The BLTS Archive - Variables & Variations:
Friendly Advice
by Mary K. (mkk2@csd.uwm.edu)

---

(c) 1994

---

Dr. Bashir was checking out his diagnosis board.  Just a minute ago he
had thought there was a glitch in the link to the medical data base,
but now everything was working perfectly. Just what he needed this
morning--an intermittent problem that would probably come back the
minute he started the demonstration for that visiting ambassador.  He
ran yet another diagnostic. Negative.  He had other things to do;
maybe he should just assume everything was all right.  But in an hour,
when the ambassador showed up...

Bashir looked up suddenly, realizing that someone was standing in the
doorway.  "Odo," he said in surprise, "have you been there long?"

"Just a minute or two," the constable answered gruffly.

"Sorry.  I was concentrating on something.  What can I do for you?"

Odo made no move to enter the room.  Uncharacteristically, he seemed
ill at ease, at a loss for words.  Bashir got up out of his chair and
waited.  Finally Odo seemed to make a decision.  "I need some medical
advice," he said finally.

Bashir laughed self-consciously.  "You know as well as I do, Odo, that
I know hardly anything about your physiology.  But I can try.  Are you
experiencing specific symptoms?"

Odo looked less at ease than ever.  "No.  The advice I need has to do
with human physiology."

"I see," said Bashir, who didn't, but was relieved anyway. "Why don't
you come in and sit down?  I can certainly answer most questions about
human physiology."  The doctor's self-confidence was returning.

Obviously unwilling, the constable entered the room.

"Sit down," offered Bashir.

"I don't need to sit," Odo answered rudely.

"Well, do you mind sitting so that I can be more comfortable?" Bashir
countered.  They sat.  "So, what can I do for you?"

"I'm expecting a visit," Odo began, "from a friend.  A friend who
might expect me to... to appear as a naked male."  He seemed relieved
to have finally gotten the words out.

Bashir knit his brows.  "Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't your
uniform part of you?"

"Yes," Odo said stiffly.

"So that you can't really undress..."

"You're missing the point, doctor.  I can get rid of the uniform by
changing my shape."

"Then what seems to be the problem?"

Odo clenched his fists on the arms of the chair.  "You really are
making this as hard as possible, doctor.  The point is, that I'm not
sure what to change into.  Oh, I know what a naked male looks like.
In general.  In a state of rest.  But what does he look like when
he's..."  Odo paused suddenly. "Maybe I was wrong to come here."  He
rose to go.

"Wait!  I think I understand what you're trying to ask," Bashir cried,
blushing with shame for being so dense.  "You want to know what male
genitals look like in a state of sexual arousal."

Odo nodded.  "Thank you for putting it so tactfully," he said with
dignity, resuming his seat.  He leaned in closer to Bashir.  "For one
thing, I don't know how big to make it.  I don't know what it's
supposed to do, look like, feel like when it's erect, when it--when
he--I mean, I--have an orgasm."

"Can you have orgasms, Odo?" Bashir asked curiously.

The shape shifter shrugged.  "I don't know.  I've never tried.  I
certainly have feelings in my skin and extremities.  I can control how
much sensation I receive from each part of whatever body I assume."

Bashir mulled that over for a moment, feeling a little envious.  "I
can show you a holographic image of an aroused penis.  Will that
help?"

"Yes.  But I also need to know about body fluids: ejaculate,
pre-ejaculate, sweat..."  Once Odo got going, he didn't seem to be
able to stop the flood of questions.

"You've been doing some research," Bashir said, trying not to smile
too broadly.

"Yes."  Odo put on a stormy expression and searched the doctor's face
for any sign of unseemly amusement.  "I've got it all down except for
the genitals."  Bashir managed to control himself fairly well as he
called up the holographic program.

"Here it is."  Bashir's hands moved swiftly over the keyboard.  "Now,
if you'll just come with me?"

They walked together into the examining room, where a three-
dimensional image of the human male genitals had indeed appeared over
a holo projector sitting on a table.  Odo stood contemplating them for
a moment.

"Uh, Odo," said Bashir, flushing again and feeling very awkward,
"maybe if you would disrobe...  I mean, shift off your clothes or
whatever you do with them, I could walk you through it, so to speak."
Bashir felt a mounting sense of excitement. Odo had never before
allowed him to be present during a shift.

"Very well," Odo agreed curtly.  "I can see that I have no choice.  He
closed his eyes for a moment, concentrating.  His uniform shimmered
and disappeared, to be replaced by a body that looked too smooth, like
a blank canvas.  He concentrated again and a rough topographical
sketch of the skin features of a humanoid male appeared.

"I'm surprised you didn't do this long ago," Bashir murmured, watching
in awe.

"I never felt the need," Odo answered gruffly.  "I always had the
uniform."

Muscle definition molded his skin into graceful curves.  His
strengthening arms hung further away from his torso; tendons and
muscles striated his thighs.  A tight stomach appeared; a navel
dimpled its smoothness.  Bashir watched as if hypnotized.  His mouth
felt dry and his breathing had grown shallow.

"A bit more muscle here," he pointed out in a choked whisper, "would
balance your shoulders better against the size of your rib cage."

"Thank you, doctor," Odo said with satisfaction, "that is exactly the
kind of thing I need to know."  The rounds of his shoulders expanded
above the powerful bulges of his arms.

"Back there, too," Bashir stammered, clearing his throat. What was
wrong with him today?  Odo's already shapely buttocks clenched and
grew.  The doctor had stretched out a hand towards them before he
stopped himself, confused.  What could I have been thinking? he asked
himself sternly.

Pink and brown nipples sprouted from firm pecs and, finally, from the
fleshy triangle between his thighs, a penis emerged, hanging at rest.
Under it, a well-filled scrotum swelled like twin balloons, pushing
the penis out towards Bashir.  Odo opened his eyes and regarded Bashir
quizzically.

"No body hair?" Bashir commented.

"Betazoid men don't have any," Odo answered.

"Ah, you're going for Betazoid.  I thought it was Terran."

"What are the differences?"

"Except for that, they're minor."  Bashir was busy using the terminal
on the table to change the holographic image.  He still felt strange,
and now he was starting to feel lightheaded.  He wondered whether he
was catching that winter flu that had spread to the station from
Bajor.  Better mix up another batch of serum.

"Now, you wanted to know about erections."  The holographic penis
obediently began to swell.  "Watch carefully.  The glans spreads out
and changes color.  The shaft thickens.  The veins stand out.  The
scrotum bunches up, see?"  It was Odo's turn now to watch with
fascination.

"I didn't know humans had such good physiological control," he
remarked admiringly.

"We don't," Bashir explained, flushing.  "It all happens on its own."

"It does?" Odo turned to stare at him openly, increasing Bashir's
unease.

"Of course.  It's an involuntary reaction."

"What makes it happen?"  Odo was truly puzzled.

"Well," Bashir said, sticking a finger under his suddenly tight
collar, "suppose a man sees someone he's attracted to.  Or someone
attractive stimulates his penis with, uh, a hand, say, or a mouth...
Then he might get an erection."

"Ah, so it happens just before sexual relations."

"Well, ideally," Bashir continued, noticing that he was sweating
profusely and wondering if he had a fever, "but other times it happens
at inopportune moments.  Sometimes when you first meet someone you
find attractive, you get an erection you can't get rid of.
Unfortunately, that's usually a time when sex is least likely to take
place."  He stopped suddenly and flushed, realizing how much he had
revealed about himself.  But Odo didn't seem to notice.

"Hmmm," he said pensively, "and I suppose you'll tell me next that
sometimes it doesn't happen just before coupling, when it's supposed
to."

"I'm afraid that's so," Bashir admitted with a rueful smile.

Odo was shaking his head.  "I might have known it would be confusing
if it had to do with humans.  At least I won't have to worry about not
being able to get it erect.  Now," he turned to Bashir, I think I'm
ready for a trial run."

Bashir gulped down some air as he was trying to answer. "All right,"
he managed to say, licking his dry lips.

Odo closed his eyes.  "All right," he said, "go ahead."

Bashir's eyes suddenly got very large.  "Go ahead and do what?" he
asked.

"Stimulate it, doctor.  This is supposed to be a simulation. And then
you watch it to make sure it responds correctly and looks right."

"All right," breathed the doctor hoarsely.  Although Bashir saw the
logic in this, for a moment he was incapable of actually placing his
hand on the flaccid organ.  He stretched out his fingers and retracted
them.  Odo opened one eye to check on the delay.

"I'm just ready," said Bashir, and, in one quick movement, took the
limp penis into his hand.

It was warm and slightly damp like his own, Bashir realized with a
start.  Somehow he had expected to take cold protoplasm into his hand,
although that was silly, because Odo had felt warm when Bashir had
examined him other times.  What had he been thinking of?

He began to stroke Odo's organ with his whole hand, and was amazed
when it grew quickly into a stalk so thick that his fingers wouldn't
meet his palm when he held it.  It was half a meter long and still
growing.  "Uh, Odo?  This is a little too big," he said with
embarrassment.

"Is it?" Odo replied casually.  "It's the same size as the one in the
hologram."

"That one was large so you could see the details," Julian explained.

Odo nodded and then concentrated for a moment.  "How's that?"

Julian now held an erect cock a few inches over a foot long. His
fingers still didn't meet when he held it, but it was no longer a
lethal weapon.  "That's better," he said cautiously, not wanting to
hurt the shape shifter's feelings, "but I wonder why you don't just
tailor it to your, uh, friend's desires.  Some people like them this
large, but, I have to tell you, this is at the upper end of the size
range, even for Betazoids.  Something about two thirds this length and
a little narrower would probably be a better place to start."

"How large is yours?" Odo asked suspiciously.

"Smaller, believe me," Bashir replied, flushing again.  "But large
enough for the purpose."

Odo concentrated and complied with Bashir's suggestion almost
instantly.  "Better?"

"Better."  Julian worked in silence for a while.  The organ swelled
beautifully, alternately revealing and concealing two bright red wings
under the foreskin.  Julian described the tactile and anti-frictional
qualities of pre-ejaculate, and Odo managed to produce a reasonable
facsimile.  The reddened head glistened, and Julian's hand became wet.
Both men watched the process silently.

Suddenly Julian realized that his own cock was stirring in response to
this marvelous creation.  He looked away and thought about snow.  He
thought about open-heart surgery.  He thought about death.  He dug the
nails of his other hand into his palm, to no avail.  His mind returned
over and over to one thing and one thing alone.

His uniform bulged uncomfortably as his stimulated organ tried to push
its way to freedom.  Odo cocked his head sympathetically in its
direction.  "Is that one of the inopportune erections you mentioned?"

"I'd say so," Bashir answered uncomfortably.  His erection throbbed
painfully, unable to stretch to its full length.

"I think I'm ready for something stronger," Odo announced.

"Like what?" Julian asked irritably.

"Can you try it with your mouth?"

A wave of desire ran through Julian's crotch and settled into a dull
ache in his balls.  "You could do it yourself," he pointed out.  "Why
don't you?"  The thought of watching Odo suck himself off suddenly
became incredibly alluring.

"Because you're supposed to be showing me what to expect.  I don't
know how to do it."

"You think I do?" Bashir almost snapped.

"You've never put a penis in your mouth?"

"No."

"But you've had it done to you."

Julian grew suddenly pale.  "Why, yes."

"Then show me."  Was that a lascivious glint in Odo's eye? Julian
shook his head to clear it of silly ideas.  Or was he just projecting
his own desires onto the shape shifter?  His head was spinning and he
felt as if he were about to explode.  Without thinking about it any
further, he knelt on the floor and took Odo's organ into his mouth.

Odo grunted as it slipped inside.  "Ahhh," he moaned, "I am starting
to see the appeal of all this."

Getting a response sent chills through Bashir's body.  He swirled his
tongue around Odo's magnificent glans and grazed the shaft with his
teeth.  Odo's knees started to buckle.  Julian put his arms around
Odo's thighs and grabbed his butt hard, digging in his fingers.
Slowly, Odo folded to the floor and lifted Bashir over him, planting
the doctor with one knee on either side of his head.  Odo grabbed the
waistband of Bashir's uniform pants and started pulling.

"Damned inconvenient, these clothes," he muttered, "I wonder why you
wear them."

Julian wanted to tell him how sexy it could be to undress another
person slowly, revelling in each new expanse of skin as it was slowly
revealed.  Unfortunately, his mouth was occupied in sucking and
nibbling small areas all around Odo's glans before plunging it through
his bared teeth all the way to the back of his throat.

Odo gave the pants a hard tug and Julian's erect member bounced out,
ready for action.  Odo enveloped it--in what, Julian was not so sure.
It felt more like a vagina than a mouth--tight at the lips, and
heavenly soft inside.  He knew he wouldn't last long.  As he got
closer to orgasm, he realized dimly that Odo must be imitating not
only the technique of his tongue and teeth, but his state of arousal.
The echo effect was well beyond any masturbatory control a human could
ever realize.  As he gently caressed and then sucked hard, his
maneuver was repeated on his own member, eliciting an illogical gasp
of surprise from the move's originator, himself.  And as he went past
the point of no return, he felt the man under him follow close behind.
And as he began to convulse, squirting his seed into Odo's
mouth--vagina?-- he felt a corresponding eruption in the enormous
organ he held in his mouth.  It grew incredibly, blazing hot before it
began a series of throbs that seemed to increase its width by a third.
At first, nothing came out except the same pre-ejaculate that Odo had
been secreting all along.  But after Bashir himself came, he felt his
mouth fill up with semen, or something remarkably like it.  Before he
even thought about it, he had swallowed it all eagerly and collapsed
exhausted on the shape shifter's muscular body.

"You said you didn't know how to make semen," he said softly a few
minutes later.

"Of course I didn't, until I had a chance to sample yours," replied
the shape shifter.  "Interesting taste and texture. You're sure yours
is typical?"

"Yes," Bashir laughed.  He turned and lay next to Odo on the floor,
leaving his pants at half mast.  As he did so, he noticed a figure in
the doorway that hadn't been there before.

"Dax," he gasped weakly.

"Well, well," she said with amusement, sauntering into the room,
"What's been going on here?"

"I've been helping...  That is, I've been showing Odo..."

"You've been showing Odo how to get off?"

"Yes," Bashir said a bit defensively, "that's what he asked me to do."
Casually, and without seeming to be in a hurry, he hitched his pants
back up around his waist.  Dax did not fail to notice.

"Oh, don't bother to get dressed just for me.  Maybe I can help Odo,
too.  She looked down at the shape shifter, who was just starting to
rise.  "Wait, Odo.  Are you getting ready for a date with a man or a
woman?"

"A woman," he said seriously, "but I needed a model of male arousal."

"Of course you did," said Dax sympathetically, "but now you need a
model of female arousal, don't you?  Just to let you know what to
expect?"

Odo didn't say no.  Removing her boots, Dax quickly stepped over him
and squatted over his body.  She took his now wilted member between
her palms and stimulated it firmly.

"Now, let me get this straight," she said, "is this all simulation on
your part, or do you feel something when I do this?"

"At first I didn't know what was expected of me," he said, a little
hurt, "but by now I have the receptors in all the right places, thank
you."

"Good," Dax answered with relish, "because I wouldn't want to think I
was going to be doing all this for show.  She glanced over at Julian,
who was sitting morosely on the floor by Odo's side.  "You just watch
this time, Julian," she said kindly. "Take a break.  Maybe next you
and I will have to do a demonstration for Odo, all right?"

Julian smiled faintly and flushed a deep red, uncertain whether to
believe her.  He watched longingly as she stood to remove her uniform
bottom, then the top, and squatted once again over Odo.  "Now listen,"
she said seriously, "sucking a woman is very different from sucking a
man.  Let me demonstrate."

Swiftly, she straddled his head and lowered herself over his mouth.
"Point your tongue," she instructed, "that's right, now find my
clitoris.  There, you've got it."  She threw her head back and enjoyed
the sensations for a few minutes.  Julian squirmed uncomfortably on
the hard infirmary floor.  He was so close to them, he could smell
their mingled scents, and it was giving him a hard-on so intense it
was as if he had not come at all.  Dax seemed oblivious of him,
concentrating all her attention on Odo's tongue.

"Constable, you're cheating," she gasped, "not that I mind, but that's
longer than any human tongue I ever felt.  But don't stop.  Just put
it inside me.  Oh, yes, there."  She writhed over him for a minute
gasping in small breaths.  A faint flush spread over her cheeks and
spread to her neck and upper chest, making her spots fade for a
moment.  Julian knew she had climaxed.  He also knew he ought to get
away from them, stop torturing himself, but he was unable to move away
from Dax's tantalizing nakedness. With Odo around, why would she ever
give him a chance?  Odo was a superhuman lover who could adapt himself
to fit her every desire. Julian always tried to be sensitive, but,
after all, he was only human.

Dax had changed sides and lowered herself onto Odo's penis. The
expression on her face told Julian everything.  "That's a good size,"
she said, "perfect."

"Dr. Bashir helped me choose it," said Odo matter-of-factly, as if he
were talking about trying on suits.  "I originally wanted to go with
something bigger."

"No," moaned Dax, moving her hips in a circular pattern, and obviously
close to coming again, "bigger might hurt.  One of the male Daxes was
bigger and he always had problems.  This is just right for..."  She
lapsed out of speech again and purred low in her throat for a minute,
clasping her thighs around Odo's and moving in short, shallow thrusts.
He climaxed just after she did, and was still holding her by the waist
and pushing hard into her when she suddenly opened her eyes.  "What
was I saying?" she asked in perplexity.  "Oh, Julian, I'm sorry," she
said, looking at him sadly.  "We've been ignoring you.  Come over here
and lie down."

Not knowing how much closer he could be, he lay down self- consciously
next to Odo.

"Wait a minute," she ordered.  "Take off that uniform."

"But I..."

"You're worried that someone will come in with a hangnail for you to
treat.  Computer, Security lock on infirmary. Authorization Dax
epsilon omega 2-6-3.  No one is to enter," her eyes lit up with a
sudden idea, "except for Major Kira.  Dax to Kira."

"Kira here."

"You're needed in the infirmary, Nerys.  Right now."

"Can't it wait?" asked the Major's irritated voice.  "I'm just about
to start the diagnostic on the..."

"No it can't.  Absolutely not.  Be here or you'll regret it. Dax out."
She winked at Julian.  "That will get her down here. She can't resist
a mystery, you know."

Bashir had removed his uniform and lain miserably back down on the
floor.  He knew what she was up to.  She was going to make him be with
Kira, who admittedly was quite attractive, but he didn't think of her
the way he thought of Jadzia.  Always, every night, he made himself
come while thinking of her.  It was her fault that he had given in to
Odo.  He was so horny all the time, he had just made it with someone
he had never remotely thought of as sexual...  No, that wasn't true.
As he transformed, Odo had suddenly become attractive, as if he had
released a heretofore hidden potential that had bloomed in Bashir's
sight.  He actually had been intensely drawn to this new Odo.  Maybe
he was expanding his sights, starting to think of someone besides Dax.
That was healthy, wasn't it?  So doing it with Major Kira might also
have its merits.

But Dax had dismounted from Odo and was regarding Julian appraisingly.
For a moment, he was afraid that his erection would fade away, but the
thought of her intense eyes scrutinizing his privates made his cock
harder and his balls sorer than ever. "Nice, Julian," she said,
kneeling to take his penis and balls into her cupped hands.  "Very
attractive."

"Not as large as Odo's," he found himself saying, and winced.

"Large isn't everything," she shrugged and took him into her mouth.
He caught his breath and threw his head back with the intense beat of
pleasure that assailed him.  Dax, the unattainable--Jadzia Dax had her
mouth on his cock.  "Mmmpf bmmfp," she said.

"What?" asked Odo irritably, feeling left out in his turn.

Dax released Julian for a moment but kept caressing him with her
fingers.  "I said, everyone's different, and everyone has different
preferences."

"You said all that?" Odo asked with annoyance, deliberately missing
the point.

Dax ignored him and continued to suck, lick, and caress Julian's penis
and balls.  She sucked his cock and squeezed each ball gently in turn;
then she took each ball in her mouth and rubbed his cock vigorously
with her hands.  But Julian wasn't satisfied.  He wanted to touch her.

"Jadzia," he gasped, "come here.  Come to me."

She understood immediately and substituted her vagina for her mouth,
sliding easily on to him.  He grabbed her hungrily and pressed his
mouth to hers, rolling over on her and thrusting into her vigorously.
He sucked and gently bit one precious breast while rolling the other
nipple between his fingers.  His lips moved all over her chest, neck
and face, while his hands reached under to grab her buns and then
caress her sides, her face, her hair--all the places he thought he'd
never touch and might never touch again.  He was glad he had already
come with Odo, for, in his heightened state, he wouldn't have lasted a
minute if this were the first time.  As it was, he was getting a
little close, but he wanted to enjoy this as long as he could.  He
wanted Dax moaning and squirming under him, coming and coming as many
times as she could stand.  As he was thinking that, she did come,
grabbing his buns and back, digging her nails in so hard that he
nearly lost control.

Just as her contractions finished, she gave him a devilish look and
deftly flipped him on his back, rolling over on top of him without
missing a beat.  He couldn't figure out how she had done it, but was
determined to return the favor when he had the chance.  She rode him
hard, pushing down on him in a certain way to get his penis to touch a
spot deep inside her.  She rubbed her clit with one hand and grabbed
his balls with the other, grinding her pelvis into his pubic bone
until she started a long orgasm that made her close her eyes and sigh
for several minutes before she collapsed, spent, on his chest.

Proud of himself for lasting as long as he had, Julian took Dax in his
arms and rolled over on top of her once again. Putting one leg over
one of hers and the other between them, he thrust hard right into that
sensitive spot that she had aimed him at before.  She came alive with
a groan and immediately climaxed again, thrusting her pelvis against
him while he held her buns in his hands.  With his face buried in her
hair, Julian levitated into the most intense orgasm of his brief life
so far, a pleasure so much stronger than consciousness that he must
have blacked out for a few moments.  When he came back to himself, he
was caressing her long, loose hair with grateful hands and kissing her
softly on the mouth.

"Bravo!" he heard behind him.  Julian saw Dax flush even redder than
she already was.  They had forgotten Odo's presence, forgotten that
Kira had been summoned from OPS to share in the fun.  They got up
slowly and looked at their audience.  Odo, in his new muscular
incarnation, stood next to Kira, who was still wearing her uniform.

"Nice performance," Kira observed sincerely.  She walked up to Julian,
looking him up and down.  "So you finally got together, you two.  What
prompted this?"

"Dr. Bashir was helping me get ready for an encounter with a friend
tonight," Odo explained.  "I needed to know some of the details of
human arousal."

"I see," Kira said with amusement, "and things got out of hand, didn't
they?  Jadzia, I'm surprised at you," Kira pretended to scold her
friend.  "Why did you let Odo get away with this?" She indicated his
changed body.  "I mean, it's nice, but, there are so many other
possibilities."

"What do you mean?" asked Bashir, wondering suddenly how Kira looked
without her uniform.

"I mean, why stop here when he could have two penises? Three.  Three
penises and a vagina or two.  Four hands.  A couple of mouths.  He
could be everywhere, all over you, penetrating everywhere at once
while you were penetrating him."  She glared at Dax.  "What's so
funny?"

Jadzia was snickering into Julian's shoulder.  He leaned into her,
glad to feel her touch again.  "I guess we know what you like," Dax
remarked, "and Odo could do it all right, but so could a determined
group of friends."  She looked at Odo and Bashir.  "Are you game?"

Odo didn't catch on until Dax and Julian had moved in on Kira,
stripping her uniform from her and laying her on an examining table.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, but she didn't struggle much.

Odo walked over to the head of the bed and raised himself to her
height by stretching his legs.  "Would you care to sample this?" he
asked politely.  Kira smiled and took his penis in her hands to harden
it, and then slipped it into her mouth. Meanwhile, Dax and Julian were
taking turn lapping at Kira's clit and sucking her breasts.  When Odo
stretched a hand over and inserted a thick finger up between Kira's
buns, she moaned and pushed down on him hard.  Her scent filled the
air.  Bashir had another large erection and he was just itching to
enter her. Just think, he mused, a minute ago I was afraid of having
to make it with her, and now I want to.

As if she read his mind, Kira spoke.  "Go ahead, Julian," she said
invitingly, teasing his erection with her hands.

He climbed up onto the examining table and slipped inside Kira.  She
was hot, perhaps two degrees warmer than a human.  He should have
remembered that, but right now all he could think of was the effect
her heat was having on him, and her silky softness as she gripped him
and came time after time, thrusting up on him and down on Odo's
fingers.  Dax's hands were on them and in between them, stimulating
them both to climax.  Julian was getting close again, and then
something completely unexpected happened.  From behind, something warm
and smooth began to penetrate him, sliding easily up his ass and
filling him with pleasure to the core.  He looked around and realized
that it was Jadzia, looking at him with mischief in her eyes, who had
put her fingers in as far as they would go.  That was all he could
stand, and he broke into wave after wave of searing orgasm, aware of
all his friends around him, under him, in him, driving him insane with
pleasure.

A moment after he had collapsed on Kira and felt her sigh one final
time under him, Dax announced in his ear, "My turn on the table!"

Laughing, he slipped off Kira and helped her to rise. Jadzia took her
place, and Odo immediately stepped up to take Julian's.  With a pang
of jealousy, Julian watched the shape- shifter's massive member push
into Jadzia's well lubricated vagina.  She growled with pleasure and
started moving under him. Julian stood slightly behind Odo, watching
forlornly, when suddenly he realized that the sight of Odo's muscular
backside pumping up and down was giving him a massive hard-on.

Bashir moved quickly to the side of the table and pressed the control
that lowered it.  When it was almost to the floor, he stepped up
behind Odo and pushed his erection firmly into the cleft between Odo's
buttocks.  The shape-shifter gasped in surprise, and Julian felt a
stab of pure pleasure in his groin as he entered Odo up to the hilt.

As Julian mounted Odo, Kira moved to the other end of the table to
squat over Jadzia's face and offer her spread labia to the trill's
eager mouth.  Dax reached up with her tongue, lapping and penetrating,
until Kira's moans were added to the general dim.

Jadzia herself was the first to climax.  Despite its size, Odo's
erection touched her cervix softly without causing her any pain.  Once
inside her, he had expanded himself, stroking and tickling her vaginal
walls in ways she--and her predecessors--had never experienced before.
A soft little spur had grown off the top of his penis to stimulate her
clitoris.  Somehow there was a mouth on each of her breasts, and both
of them belonged to Odo. Jadzia rode the crest of a continuous orgasm
that seemed to go on forever.  The muffled sounds coming from her
throat as she licked Nerys sounded like stifled screams.

Odo was expanding in other directions as well.  The penis he now
pumped inside Jadzia was the center of the intense sensations he was
experiencing, but his mouths and his other appendages did their share
in giving and taking pleasure.  His whole body felt as if it trembled
on the brink of orgasm as he fucked, sucked, stroked, and rubbed the
orifices and protrusions of three bodies and was fucked and stroked in
turn.

Julian was overwhelmed by the sensation of plunging over and over into
Odo's cleft.  He felt as if he were entering a warm tank of viscous
fluid that tugged on him as he entered, and swirled around him as he
left.  Added to this was the delicious sensation of being penetrated
himself, for Odo had sent a penis- shaped tendril snaking around
Julian's leg which had found his own cleft and was fucking it in the
same rhythm that he was fucking Odo, and Odo was fucking Jadzia.
Julian knew he would come soon, but he also felt on the edge of a
timeless state of ecstasy.

Another of Odo's tendrils had found Kira's tight cleft. When she felt
it push gently inside she let out an ecstatic yell and angled herself
to give it room for entry.  With Jadzia's tongue moving in and on her
and one of Odo's penises pushing its way into her ass, she reached the
same timeless state Jadzia was already in, where her only worry was
that her legs would buckle before she reached her limit.

Julian finally came, seeing an explosion of light behind his closed
eyelids.  His spasms lasted longer than he ever remembered, but
eventually he fell away, exhausted, to the floor. Kira finished next,
after climaxing again and again on Jadzia's twirling tongue.  Jadzia
seemed to pass out for a moment from the combined sensations she was
receiving, and then Odo came, shouting and heaving with the strongest
feelings he had ever dreamed of in his life, ejaculating a mountain of
simulated semen into Jadzia's warm, soaking wet vagina.  The tingling
went on and on, spreading through his body like a flame, and he
actually reverted to his liquid state for a few seconds, right on
Jadzia's body, and slithered off onto the floor before recovering his
naked shape again.

No one spoke for a long time.  They had all reverted to a place of
pleasure that predated speech--a feeling of oceanic, wordless
contentment.  Julian crawled to the table and pulled Jadzia down
unresisting into his arms.  She turned towards him and rested her head
on his shoulder, while Kira snuggled up warmly to her back.  Odo's
limbs seemed to be wrapped around all of them at once.  Kira's head
lay pillowed in his arms, while Julian's head rested on his muscled
thigh, and Jadzia's hair trailed over his penis and balls.

No one knew how long they lay like that, dozing and dreaming together,
when a musical voice pealed from the doorway:

"Oh, Odo, you sweet man!  You planned a party for me!"  It was Lwaxana
Troi.

Lwaxana Troi walked gracefully into the infirmary wearing a dazzling
dress.  Made entirely from a wispy, shimmery, green and gold fabric,
it clung to her body at the breast, bunched at the waist, and draped
attractively over her hips.  One leg was revealed up to the thigh,
while the other was covered to the ankle.  One side of her bodice
extended up to cover her shoulder and neck, while the other side
remained completely naked down to her waist.  One luscious breast was
covered in transparent gold, while the other looked boldly out on the
world.  Odo, Bashir, Kira, and Dax stared at her in complete
amazement.

She smiled even more broadly and rustled her full skirts. "It's just a
little something I picked up on Risa," she said with false modesty.
"I'm so glad you like it."

"How the devil did she get in here, Jadzia?" whispered Bashir.  "I
thought you put a security lock on the outer door."

"I did."

"She goes anywhere she wants," Odo rumbled, "she's an ambassador."

"Oh, I just asked a nice Security man to open the door for me,"
Lwaxana said innocently.  "I told him I had important business with
the doctor, and the computer said you were in here..."

"That explains it," said Bashir, looking around for his pants.  "I
apologize, Madam Ambassador.  I can be ready to give you that
demonstration in a few minutes.  I have everything prepared, but I
just got... sidetracked."  He looked at Dax, Kira, and Odo, who were
all still naked, and couldn't help smiling in spite of his
embarrassment.

Lwaxana waved a bejeweled hand in the air.  "Oh, don't bother about
that, young man.  I think I just missed a demonstration I might have
been more interested in."  Julian and Dax flushed, while Kira stifled
a laugh.

As Julian got up to find his uniform, his member, which was still
swollen from his recent excesses, dangled out in front of him, half
hard.  He noticed that Mrs. Troi was regarding it speculatively.  It
twitched, then hardened and started to stand up tall.

"Why, thank you," exclaimed Lwaxana with a radiant smile. "I
appreciate the sentiment."

Julian flushed bright red, and wondered why he had enough blood in his
body to infuse two places at once.

Odo got up off the floor.  "To tell you the truth," he said, "I was
just getting ready for our... uh, meeting tonight, and..."

"Your date, Odo.  It's called a date," Julian stage- whispered
spitefully.  Odo ignored him.

"Anyway, I asked Dr. Bashir for some advice," he paused, clearly
unsure where to take his explanation.

"I don't mind, dear," Lwaxana said in her ringing voice, "in fact, I'm
flattered that you wanted to prepare for me."

"The only problem," Odo admitted, "is that I'm exhausted now and I
need to leave this shape for a while.  Just an hour," he continued
quickly, seeing her expression, "and then I'll be fine again."

"All right," Lwaxana agreed, "you can rest in my quarters. And maybe
later we can visit with your friends."  She licked her lips in
anticipation.

"I'd rather go to my office.  My bucket is there."

"No arguments," she said sternly.  "We'll pick it up on the way and go
to my quarters.  I don't want to miss a moment with you.  Don't you
know that's why I came to this dreary backwater? To see you.  I
thought we could pick up where we left off last time."  She took Odo's
arm and led him towards the door.

"Wait a minute, Odo," Bashir called after them, "you're forgetting
something."

Odo looked down at himself.  "Clothes," he said, aghast, "I've never
had to think of them before."  He concentrated a moment and restored
his uniform.  When he was done, he staggered with exhaustion.  Mrs.
Troi took his arm again.

