by
Merri Todd Webster
THE OVERTURE: I don't own these characters, or the ship they sail on;
I do own the planet they visit and the experiences they have. May
Paramount have mercy on our souls.
Not only are two men going to have sex in this one, but so are a man and a
woman, and two men and a woman. Not to mention people talking about sex
being holy. So you've been warned.
This story probably would not have been written were it not for Ny
Martin's 'In Triplicate' series and torch's 'The
Perfect Ceremony,' from which I borrowed Plot Device #116,
"Aliens make the regular characters have sex with one another c) for
religious reasons." Then again, it probably would not have been
written were it not for "The White Goddess" by Robert Graves and
"The Spiral Dance" by Starhawk. Thanks to Amirin and Ny Martin
for beta-reading and encouragement.
It is triggered by the events of "Day of Honor" and following
episodes.
---
"Hey, Harry, come on and join us at Sandrine's."
They were standing side by side, both smiling at him. Harry looked away,
covering it by running a hand through his hair. "Uh, sorry, guys, but
no thanks. Got a lot of reports to catch up on."
"Reports can wait, Har. Fun can't. Come on, come to
Sandrine's."
Tom smiled his most winning smile and extended a hand to Harry.
"Come on, Starfleet," B'Elanna echoed. "You look
like you could use a break. And I'm tired of only seeing you in that
uniform."
<Like you'd want to see me out of it,> Harry thought. Avoiding
Tom's eyes, he looked at the outstretched hand, and then at his best
friend's other hand, entwined with the Chief Engineer's.
"Sorry.I've really gotta take care of this stuff now."
"Okay, Har. See you at breakfast?"
"Yeah, see you then."
Harry watched them go, their arms slipping around one another's
waists, gold head leaning toward bronze. He couldn't bear to go to
Sandrine's, again, and see the way they looked at one another, watch
the hands that strayed together and the kisses they thought nobody
noticed, yet he couldn't take his eyes off them, either, even though
it hurt so much to watch. Shaking his head, he carefully smoothed his face
into its usual calm expression and headed for his quarters.
The one report that had actually needed his immediate attention was
quickly finished. Harry sank down into the hot water and tried to relax.
He could keep his face composed and his tone normal, but he couldn't
keep the tension out of his muscles. The pain had been building ever since
Tom had told him what had happened when Tom and B'Elanna were
stranded in space and nearly died while trying to recover the jettisoned warp
ore. He ached constantly, working on the bridge with one of them, half the
time sent to Engineering to work with the other, and trying and failing to
distract himself by befriending a lonely and difficult former Borg. And
they'd both given him hell for spending time with Seven instead of
following them around like a little brother trying to horn in on his older
sibling's date, which was what he actually yearned to do.
---
"What do you think is bothering Harry?"
Tom grimaced. "I wish I knew. I wish he'd talk to me about it.
He's been tighter than a Horacian clam lately, and it's like he
won't even get near me." He chugged down a mouthful of synth
beer.
B'Elanna twirled her wineglass between her hands. "Do you think
he might feel like I'm. . . encroaching on your friendship?" she
asked carefully.
Tom looked away at the pool table, ostensibly checking out who was
playing. "Well, maybe. But like I said, he won't even get near
me, even when, like tonight, I make it clear that I--that we both
want his company."
B'Elanna posed her next question even more carefully. "Do you
think he might have feelings for me?" She sipped her wine.
"I really couldn't say," Tom replied, but he was looking at
the pool players while he said it.
---
Harry pulled out some of his most difficult pieces of music, mostly
written by non-Earth composers for instruments other than the clarinet. He
needed something challenging to focus on, and he hoped the routine of
practice would settle his mind. He put a piece by the Vulcan composer
T'Zira on the top of the pile and spread it out; then, he went through
the little ritual of getting started. The clasps on the case clicked
sharply as he flicked them open one by one. The wood squeaked faintly as
he fitted the sections of his instrument together and lined them up
precisely. He checked and replaced the reed and tested the tone. His
fingers took over and moved efficiently through his usual warm-up scales
and exercises, setting his mind free to roam. . .
---
Tom tossed aside his socks and stretched out on the bed to wait for
B'Elanna. She'd vanished into the bathroom as soon as they got
back to her quarters, as she'd done every time they'd been
together so far. She thought nothing of feeling him up in the turbolift or
pushing him over a console and devouring his mouth when no one was
looking, but she was oddly shy about the transition from public to
private, from clothed to naked, and wouldn't undress in front of him,
not yet.
She came out of the bathroom with a white robe loosely belted around her.
Something had softened in her face, and Tom liked seeing that, that
letting down of the barriers. She took his hand and settled down beside
him, letting him draw her into a lingering kiss. He handled her gently,
coaxing her to let those barriers down some more. He hadn't expected
her to need so much coaxing; he'd expected the wild Klingon female
who threw things around and bit and scratched, but he'd learned to like
gentling her. If he handled her just right, the wildness came out later.
B'Elanna drew away sooner than Tom wanted. "You okay?"
he asked.
She nodded. "Just distracted by work, the alignments--" she
heaved a sigh "--and worried about Harry."
Tom smiled and stroked her cheek. "Don't worry about Harry. He
can take care of himself. Let me take care of you, right now."
The next kiss was deeper, longer. B'Elanna opened her lips against
Tom's, and her arms went round his neck as his tongue slid into her
mouth. He couldn't get enough of the way she tasted, tangy, spicy,
like no other woman he'd ever kissed. Without hurrying, he slid his
hand down the side of her throat, across her shoulder, pushing the robe
out of the way. His fingers brushed along her collarbone, and his palm
came to rest between her breasts. B'Elanna murmured into the kiss and
shrugged just enough to loosen the robe a little more. Encouraged, his
hand shifted to the left to expose and then cover her breast.
Soft sigh from one or the other or both of them. Tom bit at her lower lip
and felt the pointed brown nipple stiffen under his palm. They reminded
him of chocolate drops in shape and color, but they had surprised him with
their texture and toughness. They demanded rougher stimulation than a
Human woman could tolerate. He dragged his mouth down
B'Elanna's warm skin, giving kisses with a little bit of bite to them,
until he reached the other nipple. B'Elanna lay back, Tom going with her,
and pulled open the robe herself, gasping as skin touched skin. She started
growling softly as he used his teeth on her breast, thumbing the other one
roughly at the same time. Grasping his head with firm hands, she thrust
herself into his mouth.
---
Harry stared at the score before him as if he'd never seen musical
notation in his life. He'd suddenly realized he hadn't been
playing T'Zira's "Fourth Duet for Kshong and Ryill,
transcribed for Clarinet and Harp," but a Mozart clarinet piece
he'd often played for Tom and B'Elanna when they were all really
stressed out.
"You definitely are stressed out, Kim," he said aloud. The
harshness of his tone surprised him. With a sigh of resignation, Harry
broke down the clarinet and put away the piles of sheet music. Sometimes
even the discipline of music wasn't enough. Sometimes the pain was
stronger than the joy.
With clarinet, chair, music, and music stand put away, the room was as
neat as ever. Harry looked around for something to clean up, some busy
work for his hands, and was perversely frustrated by his own orderly
nature. A spot of color out of place caught his attention. He tugged at
the bit of blue fabric peeking over the back of his couch, and out came
one of Tom's sweaters, taken off and tossed aside during some
evening's conversation, probably weeks ago now. Harry held it up by
the shoulders and shook it out. The color matched Tom's eyes
beautifully. He wanted to bury his face in it and inhale the scent left
behind.
When he realized he'd started to cry, Harry flung the sweater from him
and stumbled into the bedroom. Falling facedown on the bed, he tried to
muffle the sobs that forced their way out of his throat, tried to banish
the images that forced their way into his mind.
---
"Let me do this, B'Ela. Let me, please." Tom nuzzled the
moist tawny thighs in supplication, tasting a hint of her sex on them. So
far she'd been unwilling to do this, unwilling even to say why. But
B'Elanna gave a little shudder, took her hands off his shoulders, and
opened her thighs all the way, drawing up her knees. Finally. Finally he
could see what he'd touched, caressed, penetrated, and give her the
something more he'd wanted to give. Under the fine, sparse veil of
pubic hair, her sex was undeniably female but not entirely human. Her
clitoris was as dark and pointed as her nipples and larger than any
he'd ever seen; the flushed lips came in three pairs, not just two,
and the inner lips were swollen and pouting. She was wet, very wet,
glistening, so beautiful, and the smell of her, like wet earth and
cinnamon and sage, made his breathing quicken and his flesh harden still
more.
"Oh, B'Elanna," he whispered, and pressed a kiss on her
mound. Another little shudder from her, and he dipped his head and just
brushed his lips across her sex, inhaling as he did so. Intoxicating. She
was quivering like a plucked string as his tongue caressed her aroused
flesh, savored the taste of her honey, rubbed the swollen node that
swelled still more in response. Gods, how had he not noticed how big her
clit was? It was huge. He nipped at it, heard her hiss of affirmation, and
began licking her steadily, feeling the slight roughness of her skin and
tasting her almost peppery flavor. She kept thrusting against his face,
gods it was exciting, and her moans got louder and louder as he pushed
into her further, more and more roughly. When he bit down hard on her
clit, her scream nearly deafened him even through the tight grasp of her
thighs.
Tom kissed his way back up B'Elanna's heaving belly and chest.
"You were delicious," he whispered to her ear. His satisfaction
was complete when she turned her head and licked her spices from his lips.
---
Harry rolled over on his bed, dazed. He must have cried himself to sleep.
He got to his feet, mouth dry and bladder full, and went to the bathroom
to take care of both problems. The cleansing and soothing effects of his
earlier bath had completely worn off; feeling reckless at using so much
water, he decided to take a shower.
Filling his hands with fragrant liquid soap, he concentrated on soaping
thoroughly from head to toe. The herbal-scented bubbles felt good, sliding
over his skin; he massaged himself, finding pressure points he had learned
from his grandmother, easing away the stiffness. His touch gradually
became slower and more sensual as he moved down his torso. His bangs
dripping, he looked down and saw that he was stroking himself, fully erect
and well on the way to a climax.
Throwing his head back, Harry leaned against the wall of the shower and
gave in to the fantasies he'd been fighting all evening.
---
Tom smiled invitingly at B'Elanna, who was propped on her elbow beside
him. From the way her hand was wandering over his chest, he suspected she
might be ready to take charge. He had discovered that if he took the lead
in a first round, she was often eager to do so for a second. It seemed
that tonight, he wasn't going to have to wait to be taken.
"Had enough, Paris?" she purred, showing just the tips of her
white teeth in a smile.
"Of you? Never," he replied. Her hand strayed tantalizingly
lower.
"Do you say that to all your lovers?" she teased.
"Only when it's true," he said, meeting her eyes with his
own.
B'Elanna's hand curled around his aching cock, warm and strong.
"I haven't quite had enough, either," she said, "so I
hope you're ready."
She was all over Tom before he had time to draw another breath, her hand
on his cock like an anchor as her fierce mouth claimed him. The first kiss
left him gasping, within a heartbeat of orgasm, yet somehow he held on
while she nipped his shoulders, not hard but her teeth were much sharper
than his own. Her harsh tongue traced fire over his skin, rasping at his
nipples like a cat's, her spine arched gracefully and her hair swaying
like a mane. Tom barely had breath to moan, until he cried out as she bit
his chest, breaking the skin. Then she knelt between his legs, letting him
see his own blood on her teeth as she bent to his cock, and he didn't
care, he really didn't care if she ate him alive.
