Time's Error

Chapter 3: Inverse Waveforms, and Other Interesting Curves

Rutherford usually woke up in a timely manner, thanks to his cybernetic eye’s internal chronometer. But when he awoke, his opening eyes—cybernetic and biological—didn’t always fall on something as lovely as the nude body of Ensign Barnes. Her body was slim and lithe, and her pale skin was flecked from face to feet with the speckles that identified her as a Trill. Outside of his immediate friend group, Barnes was probably the crewmate Rutherford was closest to. Not only was she an intelligent, interesting person and great fun in bed, but she had taught him to play squash, which he still enjoyed.

“Good morning,” Barnes said, running a finger down his bare chest.

Rutherford smiled sleepily at her. “It’s definitely good so far.”

“Wanna make it even better?”

“You bet. Just gimme one sec.”

Rutherford hopped out of bed and went into the bathroom. He needed to void not only his bladder, but also enough of his prosthetic eye’s memory to ensure there was adequate space to record whatever might be about to happen with Barnes. He’d been so caught up in the moment the previous night that he’d forgotten to do that, so his recording of the event ended well before their lovemaking had. 

He quickly scrolled through images from the previous day, deleting those from solo turbolift rides, boring engineering tasks (although he had to really search for those, given that he loved almost everything he did at his job), and the fifteen-minute meditation session that Chief Engineer Fern led the Engineering staff through in the middle of every beta shift. Rutherford didn’t mind the meditation, but he didn’t need visual documentation of it.

He tried to clear memory as quickly as possible, not wanting to leave Barnes waiting. But one piece of video grabbed his attention: a glimpse of an officer he had passed in a corridor while on his way down to Main Engineering. He hadn’t really noticed her at the time because his mind had been on tweaking his transporter-booster design—he wanted to have a prototype ready for testing by the time the Cerritos reached Dulaine—but her image now caught his attention. She was a young human lieutenant junior grade like himself, with almond eyes and a swarthy complexion. She was fairly short and had pixie-cut black hair, and her red uniform crop top exposed a cute little oval-shaped navel. As she passed Rutherford in the corridor, she appeared to be focused on getting where she was going, yet she walked with a hint of jauntiness that reminded Rutherford of Tendi.

Rutherford was certain he’d never seen this woman before. Which was odd, given that the Cerritos hadn’t been-

“Hey, lover!” Barnes called, interrupting Rutherford’s train of thought. “Wanna see the pose I’ve been practicing in my Dulainian erotic yoga class? I think you’ll find it very interesting.”

Rutherford glanced at the size of his memory cache. It looked like he’d cleared more than enough to capture whatever was about to happen. So he returned to Barnes’ bedroom.

***

The naked D’vana Tendi yawned and stretched, reaching her arms straight up and trying not to make noise so as to avoid awakening the two Dulainian men, who were also naked, sleeping on either side of her. But as she yawned, she couldn’t keep a high-pitched, rather merry squeak from escaping her mouth. The eyes of one of the men—Ensign Mershell—fluttered open; then he, too, was yawning, which awakened the second man, Lieutenant JG Featherdown.

“Hey, Tendi,” Mershell said with a sleepy smile. He was stocky and had light-orange skin, and his short, ivory-colored hair stood up in spikes.

“Morning, Nova,” Featherdown said, using their pet name for her. Featherdown was tall and slim, with blood-orange skin. His white-gold hair, which he tied back in a ponytail while on duty, seemed to flow down his pillow like a gentle waterfall.

“Morning, guys,” Tendi replied. “How about a quickie before breakfast?”

“Oh, I think we have time for that,” Featherdown replied with a wink.

“And if we didn’t, we’d make time,” Mershell added. “Even if we had to disrupt the space-time continuum.” Tendi chuckled.

Mershell kissed Tendi while Featherdown moved his big hands up and down her bare back. Then Tendi turned her head and kissed Featherdown while Mershell gently fondled her perky breasts. Tendi giggled hornily into Featherdown’s mouth; of the various men she’d had sex with in her lifetime, Mershell was among the most skilled at breast-play.

The two men’s attentions soon had Tendi feeling warm and wet between her thighs. This increase in her arousal seemed well timed because of other sensations she was experiencing: the underside of a hot, hard cock pressed against the front of her thigh, and another against her lower back.

“You guys want to take me for a ride?” Tendi asked teasingly.

“Definitely,” Featherdown replied.

“‘Definitely’ to a factor of four,” Mershell agreed.

Tendi had enjoyed threesomes with these two men on a roughly weekly basis since she’d first been assigned to the Cerritos, so the two Dulainians knew exactly what Tendi had in mind. They lay down on their backs on the bed—a conjoined pair of beds, really—and Mershell turned around so that they could interlock their legs with their crotches close together. Each man then took hold of his cock by the base and held it upright as he smiled lustily at Tendi. 

The green-skinned young woman couldn’t help but smile back as she positioned herself on her knees so that her pussy and ass were directly above those two upthrust cocks. Both men’s members matched their overall physiques: Featherdown’s cock was long and slim, while Mershell’s was shorter and girthier. Tendi faced away from Featherdown so as to take his cock in her ass and Mershell’s in her pussy. Then she lowered herself down.