"One more thing, Odo," Julian said.  "Don't forget to do your
transformation in front of Mrs. Troi.  I know it embarrasses you, but
I found it most... interesting."

"Don't you mean stimulating?" suggested Dax.

"He means sexy," added Kira.

Mrs. Troi winked at them all and led the tired shape shifter out of
the infirmary.

"What now?" asked Kira, somewhat tired herself.  "I guess I'd better
get back to OPS."

"How about a shower first?" Julian suggested.  "There's one in my
office."

Both women agreed.  After picking up their scattered articles of
clothing, they headed for the office.  Julian looked around at the
sight of their recent debauch.  He raised the examining table to its
normal height.  It was covered with the sexual secretions of four
species.  So was the floor.  A warm, musky scent hung in the air.  He
sighed, turned on the room's self cleaning cycle, and followed the
women into the bathroom.

Kira had already set the showerhead on mist rather than a hard spray.
That was one way to relax in the warmth without wasting water.  She
entered the stall.

"Hey, this is wonderful!" she exclaimed.  "It's as big as some of the
guest quarters.  With padded walls, and lined with benches.  How did
you get so lucky?"

"I'm Chief Medical Officer," Julian said flatly.  "It goes with the
job."

As he stepped into the stall, Julian accidentally brushed his still
swollen organ against Kira's damp thigh.  "Haven't you had enough?"
she teased him.

He suddenly felt angry at her, knowing it was irrational, and that he
was just uncertain about what recent events would do to his
relationship with Dax.  He had wanted to be alone with the Trill, to
ask her whether she wanted to continue a physical relationship with
him, but with Kira here, he had to wait.  As his blood boiled, his
penis hardened.  All three looked at it in surprise.

"No, I haven't had enough.  Have you?" he challenged.

"As a matter of fact, no," answered Kira.

He stepped up and lifted her easily, lowering her onto his erection,
and supporting her with his hands on her ass.  She wrapped her legs
around him, and he leaned her back against the wall and started
thrusting into her.  The warm mist in the air around them softened the
edges of things, made them vaguer.  He couldn't see clearly in the
dimness, but he was acutely aware of his swollen cock that seemed
harder than he had ever felt it.  He wasn't sure he could come again,
but he felt as though he could continue like this forever.  Each
thrust brought him a stab of pleasure, but it didn't seem to bring him
closer to orgasm.  He was ecstatic and frustrated at the same time.

Kira actually hadn't been sure that she could take anymore rubbing in
her vagina, but the warm mist all around them had soothed her
soreness.  She was so swollen that Julian felt larger than before, and
at this angle, he was hitting new spots deep inside her, giving her a
pulse of pleasure with each thrust.  She bounced around as he held
her, feeling his hostility in every thrust.  She grabbed his nipples
with her fingers and worked them hard, enjoying his gasps of half
pleasure, half pain.  She could do what she wanted with them; his
hands were occupied.

Dax meanwhile was not hanging back from the fun.  She placed her hands
between Kira's thighs, penetrating her anally with one hand and
reaching under to stroke Julian's penis with the other. She touched
their thighs and mouthed their backs and buns, and even pushed between
and underneath them to lick the shaft of Julian's penis, and Kira's
nether lips.  She stroked Kira's breasts and stimulated her nipples.
Kira climaxed, squeezing Julian's nipples unbearably hard in her
ecstasy.  He felt even more frustrated: his body was racked by intense
sensations that promised no release.

Suddenly a voice boomed in the tiled room.  "Sisko to Kira. Where the
hell are you?"

Everyone froze.  Kira released Julian's nipples, and Julian lifted her
carefully off his engorged organ.  The Major bolted from the shower
and grabbed her comm badge just as Sisko was saying, "Sisko to Kira.
What are you doing in the infirmary?"

"Kira here.  I was just helping Dr. Bashir with a big problem."  She
made a face at Julian.  "I'll be right there." Grabbing a towel, she
dried and dressed herself quickly. "Later," she said, looking at them
both, and sprinted from the room.

Bashir closed the shower door and sat down on the padded bench.  His
erection hadn't gone down at all.  He looked tired and miserable.

"Why were you so angry with Kira?" Dax asked, sitting beside him and
laying a cool hand on his thigh.

He shuddered.  "Sensory overload, I guess," he answered.  "I suppose I
just wanted to be alone with you."

"You did?" Jadzia asked.  "What for?  Haven't you been getting any sex
lately?"

"Don't laugh at me, Jadzia.  I wanted to talk to you about... this.
About whether it was a one-time thing or not."

"Do you want it to be?"  He normally clear eyes looked fuzzy in the
mist.

"What do you think, Jadzia?" he moaned.

"I don't know yet," she answered honestly.  "This was all spontaneous,
and once I started I didn't want to stop.  Don't want to stop," she
corrected.  She looked down at his flaming member.  "Need some help
with that?" she teased, and stroked the shaft tenderly.

"Yes," he breathed, "I want you, Jadzia."

"Again?"  She feigned surprise.

He looked hurt.  "We only did it once."

"You're right.  Well, I guess, in that case..."

She slipped off the bench to kneel on the floor and coaxed him after
her.  She pushed him gently down and lay on top of him, opening his
lips and inserting her tongue slowly and deeply inside.  She caressed
his tongue with hers as she held his head between her strong hands.
His penis lay between them, still rock hard.  Dax grabbed it with one
hand, and Julian jumped.  "We're just making it worse, you know," she
observed.

"I don't care," he said hoarsely.  "I've been waiting for this for a
year."

They continued to kiss languorously, while Julian's hands found her
breasts and gently fondled them.  He was in a daze of pleasure; part
of his mind couldn't believe what was happening to him.  But then his
mind wasn't in control; his whole system was a slave to that rigid
cock squeezed against Dax's thigh.

Although they had become good friends, Jadzia had never been
especially attracted to Julian, and had never intended to have sex
with him, no matter how much he wanted her.  Today she had taken him
inside of her, however, and she was just about to do it again.  She
concentrated on their kisses, which were really very arousing, so that
she wouldn't think about what might happen later.  The intensity of
Julian's passion was contagious--he was so happy and so grateful that
Jadzia let herself be carried along on the moment.  And besides, his
hands and mouth knew what they were doing, and he was turning her on.

On an impulse, Jadzia broke away from his mouth and swung around him,
taking his engorged penis into her mouth and dangling her spread labia
over his face.  His erection really was a mouthful now--she would
swear it was much thicker than when she had swallowed it before.  She
pumped it in and out until he cried out, then dabbled her tongue
gently around the tip to make him wait.  Meanwhile, with his hands
tightly gripping her buns, he was digging into her with his tongue as
if he wanted to swallow her, squeezing her labia with his lips and
teeth, sucking and tonguing her clit.  Her legs felt weak, and she
wondered if they would hold her up after she came again.

She got closer and closer to orgasm as Julian's tonguing and sucking
became more frantic.  When she came, his tongue was deep inside her,
feeling her spasms.  The shaking spread to her knees; she collapsed
and rolled onto her back.  Julian knelt over her, smiling broadly.
His face was spread with her juices.  He rubbed his wet face over her
breasts and belly and then licked the viscous juices up.  Water
condensed on their bodies and rolled off.

Jadzia took him by the shoulders and guided his lips to hers.  At the
same time, he slid into her so hard he nearly lifted her off the
floor.  They thrust their hips together over and over, and each time
Jadzia added another layer to her building pleasure, while Julian felt
a jolt of pain and a wave of pleasure.  She told him she was coming,
as if he needed to be told, but suddenly hearing her say it impelled
him to a higher plane of bliss.  He felt as if he was losing his mind,
and then he did, for a whole, timeless moment.  They lay still in the
streaming mist.

After a time, Jadzia stirred.  "My skin is wrinkled," she said
distastefully.  "I have to get out of this shower."  She rose and
started to soap herself up.  Julian got up, too, and they washed each
other companionably before turning on the hard spray for a moment to
rinse, and then getting out to dry off.

When Julian saw her in her clothes, he said tenderly, "Hello,
stranger.  I haven't seen you dressed in a couple of hours."  He
reached for her mouth.

She gave him only a brief kiss before pulling away.  "Come on,
Julian," she said, trying to sound light, "you've probably got a line
a mile long outside the infirmary."

"If anyone had wanted me, they would have called me on the comm line,"
he said, puzzled.  He took her around the waist and she pulled away.
"You aren't going to make love with me again. You didn't enjoy it."

"I did enjoy it, Julian.  You know I did.  But I'm not going to do it
with you again."

"Why not?"  Julian looked devastated.

"Because I didn't intend to have sex with anybody.  And I'm not doing
it again."  Jadzia gripped his shoulder for a moment and them walked
to the door.  "It's just something I decided.  I can't explain right
now.  I'm sorry, Julian."  She left abruptly.

Bashir stood there in shock for a few minutes and then walked over to
the medical computer and sat down.  Her scent was still in his nose
and his skin.  With each breath he remembered the feel and the taste
of her.  He sat staring into vacancy, ecstatic and ruined at the same
time.  It was late.  He decided to eat and go back to his quarters to
sleep.  He'd try to sort it out tomorrow.

---

Lwaxana spent Odo's hour of rest answering messages, looking through
her clothes, and peering into his bucket.  It was really too bad that
he had been so tired when she first saw him, but she imagined they'd
have a good time anyway.  She looked at the chronometer again and then
into the bucket.  It was over an hour now, so why wasn't he
stirring--so to speak.  She laughed to herself about the pun, and sat
down to try to read a novel.  No use making food or anything, since he
didn't eat.  She sighed. Sometimes having interspecies lovers was a
strain, it really was.

But it had usually been worth it.  She bit her lower lip and thought
back on some particularly appetizing events.

She heard a rush behind her and a bubbling sound.  Lwaxana smiled.
Let him come up from behind and think he'd surprised her.  She
wouldn't rush into his arms.  A hand landed on her shoulder.

"Constable," she said, turning to face him, "so soon?  It couldn't
have been an hour yet."

"It's been more than an hour," he answered, "and I'm sorry I was so
tired.  But I'll try to make it up to you."

Her lips curled in an inviting smile.  "You do that," she said
sweetly.  "Now, I want to see the transformation that that nice young
doctor mentioned.  Come here."  She led him to a full- length mirror
and placed a straight-backed chair before it.  "Go ahead," she said,
sitting gracefully and crossing her legs.  "I'm watching."

Odo closed his eyes and removed his uniform as he had for Bashir.  The
template body soon shaped itself into the masculine shape the
ambassador had been awaiting.  She stood, putting her hands on his
chest, and steered him to the chair.  "Sit down and rest, my friend,"
she invited, "that must have been a lot of work."

Odo sat, facing the mirror.  Lwaxana straddled him, placing her hands
around his neck.  "How do you like my dress?" she asked, stroking him.

"Very attractive," he answered politely, "but I would prefer to see
what is under it."

"How blunt," she smiled, "and how adorable of you."  She felt
something stir under her thigh.  When she pulled a sash, the dress
fell away in an instant.  She raised herself and came down on Odo's
impressive erection.  "There," she purred, "I believe in getting right
to the heart of things."

And get to it they did.  As she pumped up and down on him, Odo put his
hand between her legs and tantalized her, marveling for the tenth time
that day at human sexuality in all its wonder.

As he stroked her, she responded with her movements on him.  In the
mirror he could see her shapely buttocks bouncing up and down on his
shaft, and before he knew it, he was in a rather heightened state
himself.  He watched her skin take on a lovely rosy hue as she sighed
and moaned and finally ground her pelvis into him, impaling herself as
far as possible on his shaft.

"Now, my dear," she said a minute later, "it's time I was introduced
to my friend."  She stood up off of him, releasing a flood of come
juice into his lap.  "Here he is," she cooed, taking his erect penis
first into her hand, then her mouth, and then she didn't say anything
for a while, but knelt between his knees working him with her skilled
mouth and hands.  She kept him at the brink of explosion for as long
as she could, and then let him come with long, slow, uniform strokes.
She sucked the head of his penis until it was dry, then she kissed it
lightly and turned to sit on his lap facing the mirror.  He wrapped
her in his arms.

For a long while, they talked and played gently with each other.  Odo
was starting to understand the human attraction for intimacy, and was
finding that he shared it.

"Odo," Lwaxana said, suddenly turning sideways on his lap. Do you know
how to kiss?"

"No," he said in surprise, "I don't suppose I do."

She laughed her musical laugh.  "You've been making love all day, and
I'll bet you haven't been kissed once."

"You're right."

She shook her head.  "This younger generation.  They're in such a
hurry."

"I seem to remember that you got right to the point, too."

She took his chin into her hand and rubbed her nose on his. "You
weren't supposed to remember that," she said.  Then she opened her
mouth and pressed her lips against his, prying his lips open with her
tongue.  "Odo, darling," she whispered, "why do you keep your lips so
primly closed?  Let me get in there."

"Why?" he asked, suddenly pulling away.

"Hmmm," she mused, "you do have teeth and a tongue, don't you?"

"Of course."

"Well, don't you have any neural sensors in there?"

"Yes, for performing oral sex."

"Then use them.  Relax.  Kissing is quite arousing for most
humanoids."

Odo released the tension in his lips, and Lwaxana set to work,
twirling her tongue against his.  Occasionally she withdrew to bite
his lips gently, and then she would resume probing the roof of his
mouth and his inner cheeks.  Gradually, Odo joined in the fun,
twisting his tongue around hers and dabbing it swiftly around her
sensitive lips.

Lwaxana had turned around on his lap to face him.  Where her vulva
pressed against him, he felt a growing wetness.  She felt his erection
surging against her belly.  Rising without breaking her lips away from
his, she took him inside herself and rode him with long, steady beats
until they both climaxed.  Odo picked her up and lay down with her on
the bed.


Later, Lwaxana said, "Odo, I have something to ask you.  And if you
don't want to do it, you need to tell me.  I won't mind."

"What is it?" he asked, suddenly worried.

"Since you can change into anything you like--isn't that right?--I was
wondering if you could change into a..."

He could just imagine what.  A table.  A Rigelian starfish. A bald
eagle.  And he thought this woman was different, that she liked him
for himself.

"...a woman," she finished.

"A woman?" he repeated, dumbfounded.  "But I thought you liked me as a
man."

"Oh, I do, I do.  It's just that it would give me pleasure to please
you another way, through a vagina.  And you could do the same for me,
although I can't become a man for you, unfortunately, my dear."

Odo considered.  "I can do that," he agreed.  "I just need to know
whether you want me this way..."  His genitals seemed to melt and
reform almost instantaneously into feminine ones.  His muscles changed
their shape, and breasts sprouted from his hairless chest.  "...or
this way," he finished, and the penis Lwaxana had just enjoyed grew to
one side of Odo's new organs.

"Let's try this way," she decided, sliding one hand through his new
vulva and grabbing his penis with the other.  He threw his head back
and caught his breath with the intensity of the sensations.  His
neural sensors must be in the right places, he decided.

Lwaxana slid down his/her reformed body and opened the labia, plunging
her tongue inside.  With the other hand she rubbed Odo's hard penis.
She wondered whether Odo would have a separate orgasm for each organ,
or if all the stimulation only fed into one orgasm.  She decided to
find out.

When Odo's vagina reached its softest point, she stopped rubbing his
penis, and doubled her attention to his/her vagina, opening it and
plunging her hands inside.  She noticed that Odo was playing with his
own breasts, cupping them and rolling the nipples between his fingers.
Odo gasped loudly and started to shout, throwing his head back and
thrusting into Lwaxana's mouth.

His hard clit shrank and then swelled to enormous proportions just
before he came and came and came.  Lwaxana thought he would never
stop, but finally, the contractions faded.  Lwaxana surfaced, smiling
broadly, and reached for Odo's still hard penis.

"Let me," Odo said huskily, and pushed the Betazoid woman gently over
a pillow on her stomach.  Mounting her from behind, he reached around
and found her clit, which was already hard and swollen from recent
events.  Lwaxana shoved her bottom back against him, and the hot
wetness of the vulva she had just eaten pressed against one of her
buns.  Odo lifted her a bit with each hard stroke, stimulating her
clit without respite.  She was driven into an orgasmic frenzy, heaving
her hips against him with all her might, while shouting and
encouraging him to drive her to ever greater heights.

Without exercising any control, without thinking about it in the
least, he built up to his own climax.  As they lay together in the
damp sheets, Odo realized that in one day he had gone from near
ignorance about human sexuality to complete participation in it.
Lwaxana Troi would be on the station for another few days. He
certainly wasn't ready to stop now.

Part IV

The two women lay naked in each other's arms, completely relaxed and
comfortable.

"I wish I didn't have to go," sighed Lwaxana.

"So do I," replied Odo.  "Do you really have to be at that
conference?"

Lwaxana laughed and kissed Odo on the nose.  "How many times have you
asked me that in the last few days?"

"Several.  But I thought you could do whatever you wanted."

"Usually I can.  But if I don't attend the conference, they won't ask
me back next year, and that's how I managed to come to DS9 in the
first place."  She pressed her lips to Odo's for a long moment.  Their
tongues played around each other.  Lwaxana pulled gently away.  "I'll
only be gone for a few days, and then I'll be back for a week."

They kissed more deeply, and Odo's hands strayed to Lwaxana's
attractive bottom, while Lwaxana began to massage Odo's erect nipples.
Their legs entwined, and their pelvises began to push together,
rousing their nether lips.  Lwaxana slid down Odo's body and spread
her labia.  Her tongue slid in and around the swollen, red lips and
found the hard jewel at the center.

"Let me eat you, too," Odo murmured softly, "Or do you want me to
create a penis?"

Suddenly Lwaxana broke away from their embrace.  "I have a surprise
for you," she said mischievously.  "It's something I've been saving
for my last day."

"What is it?" Odo asked, startled.

"You'll see."  Lwaxana got up and rummaged in a drawer. "Here it is!"
She was holding up a long, white object with a distinctive bulge at
the end.

"What is it?" Odo repeated.  "It almost looks like a penis."

"Close.  Very close," said Lwaxana, waving it in the air as she
approached her.  "Remember when I told you I was sorry I couldn't
sometimes turn into a man for you when you're a woman? Well, I can at
least give you some idea of what it feels like to be entered by a
warm, pulsing cock.  Actually, this might be even better."

"I could do that for myself," Odo commented, and thought of Bashir
entering him from behind.

"I suppose you could," Lwaxana realized with amusement. "Why don't you
demonstrate for me when I come back from Bajor? But this time, I'm
doing it for you."  By pressing a hidden control on the dildo's side,
she activated the device.  It started to swell and pulse.  It grew
warm to the touch.  Lwaxana pressed the smaller end onto her own
pubis, where it stuck. "Now," she said, and threw herself back into
Odo's arms.

They kissed and fondled each other for a time with the hard dildo
squeezed between them.  "Go ahead and touch it," said Lwaxana, "it has
a neural link.  Whenever you stimulate it, I receive the impulses."

"So you can feel what it's like to have a penis?" Odo marveled.

"Not exactly.  But taking you is going to bring me to orgasm, I
promise.  And it will stimulate you in a way I'm sure you've never
felt before."  She buried her tongue in Odo's mouth to stop any more
words.  The dildo grew hot and slipped between Odo's nether lips,
stimulating her clit with both friction and vibration.  Odo moaned and
tried to shift her hips to get the thing inside her.  "Not yet,
darling," Lwaxana laughed, moving it out of reach.  "I want to wait
until you're really ready."

"I am ready," Odo said urgently.

"Are you sure?" she teased.

"Yes!" she grabbed Lwaxana's waist and started to push the dildo into
herself.

"No, no, no," Lwaxana scolded.  "Not until I say so."

Rubbing the throbbing dildo slowly down Odo's thigh, Lwaxana made Odo
despair that she would ever enter her.  Then, without warning, Lwaxana
thrust her hot appendage all the way into Odo's wet vagina.

"Hmmm," she sighed, "lovely," as she pumped it vigorously in and out.

Odo threw back her head with a cry when Lwaxana first entered her, and
couldn't keep from grabbing the Betazoid's buns to encourage her
movements.  Their breasts bounced and rubbed together.  Odo cried out
over and over with pleasure as the shaft repeatedly entered her,
imparting new and intense sensations to her clit and vagina.  Lwaxana
watched her face and smiled, while panting with excitement herself.
Finally, Odo dropped into a sort of delirium in which she forgot
everything but the pleasure.

And then the pleasure focussed itself into a long, all-engulfing
orgasm that made her scream and dissolve into her liquid form, while
neural impulses tingled and echoed throughout her whole substance.

"Odo?  Odo!"

From far away a voice seemed to be calling him.  Lwaxana. Regaining
control over his senses, he realized what had happened and, with an
effort, reformed into the more familiar male shape Lwaxana had first
known.

"Are you all right?"  Odo saw the concern in her face, but he couldn't
speak yet.  He managed a weak nod, and was afraid that he would have
to dissolve again without reassuring her.

"I'm sorry, darling," Lwaxana soothed, stroking his face, "I didn't
know it would do that to you.  Although I must say, when it was used
on me I would have melted, too, if I could have." She smiled and
kissed him.  "Do you need to rest?  Go ahead, dear."

Odo's sigh of relief merged with the liquid rush as he flowed in a
golden torrent to his bucket.

---

Over the next week, Julian hoped that Jadzia would change her mind
about not having sex with him anymore, but her behavior towards him
had grown colder, and she didn't even acknowledge that they had shared
something.  Major Kira, on the other hand, although she didn't offer
to meet him again, occasionally shot him a knowing smile that made him
blush and get an erection at the same time.

Two images from that brief time obsessed him: when Jadzia had first
taken his erection into her mouth, and when he had mounted Odo from
behind as the shape shifter plunged his massive cock repeatedly into
Jadzia.

In fact, of the two, the remembrance of fucking Odo in the anal cleft
seemed to bring a hotter stab of excitement into Julian's groin each
time he pictured it.  Now that Lwaxana Troi had left the station, he
started thinking about approaching the constable and asking him to let
him do it again.  Then Julian would fantasize about how such an
encounter might proceed, until he had realized that the thought of Odo
mounting him from behind- -with his large, central organ, not a small
tendril--seemed just as exciting, if not more so, than mounting Odo
himself.  He began to crave the feel of Odo pushing inside him, even
as he feared it; he had never been taken from behind by a man.  Just
thinking about it made him feel faint.  He started having trouble
concentrating on his work.

Finally, one evening when he went off duty, he couldn't stand it
anymore, and he found himself, with a painful hard-on in his pants and
a fast-beating heart, lingering by the door to the Security office
trying to decide whether or not to go inside.  In the end, lust won
out over embarrassment.

"Yes, doctor?" Odo asked, barely looking up from his datapadd.

Bashir's courage failed him.  "Uh, nothing," he said lamely.

"I'll come back another time when you're not so busy."

Odo put down the padd.  "Wait, doctor.  I'm not very busy now.  What
can I do for you?"

Julian took a deep breath and turned to face the constable. "I want to
ask you a favor."

"A favor?  I seem to remember that I owe you one.  What is it?"

"I want to ask you to..."

"Yes?"

"To change into..."

Odo's eyes grew stormy.  "I hope you're not going to ask me to change
into Jadzia Dax."

"No, Odo, no!  I never even thought of that.  I want you to be
yourself."

Odo's anger subsided.  "You want me to assume the body I showed you
last week?"

"Yes.  And I want you to do to me what I did to you that day," he said
awkwardly.

"And what exactly was that?"

Julian nearly turned and ran until he noticed the gleam in Odo's eyes
and the expression of interest on his face.  Maybe the constable just
wanted him to say it.  It was certainly true that even saying this
much had made Julian weak in the knees with excitement.  In his
present state, the thought of grovelling to get Odo to fuck him made
him feel faint and giddy.

"While you were inside Jadzia," he said breathlessly, "I mounted you
from behind.  I put my hard cock into your ass and I drove it in and
out as hard as I could."

"And you want me to do that to you?"  Odo had risen from behind the
desk and Julian noticed with surprise that he seemed to have a large
bulge in his pants.  "I just have one question," he said, coming
around to Julian's side of the desk.

"What is it?  Anything."  Julian was beyond caring about how he might
be humiliating himself.  Had it been necessary, he would have knelt
and begged Odo to do him.

"Tell me why you don't want to do it to me again," Odo asked.

"I do want to," Julian said huskily.  His heart was pounding like mad
and he felt a cold pool of fear in his chest now that he knew he was
going to get what he wanted.  "But first I want you inside of me."

"Come here."  Odo's uniform dissolved as he took hold of Julian's
waist with powerful hands.  He looked down at his own transformed body
with its massive erection, which Julian was regarding hungrily.  "Ah,
you see?  I can change a lot faster now," he said with satisfaction.

Odo tugged Bashir's pants down to his knees.  Julian's hard- on
bounced out in front of him.

"We'll tend to that in a minute," Odo said, brushing it with his hand.
Taking the doctor by the shoulders, he turned his body as if it were a
feather and bent him over the desk.  Holding him down flat with one
hand, he put the tip of his penis to Julian's ass and pressed it in
gently.  "Relax," he ordered, "I won't hurt you."

Julian groaned and squirmed under him.  "I just...  Please make sure
it's wet enough," he stammered.

"Of course," Odo said gently, pushing harder now as Julian's tight
asshole unfolded before him.  "How does that feel?  Good?"

"No.  I mean yes.  Don't stop!"  Julian was pushing back now, trying
to get more of Odo inside him.  Odo obliged, sliding in gently until
Julian was fully impaled on his member.  Soft tendrils stroked
Bashir's insides and gently pressed his prostate.  Julian felt
stretched and full; a warm, electrified glow spread through his body.
Odo moved in and out, slowly at first, and building to a faster tempo.
Bashir couldn't stop himself from groaning and crying out while he
twisted on Odo's stem.  When he thought he was about to pass out, Odo
reached around to grab his erection.  When he had pumped it a few
times, Julian was gone, yelling and thrusting back against Odo's
hardness.  And then Odo came, growling low in his throat as he bent
over Julian's bowed back.  They slid to the floor.  Julian was
breathing hard, leaning up against the shape shifter, who held him in
his muscular arms.

"Thank you, Odo," Bashir said sincerely.  "I think I would have
burst."

"No thanks needed," Odo said neutrally.  "In case you hadn't noticed,
I enjoyed myself, too.  We can't stay here," he added, "someone might
drop by.  Shall we go to your quarters?"

"All right," Julian said in a happy daze.

Odo got his bucket and they went to the docking ring without meeting
anyone they knew.  Once in Julian's room, Odo lay down on the bed and
Julian lay on top of him.  He pressed his lips to Odo's and realized
that they had never kissed.  Odo opened easily to his eager tongue,
and they explored each other's mouths slowly and for a long time,
while, with their hands, they stroked each other's bodies.  Odo's
tongue was skillful and strong, sometimes pushing boldly into Bashir's
mouth, sometimes retreating to tease Julian's tongue while it probed
his mouth in turn.  Julian pulled his mouth away from Odo's and bent
to lick Odo's nipples.  The shape shifter trembled with the strong
sensation.

"I didn't teach you how to kiss like that," Julian murmured.

"Lwaxana did," Odo admitted.

They kissed a while longer until Julian's raging hard-on had returned
in full force, but this time he felt more aggressive. Without
speaking, he got up and pulled Odo over onto his belly. The shape
shifter did not resist.  Once again he plunged into Odo's cleft as
into a bath of living fluid that sucked him in and swirled around him
in currents as strong as fingers.  After a few minutes, he was dizzy
with delight, trying to make it last longer, but knowing he wouldn't
succeed.  As he spurted his seed into Odo's interior, he felt as if he
was floating in zero-G, anchored only by his penis--for a few moments,
the center of the universe--which was being sucked dry by Odo's living
substance.

Drained, captured again by gravity, he lay on Odo's warm back until
the throbbing in his body subsided.  Then he rolled Odo onto his back,
and took the constable's hard cock into his mouth and sucked it,
teased it, and bit it gently until Odo was thrashing around in
frustration and excitement.  He pumped the magnificent organ slowly in
and out of his mouth until it blazed with heat and shot stream after
stream of hot liquid down his throat.  While licking it and nuzzling
it with his face, Julian fell asleep with his arms around Odo's torso.
An hour later, he felt himself being gently lifted and covered with a
blanket.  A liquid rushing sound told him that Odo was retreating to
his bucket.

"Sweet dreams, Odo," he smiled, and fell immediately back to sleep.

---

When Julian awoke early the next morning, there was a woman in his
bed.

"Surprise," said Odo flatly.

Julian rose up on one elbow and inspected her delightedly. Her face
was nearly the same as Odo's usual one, but she possessed a full
female figure.  "Odo, that's marvelous," he said.  "I'm speechless."

"I want to try something new," Odo said in his normal voice.

"Odo?" Bashir said tentatively.

"Yes?"

"Can you change your voice?"

"Of course I can.  Why do you ask?"  The shape shifter was caught
completely off-guard by the question.

"Because when I hear that voice, I keep thinking of your male shape.
I want to have another voice to associate with your female shape,"
Julian said carefully.  "I don't know why that's important to me, but
it is."

"Hmmm," Odo mused, trying out a new voice.  It was as throaty as his
old one, and nearly as deep, but it contained a ringing tone that
changed its quality.  "I didn't even think of changing my voice.  It's
still me, you know, although there are a few differences in this
shape.  I've placed my neural receptors differently, for one thing."

"Really?" Julian said lasciviously.  "Let's see."  He started fondling
Odo's breasts.

Odo sighed and relaxed.  "That's good," he announced.  "They really
are pleasing organs."

"I've always thought so," Julian mumbled through a mouthful.

After playing with Odo's breasts for a long while, Julian turned to
her vulva.  Its moist lips had parted, revealing the red labia within,
and a clitoris in an erected state.  Julian made appreciative noises
and buried his face in it, while Odo once again took Julian's hard-on
into her mouth.  Suddenly Odo stopped sucking him.

"I want to try something," she said.  "Come here, Dr. Bashir."

Bashir laughed as he stopped licking her clit and turned around.
"Can't you call me Julian, Odo?  I really think it would be all
right."

Odo ignored the question.  "I want you to tie me down and do to me
whatever comes into your mind."

Bashir looked shocked.  "Tie you down?  I couldn't do that."

"I wouldn't let you hurt me," Odo explained.

"What if you couldn't help it?" Julian asked, his face pale and his
hard-on at half mast.  He knelt by the side of the bed and looked into
Odo's face.

Odo took his head in her hands.  "Don't worry about it, Bashir.  I'm
just as strong as I ever was, in spite of my shape. I could still
crack your skull with my bare hands."

A chill ran through Julian's body, and with it came a kind of arousal.
"So that it would really be I who was in danger," he said slowly,
"because, if you lost control, you might hurt me."

Odo shrugged.  "I suppose so, although I've been doing my best not to
lose control all along."

Julian's cock began to rise a bit.  "I don't know why, but the idea of
your losing control excites me," he admitted.

"Then do it.  The restraint is over there."  He gestured towards the
table.  "Let yourself go.  You really can't hurt me."

Julian got up slowly and fetched the restraint, his half- erect penis
swaying before him.  "If you change your mind at any time..."

"I'll shift myself out of the restraint," Odo said impatiently.  "Come
on."

"Just one question, Odo.  Why do you want to do this as a woman?  Why
not have me do it when you're in your usual shape?"

"I thought of that.  But I want you to have the illusion of being able
to overpower me."

Julian snorted.  "Overpower you?  I've never gotten aroused by that.
And I've never tried to overpower a lover in my life."

"No insult intended, doctor."

"None taken, constable.  But my heart really isn't in this."

"Just try it," Odo urged.  "We can always stop if either of us doesn't
like it."

Odo sat up and looked at Julian expectantly.  Julian decided to go
ahead with it, although his mind and his penis were unanimous in
finding this unappealing.  Walking quickly over to Odo, he pushed her
roughly down on the bed, feeling like a fool. He grabbed her hands and
pulled them over her head.  She struggled, but not hard enough to get
away.  He tried to imagine trying to do this to a woman who was truly
unwilling.  Kira would have scratched his eyes out by now.  The whole
thing struck him suddenly as funny, and he had to make an effort not
to laugh as he tied Odo's hands together and attached them to the
headboard. What could he do that would dissuade Odo from wanting to
play this silly game?  He suddenly had a brilliant idea.