---
Tom was behind Harry, holding him up with one strong arm across
Harry's chest and one around his waist. B'Elanna was kneeling in
front of Harry, her warm lips, sharp teeth, and hot tongue exploring his
belly and thighs, spiraling slowly inward to his cock. Long, clever
fingers gently chafed Harry's nipples, and soft firm lips, Tom's
lips, were kissing his hair and neck and shoulders in a way that made him
shiver as much as B'Elanna's licking the length of his shaft.
Harry moaned, not knowing which name to call, which one he wanted more.
A hot wet touch on the tip of his cock, and a hot wet touch on his ear, and
he could feel himself leaking wetness, so helplessly aroused. As
B'Elanna slowly, deliberately sucked him into her mouth, Tom's
hand left Harry's chest and traveled down to his ass, lightly
squeezing the firm muscle. Harry trembled as B'Elanna moved up and
down, her hair whipping his thighs, and Tom traced the cleft of
Harry's buttocks, probing carefully. Another hot lick of his ear, and
he heard Tom whispering, "You want to be inside her, don't you,
Harry? You want to come in her mouth, you want to fuck her wet pussy. I
know you do. You'll love it. She's so hot and so tight, a man
can't last a minute. And you know what, Harry? While you're inside
B'Elanna, I wanna be inside you. . ."
A slick finger found the entrance and pierced Harry with pleasure, and the
fantasy shattered as he came, the cooling shower spray washing away his
semen and his tears.
---
Sighing, Harry picked up the brush and began working on his hair. He'd
never thought of himself as vain, but he'd been through three outfits
and was thinking of rejecting the fourth. What had possessed Chakotay to
assign him to the same shore leave party as Tom and B'Elanna? Was
the Commander just out of the loop, or was he trying to rub Harry's face
in the fact that he was not a member of a happy couple?
Realizing he was pouting at his own reflection, he slammed down the
helpless brush. <Face it, Kim, you think neither of them would notice
if you showed up stark naked. 'Course, the other people beaming down
probably would.>
Deciding against slicking his hair down, he stepped back and took one last
look in the mirror. The snug trousers and open-fronted vest were kind of
daring, for him, but the planet Vica had a climate closely similar to
Earth's Mediterranean region. It would be good to feel the warmth of
the sun on his skin, and he could use a little color. Shrugging, Harry
scooped up a satchel containing his clarinet, some spare reeds, and a bag
of the local coins, and headed out for the transporter room.
"Is that a dress, B'Elanna?"
B'Elanna scowled, unconvincingly, and Tom grinned. "That's
what I said when I saw it."
Harry allowed himself an admiring look at both of them. B'Elanna's
dress was a rich dark red with the low neck, wide sleeves, and full
pleated skirt of traditional Klingon fashion. The bodice was decorated
with bands of dark green embroidery. A thin torque of gold circled the
base of her throat, drawing attention to its line and to the nearby curve
of her breasts. Tom looked equally handsome, though less formal, in loose
gray trousers and a vivid blue shirt, open down the front, that brought
out the hue of his eyes.
B'Elanna was appraising Harry's attire. "That's a
beautiful vest," she remarked, feeling the velvet texture of the
brown fabric and tracing the gold embroidery with her fingers. Tom, too,
appeared to be studying the pattern of the embroidery, unless he was
actually looking at Harry's exposed arms and chest. Harry hoped he
wasn't blushing.
"You're coming with us, aren't you, Harry?"
B'Elanna asked.
"Yeah," Tom echoed, "we're in the same party, so
let's take advantage of it. Let's all three of us spend the day
together."
Harry couldn't resist two warm, eager smiles, two insistent pairs of
eyes. "I'd be glad to, if you two really want me along."
A few minutes later, they were standing in bright hot sunshine on a plain
of golden grass. About a kilometer ahead of them was the road into the
city, a thin ribbon of moving figures that were going much too slowly to
be vehicles. Away to their left, perhaps 2.5 kilometers distant, were
shimmering white walls splashed with bright colors, enclosing the city of
Marinna.
"That's it," B'Elanna said. "We just get on the
road and go with the traffic."
"Let's go, then," Tom said. He reached out for
B'Elanna's hand, and B'Elanna took Harry's, and they
set off.
---
People of all ages and sizes were headed on foot into the city of Marinna.
Alone and in groups, pushing or pulling small carts, they smiled, talked,
sang, and laughed as they walked along. All the shades imaginable of red
hair glinted in the sunshine, auburn and orange, chestnut and strawberry,
bronze and flame-red, and the friendly eyes that glanced at them were
mostly clear and light-colored. Harry noticed that some of those glances
lingered a little, but there was certainly no hostility in them. No, if
anything, those glances were very, very interested.
"I feel overdressed," B'Elanna muttered. Tom nodded and
Harry grinned. With the exception of a few very elderly people, everyone
they saw, male and female alike, was bare to the waist. The women wore
skirts, mostly long and full, many with frills and flounces; the men wore
kilts that grazed the knees at their longest, or just loincloths that left
little to the imagination. All the clothing was dyed in gay colors, and
even the children, let alone the adults, jingled with jewelry.
Harry would have stopped worrying about whether he was showing too much
skin, except that he looked so different from everyone around him. Tom and
B'Elanna, despite the differences between them, might have passed for
extremes of the local complexion, but black hair and eyes were definitely
exotic. He wondered if he was the reason those friendly glances lingered,
and people seemed inclined to let them by very easily. Or maybe it was
just that it felt odd to have B'Elanna's warm hand in his while
her other hand was linked with Tom's, to be walking hand in hand with
the two dear friends he hadn't seen much of lately because they'd
been all over each other. It just felt strange.
Still, it was hard not to get into the festive spirit around them. There
was more laughing than talking, more singing than laughing among the local
people. The atmosphere was almost one of pilgrimage; Harry wouldn't
have been surprised to meet the Wife of Bath, and he saw a few women who
looked like good candidates for the role. Tom asked him what projects
he'd been working on with Seven, in a mild enough tone not to push any
of Harry's buttons, and the time passed pleasantly till they reached
the city gates.
"Would you look at that," Tom said. All three of them stopped
and craned their necks to do so, while people passed around them.
The city gates were composed of a giant relief sculpture, higher than the
walls and wider than the road. The gate itself was formed by the spread
legs and open sex of a woman crouched as if to give birth. On either side
of her, a massive male figure with bulging arms and a flagrant erection
supported the woman's raised, bent arms with one hand and clasped the
hand of his counterpart in front of the woman's large breasts. The
female figure was painted red above the waist and green below; one of the
two male figures was painted black and the other gold. Anyone who entered
the city had to pass beneath these figures, notice them, be dwarfed by
them. <Wonder what they represent,> Harry thought.
Within the city, everything was white walls and red tile roofs, bare
shoulders and swirling skirts. Tom and Harry and B'Elanna followed the
main flow of traffic into a broad circular plaza occupied by a fair or
market. Wooden booths topped with gaily striped canvas awnings stood in
concentric circles within the larger circle of the plaza. Everywhere the
air rang with the cries of merchants, the echoes of distant music, and the
hum of conversation. People seemed to be moving around the plaza
clockwise, visiting clusters of booths grouped by theme. The three of them
came first to an area like a farmers' market, where fresh and cooked
foods were on display. They passed booths with heaps of vegetables, red,
green, and yellow, booths displaying cuts of meat hung up to dry, booths
offering glistening fruit that was blue or violet, booths with elegant
arrangements of lacy dried flowers. Tom insisted on buying B'Elanna a
garland of flowers, orange and honey-gold, a perfect complement to her
skin and hair. She scoffed at him but agreed to wear it anyway, her face
shining.
They stopped for a break at a chilled soup vendor, getting little bread
bowls full of a creamy concoction and mugs of fruit juice ornamented with
tiny paper umbrellas. Harry made bold to save the little umbrellas and
tuck them into B'Elanna's garland. Drawn by the sound of music,
they then drifted over toward a stage at the rim of the plaza where a
group of women was performing. Harry ogled the instruments with keen
interest while Tom and B'Elanna tapped their toes to the infectious
beat. There was something akin to a hammered dulcimer; a double-reed
instrument with a penetrating nasal tone; an alto or tenor range recorder;
and a kind of fiddle held upright on the thigh and bowed underhanded. The
group also had a singer, a striking woman almost as dark as B'Elanna,
with wild curly hair and a rich alto voice. Before the stage, half a dozen
men in the skimpiest of garb were doing something that resembled morris
dancing, making the metal bracelets that covered their arms almost from
wrist to shoulder jingle noisily.
Around the troupe of dancers, many other people were also dancing in a
less organized fashion. Grinning, Harry nudged Tom. "Why don't
you two join them?" Before B'Elanna could protest, Tom had
dragged her away, flashing a grateful look over his shoulder. Harry stood
watching them for a few minutes, torn between pain and joy at how gorgeous
they looked together, dark and fair, blue and red, both of them laughing
with open mouths as they swung round and round with joined hands.
Presently he got out his clarinet and assembled it, putting in a new reed,
and edged his way to the front of the stage. He hoped they didn't
object to male musicians on principle.
Between tunes Harry waved his clarinet at the dulcimer player, who was
seated close to the edge of the stage. "Mind if I sit in?" The
dulcimer player grinned and waved him up. The other musicians smiled a
welcome as he climbed up and took a position between the other two
woodwind players, toward the back. The singer counted off six-eight, and
the band struck up a gay pentatonic tune. By the time they played it
through once, Harry was able to join in, and after a few more repetitions,
he began to improvise over it.
When Tom and B'Elanna noticed that Harry was onstage, they slowed
down and drifted toward the edge of the stage in order to hear him better.
They were not alone; not a few people stopped dancing for a tune or two in
order to listen to the new player. Harry joyously followed the band
through a set of six tunes, all of them easy but fast, improvising
harmonies on the spur of the moment and once taking a wild duet with the
double-reed player. Everything else was forgotten for a while in the joy
of creation, a joy Harry had always been able to count on. When they
roared to a stop, at last, he was flushed and panting, his fingers hot.
The recorder player pounded him on the back, laughing, and the crowd made
wild bird-like whistling noises. The double-reed player scowled over her
worn-out reeds, then grabbed Harry for an unexpected hug. The dulcimer
player whistled, too, flourishing her hammers, and said, "If you can
still breathe, friend, give us some tunes from your part of the
galaxy."
Harry gulped some fruit juice offered to him by the smiling singer while
he thought briefly about what would work. Then, he launched into a suite
of dance tunes by Michael Praetorius, from sixteenth-century Germany. The
Vicari musicians had no trouble following him or improvising harmonies,
although the results might have surprised the composer. The male dancers
grabbed partners from amongst their own number and from the crowd and
improvised steps, and Tom and B'Elanna went whirling away again,
caught up in the spirit of the music.
After that set, the singer offered Harry some more fruit juice. "Can
you sing, traveler?" she asked.
"If you sing first," he replied, still panting.
The singer spoke to the dulcimer player, who introduced a stately melody
that reminded Harry of a pavane. The universal translator fumbled a bit
with the poetry of the lyrics, but Harry got the gist as he followed the
other players into a restrained accompaniment:
"If you should tell me where you are going,
Then I would follow even past sunset.
