A Vulcan's Love -Chapter One

This story is based in the "Star Trek" universe. The use of anything related to "Star Trek" in this series is not intended to infringe upon the rights of Paramount Pictures. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise.

All other content or otherwise are works of my own imagination. All events are fictitious in nature.

Any similarities to persons living, dead, or otherwise are purely coincidental.

This story contains strong themes of homosexual content, if this offends you in any way, please refrain from reading further. If you are not of legal age to read this please leave now.

A Vulcan's Love

The impact sent me flying backwards; smashing the back of my head into the bulkhead behind me. I immediately fell to the floor, unable to move. I opened my eyes to see that while we had stopped, the nightmare had just begun; smoke started to fill the air, causing the overhead lights to be dimmed slightly. The pain from my head was intense, pounding like a jackhammer against my brain. I looked up to watch as a shadow effortlessly moved through the smoke towards me, the figure bent down over my head and began to talk. To me his words came out as though I was underwater; slurred and distorted. Noticing that I didn't understand, he moved closer; close enough for me to recognise him. Up to that moment I didn't feel scared or frightened, just confused. That changed once I looked into the eyes of my Vulcan love. His face absent from emotion, but his eyes; his eyes showed fear...

Five years ago today I sent my application to Starfleet academy. I remember waiting for their response and three days later, I was accepted. I had always wanted to join Starfleet and explore the galaxy longer than I can remember, and to make things easier my parents supported my decision. I can still remember what my father said when he'd heard that I'd been accepted, "I knew you could do it Kai, I've always told you that you can do anything if you set your mind to it..." Just recalling his words again make me smile in pride. I keep in contact with them all the time, and being their only son I did feel a bit guilty at leaving them at first, but they soon told me not to and that I should pursue my dream and explore the final frontier.

At school I had strong interests in astrophysics and naturally Starfleet would be the dream career for anyone in my position. This prompted me to take a scientific route through Starfleet which would hopefully grant me a place aboard a starship as a science officer, and eventually landed me my current posting on the USS Titan.

The USS Titan is a Sovereign class ship; just like the Enterprise, which means we get treated to all the latest technologies as well as the luxuries of one of the Federations largest ships. The Titan is commanded by the famous Captain William Riker who served as the Enterprise's first officer for 15 years, and personally speaking, he is as good as they get. I currently serve as a science officer at the rank of ensign; the lowest rank but considering I am only 21 I can't complain. I am also very fortunate to be a member of the bridge crew, well whenever the chief science officer Lieutenant Maria Jones isn't on duty or on the bridge, but she knows how much I enjoy it so she usually let's me take the position while she works from astrometrics.

Ok, so I guess I should describe how I look, right? Well I am 5'12", just a hair under 6', I have long dark brown hair which covers my ears and goes down to my shoulders. My eyes are also a dark brown which gives me a dominating look to those who don't know me. Oh, and I'm a human, born and raised in England, but thanks to my fathers mixed English/Indian makeup I have a slight tanned look. I am of average build and have broad shoulders so all in all, I am quite satisfied.

The Titan is my second posting after having left the academy. My first posting was aboard the Intrepid class ship, the USS Bellerophon. The Bellerophon was a nice ship with a very friendly crew; it was also here where I met H'Jan Li. As expected by being the only two crewmembers fresh out of the academy, and of the lowest rank, we had to share quarters. At first I thought I could manage with it, but as soon as I met him, I knew that would be a lot harder than previously thought. H'Jan had to be the most gorgeous and sexy person I had ever met. He was slightly taller than me but a bit thinner. He had short, soft black hair which he waxed. His eyes were an exotic mix between a steely grey and icy blue. H'Jan is a Trill which means he has these adorable black spots which run down the side of his face and the sides of his chest. All I wanted to do was count them and follow their path into his boxers. But as it turned out, he was straight. Yep. The hottest boy in the entire alpha quadrant was straight. Damn. But hey people are always saying space is so big, so I guess I'll just wait and see. H'Jan quickly became my best friend, not because of his looks, but because of his brilliant personality. He had an amazing talent at engineering and an equally good sense of humour, he was one person who I felt completely at ease with and like most people and most species, he was totally cool with me being gay- (Yeah, I'm gay by the way). It was also because of H'Jan as to how I came aboard the Titan, it was him who recommended me to Captain Riker, so I guess I owe him. It was shortly after H'Jan and I reached the rank of ensign did we become involved with the Titan. Captain Riker wanted a relatively young crew with lots of potential, which gained the interest of many people but ultimately landed us both a place aboard as members of her first crew.

The transition to the Titan was a lot easier than expected, given that few of the crew didn't know each other, but it was clear from the beginning that under Captain Riker's command that would quickly change and that we would become one massive family. Seeing that I joined the Titan as an ensign I got my own generously sized quarters, which came complete with: a replicator, computer terminal, a large bed which could easily hold two humans or similar, and a separate bathroom with a sonic shower. As for the recreational facilities of the ship, well there are three holodecks, two gyms and a large mess hall, pretty snazzy, eh?