"Now you're going to get what you deserve," Bashir said, trying to
sound serious.

He rolled Odo over on her stomach and stuffed two pillows underneath
her, raising her so that her bottom was well-placed for his purpose.
Lifting his hand, he let it fall hard against Odo's rump.  Odo gave a
little grunt of surprise and pain, but no mark remained on the fine
skin.  Julian was surprised at how much his hand hurt.  The shape
shifter's flesh was much harder than it felt when it pressed against
him.  He let fall another smack on the shapely rear, and another.
Wondering how long his hands would hold out, he continued to rain
blows on Odo's defenseless backside.  Every minute he expected Odo to
tire of this game and turn on him, but instead, the shape shifter was
squirming around under Julian's swats, groaning with what seemed like
arousal.

Julian put his hand between Odo's legs and felt a great deal of
moisture.  At that, his cock finally stiffened again.  He felt the hot
opening, and guided himself into it from behind.  Odo spread her legs
and pushed back against him.  Reaching around to rub Odo's clit, he
made her come again and again.  Odo's level of excitement was
stimulating Julian, too, but every time he looked up and saw her hands
in the restraint, he nearly lost his erection.  Rationally he knew
that Odo could escape any time she wanted to, but even the illusion of
having this much power over her frightened him.  Besides, he wanted
Odo's hands moving around, taking him in their powerful grip.

Suddenly, Odo's hands melted out of the restraint.  "Let me turn
over," she said softly.  Julian pulled out and complied. When Odo
silently pushed against his chest, Julian lay on his back and let Odo
lower herself on his erection.  With her hands flat on his chest, her
fingers rubbing his nipples, and his hands on her breasts, Odo fucked
him with long, slow strokes until they came together.

"Why did you stop the game?" Julian asked curiously.  "Did you decide
you didn't enjoy it?"

"Oh, I enjoyed it," Odo admitted, "especially when you surprised me by
spanking me--it that the correct term?"  With a bemused expression on
his face, Bashir nodded.  "But I knew that you didn't like it," Odo
continued.  "You kept getting close to coming and then getting soft
again.  And I couldn't help but think it was the restraint."

Julian nodded.  "You're right.  What really excited me was knowing
that you were excited, but I wanted you free."  He thought for a
moment and then laughed.  "Come to think of it, you didn't really find
out if bondage turns you on because you were still in control of the
situation.  You were letting me do what I did to see if it would
excite you.  You can't ever know if being in someone's power excites
you unless you really are helpless."

"What do you mean?" Odo grunted.

"When I went to your office and you held me down me over your desk, I
got even more aroused than I already was because I couldn't have
stopped you from taking me."

"But you wanted me.  You asked me to do it."

"True.  Otherwise I wouldn't have been aroused at all."

"So why did being helpless add to it?"

Julian shrugged.  "I wanted to trust you; I wanted to be in your
hands.  And I wanted you to want me.  The way you took charge of my
body meant that you desired me as much as I had hoped."

Odo thought about it.  "I suppose that's what I was looking for just
now--not being in control for a change.  Finding out what you would do
if you were in control."  She paused for a moment, reflecting.  "But
in a way, it was the same thing.  We were both pretending to be
helpless.  I put you in charge, the way you let me take charge of you
in my office.  True, I could escape the ropes, but you could have
asked me to stop, and I would have."

"But that's different."

"Is it?"  Odo shrugged.

"Yes, it is.  In your office, I felt as if I'd beg you, say or do
anything, to get you into me.  I was already in your power because I
wanted you so intensely.  I'd love to take you so high that you'd feel
that way.  But I won't get you there by tying you up.  I know some
people like it, but to me it seems like cheating."

"I don't know, doctor, you might have been able to take me that high
after all.  If you had enjoyed your power more, I would have enjoyed
submitting more, too.  What were you afraid of?"

"I don't know," Julian said soberly, "but I was afraid. I'll have to
think about it."

Odo reached down and stroked Julian's penis, which stirred under his
hand.  "I think I should try tying you up you sometime. You're
obviously excited by the idea of my being in control."

"You're probably right that it does excite me," Julian said quietly,
putting his hand on Odo's hand while it stroked his penis.  "But
you're always in control, remember?  You don't need to tie me up
because you could crack my skull with your bare hands."  He sighed.
"It's getting late.  Now that I'm done with my self-analysis, can we
explore this luscious body of yours some more before we both have to
go on duty?"

"I don't see why not," Odo said, opening her legs..

Julian grinned and started to work.

---

Odo and Bashir met several times more during the four days that
Lwaxana Troi spent on Bajor.  The evening before her return, Odo
turned up at Julian's quarters again and they enjoyed themselves as
much as before.  But no further mention was made of bondage.  Julian
felt relieved, because the subject frightened him, and yet guilty,
because he had not been able to give Odo something he wanted in bed.

The next morning, Julian was barely awake when Odo erupted out of his
bucket and formed a golden column and then a man.  He was completely
dressed.  Naked, Julian sat up on the side of the bed, running a hand
through his tousled hair.

"Must you go?" he asked with disappointment.  "It's early."

"I have a few minutes," Odo replied, coming to sit beside him and
laying a hand on his thigh.  "Did you sleep well?"

Julian nodded.  "I always seem to sleep well when I've been with you."

"It's only happened five times," Odo said gruffly.

"And I've slept well every time," Julian grinned.  "Now, why don't you
get rid of that uniform for a few minutes so I can suck your cock?"

Odo shook his head.  "I have other plans for you," he said in an
unfamiliar tone, picking Julian up at the waist and putting him down
on his stomach.  He piled up some pillows and laid the smaller man
over them.  Julian turned around to look at Odo in surprise.

"What are you going to do?" he asked in confusion.

"What do you want?" Odo countered, kneeling between Bashir's legs and
melting away his uniform to reveal his engorged member.

Julian suddenly felt afraid.  He tried to scramble off the pillows,
but Odo held him fast.  "I don't want anything," he panted.  His
erection showed as Odo spread his legs further apart with his knees.
Odo reached between them and stroked it gently.

"If you don't want anything, why do you have an erection?" Odo asked
calmly.  "All I want you to do is tell me what you want."

"I don't want to tell you.  Why are you doing this to me?" Julian
asked, feeling close to panic.  At the same time, the image and feel
of what he really wanted flowed through his body like warm honey.  His
erection ached, pushed at an odd angle by the pillows, but it didn't
go down.

"Why are you so frightened?" Odo asked, spreading Julian's buttocks
and touching his cock head briefly to the tight cleft. He kept a firm
hold around Julian's waist as the doctor flailed about ineffectually.
"I won't hurt you.  I'll only do what you ask for.  If you ask me to
let you go, I will."

Julian didn't ask.  He stopped struggling and took a couple of deep
breaths.  "Odo?"

"Yes?"

"You know what I want you to do, so why don't you just do it?"  His
breathing had grown shallow, and he moved his backside against Odo's
penis.

"Maybe I don't remember, so why don't you tell me?" Odo replied,
pressing hard on Julian's cleft.  "And don't forget to ask nicely."

Julian gasped.  "Stop torturing me!" he cried.

"It's up to you," Odo said in that new, hard voice.  "Tell me what you
want."

"I want you to push into me," Julian yelled through clenched teeth,
pressing his fists against the bed.  "I want you to sink your hard
cock into my anus as far as it will go.  I want you to fuck me until I
scream," he cried.  "What else do you want me to say?"

"Are you sure?" Odo teased.  "You didn't ask nicely."

"Please."  Bashir buried his face in the mattress and grabbed two
handfuls of his own hair.  "Please fuck me.  I'm begging you."

"That should be sufficient," Odo said, setting about doing what Julian
had asked.

Odo's erection slid into Julian so fast and hard, the doctor saw
stars.  He bucked and squirmed, feeling like an insect on a pin.  When
Odo's member retracted, he craved it back; when it jammed in, he felt
such a delicious combination of pleasure and pain that he couldn't
think straight.  Higher and higher he flew, losing every thought in
his head except for what was being done to him--what he had begged
for.  Then Odo put his hands on Julian's hardness and engulfed it in
what felt like a mouth with a twirling, ravening tongue that curled
around his cock head.  As his body seemed to explode with ecstasy, a
curtain fell before Julian's eyes.  His own scream of rapture echoed
in his ears as he fainted dead away.

He came to in Odo's arms.  "I'm sorry," Odo said, looking into his
eyes with confusion.  "I just wanted to prove to you that you like
domination after our discussion the other morning. I didn't know the
experience would be so overwhelming for you."

Julian groaned as it all came back to him.  He was amazed and
frightened by the violence of his response when Odo took him from
behind.

"There's nothing like a little humiliation to start your day off
right," he said caustically, rubbing his eyes.  "I already admitted
that I liked you to be in control, but I guess you wanted to prove it
one more time, just to make sure."

"Are you angry with me?"

"Yes.  Yes, I am," Julian realized.  "You didn't even seem like
yourself.  You were cruel, and you've never been that way before.
What was wrong with you?"  He looked pale and devastated.

"It was just a role," Odo explained.  "I was trying to give you what I
thought you wanted."

"Well, you should have discussed it with me first," Julian snapped,
"because you must have misunderstood me.  I need to think now.  We can
talk later on."  He pulled out of Odo's arms and stumbled towards the
shower on shaky legs.

"This is probably a bad time to tell you," Odo said bluntly, "but I
might not be able to see you for the rest of the week."

"I forgot," Julian said, swaying where he stood.  "Lwaxana's coming
back tonight.  But maybe it's just as well we took a break.  I don't
like to lose control like that, Odo.  It drives me insane when you
take me from behind, but this was..."  He trailed off and searched for
words.  "You held me down and made me beg for it.  You showed me that
I can't control my desire for you.  You completely humiliated me.
Does that make you happy? Maybe you should think about why you enjoy
exercising your power over me."

"But... I made you come so hard you fainted," Odo said slowly.  "Isn't
that an experience worth having?"

"It was by far the most intense orgasm of my life," Julian answered
stiffly.  "Any more intense, and I'd probably be dead." He smiled
faintly for a second.  "But you went too far, Odo.  The first time, I
went to you and asked for it.  I willingly put myself in your hands.
This time you set me up.  You forced me to ask for it when I didn't
want to."  Julian hesitated.  "I can't talk about this anymore," he
said abruptly and stalked into the bathroom.

The sound of running water soon interrupted Odo's chaotic thoughts.
He left without bothering to open the door.

---

When Odo met Lwaxana that evening, she could tell right away that
something was wrong.  She asked him about it with worry in her glance.
At first he wasn't going to tell her, but then he realized that she
was probably the only person who could give him some useful advice.
He told her all about Julian and their experiments with bondage and
domination.

Frowning, she shook her head.  "Too bad," she said.  "He enjoys being
overpowered, but not to the point of real humiliation.  He wants it on
his terms or not at all.  And you, my dear Odo, weren't very sensitive
in forcing him to beg you. Poor boy!  You made him reveal himself in a
way he didn't want to."

"What should I do?" Odo asked in perplexity.  "I wonder if he'll ever
trust me again."

"I think he'll come around.  It sounds as if you two have something
very exciting by the tail."  She suppressed an impulse to grab Odo's
member as she said this, since they were strolling down the Promenade.
"Maybe I can help," she said suddenly.

"How?  I think I'm the one who has to convince Bashir I didn't mean to
hurt him."

"Yes, but I might be able to convince him that he also overreacted.
After all, he's the one who gave you the idea for what you did.  He
went to your office and practically begged you to use him right then
and there.  And you complied."  She smiled lasciviously.  "I wish I'd
been a fly on the wall of your office that afternoon."

Odo grimaced.  "He was right when he said that I enjoy my power over
him.  I get very aroused when I see him lose control-- all because he
wants me.  I suppose I wanted to see how far he'd go to get me."

Lwaxana nodded.  "I can see the attraction in that.  But your big
mistake came when you made him choose."

"I couldn't rape him."  Odo looked shocked.

"Of course not, but there are other ways of telling if someone really
doesn't want something.  Have you agreed on a word or a gesture that
will stop things when they go too far?"

"No.  But he wouldn't have said it anyway."

She sighed.  "Maybe not.  He did want you--that isn't the issue.  But
then he would have been able to preserve the illusion that you forced
him because you couldn't help yourself.  Instead, you acted as if you
could take him or leave him.  It was humiliating to make him say what
he wanted instead of what he didn't want.  Do you see what I mean?"

"I think I do," said Odo, almost in surprise.

"Leave everything to me, dear.  I'll take care of it all tomorrow.
And you're going to have to trust me and do exactly what I say, even
if you don't like it."

"All right," Odo said quickly.  Then they entered her quarters and
were quickly lost in other matters.

---

"Dax, what are you doing here?" Kira asked, surprised to see her
colleague in Lwaxana Troi's quarters.

"I might ask the same of you," Dax commented.  "I was ordered here to
give the Ambassador a briefing, even though it's the middle of the
afternoon and I have other things to do," she finished irritably.

"Same here," said Kira, looking around at the Ambassador's things,
which lay about the room in total disorder.  "Why does she need two of
us for a briefing?  What's the briefing supposed to be on?  And where
is she?  I was told to come in and make myself comfortable, and she
would be with me in a few minutes. So I've been here a few minutes.
Now what?"  She threw up her hands in frustration.

Suddenly Lwaxana rushed in from the other room.  She wore a lovely
yellow robe that hung close to her body, its thin material
occasionally revealing the contour of a breast or thigh as she moved.
"There you are, ladies.  Please excuse the disorder.  Mr. Homm
couldn't come with me this time, and I can never seem to keep things
as neat as he does."  She stood looking around the room, chewing a
fingernail thoughtfully.  "Let's see...  We need this over here--can
you help me, please?"

Dax and Kira dutifully walked over to the couch she indicated and, at
her direction, cleared the scattered objects off it and unfolded it
into a bed.  Then they did the same with the other one, placing it
across the room from the first.

"That's right.  They shouldn't be too close together, you know.  We
might want to have some private moments."

Kira exchanged a humorous look with Dax.  "Are you having guests,
Madame Ambassador?"

"Yes, yes, I am," she answered sweetly.  "And you're so right to
remind me that I shouldn't have my guests move the furniture without
offering them refreshment.  Please, sit down at the table.  Make
yourselves comfortable.  Would you like some tea?"

Kira's face revealed her annoyance plainly.  "Madame Ambassador..."
she began.

"Oh, please!  Not that title.  Call me Lwaxana."

"Lwaxana," Kira started again, "I certainly don't want to offend you,
but Lieutenant Dax and I have duties around the station that demand
our attention."

"But today I demand your attention," Lwaxana countered imperiously.
"Your duties can wait.  I have your Commander's assurance that we will
not be disturbed all day."

"Excuse me for asking," Kira continued, "but how did you manage that?
Commander Sisko never wants to spare us for anything."  Even for
anything important, she nearly added.

Lwaxana laughed.  "With great difficulty.  I pulled strings. I called
in favors.  No one wanted to order Benjamin Sisko to release his two
top officers to me for a day, can you believe it?

But I persevered, and, this morning, Admiral Nechaev herself informed
Sisko of his orders."  She smiled triumphantly.  "And here you are!"

"Why _are_ we here, Madame--I mean, Lwaxana?" Dax asked.

"Ah!  A good question.  Once you find out, you won't be impatient to
go, believe me.  So I'll get the tea and then I'll tell you."  She
ordered some tea from the replicator.  Dax got up to carry the tray.
They poured and each drank a sip and pronounced it delicious before
Lwaxana would say another word about the mysterious briefing.
"Today," she finally announced in a dramatic tone, "we are going to
have an orgy."

"An orgy?" Kira asked, puzzled.

"A sexual free-for-all," Dax explained.  "We had one just last week,
remember?"

"Oh, that," Kira murmured, embarrassed.

"And," Lwaxana continued, "we are going to save a friendship."

"Whose?" asked Dax.

"Odo and Dr. Bashir's."

"Really?" asked Kira, actually wanting to know.  "What happened?"

Lwaxana recounted the events leading up to the previous morning's
disaster: how Julian had gone to Odo and asked him for sex, and how
the two had found their relations were much more intense than they had
thought.  She finished by telling about Julian's humiliation at Odo's
hands.

"Who would have guessed it," murmured Dax.  "Poor Julian. He really
gets attached to people."  Her expression was sober.

"It isn't your fault he wants you," Kira said, exasperated.
"Apparently he wants half the people on the station."

"I know," Dax said, "but I never like being the cause of other
people's pain, even if I didn't really do anything."

"Be that as it may," said Lwaxana, drawing their attention back to
her.  "I have thought of a plan that might help things along.  Of
course, it also might make things worse," she added with a frown, "but
I don't think so."

"Let's hear it," demanded Kira, looking amused.  Both women sat
forward expectantly in their chairs.

And Lwaxana told them.


A few minutes later, Kira, Dax and Lwaxana were stripping off their
clothes.

"Just throw your things anywhere," Lwaxana said distractedly.  "The
place is such a mess already."

"So, why are we getting undressed now?" Kira asked, placing her shirt
and pants neatly over the arm of a chair and her boots underneath it.
"Julian said he can't be here for an hour."

"We need to warm up," said Lwaxana.  "Don't you think that we need to
be in the right frame of mind to make this work? Also, we have to
improve the room's ambiance, so that anyone walking in that
door--namely, Dr. Bashir--will immediately want to strip off his
clothes and join in the fun."

"He's always ready to do that," Kira remarked maliciously.

"Nerys," Dax said warningly.

"All right, all right.  But is that the only reason?"

"No," said Lwaxana coquettishly, sitting down on one of the beds.
"The other reason is that, ever since I saw all of you in the
infirmary last week, I've wanted to get together with you.  I was so
sorry I missed that party, I've been looking for an excuse to have
another."

"I see," said Dax, sitting beside her and looking interested.  "May
I?" she asked, cupping a hand around Lwaxana's left breast.

"Of course.  I'm delighted you're getting into the spirit of things so
quickly," Lwaxana exclaimed.  She took Dax's head in her hands and
kissed her long and hard on the mouth.  "Hmmm, you smell lovely,
dear," she breathed.

Dax had no time for a thank you as their mouths joined again, harder
than before.  She turned and straddled Lwaxana's lap, fondling her
breasts gently all the while.  They lay down slowly, side by side.
"Nerys, come here," Dax beckoned.

Kira lay on her stomach perpendicular to Dax's and Lwaxana's bodies.
Stretching her head over Dax's hip, she spread the Trill's legs as
much as she could and started licking her labia. One hand strayed
between Lwaxana's thighs; Kira's thumb caressed her clitoris, as her
other fingers opened the warm folds of her wet vagina.  Dax and
Lwaxana continued to kiss deeply and fondle each other's breasts,
chests, faces, and shoulders.  When Nerys switched positions and put
her mouth to the ambassador's vulva, Lwaxana began to come almost
immediately.  Jadzia and Nerys lay her on her back and stimulated her
together, taking turns placing their mouths on her breasts and labia.
Her orgasm peaked and lasted several minutes as Dax moved her hand
gently in and out of Lwaxana's slippery vagina.

"Ah, thank you ladies," Lwaxana sighed at last.  "Who says the younger
generation has no manners?  You knew that you ought to make your
hostess come first."

Nerys laughed.  "After you, Jadzia."

"If you insist."  She lay back obediently on the bed.  "By the way,
Lwaxana, you wouldn't happen to have any... toys?"

"Yes, I do.  But we can't wear ourselves out now--we have a long way
to go.  That's for later."  She lay between Dax's open legs and spread
her nether lips.  "What a beautiful color," she said, looking and
touching in fascination.  She mouthed the insides of Jadzia's thighs
for a minute, making her wait, while Nerys attended to the rest of
her.

"I've never kissed you," Nerys whispered, and pressed her open mouth
against Dax's.  They held each other, and both felt an attraction they
had nearly suppressed.

Once Lwaxana's skillful tongue had entered Dax, she rose quickly
towards climax, but she put if off as long as she could, wanting to
prolong the moment before.  When she came, it was an explosion, not
long and gradual like Lwaxana's, but all at once, and overwhelming.
Her whole body spasmed in pleasure.

"What happens to the symbiont when you come?" Nerys asked, fascinated,
after giving her a moment to relax.

"It comes, too," Jadzia smiled.

"Then why don't you do this more often?" Nerys asked as Lwaxana pushed
her gently onto her back.

"For that reason exactly.  I get too absorbed in it.  I had to give it
up to get my work done.  You see?  I just did it last week and here I
am doing it again."  Jadzia frowned with displeasure.

"Oh, Jadzia," Kira scoffed, "if you just stayed in bed with someone
during the time you usually spend gambling at Quark's, you'd have sex
more often than anyone on the station.  Even Julian," she added
spitefully.

Lwaxana stopped Kira's mouth with a breast.  "Stop arguing, ladies.
Our next guest will be here before you know it."

In short order, Lwaxana and Jadzia had brought Kira to orgasm, with
Jadzia doing most of the licking this time.  After Kira came, the
three lay together, shifting around and caressing each other,
exploring each other's bodies.  Kira spent quite some time stroking
her fingers over Jadzia's spots, especially where they colored her
breasts, while Jadzia stroked the Bajoran's nasal ridge.  Mrs. Troi
went back to contemplating Dax's labia, which she said were the most
attractive she'd ever seen.  Then Kira had to look, too, and before
she knew it, Dax was nearly climaxing again, just from their looks and
occasional touches. "Keep going," she urged, "don't leave me like
this."

"Oh, dear," said Lwaxana, I didn't mean to get you so excited again so
early.  I'll tell you what--you can be first with our guest."  As Dax
opened her mouth to protest, the door chimed.

"Who is it?" Lwaxana called musically.

"It's Dr. Bashir, Madame Ambassador," came Julian's hesitant voice.
"You asked me to come.  Remember?"

"Oh, yes," said Lwaxana, winking at Kira and Dax.  "Come in."

The door slid open and Julian stood transfixed, unable to believe his
eyes.  "Well, hurry up and come in," ordered Lwaxana, "before someone
passes in the hallway."

Julian stumbled in.  "What is going on here?" he marvelled.

"Just a little party I cooked up," Lwaxana said.  "Would you like some
tea?"

"No, thank you."  Julian's response was delayed by a few seconds, as
if the words took that long to penetrate the haze around his brain.
Kira and Dax lay entwined together on the bed, watching him with
amusement.

"Well, then, would you like to join us?"

"Of course," he grinned, putting his medical kit on the table and
starting to remove his shirt.

"There's just one thing..." Lwaxana added slowly.

"What's that?" he asked, throwing his shirt over a chair and pulling
off his boots.

Lwaxana let him get his pants down to his ankles before she replied.
"Before you can participate, you have to let us have our way with you
first."

Julian hesitated, but, feeling silly with his pants down, and not
wanting to pull them back up over his erection, he finished undressing
before speaking.  "What exactly do you mean by that?  Do you want me
to do whatever you ask for a while?"  He bit his lips with
anticipation.  He could live with that.

"Not exactly.  We want you to play a little game, and then you can
join us as an equal partner.  Let me show you."  Lwaxana walked over
to the other bed.  "You will allow us to restrain you on this bed and
do whatever we want to you.  When you've had enough, you can stop us
at any time by saying the word 'nebula.'"

"Nebula?" Julian asked with perplexity.  "Why nebula?"

"It's a 'safe word,'" Lwaxana explained.  "When you've had enough, you
say that, and we stop what we're doing right away and let you go."

"But if I say it before you're done, I don't get to join in?" he asked
suspiciously.

"Yes, you do," Lwaxana said.  "But you might enjoy what we do too much
to stop us."

"I don't know," Julian said, hesitating.  "I must admit, bondage isn't
my favorite kind of game."

Dax stirred, wanting to speak, although Lwaxana had asked her and Kira
not to.  "Julian," she began when she saw that he was picking up his
pants, "don't you trust us?"

"Yes," he said immediately, "but I'm...  I'm afraid anyway," he
admitted.

"All you have to do is let us bind you and play along for a few
minutes," Dax coaxed, going over and laying a hand on his shoulder.
"Then you say the safe word, and we release you, and you can play with
us.  With me," she added, feeling a little guilty for leading him into
this against his inclinations.

Julian had been contemplating Dax's body longingly, but suddenly he
looked at Lwaxana.  "You know what happened between me and Odo," he
said.  "That's why you're doing this."

"That right, Julian," Dax admitted quickly before Mrs. Troi could
speak.  "We're trying to help you overcome your fear.  Odo didn't mean
to hurt you.  He wants to make it up to you.  If you stay around long
enough today, you might get to turn the tables on him."

Julian thought about that for a moment.  "I appreciate your kindness,"
he said with a touch of annoyance, "but why do you want to tie me up
and humiliate me to help me get over having been held down and
humiliated?  It doesn't make sense."

"The difference is that we won't humiliate you," Jadzia replied.
"We'll help you discover how much you want.  You don't have to say
anything unless you want us to stop.  When you're ready to stop, we'll
stop.  Really."

"All right," he said unhappily, looking at her breasts. "I'll do it."
His erection faded completely.

They led him to the bed and positioned him on his stomach over some
pillows, just as Odo had positioned him.  His arms and legs were
attached by restraints to the four corners of the bed. Although his
circulation was not cut off, he was securely bound. The three women
knelt around him on the bed: one on each side and one behind where he
couldn't see them.  He felt silly, exposed, and vulnerable.

"Remember, Julian," Dax whispered in his ear with a sinking fear that
this plan was doomed, "the word is 'nebula.'"

"I won't forget, believe me," he said irritably.  His heart was
pounding, pumping the adrenalin throughout his body.

For a few moments, Julian waited while the women whispered among
themselves, while he only caught an occasional word.  He felt sillier
than ever.  "Can't we start," he cried, trying his bonds.  He felt
tired of lying with his bottom raised and his legs spread while they
took their sweet time.

"Yes, it looks like you're ready," said Lwaxana, taking his hard-on
into her hand.

Julian suddenly realized that, without thinking about it, he'd gotten
hard again.  As usual, something about being helpless turned him on,
while it also made him angry, especially afterwards.  He sighed and
wondered about their promise to release him; although, with Lwaxana
fondling his penis, he had nothing to complain of now.  Suddenly he
felt a slap to his bottom.  Then another, and another.  They didn't
really hurt, but each left a slight sting in its wake.  He would feel
even sillier saying the safe word for that.

"What are you doing?" he asked angrily, shaking his restraints.

"What does it feel like we're doing?" asked Kira.

"You said you wouldn't humiliate me," Julian protested.

"We're not humiliating you, Julian," answered Dax, "we're just
appreciating your lovely bottom.  We thought it might look better
red."  She stopped smacking her side for a moment and caressed and
kissed it all over, gently mouthing his stinging skin.  Then she
resumed smacking him while Kira caressed the other cheek.  Lwaxana
continued to stroke his penis, not letting him rise to a climax too
fast.  She put her head between his legs and tongued the back of his
scrotum.  He gasped and jumped in his bonds.

"What did you say, Julian?" Kira asked, coming around to look at his
face.  "Did I hear you say something?"

"Not a thing," said Julian, catching his breath.

They resumed their smacking at a slightly faster pace now. Their
efforts had made a warm glow spread through his buttocks and into his
penis and balls.  His balls began to ache with the need to ejaculate.
I'll just wait until they let me come, he thought, and if they don't
stop then, I'll say the safe word. The smacks were a bit heavier than
before, but they caused him only a mild discomfort compared to the
strong sensations in his genitals.  He concentrated on the excitement,
and the thought of what would come later.  He was more intrigued and
curious than frightened now.  Besides, he had never before had three
women all focussing on him at one time.

Every few minutes, Kira and Dax would stop smacking him and kiss and
stroke his hot skin.  Dax would ask, "What do you think of the color?"

"It's not there yet," Kira would reply.

The smacks grew harder still, and he winced slightly with each one.
Maybe this would be a good time to say it, he thought, but just then
Lwaxana began to stroke the sensitive place between his cheeks and to
press her strong fingers against his anus.  She pushed inside.  Once
again waves of pleasure mixed with the warmth from the spanking.

"How's the color?" Dax asked again.

"We're there," said Kira.  "It's time to stop."

"Oh, no," said Dax with disappointment.  "What's next?" Julian braced
himself as they talked among themselves.  His elevated ass blazed with
heat, and he felt more exposed than ever.  He felt a firm touch on his
asshole.  Something warm and slippery was trying to gain entry.
"What's that?" he gasped. "It's an artificial penis, Julian," Dax
answered.  "It's attached to me with a neural relay, so as I move it
in and out of you I'll feel what you feel."  She came around and
showed him. He was speechless with desire.  "What did you say?" she
asked. He shook his head as well as he could.

Dax climbed around between his legs and smoothly drove the white shaft
deep inside him, where its vibrations made him feel weak all over.
Slowly, carefully, she pumped it in and out.  At the same time, she
ran her hands over his sore ass.  Bashir was amazed at how much the
soreness enhanced his arousal.  Each time Jadzia squeezed his buns he
felt a stinging on the surface while waves of liquid pleasure poured
through his groin.  The effect was not lost on Jadzia, either.

"It looks so attractive this color, Julian," she told him, "and it's
so hot against my belly I could almost... I could..." She was
interrupted by an orgasm that progressed in three separate bursts.
When they were over, she didn't even remember that she had been
speaking.

"That's Dax," Kira commented to Lwaxana as they stroked Dax's thighs
and back.  "She never finishes a sentence during sex."

Still pumping the shaft inside of him, Dax now reached around under
the pillows for Julian's erection.  "It's all over when you come,
Julian," she said in his ear.  "There's nothing more you have to do."

"I haven't done anything," he started to say, but then he realized
that he had done something--he had enjoyed being tied down and
pleasured by three women whom he trusted.  And he didn't even feel
humiliated.  At least, not unbearably so.

He let go when he couldn't hold back any more, coming in wave after
wave of jagged pleasure that started deep inside him where the dildo
reached, and flowed out through his penis, helpless in Jadzia's hand.

Jadzia collapsed on his back.  Her skin felt cool against his
backside.  The restraints clicked open, but his only move was to draw
his arms back and touch Jadzia's hair with one hand. "Thank you," he
said softly.  She nibbled his ear in response.

Eventually they rolled apart and sat side by side watching Lwaxana and
Nerys finish licking each other to orgasm.  Then all four of them lay
entwined on the bed.  Julian massaged Jadzia's breasts, feeling
exceptionally lucky to be here touching her again.  The combination of
his relief and the heat from his backside conspired to bring his
hard-on back sooner than he had expected.  Lwaxana took it into her
hand.

"I think it's time that Dr. Bashir and I got better acquainted," she
said suddenly.  "Don't you two have something else to do?"  She waved
them away to the other bed.  Julian watched Jadzia go with regret.
"Now, young man," Lwaxana said with mock sternness, "I'd like to have
a talk with you."  She filled her mouth with his hardness and made him
catch his breath from a throb of pleasure.  She really was very good
at it.

"Was it your idea?" he asked when she paused for a moment.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"What they did to me.  The spanking," he felt silly saying it, but
then he had done the same thing to Odo, hadn't he?

"Yes," she said, "I wanted to get your attention."

Julian flushed until his face nearly matched his buns. "Why?"

"Because I want you and Odo to end this misunderstanding right now.
He didn't mean to hurt you, but he made a mistake. You enjoyed what
_we_ did, didn't you?"

"Yes, while you were doing it, but it's still hard for me not to feel
silly now."

"That where the trust comes in, Julian," she said, regarding him
intently.  "We're all exposing our desires here today.  And we all
have to ask for what we want sometimes.  So what if you like to be
overpowered in a controlled situation?  Odo wants that, too, you
know."

Julian nodded.  "He told me, but I didn't feel comfortable doing it
for him.  And I can't really overpower him anyway, unless..."  He
stopped, thinking.

Lwaxana shrugged.  "Isn't pretending enough?" she said simply.  "We
were just pretending that you were our slave, and now the game's
over."

"True," he said, "but.."

"No buts," said Mrs. Troi sternly.  "It's time you stopped lying there
and started hearing about what _I_ like."

"Yes, Ma'am," said Julian agreeably.

"First of all," she began, "I wonder how much experience you have at
cunnilingus..."


Kira and Dax had been lying quietly in each other's arms since they
had retired to the other bed.  "Look, Nerys," Dax whispered suddenly.
"Look at Julian."  His red ass stood out against the white sheets as
he hungrily drove his face between Lwaxana's legs, making little
grunts of pleasure as he nuzzled into her.  In turn, Lwaxana's sighs
were muffled by his member, which she had swallowed up to the hilt.