If you should tell me where I can find you,
Then I would bring her and we would join you.
If you should tell me, I'd gladly listen
To what your heart says
When you lie lonesome.
But you don't tell me
and I can't follow
and we can't join you
And all lie lonesome."
The singer ended on a note low in her register, her tone throbbing. The
whistles from the crowd were muted, now. The singer bowed, then stepped
back and gestured for Harry to come forward. He stepped to the front of
the stage, drew a deep breath, and sang the first thing that came to his
mind:
"Alas, my love, you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you, oh, so long,
Delighting in your company."
The fiddle and the recorder provided a muted accompaniment as he went into
the chorus:
"Greensleeves was all my joy,
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my lady Greensleeves?"
Harry accepted the singer's embrace and left the stage to more of that
sad, muted whistling. Tom and B'Elanna caught up with him as he was
breaking down his clarinet and the band was going back to lively dance
music.
"Way to go, Harry!" Tom said, pounding his friend on the back.
"I knew you could play, but I had no idea you could improvise like
that!"
"Or that you could sing," B'Elanna added. "You have
a beautiful voice, Harry." She leaned over and kissed his cheek
lightly.
Surprised, Harry wanted nothing more than to sweep her into his arms and
cover her with kisses. <I'm sure she'd break my arms in three
places each.> Instead he took the flower garland that now dangled from
her hand and placed it back on her head, smoothing down her windblown
hair. "Thank you both," he said, turning from B'Elanna to
Tom with a smile of such warmth that the other man was a little startled.
The three of them spent another couple of hours on the agreeable
activities of walking, shopping, talking, and eating. Harry bought a
handsome wooden flute, much too cheaply, he was sure, but he couldn't
get her to accept the larger price he thought was fair. "Use it to
win your lovers' hearts," she told him, winking so broadly that
the gesture had to mean the same thing it meant on Earth. B'Elanna
spent a long time talking with an elderly sculptor about the method he
used to create his crystal sculptures, and finally accepted an abstract
piece made of green crystal as a gift. Tom picked up a simple blue-glazed
ceramic mug without any fuss at all, though the young vendors stared after
him rather longingly as he moved on.
B'Elanna polished off a hot, stuffed pastry in three bites and
surreptitiously wiped greasy fingers on her skirt. "The old sculptor
told me some really interesting things about the uses of crystal in the
local technology. He said I could learn more from the elders in the north
quarter of the city. Would you two mind if we separated a while?"
Tom rolled his eyes. "That's just like you, B'Ela-- always
thinking of work, even on shore leave. You go ahead. Why don't you
meet us by the stage around sundown?" Harry nodded his affirmation,
still chewing, and B'Elanna swept off into the crowd, followed by two
admiring gazes.
"She's. . . magnificent," Tom murmured.
"She certainly is," Harry agreed. Tom looked at him almost
warily.
"Hey, Har, why don't we go find someplace we can talk."
Before Harry could protest, Tom had taken him by the arm and begun to lead
him steadily toward the edge of the plaza, heading westward. They passed
between the booths selling bread and produce and meat and soup, away from
the lively city center. Tom wasn't saying anything, but Harry had a
bad feeling that he would soon be asking some very uncomfortable
questions. He had an even worse feeling that he would be unable to keep
himself from answering them.
Presently they found themselves on a white gravel path bordered by small,
frilly trees with lacy red blossoms. The trees grew so close to the narrow
path that their drooping branches all but brushed the two men's faces.
Harry and Tom were soon walking side by side, shoulders brushing, as
neither one took the lead.
They passed in silence through an arch carved in the shape of a woman,
like the city gates, and headed toward a small lake that shone against the
golden grass like a flat, fallen moon. Far on the other side of the lake
were more buildings, low and white. Tom walked right up to the rim of the
lake, a low barrier of red and green stones, and stopped there, looking
down at the wate. Its still surface faithfully reflected the Earthlike
blue sky with white clouds, the gold hair and blue eyes of the one man,
the black hair and brown eyes of the other.
Just when Harry was about to burst from the tension, Tom spoke. He
didn't look at Harry but at Harry's image in the water.
"Harry, are you in love with B'Elanna?"
Harry lowered his head. "If you must know, yes."
Tom turned to look directly at his friend and tentatively touched his arm.
"Are you mad at me for being the one she wants to be with, right
now?"
Harry turned and walked away a few yards, folding his arms over his chest.
<I notice you don't say she's in love with you. You don't
trust it, do you?> "No. Believe me, no."
"You have every right to be," Tom pressed. He followed Harry a
few steps. "Gods know I've tried everything, the past four
years--"
"Yeah." Harry laughed mirthlessly. "So have I."
Puzzled, Tom ran a hand through his hair. Harry's tense back denied
him the reassurance he wanted. Tentatively, he put a hand on the other
man's shoulder. "Are you still my friend, Har?"
Harry made a strange noise. "Always," he said, raising his hands
to his face. Tom was appalled to realize that Harry was crying.
Wanting only to help, Tom put his arms around the younger man. As if the
touch released something in him, Harry began sobbing in earnest.
"Harry, please, tell me, so I can help you, what's
wrong?"
The answer was muffled against his shoulder but still understandable.
"I'm in love with you, too."
Tom stepped back, reactively--realized how it might look and made sure his
hands were still on Harry's arms. Harry was shaking. "You're
in love with me?" Tom whispered.
Harry raised a tear-stained face and met Tom's eyes. "Yes."
Tom licked his lips. "You're in love with-- me and
B'Elanna."
Harry nodded, snuffled. "I'm in love with both of you."
"But--" Tom began, stopping when he realized he had no idea
where he was going with this sentence.
Harry pulled away from him. "But what? But this is Harry Kim
you're talking to? Ensign Harry Kim, class valedictorian, Starfleet
poster boy? Good old reliable, dependable, conventional, boring Harry Kim?
Well, that was the Harry Kim who went out on Voyager on his first
assignment, chasing the Maquis in the Badlands. That Harry Kim had a
family and a lover and a real clarinet and dreams of a normal
life--career, marriage, children. But that Harry Kim never came back from
his first mission. He never saw his parents or the woman he loved
again.Instead, some semi-omnipotent entity threw him 70,000 light years
from home!"
By that last sentence, Harry was yelling, fists clenched, yelling into Tom
Paris's astonished face. Something in Tom's widened blue eyes
made him realize what he was doing, relax a fraction, go on more calmly.
"I never expected to be thrown a lifetime's distance from
everything I'd ever known. I never expected I'd be looking at
sharing my life, indefinitely, with 150 other people but without a doctor
or a ship's counselor, on a ship so small you can't sneeze without
somebody four decks down saying, 'Bless you'. I never expected to
meet, and then fall in love with, not one but two of the most brilliant,
beautiful, and lunatic people I've ever met." He smiled ruefully.
"But I did. And I'm not the same person I was, as a result. That
Harry Kim is--dead, in this universe or any other."
Tom wasn't sure what to say. He'd never seen a look like this on
Harry's face, not even in that filthy prison, never thought he'd
see so much pain. It occurred to him that he had taken a perverse comfort
in feeling certain that even if he himself had to suffer, Harry Kim never
would. Even if he'd had a wretched life, Harry Kim had had a happy
one, and would continue to be happy. As if nothing Tom Paris did, nothing
that was done to him, could touch Harry. The hurt in Harry's wet eyes
made a mockery of that. <He's hurting and I've done it.
How can I live with that?>
Tom swallowed hard and said quietly, "How long have you felt this
way, Harry?"
Harry shrugged. "I don't even know. Maybe since the moment
I saw you, both of you. I was sure how I felt about you after-- the prison, but
it felt like I'd always felt that way. About B'Elanna, I don't
know. I guess it just dawned on me one day how much she meant to
me."
Tom plopped down on the grass, astonished. He ran his fingers helplessly
through his hair. "But, Harry--how could you keep it to yourself this
long? Why didn't you tell either of us--I'm assuming
you've never told B'Elanna?"
Harry nodded. "No, I haven't told her. And you should know why.
Come on, Tom--would you be her lover right now if she hadn't made the
first move?"
The other man grinned involuntarily. "No, I like all my limbs right
where they are, thanks. But what about me? Why haven't you told me
before this?"
Harry sat down, too, not quite looking at his friend. "For a lot of
different reasons. Your reputation with women, for one." Tom snorted,
but Harry went on. "Not everybody has lovers of their own sex. And
the rumor mill never linked you with any men."
"Well, it was right about that, at least," Tom mumbled.
"And then there was what you told me about Auckland. Between that
incident and the way you chased women, I figured if you'd ever been
interested in men as partners, you weren't any more. And then, just as
I was thinking about risking it anyway, we took shore leave on
Akritaria." Harry bowed his head, resting his forehead on his knee.
Tom shook his head. "Harry, if anything, that should have brought us
closer-- Wait a minute." He stopped, clenching his jaw, appalled at
the thought that had just occurred to him. <You fucking idiot,> he
told himself. <You just couldn't face the possibility, could you?
And you knew it all along.> "Dear gods, Harry-- were you-- did
you--"
"Yes."
They sat there in utter silence for a couple of minutes. Tom felt like his
heart had been torn out and lay bleeding in his lap. Harry, on the other
hand, felt he had never had a heart. There was an empty space within him
as still as the lake.
"It wasn't rape." Harry swallowed painfully. "I mean
I did it willingly. To keep you alive, to keep us both alive. That
didn't mean it didn't hurt. It hurt every part of me. Because I thought
you must have known. How else could I have gotten the bandages,
the blanket, the extra rations? What else did we have to trade? Well,
I survived. Chakotay helped. I talked it all through with him, and you never
even noticed. I thought you must know what I'd done. I thought you had
to despise me for it, or else surely you'd have said something. And I
thought I'd never want a man's touch again after that, not even
yours. Well, I was wrong about not wanting you. Not a day goes by that I
don't--" He couldn't bring himself to continue.
Tom had turned so ghastly white that he looked as though he might vomit.
With shaking hands he reached for Harry, cupped the man's terribly
still, cold face with all the tenderness he could muster. "You're
wrong about the rest of it, too," Tom said hoarsely, and pressed his
mouth to Harry's.
Harry's lips were like ice, nearly numb, but they started to thaw
under Tom's. <Oh, please, no,> Harry thought helplessly,
<I don't want to deal with this, I don't want to feel
any more, ever. . . > But Tom's mouth was so warm, so gentle, so
firm, and so gently insistent, insistently persuasive. Harry's lips
parted, letting out just the ghost of a moan, letting in a silky tongue
that found his and caressed it. Harry didn't notice when his arms went
around Tom's neck, pulling the other man against his chest, and
Tom's hands slid up Harry's cheekbones into his hair. Their mouths
were crushed together, relentlessly, each devouring the other with such
pent-up desperation that neither of them noticed the troop of
spear-carrying women in leather armor racing toward them across the golden
grass.
---
Captain Janeway had dressed for shore leave in comfortable shirt and
slacks. She was considering doing something unusual with her hair when an
apologetic voice paged her. "Chakotay to Janeway."
"Yes, Commander?"
"I'm sorry to disturb you, Captain, but I need to see you before
you go. There's been trouble planetside with some of our crew."
"On my way." Trying not to grind her teeth, Janeway tossed aside
the fancy comb she'd been toying with and pulled her hair back into a
barrette as she headed out the door.