The Orion alimentary tract differed from those of most other humanoid species in two important ways. First, the Orion anus was just as capable of self-lubrication as the Orion vagina. Second, instead of having only one sphincter muscle, Orions had a series of them, spaced about three centimeters apart. As a result, males of many races particularly enjoyed anal sex with an Orion. And because these sphincter muscles produced a pleasurable sensation when stretched, many Orions were happy to accommodate these males.

So when Tendi eased her ass down and took the two Dulainian’s cocks up her pussy and ass, all three participants moaned with pleasure.

***

With Rutherford and Tendi sleeping over in other officers’ rooms, and T’lyn having gotten up at an ungodly early hour to check on a science experiment she had running, Boimler and Mariner were each other’s only company when they woke up. Both were in their sleepwear, albeit barely. Mariner had on her red see-through negligee, but her matching red thong was still pulled to the side from their quickie the night before, so her pussy was exposed. Boimler was even less modestly dressed, having on only a pair of electric-blue silk boxer shorts—with his cock and balls hanging out the fly. Mariner saw this as she returned from the bathroom, and it put a goofy smile on her face. She lay down next to Boimler, who had awakened a few minutes earlier than Mariner but returned to bed after peeing.

“So here we are,” Mariner said, running a finger down Boimler’s bare chest, “all alone.”

Boimler grinned and replied, “Whomsoever shall we bone?”

“Early-morning poetry is not sexy,” Mariner said. “Especially when it’s grammatically correct.”

“Noted.”

Mariner moved on top of Boimler, straddling his hips. She put her warm pussy down on the underside of his cock, which was already about half hard, and began moving slowly forward and back.

“Oooh,” Boimler said, reaching up with both hands to fondle Mariner’s perky tits. “You know I love a nice pussy massage.”

Mariner smiled lustily down at him as she replied, “I do know that, yes. But I like my pussy to get massaged on the inside.”

“If you’re trying to get me hard, it’s working.”

“It always does. Now, let Triple-B come inside my playhouse.” “Triple-B” was Mariner’s nickname for Boimler’s cock, being short for “Bradford Boimler’s Boner.”

Boimler took one hand off of Mariner’s breast and grabbed the base of his now-stiff cock, holding it upright. Mariner raised herself up, then slowly descended, impaling herself on Boimler’s cock.

“Ahhhhh…” they both sighed.

***

“Oh, yes, Rutherford…” Barnes moaned. She was lying on her back on her bed with her ankles behind her head as Rutherford fucked her missionary style. The young engineer was amazed, not only that Barnes was flexible enough for this, but that she was moaning in pleasure and not pain. He hoped, at least.

“Gosh…Barnes…this is…so sexy…” Rutherford gasped, fucking her faster.

“I knew you’d like it…” Barnes panted. “I do too…makes me feel so open…”

Her words turned Rutherford on even more. He fucked the sexy Trill even harder, making sure to get in balls-deep on every stroke so as the hit the pleasure-inducing nerve ganglion at the mouth of her cervix again and again.

“Yes! Yes!” Barnes cried. “Fuck me deep! Fuck meAAAAAAAH!”

Her pussy muscles squeezed Rutherford’s cock again and again in a rapid cascading sequence from her entrance to her cervix, her pussy trying to milk his seed from him. Rutherford grunted “NNNGH!” and came inside her.

***

“Oh yes, oh yes, oh fuck,” Tendi panted as she bounced on the laps of the two men beneath her, driving their hard cocks up into her pussy and ass again and again. Featherdown’s hands were on her waist and Mershell’s were on her hips, helping her move. Mershell smiled breathlessly as he looked up at Tendi’s face and her bouncing green tits.

“Oh gosh…you guys…” Tendi whined. “I’m gonna…cum…really soon…”

“Me too,” Featherdown grunted.

“And me,” Mershell gasped.

Tendi took their responses as license to bounce on their cocks as fast as she could. Almost simultaneously, Featherdown and Mershell grunted loudly, and when Tendi felt their hot seed geysering up into her womb and bowels, she screamed “AAAAAAAIIIII!” as she came along with them.

***

Mariner, too, was bouncing happily. Boimler had both hands on her tits and was rubbing her nipples the way he knew she liked as she rode his cock with increasing vigor.

“Oh fuck…Boimler…” Mariner breathed. “You’ve got…the most rideable cock…in the Cali class…”

Boimler briefly wondered if there were any cocks on Galaxy or Intrepid class ships that she found more rideable than his. Then he remembered the Dulainian maxim that comparing yourself to others during sex takes your mind off yourself and your partner and thus ensures that you will come out the loser in the comparison.

“In that case,” he said, “let’s take this ride to a gallop.”

Boimler moved his hands from Mariner’s tits to her waist and helped her bounce faster. Mariner shouted “Yeehaw!” and rode him as hard as she could until she cried out “AaaaAAAH!” and came. The tight squeeze of her pussy triggered Boimler’s climax, making him shout “WHOOOO!” and shoot his load up into her.