"She was right, red does look good on him," Nerys whispered back.
"Too bad his uniform is blue."  They giggled like children, sticking
their faces into the pillows to keep from disturbing the others.  But
Lwaxana and Julian were far too occupied to notice.

Nerys rolled over and lay on Dax, kissing her deeply with her tongue.
"Oh, I'm glad we're getting a chance to do this," she said, "because
I've thought about it for a long time."

"You have?" Dax asked with surprise.  "So have I."

"And we could never do it before because I was afraid to ask you
because you were afraid it would interfere with your work. Just think
how much time we've wasted being afraid."  She buried her head in
Dax's neck, nibbing and biting the Trill's spots.

"Don't think of it that way," Dax said gently, stroking her hair and
her nasal ridge, "because I wasn't ready until now. Last week, when
you were all so passionate towards me, I felt something... snap.  I
don't know how else to explain it.  I found myself longing for all of
you again, even Julian.  But especially you, Nerys."

They kissed and held each other for a long time, both too overcome by
emotion to speak.  From the other side of the room, Lwaxana cried out
in rapture while she moved herself vigorously up and down on Julian's
erection.  Kira reached down and slid the side of her hand through
Jadzia's swollen labia, touching the clit with her thumb, and then
sliding it back.  They spread their legs, rubbing their genitals
together as they continued to kiss deeply.  Their nipples slid over
each other's damp skin.  Dax squeezed Nerys's ass and slowly moved her
fingers towards the cleft.

"Yes," Nerys whispered, "I like that."

Dax's fingers picked up some wetness from their genitals, and found
her warm entry.  Slowly and deliberately, she penetrated it with one
finger, then two.  They slid in and out repeatedly, stimulating the
opening.  Nerys began to groan, and, as she rotated her hips to rub
her vulva against Jadzia's, she slipped into orgasm almost
imperceptibly, closing her eyes and breathing deeply.  Dax watched her
affectionately, loving the way her eyelids fluttered when she came.

Almost immediately after finishing, Nerys slid down Dax's body and
started to lap at her thighs and belly, quickly approaching her
genitals.  Taking the fleshy part of Jadzia's vulva between her teeth,
she carefully bit and mouthed the tender mound and lips,
tongue-kissing it inside and out.  She pushed her fingers inside and
searched for a spot that would heighten Dax's sensations.  She found
it.  Dax arched her back and cried out, wrapping her legs around
Kira's head.  As her orgasm reached the symbiont, Dax cried out again
and again.  Finally, she relaxed in exhaustion and took Nerys into her
arms.  On the other side of the room, Julian and Lwaxana groaned and
yelled together with abandon as they finished, too.  Then all was
quiet for a while.

Kira snuggled into Jadzia's hair.  "We owe Lwaxana some thanks," she
said.  "I wonder if this would ever have happened without her?"

"Probably not," Jadzia agreed, "but it is going to happen again."

They kissed deeply for a while, forgetting all about the plan in their
self-absorption.  "Jadzia," Nerys said with her mouth on the Trill's
neck, "can I ask you a personal question."

"No," laughed Jadzia as she bit Nerys's nipple, "I don't think we know
each other well enough yet."

"You've been both a man and a woman."

"Yes," Jadzia answered, sounding amused.

"Which did you like better?"

"I've been asked that before, as you can imagine," she said softly,
taking the time to suck Nerys's nipple and then blow on the wetness,
making it stand up hard.  "I've answered both ways in different lives.
Usually I say that I prefer whatever sex I happen to be at the time."

"And now?"  Kira pulled back and looked into Jadzia's face curiously.

"The same.  I like being a woman, and I wouldn't change right now, but
I've had my share of fun as a man, too."  The conversation languished
as Jadzia pushed Nerys over and lay on top of her, putting her tongue
on the Bajoran's nose ridges. "That's wonderful," Kira sighed.

"How sensitive is it?" Dax asked curiously.  "Is it like Quark's
ears?"

Nerys's eyes opened wide in horror.  "Jadzia!"

"Well, is it?" she teased.

"I suppose so, if you must put it that way."

"Then it's very sensitive.  Good."  Jadzia proceded to experiment with
different strokes and pressures until she found Kira's preference.
She started trying different speeds.  "Can I suck them?"

"Oh, yes."  Nerys could hardly speak.

Jadzia licked and nuzzled the ridges until Nerys took Dax's head into
her hands and steered it down to her throbbing clit. Jadzia plunged
her tongue inside, alternately swirling it around the erected clit and
sucking Nerys's swollen hot labia.  Kira's orgasm was intense enough
to set up a trembling in her body that didn't subside for several
minutes.  She pulled Dax back up to her and licked the warm juice off
her face.

"There's one thing that all the Daxes have had in common," Jadzia
remarked.

"What's that?" Kira asked distractedly.

"We've all thought that men were fine, but we all preferred women.  In
bed, I mean.  Especially Curzon.  He had a few experiences with men
when he was young, but he never met a man who really got him excited.
Always women."  She sighed as Kira pushed her on her back and started
mouthing a trail of kisses and bites down her body.  Although Nerys's
mouth meandered around, over hill and dale, her final destination was
never in doubt. Jadzia smiled contentedly and let herself enjoy it.

---

Mercifully for the occupants of Lwaxana's room, Odo was late.  He was
also in a very foul mood, knowing already at least part of what was in
store for him.

"I'm sorry I'm late," he grumbled as Lwaxana let him in. "There was a
fight at Quark's."

"Couldn't Primmin take care of it?" Lwaxana asked a bit curtly.

"He's taking care of it now.  But first I had to carry one of the
culprits to the brig.  He refused to walk there himself. I don't
suppose he knew how strong I was, though," Odo said with pride.  "I
think I surprised him."

"I'm sure you did," Julian said maliciously.

"Dr. Bashir," Odo said with embarrassment.  "I've been wanting to talk
to you."

"Odo, can't you just call me Julian?  Why are you forever keeping me
at a distance?"

"I didn't think I was.  I just don't have an easy time calling people
by their first names."

"But it isn't hard for you to force people to beg you for sex.  Or am
I the only privileged one?"  Julian's fury had finally erupted after a
little coaching from Lwaxana between thrusts.  "We've been intimate,
Odo.  I've put myself in your hands more than once.  I trusted you,
and I thought you trusted me, but you really only pretended to in that
fake bondage scene of yours."

"I do trust you, Julian," Odo said, saying his name with an effort.

"Well, then prove it," Julian retorted.

"How?  I can't help it if I'm stronger than you are, or if I can
always shift out of a restraint."

"No?  Well, I can help it."  He stalked over to the table and picked
up his medical tricorder.  Lwaxana looked perplexed, glancing at Dax
and Kira to see if they knew what was going on. Both shook their heads
in confusion.  "With my tricorder I can set up an ion field that will
keep you from being able to shift. You said you wanted to know what it
was like to put me in charge, to be completely helpless.  Do you
really want to know?  Here's your chance."  He stood angrily facing
the shape shifter, holding out his tricorder.

Odo concentrated and melted away his uniform.  "All right," he agreed.
"I'm in your hands."

Lwaxana felt a surge of fear.  Her plan had included getting Odo to
submit to Julian's will, but suddenly it was succeeding too well.  She
had only asked him to submit voluntarily; now, once he was caught in
the field, he would have no choice.

Julian led Odo to the bed where he himself had been restrained and
directed Odo to lie over the pillows.  He secured Odo's hands together
over his head.  Each of Odo's feet was attached to a different corner
of the bed.  Julian set up the tricorder and activated it.

"Try to shift out of the restraints," he ordered harshly.

"I can't," Odo said after a moment.  "You have me where you want me."

"If you will recall," Julian spat, his anger still strong, "being tied
up was your idea.  You wanted me to bind you and do anything I wanted
to you.  When I didn't like that idea, you showed me how much power
you had over me.  You held me down and made me beg for you."

"I'm sorry," said Odo, looking into his eyes.  "I made a mistake."

"I know you're sorry," Bashir raged, "but that doesn't help me now.
If you had given it any thought before you did it, you'd have realized
how wrong it was to use my feelings for you to humiliate me."  He
paused and knelt on the mattress next to Odo's head, bending down to
look in the shape shifter's face.

"What about right now?" he asked in a trembling voice, his eyes
flashing with anger.  "What do you want now?  Do you feel like having
me do anything I want to you?"

"If it will make you feel better," Odo answered uneasily.

"It will," Julian cried, "it will make me feel better."  He stood and
went around behind Odo.  The shape shifter felt the mattress sink
between his legs as Julian knelt there.  For a few minutes, nothing
happened.

"What are you doing?" Odo asked nervously.  There was no answer.  He
tried his restraints, but they held him fast. Suddenly realizing that
there was really no escape, he struggled ineffectually against his
bonds.

"Feeling a little anxious, Odo?"  Julian's voice had stopped trembling
to become hard and purposeful.  "I know what that feels like."

"What are you going to do?"  Odo asked, hearing as he said the words
that he echoed Julian's plea of the previous morning.

"I don't know yet," Bashir said slowly.  He reached out his hands and
ran his fingers slowly down Odo's back.  Odo grunted at his touch,
arching his back into it.  "Does that feel good, Odo?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad."  He ran his hands down the shape shifter's back a few more
times, until Odo had come to expect his touch. Quickly, he reached
between Odo's spread legs and took his scrotum into his hands.  Odo
jumped in his bonds.  Julian smiled spitefully.

The three observers sat silently at the table, watching this drama
unfold.  Now Nerys turned anxiously to Dax.  "Do you think Julian's
actually going to hurt him?" she whispered.

"He can't really cause Odo any permanent damage," Dax replied.

"That's not what I mean," Kira hissed.  "Do you think he's going to
cause him pain?"

Dax shrugged.  "What kind of pain?  That's a relative term. Spiritual
or physical?"

Kira clenched her fists.  "Jadzia, I love you, but you can be
amazingly unhelpful."

Jadzia pursed her lips.  "I just don't know, Nerys," she whispered.
"I wish I did.  Anyway, we have no choice.  We need to let them play
it out."

On the bed, Julian was fondling Odo's balls with his hands-- squeezing
first one and then the other.  He stroked Odo's scrotum, occasionally
brushing a light hand against the stem of his cock, which was fully
erect.  So was Julian's.

Suddenly Lwaxana spoke.  "Odo knows the safe word," she whispered.  "I
told him we wouldn't interfere unless he said it."

"Oh, fine," Kira said, raising her voice in frustration, "does that
mean we have to wait for..."

"Quiet, please," said Julian.  "Odo is concentrating."  The doctor's
face was drawn and pale with tension.  Sweat had broken out across his
forehead.  Without warning, he reached between Odo's legs and grabbed
his hard-on in both hands.  Odo cried out and threw his head back,
thrashing around in the restraints.

"Odo!" Kira cried, rising quickly.

The shape shifter shook his head.  "Keep out of this, Major. This is
between Dr. Bashir and myself."

"Good advice, Major," Julian said sharply.  "No one was there for me
yesterday morning."  He stroked Odo's cock gently. Odo sighed and
clenched his buttocks, pushing his erection through Julian's hands.

"Julian," Odo said thickly, "I want you now.  Please."

"Already?" Julian asked in mock surprise.  You're not getting off that
easily, Odo."  He turned towards the women. "Lwaxana, would you help
me?"

She approached him immediately and released one of Odo's legs.  Julian
quickly attached it to the end of the bed.  They did the same with
Odo's other leg, so that his body and limbs were all in a straight
line.  Julian spun him around on the restraints, removing the pillows.
Odo's hard-on stuck up at a sharp angle.  Without warning Julian
pounced on it and began to suck it.  All the skill he had learned in
their recent encounters went into what he did to Odo's organ.  His
tongue danced and twirled on the head; his throat opened to receive
Odo's whole length.  He nibbled gently at the tip and stem, ran his
tongue up and down the shaft, nuzzled at the scrotum, ran the tip
through his bared teeth.  He opened his mouth wide and shook it
against his lips, teeth, and tongue.  He rubbed it all over his face
and chest and through his hair, nipping or sucking the head at random
intervals, making Odo jump and groan.  One thing he didn't do was
grant him release.

"Julian, please," Odo groaned.

"Julian, please what?" the doctor said, suddenly holding very still.
"Are you ready to have me inside you?"

"Julian, please let me come!"  Odo couldn't keep his body still.
Twisting and turning against the restraints, he tried to rub his cock
on Julian.  Kira turned her face away.

"Don't you want anything else?" Julian asked slowly with mock
surprise, savoring his control.  "Don't you want me to fuck you in the
ass?"

"Yes, fuck me, please, do anything you want, but, Julian, please make
me come!"  The last words were a frustrated roar. Odo rattled the
restraints violently.  His cock was huge and rock-hard.  The tip
glistened with moisture.

"I think that will be sufficient," Bashir said with a nasty grin.

Releasing his captive's leg restraints, he rolled the shape shifter
back onto the pillows, elevating his backside.  Odo cooperated
eagerly, moving himself into position.  Julian smiled. Without
bothering to refasten Odo's legs, he spread them wide apart, reaching
between the buns and running his hand up the cleft.  Odo twitched and
groaned.  His body shook with uncontrollable lust.  Julian placed his
erection at the opening to Odo's core and pressed in.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" he asked in a quiet, throaty
voice.  His own erection was stiff and red.  The watching women all
realized that he was also trembling with desire.

"Yes," Odo said in a hoarse whisper, grinding his forehead against the
sheets.  "Please, give it to me now."

As Julian plunged in, both men cried out with rapture. Driving into
Odo's cleft, with one hand on his massive cock, Julian was lifted on a
delirious sense of triumph.  Over and over he plunged into Odo's body
until he felt his victim shake beneath him and heard his scream of
relief, which released a torrent of pleasure through his own body.

Odo lay limply over the pillows with Julian collapsed on his back.
"Oh, Odo," he whispered, "how could I do that to you?"

Stretching over Odo's body, he released his hands from the restraint.
Odo moved only enough to pull Julian into his arms. They lay together
on their sides, unmoving, with their foreheads pressed together.

Kira got up quietly and turned off the tricorder.  Lwaxana sighed.
"That's a relief," she said breathlessly.  "Tea, anyone?"  Dax and
Kira laughed with the emotional release, and both accepted.

"Aren't men interesting?" Lwaxana remarked quietly as she brought the
tray.  "Males of all species, I mean.  One never knows what they're
going to do next."  She lifted the teapot lid to check the steaming
liquid.  "Or women either, for that matter," she added glumly, closing
the top and starting to pour.

"But you're a telepath, aren't you?" Kira suddenly remembered.
"You've probably been reading us the whole time."

"Well, I try to keep myself from prying into the thoughts of those who
can't read me," Lwaxana said with dignity, "and I can't read Odo very
well at all.  And it isn't very much use reading the thoughts of
someone who doesn't know what he's going to do next himself."  She
stole a glance at Bashir, who hadn't moved.

Odo and Julian didn't stir for a long time.  The women drank their tea
in silence.  Finally, the shape shifter roused himself. "I have to
rest, Julian," he said.

"All right."

Odo's limbs melted together into gold and poured out of the air into
the silver pot.  Julian stood looking down at the liquid mass that had
just been his lover.  "I'm sorry, Odo," he said.

Lwaxana bustled quickly over to put her arms around him. "Don't be
sorry," she soothed him, "I'm sure Odo isn't."

"Maybe not, but how could I do it?"  Julian looked bone- weary.  His
hair stood straight up, and there were dark circles under his eyes.
"How could I want that kind of revenge on him?"

"How could he do it to you in the first place?" Lwaxana asked briskly.
"How can anyone ever hurt anyone else, or be angry at anyone else?
They can, that's all."  She gestured out at the stars.  "Here we are,
in the furthest reaches of space, at the gate to the Gamma Quadrant.
We have five different sentient species in this room.  _Five_ of them.
And what do we do?  We play silly games of guilt and pleasure.  We
hurt each other.  We make love."  She shrugged.  "We have a good time
doing it, too." She broke into a devilish smile when she saw the
serious faces of her rapt audience.  "Why are you all listening to me?
I don't know anything.  Now, what are we having to eat?  I'm
famished."

They replicated five different dishes and shared them out, eating
everything in sight.  Jadzia had two desserts.  Kira kept replicating
synthales and passing them around.  By the end of the meal, Julian was
laughing again, looking somewhat less as if he'd just been through a
war.

"And now, I'm afraid I must retire," announced Mrs. Troi finally.
"I'll keep Odo here with me.  And I hope the rest of you won't stay
alone tonight."

Dax looked at Nerys and then at Julian.  "Why don't both of you come
to my quarters," she offered.  "I have the biggest bed."

They both accepted and went to gather their clothes, which suddenly
felt strange after so many hours without them.  Julian went up to
Jadzia while Kira was under the table searching for a boot among
Lwaxana's scattered things.

"What about tomorrow, Jadzia?" he asked sadly.  "Will it be the same
thing again?  'Julian, I don't want to see you anymore, but I can't
explain why'?"

She smiled at him wanly, and he noticed that the spots stood out
starkly against her tired pallor.  "I don't know, Julian. But you're
not the only one who learned something here tonight." She squeezed his
shoulder.  "I don't want to lose this," she said simply, leaving him
to wonder.

Side by side, the three of them walked through the silent station,
heading off to bed.

---
Just One of those Days
---

Julian awoke at the very edge of the mattress feeling someone warm
against his back.  The someone was Jadzia, he remembered with a flash
of warmth through his groin.  He turned carefully and took her in his
arms.  She sighed sleepily, putting her head on his shoulder.  He held
her that way, keeping very still, until the demands of his erection
became truly imperious. Very slowly, so as not to startle her, he
began to run his hand down her side, trying to awaken a response.  And
he did.

"Not right now, Julian," she said irritably.  "Didn't you have enough
last night?"

"Of you?  No, never," he answered softly, hoping that Kira was still
asleep.

"She had enough of _you_, Bashir," came Kira's indignant voice from
the other side of the bed.

He cursed his luck.  "I'll tell you what, Major," he announced, "you
can take a shower first.  We'll wait."

"No thanks," she said smugly.  "I think I'll stay right here.  I think
you might want to take a shower, because Jadzia and I have
something"--she said the word suggestively--"to discuss.  And it
doesn't concern you."

Jadzia sat up abruptly.  "First of all, I don't have anything to
discuss with either of you.  Second,  I wish you'd stop talking about
me as if I were a bone you were pulling apart between you.  And,
third, no one can go in the shower first, because that's where I'm
going now.  Alone."  She stomped into the bathroom and closed the
door.

"Now, why doesn't that surprise me?" muttered Bashir.

"You made her angry," Kira turned on him.  "It's all your fault."

"She didn't seem to like your try any better," Julian pointed out.

Kira leaped up to confront him, pulling the blankets off them both in
the process.  Julian's hard-on had not gone down a bit since Jadzia's
departure.  Kira stared at it and forgot what she was about to say.
It looked smooth and inviting, with the head barely peeking out
through the foreskin.  A drop of moisture hung from the end.

"Hmmm," she said thoughtfully, "maybe we shouldn't let that go to
waste."

"Fine with me," he said, surprised.  He lay back and let her mount
him.  She fingered herself as she pumped him in and out with efficient
strokes.  She didn't take long to come, and Julian wondered whether
she had been thinking about Jadzia all night, as he had.  She closed
her eyes and sighed when she came, keeping her hands on herself,
ignoring all of him except his cock, and treating him as if he were
simply a means to her pleasure.  Well, two could play that game.

He flipped her over abruptly and started pounding into her as she
wrapped her legs around him and immediately came again. If it had been
Jadzia, he would have been gentler.  He would have nuzzled her hair
and her breasts, kissing her all over and trying to breathe her in.
But Kira seemed to enjoy and even return the roughness that came from
his frustration--it fit her mood, too. As she came again, she dug her
nails hard into his buns, pushing him over the edge.  He drove in
harder, crying out in spite of himself as he spurted his hot liquid
into her core.  Her brief cry mixed with his as they came together and
fell into each other's arms, panting with relief.

"I see that you've entertained yourselves while I was away." Jadzia
stood in the doorway, wrapped in a towel.  "Go ahead and shower.  And
then please go, both of you."  She kept the towel on until they had
closed the bathroom door behind them.

Kira turned on the hard spray and slammed her hand against the wall.
Turning to Bashir with anger flashing in her eyes, she said viciously,
"Thank you, doctor."

"What did I do?" Julian asked innocently.

"What did you do?" she asked, outraged.  "You alienated me from
Jadzia.  It's all because you had that damn erection."

"I wanted her," he retorted.  "It didn't have anything to do with you
until you pounced on me.  You didn't seem to object to my erection
then."

"_I_ pounced on you?  You practically stuck it in my face," she
yelled.  She looked down at his penis, which was half erect again.
"Keep that thing away from me," she ordered, "and don't talk to me
anymore, either."

They showered sullenly, silently passing the soap and trying not to
make skin contact.  Kira rinsed first and got out, and Julian waited
until she had left the room before he came out to dry off.  What had
happened to the closeness they had all shared last night?  Apparently
it didn't exist without Lwaxana Troi there to supervise.  When he went
out to dress, both women were gone.

---

Julian had five patients waiting for him when he arrived at the
infirmary, and two more showed up a few minutes later.  All of them
were Klingons.  Some freighter had left a strange disease behind that
only seemed to affect them.  Working in a mad rush, he concocted a
serum that alleviated their symptoms.  In the middle of his work he
had to let Garak know that he wouldn't be able to make it for lunch at
the Replimat.  Garak told him to drop by the dress shop at 1700 hours
if he wanted to see something interesting.  Having no time to wonder
about that cryptic statement, Bashir filed it for later consideration.

When the last of his rude and ungrateful patients had left, Bashir sat
back for a moment, closed his eyes, and breathed deeply, trying to
ignore the insistent erection that seemed to come back whenever he had
time to think.  He thought about the incident with Kira.  It almost
seemed funny now.  Why did he ever expect that Jadzia would change?
He should be happy that he'd gotten any time at all with her, and just
go on with the rest of his life.  Which included Odo.

Odo.  Julian sighed.  Last night seemed like a dream-- whether bliss
or nightmare he wasn't quite sure.  But he really should go see the
shape shifter and make his peace with him.  He and Odo hadn't
exchanged many words after it happened, so he had no idea how Odo
felt.  He knew he ought to go and see.

Walking down the promenade, he wondered about Garak's mysterious
statement.  Knowing Garak--which meant knowing that you didn't know
him--it could mean anything from a major problem with the Cardassian
treaty to a shipment of new suits.  Garak was forever trying to get
Bashir to buy a suit, but so far he hadn't succeeded.  Trying to
remember Garak's exact words, he reached Odo's office doors still
preoccupied with the problem.

The doors slid open.  Odo sat at the desk with a datapadd in his
hands.  He snorted when he saw Julian.  "I wondered when you were
going to show up," he said.

"I came to talk about last night."  Bashir decided that the direct
approach was best.  How angry could Odo be, since he had submitted to
what Bashir did?  "How do you feel about it now?"

"Not too well, thank you, doctor."

"Oh, so we're back to 'doctor' again?"  Julian felt an irrational
flash of anger.  "Last night was supposed to settle things.  I thought
you agreed beforehand with Lwaxana that I owed you the chance to find
out what being helpless was all about?"

"I did.  And it was very instructive, but also very humiliating."

"What did you expect?" Julian said, exasperated.  "I didn't enjoy it
when it happened to me, either."

"But I think your ordeal was a bit briefer than mine.  And there was
no audience."

"I'm sorry, Odo."  He felt uncomfortable and guilty, but also angry;
he had expected this to be easier.  "I'll do anything I can to make it
up to you.  You know you're very important to me."

"Well, now that you mention it, there is something you can do," Odo
said, swiveling in the desk chair.

Belatedly, Julian realized he had walked into a trap with his eyes
wide open.  "What is it?" he asked warily.

"Come here," Odo ordered.  Julian's erection, which had only half gone
down, came to full attention.  Odo did not fail to inspect the
revealing bulge with his eyes.  Julian flushed, but he stepped up to
Odo's chair.

"Odo," he said reasonably, trying to stem the panic rising in his
chest, "you aren't going to..."

"I want you to suck my cock," Odo said imperiously.  "Just the way you
did last night.  Only, this time, you make me come."

Julian was not against it.  "We can go to my quarters," he offered,
"but I do have to get back to the infirmary fairly soon."

Odo shook his head.  "Not in your quarters."

"Then where?"

"Right here."  Odo sat back in the chair and looked at Julian
challengingly.

Glancing at the door, Julian saw that it was made up of multiple pains
of glass.  He could clearly see people walking back and forth down the
Promenade.  "Odo, anyone coming by here could look right in and see me
doing it."

"True," agreed Odo, "but you didn't worry about that last week when
you were desperate for me, did you?"  Julian couldn't argue about
that.  He had noticed the glass then, but he had hardly cared.  "And
anyway," Odo continued, "you can kneel here under my desk.  Even if
someone came in, they wouldn't see you."

"All right, Odo," Julian said finally, "if you really think it will
make you feel better."

"It will."

Julian took his place under the desk, and Odo dematerialized the
bottom of his uniform.  The doctor started in with a will, and before
long, Odo was gasping and squirming around satisfactorily.  When it
seemed that Odo was about to come, the door summons buzzed.  "Come,"
answered Odo calmly.

"Odo, are you crazy?" Julian hissed.  He heard the doors slide open.

"Yes, Primmin?" Odo said slowly.

"Odo, I've been meaning to coordinate this new Star Fleet weapons
search policy with you."

"I'm not interested," said Odo rudely.  "Send Sisko a memo."

"I did," Primmin answered defensively.  "He said to deal directly with
you."

"I've read the policy and I think it's insane," Odo said curtly.  "It
will not be adopted on this station so long as I am Chief of
Security."

"Which may not be long if you don't adopt this policy," Primmin
started to shout.

Julian crouched fearfully under the desk, hoping that nothing would
reveal his presence there.  He had stopped sucking Odo's penis, but
since Primmin had entered, the massive organ had only grown harder, as
if Odo derived a sexual pleasure from arguing.  Spitefully, Julian put
the large, hot thing back into his mouth and started swirling his
tongue around it in a mad frenzy.  Odo's muscles tensed.  He grunted
in surprise.

"Odo?  Is something wrong?"  Primmin asked, stopping his argument in
mid-sentence.

From experience, Julian could tell that Odo was very close. "As a
matter of fact, Primmin, I really need to do something else right
now."  His voice sounded labored and thick.  "Would you mind very much
if we finished this discussion later?"

Primmin opened and closed his mouth.  It was probably Odo's sudden
unexpected courtesy that convinced him, if nothing else. "All right,"
he said quickly, walking to the door.  "Odo?" he added, turning in the
doorway.  "If you're sick, you'll go see Dr. Bashir, won't you?"

"I will," Odo agreed.

Julian stifled a laugh and pumped Odo harder.  Suddenly the shape
shifter's penis was roughly pulled from his hands and mouth.  "Don't
you want to..."

He never got to finish the sentence as a hand reached in and pulled
him to his feet.  "That wasn't very nice," Odo said threateningly.
"Sucking me isn't enough any more.  You're going to have to do
something else."

"What?" Julian asked in a small voice, feeling that fearful thrill
wash through him.

"Bend over the desk.  Pull your pants down first.  Do it now."  Odo
spoke softly, but with menace in his tone.

"Odo, what's gotten into you?" Julian asked.  His balls were starting
to ache with the thought of being taken by Odo, but he remembered the
glass panes, the idea that Primmin or even Sisko could come to the
door at any time and see them.  "This is crazy," he said flatly.  "You
wanted me to suck you and I did. It isn't my fault that Primmin came
by.  Now, why don't you let me finish you?"

That shape shifter's erection stood up angrily, its two red wings
swelling out from the foreskin.  Julian looked at it a moment.  All
his instincts screamed at him to leave this office as fast as he
could, to end this ridiculous power struggle right here.  He had just
decided to turn and walk quickly to the door when, checking the
passers-by once more, he pulled his pants down and lay over the desk.
Odo didn't waste any time, but entered him in one rush.  Julian
couldn't keep still.  His own erection was now throbbing painfully,
but Odo didn't reach for it.  He reached for it himself, but was
stopped by strong hands that pinned his arms behind his back.

"What are you doing, Odo?" he protested.

"I'm giving you a little taste of last night," Odo replied, hammering
Julian's ass with his belly.

"Aren't you going to let me come?"

"Eventually.  After I've finished."

Just as Odo was about to climax, Julian thought he might come after
all, and with no manual stimulation.  The threat of exposure and Odo's
strong grip on his wrists, not to mention his huge organ pounding into
Julian's ass, conspired to make Julian feel faint with excitement.
Three more strokes and he'd be there.  Then the door chime buzzed.

Odo ignored it.  He went on methodically driving onto Julian as if he
hadn't heard.  "Odo, someone's at the door!" Bashir hissed.

"I know," Odo grunted.

"Can they see us?"

"Probably."

Julian felt sick with fear.  What had gotten into Odo?  Who was there?
Quark?  Dax?  Sisko?  Or some inhabitant of the station who would
spread the news everywhere?  He struggled vainly against Odo's iron
grip.  He was helpless, immobilized, unable even to turn his head.

In one more volley of thrusts, Odo finished and released Julian, who
slid to the floor behind the desk, too mortified to look at the door.

"Come," Odo said.

"Why did you leave me standing out there?" came Lwaxana's angry voice.

"I was busy," Odo replied sullenly.

"I was on the other side of the station when I sensed that you boys
were up to your tricks again.  Imagine, after all the trouble I took!
Odo, you have to let this thing drop.  You're acting like a child!
What if Dr. Bashir wants revenge again now? When is this going to
end?"

Julian pulled up his pants and slowly peeked above the level of the
desk.  Lwaxana had her hands on her hips and looked truly furious.
"As for you," she turned on him, "you complain that he overpowers you,
but why do you always do as he says?"

"I don't know," Julian said truthfully.

"I realize that," she snapped as if he had said something incredibly
stupid.  "Now get out of here and let me discuss this with Odo."
Julian was shocked.  Rudeness didn't come naturally to Mrs. Troi.

"Uh, Odo," he said, hesitating.

Lwaxana waved him away imperiously.  "I know you weren't satisfied.
But let that be a lesson to you."

Julian blushed and slunk out.  The mortification of what had just
happened finally tamed his erection, but his balls ached unbearably.
He went back to the infirmary and worked until it was time to meet
Garak.  He was too depressed to beat off, and in his mortified state,
he almost enjoyed the pain as a salutary reminder.

When he reached Garak's shop, the tailor was in prime form, but Julian
was testy and impatient.

"My dear doctor," Garak commented expansively, "you aren't your normal
witty self today.  And those circles under your eyes- -have you been
ill?"

"I just haven't gotten much sleep," Julian said with annoyance.  "Now,
what were you going to show me?"

"All in good time, doctor.  I thought we could take refreshment
together first."

Julian agreed.  He was hungry and thirsty, and he had no where else to
go.  They walked down to the Replimat and got some tea.

For a while, they drank in silence.  Julian welcomed it, as he was in
no mood for small talk, but he also realized how unusual it was for
Garak to be so subdued.  Something must really be up.

Garak sighed.  "Would you say you know me well, doctor?" he asked.

"No," Julian answered bluntly, "I hardly know anything about you at
all.  Except for what you choose to let me know, of course, and I'm
not convinced that all of it is accurate."

Garak laughed.  "That's what I like about you, doctor.  You are a
natural skeptic.  But an innocent skeptic.  That's why you make a good
doctor--you don't always believe what you see on the surface, but, in
your heart, you believe that you can find the truth if you just try
hard enough."  He laughed again.  "What a piquant contradiction."

Too worn out to find a snappy comeback, Julian played with his spoon
and watched the tea swirl in his cup.  "That's what I like about you,
Garak," he said sarcastically.  "You know me so well.  To you I'm just
an open book."

Garak looked gratified to have made contact.  "The open book and the
closed book, eh, doctor?  Perhaps that's why we're such good friends."

"Maybe we should go back to the shop."  Julian ventured, feeling
bored.

"Why?"

"So you can show me whatever it was you wanted to show me."

"Oh, that.  It will keep."

Julian sighed.  He was mightily tired of people holding out on him.

"So, doctor, what's been going on in your life?"