Chakotay looked downright remorseful when Janeway met him in her ready
room. "What happened?" she ground out.
"The universal translator was way off, Captain. The large settlements
our shore leave parties beamed down to aren't cities. They're
temples. Every single one. Sacred space. And Paris, Kim, and Torres have
managed to violate not one but two sacred areas and upset three-quarters
of the priesthood of Marinna temple."
Janeway groaned. "What exactly did they do?"
Despite himself, Chakotay's lips twitched. "Torres blundered into
an area reserved for elders-- infertile women, and men, of advanced years.
Paris and Kim somehow wandered into the women-only precinct and were--
kissing passionately when the temple guards caught up with them. The
priesthood was afraid they weren't going to stop there."
The Captain raised her eyebrows. "Do the religious authorities want
to talk with me?"
"They want the offenders to make amends, but they were content to
handle this between themselves and those three. It was Torres who
contacted me and practically begged me to get you down there. She refused
to say why, but the three of them aren't very sanguine about the
amends they're being asked to make."
Janeway sighed gustily. "Very well. Will you come with me, Chakotay?
You're much better at dealing with religious types than I am."
He smiled. "You'll get the hang of it eventually."
---
The Captain and the Commander were allowed to beam directly to coordinates
within the southern quarter of the city/temple. It was after sunset now;
the great gates of the temple were closed for the night, and the small
courtyard where they materialized was illuminated by colored lanterns.
A girl who looked about fifteen came out of the small, red-domed white
building before them; Janeway was a little startled by the contrast
between the girl's elaborate hairstyle and her small naked breasts.
The girl led them inside the building and down a short corridor that ended
in a spacious gallery beneath the dome, then up a gradually spiraling ramp
to the second floor. Looking around, Janeway noted the handsome sconces
on the wall, small lamps that reminded her of art deco, and wondered about
the extent of Vicari technology. The girl stopped outside a smallish
doorway covered by a velvety drape, which she held aside for them.
Janeway strode confidently into the room, Chakotay at her heels, and was
taken aback by the intimacy of the space she had entered so boldly. It was
a small low-ceilinged room with no furnishings other than a large round
table, about knee-high, set with trays of food and drink. Three people sat
on cushions around the table, a man and a woman of Janeway's age,
or a little older, and a frail-looking elderly woman wrapped in a fringed
shawl.
"Welcome to Marinna Temple, Captain, Commander. Come sit with us
and share our hospitality."
The elderly woman had a warm, strong voice that made Janeway relax a
trifle. The Captain settled herself on a large flat pillow and accepted a
ceramic goblet from the elder. Were the old woman's eyes just faintly
amused? Janeway devoutly hoped so.
After both her guests had drunk, the elder went on, "I am Viresti,
presiding priestess of the Elders' Sanctuary for this quarter and
senior priestess of Marinna Temple." She inclined her head, and the
imposing woman to her left spoke.
"I am Daritha, presiding priestess of the Women's Sanctuary for
this quarter." Janeway felt her spine stiffen at the note of the
authority in the other woman's voice. She recognized an unbending will
when she encountered it.
"And I am Lirigon, presiding priest of the Men's Sanctuary for
this quarter." He favored Janeway and Chakotay--more Chakotay, the
Captain guessed--with a smile that reminded her disconcertingly of Tom
Paris. He even had Paris's coloring.
Viresti poured fruit juice for everyone and resumed speaking in a calm
tone. "Your children have informed us that you did not know Marinna
was sacred ground."
Startled, Janeway realized "your children" referred to Paris,
Kim, and Torres--figuratively, she hoped. "That is correct,
Viresti."
"We have no large settlements that are not temples, though there are
sacred places which are not temples. The temple hosts art and commerce as
well as ritual, counseling, and education. The temple is the center of our
sacred wheel of life."
Viresti glanced at her guests to see how they were taking this. She
offered them a plate of small pastries and waited till they had each taken
one before continuing.
"I hope that what I am about to say makes sense to you, Captain,
Commander. We Vicari are a small people who occupy one homeworld and
share one culture. From my converse with your children, I can see that each
of them comes from a different culture, though two of them say they share the
same homeworld, and I venture to say that you two may also come from
different cultures. Understanding can be difficult in these
circumstances."
Janeway brushed a little impatiently at crumbs. "Please, Viresti, go
on. The Commander says that my--children have trespassed on your sacred
ground and you wish them to make amends. They were uncomfortable enough
with what you requested that they asked us to come and talk with you on
their behalf. What do you want them to do?"
Daritha interposed. "They must re-balance the energies they have
upset by engaging in sacred union."
Viresti frowned slightly at the younger woman, but Janeway was choking on
her pastry and didn't notice. "Engage in sacred union? Are you
saying you want them to have sex? With whom?"
Lirigon responded in a pacifying tone of voice. "The two young men
must unite with one another. Each of them must then unite with the young
woman. We are not clear why this is a problem, Captain. All those who saw
them together on the road and in the plaza were certain that they were
lovers. Is this not so?"
Janeway was not sure how to answer that. She knew about Tom's and
B'Elanna's most recent attempt at a relationship; she knew that
Tom and Harry were the best of friends; she knew that the two boys had
been seen kissing. Was there something going on here that she could have,
should have noticed, but had missed? She took a long swallow of the sweet
juice.
"I'm not sure I can answer that, Lirigon," she said,
deciding to go with the truth. "I do know this poses a problem for
the people involved, or else they would not have asked me to come speak
with you. I can tell you that sexual relationships involving three people
are very uncommon, though not unknown, in our culture. But I would like to
know why these-- sexual acts are necessary."
Daritha made as if to speak, but at Viresti's hand on her arm, she at
once subsided. Viresti took a piece of fruit from a plate and began
peeling it as she spoke.
"We Vicari see life as a wheel, or circle, or sphere. Nothing is not
part of this circle. Nothing can be whole which does not contain the full
round. In sacred space, we honor four quarters, which are the four
directions of south, west, north, and east, the four seasons, the four
qualities of youth, womanhood, manhood, and age." She neatly
slicedthe fruit into four perfectly equal pieces. "The south quarter
is devoted to those who are sexually fertile, to lovers, parents, and
children. The north quarter is devoted to those who are infertile, elders
who can no longer procreate. The east quarter is devoted to the male
energies of outgoing, beginning, begetting. The west quarter is devoted to
the female energies of intaking, completing, conceiving." She handed
a piece of the fruit to Janeway and Chakotay, one to Daritha, and one to
Lirigon, keeping a piece for herself.
"In each quarter, there are spaces reserved exclusively for those to
whom the quarter is dedicated, places where they can be immersed in the
energies of their own aspect. Your children unwittingly upset the energies
of the Elders' space by bringing the energies of fertility into it,
and upset the energies of the Women's space by bringing the energies
of maleness into it. The priestesses of the Women's Sanctuary will
cleanse their grounds; the two young men will unite in the Men's
Sanctuary. We Elders will cleanse our grounds; the union of man and woman
will take place in the Lovers' Sanctuary. Thus will the energies be
re-balanced, each polarity affirmed in its own proper place. Do you
understand?"
Chakotay nodded, saying, "Yes, Viresti, I think I do."
Janeway didn't, at all. She seized on something she did understand.
"But, Viresti, they didn't know what they were doing. They
had no idea they were causing harm to anyone, nor any intention to do
so."
"Neither their knowledge nor their intention is the issue."
Daritha sounded even more forbidding than before. "Action is the
issue, right action. The sacred ground of women has been violated--"
Viresti raised a hand and Daritha subsided.
"Captain," Lirigon said earnestly, "we are not asking to
punish your children. We are only asking that they repair what they have
damaged. If a little child spilled a cup of milk, you would not punish the
child, would you? You would, however, clean up the spill. But if a child
of thirteen spilled a cup of milk, what would you do? Would you not
require him or her to clean up the spill, and not do it for them?"
Unfortunately, Janeway saw the point to that. Paris, Kim, and Torres were
adults, responsible for themselves. And at bottom, the Prime Directive
meant nothing more complicated than "If you play in someone
else's sandbox, you play by their rules." She looked over at
Chakotay and was peeved by the faint amusement on his face. Did he know
something she didn't? If so, she was going to wring it out of him
later. . .
Nevertheless, she used the last gambit available. "I am their
commanding officer. The ultimate responsibility for their actions rests
with me. Is there anything I can do to make up for what they've
done?"
Chakotay sucked in an audible breath, but the three priests were looking
at her blankly. "My apologies, Captain," Viresti said, "but
I do not understand what you are saying. How can they not be responsible
for their own actions? Are they not adults? How could anything you do
repair what they have done?"
Janeway bowed her head. She'd tried. <Maybe they just don't
understand command structure. Maybe hierarchy just doesn't make
sense to them.> "Well, then," she said finally, "my
people will have to agree to this on their own, or not. May I speak with them,
now?"
"Certainly, Captain. Please wait here, and we will bring them to you
as soon as may be."
Viresti climbed to her feet with slow dignity and left the room, followed
by Daritha and Lirigon. Chakotay waited as long as he could before
bursting into laughter. Janeway turned a ferocious glare on him.
"What are you laughing at, Commander?"
He tried, and failed, to contain himself. "If I were in their shoes,
I don't think I'd be complaining."
"Very funny," she snapped. "It just isn't right,
requiring someone to have sex, as though it were some sort of
performance."
Chakotay shrugged, infuriating Janeway still more. "Sex in religious
rituals goes back a long way, perhaps to when we were still living in
caves and hunting mammoth. For a long time it was more common than not.
And it could be worse, Captain."
"How?" she snapped.
"The priesthood could want them to have sex with total strangers,
someone who would choose them at random, as was the custom in ancient
Babylon, for example."
Janeway shuddered, thinking of how her three officers, any one of them,
would handle that request. Before she could say anything more, the
draperies at the doorway rustled, and the three officers in question came
in.
<They look so tired,> the Captain thought. <There
must be more to this than I've heard about.> Tom was sunburnt
across his nose and cheekbones. Harry looked like he had been crying. Even
B'Elanna's habitually straight spine was drooping. She was
clutching a rather mangled garland of dried flowers.
Janeway motioned for them to sit, and they dropped like stones. There was
still plenty of food left on the table, and she filled goblets and plates
for everyone before trusting herself to speak.
"So tell me what's going on."
Paris, Kim, and Torres exchanged wary glances. "Did they tell you
what they want of us, Captain?" Torres asked.
"Yes, and explained why they want it, though I don't quite
understand the explanation."
"Captain, we can't do this. Did you try to talk them out
of it?" Torres persisted.
"Yes, I did. But frankly, we don't have a leg to stand on. The
Prime Directive, gentlemen. We play by their rules while we're on
their turf."
Again the three younger people exchanged almost furtive glances. Somewhat
against her better judgment, Janeway decided to press. "I'd like
to know why this request is so difficult to honor. Two of you are already
lovers, all of you are friends, in fact, everyone who saw you thought you
were a trio--"
"Captain!" Paris interrupted her, but he didn't seem to know
what to say after that.
"Captain," Kim said, "I think we should do what they ask.
It'll be all right." He sounded tremendously weary, but Janeway
saw the way he looked at the other two. <Perhaps Mr. Kim was more left
out by this relationship than I'd thought. . .>
"No!" Torres snapped. Paris reached for her hand.