The Titan was initially supposed to be performing her shakedown cruise in the space surrounding Betazed and neighbouring star systems as it would have been more convenient for Captain Riker and Commander Troi as they had just been married there, but due to the incident which nearly destroyed Earth and the Enterprise, we were dispatched on a diplomatic mission to Romulus. Apparently after the incident the Romulans were interested in talking to the Federation, and naturally being the newest ship of the fleet and Captain Riker's knowledge of the Romulans, we were to go to Romulus to see what they have to say. But we weren't going alone; we were part of a task force which consisted of 5 ships led by the Titan. Starfleet insisted that we leave immediately, which was a bad choice in my opinion; as we only had about 80% of our crew which could have put us in a vulnerable position should have the Romulans attacked, but it did allow us time test most of the ships systems enroute.

It took us 3 days to reach Romulus which gave the science department more than enough time to finely tune every sensor and every science related system of the ship; this left me with a fair bit of free time which I put to use by helping H'Jan in engineering.

"Can we be quick about this, I'm starving," I groaned whilst handing H'Jan a hyperspanner. I had just finished upgrading the ventral sensor pods and was heading to the mess hall for dinner when I bumped into H'Jan who then dragged me off into a Jeffries tube to help him with whatever he was working on.

He glared at me, "I'll be finished in a moment, aligning an ODN relay isn't something you can rush," he explained, and continued to work; tinkering around with an orb shaped device.

I thought it'd be safer and quicker just to let him work rather than pester him in this closed and clammy space, so instead I sat there thinking about what I should replicate to eat. Maybe one of those Evoran salads with some Bolian tonic water to help me relax. Perhaps I'll try something Vulcan, plomeek broth maybe? Or I could just stick to something...human. I glanced up and saw H'Jan staring at me. I know he's straight but he's so cute when looks at me like that.

"What?" I asked him whilst trying to gain some rigidity.

He started to grin, "Nothing, lets go get some dinner," he replied whilst crawling out of the Jeffries tube. I followed him out and waited while he replaced his equipment in a storage locker, then we made our way to the mess.

There were quite a few people already there when we arrived. I immediately noticed a couple of my and H'Jan's friends and waved over at them while walking over to the closest replicator; H'Jan used the one next to me. I faced the console and spoke aloud, "One serving of hot lasagne with a side salad and a glass of Bolian tonic." The machine chirped in acknowledgement and I watched as the blue flickers of light spun around and created me my meal. Once finished, I picked up my plate and glass and walked over to the table where our friends were sitting.

I put my plate on the table and sat down in an empty seat; next to a grinning Alexis Cauchon. Alexis or Alex as he prefers, is also an Ensign but unlike me, the Titan is his first assignment. He stands at 5'10" and has short blond hair and blue eyes; a perfect definition of a 20 year old boy. Alex is French and has lived in France his entire life only leaving to attend Starfleet academy in San Francisco where joined the year below both me and H'Jan; but we did not know him before joining the Titan crew. Alex works in command which means that he carries out tasks that aren't associated with other departments, like filling out duty rosters or piloting the ship! Yeah, out of all of us, Alex probably has the most fun; piloting a Sovereign class starship. Wow.

I regarded Alex's smile curiously and opened my mouth to ask, but before I could comment, Casey Jenkins being his usual self spoke up, "He has been allowed to take the helm during the first duty roster." Lieutenant Casey Jenkins is the oldest out of our small circle of friends, at 25 years of age the 6'2" American had to be one of the best and funniest guys to be around. I wouldn't call my job hard work, but when Casey walks into the room it seems like fun is the only thing on the agenda. Casey has dark brown hair and light green eyes and a well built body. Being a security officer takes a lot more than having a good body; Casey would be the first one to tell you, but while he has been trained how to fight by Starfleet's finest, Casey took it upon himself to obtain high degree black belts in both Karate and Taekwondo. He is the ultimate killing machine, with great sense of humour and unparalleled loyalty in his friends.

This surprised me, while Captain Riker was all for a young crew I didn't expect him to put an Ensign at the helm of the ship, given our current mission and location. "Really? So now you get to join us big guys up on the bridge?" I questioned.

Alex looked at me, unable to contain his excitement he quickly started to fill me in with the details, "I was handing a PADD to the Captain, and then he was asking me if I want to take the helm for the next roster." He paused to get a breath, "and I was like, sure, I mean yes sir. It was awesome, it really was."