Julian looked up, surprised.  Garak had never asked him such a direct
personal question before.  "Not much," he said neutrally.

"Not much?" Garak repeated incredulously.  "That's not what I hear
around the station."

Julian flushed angrily.  "And just what _do_ you hear around the
station?"

"Now, doctor, I can't help what people are saying.  But I hear that
you and our good constable are--shall we say, very friendly?"

Julian gripped his cup until his knuckles turned white. "You heard
that around the station?" he whispered.  "People are talking about
that?"  Too late, he realized that Garak might just be fishing for
information, but his attempt was so close to the truth that Julian
thought he must really know something.

"Oh, not generally, of course.  But my sources do usually know what's
going on with the station's officers."

"My compliments to your sources, but I'd appreciate your silence about
my personal life," Julian said, regaining his calm with difficulty.
"I'd also love to know where you got your information."

Garak shook his head.  "If I revealed my sources, where would I be
then, eh?"  He put his cup down deliberately and added, "I think it's
time to see what we can see."

Rising quickly, Julian followed him, eager to get this over with,
whatever it was, and go back to his quarters for the evening.  He
hadn't spent an evening alone in quite a while, and he had some
reading to catch up on.  None of his erstwhile lovers was likely to
show up tonight.

They walked silently through the Promenade to Garak's little shop.
All the way there, Julian's mind was spinning, wondering where Garak
had heard about himself and Odo, and what he was going to do with the
information.  Maybe someone had actually seen them at it in Odo's
office the week before.  Neither of them would have noticed, least of
all himself, being in a delirium of lust and need at the time.  He
shook his head.  He couldn't believe how much had happened in a little
over a week.  From having an occasional affair with a female visitor
to the station, he had progressed to complicated sexual relationships
with three of his fellow officers and a Federation ambassador, not to
mention a kind of sexual obsession with one.  And now was Garak
getting ready to blackmail him?  Well, if it came to that, he didn't
care who knew about himself and Odo.  Although he'd prefer that the
whole station didn't hear that he'd let himself be taken two separate
times over Odo's desk with his pants around his knees.  That _was_ a
little embarrassing...

Garak kept throwing him little glances.  What was on the man's mind?
There was a strange gleam in the Cardassian's eye-- but then there was
always a gleam in his eye, Julian thought. The man loved secrets, and
he loved revealing selected bits of them that left his victims more
confused than ever.

"Here we are, doctor.  Welcome to my humble establishment." Closing
the door, Garak shepherded him right through into the dressing room.
"It's closing time," he explained, when Julian glanced questioningly
at the door.  "Now," he said briskly, "You'll be astonished to hear
that I have finally found you the perfect suit.  It is _you_.  You
will adore it."

Julian groaned inwardly.  So all this buildup was just about a suit.
"Garak, I've told you before that I don't wear suits."

"Everyone wears suits," Garak said firmly.  "It's just a matter of
finding the right one."  He pulled a suit from a special rack behind
the counter.  It was brown, with coppery highlights in the fabric, and
was well tailored for a slight figure.  In spite of his mood, Julian
liked it immediately.

"All right, Garak," he said, careful not to betray any enthusiasm.
"I'll try it on."

"Good," Garak beamed.  "Go ahead and take off your clothes. Let me
know when you're ready.  I just have to steam out a few creases."  He
disappeared through the curtains with the suit in his hand.

Bashir pulled off his shirt and hung it up.  As he removed his boots,
he noticed that there was a tape measure on the floor in the corner.
It was funny that Garak would use such an old- fashioned instrument,
when he could have taken measurements with a tricorder in a few
seconds.  Julian had heard him say once that the tricorder didn't
measure the person, just the size.  Garak _would_ say that.

When Julian had stripped down to his black briefs he peeked out the
curtain.  "Garak?" he called tentatively.

"Right here."  The tailor whisked the suit off the ironing rack and
hung it on a hook in the dressing room.  Julian reached for it.  "Just
a minute, doctor," Garak said a bit too urgently. "Would you pick up
that tape measure for me first?"

And thus it was that Julian Bashir fell for the oldest trick in the
world.  In a flash, his briefs were pulled down and a large, hard
object was pressed against his backside, trying to insinuate itself
into his already well-used cleft.  As his head was jammed into the
dressing room corner, he realized belatedly that the object must be
Garak's erect penis.

"Garak, no!" he yelled, struggling to get away, but he was caught
between the wall and the object that was trying to impale him.  He
fell to the floor and shifted to one side, keeping it at bay.  Garak
grabbed his arms and held them behind his back.

"Listen, Garak," Julian panted, trying to stem his panic, "I don't
want this.  This is rape.  Let me go right now."

"But my sources said that this is how you like it," Garak said,
sounding disappointed.  "I hope you're not refusing me because you
subscribe to that ridiculous Federation rumor that we Cardassians have
spikes on our organs?  Because, as you will soon find out, we don't."

"Of course I don't believe that," Julian snapped, "I'm a doctor."  He
took a deep breath, trying to clear his head. Garak, meanwhile, was no
longer trying to jam his member into Julian, but just keeping him
pinned head down in the corner while they talked.

"Garak, your sources are wrong," Julian began desperately. "I mean,
someone might have seen me doing something like this with Odo, but it
was a game.  It wasn't rape, I consented to it. And anyway, that
doesn't mean I want to do the same thing with everyone on the
station."

"All right, doctor, you've made your point."  Garak released him.
Julian stood with his back to the wall and grabbed his pants.

"I'm sorry, doctor," Garak said thoughtfully, "I still have trouble
reading human signals, just as you have trouble reading mine.  On
Cardassia, you would have understood exactly what I was going to do.
And you seemed to be giving me signals back saying that you wanted
it."  He paused, shaking his head sadly.  "I'm quite surprised at
myself.  Perhaps lust clouded my judgement." He smiled broadly in a
way that Julian could now see was intended to be charmingly
flirtatious.  "If you change your mind, doctor, just let me know."

Julian was fully dressed now, and wanted nothing better than to slip
past Garak and escape to the Promenade.  Garak stepped aside and let
him go.  When Bashir had closed the shop door behind him, a sense of
relief washed through his body that made him weak in the knees.  _So
that's what he's wanted all this time,_ he thought incredulously.  He
heard the shop door open behind him.

"Oh, doctor," called Garak loudly, "what about the suit?"

Julian hunched his shoulders and, quickening his pace, headed straight
for Quark's.

---

When he got there, he saw Jadzia sitting alone at the end of the bar.
Quark was talking to her, but she didn't seem to be paying much
attention.  When Julian slipped into the seat beside her, Quark
brought him a synthale and then went off to wait on another customer.

"Hello, Jadzia," Julian began, feeling subdued.  "I'm sorry about this
morning."

"That's all right," she answered distractedly.

"It's not really all right, is it?" he said, feeling suddenly as if he
understood her feelings better than before. "Kira and I both want you,
and you aren't sure you want us.  You decided you didn't want to get
involved with anyone, but the sex and the closeness with us was
irresistible.  And then we both started demanding more of you.  Is
that what's going on?"

"Yes and no," she said, smiling at him faintly.  "I'm glad you
understand that much.  But there's more to it, too."

"What?"

She shook her head.  "I'd rather not say."

They drank in silence for a while.  "So that's the end," Julian
finally said.  "You're not going to be with either of us anymore."

"That's right."

"But why?  Why not be with both of us?" he said generously. "I mean,
Kira and I don't get along very well, but maybe you could see us
individually.  Once in a while, anyway.  We both care about you."

"Don't wheedle, Julian.  It's unbecoming."

"I'm sorry.  It's important to me."

"We'll still be friends."

"Yes."  He swallowed with the last of his synthale the nasty retort
that came into his mind.

"Good-bye, Julian."  Jadzia left and was soon lost in the crowd.

Julian put his fists to his temples and sat staring at his own elbows
on the bar.  "What can I get you?" he heard Quark ask.

"A stardrifter," he said simultaneously with another voice. He looked
up.  "Major.  Have a hard day?"

She glared at him.  "Terrible.  Beginning with you."

"Oh, come on, the sex was good.  That was the last good thing that
happened to me today."

"Me too," she admitted.

Their stardrifters arrived, and they drank in silence for a while.

"You know," Julian said finally, "we really are in the same boat, now
that Jadzia has decided not to make love with either of us anymore."

"How do you know that?" Kira asked defensively.

"She just told me so.  And there was something she wasn't telling me.
She seemed sadder than I've ever seen her."

Kira stirred her drink thoughtfully.  "I think I just had the same
conversation with her."  She took a large swallow.  "At least you have
Odo," she added, throwing him an annoyed look.

"Odo?" he said incredulously.  "Odo was so angry at me today that he
made me... service him, right in his office."

"Again?" Kira asked, smiling in spite of herself.

Julian winced.  "Yes, again.  Lwaxana walked in on us.  She had sensed
what was going on from across the station.  She asked me why I gave in
to it, and I honestly didn't know.  I felt like a fool."

"You _have_ had a bad day," Kira said almost sympathetically.

"It got worse," Julian admitted.  "Garak tried to rape me."

"Garak?"  Kira looked horrified.

Julian nodded.  "Somehow he'd heard about Odo and me, and he decided
that I was sending him signals hinting that I wanted him to have his
way with me, too."

"You poor man," said Kira sincerely.

"If you ever go into his shop, my advice to you is don't _ever_ bend
over."

Kira laughed.  "I never go in there.  I don't wear suits."

"Neither do I.  Funny thing is, he actually found me one I liked
today.  Needless to say, I didn't buy it."  Julian was quiet for a
moment.  Quark came by and brought them fresh drinks. "You know,"
Julian said glumly, "all day I've been wondering if everything that
happened is my fault.  Did I bring it all on myself because I can't
control my sexual appetite, or is it something else?"  He paused to
have a drink.  "After Garak attacked me, I started thinking that I
must have a sign on my forehead saying, 'Use me.'"  He drank half his
stardrifter in one gulp.

Kira frowned into his face.  Lifting a hand, she traced an imaginary
line across his rounded forehead with one finger. "No," she began
slowly, "actually it says, 'fuck me in the backside, I like it.'"

Julian's eyes grew very wide with shock.  His head dropped onto his
folded arms which rested against the bar.  A moment later his
shoulders were heaving convulsively.

Kira felt a wave of remorse sweep through her.  "Oh, Julian, I'm
sorry," she said earnestly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I don't
know why I said it.  I'm sorry, all right?"

Julian lifted his face to her.  He had been laughing so hard that a
few tears had started down his face.  "That's the funniest thing
that's happened all day," he gasped.  Kira sat back and laughed with
relief.

"What's so funny?" asked Quark.  "Have another drink?"

"No thanks," Julian said, wiping his eyes.  "I'm not sure I need
another now."  As Quark left in disgust, Julian looked expectantly at
Kira.  "I might as well," he said.

"You might as well what?"

"I might as well end the day with a broken nose as well as blue
balls," he said.  "I was going to ask you to come home with me." Kira
smiled.  "I was just about to ask you the same thing."

---

Kira walked briskly along the habitat ring.  After three nights in a
row spent with Julian Bashir, Kira had to admit that he was turning
out to be a pleasant surprise.  He did drive her crazy sometimes with
his obsessive talking, but he always stopped as soon as she pointed it
out.

Since that night when Nerys and Jadzia had made love, when Bashir had
tied Odo down and tormented him, Jadzia had kept Kira at a distance,
acting perfectly friendly at work, but never wanting to get together
for a meal or a talk.  Likewise, Julian had fallen out with Odo, who
was still spending all his free time with Lwaxana Troi.  So, every
night, Bashir and Kira were thrown back on each other.

Not that it was bad.  Julian was inventive and agile in bed, and his
endurance was sometimes amazing.  They made it five or six times a
night, grabbing and sucking and pounding at each other's bodies
greedily.  Kira shook her head and wondered why she suddenly seemed to
need him so much.  After all this time with no sexual relationships,
she thought it didn't bother her to go without, but obviously it did.
Once she had started again, she couldn't stop.  She wondered how
Jadzia could stand it.

Kira stopped before Julian's door and rang the chime.

"Come," said Julian's voice.

The doors hissed back and she walked in to find him sitting in an
armchair reading, wearing black briefs and a tight black t- shirt.  He
looked up at her and smiled.

"Hello," he said softly, and Kira was annoyed to find that her pulse
increased at the intimate sound of his voice.

Going over to him, she took the book out of his hands and pulled him
up out of his seat.  They walked to the bed, where they lay together
comfortably, kissing, touching, stroking, and nibbling each other,
moving slowly towards full arousal.

"How was your day?" he murmured, raising her uniform top and helping
her to pull it over her head.  Her nipples hardened as the cold air
hit them.  Julian growled deep in his throat and placed his lips on
one and his fingers on the other.

"Not bad.  I spent some time showing that Vulcan doctor around the
station."  She bit and sucked the fingers of his other hand, enjoying
his attentions to her breasts.

He paused in his ministrations to answer.  "Dr. T'Letra. She spent the
afternoon with me in the infirmary.  Apparently she does therapeutic
mind melds.  She's going to show me one tomorrow."  The tip of his
tongue circled one nipple and gently pushed it from side to side.
Kira felt a bolt of pleasure ripple through her groin.

"She's going to meld with you?" Kira asked, rolling on top of him and
lifting his t-shirt to rub her breasts against his chest.

"No.  With a patient who has Treb's Disorder."

"What's that?"  Kira raised herself on her hands and started grinding
her hips into him.

"A rare disease caused by trauma to the cortex, which results in
periodic disorientation and hallucinations.  The only known cases are
in Bajorans."  Julian took her face in his hands and pulled her down
for an open-mouthed kiss.  Kira started to feel a fire kindle deep
inside her, and an answering flame in him.  She wondered how she could
ever have thought he was cold and inconsequential.

"I'd like to see that," she murmured.

She ran her hands up his smooth sides to his neck and head. She loved
his caramel skin, darker than her own.  She loved to see her light
hands against his dusky chest.  Part of the charm of this affair was
the various differences between them, and the shaky truce they had
managed to forge with sensuality.

Julian pulled off his shirt and threw it aside.  Kira rose and quickly
discarded her pants before she grabbed the top of his briefs in both
hands and slowly drew them down, savoring the sight of his emerging
erection.  Taking it into her mouth, she sucked him and teased him
with her hands.  He couldn't keep still, and finally pulled her
towards him.

"Let me eat you," he said urgently.

She placed her spread labia over his face, and immediately was nearly
overcome by the sensation of his mouth and hands penetrating and
engulfing her.  After just a few minutes, she turned again and lay
flat on top of him, angling her mouth over his for the deepest
possible kiss.  His skin was covered with her feral scent.

His erection pressed urgently against her belly.  He wanted her badly
but, when she was on top, he waited for her to make the decision
because he knew that his restraint made her even hotter with desire.
Making him wait, and taking him only in her own good time was
infinitely intriguing to her.  When she couldn't stand it any longer,
he was already gripping her shoulders with desperation, and his eyes
looked glassy with lust.  Raising herself up his chest, she moved her
hips until the tip of his penis was in position.  Then, all at once,
she engulfed him in her hot vagina.  He arched his back and closed his
eyes, overcome with sensation.  His intense reaction brought her to
climax.  As she bit his nipples and he held her buns tight, she
climaxed again, and this time, she brought him with her.

"Nerys," he said, holding her tight and nuzzling in her ear. "You're
so very hot inside."

He was getting attached to her.  He was so vulnerable, and, right now,
that excited her.  But she was starting to see how he had gotten in
trouble with Odo and Jadzia.  His strong sexual responses overpowered
him, and sometimes made him passive, too ready to take abuse from
someone he cared for.

They lay together companionably, and then got up to eat. They shared a
Bajoran dish called Y'gul, made of greens, herbs, and cooked grain,
and they drank synthale.

"Have you talked to Jadzia lately?" Bashir asked with a frown as they
finished their meal.

"Not really," Kira answered.  "She talks to me when she has to, but
she doesn't say anything personal.  She still seems very sad."

He nodded.  "She avoids me completely.  All she'll say is hello when I
happen to pass her.  I almost feel like calling her down for a
checkup."

"Maybe that would be a good idea."

He shook his head.  "I don't have an excuse to do it.  She isn't ill;
her work isn't below par.  And she isn't due for a physical exam for
almost three months.  It wouldn't work."

"She'll come around," Kira said, more to end the depressing
conversation than out of any sense of hope.

Julian tossed back the rest of his drink and went over to kneel beside
her chair.  Kira stroked his earnest face and ran a hand through his
hair.  Taking a nipple in each hand, she pulled him towards her, and
then pushed his face into her lap.  He put his face between her thighs
and breathed her in deeply, mouthing the tender skin.  With his
delicate fingers, he spread her lips and started licking with long,
slow strokes.  Soon she had closed her eyes and relaxed into the
rhythm, the one he knew she sometimes preferred after she had already
come.  When she climaxed, he still knelt with his face resting in her
lap, although his hard penis pulsed visibly with desire.

As she contemplated his motionless body, she had a sudden flash in her
mind's eye of him kneeling there in chains, as if he were her sexual
slave.  Opening her eyes quickly, she shook away the strange vision.
There was a dull ache in her left temple. The bizarre image had
appeared so suddenly, it almost felt like someone else's thought
intruding into her mind.  After all, Julian wasn't that passive, was
he?  Or, rather, was she really that aggressive?  She wondered,
feeling a little frightened.

She glanced again at his penis.  "I have a surprise for you," she
said.

"What is it?"  He raised his head, but remained bent over in a posture
that suggested submission.  A flash of fire went through her groin.

"Something I thought you might be missing," she said, trying to sound
casual, but finding that her voice had grown a bit husky.  Pushing him
gently off her lap, she went over to her kit and extracted Lwaxana's
dildo.  "I borrowed it," she said, smiling.

"I'm surprised Odo could spare it," he said thinly.

"Apparently he doesn't like it.  I think he prefers the real thing."

"Well he hasn't been getting much of it lately--has he?" Julian asked,
trying not to sound concerned.

"Not since you, as far as I know," Kira reassured him.  "So, do you
want to try it?"

Bashir stood up and went to her, taking the instrument out of her hand
and examining it closely.  "I never really got a chance to see this,"
he said, smiling ruefully, "since it was behind me most of the time."
He turned it on and it started pulsing with heat.  "Well, Nerys?" he
asked, looking at her intensely.  "Do you want to know how it feels?"

"What?" she asked nervously, "the dildo?"

"No."  He turned it off and put it aside.  "Being taken from behind."

She looked at him incredulously.  "What makes you think..." she began
defensively, and then stopped to laugh at herself.  "Of course you
know I like to be penetrated with a finger, but the thought of taking
_you_ there is a little..."

"Scary?" he finished.  "I felt the same way.  Odo's much larger than I
am, remember.  But I know what I'm doing.  I won't hurt you."

"I had really been thinking about doing it to you," she said, still
resisting despite her building excitement just from talking about it.

"You can, of course," he said.  "I just thought that you might like to
go first."

"All right," she said doubtfully.  They walked over to the bed and lay
down together.  Kira knew he could feel her tension in her stiff
response to his deep kisses.  She broke away from his mouth.  "I don't
know, Julian."

"All right," he said.  "I just thought you might like it. Do you still
want to do it to me?"

"If you want it."

"Always," he said with a slight flush.  "I'm addicted to it."

His embarrassment combined with his obvious arousal turned her on.
She went quickly to the table and got the dildo, sticking it to her
vulva and activating it.  It felt warm and powerful.  She had the
sensation of carrying a new limb on her body, not an arm or a leg, but
a sort of tentacle that could reach actively out and go anywhere, get
her anything she wanted. And she wanted to take Julian, who awaited
her on the bed with a smile of anticipation.  "It's always a little
frightening," he said.  "It makes me feel very vulnerable."

A surge of aggression welled up within her chest and the words started
coming without any thought.  "I want it to," she said in a throaty
voice, pushing him over on his stomach and rubbing the thing over his
ass.  "I want to push hard and deep inside you.  I want you screaming
with pleasure when I fuck you. I want you fainting under me."

Julian turned a little pale as a shock wave of pleasure rode over his
body.  His heart was pounding and his cock was stiff, so he arched his
back and let her slide in.  They let out a sigh together as she pumped
slowly in and out, the intensity of her own responses keeping her from
going too fast.  Julian moaned and squirmed around under her.  They
rolled on their sides with her still inside him, and she took his
stiff member in one hand while she continued to pump into him.  He
pushed back against her, moving to get her as deep inside himself as
possible.  His inner warmth seemed to fill her, infusing her body from
the place where the dildo was attached.

Julian was making inarticulate cries of joy; he nearly _was_ screaming
with pleasure.  With one hand he had reached back to push and pull her
clenching bottom, while the other grabbed convulsively at the sheets.
She had never seen him like this. The sensations that the dildo was
sending her were new and strong, but nothing like what he seemed to be
experiencing. Julian climaxed with a shout, spurting semen so far it
didn't even touch the bed.  Kira came a few moments later, feeling as
if her pleasure went outward from her groin into him, instead of
radiating in waves from her deep core.

She pulled out of him, and he turned to face her.  They lay
contentedly pressing the still-attached dildo and his soft penis
between their bodies.  They slept and woke several hours later with
their hands still on each other.  Julian's penis was no longer soft.
Nerys detached the dildo.

"Do you still want to?" she asked bravely.

"Yes," he affirmed, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

She turned on her stomach and awaited his touch tensely. "Relax," he
breathed, kissing and caressing her back, "or I won't be able to get
inside."

"I can't," she said with annoyance.  "Why don't we forget it?"

"Let's just see how it goes," he whispered.  "We don't have to do it
that way."

For some reason she desperately wanted to and didn't quite want him to
know.  They started making love as they usually did, grabbing and
mouthing each other with abandon.  He licked her clit and bit her
tender labia gently, and she nipped and sucked the head of his penis,
smiling to herself when she made him grunt or sigh.  When she told him
to enter her, she thought with a twinge of disappointment that he
probably wouldn't take her from behind, having been scared off by her
reservations.  But, after he had spent a few minutes driving his penis
in and out of her vagina, when she had already come once and was
deeply aroused, he pulled out and asked her to roll over and lie on a
pillow.  With a thrill of fear and excitement, she complied.  She felt
his slippery hardness press against her opening.

"Tighten, and then relax," he instructed her.  When she had relaxed
again, he slipped inside slowly, stretching her so wide open she
groaned involuntarily with pleasure and pain.

"All right?" he asked, biting her shoulder and pushing gradually
further inside.

"Yes," she managed to say, "I'm all right."

He started out slowly and gradually increased the pace until she was
racked with unfamiliar sensations.  Although Julian carefully
supported his own weight on his knees and hands so she wouldn't feel
pinned, Kira felt a bit claustrophobic.  Being under him, unable to do
much more than squirm, made her angry and anxious and yet frantic with
excitement.  She felt filled and stretched, not only with his member,
but with a new warmth that overflowed from her core.  While it wasn't
as directly sexual as the sensation she got from taking his penis into
her vagina, the warmth spread everywhere and finally lodged in her
genitals. Meanwhile, he fingered her clit until she came.  The
pleasure throbbed all through her empty vagina and her full cleft,
until Julian's member finally grew hot and exploded within her.

"I see what you mean about that," she said later.  "It's very
intimate.  It's wonderful and humiliating at the same time."

"That's right," he said.  "I wondered if you'd experience it that
way."

"I'm starting to understand what you had with Odo, and a little bit
about what went wrong" she commented sympathetically. "I'd want to
murder anyone who did to me what Odo did to you.  I wouldn't ever be
able to trust him again.  Even with you being as gentle as you were,
it was a terrifying experience."

Julian held her tight.  "I'm sorry."

"Don't be.  I'm glad I tried it.  Someday maybe I'll be ready to try
it again."

They spent the night in a harmony so close that it astonished them
both.  Later on, when things went wrong, that night of closeness stood
them in good stead.

---

"Lieutenant, I'd like to see you in my office, please."

Dax was startled.  Sisko had come out so quietly that she hadn't known
he was looking down at her until he had spoken.

"Right away, Sir."  A young tech stepped up to take her place as she
mounted the few steps to Sisko's office.  He stood to one side of the
doors until she had entered, then went and sat down behind his desk.

"Sit down," he said, smiling.  "This might take a while."

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.  "What's it about?"

"This is about Jadzia Dax," Sisko began seriously, "Star Fleet
Lieutenant, and some problems she's been having."

"My work is fine, Benjamin.  I'm not sure what you mean." She
struggled to keep the anger out of her voice but did not entirely
succeed.

"I mean that you haven't been yourself lately, and I want to know
what's going on.  Friend to friend."

Dax folded her hands in her lap.  "I have nothing to say, Commander,"
she said, her face pale with tension.

"I'm speaking as your friend, Jadzia," Sisko said earnestly,
instinctively choosing the one of her names that was most closely
linked to the problem he perceived.  "You haven't been seeing your
friends.  You haven't been talking to me.  What are you doing,
Jadzia?"

She sighed.  "All right, you wanted to hear it.  But you might be
sorry.  Remember, we're speaking as friends."

Sisko made a steeple of his fingers and held it before his face.
"Agreed.  The Commander won't listen."  He grinned briefly.

She looked at the floor for a moment and then suddenly straight at
him.  "Two weeks ago, I walked in on a sexual encounter between Dr.
Bashir and Odo."

"Walked in on it?  You mean in the infirmary?"  He looked shocked.

"Never mind where," she said firmly.  "Only the Commander would want
to know that.  Do you want to hear this or not?" Sisko nodded and
remained silent.  "After all my good intentions, all my resolutions to
leave sex out of my life this time, I got involved."

"With Dr. Bashir?" Sisko asked, remembering the doctor's infatuation
for her.

"With both of them," Dax admitted, blushing, "and Kira, too."

"My, my," Sisko said thoughtfully, "I suppose none of us can control
our desires as we might like to."

"You seem to be able to."  She shot him a quick glance, and went on.
"I resolved not to do it again, but I did.  Twice more, in fact.  And
now..."  She trailed off.

"And now?" he prompted.

Her eyes flashed with sudden anger.  "Just letting myself go the first
time seemed to open the floodgates.  And now I'm still having strong
sexual thoughts.  About Kira and Bashir.  About Odo.  And about you."
They stared at each other in silence for a full minute.  "You wanted
to know," she whispered, and quickly left the office.

Sisko sat stunned in his chair.  He was still so wrapped up in
mourning for Jennifer that he had hardly allowed himself a sexual
thought since her death.  Once since then he had met a woman he
thought he could love, but she had turned out to be a telepath's
mental projection, a detached figment of someone's imagination.  The
woman didn't even remember him when she recovered.  Sisko had been
deeply hurt by that, and had almost completely retreated from
emotional attachments.  Love affairs had been out of the question.

He loved his son, and he shared a warm friendship with Dax. His
relationship with Kira was warmer than before, but not really close.
He liked Odo, Bashir, O'Brien, and others he worked with every day,
but he didn't know them well, and he didn't encourage any attempts at
closeness.

Now Jadzia Dax said she had sexual thoughts about him...  He thought
of Curzon Dax, his old friend.  The old man wasn't very partial to men
as lovers, and neither was Sisko, so the question of an affair between
them had never come up.  But Curzon's exploits with women were
notorious.  Both Curzon and Jadzia had occasionally hinted that the
other Daxes hadn't been too good at keeping their pants on, either.
Maybe it was the symbiont. Maybe Jadzia, as the host, was resisting
the symbiont's desires. What that possible?  Or maybe it was the other
way around.  Sisko frowned with frustration.

The first thing he had to worry about was that his officer and friend
was in distress because of feelings she was having about himself,
feelings that shouldn't be guilt-ridden even if he didn't return them.
He needed to talk to her again.

"Computer, locate Lieutenant Dax."

"Lieutenant Dax is in the infirmary."

Sisko sat back in surprise.  Was she seeking out Bashir as a friend, a
doctor, or a lover?  He got up from his chair and headed for the
infirmary.

---

"Just relax," Bashir was saying soothingly to his patient. "Dr.
T'Letra is going to try to help you control the frightening feelings."

"And the pictures I see?" asked Calla, a young Bajoran woman.  She
spoke in a terrified whisper and clung to Julian's arm desperately.
Kira, who stood by the doorway trying to be as unobtrusive as
possible, realized again what a caring doctor Bashir was, and how
lucky they were to have him on DS9.  The same feelings that
complicated his personal relations with herself, Jadzia, and Odo
enabled him to gain his patients' trust and affection.  Kira
suppressed a sigh.  Despite his insecurities and occasional obsessive
talking binges, he was a good person, and she was glad she had finally
had a chance to see that.

"I'm ready," Calla said bravely.

"Good," smiled Bashir, giving her arm a squeeze.  "remember, I'll be
right here if you need me."  He took up his tricorder, ready to
monitor the patient's condition during the meld.

Dr. T'Letra walked over to the Bajoran woman's side.  She wore a loose
robe like most Vulcan civilians, and her ancient face was still and
dignified, if not stern.  Bashir judged her to be at least 200 years
old.  Placing her hands on Calla's head, she started the ritual.

"My thoughts to your thoughts.  My mind to your mind..."

Jadzia walked quietly into the infirmary, and went over to stand by
Kira's side.  "What's happening?" she whispered.

The touch of Jadzia's breath on Kira's cheek sent chills down her
spine.  Trying not to betray her desire, Kira quickly explained.  Then
they watched in silence as the Vulcan and Bajoran worked together.
T'Letra muttered unintelligibly, and then Calla gave a brief cry,
saying sharply, "yes!" before falling silent again.  T'Letra moved
slowly around, carefully shifting the spots her fingers touched.

Someone walked in softly behind Dax and Kira.  It was Sisko.
"Lieutenant," he breathed, "when you're done in here I'd like to talk
to you."

"I have nothing else to say to you, Benjamin."

Kira turned involuntarily to stare at Dax, surprised by the tone she
was taking with Sisko.  Was the Trill alienated from Sisko now?  Whom
did she have left?

Calla started panting, and Bashir got a worried look on his face.
"T'Letra," he said urgently, "her vital signs are failing. She doesn't
have enough oxygen in her blood."  By now, Calla was gasping for
breath.  "She's suffocating!" Bashir cried.  "Break the link!"
T'Letra ignored him, still muttering, seeming to tighten her grip on
Calla as the doctor's pleas became more urgent.

"T'Letra!" Bashir cried angrily, dropping his tricorder and taking the
Vulcan's wrists in his hands.

Immediately he let out a horrified gasp and fell away to the floor,
where he rolled into a fetal position and lay shivering with closed
eyes.  Kira ran over to him and took her head into her hands.  As soon
she had touched his skin, she howled in terror and grabbed her own
head, falling down beside him.  She saw herself during the Cardassian
war, saw herself killing out of fury and need, covered with her
victims' gore.  The vision passed, and she saw herself with Julian,
caressing his hard-on, and bringing it to her lips, only to push it
cruelly away.  Then she saw that he was kneeling before her, begging
for release, weighed down by the massive chains around his every limb.

Dax felt a stab of pain behind her eyes and another where the symbiont
lived, and suddenly she saw terrifying visions of blood and
destruction accumulated during all her lives dancing before her eyes.
She staggered and fell back into Sisko's arms. They dropped together
to the floor.  And her mind suddenly focussed on him, on his naked
body wrapped around hers while their pelvises pounded together.

"No, no!  Not Jennifer," she heard Sisko whisper.  His face was
contorted with anguish and his voice carried more pain than she had
ever heard in it.  With an effort, she rose and knelt next to him.

"Benjamin?" she asked urgently, feeling the pulse in the side of his
neck.

His eyes opened suddenly, and they were smiling.  She let herself go
staring deep into their secrets, and she saw herself there.  "Jadzia,"
he said softly, reaching up to stroke her face, "I had something to
tell you, but I don't know what it was."  His face broke into the most
radiant smile, making her smile, too, despite her fright.

"You'll be all right, Benjamin.  Stay here and rest while I check on
Kira and Julian."  Dax felt uneasy; there was something unusual about
his manner and tone.

"Don't go, Jadzia.  I remembered what I wanted to say."

"What?"  She felt powerfully drawn to him.  A throbbing began deep
inside her.

"I wanted to say that I love you," he said, "and I don't think I've
ever loved anyone else."

Dax sat back on her heels in astonishment.  Sisko had just said he
loved her, when she knew very well that he didn't.  What had happened
just now?  What were those chaotic thoughts that had gone through her
head when Julian touched T'Letra?  She stumbled to her feet and went
to the Vulcan, who was bending over Dr. Bashir.  Calla lay on the
table with her eyes closed, breathing raggedly.