"Officers," Janeway said in her best
this-is-the-Captain-speaking voice, "I believe Mr. Kim is
right." She laid her hands on Harry's and on Tom's where it
covered B'Elanna's. "It will be all right."
---
Tom spent the night in a small cubicle with only a water closet in one
corner and a futon-like mattress on the floor, with a thin sheet for
coverlet. For hours he lay awake, wondering if he could go through with
what had been asked of them, wondering if Harry could, wondering if Harry
had had any male lovers before, wondering what time it was. He did fall
asleep for a few hours before a young boy, an acolyte, he supposed, came
to wake him and offer him breakfast. He ate some of the fruit and porridge
and tried a few bites of the little dried fish that were the only evident
protein source, but his stomach was too knotted up to take much. He drank
down all of the milky beverage provided and then started to worry about
throwing up or having to urinate and not being allowed to.
The acolyte came back and led him off to the ritual bath. Tom stood stock
still, trying and failing to unclench his fists, while two older men
scrubbed him down from head to toe with harsh herbal soap and cool water.
As impersonal and efficient as their touch was, it was still too intimate
for him to relax. His muscles did begin to uncoil when they left him in a
hot bath strewn with more herbs, in which he floated for so long that he
lost all track of time.
It was Lirigon who came to dry him off and dress him in ritual garb. It
was damned disturbing to be a grown man and to be handled like a child by
a man who just happened to look like your own father, but Admiral Paris
had certainly never dried his son, fresh from the bath, or dressed him in
clean clothes. Lirigon smiled encouragingly as he wound the length of
vivid yellow fabric around Tom's loins. "I can tell you are not
comfortable at being served in this way, my child, but it is my duty and
my honor thus to prepare you for your union."
"Yeah, well, thanks," Tom muttered. Lirigon held up a necklace
of beads that looked like jet and very yellow amber and draped it over
Tom's head.
"Sit here, young man," the priest said, gesturing to a stool.
Tom sat down and was startled when Lirigon knelt in front of him, holding
a small pot and a tiny brush. "Just keep your head still for a
moment," Lirigon said. "I see that you do not use cosmetics, but
it would defy custom to let you go to your union with face bare of
adornment, so I shall give you just the minimum of paint. . . " Tom
tried not to blink as the tiny brush slowly, steadily outlined his eyes
with cool paint. Lirigon got to his feet, put the paint aside, and handed
Tom a comb. Tom combed his hair without thinking about it and started
again when the priest angled a mirror before his face.
Was that really Tom Paris in the mirror? This handsome man with fair, fair
skin and wide blue eyes bordered by indigo paint that made them look even
bluer? And why did he look so damned frightened? <It's not like you
haven't had male lovers before,> he said to his reflection. Another
part of his mind shot back, <Yeah, but this is Harry.>
<What difference does that make?> he cracked. <Sex is sex.>
<Yes, but he loves you. And you love him.>
The astonishing blue eyes in the mirror opened even wider, and then slid
closed. <What difference does that make?> he thought, faintly.
Lirigon left, and Tom waited, doing his best not to think. Another
acolyte, or priest, a striking redhead just about Tom's age, came to
fetch him after a while, leading him silently down corridor after
corridor, up in a lift and then up stairs, to where Harry was already
waiting outside a figured metal door.
Tom stifled a gasp of reaction. Dressed in a skimpy black loincloth, his
almond-shaped eyes accented with frosty gold paint, Harry looked like a
god, an Egyptian god, perhaps, a statue thousands of years old that had
just stepped off its pedestal and come to life. He was breathtakingly
beautiful <Has he always been this beautiful?>, but his face was as
remote and unreadable as a mask.
Before Tom could say anything, Lirigon opened the door to them and stepped
out. "The shrine is ready for you," he said. "May the Most
Holy Ones bless your union." He started to walk away, but Tom
stopped him with an awkward question.
"Uh, Lirigon-- sir--what exactly do we have to do?"
Lirigon raised his eyebrows. "We require you to unite and give one
another pleasure in any way that seems good to you. We will know if you
have done so by the changes in energy around the shrine." He
permitted himself a slight smile. "There will be no snooping ears or
prying eyes. What you do is up to you." He walked away, the skirts of
his kilt swishing in the silence.
Tom looked back at Harry. Harry was looking into the shrine, past the
heavy metal door which Lirigon had left open. Then Harry turned, and the
most incredible smile blossomed on his face, a smile so radiant with
desire, affection, joy <for me?> that the heat of it spread
over Tom's entire body. Harry pushed open the door a little further,
and Tom followed him inside.
---
There could be little doubt of the purpose of the shrine. It was a room
created for sex between two men, in an atmosphere of spirituality. Most of
the floor was taken up by a very large mattress, thicker as well as longer
and wider than the one Tom had slept on. Covers were heaped at one end of
the mattress, pillows at the other, and in the center was a neat little
arrangement of several sex toys and a bottle of what had to be lubricant.
The blown-glass bottle was actually shaped like the male genitals, with
the testicles forming the base and the head of the penis probably the
stopper.
In one corner of the room was a small fountain, running down from a rift
high in the wall to pool into a basin set into the floor. Two folded
towels, some cloths, and another bottle--liquid soap?--were placed beside
the basin. The tinkling stream of water was divided by a small shelf on
the wall at chest height, on which a pair of oil lamps, a spray of leaves,
and two pieces of stone, one yellow and one black, kept one another
company. There was nothing more for an altar, and no other illumination
besides the oil lamps. Small windows high up in the walls let in the
midday sunlight, and around the walls ran a frieze of sculpture which
depicted, in beautifully carved and explicit detail, everything two men
could do to please one another sexually.
A hand on his shoulder brought Tom's attention back to Harry. The
smile had dimmed, but there was still enough heat in those dark eyes to
make Tom flush all over. How long had it been since a man had looked at
him like that, completely unguarded, letting him see how the other person
felt about him? How long had it been since a man had looked at him with
simple desire that wasn't interested in domination? Tom dropped his
gaze, slumping a little, and let Harry's arms come around him.
"It's all right, Tom. Just once, and it's over. We don't
have to do any particular thing. We just have sex, just this once, and
it's over."
Tom took a deep breath and raised his eyes to Harry's. "What if I
don't want it to be just this once?"
"What do you mean?"
Tom wrapped his arms around Harry, bringing the two of them closer
together. "What if I told you I don't think I could have sex with
you just once, and then walk away from it, from you? What if I told you
I've been in love with you for too long to deny it any longer? What if
I told you I've wanted to be your lover at least as much as I've
wanted to be B'Elanna's?"
Harry's eyes had widened amazingly while Tom was speaking. Now his
mouth widened once again in that irresistible smile. "If you told me
that, I'd be very happy," he said simply, and he pulled Tom's
mouth down to his.
The kiss they had shared by the lake had been wild with desperation and
with desire newly acknowledged. This kiss was slow, and luxuriant with
sensuality, not a fire of need burning them up, but a lake of pleasure
they could drown in. Tom was hardly aware of drifting over to the mattress
and sinking down on it, side by side, each one hooking his legs around the
other to bring him closer than before. He broke the kiss when Harry's
fingers began tugging at the loincloth, trying to unwrap it.
"Uh, Harry--" Tom groped, feeling dizzy, for the right words for
this question. "Harry, have you ever made love with a man before? I
mean, before--I mean because you wanted to."
Harry laughed, gently. "Yes, I have, actually. I've never been
quite the innocent you take me for." His fingers at Tom's waist
punctuated the remark.
Tom flushed. "Well, I won't underestimate you again." He
stroked the black hair, thick and so soft. "I have, too, but not
since-- not for years."
Harry nodded. "Tom, if we didn't have to, right now, would you
still want to make love with me?"
"Gods, yes!" Tom groaned. Now Harry was touching his chest,
fluffing his fingers lightly through the fine hair.
"Then let's just quit worrying and make love. We don't have
to do any particular thing. Let's just take our time, go slowly."
"You seem to be good at that," Tom observed, and helped himself
to another kiss.
Harry went back to trying to unwind Tom's loincloth, and Tom returned
the favor. Success came so suddenly for both of them that the contact
between naked genitals pushed them apart in surprise. The two men stared
at one another, both panting. <Good gods, is he gorgeous,> Tom
thought. Dressed in the loincloth, Harry had looked as sleek but at the
same time splendidly muscular, more overtly so than Tom. Without the
loincloth, he was, to put it bluntly, very well hung, and already rather
aroused.
Harry's eyes were gliding over Tom's body like hot fingers,
reflecting back Tom's lustful admiration. Then Harry moved so suddenly
Tom was caught completely off guard. One moment he was half sitting up,
enjoying the sight of Harry in the flickering lamplight; the next he was
flat on his back and the full length of his cock was in Harry's
throat. He was too overwhelmed even to think of an expletive. After a
moment, Tom managed to raise himself on his elbows so he could see what
was happening. One good look at that luscious mouth closed around his
flesh, combined with the merciless and skillful suction he was receiving,
was enough to put him over the edge. Harry never let Tom go as he bucked,
thrashed, emptied himself.
Soft lips that smelled of his own seed brushed Tom's face. Without
thinking, he turned his head to kiss Harry, tasting his own come in Harry
Kim's mouth. Incredible. That deep voice whispered into his ear.
"I just wanted to reassure you of my experience."
<You certainly have,> Tom thought, but he was purely incapable of
forming words with lips and tongue. A drowsy few minutes passed, and Tom
awoke suddenly, realizing he'd been dozing and Harry was no longer
right beside him. Harry was circling the room, studying the erotic frieze
on the wall. Hearing Tom stir, he turned back and said, with a grin,
"I wonder if some of these positions are physically possible."
"We could always try them out," Tom suggested. "The
Vicari look pretty human to me." He held up the glass bottle by way of
illustration.
Still grinning, Harry came back and knelt on the mattress, reaching out to
touch Tom's hair. Tom noticed the other man was still erect.
"You seem to have a small problem there, Harry."
"Small?" Harry countered.
Tom leered. "A poor choice of words on my part." He rolled over
and grasped the item in question, running his fingers over it exploringly.
Harry's organ was not as long as Tom's, but it was thicker, nearly
straight, with a full, blunt tip. Tom relished the thickness and weight of
it, the velvety feel of it against his palm.
Harry unsteadily lowered himself to the mattress, letting Tom's hand
explore as it pleased. Very shortly Tom's other hand and his mouth
joined in the exploration, lavishing attention on his recently neglected
friend. Where he didn't kiss, he caressed, finding a wealth of hot
spots: Harry's ears, chin, shoulders, nipples, thighs. Tom was
delighted to feel Harry's hands on his hair and neck and shoulders,
stroking and encouraging, to hear soft murmurs of pleasure, and to revel
in the feel, the smell, the taste of Harry's skin.
Fingers still curled around the base of the other man's cock and his
balls, Tom stretched out beside Harry and kissed his cheek. "What do
you want to do, Harry?"
Harry groaned softly. "Anything you want to do, Tom."
It was Tom's turn to groan. "I think I want to do
everything."
Harry chuckled. "Then we do everything. I don't care. We can stay
here all day and all night. Nobody will bother us. I'd be happy to
make all my fantasies come true."
"Don't you want to save some for later, Harry?"
He turned his head and looked at Tom, who looked back at him very
seriously. "Will there really be a later, Tom?"
"I swear to you, Harry, there will be."
