Chapter Two
Desperate Times Call For….

Reverend Patricia McCabe stared at the computer monitor on her desk, stared at the simulated woman's face on the screen, momentarily speechless. "Excuse me?" She sat up, her outrage growing. "What did you just say to me?" She stood up, her anger growing by the second. If it were a real woman's face rather than a simulated face in a computer program she would slap it. "Did you say I need to get laid? That's your solution? Are you saying that I can rest and the galaxy will start making sense again if I just get porked? Are you daring to say to me that I'll feel better if I just lay down and have Malcolm Reed feed my cat eight inches of English Sausage?"

"Yes."

"Well, let me tell you something, you microchipped, nanobrained, software headed…" she fought for a word, trembling in her rage. "Ninny! You are so … so … fragmented if you think.… Let me tell you something, you micro … nano …chipped …" Suddenly it was as if a switch had been thrown in her mind, the fury snapped off in a flash of embarrassed realization and she could think lucidly again. And what she thought was "You're probably right." She took a deep breath, tried to calm herself, feeling quite foolish. "I'm standing here ranting and trying to think of insults against a computer program. Maybe I do need.…" She couldn't finish it.

She sat back down, leaning back, the ending of her fury leaving her spent, chin resting on her chest. "All right, Clara," she surrendered, "assuming your diagnosis is correct, how do I go about getting a cure?"

"Well, there you have me. My experience with hot animal sex is slightly limited."

Patricia could not help but look up. "Slightly?" Clara gave her a raised eyebrow and smile combination that made her feel slightly nervous. "Just what goes on in cyberspace?"

"Trust me, you couldn't handle it."

"You're starting to scare me, Clara. And the scariest part is – I believe you."

Clara's face gave her a grin. "There are more things in heaven and on earth–"

"Enough. I don't want to know. Just tell me how I can fix Malcolm!"

"Fixing him may require your Dr. Phlox. But if you're willing to work with what he has now, you have enough experience in that area."

"I don't know…" she admitted doubtfully. "I'm rather out of practice. Seduction is not really practiced much in the Clergy. And he's so staid."

"Staid comes from the stays in Elizabethan corsets and bras. Women were very happy when they were able to remove them."

Patricia thought for a moment about the underlying message. "Thank you, Clara."

"I'm always here."

"Terminate program," she told the computer, and Clara vanished from the screen.

Patricia McCabe thought hard for over two hours about her next move.

xxx

"Reverend McCabe to Lieutenant Reed." Her voice came over the intercom at his Tactical Station on the bridge as though she were standing right next to him. Malcolm glanced about the bridge, but no one had taken any notice. It was just one more communication.

He touched the intercom button. "Reed here."

"Lieutenant, I need your assistance on a Personnel matter. It involves a member of the Security department."

"Where are you?"

"My quarters." The link disconnected. When Malcolm looked up, Archer was looking back at him.

"Some kind of problem, Malcolm?"

"I'm not entirely sure, sir. I think I'd better look into it."

"Go to it. Inform me if necessary." Malcolm was head of Security, he would know if something could be dealt with quietly or if it needed the Captain's attention.

As Reed left the bridge, Archer was certain he would not receive a follow-up.

xx

When Lieutenant Reed arrived at the Chaplain's quarters, he pressed the annunciation button and a moment later heard her voice call from within. "It's open, Lieutenant. Come in."

When he stepped inside, the door closing behind him, he was surprised to find himself alone. He looked about, but there was no place to hide even a child, let alone an adult woman. Then he heard her voice call from the partially open door to the refresher. "Computer, initiate Protocol Alpha Omega." He heard a very familiar click behind him, and a less familiar one from elsewhere in the room.

"I'm, er, not familiar with that protocol." He hated to admit it even more than he hated speaking to an empty room.

"It's a very old one, buried deep in the computer systems. I wasn't entirely sure this class of vessel had it, but it does. It's used for the utmost level of privacy – our Orders use it though most people have forgotten it's even there. While it is engaged the door will not open, nor will the intercom work until I release them. You are my prisoner, Lieutenant."

He heard the amusement in her disembodied voice, and all it made him feel was annoyed. "You called me from my station to discuss a personnel matter involving a member of my staff."

"No, I didn't. I said I require your assistance on a Personnel matter, that it involves a member of the Security department. I didn't lie."

"What do you mean, you didn't lie?"

"Aren't you, after all, Security personnel?"

Her light tone was only making Reed grow more annoyed. "You pulled me away from my post. Why? And come out of there. What are you doing in there? It's rude to be talking from behind a door."

"I'm being spontaneous. You used to think spontaneity was so much fun."

He turned back to the door, disgusted. "That was before. Now I have duties. This minute, in fact. So if you please, Reverend, open this door."

"Do I look like a 'Reverend' to you?" she asked; her voice no longer filtered by re-enforced steel. He turned, ready to have it out with her despite her Ministry, and the words seized in his throat.

x

The only thing unchanged about her from an hour ago was her long chestnut hair that teased her shoulders. Those shoulders were now bare, as was nearly every inch of her down to her feet.

She was as he remembered her in his dreams, but with a woman's maturity rather than.…

Malcolm gulped so hard he could be heard across the room.

Patricia raised her hands slowly to her breasts, cupping them in her palms, her thumbs teasing the already erect points of her nipples with tantalizing slowness. "You were right about me, Malki," she whispered, her tone hot enough to melt every bulkhead on the ship. She stepped forward a single, lithe step and he had to gulp just as hard. "I am determined." She took another step closer, and his eyes couldn't get big enough to take enough of her in. "And stubborn." She stopped before him, still teasing her breasts, and he couldn't look away. He felt her burning heat and his own heat in return.

She reached down and took his hands, placed them on her full breasts, held them there. "I know the real Malki Reed is in there," she said with breath of fire. She moved even closer, her hot body molding to his, and he couldn't help but explore her once familiar body, couldn't keep still against her powerful allure.

She brought her burning lips closer to his. "If you're not going to bring him out…" she brushed her lips to his, and then embraced him with a passionate fire he'd nearly forgotten, her lips searing his, her voice both muffled and clear against him, "then I'm going in after him!"