"He appears to be catatonic," T'Letra said neutrally. Julian's eyelids
were fluttering and his eyes were rolled back in his head, while his
lips seemed to whisper silent words.  The color in his face was
heightened.

Kira sat with her head in her hands.  "What happened?" she groaned.
"When I touched Julian I suddenly started hallucinating."

"So did I," said Dax with surprise, "and Benjamin was talking very
strangely, too."  With a pang of regret, she hoped that his delusion
would prove to be as momentary as hers and Kira's.  She picked up
Julian's tricorder and scanned him.  Dr. T'Letra stood beside her and
looked at the readout.

"Give me a hypospray," she ordered.  Dax glanced at Kira, who shrugged
and nodded imperceptibly.  Dax got the hypo.  "I'm giving him a triox
compound," the Vulcan continued.  "The syncope resulted from the
presence of too little oxygen in his blood."

"That's what he said about Calla," Kira observed.  "He thought it was
caused by the meld."

"It was not," T'Letra said intimidatingly.  "He knew nothing about it.
And it is sometimes dangerous to interfere in things one knows nothing
about."

Kira opened her mouth to respond when Julian stirred slightly and
rolled on his back.  She squatted down beside him. "Julian, can you
hear me?"

"Nerys?" he said hollowly.  "Oh, Nerys, I couldn't find you. Odo was
there, and he..."  Julian opened his eyes.  "It was a hallucination,
wasn't it?" he breathed.

"Yes.  But what did you see?"  Somehow she thought it might be
important to compare their ugly visions.

"It was Odo.  He liquefied and flowed all over me.  He covered me up,
starting with my feet, and ending with my mouth and nose.  I couldn't
breathe, and he was laughing..."  Julian had to wrench the words out
of himself.  "I pulled him off and... and cut him into pieces."  His
voice trembled and his face still looked pale with the horror of it.

Kira desperately wanted to reassure him, guilty as she felt about her
own vision.  "It was just a dream, Julian.  Odo isn't here, and he
can't be cut to pieces anyway.  Dr. T'Letra says that you didn't have
enough oxygen in your blood."

"Neither did Calla," he remembered, struggling to rise.  He pushed
past Kira's restraining arm and walked unsteadily to his patient's
bedside.  "She needs a triox compound," he said.  Dax handed him the
hypospray.  He looked questioningly at her as checked the setting and
gave Calla a shot.

"That's what Dr. T'Letra gave you," Dax said.

Bashir looked around the infirmary, but T'Letra had slipped away.  "I
need to talk to her," he muttered, and happened to glance over at
Sisko, who was just rising.  "Commander," he exclaimed, walking
quickly over running his tricorder, "don't tell me you were affected,
too?"

Sisko adjusted his uniform.  "I came down here to talk to Dax," he
remembered.  "Will you come back to OPS with me, Lieutenant?"

"Don't you think we need to settle what happened here first?" she
replied.  "We all had some sort of hallucinatory experience, and Dr.
T'Letra claimed it wasn't from the meld, but I don't see how it
couldn't be.  It happened just when Julian touched T'Letra's arm."

"You're fine," Bashir pronounced, switching off the instrument.
"We're all fine.  Now I wish I knew what happened to us."

"And it's up to you to find out,"  Sisko said to him with a wry smile.

"I'd like to do some more tests," Julian began.

"Not now," Sisko said flatly.  "I'll come back later. Lieutenant, I
need you with me now," he said insistently, turning to Dax.  "And
that's an order."  Pursing her lips, Dax went along with him silently.

When they had left, Julian turned to monitor Calla.  "She's all
right," he said with relief in his voice.  "She could wake up any
time, but I want her to sleep for a while longer."  After placing a
small device on Calla's forehead, he turned and looked at Kira
curiously.  "So, what did you see?"

"Myself--killing Cardassians, feeling terrified and disgusted.  In
short, the war."  She looked pale.

"That's all?"

Kira wondered whether to withhold the part about Julian, but decided
it wouldn't be wise.  "I also saw you."

Julian frowned.  "I hope I didn't do anything awful to you."

"No, not at all.  I did something awful to you."  She did not seem
inclined to continue.

"What?" he asked curiously.

She took a deep breath.  "You were naked and you had chains around
your arms, legs, and neck," she answered, finding with annoyance that
she was starting to become aroused.  "You were completely weighed down
with them.  You were my slave."

Julian smiled slightly.  "But I am your slave," he joked.

"It isn't funny, Julian.  You were my slave, and I was doing cruel
things to you.  You were begging me to make you come."

Bashir winced.  "Ouch," he said, "that reminds me of what you saw me
do to Odo.  So maybe it was just a dream."  He paused, monitoring
Calla again.  "I'm going to let her sleep," he said, putting up the
sides on the bed.  Come into my office."

They walked together into the other room.  "I wouldn't want her to
wake up to this conversation," he said, "but I think we should
continue it.  Something strange happened in there.  When I touched
T'Letra, it was as if a bolt of electricity travelled up my arm.  When
it seemed to reach my head, I exploded into that vision.  And, I don't
know about you, but mine was sexual, at least at first, although the
end was horrifying."

"What do you mean by sexual?  Arousing?"

"Yes.  Wasn't yours?"

"Yes," she admitted reluctantly, "and it still is.  Every time I think
of that image of you kneeling before me in chains..."

"I see."  He cut off her words.  "Nerys, I can't leave the infirmary
until I discharge Calla, but someone ought to track Dr. T'Letra down."

"I will.  And I'll tell Odo what happened, too.  He may want to talk
to you."

"I know," said Julian resignedly.  "I'll have to face him sooner or
later."

As Kira turned to leave, Julian called her name.  "Yes?" she answered.

"What about tonight?"

"After what I thought about you?"

Bashir shrugged.  "You didn't do it on purpose; it was just a mental
image.  I thought we could comfort each other.  And discuss it a bit
more."

"All right," she conceded.  "I'll come to your quarters when I'm off
shift."

"Good," he said, smiling with relief.

---

Sisko walked so swiftly to the turbolift that Dax had to jog to keep
up.  "In a hurry, Benjamin?" she joked.  "Is something wrong?"

He looked at her as if she ought to know.  "Habitat ring," he ordered
the lift.

Dax's face revealed her concern.  "Where are we going, Benjamin?"

"To your quarters," he smiled.  "I wouldn't want Jake to walk in on
us."

"Why?" Jadzia asked in complete bewilderment.  "Because I said I'd had
sexual thoughts about you?"

"And I said I wanted you, too.  So why does this surprise you?"  His
tone was impatient.

"Because something isn't right here," Dax said anxiously. "A half hour
ago, when I told you I'd been thinking about you, you were shocked.
You had no feelings for me except friendship then, I was sure.  It was
only after Julian broke the meld that..."

"What are you saying?" he asked, turning on her angrily. "Now that
I've admitted my feelings, you're saying you don't really have any for
me?"

"Of course I do, Benjamin.  I just want to make sure that you're not
being influenced."

"Influenced?" he scoffed.  "How could I be influenced?  By what?  Do
you think the Vulcan doctor is using mind control on me?"  He laughed
deep in his chest, getting the devilish look on his face that Jadzia
loved to see.  "Maybe she infected us with desire so we'd leave and
she could have Dr. Bashir all to herself."  The lift stopped, and they
walked down the almost- empty habitat ring.

"What do you think really happened?" Jadzia asked curiously.

He shrugged.  "It must have been some temporary effect from the meld.
When Bashir broke the link, T'Letra lost her control and put images
into all our minds.  And it isn't surprising that they were upsetting
images, since that's what she was trying to rid the Bajoran woman of."

They reached Jadzia's quarters and went inside.  Facing each other,
they stopped and waited for the doors to slide closed. "Jadzia," Sisko
said softly, holding her chin with two fingers. "At last."

Jadzia's body pulsed inside and out with longing.  Seldom were host
and symbiont so much in harmony as during an intimate act that both
desired.  She realized that Dax was taking the lead here, using
Jadzia's more recent desire for Sisko to propel her to act on its own
longstanding love.  She let go of her fear and reached up to take him
in her arms.

He bore down upon her mouth, kissing her deeply and then mouthing her
face and neck with his lips, murmuring soft words, and making sounds
of pleasure in his throat.  Jadzia felt his muscular back and arms
through the uniform, and then reached up under it to run her hands
along his smooth skin that seemed to tingle with energy.  He lifted
her easily and carried her to the bed, where he ran his hands down her
legs, watching her face all the time, and then removed her boots,
taking each foot in his hands in turn and massaging it with his
powerful fingers. Running his hands back up her legs, he pushed under
her uniform top, raising it slowly above her breasts.

"Beautiful," he murmured, rubbing his face around her nipples before
taking one in his mouth and caressing it softly with his tongue.  His
short stubble scraped like light sandpaper over her skin, leaving a
slight sting in its wake.  Jadzia kissed his head, feeling the wiry
hairs against her lips.  His male scent, which was indescribably and
uniquely his, aroused her deeply.

When he moved his head up to kiss her again, she grabbed him hard
against her, thrusting her tongue deep into his mouth.  She felt his
muscles tense involuntarily and his erection press against her.
Moving her hands down his sides, she gripped the bottom of his shirt
and started to pull it off.  He cooperated, raising his chest off of
hers and letting her pull the shirt over his head.  Now the skin of
their chests was in full contact. Jadzia rolled her fists around in
the damp space under his arms, and felt his tendons and muscles ripple
as he moved his hands over her body.

Benjamin backed off her for a moment to remove his boots, and Jadzia
took off her own shirt and boots, and started undoing her pants.
"No," he said, stopping her with a smile.  "Let me." Running his hands
down her chest, he paused at her waist, and then slowly moved the
clothes down until they reached her thighs, caressing her as he went.
She raised her knees, and he swiftly pulled her pants off, leaving her
naked.  He knelt between her legs and smiled, taking his time admiring
her body.  Opening her legs, he licked her thighs with small touches
of his tongue, working slowly towards her opening labia.  His tongue
finally slipped inside, capturing her clitoris in a whirlwind of
sensation.  His fingers probed her vagina, slipping easily around to
her cleft to probe there, too.  He threw her an impish glance over her
public hair.  Jadzia suddenly felt a strong urge to push him down and
inspect every beautiful inch of him.  She was through being passive;
she wanted to undress him now.

Sitting up to face him, she placed both hands against his chest,
admiring the shiny darkness of his flawless skin.  "Lie down,
Benjamin," she ordered gently.

"All right."  He raised an eyebrow as if to ask her what she had in
mind, but complied immediately.

After playing with his nipples for a while to see how sensitive they
were, she mouthed her way down to his pants. Grabbing the waist, she
moved them down over his hips, releasing his erection.  It was lighter
in color than the rest of his skin, showing up like a beacon against
the mahogany of his belly.  She could hardly force herself to remove
his pants before pouncing on it, kissing it all over and putting it
deep down her throat.  He responded energetically to everything he
did, keeping his eyes and hands on her, and moving around under her
touch.

Jadzia lay her head against his belly and felt the soft hairs brush
against her face.  Moving up, she listened to his strong heartbeat
while his erection pulsed eagerly against her belly.  She met his
eyes; he was looking at her with a slightly bemused, happy expression.
Unable to stop herself, she poised her body over him and guided his
erection to her vagina.  For several minutes she held just the head of
his cock inside her, making slight movements.  Sisko's face revealed
all he felt: the sweet anticipation, the tormenting wait.  He massaged
her thighs, her buns, and her clit, watching to see how long she could
hold out.  She started to come from his touch and, with a moan, thrust
him all the way inside her as her orgasm grew into an overwhelming
interval of continuous bliss.  Hardly aware of anything but their
interlocked bodies and her own pleasure, she still knew that he
watched her with the same attentive look that expressed his joy at
doing this with her.

When her first orgasms had finished and she gave him a look full of
recognition, he carefully sat up without removing his penis from her
body.  Facing each other, wrapped in each other's legs, they both felt
intensely aroused.  They sat almost still, kissing and then stopping
to contemplate and touch each other's bodies.  The stiller they were,
the more conscious Jadzia became of his throbbing member stretching
her and filling her up.  She became aware of new sensitive places
inside her she hadn't felt before that were stimulated by the simple
fact of his pulsating presence there.  Sisko felt as if his penis were
becoming more connected to her every second, as if the two of them
would soon become one.  At the moment of the closest connection, when
he could feel Jadzia begin to throb around and through him in a rush
of pleasure, he came.

His orgasm was not his alone.  She felt the rush of semen from within
and without, while he felt an inner throbbing and was surrounded by
it.  When they finished and lay down in each other's arms, Jadzia felt
uneasy again.

"Benjamin," she whispered, "is it possible that the meld is still
working on us?  I think I experienced some of your feelings just now."

"Stop worrying," he said softly in her ear.  "We're together.  That's
all I can think about now."  He lay partly on top of her and stroked
her hair.  His erection rose again, pressing insistently against her
thigh.  Once again she let her anxiety drop away and embraced him as
he pushed deep inside her, sighing her name.

---

Two hours after the meld, Calla awoke smiling with relief. Instead of
having horrible, violent dreams, she had rested quietly, dreaming of
her family and her school on Bajor.  Bashir did a complete physical
and found that the physiological signs of long-term stress were
starting to reverse themselves.  When her parents came, he released
her into their care.  Normally their profuse thanks would have
gratified him, but right then he wanted to be alone to find T'Letra
and start sorting out the morning's events.  He still shuddered every
time he thought of his awful vision.  The feelings remained immediate
and real.

When the Bajoran family had left, he called Kira on his communicator,
but she said she had been unable to find the Vulcan doctor.

"Actually, I did locate her, but the computer said she refused the
connection," Kira corrected herself.  "And I can't go to her quarters
because I'm stuck in OPS alone.  Sisko and Kira aren't here.  And, by
the way, I found out that Odo's on Bajor with Lwaxana."

"What for?"

"I don't know.  A vacation, I guess."

"Odo took a vacation?" Julian asked, surprised.  "That's a first.
Where's T'Letra?"

"Locked in her quarters."

"Let me try," Julian suggested.  "Maybe she'd be willing to discuss my
patient with me."

"How is your patient?"

"Fine.  I released her.  I wish I could say the same for myself."

"Are you still feeling upset?" Kira asked hesitantly.

"Yes, are you?"

"Yes."  She didn't elaborate.

"We can discuss it tonight."

"Right.  Kira out."

Bashir sat at his desk and thought for a moment.  The idea that Dax
and Sisko were not in OPS unaccountably bothered him. "Computer," he
said on an impulse, "locate Commander Sisko and Lieutenant Dax."

"Commander Sisko and Lieutenant Dax are in Lieutenant Dax's quarters."

Julian's jaw dropped in surprise.  "How long have they been there?" he
continued.

"Two hours, thirty-seven minutes, twelve seconds."

"I'm sorry I asked," Julian whispered to no one in particular.

---

As he arrived at Dr. T'Letra's quarters, Julian realized that his mind
was far too jumbled for a rational discussion.  He stood outside for a
moment trying to compose himself and focus on the problem at hand.
Suddenly the door slid open and T'Letra stood there, regarding him
coolly.

"Dr. Bashir?" said T'Letra in her haughty voice.  "Did you come to
talk to me, or to stare at my door?"

"I'd like to talk to you," he said, blushing deeply.  "I was just
collecting my thoughts."

"Then come in."  She led him to the table in the middle of the spartan
guest quarters and sat down.  Some guests seemed lost in these stark
rooms, but for T'Letra they were the perfect frame.  Her erect
carriage and stern face would have disdained less utilitarian
surroundings.

"Doctor, I wanted to talk to you about what happened today," Bashir
began.

"That was not my responsibility, doctor."

"First of all, I mean what happened to my patient."

T'Letra nodded approvingly.  "Yes.  She is cured, is she not?"

"She appears to be," Julian agreed, "but can you tell me more about
what happened during the meld?"

"When she was injured she fell in water."  T'Letra avoided the
question.

"Yes," Julian answered, "she hit her head on some rocks while diving."

"That is why she suddenly had too little oxygen in her blood, because
she had to relive the trauma with her mind as well as her body."

"I see," commented Julian, wishing that he could get T'Letra to tell
him more about the mind meld and how it worked, "but why did I also
have an oxygen deficiency?  And why did we all have traumatic
thoughts, both of things that happened and things that haven't
happened?"

"You should not have broken the meld," T'Letra said sharply, staring
hard into his face.  "You turned my mental energy away from the
patient and released it outward where all of you could receive it.  It
was not meant for you, but for the young patient. All my efforts were
concentrated on helping her recover the memory of a traumatic event,
so your contact with my mind necessarily caused you to have unpleasant
thoughts as well. Those thoughts that seemed unreal are probably
symbolic of real events."  Her disdain was palpable.

"I understand why Major Kira and I had those thoughts, but why were
Commander Sisko and Lieutenant Kira affected?"  T'Letra regarded him
silently.  Julian knew very well that she wanted to end the
discussion, but he pursued her stubbornly, trying a different
approach.  "Calla was suffocating," he argued, "so I had to stop you.
What I don't understand is why you left immediately afterwards instead
of trying to help us.  We were clearly all in distress."

"I needed to compose myself after the meld," she said simply, looking
away from him.

"So you can't help me to sort out the images we saw?  I'm only asking
because they don't seen to be temporary."  He thought of Dax and
Sisko.  "Some of us may be having lasting effects."

She shook her head briefly, once.

"What about melding with me?" he asked.

"That would not be appropriate," she said in a monotone, and rose
abruptly from her chair.  "I have a difficult meditation to
accomplish," she said forbiddingly.  "It is time for you to leave."

Julian left without saying another word, feeling hopelessly
frustrated.

---

Kira found Bashir already lying in bed when she arrived at his
quarters.

"Is that vision still getting you down?" she asked sympathetically.
"Because I'm still thinking about mine, too."

"Tell me about it," he said, tiredly massaging her shoulder as she lay
next to him.

"I'm not sure it will make you feel any better," she said ruefully.

"That's all right.  I just want to figure this thing out." He paused.
"Did you ever see Dax or Sisko again today?"

"No."

"But you asked the computer where they were, just like I did."

"It's their business," she started angrily, but her heart wasn't in
it.  "It was sort of a coincidence," she remarked.

"More than a coincidence, I think," said Bashir.  "You and I both had
sexual feelings in our visions, so why assume that they didn't?"

"But you haven't run out and asked Odo to melt over you. And I haven't
put you in chains," she pointed out.

"So, tell me about it," he suggested again.  "Maybe it will help."

She sighed and began.  "First I was killing, covered in blood.  I
relived things that had really happened, but they hadn't all happened
at once."  She paused.

"I see.  And then?" he prompted her.

"Then it just switched to a vision of you."  The image returned to her
mind as she spoke, and once again she could see Julian sobbing on his
knees, weighed down by shackles around his limbs.  A metal collar
surrounded his throat; from behind it came a heavy chain that was
joined to the smaller chains attached to his limbs.  His erection was
engorged, rock hard, and his hands were clenched at his sides in his
longing to touch it, knowing he was forbidden to.

"You were kneeling before me in chains.  I was teasing you, and you
were crying and begging me to make you come.  And I found it
arousing."  A tear of shame started from Nerys's eye.  "It's still so
vivid," she said angrily, wiping her face.  Julian crouched over her
and put his hands on her shoulders.

"It wasn't real," he said firmly.  "You didn't do anything to hurt
me."

"What if I do?" she asked painfully.

"I won't let you."  Bashir's face looked reassuring.

"I don't quite believe that," Kira said, turning her face away.
"You're getting... attached to me.  And I know what you let Odo do to
you, and I saw what you did to Odo.  I don't..." Her voice trailed
off, choked with emotion.  "I don't want to hurt you if I lose control
of myself the way Sisko and Dax seem to have done," she finished in a
whisper.

"I'm not afraid," Julian said firmly.  "Not that you couldn't hurt me
if you set out to, but I know you won't."

"How can you know that when I don't?" Kira asked sharply.

"Because I know something that you won't admit.  You're getting
attached to me, too."

Kira looked at up his face as he looked down at hers.  She had always
thought he had an absurd face, with its large, rounded forehead and
slightly bulging eyes that gave him a perpetual expression of
innocence and wonder.  Lately, however, she had found herself touching
that face tenderly, taking great pleasure in tracing its lineaments
with one finger.  She had rationalized these moments as the closeness
that often followed sex, even if her partner had been completely
forgettable in every other way. But she had spent four nights with
Bashir, each one more intense than the last.  The thought of getting
up and going to her room alone gave her a pang of sorrow.  She reached
up and put a finger to his lips.

"You're right," she said, amazed.

Julian eased himself down on her and held her tight with his face in
her hair.  Nerys slid her hands up under his t-shirt and massaged his
thin shoulders.  Their mouths came together, and their tongues met in
a frantic dance.  Julian straddled her and pulled his shirt over his
head before he started to undress her slowly, running his fingertips
over each newly bared expanse of skin.  Nerys felt the fire in his
touch that had drawn her to him as a lover, but she noticed a new
confidence in his movements that had always been missing.  She
realized it was because of her, of what she had admitted about her
feelings for him.  He must have known that she hadn't thought much of
him before.  When they became lovers, he thought he was just a
substitute for Jadzia.  Through his efforts and patience, he had made
her care for him, and now he was showing her what that meant to him.

When she was completely naked and he still wore his black briefs,
which failed to contain his erection, he began to mouth and lick every
inch of her, beginning with her toes, working up her legs to her
vulva, where he spent some time, and then moving on to her belly, her
breasts, her arms, shoulders, and face. Despite her intense arousal,
she let him do what he wanted, realizing that he had often let her
take the lead before, but that she hadn't ever been patient enough to
let him finish his perusal of her body.

By the time he had finished, she was vibrating like a string.  When he
finally slipped his tongue between her labia again, she exploded into
ecstasy with a shout, grabbing his head with her legs and hands.  Her
spasms lasted several minutes, dying down and then renewing themselves
until she lay back exhausted.  Julian slid into her arms, entering her
swiftly and moving in and out with smooth, even strokes.  She came one
final time just before he reached his climax, when he pushed inside
her as deeply as he could and then held still, throwing back his head
and gasping with abandon as his throbbing organ filled her.

They had not been still very long when she once again felt his
stiffness pressing against her leg and put her hand down to squeeze
it.  She laughed when she found that he was still wearing his briefs.
To tease him, she pulled them up to cover his erection and then put
her hand inside.  This clearly excited him. They lay quietly for a
while as she caressed him.  Finally, she sat up.

"There's only one thing I can think of to do for you that might even
approach what you just gave me," she said, rising.

"I wonder if I can guess?" Julian laughed.  He lay on his back with
his hands folded under his head.  His cock stood up so hard and stiff
it had pushed his briefs partway down again.

Nerys returned with the dildo.  When she attached it and turned it on,
it seemed to come alive.  Standing next to the bed for a moment, she
let him admire it on her.

"You know," she said, "I've learned something about you. When you let
Odo do... what he did to you--twice--and even when you got him back, I
thought that you didn't know how to stand up for yourself unless the
other person was tied down.  I suppose that was why I had that vision
of you as a slave--that's how I used to think of you.  But now I know
you do know how to take charge, and you know how to take care of
yourself.  You just like to give up control sometimes, to someone you
trust.  That was hard for me to understand because I've always been
much too afraid to give it up to anyone."

He shook his head.  "That's just the way you are.  You don't happen to
like being passive very often."

"That's true, but there's more to it than that.  I never knew how to
let go.  You've helped me with that."  She knelt on the bed and took
off his briefs, caressing his hard-on with both hands until he
couldn't keep from moving around.  "Turn over and lie here," she told
him, indicating a pillow.  Before obeying, he pulled her down to him
for a deep kiss.

Poising herself over his cleft, she spread his buns and watched the
dildo's sizeable tip enter him slowly as he groaned and pushed against
her.  When she was fully inside, she paused for a moment and then
pumped into him hard, making him gasp and pant with excitement.

Lying on his back, she grasped his erection, stroking it with long
thrusts of her hand as she pumped the dildo in and out. She felt him
resisting the beginning of his orgasm, trying to make it last, and she
backed off a bit until he had control.  At last, she heard him groan
and sigh from deep in his chest, and she knew that his climax was
inevitable.  As he screamed and shouted her name, lunging furiously
against her hand and the dildo, she also fell into waves of pleasure,
losing in the process all the fears from her recent vision.

---

When Jadzia stirred and sighed, Benjamin peered over her shoulder into
her face.  "Are you awake?"

"Hmm-hmm," she answered, still a bit groggy.

Leaning from behind her, where his body cupped her back, he put his
lips against hers and slowly started turning her over. She turned for
him willingly, grabbing his buns to tell him that his touch was
starting to arouse her again.  He got the message, moving over her to
lie with his massive erection pressing between her legs.  She reached
down to feel it.  The foreskin had barely parted from the glans, which
was slippery with pre-ejaculate. Jadzia smiled and ran her hand up and
down its length a few times, finally pushing it towards her vagina.

Sisko sighed as he entered her, stroking the hair tenderly back from
her forehead.  "Jadzia," he said.

"What, Benjamin?"

"Just, Jadzia."  He said her name slowly, savoring it with his whole
mouth.  "Jadzia," he said again with his mouth over hers.  She felt
her name vibrate unfamiliarly from his tongue, making it feel exotic
and new even to herself.  Her fingers walked from his buns, up his
spine, to his sinewy shoulders.  She felt him shiver with delight.
"Jadzia," he said again with his mouth over her breast.

Jadzia came, for perhaps the thirtieth time that day, with a sense of
constant wonder that this man was really in her bed sharing this
amazing day and night with her, when she had thought it would never
happen.  Now that it was happening, she wasn't sure why.

Benjamin drove into her steadily, his small sounds telling her about
the progress of his own arousal.  That was the best surprise about
making love to him: she would never have guessed how vocal and
responsive he would be, showing her how his feelings and sensations
progressed from moment to moment.  Now he was so close to coming that
his words were growing rushed and wild, mixing with inarticulate
sounds of pleasure, until his last few strokes, when he slipped his
arms around her, lifting her off the bed and holding her against him,
sighing into her tousled hair.

"How do you feel, Jadzia?" Benjamin asked a while later, as they lay
exhausted in a close embrace.

"Better than I have in a long time.  But I'm still a bit worried,
Benjamin."

"Why?"

"When you fell in the infirmary, you said Jennifer's name, and you
seemed to be reliving her death."  She paused, not wanting to spoil
the moment, but feeling that this was too important to put off any
longer.  "When you said you loved me, and you had never loved anyone
else, I thought..."

"You thought what?" he asked sharply.

"I thought you had lost your memory.  I thought that, for a minute,
you didn't remember Jennifer."

Sisko was silent too long.  Jadzia wondered whether the mention of his
dead wife's name had stirred up guilt or unresolved sorrow.

"Benjamin?" she prompted.

"Yes?"

"What are you feeling?  I'm sorry if I made you unhappy by bringing up
Jennifer."

"No, not at all," he reassured her.  "You've just made me feel a bit
confused.  I'm trying to remember if I know anyone named Jennifer."

Dax looked at his face.  His brows were knit, and he looked truly
perplexed, not that he would ever have joked about that subject.
"Benjamin, something is wrong here," she whispered with mounting
panic.

"Really?" Sisko asked curiously.  "What makes you say that?"

"Dax to Bashir," came the urgent summons.  Julian sat up quickly in
the dark.  "Lights at ten percent," he said hoarsely. "This is Bashir.
What's wrong, Dax?"

"Julian, something's wrong with Sisko.  He's experienced a significant
memory loss, probably from our experience this morning."

"Significant?  In what way?" Julian asked, frowning.  He felt Kira
stirring beside him.

"He can't remember anything at all about his first wife, Jennifer."

"Does he remember Jake?"

"Yes.  But he can't remember who Jake's mother was."

"I'll meet you in the infirmary in five minutes," Julian said, looking
around for his pants.

"Thanks, Julian.  Dax out."

"I'm coming with you," said Kira, pulling on her shirt.

"You won't hear any argument from me," Julian answered, frantically
searching for his left boot.

They raced down to the infirmary and found Dax and Sisko already
waiting outside.  Dax looked more upset than Kira or Bashir had ever
seen her, while Sisko looked annoyed and a little bewildered.

"Jadzia has convinced me that I've lost a significant portion of my
memories," he said stiffly, once they were all settled in Bashir's
office, "but I honestly have no recollection of anything from that
time.  Not even of Jake as a baby," he added, looking disturbed.

Julian had wheeled in a cart filled with medical instruments, and was
watching his scanner carefully.  "You show signs of stress," he began,
finally shutting off the tricorder. "It's also clear to me that you've
recently undergone intense emotion."  Julian blushed in spite of
himself.  "But, if there's any organic cause for all this, I can't
find it."

Sisko sighed in frustration and gave Bashir an angry look. "So you're
saying that nothing is wrong?"

"No, Commander," Julian said urgently, "something is most certainly
wrong.  It must be an effect of the meld.  We were all affected to
some degree, but you seem to have been hit the hardest.  The loss of a
large piece of one's memory is usually caused by trauma.  In this
case, the trauma was mental and emotional, rather than physical."

"Then what do we do about it?  If you can't detect it with your
instruments, then you can't cure it.  Is that what you're saying?"

"I can't cure it," Julian admitted, "but I know someone who can."

"T'Letra?" Dax asked.  Julian nodded.  "But, Julian, she caused the
problem in the first place."

"She caused us problems when I broke the meld, but she cured Calla."

"I see."  Sisko considered for a moment with his eyes lowered.  He
felt vulnerable before his officers, suddenly in the position of
having to trust them to tell him things he ought to know about
himself.  "Very well, doctor.  There doesn't seem to be any other
choice.  Try to set it up in the morning, as soon as possible."

"I suggest that we wait until Lwaxana Troi returns from Bajor," Kira
put in.  "She's a trained telepath, so maybe she can help."

"When is she coming back?" Julian asked quickly, thinking of Odo.

"Today, I think," Kira said.

"All right, then.  I'll speak to T'Letra, but we won't actually do the
meld until Lwaxana can be present?"  Bashir looked at Sisko for
confirmation.

"That's right," Sisko said quietly.

"Now I suggest that you get some rest," Julian said, trying not to
blush again as Dax walked out with Sisko.

Nerys went back to Julian's quarters with him, where they both fell
immediately back asleep.

---

"Oh, my!" exclaimed Lwaxana Troi, holding her forehead.  She had
stopped so suddenly that another passenger from the Bajoran shuttle
nearly fell trying to avoid walking right into her.

"Excuse me," he said with a touch of annoyance.

"Well?  Go ahead!" Lwaxana snapped rudely, as she looked around in
confusion.  Taking her arm, Odo led her out into the docking ring
where they stood near the wall, letting the others pass.

"Lwaxana?" Odo inquired, looking into her face.  "Is something wrong?"

"I'm so exhausted after the last few days," she said, putting a hand
to her forehead, "but something isn't right here."

"What?" asked Odo anxiously, immediately reassuming his role as Chief
of Security.

"That's just it," she said with frustration.  "I don't know. I have to
sleep."  She looked pale and angry.  "You go see Dr. Bashir.  I have
to get some rest so I can sort this out.  There's a telepathic
presence on this station..."

"I thought you were coming with me to see Bashir," Odo said, looking
worried.

"Well, I can't now.  You'll have to do it by yourself."  She left her
bags lying in the hallway and started to walk away.  Odo picked them
up and followed her.  She stopped suddenly again, and he had to
liquify for a second to avoid knocking her down.  "It's a Vulcan!" she
said triumphantly.  "There's a strong telepath here, and she doesn't
have very good mental shielding, as far as I can tell.  Her emanations
are so overwhelming, I feel--I mean I can't feel anything else."
Lwaxana staggered and Odo caught her.

"I think you'd better come with me to the infirmary," Odo suggested.

"No, really, I'm fine.  Please just take me to my room. I'll feel
perfectly all right later."

Against his better judgement, Odo did what she asked, and then turned
his dragging steps to the infirmary to finally face Julian for the
first time in a week.

---

It was early in the day, near the beginning of the shift, but Julian
had been at work over an hour.  Odo found the doctor in his office
trying to make a log entry.  What he'd actually been doing was staring
into space thinking while the computer reminded him every eight
minutes that he had an open file. "Close log entry," Julian said upon
seeing Odo.  He rose from his chair to face the shapeshifter.