Harry kissed Tom, softly. "Then I guess the question is, who gets to
fuck whom right now?"
Tom closed his eyes, collapsing onto his back. "Harry, if you keep
talking like that, that question will become moot."
"Okay, I'll decide. I desperately want to fuck you, Tom Paris.
And first I want to kiss you everywhere and see how many noises I can get
out of you."
Tom's only response to this, besides a groin-felt groan, was to spread
his legs and fold his arms behind his head. He was the picture of
surrender. Harry couldn't help laughing under his breath as he settled
on top of his lover.
Tom sighed deeply as Harry's warm weight pinned him to the mattress.
Then Harry started kissing him again and Tom's brain simply went
off-line. Tom wasn't really aware of all the interesting noises he
made as Harry kissed his way down Tom's body, but Harry enjoyed
each hiss, gasp, moan, and groan, and catalogued every one for later
reference. Among other things, he noticed that Tom liked being bitten and
couldn't help thinking, <I guess he and B'Elanna get along just
fine.>
Harry sat up and searched the edges of the mattress for the decorative
bottle of lubricant. Ah, there! He turned back to see Tom looking at him
with glazed and heavy-lidded eyes.
"Nice bottle," Tom remarked.
"Mmm-hmm." Harry worked out the stopper--yes, it was the head
of the penis, shaped just a little differently from the Earth-human
template-- and poured some of the lubricant onto his fingers. It was
pleasantly warm and had a texture between oil and lotion, more agreeable
than what he'd replicated on the ship. He wondered if they ever used
the bottles. . . no, probably not, considering there were safer
alternatives available.
Tom raised his knees and moved his legs a little further apart, making
room for Harry to sit between them. He brushed his thigh against the other
man's back, and Harry put his arm around the bent knee.
"Are you sure you're okay about this?" Harry asked.
"Perfectly," Tom said. "I'd just like to stay in this
position, if you don't mind."
"Mind seeing your face while I'm inside you? I don't think
so, gorgeous."
Smiling in a way that made Tom harden to an ache, Harry sought entry to
Tom's body with one dripping finger. He probed with great care, paying
close attention to the look on Tom's face and to his breathing.
<What was it they used to say? Some things you never forgot, like
riding a bicycle? Well, I've never ridden a bicycle, and I haven't
even thought about having a man inside me in a long time. . . > Tom
took a deep breath and let it out,loudly, trying to let go with that
breath as much as possible. This was more difficult than he'd
expected. Harry eased himself in a little further, moving his finger in
slow, caressing circles. He was starting to doubt if this could work, but
he tried not to let it show on his face. Tom's face, on the other
hand, was beginning to show a teeth-gritted, I'll-be-damned-if-I-
don't-do-this determination which was working against their mutual
purpose.
Harry stilled the finger pressed into Tom's body and, keeping it
there, leaned over to kiss the other man. First the tight pink nipples
partly veiled in short soft hair, then the elegant throat, then the
hollows beneath the high cheekbones, and finally the mobile, enticing
mouth. Sure enough, he felt Tom relax around him, enough for him to slip
his finger all the way in. Another lingering kiss and then the question.
"How do you feel?"
Tom breathed in and out. "Okay."
Harry frowned. "'Okay' is not good enough. I'm aiming
for 'fantastic' or at least 'good'."
"Harry. . . " Tom shifted. "I think there's just too
much pressure, on both of us, right now." He laughed shortly.
"It is a bit like a command performance."
Harry kissed Tom again and at the same time withdrew his finger, not
missing Tom's half-suppressed sigh of relief. "I'm not
performing for anyone here," he said quietly. "I'm making
love to you."
"I know." Tom smiled, a wonderfully tender smile Harry had never
seen before. "So let's just make love." He pulled Harry down
next to him, wrapping his arms around the other man and kissing him until
Harry began moaning with pleasure. Tom reached for Harry's cock, and
Harry got the idea, returning the caress with an oily grasp. For long
moments there was just kissing, breathing against the other's cheek,
murmuring into his mouth, clutching, stroking with increasing firmness,
increasing speed, increasing fervor, and then suddenly a litany of two
names, "Tom--", "Harry --", tossed back and forth
until they dissolved into inarticulate cries, and convulsions of pleasure
mingled the two lovers' semen between their hot, spent bodies.
"Well, I don't know about you," Harry murmured, exhausted,
"but I certainly feel we've united."
---
B'Elanna had had two ritual baths today, one before her morning
session with Tom, and another before her evening union with Harry. She and
Tom had spent more time fighting than fucking, him talking about how much
he loved Harry, coming up with crazy ideas, her yelling back, resorting to
Spanish and then to Klingon because Standard insults were too weak for her
feelings. Tom had finally, to her utter astonishment, overpowered her,
pinned her to the mattress, and fucked her senseless, as ferocious as any
Klingon male. And afterward, he'd rolled away and burst into tears.
Now, dressed up again in this ridiculously frilly red and green paisley
skirt, with dark red liner around her eyes--Klingons do not wear
cosmetics -- she followed the motherly-looking priestess who had tended
her down the corridor to the shrine where she'd already spent an
unpleasant hour or two. <Wonder how that balanced their fucking
energies,> she thought savagely. Harry was already waiting, as Tom had
been, under the care of yet another priest.
B'Elanna gave him a Klingon look, one of those looks that threaten
loss of limb, and almost quailed-- but not quite-- beneath the absolutely
unreadable obsidian gaze she got in return. She'd noticed recently
that while Tom thought he could hide what he was feeling, he was always
transparent, practically wearing a signboard that flashed his emotions. It
was Harry who could be completely opaque. She began to wonder what he
was hiding under that ruthlessly neutral expression.
The priest and the priestess went in together to prepare the room. Harry
moved to her side and took her hand with a firmness that brooked no
denial. She followed him into the room and let him lead her to the edge of
the mattress before disengaging from his grip. He watched, for a moment,
as she paced the room.
"Tom told me you fought like cats and dogs." She stopped, arms
folded across her naked breasts.
"It was the best sex we ever had," she replied absently. Her
head was lowered, her hair swinging forward so that he couldn't see
her face.
Harry went to her, smoothed back the hair, and gently raised her chin.
"I had a chance to talk to him, a little, about how I felt, before
this whole trespassing thing came up. I'm sorry I didn't have a
chance to talk to you. So I want to say it now. I love you, B'Elanna
Torres. I've been in love with you for years."
"And you're in love with Tom Paris, too," she challenged.
"Yes."
"Tom says he loves you."
"I believe him."
"And you two had sex yesterday."
"Yes, we did."
B'Elanna tossed her head. "Harry, how could you?"
"How could I what? Fall in love with both of you? Have sex with Tom?
Agree to go through with these rituals? Pick one, and I'll try to
answer it."
She shook her head, slowly, the edges of her hair swinging from side to
side. He couldn't tell whether she was angry, sad, or both, or
something else. "Why me, Harry?" she burst out, at last.
"When you had Libby? When you could have had anybody else you
wanted?"
Harry sighed patiently. "I don't want anybody else. Just you, and
Tom. You two are more than enough. And I do really love both of you."
He took her in his arms and she let him, let him cup her chin in his hand.
"But why you? Because you're strong, inside and out, and I
admire that. Because you're one of the smartest, most creative people
I ever met. You do with engines what Mozart did with notes, I've seen it.
Yes, you do. And because you're beautiful, fiercely, passionately
beautiful." He kissed her, briefly, gently. "Are those reasons
enough?"
<No,> said part of her mind, hurt and stubborn, but the rest of
B'Elanna wanted more of Harry's kiss, more of Harry. She reached
up to him and he fitted his mouth over hers, sliding his tongue between
her lips and touching hers so quickly that her whole body tightened.
Roused, B'Elanna sank her fingers into that exquisite hair, softer
than any Klingon's and most Humans', and kissed him hard,
pressing her breasts against his chest and letting him feel the sharpness of
her nipples. Harry cupped her ass in his hands and pulled her in and up until
her feet were barely touching the floor, her weight supported by his arms.
She'd never guessed he was so strong.
When he let go, she slithered down against him and felt his erection
against her belly, warm and hard. Quick fingers tore away the intricately
wound loincloth, and she stepped back in order to get a good look at him.
He was bigger than Tom, shorter but thicker; in fact, she observed, he was
bigger than Tom all over, not taller but noticeably heavier. How had he
been hiding it?
Harry grasped her arms and kissed her again, harder and more roughly now,
thrusting his hips against hers so that she could feel the heat and
fullness of him, not quite demanding. B'Elanna nipped at the tongue
that filled her mouth, heard Harry moan, and felt that dangerous wildness
starting inside her, the thing she tried to keep locked up, the alien
animal that frightened people away from her. She couldn't let that
out, not in front of Harry. She tore her mouth away, biting his lip in the
process. "I can't do this, I mustn't, I--"
"B'Elanna--"
"I can't let this happen! I can't let them be right about
me!" Before B'Elanna could resist, Harry turned quickly and threw
her down on the mattress, as if she was so much flour in a sack. She
bucked angrily, but he was straddling her hips, keeping her wrists locked
in a tight grip.
"Talk to me, B'Elanna. Please."
At the sound of that deep voice, harsh with concern for her, all the fight
went out of her. She could have thrown him off easily, but she didn't
want to. She didn't want to hold it back any more. "I didn't
want to admit it," she said, closing her eyes and turning her face
away. "I didn't want to admit that I--- that I cared-- about
anyone, much less two men who were both my friends. I didn't want to
admit that I desired two men, dreamed about sex with both of them at once,
even thought about risking my friendship with them just to do that, just
for sex, because that meant admitting that they were right."
"'They' who?" He sounded as though he were ready
to hunt "them" down and kill them.
"Our neighbors. In the colony where I grew up." She gulped.
"I know I've told you we were the only Klingons. There
weren't any Humans, either-- I mean Earth people. Humans have
prejudices against Klingons, I know, but not as bad as some other races
do. There were parents in that colony who told their children that if they
misbehaved, the Klingon women would eat them. They used to run away from
me." Harry's grip on her changed to support rather than
restraint, taking both of her hands in his.
"The worst thing, though, was that they all thought I was a slut. I
don't know why. Klingons aren't like that-- if anything, Klingon
tradition is prudish. Klingon tradition would say that Tom and I are
married because we've had sex." She laughed breathlessly,
mirthlessly. "Maybe it was just that I was a-- half-breed."
Despite her best efforts, she choked a little on that word. "I've
never heard a language in which that wasn't an insult. My mother
berated me sometimes for being a weak and sentimental Human, but
everyone else around me treated me like a wild animal in heat. They acted
like I wanted it all the time, from anybody. I can't tell you how many
arms I smashed, how many jaws I broke, males who wouldn't take no
for an answer from the half-Klingon slut."
B'Elanna shook her head, slowly. "And there were a couple of
times when I couldn't make them take no for an answer. Even if I'd
been full Klin."
Harry tried not to let the fury he felt get into his hands and hurt her.
After a moment, B'Elanna opened her eyes and looked at him, looking
wounded, her mouth trembling.
"I thought I was going to die that day--the Day of Honor. I thought I
was going to die uselessly, without any honor, without any point. I'd
always thought of honor as a Klingon excuse to wreak havoc, to do any
damned stupid thing, but I couldn't face dying without telling the
truth. And Tom was right there with me, close to death. And you
weren't." Harry was shocked to see that her eyes were filling up
with tears. "I thought, at least I'll tell half the truth, before
I die. And if I'm dead, maybe I can reach Harry from-- wherever I
am." She bit her lip. "Some honor. To tell the truth only when I
felt sure I wouldn't have to act on it."
