a shift in physicality from a shift in orbit? Or is it because lovers could not be drawn together in the moonlight, according to this theory of the so-called 'cold' Vulcan heart?" When she held his hand, the bright but by no means brilliant woman's vocabulary and sentence structure tended to take a dramatic improvement.

"Tides are also caused by planetary rotation, sea bed geography and water currents," he explained. "And the tidal effect of a moon on body liquids is negligible. No, I would hypothesize that this notion is prevalent because Vulcan women are logical; and in all the universe, Vulcan is the only planet that can make that claim."

Now she knew he was not serious. Or was he?

"And here I thought what won you over was my logical argument that we were going to die, so we should have sex which, as I recall, you found my reasoning 'quite logical'. All women possess logic," she grinned at him, bumping against him as the casually strolled the beach. "We just exercise our right to choose when to apply it."

"So I have seen," he stoically replied.

As she wrapped her arm about his waist, Rita pulled his arm up over her shoulders. Realizing there was insufficient height difference between them, she settled for hooking her arm through his, elbows arm in arm as they ambled across the sand. Stroking his lean bicep, she rested her head on his shoulder for a few steps.

"Thank you for this," she said quietly.

The Vulcan master of logic turned his pearly grey eyes to hers, even as the hard-luck heroine looked up at him with her own baby blues.

"It is I who must express gratitude to you. I have lived and learned things with you I have never been even aware of in sixty years; and that is saying quite a lot. And being with you, Rita Paris of Earth, is a promise of much more. You are not only opening the universe wider to me, but a whole new universe... literally. This... beach stroll shared with you under the moonlight is but only the latest such new step into a larger world."

“You really do always know exactly what to say to melt my heart,” she sighed happily, kissing his shoulder then contenting herself with walking arm in arm. “The universe is still as dangerous as it was back in our day, perhaps moreso. We will face trials and tribulations as never before. But in those dark times, I will always have this… the memory of a wonderful honeymoon, spent at the beach with you, my love. The sea and the surf and the sand… and Sonak.”

“When all hope is lost and there is nothing left except the will which says ‘hold on’, this will be my memory… the memory that will give me the strength to force my heart and nerve and sinew to serve me long after they are gone. Because I will come back to you, and we will come back to this place, to refresh this memory when the universe allows it. And when it does not, we will do what we always do,” a sly grin broke out across her face. “We’ll just have to change the rules and cheat the universe.”

"Is this what you Humans refer to as a... Happy Place?"

“Well, yes,” the happy human replied, wrapping her arms about his arm and once again resting her head on his shoulder. “But my real happy place is by your side. So long as we’re together, I am always in my happy place.”

His left eyebrow rose slightly.

"This somewhat reminiscent of basic meditative techniques. Interesting."

He looked at her again with a curious expression.

"You are aware, of course, that I have been using the memory of you as a meditation focus. I shall add this... setting and see how it works. But in the meantime, the actual life experience of you, here, is by far richer. I shall try to make the most of it... and for you as well."

Disentangling herself, but maintaining the hold on his hand, Rita stepped around to stand opposite him, taking his other hand in hers. Leading him down to sit in the sand, she knew he would follow her lead. As she settled her rear onto the sand, they sat close, but not touching; together yet separate. Settling into the meditation pose, she cocked her head curiously. "Why not both?"

He nodded and encased her hands in his, fingers extended and touching at the tips, to keep in physical and mental contact as they started to match their breathing.

In a moment, they were breathing, and thinking as one, at one with the firmness of the sand, the breathing of the sea and the stillness of the moon and one another.

The tang of the salty sea air, refreshing her body which was significantly composed of just that. The wind whipping their bangs up, showing their foreheads. The steady, soothing white noise of the crashing surf, which ebbed and flowed moment to moment. The sand sticking to their feet and their legs, realizing they would need a late-night swim to wash it off. A cry of excitement from the pier in the distance. The call of a seabird, taking advantage of the moonlight.

All this and more they took in, memorizing and crystallizing the details into memory even as they contemplated the stars above. The vast universe of which they were a part, which together they explored. Identifying the constellations, his mind mapped the stars; while hers could plot a course through them, to wherever they wished to travel.

Although sometime not where intended, to be fair. But always where they were supposed to be.


This would be their happy place. Two young lovers contemplating the universe, by the seaside, in the moonlight.