"Well," said Julian, as various emotions played over his features,
"Odo."  He turned his face away, conscious of his obvious
vulnerability.  "Did you have a nice vacation?"

"It wasn't a vacation.  I visited Dr. Mora."

Bashir looked up in surprise.  "But you don't like to see him."

"That's right, I don't.  It was very painful, but I needed to know
something about my past."

"What?"

"Ah," Odo nodded, "that's what I came to tell you."

--
Feeling strange and conspicuous, the young shapeshifter disembarked
from the Bajoran transport and set foot on Terek Nor for the first
time.  Young?  Was he really young?  Or was he old, and just bereft of
memory?  He knew nothing about himself except that he was tired of
being someone's pet, someone's specimen--a kept animal who lived in a
laboratory and performed for visiting dignitaries.  Without Dr. Mora's
permission, he had left Bajor for the space station to find a new
life, carrying the only thing he felt he owned, the sign of his
difference and his vulnerability: his silver bucket.

As he wandered through the station, he saw all sorts and conditions of
life--Cardassians and Bajorans, masters and slaves- -but he also saw
traders, gamblers, and a Ferengi barkeep whose bar was full of the
dregs of human misery.  To each the Ferengi gave only what was paid
for: no more, no less.  Odo shook his head in disgust and moved on.

One thing that preoccupied him was where to put his bucket to rest for
the night.  It seemed that there was no quiet place on the station,
except perhaps for the private sleeping quarters. He hoped he could
manage to be assigned a room, but he kept putting off approaching the
authorities.  He explored everywhere, hoping to find a secluded spot.
The lower levels were off limits, dedicated to the slave-driven
smelting operation.  Up here on the Promenade, all appeared to be
chaos every hour of every day.

Discouraged and tired, nearing the end of his ability to hold his
humanoid shape, to which he was still unaccustomed, Odo finally
approached the station administrator's office on the Promenade, but
was roughly turned away by the Cardassian soldier on duty there.  As
he turned to leave, the man called him back.

"You, there!  Carrying the bucket!"

Odo cringed with shame and turned around.

"Gul Dukat wants to see you.  Now!  Don't just stand there."

Suspiciously, Odo walked slowly back to the impatient soldier.  "A
minute ago you told me he couldn't be disturbed. Now you say he wants
to see me?"

The man grumbled threateningly.  "He must have seen you through the
door and changed his mind.  Now just do as you're told," he growled,
gesturing towards the double doors, which were set with long,
triangular glass panes.

When Odo walked in, the tall, wiry Cardassian seated behind the desk
was still looking down at a datapadd, clearly deep in concentration.
Feeling a bit afraid despite his anger, Odo waited quietly for the man
to look up.  He looked around the office, which suddenly seemed like a
safe haven after the commotion of the Promenade.  Odo could not know
at that moment that it would soon be his new home.

Gul Dukat looked up with a thin-lipped smile.  "Welcome to Terek Nor,"
he said pleasantly.  "You must be the changeling."

"How do you know?" Odo was too shocked to deny it.

"A Bajoran doctor got in touch with me--I don't remember his name."

"Dr. Mora Pol," Odo supplied.

"That's right, Dr. Mora.  He was worried about you. Apparently they've
been studying you for months, and now you leave suddenly without
giving them a good reason.  Of course, I can understand why you
wouldn't want to spend any more time among Bajoran scientists.
They're a boring and self-satisfied lot, always willing to betray
their own people for a quiet place to work.  That's why we've left
most of them alone."

"They're good people," Odo said angrily.  "The reasons I left were...
personal."

"Ah! Splendid!" Gul Dukat exclaimed.  "A passionate changeling!  How
intriguing.  Well, never fear, my nebulous friend, there is a place
for you on Terek Nor."

"There is?" Odo asked, surprised.

"There is," Dukat confirmed.  "You will stay with me."

"With you?" Odo repeated in confusion.

"In my quarters, as my guest," Dukat offered expansively. "In return,
you will be my... friend."

Odo was silent.  He didn't know enough about humanoids to understand
the tone of voice Dukat had used for that last statement.

"Come here," Dukat ordered sternly.  Odo went, still conditioned to
obey despite his recent rebellion.  Dukat took him by the shoulders
and pulled him around to his own side of the desk.  "Are those real
clothes?  No?  Then change yourself. Change into a naked Cardassian
woman."

"I can't," Odo breathed.  "I don't know how."

"No matter," said Dukat heavily.  "Just turn like this"--the
Cardassian spun him around and bent him over the desk--"and let me
penetrate you.  It doesn't matter where."  Dukat had released his
erect member from his tight clothing and discovered, to his delight,
that it sank right into Odo's living substance in the general vicinity
of his anus.

As Dukat thumped roughly into him, Odo's mind spun to think of how he
was being used.  He tried to shift and discovered, for the first time
he could remember, that he was paralyzed in his shape.  Feeling a
profound misery that permeated his physical substance, he howled
desperately with the awful humiliation and helpless panic that filled
him.  When Dukat released him, he slipped to the floor in an agony of
self-loathing.  His limbs became confused and twisted as he writhed
around, trying to expel Dukat's ejaculate from his substance.  He
finally succeeded.

When he came to himself, he was half liquified.  "My bucket," he said
weakly, with little hope that Dukat would respond.  With surprise, he
saw the Cardassian bring the bucket over and direct one of his limbs
into it.

"I'm sorry," Dukat said curtly, as Odo reverted to his gelatinous
state, "but I thought you must be used to that from being with the
Bajoran doctors for so long.  Maybe I overestimated them.  At any
rate, I have no wish to repeat the experience.  But I shall find some
other form of employment for you on the station.  I'm sure you can
make yourself useful somewhere."  He frowned into the bucket.  "Do you
hear me?"

Odo somehow formed a voice.  "Yes," he said.

"Good."  Dukat nodded.  "So we can just forget this ever happened."
And Odo forgot.

Two days later, he met Kira Nerys, the woman who would become his
first real friend, when she was a suspect in a murder case that
launched him on the career that allowed him to exercise his sense of
justice.  From then on, without understanding his own motives, he
protected the interests of the weak and the outcast against the brutal
and the predatory.
--

Bashir's voice trembled when he finally spoke.  "When did you
remember?"

"When I talked to Lwaxana after you left, that day in my office when I
was so angry at you.  You see, I hadn't been angry the night before.
I'd felt a bit humiliated, but I accepted the fact that I deserved it
for forcing you to beg me for sex.  When I saw you the next morning, I
couldn't feel anything but rage.  I wanted to humiliate you and hurt
you in any way I could.  I wanted the whole station to know that you
let me use you--that's how I suddenly thought of having sex with you.
I wanted to use you like an object, the way Dukat had used me.  Why
did you let me do it, Julian?"

Bashir shook his head.  "I didn't know at first.  I'm still not sure.
In fact, I had decided not to let you, but I suddenly did anyway.  I
think I knew you needed a channel for your anger, somewhere to direct
it.  What would you have done if I hadn't been there?"

"I don't know.  I might have hurt someone else, or myself."

"I think I sensed that.  So I let you hurt me."  Julian folded his
arms and sat back in his chair.

"That was self-destructive of you," Odo said disapprovingly. "You
could see that I was out of control.  The smartest thing to do would
have been to get away from me."

"I didn't want to get away from you.  I wanted to help you. So why
don't we call it self-sacrifice instead?"  Julian smiled briefly.  "At
least that leaves me some shred of dignity."

"I'm sorry," Odo said painfully.  "I know I hurt you.  I understand
why you don't want to see me anymore, but I felt you had a right to
know why it happened."

"What?" Julian asked, in shock.  "Why do you say that I don't want to
see you anymore?"

"Why would you?" Odo asked slowly.

"Why wouldn't I?" Julian countered angrily.

Odo considered.  "I was raped by Gul Dukat.  Then I did the same thing
to you."

"First of all, Odo, you are not to blame for what Gul Dukat did.  And
second, you didn't rape me.  I lay down on that desk all by myself,
knowing what you were about to do."

"You didn't know I was going to hold your hands behind you."

Julian winced.  "Odo, I'm the one who chained you to a bed and put you
in an ion field so you couldn't shift, remember? We've both been hurt,
but I forgive you.  If you can let it go, too, we can pick up where we
left off."

"No," Odo said stubbornly.  "I can't let you be self- sacrificing
again."

Julian rose and walked over to the shapeshifter, squatting down before
him.  "Odo," he said, taking his hands, "I've missed you."

Moved, Odo took Julian's face in his hands and kissed him briefly on
the mouth before resting his forehead against the doctor's.  "Ahhh,"
he sighed, "now that I've touched you again, I don't want to let you
go."

Julian began to feel warm all over.  His heartbeat was increasing, and
his penis stirred.  "Come to my quarters tonight," he coaxed.  "Nerys
will be there, too."

"Nerys?" Odo asked in surprise.

"She and I have gotten rather close in the last week," Julian
explained, wondering what Odo would say.

"I see.  Then you aren't just asking me to your room because you
haven't had sex in a week?" Odo asked darkly.

"Odo," Julian gasped, sitting back on his heels, "do you really think
I would do that?"

"No," Odo shook his head angrily, "of course I know you wouldn't.
When they were trying to help me face my memory, Lwaxana and Dr. Mora
both kept telling me to remember not to hate myself because of it.
But I do.  I can't help it.  I actually wondered for a moment if you
just wanted me to satisfy you."

"How did Dr. Mora know about what happened?" Julian asked suddenly.

Odo grimaced.  "Believe it or not, Gul Dukat told him. Complained to
him, as if Mora should have trained me better," he added indignantly.
"Dr. Mora would never have taken advantage of me like that," Odo said.
"He's a well-meaning man, even if he still hasn't quite understood
that I can think for myself."

Julian thought for a moment.  He still squatted on the floor with his
elbows resting on his knees and his hands hanging loosely down.  "Odo,
speaking as a doctor, I have to tell you that Dr. Mora and Lwaxana are
right.  You will feel self-hatred for a long time about this, and
you're going to have to fight it. Others can help you, but no one can
do it for you.  As your friend and your doctor, I'm willing to help in
any way I can.

"Speaking just as your friend, I need you in my life.  But I want to
meet you on equal terms.  That means no more power games. You're
stronger than I am, but I expect you not to use your strength against
me.  And don't give me power over you, because I don't want it."

"Agreed," Odo said gruffly.

They stared at each other for a moment, and Julian smiled. "I'm sorry
you were hurt, Odo, but I can't help feeling that it's good to know
there was a reason for what happened," he said softly.

"That's true," Odo said, surprised.  "I never thought of it that way."

They were companionably silent for a few moments, each lost in his own
thoughts.  Finally Julian stood, putting his hands over his face and
rubbing his eyes.  "I'm so tired," he said in a muffled voice.  "I
suppose I'd better take a nap before I meet T'Letra."

"Who?" Odo asked curiously.  Julian explained; in turn, Odo informed
him that Lwaxana had sensed a strong telepathic presence on the
station, but that she was exhausted and might not be able to help him
unless she slept.

"I'm meeting T'Letra in about three hours.  What if I try to contact
Lwaxana just before that?"

"I'm sure she'll be ready by then," Odo said.  He almost said
something else and then paused.

"What were you going to say?" Julian yawned.

"Where do you sleep?"

Julian laughed.  "In the quarantine room in the back.  It's private,
and it has a couple of comfortable beds."

"Can I... come with you?" Odo forced the words out hesitantly.

"Why, yes," Julian said, surprised.  He grinned at Odo when he saw the
shapeshifter glance at the bulge in his pants.  "Now do you believe I
want you?" he asked playfully.

"I'm starting to, but I need more proof," replied Odo, rising from his
chair.

"Let's go to the laboratory, then, shall we?" Bashir suggested with a
smile.

They walked through the infirmary to the small airlock leading to the
quarantine room.  Julian punched in the security code to enter.  When
the door slid shut behind them, they felt completely isolated from the
rest of the station.  Concentrating, Odo removed his uniform.  His
large erection stood out towards Julian, who stepped forward and took
it into his hands.

"Remember the first time I touched you?" he said, stroking it.  "It
was only a couple of weeks ago.  I had never had one sexual thought
about you, and then, when you changed in front of me, suddenly I
couldn't stop thinking about you."

"Really?" Odo asked, flattered.  "Even then?"

Instead of answering, Bashir knelt and took Odo's hard-on into his
mouth.  Just as he had that first day, Odo gasped with pleasure.  For
several minutes, he allowed Julian to manipulate him skillfully,
bringing him quickly to the brink of orgasm and keeping him there.

"Julian, I want to be inside you," Odo said with an effort. Bashir
released his engorged member and stood up.  Odo picked him up easily
and deposited him on the bed.  Moving quickly, he stripped off
Bashir's uniform.  Julian gazed up at him happily.

"I want to enter you, too," he said, looking expectantly at Odo.  "So
what are we going to do about it?"

"I know," said Odo, giving him a speculative look, "if you don't mind
seeing me take another form.  My true form."

"Not at all," Julian said sincerely.

Odo melted into a golden shower and crept up over the edge of the bed,
playing like a wave over Julian's toes, then lapping around his
ankles, sending tendrils up his legs, and wrapping around his thighs.
A bolt of fear shot through Bashir's chest as he remembered his ugly
vision.  _But that wasn't real,_ he told himself sternly.  _It had
nothing to do with Odo.  I have to trust him._  He struggled for
control of his breathing and finally succeeded in slowing it, just as
Odo's tendrils wrapped around his genitals.

Lying back against the pillows, Julian watched in fascination as a
part of Odo's substance engulfed his erection, playing around it in
unpredictable patterns.  "But what can I do for you?" he asked
hoarsely, running his fingers through the tendrils that wrapped softly
around his hands and arms, creeping across his chest and stimulating
his nipples.  A thrill rippled through Odo's essence, and Julian
suddenly knew that, in his gelatinous state, the shapeshifter was
highly sensitive to touch. Bashir ran his hands up and down the
tendrils unto the mass of material that was concentrated over his
genitals.  As Julian stroked and kneaded Odo, Odo stimulated him, now
imitating hands, now a mouth, next a vagina or an anus.

Then Odo insinuated himself under Julian, sliding over and between his
buttocks and pushing slowly into his tight crevice, expanding as he
went.  Suddenly Julian found himself pierced from behind with the most
exquisite sensations.  He thrust upwards with his arms and his hard-on
into Odo's living flesh as Odo filled him from underneath.  His limbs
swam through the soft, responsive mass around him, eliciting and
receiving ripples of pleasure.  In its native state, Odo's essence
seemed to be capable of transmitting neural signals right through
Julian's skin, so that every caress brought them both a multitude of
shared sensations.  When Julian thought he must reach his climax any
second, a deep vibration began around, inside, and through him.  It
was like nothing he had ever felt, the sensation of being lifted on a
sea of pure bliss.  And then he understood that Odo was coming.

Caught in the ecstatic wake of his liquid lover, Julian came in an
enormous, rolling surge that wasn't centered in his genitals.  Like
Odo, he came everywhere, trembling with delight down to his
fingertips.

He lay surrounded by Odo's substance, feeling completely safe and
forgetting all about his fearful vision.  He slept until Odo woke him
to say that it was time to find Lwaxana.

---

Odo and Bashir were discussing whether or not to use a Security
override on Lwaxana's door when she finally responded to their
summons.  The door slid open on a darkened room.

"Computer, lights at 50 per cent," commanded Odo as he headed for the
bedroom.  He nearly ran into Lwaxana, who was stumbling out into the
living room, one hand pressed to her forehead.

"Oh, what a headache," she moaned.  "I've never felt anything like
it."

Julian quickly ran his medilyzer over her.  "You're tense and
exhausted," he said.  "Your blood chemistry suggests that your
telepathic faculties might be overloaded."

"Thank you, doctor," she snapped.  "I could have told you that much."

"Lwaxana, please.  He's only trying to help," Odo ventured.

"Then tell him to shut up," Lwaxana exclaimed brutally.  Odo caught
her as she passed out and collapsed.

"We have to get her to the infirmary," Bashir said with a worried
look.

"I'll carry her," offered Odo.

Attracting a few strange glances from passers-by, they made their way
to the infirmary and laid Lwaxana on an examining table, from which
she immediately tried to rise.

"What are you doing?" she asked groggily, "I have to find that
telepath."

"She's coming here, Lwaxana," Julian said helplessly, trying to help
Odo hold her on the bed.  "She'll be here in a few minutes.  Lwaxana,
if you can't calm down, I'll have to tranquillize you."

"She doesn't hear you, doctor," Odo said, reverting to the formal
address in his distraction.

"No, don't do that," Lwaxana whispered.  "No tranquilizers. My mind
needs to be clear to keep her out of my thoughts."

"All right.  But you have to rest until she gets here."

Lwaxana answered by groaning and rolling on her side, gripping her
head in both hands.  Bashir held a small device at the base of her
neck.

"This ought to relieve the pain a bit, anyway," he said. "It won't
affect your mind."

"Thank you, Julian," she murmured.  "I'm sorry I shouted at you."  As
Lwaxana finished these words, she promptly fell asleep. Julian started
scanning her again.

As Sisko walked into the infirmary, he saw Bashir and Odo standing by
Lwaxana's side.  "What happened to her?" he asked with concern.

"Apparently T'Letra's telepathic presence on the station is
overwhelming her," Julian answered, stopping his scan.

Sisko looked puzzled.  "That shouldn't happen.  Don't most Vulcans
have enough training to shield their thoughts and keep them from
disturbing others?"

Bashir nodded.  "They do.  That's why I'm going to screen T'Letra for
Bendii Syndrome as soon as she arrives."

"Bendii Syndrome?" mused Sisko.  "What's that?"

"A rare disease found in elderly Vulcans.  They can no longer control
their emotions or their thoughts, which disturb the people around
them, even the non-telepaths."

"So you were wondering whether some of our... problems were due to
that."

Bashir nodded and scanned Lwaxana again.

"Commander," he said with concern, "Ambassador Troi is suffering from
acute stress.  She apparently hasn't eaten for hours, and she's close
to collapse.  I wonder if we ought to get her off the station."

"I could take her in a runabout," Odo volunteered.  "How far would I
have to go?"

"If you were to go into orbit around Bajor," Julian said, "that should
suffice."

A moan rose from the table.  "No, don't take me away from here yet.
You need me.  You don't understand what's going on." Lwaxana half sat
up as she said these words and then fell back flat on the bed,
unconscious.

"What does she mean, I wonder?" Sisko asked Bashir.

"I don't know," Julian said, frowning.  "Perhaps she disagrees with my
theory that T'Letra has Bendii Syndrome.  And she would probably be in
a position to know," he added.

"If it isn't Bendii Syndrome, what is it?" Sisko demanded.

"I don't have a clue," Julian answered honestly.  "I'll just have to
wait and see what comes out of my examination of T'Letra."

"If she'll let you examine her," Odo added.

"I'm not sure that matters at this point," Sisko said seriously.
"She's the source of whatever is going on here, and now Mrs. Troi is
in danger, according to the doctor."

"But you can't just..." Odo began.

He fell silent as T'Letra walked into the infirmary.  "I am not the
source of your troubles," she announced.

"Then I hope you won't mind if I scan you for Bendii Syndrome," Bashir
asked bluntly.

"Not at all," she said.  "You'll need to culture my metathalamus."

Swallowing his anger at being presumed incompetent, Julian escorted
her to another examining table, where he could take the microscopic
sample he needed.  Sisko glanced briefly at Lwaxana and then at Odo.

"Well, Constable," he said quietly, "you're usually impartial.  Do I
seem different to you?"

Odo considered.  "A bit, Commander," he admitted, without seeming
inclined to elaborate.

"In what way?" Sisko was forced to ask.

"You seem happier than you did yesterday," Odo said, looking put out.
"Is that what you wanted to know?"

"Happier," Sisko mused with a strange smile.  "That's the last thing I
expected you to say, Odo.  But I think you might be right."

Bashir and T'Letra returned from the other side of the infirmary.
"The culture will take several hours, Commander.  I advise you to
delay the meld until we have the results."

"I do not have Bendii Syndrome," T'Letra said firmly.  "And even if I
did, I cured the Bajoran girl, as I'm sure you will allow."

"True," admitted Julian, "but she nearly died from an oxygen
deficiency, and then the rest of us were invaded by disturbing
visions.  Part of Commander Sisko's memories have been obstructed or
destroyed, and now Ambassador Troi's telepathic faculties have been
overloaded by input so massive she can't block it.  How do you explain
that?"

"I can't explain it," T'Letra replied.  "I am in perfect control of my
faculties."

Sisko looked at her for a moment, and turned to Bashir. "No, doctor, I
don't believe I will wait," he said.

"But, Commander..."

"Dr. T'Letra did cure your patient.  And my own trauma doesn't include
drowning."

"No, Sir, but it does include being attacked by the Borg," Bashir
insisted.

"And it includes my wife, Jennifer, Jake's mother," Sisko added
quickly, "about whom I can't remember a thing."

Bashir sighed.  "I understand, Commander, and I'm not asking you not
to do it at all, but..."

"Isn't that what you'll advise me to do if the results of T'Letra's
test are positive?" Sisko interrupted.

Julian nodded, seeing the point.  "And I'll log my official
recommendation that you not proceed with the meld."

"And I'll have to go against it.  So I think we'd better proceed with
the meld before we know for certain."  He turned to the Vulcan doctor.
"Are you willing to meld with me?"

"Certainly," she said.  "I am reasonably sure I can restore your
memory."  She led Sisko into a private convalescent room and asked him
to lie down.  With a worried look, Bashir grabbed his tricorder and
prepared to follow them.

"Odo," he said softly, "keep an eye on Lwaxana."  The shape shifter
nodded once and took up a position by her bedside.

For a few moments, T'Letra meditated with steepled fingers and closed
eyes.  When she had finished, she carefully placed her hands on
Sisko's temples.  He closed his eyes and tried to relax, and before he
knew it, he was thrown into another world, a world he had inhabited
over ten years before.

--
Jennifer was there, sitting naked in bed beside him.  She was smiling
at him, and, from her expression, he inferred that he must be smiling
too.  He looked at her with amazement, seeing her beautiful,
expressive face and body: her luscious brown skin, deep chocolate
nipples, and the thick, curly hair that covered her vulva.  Overcome
with longing, he pulled her to him for a deep kiss.

"Again?  Already?" she joked, but her hands travelled straight to his
erection, then slid between his legs to caress his scrotum and,
further back, his buns.

Kissing her again and again, Sisko marvelled that he had ever
forgotten her.  In fact, although he knew he had, he couldn't even
remember the feeling of not knowing who she was, of not having the
memory of her look, her feel, her scent, always just below the surface
of his mind.  He moved his face down to her breasts, tonguing her
nipples against his teeth.  She sighed with pleasure and took his
nipples between her fingers, pulling them gently the way she knew he
liked it.  Sisko licked a trail from one nipple down her belly to her
vulva.  His tongue plunged into her hot labia, already scented from
hours of lovemaking.  He tasted his semen there mixed with her
slippery lubrication.  His hands moved around to grab her buns and
push his mouth into her. She gasped and gripped his head with both
hands.

"Don't get carried away down there and forget the point of this
exercise," she laughed breathlessly.

Sisko suddenly remembered this night.  Of all the nights they had
spent together, all the nights that seemed so common then and so
precious now, this was a night unique in their lives together--the
night when Jake had been conceived.  He left off licking her and slid
quickly up her body, entering her as he went.  She smiled and took his
face into her hands.  "We're going to make the best baby," she said.
"She's going to be just like me."  Benjamin laughed as he continued to
thrust into her, watching her expression change as she began to come.
And then he felt it slipping away from him, fading out like the fabric
of a dream.

"No," he cried, "I just got you back!"  And he grabbed at her with
desperate hands, but her firm brown flesh had melted away into vapor.
--

"Your memory is restored," came T'Letra's voice, and Sisko realized he
had forgotten her presence during his reliving of that intimate moment
with Jennifer.  He suddenly felt very angry.

"Bring her back," he insisted irrationally.  "What good is my memory
when I'm just going to lose her again?"

"What you saw was not real, but a vision I helped you construct from
your thoughts," T'Letra's voice said expressionlessly.

"I know that.  Of course I know it wasn't real.  "I just want...  I
want..."  He didn't know what he wanted.  No one, not even a Vulcan
healer, could bring Jennifer back from the dead. This memory was what
he had wanted; now he needed to mourn again, and go on with his life.
He still had Jake to think of...

And then suddenly there she was again, smiling at him over what seemed
a great distance, shaking her head sadly.  "You won't like this,
Benjamin," she said, "but I'm going to give you some advice."

She seemed so real, so naturally herself, but he wondered who was
really speaking here, Jennifer, T'Letra, or his own mind? He stared
harder, straining to see why her face suddenly looked a bit strange, a
bit too pale.

"You have to go on, Benjamin.  Not just so you can work, and brood
about me, but so that you can love someone again."

And then he saw the spots, the pale face with the pulled- back hair.
He wasn't looking at Jennifer anymore, but at Dax. He reached for her
as she took hold of him, and, as they fell together, she mounted him,
rotating her hips to drive him deep inside.

---

The meld continued for two long hours.  As Julian watched nervously,
he tried to stay alert to any change in Sisko's readings, anything
that would indicate something was going wrong. The Commander seemed
agitated, but that was only natural, considering the kind of memories
he was recovering.  Julian himself was agitated, too, perhaps too
upset for the circumstances.  _Why is my heart beating so fast?_ he
wondered suddenly.  Unfortunately, he couldn't monitor himself and
Sisko at the same time.  He tried to steel himself against the
feelings that were assailing him.  They must be an effect of the meld,
like last time.  He tried taking a few steps back, but nothing
changed.  And then it hit him.  The feelings were becoming sexual,
intensely sexual, and there were thoughts that went with them now,
pictures of Odo, Kira, Dax, and even Sisko.

Julian shifted uncomfortably as his cock hardened, making a
conspicuous bulge in his pants.  Luckily, all eyes were on Sisko and
T'Letra.  Just as he thought he was safe, Julian saw Kira glance at
him, her eyes leveled directly at his swelling crotch. He blushed and
felt exposed until he saw the look in her eye. She was also aroused
and, far from laughing at his predicament, was looking hungrily at the
signs of his erection.  Odo, too, had left Lwaxana's bedside to come
into the room and be closer to him, and now his hand was starting to
cup Julian's backside. Julian swallowed hard and kept monitoring his
patient while the readout swam before his eyes.

As he tried to concentrate on Sisko, whose vital signs were
fluctuating slightly, he noticed that Dax was slowly moving closer to
the Commander with an intent look on her face.  He recognized that
look, and realized that she badly wanted to touch Sisko.

"Odo," he hissed, "get Dax.  Keep her from touching Commander Sisko."

The shape shifter sprang over the table in a golden arc and landed on
his feet in front of Jadzia, effectively blocking her way.
"Lieutenant, you can't touch him.  Remember what happened before."

"I know, Odo," she murmured.  "I couldn't stop myself. Thank you."

Odo stayed where he was, and every so often Jadzia bumped gently into
him as she moved unconsciously towards Benjamin. Julian realized that
he badly missed Odo's touch, but that even the thought of it aroused
him more than ever.  Kira was edging closer now, and he found himself
drifting towards her.  Their bodies met, and Kira's hand moved across
his back and grabbed the waistband of his pants, pushing her hand
inside.  He could barely hold the medilyzer in his trembling hands.

Now T'Letra seemed to be ending the meld.  _Not a moment too soon,_
Julian thought with relief.  His legs shook with the effort of
standing still while Nerys teased his buns.  The Vulcan removed her
hands from Sisko's head, and Nerys reluctantly removed her hand from
Julian's ass.

Sisko blinked and looked around.  When Odo stood aside, Dax was upon
him in a moment.  He gave her a radiant smile.  Her heart sank.

"You didn't remember, did you Benjamin?"

"Oh, yes, Jadzia," he said, taking her face into his cupped hands.  "I
remembered everything."  He pulled her down for a long kiss.  As
Julian watched them, a bolt of excitement shot through his groin.  He
turned his eyes away, thinking he wasn't far from passing out, and met
Nerys's eyes.  She was signalling him, with a motion of her head, to
leave the room with her.  He nodded briefly, but he had a few things
to clear up first.

"T'Letra," he began, "I assume that the meld..."

"...was a success," she finished, glancing at Sisko and Dax, who were
kissing each other with total abandon.  "Of course, when humans are
involved, there can often be a residual effect."

"I see," Bashir said stupidly, having trouble thinking beyond the ache
in his groin.  "What about Lwaxana?" he suddenly remembered.  "Odo was
supposed to keep an eye on her."  But Odo had been drawn to him by the
meld, he remembered.  Quickly he went back into the main infirmary and
walked over to Lwaxana, who was still lying on the table.  T'Letra,
Odo, and Kira were right behind him.

"Where am I?" she asked, bewildered, as if she had just awakened.  "I
thought I was in my quarters."  T'Letra walked into her field of
vision.  "You," Lwaxana said with annoyance, "have been wreaking havoc
with my brain waves."

"I cannot believe that a trained telepath would be so sensitive to my
emanations," T'Letra said haughtily.

"You aren't controlling them very well," Lwaxana snapped, "but there's
more to it than that.  There's another influence here."

"The test," Julian remembered, feeling a fool.  "The culture is
probably done."  He ran off to check the results, and came back a
minute later holding a datapadd.  He took the Vulcan doctor aside.
"Dr. T'Letra," he said formally, "I am sorry to inform you that you
test positive for Bendii Syndrome.  It's still in the early stages."

Silently, the Vulcan took the padd from his hands.  "Your diagnosis is
correct," she said without revealing a trace of surprise.  "So I must
indeed have caused you some distress when you touched me during the
original meld.  I apologize if that is the case."  She scrolled
through the rest of the data on the padd.  "I have trouble believing
it was of a significant magnitude, however, nor that I am responsible
for all the effects on an experienced telepath such as Ambassador
Troi.  There must, as she says, be another influence."

"Another influence?" Bashir asked, puzzled.  "But as far as I know,
there isn't another telepath on the station besides you and Ambassador
Troi."

T'Letra shook her head.  "Not another telepath, but another being who
is acting as an amplifier of some sort.  I shall do some research and
contact you later."  She turned to leave, and then looked at Bashir
once more.  "Now that I know I do indeed have Bendii Syndrome, I will
take more care to guard my thoughts. I should be able to control them
almost completely at this stage. That is why I still don't
understand..."  She shook her head, her face almost displaying her
confusion.

"Julian," said Lwaxana from the examining table.

"Yes, Lwaxana?"

"Now that Commander Sisko has regained his memory, I suddenly feel a
bit better, but I'm tired.  I'd like to return to my quarters to
rest."  She caught sight of Sisko and Dax through the open doorway.
Jadzia had climbed up onto the examining table with him and was tongue
kissing him furiously as she attempted to remove his shirt.  "Oh,
dear.  I see the meld had the same effect as before.  Are the rest of
you all right?  I'm not reading any of you very well."

"We're fine," lied Julian, trying to ignore his aching balls.  "But
T'Letra has all the early signs of Bendii Syndrome. She said she
thought someone was acting as an amplifier of her thoughts."

Lwaxana considered.  "That would make sense.  I should be able to
shield my mind from someone in the first stages of Bendii Syndrome.
And if there was an amplifier, I wouldn't even have to be very close
to whoever it was to feel the effects.  He or she could be anywhere on
the station."  Sitting up, she moved her head carefully around on her
neck.  "I do need some rest," she added.  "In the morning I'll talk to
T'Letra."

"I'll see you to your quarters," Odo offered.

"No, dear, because then I'd be tempted to ask you to stay, and if I
did I wouldn't get any rest."  She stood tentatively. "I'll be fine."
After taking a few steps, she stopped and peered enviously at the
entwined couple on the examining table.  Jadzia, now half naked, was
nuzzling Sisko's erection through his pants. "If only I felt like
doing that right now," she sighed.

"You mean, you don't?" Kira and Bashir asked simultaneously.

Lwaxana was too tired to catch their inflection.  "No, not at all,"
she said with a grimace, walking unsteadily to the door. "I feel as if
I've been doing it for hours.  Good night," she added as pleasantly as
she could, and stumbled out the door.

The three who were left stared over at Sisko and Dax.  "I wonder why
Commander Sisko is suddenly so..."  He trailed off.