B'Elanna wrenched her hands away from Harry's and covered her
face. She couldn't turn away, not without throwing him against the
wall, but at least she could save face this little bit, not let him see
how ridiculous she looked when she cried. On the few occasions she'd
wept, she'd always wished she were full Klingon, unable to cry, unable
to show these weak, mawkish emotions except by baring her teeth to keep
witnesses away.
But Harry stretched out beside her and took her in his arms, letting her
hide her face against his chest as she sobbed, bitterly, crying out too
many years of rage and grief. He stroked her hair and her back, her
heavily ridged Klingon spine, murmuring things that meant nothing except,
I care and I want to help. B'Elanna couldn't remember being
comforted this way, ever, not even by her father. She'd never before
let herself weep where someone else could see it.
The storm passed quickly. Harry didn't resist when B'Elanna rolled
away and crept over to the fountain to wash her face. She sat for a moment
with her back to him, upright and stiff, and he wondered what she was
going to do next. She was wondering the same thing. <What do you
want to do?> an unfamiliar part of her mind asked quietly. <Go
tell Harry I love him and then fuck his brains out,> came the immediate
reply. <Where did that come from?> Still, it sounded like a good
idea.
B'Elanna turned back to the naked man waiting patiently at the other
end of the mattress. She crawled back to him, sinuously graceful as a cat,
and put her hand on his shoulder. "I love you, Harry Kim," she
said softly, and very deliberately bit his cheek.
Harry yelped, more out of surprise than pain, and at the same time fell
backward under B'Elanna's weight. She was kissing him hotly and
wriggling out of her skirt at the same time, a combination that had him
erect almost instantly. When both her hands left his skin to work on the
skirt, he took advantage of the moment and rolled her over beneath him,
somehow helping her to leave the skirt behind. Her noises muffled by his
mouth, B'Elanna brought her thighs around his hips, grabbing his firm
buttocks and pressing him close. His moistening erection rubbed silkily
against her.
"You don't waste any time, do you?" he gasped.
"Not when I know what I want," she replied, and nipped his
shoulder. At this bite he moaned, deliciously, making her want to bite him
in sixteen places. A quick shift of her hips, and Harry groaned in
disbelief as his cock sank into her already thoroughly aroused cunt.
B'Elanna moved like fire, molten metal, lava, beneath him and around
him, thrusting, nipping, scratching. <Tom has had sex with her more
than once?> he thought, awed and delighted at the same time. Harry
just let her move while he held her firmly, kissed her slim shoulders and
unusual collarbone and those wonderful breasts with the sharp
chocolate-colored nipples, and prayed to last as long as possible for her.
He did last while she climaxed repeatedly, crying out in what he thought
was Klingon; he lasted until she abruptly flipped him over, with
unsuspected strength, and went even wilder than before, at once grinding
her sex onto his and clenching around him so hard it was like the grip of
a hand. Harry grabbed B'Elanna's hips and slammed her down with
bruising force, too wild himself to care as her sharp teeth sank into his
shoulder and his cock exploded within her. When he came to himself, she
was still lying on top of him, stretched out comfortably with her arms
above his head, and snoring faintly. Chuckling, he rolled her gently to
one side, slipping her off of his diminished organ and cuddling her
against him. B'Elanna stirred. "Wha. . .?"
"You were snoring, Sleeping Beauty."
She snorted. "Klingons don't snore."
He stroked her hair. "Humans do, and you are part Human. Are
you always like that during sex?"
"Actually, no," she admitted. She raised her eyes to his and
touched his cheek. "I usually hold back, don't let myself go like
that. I'm afraid I'll scare people." She swallowed. "Did
I scare you?"
Harry kissed her. "Awed me, yes; scared me, no." B'Elanna
laughed in spite of herself. "Were you trying to?"
"I guess I was," she admitted. "I've had plenty of
lovers, and almost all of them thought they could subdue the big, bad
Klingon. And almost all of them fled in shock when I let them see what I
was really like."
Harry smiled. "I don't care about subduing you. And I don't
care if you want to go wild like that. But I would like to touch you, kiss
you, take some time with you. . ."
B'Elanna grinned lazily, feeling a slow but pleasurable anticipation.
"Well, we don't have a time limit, do we?"
Harry grinned back and touched her nipple. "No, we don't. .
."
---
Harry and B'Elanna came toward Tom hand in hand, him in vest and
trousers again, her in the red dress with the remains of the dried-flower
garland tucked into her hair. Tom didn't know whether to be delighted
or miserable, whether to laugh or scream or cry, seeing them together.
Instead he was surprised when they both came up, hugged him, kissed him
on opposite cheeks.
It was getting late, and the priests had said they would have to spend
another night on Vica. No one who had entered through the gates and then
participated in ritual could be permitted just to beam out and go away.
Tom had been promised a lavish dinner with his friends and with the elder
Viresti, who smiled as his two friends greeted him. They sat down on
cushions around a low table in a large dining hall noisy with many such
tables occupied by priestesses and priests and visitors. Acolytes served a
meal of a roast fowl about the size of a game hen, with a flavor like
goose, accompanied by bread, a green salad, and a casserole of vegetables
in cheese. Viresti poured out a sweet, fruity amber-colored drink that was
definitely wine or some derivative thereof.
Perhaps it was the wine, but Harry was amazed at how easily they were all
laughing and talking. The priestess steered the conversation toward
neutral things, food and drink, art and music, the travels of Voyager. As
the dining hall gradually emptied, the four of them sat, talking on and
on, getting just a little drunk. At last Viresti rose, Tom and Harry
reaching to help her, and the three young people followed her. The
priestess led them downstairs, beneath the dining hall, to a shrine like
those in which they had had sex. This shrine, however, was larger, with a
larger mattress covered by a four-cornered canopy, and a bathing- pool
instead of just a fountain. At the far end of the shrine was an elaborate
mural which covered the entire wall. It consisted of a large central panel
bordered by a series of smaller scenes. Viresti stood before the mural and
spoke to them while looking up at it.
"Children, our notion of balance required that as you had offended in
ignorance, so you should make amends in ignorance. But I shall keep you
ignorant no longer. We would never have asked of you what we did if we had
not been guided to do so-- if the Holy Ones had not shown us how much you
needed our help."
The three of them exchanged puzzled glances. "We needed your
help?" B'Elanna repeated.
The elder smiled, her dark eyes twinkling at them. "Any Vicari could
see what was happening among you- -that each of you was in love with the
other two without knowing the same was true of them. Any Vicari would tell
you that the solution to your woe was to mate in triad, as we do. Triad
marriages are more common with us than pairs, as men usually outnumber
women in our population."
Now the three Voyagers were too shy to look at one another. "How
could you tell?" Harry asked. "When we didn't know it
ourselves?"
Viresti pointed to the mural. "Our Holy Ones told us, son. We revere
our ancestors, and the spirits of place and of other children of the
Goddess, but chiefly we revere Vica, the Goddess, and the two Gods,
Allidar the Dark and Zeridar the Bright.
"The Goddess is the Earth, the land and sky and sea all together.
Allidar the Dark is the Night, or the Void of Space, and Zeridar the Day,
or the Sun. The Goddess is their Mother and the Mother of all, but also
their Lover and the Lover of all, and they are Lovers to one another. I
have heard of other worlds where similar tales are told of divinity, but
the Gods are warriors who fight over the Goddess, one stealing her from
the other like children stealing sweets, or where she favors first one and
then another, capriciously, without reason. Here it is not so: All three
of the faces of Divine Reality are lovers to one another, all are equal,
and to them we pray when we take our lovers. Now look, children, at the
sacred picture, and you will see how we knew you needed our help."
Tom and Harry and B'Elanna stepped back from the wall and looked.
The central panel of the mural depicted a naked woman, red above the waist
and green below, with her hair flying out in an aureole around her. To her
left and her right, facing toward her, were two men, naked and erect,
shown in profile. One man was a brilliant golden silhouette against the
pale grey background, the other a luminous black. All three figures had
their hands joined in such a way that each held hands with the other two,
their arms overlapping in a kind of knot.
Harry remembered the gigantic figures that formed the temple gateway and
realized that the gateway and this mural depicted the same beings. He also
remembered the lingering glances they had gotten, odd looks that had made
him wonder if the local people were staring at his exotic appearance. He
looked at the black and the gold and the red and the green and at his two
friends, who had just been his lovers, and he saw it, he saw what the
local people had seen. He started chuckling.
Tom and B'Elanna both looked at him with vague unease, as if wondering
whether he'd cracked under the strain. The looks on their faces made
his chuckling escalate to giggling, and when Viresti started to laugh, the
giggling became outright guffawing.
"Don't you get it?" he said to the other two. "Three
unhappy people from another part of the galaxy walk into a temple, hand in
hand. All three of them, hand in hand. And they look like the gods of the
temple, only they don't know it."
Gaping, Tom and B'Elanna looked from Harry to the mural and back
again. And Tom looked back at the mural, and he started laughing, too.
B'Elanna, far from laughing, was getting one of those
it's-dangerous-to- piss-off-a-Klingon looks, until the two men took
her by the hands and dragged her to stand right in front of the woman in
the mural, facing the wall with Harry on her right and Tom on her left.
"Look," Tom said, smirking with suppressed laughter. "The
red and green woman-- with a dark man on one side-- and a fair one on the
other."
B'Elanna scowled, and then her mouth fell open. There it was, right in
front of them all along, from the time they'd passed through the
gates. The red and green goddess: herself. Harry, the dark god, with his
black hair and brown eyes. And Tom, strawberry blond with blue eyes, was
the bright god, the gold silhouette. And the three of them had their hands
joined.
"They say the gods come down to Earth," Viresti said, still
giggling herself, "usually to give help to us mortals. But sometimes,
oh, sometimes they require help of us. Oh, children, do you see? Not one
of you need be alone. Is there truly any reason why all three of you
cannot be lovers, as you have been these two days, as are the Holy Ones
whose masks you have been?"
Harry looked at Tom. Tom looked at B'Elanna. B'Elanna looked at
Tom and at Harry. Harry looked at B'Elanna and then at Viresti.
"What would you have done if we hadn't trespassed and had to
make amends?" he asked. The elder priestess shrugged.
"Found some other way. Invited you to a group ritual and slipped you
three an aphrodisiac, perhaps."
Harry snickered. So did Tom. They both turned to B'Elanna.
"Is there any reason?" Tom asked in his silkiest, most
persuasive tone. She looked from one to the other, both her hands still
held in theirs. And smiled.
"I guess not."
---
"Captain's log, supplemental. Our shore leave on Vica is over,
and we are underway with a refreshed crew and some badly needed foodstuffs
and raw materials, as well as interesting updates to our cultural
databases. Lieutenants Torres and Paris and Ensign Kim successfully
completed the religious rituals required to make amends for their
unintentional trespassing and are none the worse for wear. In fact, they
seem even more relaxed than most of the crew. . ."