I laughed at his sudden display of child-like excitement while H'Jan took a seat opposite me, Alex didn't waste anytime in telling him about his new `assignment'. I looked down at my lasagne and immediately started to tuck in. Some people dislike replicated meals, and for some dishes I had to agree, but this was not one of them; everything tasted like it was freshly whipped up by a world renowned chef, it was delicious.

I wiped my mouth with my napkin and sat back smiling,"That's it, I'm full I can't tell you how much I neede-." That's all I got out before I heard the familiar klaxon siren and the Captain through the comm system,

All three of us immediately stood up and quickly glanced at each other before heading toward our designated red alert areas. While exiting the mess I glanced out the window to notice the stars fall back into place; indicating that we had dropped out of warp. I suddenly felt a chill run down my spine, but I couldn't just stand here, I had to get to the bridge. I turned and ran down the adjacent corridor toward the turbolift, I stepped in and called out to the computer, "Deck 1" Immediately the turbolift began to ascend toward the bridge. The trip in reality would take less than 20 seconds, but it seemed to take a lifetime. When the turbolift stopped and the doors opened, I was met by a deafening silence. I walked over to the science station and relieved the ensign who was stationed there. Everyone was acting as though we were at normal status, sure the bridge had darkened and the status lighting was glowing red, but it didn't seem like we were at red alert. I quickly looked over my console and read the display. Apart from the rest of the fleet which had apparently dropped out of warp as well, there were no other ships on sensors; neither was there any unusual readings being omitted. I glanced up from the console and looked at the Captain and Commander Jack Caves; the Titan's first officer, but they both seemed to be idle conversation with each other. I looked across the bridge until my eyes met with Lieutenant Commander Michael Clark, chief of security. I stared at him questioningly for a moment until he gave me a quick smile and a wink, this didn't help at all to ease my confusion. Just before I was about to ask what was going on, Captain Riker stood up and tapped his combadge, he was also holding a PADD which he quickly glanced at before he started to speak,

"Riker to all hands, firstly I would like to inform you that this was a red alert drill, we are under no current threat and as such we will stand down from red alert." Riker turned and nodded at Lt Commander Clark who brought the ship back to normal status; causing the bridge to return to normal brightness and the red lighting to disappear. Riker continued, "Secondly I would like to congratulate everyone on being prompt to report to your stations, in fact all stations reported ready at a time of 1 minute 36 seconds, under Starfleet's guideline time of 1 minute 45 seconds, this is an amazing accomplishment for such a new crew and new ship, well done, Riker out." The Captain took his seat and began to chat with Commander Troi who seemed pleased about the results of our test.

I couldn't believe it, I mean of course I had been in tactical drills before but somehow this had been different; I looked across at Commander Clark again who noticed and laughed quietly, I quickly realised I had been duped; like the remainder of the crew. Captain Riker ordered the helmsman to continue course toward Romulus and to engage at warp 8. Once we had entered warp, I used my console to calculate when we would reach Romulus. We had passed into Romulan space earlier today and with the time being 19:04; we should arrive around 10:53 tomorrow morning; given that we don't have anymore `drills'. Before I left the bridge I decided to look through the messages and memo's which had been sent to my console and my work areas. I had noticed that a message had been sent to all Titan personnel, I opened it up and it read:

The remaining crew of the USS Titan will be transferred while enroute to Romulus.

The USS Bellerophon has left Vulcan with the personnel and will rendezvous with the

USS Titan at approximately 21:36 on stardate 57768.8. The USS Bellerophon will be

assisting in the mission and will assume position as lead ship in the fleet with

I was wondering where Admiral Ross had gotten to as the current mission to Romulus was supposed to be headed up by him and his ship, but when the Bellerophon wasn't part of the fleet when we left, I just assumed that Starfleet had sent him somewhere else, not to provide a taxi service for the Titan, that's for sure. However it just so happened that the Bellerophon was the closest ship to Vulcan, hence they picked up our crew on the way, besides the Intrepid class is still the fastest we have. Sigh. I miss those days of warp 9.975, but nothing can remove me from my luxuries on Titan, no sir.

After reading the memo I exited from my personal areas and looked for the Ensign who was present at this station before me, I spotted him and relinquished control of the science station to him. I had finished duty at 18:00 hours, just before I went for dinner, but a red alert can sound at anytime, on duty or off duty. I walked over to the turbolift and called out, "Deck 7," The computer chirped and the turbolift started to take me down towards my quarters. I suddenly remembered that I was with the guys when the alarm sounded, "Computer where is H'Jan?"

"H'Jan is located in main engineering," Came the computer's automated voice.

"Computer main engineering," The turbolift chirped again and headed towards deck 14. I tapped my combadge, "Taylor to Cauchon, could you meet me in engineering?"