"Uninhibited?" Kira supplied.

"Exactly."  Bashir walked over and closed the door of the convalescent
room before continuing.  "I would never have thought he'd even
consider expressing affection in front of anyone."

"It must be that amplifier, whoever it is" Odo remarked. There was a
pause.

"Well, I don't know about either of you," Bashir finally said
desperately, "but I'm about ready to explode."

Kira laughed.  "I'm not too far from it myself.  But I don't think we
ought to do it here.  I have to admit I'm a bit self- conscious around
Commander Sisko."

"You're not the only one," Bashir agreed, "but there's always the
quarantine room."

Odo made a low growling sound.  "Then I'd better return to my duties."

Julian turned to him aghast.  "No, Odo, we want you to join us." "Of
course we do," Kira said sincerely.

"Odo, you feel aroused, don't you?" Bashir asked as a sudden thought
struck him.

"Yes," he said uncomfortably.  "I must admit I do.  Quite aroused."

"I wonder..." Julian mused.

"What?" Odo asked defensively.

Julian hesitated, not wanting to offend him.  "I wonder if you're the
amplifier," he said apologetically.

"How can we find out?" Odo asked.

"I don't know that we really can find out."  Julian tried to look
serious, but his lips curled into a smile.  "Of course, we can always
do an experiment to determine the effects of proximity on Nerys and
me.  Come on."

He led the way to the quarantine room and once again entered the
security code to open the airlock.  When they were inside, Odo
immediately dematerialized his uniform as his companions struggled
with their real clothing.  They considered each other for a moment,
wondering where to start.  Kira walked over to Odo and took his
erection into her hand.

"I'm glad you joined us, Odo," she said.  "I've never really had a
chance to concentrate on you."  She smiled.

"I have an idea, Major," Odo said, "but it doesn't involve my
continuing to hold a humanoid shape."  His face looked speculative and
eager.

"Just as long as you call me Nerys, Odo," Kira answered as she fondled
him, "whatever shape you decide to take is fine with me."

"All right, then," Odo said briskly, taking charge, "you two start,
and I'll join you in a minute."

Self-consciously at first, but gradually with fewer inhibitions, Nerys
and Julian lay on a bed and started to exchange passionate kisses.
After a few moments, they were so engrossed that it almost came as a
shock when a warm, gelatinous presence surrounded them and began to
insert itself between them.

"Odo," Nerys exclaimed with pleasure, running her hand along one thick
strand, "what do you like when you're in this state?"

"Just caress him, touch him," Julian answered.  "I'm not sure how
hard.  I'm sure he'll let us know."  Julian pulled Nerys tight against
him, trapping some of Odo between their chests.  He felt the buzz of
pleasure he had felt before, and knew that Odo was responding to the
pressure.  Nerys gasped with surprise and ran her hands through the
tentacles draped over her breasts.

"I felt that," she said in amazement.  "Can he transmit neural
impulses through our skin?"

"Apparently so," Julian murmured, feeling too moved and aroused to say
more than that.  He ran his hand up through her vagina and vulva,
noticing that small parts of Odo had preceded him there.  They moved
before his hand like a wave.  Other tentacles had wrapped around his
penis and were stimulating it gently.  Nerys trembled on the brink of
orgasm, and, as she fell, Julian pushed inside her with Odo still
encasing him, sharing Nerys's pleasure through Odo, who shared his
with her.  While feeling Julian and Odo penetrate her, Nerys happily
learned what she felt like inside.  The shape shifter's substance
shook with a multitude of transmitted sensations as he slipped
everywhere around and between their bodies.  They lay on him, and he
on them, even as he was over and between them.  And then he penetrated
them both at once, pressing a growing mass of himself inside them.

Nerys made Julian understand that she wanted to be on top, so he
rolled onto his back without pulling out of her.  Odo moved easily
with them, responding to the different sensations produced by Kira's
thrusts, and transmitting them back to Julian, who now, in his turn,
began to grasp the irony of knowing how it felt to fuck himself.  Deep
inside him, he felt Odo moving and exploring, pressing against his
prostate as Nerys drove him closer to orgasm.  Strangely enough, all
this multitude of sensations didn't drive him immediately over the
brink.  Instead, he felt bathed in pleasure, as if it were now his
native element and he were suddenly able to exist within it.  He could
only imagine the intensity of an orgasm reached from this
already-blissful state.

Part of this sensation came from Odo, who felt relaxed and elated to
be making love in his natural form.  Getting all his pleasure from one
organ had frustrated him, he now realized. Although he had never
experienced sexual ecstasy until Julian had sucked his erection on
that fateful day, he somehow already knew that his entire being was
capable of giving and receiving pleasure.  So were Julian and Nerys,
he now realized, and he wondered how, passionate as their natures
were, they could allow themselves to focus so much attention on their
sexual organs and so little everywhere else.  They both knew they felt
pleasure through their skins, but had they known that their skins were
sexual organs, too?

Odo thrilled as Julian grabbed two handfuls of him along with Nerys's
buns, and he turned Julian's hands into two such ardent sources of
delight that the doctor rose to a whole new plane of feeling, one
where no mortal can exist for long.  Nerys, of course, was treated to
the same impressions through her backside, already roused with intense
sensations by Odo's presence inside.

Rising on a self-renewing cloud of delirium, the three lovers passed
beyond conscious thought, so that, without losing their minds, they
did without them very well for a long moment. As their collective
orgasm slowly damped itself down, they lay together, intertwined, with
Odo so sprawled around and between them that they no longer knew whose
limbs were whose.  As they slept, although they changed position
occasionally, none of them felt abandoned by the others, none of them
felt lost.

There was no cold spot in their bed.

---

Jadzia woke with a start.  What had come over her?  When the meld had
ended, Jadzia's whole being had been focussed on Benjamin Sisko, but
now, many steamy hours later, she wasn't sure why.  She wasn't sure
why she had done anything in the last couple of weeks.  How many of
her firm resolutions had gone down an unstable wormhole?  She had
decided never to sleep with Julian, and she'd only broken that one
three or four times. Kira?  Same thing.  She'd made love with Lwaxana
Troi, and she'd even been with Odo, who had never been a temptation
before.  And now Sisko.  Benjamin Sisko, the man she'd known in
another life-- the man she'd mentored in another life.  The friend who
sometimes called her "old man."  And here she was taking advantage of
his memory lapse.

Moving quietly, she slipped out of bed, picked up her uniform, and
opened the door.  The telltale swoosh woke him up, of course.

"Jadzia?" he said, sitting up quickly.  "Where are you going?"

"This is wrong, Benjamin."

He swung his legs out of bed and stood facing her.  The sight of his
nude body sent a flash of arousal through her groin. Her stomach
clenched with anxiety.

"What are you saying is wrong, Jadzia?  You can't mean what we've just
been doing?"

"Yes," she said in a choked voice, "that's exactly what I mean."  She
turned to go, but was unable to take a step.  "What's wrong with me?"
she asked herself out loud.  Her body was starting to shiver
uncontrollably.  Sisko walked over and helped her back to the bed,
covering her with a blanket.

"What is it, Jadzia?" he asked, puzzled.  "Do you want me to call Dr.
Bashir?"

"Julian?" she asked indignantly.  "He's probably fucking his brains
out right now.  So is Nerys, and even Odo.  Why can't they leave me
alone?"

"Jadzia!"

"No, that wasn't me--that was Dax.  All Dax."  She covered her face
with her hands.  "I'm taking advantage of you, Benjamin," she said
thickly through her chattering teeth.

"Why, because I first realized I cared for you when I'd had a memory
lapse?  Jadzia, nothing can ever change the fact that I loved
Jennifer, and that she's gone.  It was a blow I thought I'd never
recover from.  But I've finally learned that I can't end my life just
because hers ended."

Jadzia's shivering had abated somewhat.  "I've been so passive, too,
as if I'm in a daze," she continued aimlessly on, as if talking to
herself.  "I'm never so passive during sex.  I mean, Jadzia had hardly
ever had sex before, but Dax was certainly not what you'd call
passive, not in any lifetime..." She trailed off, suddenly sleepy, and
closed her eyes.

Sisko pushed her hair back from her face.  "You haven't been what I'd
call passive either, Jadzia," he said, smiling at the memories.

"No, not passive," she said with annoyance, "that's not what I meant.
I meant that I haven't been using very many of the things I learned
during my other lives.  I've been trying to let Jadzia feel her way,
slowly..."  She suddenly opened her eyes and smiled.  "Come to bed,
Benjamin," she murmured.  "What are you waiting for?"

He stood uncertainly with his hands on his hips.  "What do you really
want, Jadzia?" he asked, trying to restrain his anger. "You just told
me you didn't want me, and now you say you do."

"Did I say that?" she smiled.  "I didn't mean it."  Closing her eyes
once more, she fell asleep.  After hesitating a moment, Sisko climbed
into bed and held her while she slept.

---

Julian woke suddenly.  In the dim light he could see that Kira was
deep asleep, while Odo's pooled substance shimmered around her limbs.
Funny, that dream he had just awakened from. It was as if someone was
calling him from a long way off, telling him that she needed him.  Was
it Dax?  But she was with Sisko. And, anyway, no sound could penetrate
this vault.

Kira stirred in her sleep and then opened her eyes, although Bashir
had taken care not to move a muscle.  "Julian?" she asked, looking
around.

"Here," he answered, moving through Odo to her side.

"I had the strangest dream," she said, putting her arms around him.
"Jadzia wanted me.  She was calling me, but I couldn't tell where she
was.  I kept going deeper and deeper into the station, but...  I never
found her," she finished.  "It left me with a terrible feeling."

Julian now felt fully awake as the adrenaline began to course through
his veins.  "I have a terrible feeling, too," he said grimly,
"especially since I just had almost the same dream."

From under them Odo ran in rivulets, gathering his being in one spot
on the bed.  A few seconds later, he coalesced into the familiar shape
they knew.  "I had the same sensation," he remarked, "and no one has
ever accused me of being telepathic. Lwaxana says it's like trying to
read a wooden post."

Julian sighed.  "I wish I knew more about these things.  I also wish I
knew whether she was still with Commander Sisko.  I don't really
relish barging in on them."

Kira let her breath out impatiently as she left the bed to pick up her
uniform.  "Kira to Dax," she said to her comm badge.

"Sisko here.  What is it, Major?"

"I--that is, we--were wondering if Jadzia was all right. Julian, Odo,
and I all had a dream that she was calling us." Kira grimaced.  Now
that she had said it to Sisko, it sounded silly.

There was a pause on the other end.  "She's asleep now, but, not too
long ago, she had some sort of strange episode where she kept saying
contradictory things.  I nearly called Dr. Bashir."

"Commander," Julian put in, "can you give me some idea of what she
said and how she acted?  The amplifier may be affecting her."

"She made disparaging remarks about sex, and about everyone having it
so often lately," Sisko said in a clipped voice that betrayed his
embarrassment, "and she was shivering for a while. She kept saying
that she wanted and didn't want the same things."

Julian didn't dare ask what things.  "I suppose we ought to talk to
T'Letra about it, but if Dax is sleeping now..."

"I think we can safely wait until morning," Sisko said.  "It isn't too
far off in any case."

After signing off, the three of them looked somberly at each other.

"I'd hate to think that I was causing anyone any pain," Odo said with
concern.  "If I really am the amplifier, maybe I should leave the
station."

"It sounds as if Jadzia was just confused," Julian said kindly.
"She's sleeping now.  And, as for pain, you haven't caused us any of
that tonight."

Kira laughed.  "Far from it."

Odo cocked his head at them with amusement in his eyes. "Then perhaps
we should continue our experiment."

Julian walked over and stroked Odo's naked humanoid body, starting
with his face and working his way down the muscular shoulders and
chest, to the tight belly, and finally the erect cock.  Kira joined
him, concentrating on Odo's back and buttocks. Julian took Odo's
erection in his hand as Nerys stroked his balls from behind.

"Making love with you in your native state has opened my eyes to what
pleasure can be," Julian sighed.  "I've never felt anything like
that."

Odo made a sound deep in his throat and looked pleased.

"I have to admit, though," Julian continued sheepishly, "that I still
have a certain affection for... this."  He squeezed Odo's penis hard
and ran his hand down the shaft, making the foreskin retract and
reveal the moistened glans.

"I can understand that," Odo grunted.  "So do I."

Julian began to rub his own hard-on against Odo's genitals, sometimes
inserting it between his legs, where Nerys brushed it with her hands
as she continued to stroke the shape shifter's backside and scrotum.
Odo stood still, enjoying the attention. When Nerys began inserting a
hand into his cleft, his body seemed to shimmer for a moment before it
dissolved and washed them both to the bed like a powerful wave,
throwing them down breathless on the sheets.  Nerys laughed and
grabbed at Odo, who slipped playfully through her fingers and flowed
over her body, pushing into her before his humanoid shape had fully
formed again.

Julian went behind Odo and entered him, as he had on that first day.
Odo sighed as Julian slipped inside him, supporting the smaller man on
his strong back.  And suddenly that back dissolved.  Julian found
himself on top of Kira as Odo slithered away across the bed.  They
embraced and started to kiss as Kira guided him inside her, when a
warm body pushed between Julian's legs from behind, opened his buns,
and drove down into him. Julian arched his back and pushed deeper into
Nerys as Odo thoroughly explored his cleft.  Reaching over Julian's
shoulders, Nerys pulled down tendrils of Odo, spreading them over her
chest and Julian's, squeezing and caressing them so hard that the
shape shifter's joyous vibrations became almost unbearably intense for
them all.  Nerys came several times in sequence while her hands
grabbed the mass of Odo that pressed into Julian's backside and
wrapped them both in a warm embrace.

Slowly, in a series of passionate thrusts, Julian came, and Odo rolled
him and Nerys over together without letting their bodies come apart.
By surrounding Julian's softening member with his own substance, Odo
allowed Nerys to continue to thrust her hips against him until she
came again.  The sensation of being encased in Odo's erection was so
arousing that, even before he was able to regain his own hardness,
Julian felt a throb of pleasure so intense it left him lightheaded.
Nerys sighed with contentment and relaxed on his body.  Odo cushioned
them both in his soothing substance, rocking them gently with the
motion of partial metamorphoses, as a half-formed hand slid over
Julian's cheek or brushed Nerys's thigh before rejoining Odo's
gelatinous body.

They slept another couple of hours.

---

"Sisko to Bashir."

Julian stirred groggily and stumbled to the comm panel. "Yes,
Commander?"

"Dr. T'Letra has done that research.  We're waiting for you in your
office."

"I'll be right there."  Julian stepped into the small bathroom that
adjoined the quarantine room for a quick shower. Kira joined him in
the tiny stall just as he was finishing. Their bodies were inches
apart in the confined space.  When Julian's hard-on rose, it touched
her belly.  He slipped his hands around her waist and drew her to him.
Nerys returned his deep kiss, playing her tongue over his.  Julian's
hand strayed between her thighs, and before they had really thought
about it, he was holding her up against the wall and shoving into her,
while she encouraged his hearty thrusts by digging her heels into his
buns.  Their bodies slammed into the confining walls as they
frantically sought release.  Nerys's lips were wide open against his,
and her tongue was deep in his mouth; her hands held his face and
moved over his head, running through his hair.  Julian's fingers dug
into her thighs and bottom where he gripped her with all his strength.

When Nerys's spasms began, Julian was overcome by a wave of emotion
and pleasure.  He could no longer distinguish the throbbing of his
cock from the beating of his heart.  As his wetness spurted into her,
he nuzzled his face in her hair and bit at her neck.

"I love you," he said in a choked voice.  "Nerys, I love you."

She slipped off his softening penis and fell against him when her legs
buckled.  "It must be the amplifier, Julian," she said, trying to
regain her footing.

"You mean, you don't..."  He looked crushed.

She glanced at him sharply.  "No, I _do_.  But it must be the
amplifier.  Why else are we doing this while Commander Sisko waits for
us outside?"

Bashir's jaw dropped in horror.  "You're right.  I forgot. I actually
forgot."

They washed quickly and left the shower to find Odo already reformed
and waiting.

"What took you so long?" he asked, annoyed.

When the three lovers emerged from the quarantine room, they found
Sisko and T'Letra in Bashir's office.  The Commander looked impatient.

"Dr. Bashir," T'Letra began immediately, "I have completed my research
on our problem.

"And what have you found?  Is it Odo?"

"The shape shifter?  No.  It is the trill."

"Jadzia?"  Julian was taken completely by surprise.

"To be precise," T'Letra corrected him, "it is the symbiont. In its
unjoined state, the symbiont is more than mildly telepathic.  Usually
these tendencies are stifled by the host, whose psi rating is, in
general, very low."

"And Jadzia's is high?" Kira asked.

"No, it is average for a trill host."

"Then how...?"

T'Letra knitted her brows, but otherwise her face revealed none of her
impatience.  "The presence of Ambassador Troi on the station
apparently started the problem.  When I performed the meld on the
Bajoran child, I inadvertently worsened Lieutenant Dax's condition."

"Her condition?" Julian ventured, still feeling in the dark. "How did
Lwaxana give Dax a... condition?  And what exactly was it?"

As if on cue, Lwaxana herself entered the room, looking somewhat pale,
but much more herself than she had since her re- arrival on the
station.  "Let me explain," she said regally.  "A non-Betazoid--even a
doctor--just can't understand."

"Understand what?"  Julian was starting to get frustrated now.

"Quite some time ago, doctor," she said seriously, "I entered 'the
phase.'"

Julian looked blank for a second before the light began to dawn.  "Oh,
yes," he said quietly, "Now I see."

"Well, I don't," Kira burst out angrily.

Julian turned to her.  "Lwaxana entered full Betazoid sexual maturity.
That means that her sex drive increased enormously, and her telepathic
abilities became sporadically dysfunctional and hard to control."

"That's why you weren't reading us the night when... when..." Kira
wasn't sure how to refer tactfully to the night of their orgy with
Lwaxana.

"That's right," Lwaxana interrupted.  "I wasn't thinking with my
brain, but with--well, you know," she finished, shooting Sisko a coy
glance that made him blush in spite of himself.

"But how did that affect Dax?"  Kira still looked puzzled.

"The symbiont must have picked up the sexual signals Lwaxana was
sending and amplified them," Julian explained.  "Of course, that might
not have happened if Jadzia wasn't already having sexual feelings
herself."  He swallowed nervously and avoided Sisko's eyes.  "When Dr.
T'Letra arrived, the same thing happened.  The symbiont picked up her
uncontrolled thoughts as well as Calla's anxiety.  Jadzia was already
feeling anxious and torn about what had been going on."  He purposely
left this vague, and no one asked him to elaborate.  "When both
telepaths were on the station at once, Jadzia was not only
experiencing her own confused feelings, but contradictory feelings
that weren't her own, including thoughts picked up by Lwaxana.
Lwaxana herself experienced all of Jadzia's and her own feelings
played back to her through the symbiont's filter, as well as T'Letra's
amplified emanations."  He turned to T'Letra.  "Is that how you see
it, doctor?"

T'Letra held her folded hands stiffly in front of her as she spoke.
"She might also have experienced a conflict between the symbiont's and
the host's desires.  If the symbiont's needs weren't being met, it
might have made a desperate attempt to communicate telepathically."

Julian nodded.  "Although we're had many telepathic species on the
station before, we've never had two with these particular control
problems.  And they happened to be here at a time when Jadzia was
feeling particularly vulnerable."

"So, I'm not the amplifier," Odo said with obvious relief. "Where is
Lieutenant Dax now?"

"Still in the other room," Sisko replied.  "I left her sleeping, and
Ambassador Troi just checked on her."

"There are several kinds of drugs I might be able to give her to
suppress the symbiont's telepathic ability," Julian said. "I'll have
to do a little research.  Doctor T'Letra, I'd appreciate your help."
The two sat down at the terminal and set to work.

"I could use some of that drug when you've made it, doctor," Lwaxana
said.  "It's not too bad when Jadzia's asleep, but my headache is
coming back already.  And, by the way, she was still sleeping when I
checked on her.  I think someone ought to be with her when she wakes
up."  She wandered over to stand behind Julian and watch his progress.

"I'll go," Kira volunteered.

"No, Major, I will," said Sisko grimly, walking out as he spoke.

"What's wrong with him?" Odo asked Kira in perplexity.  "The problem
seems to be solved."

"He's probably wondering if she'll still care for him after Julian
gives her the drug," Nerys answered softly.  "I must say, I'm
wondering the same thing about us all."

T'Letra heard her, although Julian didn't, and turned to answer.
"Only Lieutenant Dax and Ambassador Troi experienced outside feelings
directly.  The rest of you may have felt some small amplification, but
you did not have feelings that were foreign to your natures."

Julian's hands, which had been speeding over the keyboard, stopped
suddenly.  "Got it," he said with satisfaction.  Nerys went to his
side and bent to look at the display.  His breath was hot against her
cheek as he turned to speak into her ear.  "It wasn't the amplifier,
Nerys," he whispered, "it was us."  She didn't answer.

Punching a few final commands into the panel, Bashir got a hypospray
and set it.  "This is for you, Lwaxana," he said. "I'll need a
different formula for Jadzia."

"Thank you," she said sincerely, "it will be nice to have some peace
for a change."

Resetting the hypospray, Julian headed for the convalescent room with
Kira, Odo, Lwaxana, and T'Letra close behind him.  They found Sisko
standing over Jadzia as she lay flat on the bed. They were obviously
deep in conversation.

"Excuse me, Commander," Julian said hesitantly.  "I've found a
medication that should lower Jadzia's sensitivity to telepathic
emissions."

"I'm not sure I want it, Julian," Dax said calmly.

"Why not?" Julian asked, dumfounded.  "Your emotions are out of
control.  You've been moody and indecisive, and you..."

"I know it," she said angrily, sitting up.  "But I've also felt freer
to get close to people than I ever have before."

Kira took a deep breath and stepped forward.  "You've been hurting
other people, Jadzia.  You hurt me, and you hurt Julian with your
inconsistency.  Lwaxana nearly lost her mind.  We realize that you
didn't have any control over what happened.  But don't you think you
ought to take responsibility now?"

Jadzia glanced at Sisko, whose eyes were riveted upon her. As he
stared, his expressive face said everything they both already knew.

Jadzia sighed and lay back down.  "You're right, of course," she said
sadly, closing her eyes.  "Go ahead, Julian."

Feeling almost as if he were losing a friend, Bashir brought the hypo
up to her neck.  "I'm sorry, Jadzia," he said, and squeezed.  The hypo
hissed.  There was a silence as everyone watched Jadzia's face.  A
long moment passed before they realized, one by one, that her
breathing had grown regular and that she was asleep again.

---

Julian sat back in his chair and thought of calling Kira. But what
would he say?  Dax had been asleep for two hours now, and everyone had
returned to their work.  T'Letra and Lwaxana were wrapping up their
affairs on the station, since both were due to leave on the same
transport in a little over twelve hours. As his thoughts drifted once
more through the morning's events, his comm badge came alive.

"Kira to Bashir.  Any news?"

"No.  But it's good to hear your voice," Julian said glumly.

"Thanks.  I'm having trouble concentrating, too."  Kira sounded tense.

"Nerys..."

"Yes?"

Julian spoke on an impulse.  "Why don't you come down here?"

"Now?  I've only been on shift for two hours."

"I know."  There was a silence.  "I'll let you know when she wakes
up."

"I'll see you later, Julian."

Bashir went back to his work and had finally managed to lose himself
in it when the computer summoned him.

"Motion detected in room 4," it computer said impassively, telling him
that the motion sensor he had set in Dax's room had been tripped.

Julian rose quickly and reached the convalescent room in a few
seconds.  The door was open, and he could see Sisko inside, standing
over Dax, who still slept peacefully.  As quietly as possible, he
returned to his office and sat down.  His eyes wouldn't focus on the
display anymore.  He leaned his elbows on the panel and put his face
in his hands.

Why was he so worried?  Did he really think that his own feelings--not
to mention Kira's and Odo's feelings--were all going to vanish without
a trace when Dax could no longer amplify emotions?  He had already
given Dax the drug, and he didn't feel any different, did he?  He
still wanted Kira and Odo as much as before, still ached when he
thought about last night, and the night before that.  He had told
Nerys he loved her, but he loved Odo, too.  It seemed impossible to
imagine a life without either of them.  On the other hand, an
insidious voice whispered in his mind, it _had_ all started the day
Lwaxana Troi arrived on the station...

Julian heard a step behind him, and turned quickly.  "Odo!" he said,
rising.  "I'm glad to see you."  He was glad, inordinately glad, so
elated that he wanted to go back to the quarantine room with the shape
shifter right that minute. Julian's head swam; his emotions were in a
tumult.

"I...," Odo began hesitantly, "I don't know what happened to me.  I
couldn't stay away."  He looked honestly perplexed.

From behind him Kira suddenly appeared in the doorway. "Julian, I..."
She stopped.  "I really don't know why I'm here. I was on my way to
the Replimat."

"The medicine is wearing off," Bashir realized.  "Sisko's already with
Dax, and I was just thinking of both of you."  They left the office
and went to Dax's room, with Kira in the lead.

---

Jadzia crouched down in the dark, down low somewhere--it must be on
the station, somewhere deep--and she never wanted to come out.  How
had this thing happened to her?  She had just wanted to lead a quiet
life--work, friendship, a little gambling for a thrill, a little
travel, but not love.  Love just wasn't in her plan.  Not that she
minded the flattery of being admired. Bashir had admired her for a
couple of years now, as had Kira. And Quark, and Morn.  And several
visitors to the station.  To all of them she had behaved with the same
charming reserve, and to all of them she had made clear that love just
wasn't in the equation.  Neither was sex, until now.

Whom was she hiding from, here in the dark?  From all of them, but
especially Sisko.  Although she'd felt close to Kira, Odo, and Bashir
when they had sex with her, she hadn't fallen in love with them, but
Sisko was different.  She felt suddenly as if she had always been half
in love with him.  That was it, she suddenly realized--she was half in
love with him.

Long ago, Jadzia had fallen for Sisko, but had pushed the feelings
away.  She wasn't Curzon, after all, she had always told herself
sternly.  Dax, whose hosts had usually preferred women, had been
influenced by those repressed feelings until it shared them.  But
Jadzia wouldn't recognize her own feelings, let alone her own desires.
For one marvelous moment, when she had first made love with Sisko,
symbiont and host had been in perfect accord, but the feeling hadn't
lasted.  Jadzia had come back with her rational reasons for putting
affection aside.

She heard footsteps coming towards her.  "There you are," Odo said,
peering disapprovingly into her hiding place.  "I've had people
scouring the station for you.  We thought we'd lost you."

"No," she said, standing, suddenly ashamed.  "I just wanted to be
alone."

"You know, Lieutenant, no one asked you to join me and Dr. Bashir that
day."

"It wasn't my idea, Odo.  Lwaxana Troi's thoughts were..."

Odo snorted.  "That's right, Lieutenant, blame it all on Lwaxana.  But
she wasn't the one who got the pleasure out of it."

Jadzia gasped in surprise that Odo would speak to her that way.  Was
this a dream?  "Odo, I couldn't help it."

"The rest of us could have helped it," he said, looking her straight
in the eyes, "but we all wanted you."  He glanced around behind him.
"But that isn't important now.  They're waiting for you, Jadzia Dax."

She felt a sudden, sharp chill.  "Who's waiting for me?" she
whispered.

"Come this way."  Odo started off with long strides.  As she rushed
after him, things seem to pass her too quickly.  It was as if she were
flying rather than walking through the station.  And then, too soon,
they were at the infirmary door.

"Hello, Jadzia," Julian said warmly, holding out his hands.
"Everyone's here now.  We're so glad Odo found you."

Her hands seemed to slip into his of their own accord, and he led her
unresisting into the large room.  Lwaxana, Benjamin, and Nerys stood
there.  Odo and Julian left her to join them.

"Jadzia?" Benjamin asked, holding out his hand.

"Won't you join your friends, dear?" Lwaxana said invitingly.

Jadzia walked slowly up to Benjamin and then turned to face the
doorway.  With a shock, she saw herself still standing there.

"That's what you've been doing all along," Nerys said bluntly.  "Every
time one of us thought we were with you, you always left part of
yourself behind."

"I did," admitted Dax.

"You enjoyed our desire," Julian said, "always having me hanging
around, trying another way to charm you.  You liked keeping me on the
edge, Jadzia."

"And me," Kira put in.

"I did," said Jadzia in a daze.

"You liked being with me," Odo began, "because you weren't really sure
what I felt.  That gave you the freedom to play with my body without
worrying about the consequences."

"I did," Jadzia repeated.

Sisko stepped up to her.  She felt a stab of tenderness and took his
face in her hands.

"I love you, Jadzia," he said.

"I know," she answered painfully, staring at his beautiful face, "and
I love you."

"But you liked thinking that I wanted you only temporarily, that I
would wake up one day and forget all about it."

"Oh, no, Benjamin," she gasped, but she knew he was right. And she
knew what his next words would be before he said them, as if she were
saying them herself.

"You wanted to try me without responsibility for my feelings," he
continued inexorably.  "You thought I'd go back to mourning Jennifer
again when I recovered my memories.  But I want you, Jadzia.  What are
you going to do about that?"

"I don't know," she sobbed bitterly.

She felt herself being lifted by many strong hands and placed upon a
low table.  Her uniform was gone now, but she had no idea how or when
it had been removed.  Odo came up to her first.

"I never said anything to you about it," he said, "but I did feel
used."

She reached for him and hugged his pliant body close against her.
"I'm sorry, Odo."

Julian and Nerys came up behind her head so that she was looking at
them upside down.  "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Be sorry for yourself," Kira said.  "You hurt yourself most of all."
She bent her head down and kissed Jadzia full on the lips, slowly
opening her mouth.

Feeling a hot thrill run through her, Jadzia clutched at Nerys's head
as Julian's hands found her breasts.  Odo was suddenly between her
legs stroking her labia with the longest tongue she had ever felt.  As
she climaxed, he was gone and Julian had pushed inside her, bringing
her to orgasm again with a few expert strokes.  She had Odo's hard-on
in her hands while Kira sucked her breasts and Julian continued to 
plunge into her. She stroked and licked Odo's cock until it got very
hard, when Kira pushed Odo to the floor and straddled him, letting his
hardness slide into her.  As Julian threw his head back in ecstasy,
Jadzia came again, deeper this time and more intensely. Julian slid
off her, landing on the floor, and immediately became entangled with
Nerys and Odo.  She watched for a few moments until she felt a
familiar touch.

"Jadzia," Benjamin said, "you finally came back to us."

She turned her head aside, feeling strange.  "I love you, Benjamin,"
she said in a strangled voice, "but I just made love with Odo, Bashir,
and Kira, not with you."

He laughed softly, and she saw his teeth flash white behind his dark
lips.  "That's right," he said, "and if you hadn't been with them, you
never would have been able to be with me.  I owe the pleasure of
making love with you to Julian and Odo, who first tempted you."

He picked her up off the table and lay on the floor, holding her on
top of him.  Jadzia's body felt soft and sore and hot and delicious
and swollen and hard, all in different places.  She, with all her
contradictions, was conscious of every part of her body and mind
yearning in its own way to know Benjamin Sisko. Her breasts pressed
into his chest as she kissed him, feeling like two points of flame.
His hands ran all over her body.  She pulled his erection into her.

And then everything seemed to happen at once.  As Sisko's touch lit
fires all over her body, her friends seemed to speak to her, seemed to
be telling her all they could give and how little they really wanted
in return.  Their faces swam before her eyes, and, at the moment of
her greatest pleasure, when Sisko cried out under her, she opened her
eyes and saw his face above her.  A veil dropped silently from her
eyes.

"Welcome back," Benjamin said, his voice revealing his relief.

She smiled at him, feeling more relaxed than she had in ages.  "It's
good to be back," she murmured, turning her head.

Her other three friends stood off to one side.  In their vigil, they
had unconsciously moved very close together.  Julian and Nerys stood
so close their bodies touched, and Odo seemed to melt into them from
behind.  Then Lwaxana appeared in the doorway.

"I only just realized what was happening," she said apologetically.
"The medicine must be wearing off."

Jadzia saw the hypospray in Julian's hand and looked back at Benjamin.
"I won't be needing that medicine again," she said. "I'm starting to
feel like myself."

Benjamin smiled tenderly.  "Good," he said.  "We've been waiting to
find out who that will be."

---

The End