“Well,” Mariner panted, climbing off Boimler and falling onto her back next to him, “that was a fun ride…”

“Always happy to be your steed, m’lady,” Boimler breathed.

***

Not long after that, Tendi, Rutherford, and T’lyn all returned to the Lower Deckers’ quarters to get ready for the day. They had sonic-showered and begun dressing for their morning exercise classes when T’lyn addressed the group.

“I wish to speak with you all,” she said, “about an unusual occurrence. One that I am hesitant to report to someone higher in the chain of command.”

The others listened raptly as T’lyn described the Vulcan man she had seen and the strange comm-badge conversation she had overheard in Cargo Bay 1.

“I believe I heard him say,” she concluded, “that there is a time traveler aboard ship.”

“Wait a sec,” Boimler said. “Twelve hours ago, you found a Vulcan you didn’t know hiding out in the cargo bay and telling someone he was a time traveler, and you’re only telling us now?”

“It is possible that I misunderstood him,” T’lyn replied, “and that there is a logical explanation for his presence on the Cerritos. The altered hormonal state associated with my upcoming pon farr has been making me somewhat irrational.”

Waving her hand at the Vulcan’s impassive face, Mariner replied, “I love that this is your idea of irrational.”

“That is also,” T’lyn continued, “why I am relating this incident to all of you and not to Security or Command. I would like to have further evidence before reporting an intruder on the ship.”

“Oh, I’ve got some evidence,” Boimler replied. “We’ve got a security officer aboard who I’ve never seen before in my life. Her dossier looks legit, and so does her transfer order, but I can’t find any evidence of her actually coming aboard. I even went through the video logs from the shuttle bay, and I found zilch.”

“You know,” Rutherford said, “yesterday, I saw somebody new, too. A cute human lieutenant JG. It looked like she was heading for the shuttle bay. I didn’t have time to talk to her.”

“So,” Tendi said, “we have at least three brand-new crew on board. Why don’t we just go talk to them? You know, welcome them to the Cerritos, break out some chips and guac and synthehol tequila, maybe get a massage circle going…”

“Tendi,” Mariner said, “you know I love your boundless positivity, but even if those people have a completely legit reason for being on the ship, that reason must be something hush-hush.”

“Such as investigating a temporal incursion,” T’lyn suggested.

“Right,” Mariner replied. Then she looked around. “Hey, where did Rutherford go? He was just here.”

Just then, all of their comm badges chittered.

“Guys,” Rutherford said. “This is really weird. I just went down the corridor, using my new tricorder—the one with the purple stripe-”

“Oooh, those are the best!” Tendi interjected.

“-and I’m finding traces of chronoton radiation.”

“Chronoton?” Mariner said. “So we really do have a time traveler on board?”

“If it were normal chronoton radiation, I’d say yes,” Rutherford replied, entering the room. “But Tendi, look at this.”

Rutherford transmitted his tricorder readings to Tendi’s padd. The young science officer’s green brow furrowed.

“This radiation has an inverse waveform,” she said.

“What does that mean?” Boimler asked.

“These aren’t the kind of chronotons a time traveler would have on them,” Tendi explained. “If anything, these would prevent you from traveling in time.”

“So, what, we’re looking for a fugitive from time jail?” Mariner asked. “Somebody had too many Temporal Prime Directive violations and got their time-travel license revoked?”

“I don’t know what we’re looking for,” Rutherford replied. “But whatever or whoever they are, they’ve got to be covered in this inverse chronoton radiation. If we use the new tricorders, we should be able to locate them.”

T’lyn replied, “I have also detected anomalous activity in the computer system. I believe it is originating from inside Jeffries Tube Three. And possibly another location, as well.” 

Rutherford, sweeping around with his purple-striped tricorder, said, “Given the direction the chronoton radiation is coming from, Jeffries Tube Three could definitely be the point of origin.”

“Then let’s go!” Mariner declared.

The red-uniformed young woman took the lead, and the group headed out the door and down the corridor to the Jeffries tube, where Mariner opened the hatch. Rutherford glanced at his tricorder.

“Looks like we need to go up from here,” he said.

Mariner entered the vertical tube and climbed the ladder, the others right behind her. She climbed past two decks; then, halfway to the next deck, she reached a maintenance node that was just barely big enough to stand up in. 

There, crouching on the floor and tapping a panel opposite the ladder, was a man wearing a getup Mariner had never seen before. It looked like a yellow-and-black Starfleet uniform, but instead of a tank top and shorts, it had a long-sleeved jacket, long pants, and black boots, such that it covered every inch of the man’s skin below his neck.

The man must have heard Mariner’s footsteps on the ladder, because he simultaneously straightened up and whirled around to face her—banging his head on the low ceiling in the process. As the man cursed unintelligibly, Mariner got a look at his face.

A Tellarite? she thought as they stared at each other.

Then she blurted, “Who the fuck are you?”