Janeway smiled. <I'd be relaxed, too,> she thought, <if
I'd gotten laid twice on shore leave.> But of course a Captain
couldn't put that in the ship's log, or casually note that
two of her officers had invited a third to be their lover. As soon as the
three of them had stepped off the transporter pad, hand in hand, she had
seen the missing element, the truth that had nagged but eluded her when
she was talking with them on the planet. From now on, apparently, it would
be the three of them. A very pleasant and intriguing prospect. . .
---
Harry found himself once again looking in vain for something to do.
He'd already cleaned his quarters scrupulously, blushing as he changed
the sheets, wiped down the bathroom, ordered a few things from the
replicator. He'd dithered over what to wear even more than before
beaming down to Vica. <Pretty silly, considering you're not
planning to keep it on for very long.> He was nervous and excited over
the evening they had planned, and there was nothing left to do but play
some music or just pace.
He was playing Mozart, his fingers moving smoothly and without effort over
the keys of the instrument, when the door chimed, and he nearly dropped
the clarinet. "Come in," he called, and began to disassemble his
woodwind with exaggerated care.
Tom came in, wearing one of those
act-like-it-doesn't-matter-because-it- really-really-does grins and a
violet shirt over black pants. He paused in the middle of the room and
just looked at Harry for a moment, both of them uneasy like strange dogs.
Then Harry held out his hand, and very quickly Tom came and wrapped him
up in a hug, kissing the side of Harry's neck. "She got off duty
later than we did, but she's on her way," Tom said.
They sat down on the couch, side by side, to wait for B'Elanna. Harry
took Tom's hand and kept hold of it; he could feel Tom trembling just
the tiniest little bit, just as he was himself. They didn't seem quite
able to look at one another. Both of them jumped and then grinned ruefully
at one another when the doorchime sounded again.
B'Elanna strode into the room with that air of being stripped and
ready for action that she so often carried. She was dressed in a
sleeveless black jumpsuit that left nothing to the imagination and would
take no time to remove. When she saw the two men, standing now, hands
still joined, she stopped, tensely, poised as if to flee. Tom held out his
free hand, smiling, and so did Harry, and B'Elanna uncoiled, visibly
relaxing, and came to take the offered hands. A few minutes later, they
were all still standing there, holding hands and smiling foolishly at one
another. Laughing, Harry let go and ran his hands through his hair.
"So, do you still want to go through with it?" he said, trying
to sound as if he were talking about trying a new holoprogram.
Tom looked at him challengingly. "Still think you want to put up with
both of us?"
"I wouldn't use the term 'put up with'," Harry
responded. "Just looking at the two of you, here in my
quarters--" He couldn't bring himself to finish the thought
aloud.
Tom swallowed, starting to feel aroused. B'Elanna licked her lips.
"Harry, you're the smart one," she said hesitantly.
"You figured this out well before Tom or I did. What do you want to
do?"
"Tonight, or for the future?" The other two glanced at one
another, reaching for the other's hand without thinking about it.
Harry's heart sank.
"Both," Tom answered suddenly, and B'Elanna nodded
decisively. Harry swallowed hard, relieved and turned on all at once.
"Tonight," he said, his voice suddenly deepening, "I want
to make love with both of you, I want all three of us to make love. And
for the future, I want the same thing. I want this to be a relationship.
Please-- please, you two, don't shut me out. Not after what we've
already shared."
"We're not going to, Harry." B'Elanna sounded
confident now. "We've talked it over, and neither of us wants to be
without
you."
"That's right," Tom confirmed. He snagged Harry with one
arm. "We're going to prove to you how much we want you to be
part of us," and he pulled Harry in for a serious kiss.
<How could I have forgotten so quickly how well he kisses?> Harry
melted against the other man, yielding completely to Tom and the moment,
not even retaining enough consciousness to wonder what B'Elanna was
doing. When Tom let him go, Harry observed an appraising look on her face.
"Not bad, Paris. Now it's my turn."
B'Elanna kissed him with surprising gentleness, not even as
aggressively as Tom just had, but with no sense that she was holding back.
It was a pleasure to savor the taste of her mouth, different from other
women Harry had kissed, and to feel her fingernails running lightly over
the back of his neck, promising more. When B'Elanna let go, Harry took
a deep breath and stepped back. "Now you two," he directed.
They both gave him shy, are-you-sure-about-this? looks through their
lashes before complying. Harry looked at the way their mouths fit
together, at the way Tom held B'Elanna against him, and yes, it stung
a little, but not as much, after the kisses he'd just had. When they
parted, he stepped at once toward them, sliding an arm around each slim
waist. Their arms came around him in response, and went around one
another, and Harry was pressing his lips to Tom's satiny-rough cheek
while feeling B'Elanna breathing on his own cheek, and then he was
kissing B'Elanna's full lips while feeling Tom's tongue flick
against his neck, and each of them was alternating between kissing the
other two, until their three mouths met in the middle in an impossible
union.
Tom let go of B'Elanna in order to start undressing Harry. Harry was
trembling all over, too aroused already to make his hands work and undress
one of his partners. B'Elanna read the situation correctly and helped
Tom with Harry before peeling off her jumpsuit in one quick gesture. Tom
was busy kissing Harry's face, ears, throat, and neck, so B'Elanna
got to work on stripping Tom, who helped with one hand and held onto Harry
with the other. Later, Harry couldn't even remember how they'd
gotten to the bedroom, lying down on his bed with him sandwiched tightly
between the other two. He was on his back, and their legs were clasping
his, on one side B'Elanna's smooth thigh and her firm mound
already moist, and on the other Tom's light fuzz and his silky
erection pressed up against Harry. Neither of them would stop kissing him,
face and hair, lips and tongue, throat and shoulders, and two different
hands, both slim and strong, ran over his arms and chest and belly and
back to his stiff dark nipples.
<I am going to come like a geyser, and they haven't even touched my
cock. I don't know if this gets any better. I don't know if I can
stand it if it gets any better.> Harry cried out as B'Elanna
bit into his earlobe at the precise moment that Tom's fingers curled
around his cock. Then his fingertips were being licked and nibbled while
slow, gentle strokes moved up and down, up and down his heated flesh.
Arching against Tom's touch, Harry moaned when B'Elanna drew
his hand between her legs, into her wetness, and applied her mouth to his
nipple. "Please," he managed, and both of them speeded up their
touch until the pleasure burst out of him, spraying all three of them with
the scent of summer grass.
Harry opened his eyes at last to see two awfully similar smug grins.
Satisfied that he was satisfied and all right, for the moment, Tom and
B'Elanna kissed across their lover's chest. The next thing Harry
knew, he heard Tom moaning passionately. He turned over, with difficulty,
to see Tom sitting on the edge of the bed, braced on his hands, while
B'Elanna knelt and sucked his cock. In spite of the pang of jealousy
that came <They've forgotten me already>, Harry started to feel
aroused again at the sight of her flushed mouth moving rapidly and
forcefully up and down Tom's shaft. He succeeded in sitting up and put
his arms around Tom, adding kisses to B'Elanna's efforts. Tom
groaned so loudly the bed vibrated and went limp in Harry's embrace,
while B'Elanna swallowed it all.
Grinning smugly, she climbed back onto the bed, wedging herself between
Harry and the wall. Tom was lost to the world, his head pillowed on
Harry's shoulder. Harry wrapped an arm around Tom and the other
around B'Elanna, kissing her soundly and cupping her firm bottom in
his hand. Tasting Tom in her mouth turned out to be enough to bring back his
erection completely, something which B'Elanna noticed at once and
encouraged with a warm hand.
"Sit up," Harry said. B'Elanna did so, her knees pressing
into his thigh, and shifted to allow his hand access to her sex. She threw
back her head as he rubbed the wet folds, pinched her swollen clit, and
occasionally thrust his fingers inside her. Seeing how much she liked it,
he gave her his fingers in earnest, feeling her grip on him tighten in
response to her pleasure. She was still moving on Harry's fingers,
growling with bared teeth as she climaxed repeatedly, when Tom sat up,
added his fingers to B'Elanna's clit, and began nibbling on
Harry's nipples some more.
Somehow things shifted so that both of them were attending to Harry once
again. Tom rolled the other man over to face B'Elanna, keeping his
arms around him, hands on nipples, mouth on Harry's sensitive neck.
B'Elanna thrust her breasts into Harry's grasp and kept caressing
his cock, not steadily enough to make him come, while kissing and nipping
his face and throat. Harry was glad he had already come once because he
felt just as overwhelmed as before.
Tom's teeth grazed the back of Harry's neck, and
B'Elanna's scraped the front, and Harry cried out fiercely. Tom
grinned with sudden inspiration. He leaned over Harry's shoulder and
gave B'Elanna a meaningful look, coupled with a few well-chosen
gestures. Her feral smile and emphatic nod left him with no doubt that she
grasped his meaning correctly.
Then Tom's hand was slipping over the muscular curve of Harry's
ass, caressing, squeezing. Harry wriggled just a little, by way of
encouragement, and Tom wasted no time in getting out the lubricant and
wetting down his fingers. Harry moaned blissfully as a slick finger
pressed gently between his cheeks, found his asshole, and moved back and
forth across it. B'Elanna watched Harry's face, ready to convey
any signs of discomfort to Tom. She cradled Harry's balls in her hands
as Tom slowly entered Harry with one finger. Harry's groan was all
pleasure; at once he began moving so that the finger went in and out.
B'Elanna licked his nipples, and Tom gave him two fingers, very
carefully, and Harry threw back his head, helpless even to get out the
sounds that would share how good this all felt. Tom kissed that sensitive
spot he'd found on the back of Harry's neck, fucked him very
gently, and added a third finger, stroking across the prostate quite
deliberately. Now Harry cried out so wildly Tom was almost afraid he'd
come. <Go ahead,> he mouthed to B'Elanna, and began slicking
his own cock.
B'Elanna pushed Harry back a little so that he was lying against Tom
rather than on his side, and with one hand and a twist of her hips, she
brought Harry's cock into her cunt. A moment later, Harry sobbed with
pleasure as Tom's cock slid very carefully into his ass. Four arms
around him tightly, filled and enclosed at once, Harry lost his mind, lost
his soul, gladly gave up everything for the joy of being fused with these
two people he loved more than anything. And they moved within him, around
him, and it came, too quickly, but lasted long, long moments of heat and
wetness, long thrusts and cries of ecstasy, long instants when all three
of them were reduced to one heartbeat, one contraction, one awareness that
was equally agony and joy.
A very gradual descrescendo, and they were once again three people on a
rather small bed, one man with black hair surrounded by two lovers,
penetrating one, penetrated by the other, and all three of them utterly
spent. It felt like hours went by before anyone even tried to move. Harry
was just barely aware of Tom slipping out of him and himself slipping out
of B'Elanna and the two of them settling him on his back, to lie on
him and hold him and stroke him.
"I love you," he murmured, on the verge of sleep. Two voices
answered him, two mouths kissed him, then one another, and two heads
settled on his shoulders, two hands joined with his on his heart.
As Voyager sped away from Vica a few days later, her Pilot, Ops Manager,
and Chief Engineer drinking amber wine and talking about the future, an
elderly priestess was overseeing a group of acolytes as they made masks
for an upcoming ritual drama. She smiled at three lovers, two boys and a
girl, who held up their masks in progress: one of a fair-haired man with
eyes as blue as the sky, and one of a black-haired man whose dark eyes
were narrow, not round, and one of a woman with dark eyes and bronze hair
and sharp teeth enclosed by soft red lips.
---
End
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