During dinner we were planning to get together in the holodeck as Casey had already pre-allotted a couple of hours for us a week ago. We weren't sure what we'd be doing on the holodeck, but seeing as we had it booked, there's no point in wasting it. The turbolift stopped and the door opened, I stepped out and walked down the corridor and into main engineering. Besides the bridge this had to be the one part of the ship which never ceases to amaze me. I walked forward and stopped in front of the warp core, while I don't know it as well as H'Jan, I still know that it powers every system on the ship and is essential in warp travel.

I turned around to see H'Jan and Casey walking toward me, "Yeah, I was wondering what we were going to do tonight," I replied. "I know we were talking about going into the holodeck, are you guys still up for that?"

"You bet," answered Casey, "I have this great new program I downloaded from Earth before we left, you two will love it."

Just then Alex walked in; he spotted us and came over," Hi guys, have you heard that the rest of the crew will be arriving at around 21:30?" He asked.

Neither H'Jan nor Casey had heard but I told him that I had received the memo earlier. We had decided that we would head down to the mess and be there to welcome the rest of our crew when they arrive, which should be just after we leave the holodeck.

"Alex, do you still want to join us on the holodeck? Casey has this new program he wants to show us," I asked.

"Yeah, I'll just get changed in my quarters and meet you there. What time is it booked for?" He asked Casey.

"I booked two hours in holodeck 1 starting at 19:30," he glanced at a nearby panel, "we have about 12 minutes before we can go in," he replied.

H'Jan spoke up, "Well if we go off to get changed and meet at the holodeck, then we should be ready in time."

We all agreed and were about to go our separate ways when Casey stopped us, "Oh, you should bring along some swimwear and a towel." We all stared questioningly at him for a moment before nodding and walking off. None of us knew what Casey had planned; neither did we know how much fun we would have.

Casey turned to look at him, "Yep, well whenever there was a coast nearby and the wind was blowing in the right direction." Casey's program consisted of an old Earth sport called kite surfing. It involved a huge kite, a surf board, wind and a lot of practice.

H'Jan looked at me, "Did you have fun Kai?" he asked, trying to stifle a smile. I looked at the other two who were also trying to hide a smile.

They all looked at each other before Alex answered, "Just at how badly you were ogling Blake," he laughed

I began to blush. Seeing as none of us had tried kite surfing before, Casey had the computer create a simulated instructor, Blake. While I don't usually find any attraction to holodeck characters because they are, well, holodeck characters; Blake was undeniably hot, really hot. I turned around to face them, walking backwards, "Ogling? I wasn't ogling, I was just...looking."

I'm sure my face was a colour of deep crimson, "Ok, but damn, he was cute. What's a guy supposed to do?"

I opened my mouth to reply but I stepped backward into something, or rather someone. I turned around and began to apologise but I seemed to be at a loss for words. Standing in front of me had to be the best looking guy I had ever seen. He was a Vulcan, around my age, standing at about 6'1", but his eyes are what captivated me. They were a very dark brown, much like my own, only his seemed to radiate love and warmth, unusual for a species who hide their emotion. His skin was a warm olive colour, similar to a Mediterranean look, but with a green tinge to it from his blood. His lips were thin but perfectly formed and his ears looked so delicate and cute. He had short soft black hair and a beautiful nose which sat in proportion to his immaculate face. He raised one of his upswept eyebrows at me and quickly cast his over my body before setting in my eyes. Realising how close I was, I took a step back and inhaled a breath of air for the first time in what seemed hours. "I...I'm sorry for knocking into you..." I quickly looked for the pips on his collar, "...Ensign. I wasn't looking where I was going." I said sheepishly.

The Vulcan stood silent for a moment before replying, "It was an accident, do not trouble yourself, Ensign." His voice was so sexy, so very Vulcan.

I was about to reply but I then noticed that an off duty Lt Jones had been standing right next to him the whole time, I quickly straightened myself and addressed her, "I'm sorry Lieutenant, I didn't notice you there."

She looked from the Vulcan to me and smiled, "It's quite alright Kai, and in future please call me Maria when off duty, more informal." She paused for a moment, "Actually it's good we bumped into you as there's someone I want to introduce you to." She placed a hand on the Vulcan's shoulder, "This is T'Luk, he's just been unloaded off the Bellerophon and is part of the Titan's science team. Which means he'll be working down from astrometrics with the rest of us and you, if you can stand being away from the bridge," she grinned. I smiled back at her, WOW! T'Luk (said like T'Luke), what a beautiful name for a gorgeous person, and to think; he's gonna be working with me, Yay! Maria turned toward the Vulcan, "T'Luk this is Kai Taylor, like I said Kai is part of our group so if there's anything you need I'm sure he'll help you out."

"It's good to meet you T'Luk, and like Maria said, if there's anything I can do, just ask," I said while offering my hand.

He reached forward and we shook hands, for a moment it felt like there was a transfer of energy or something that swept through my body when his soft skin came into contact with my own. "It's good to meet you Kai, and thank you for your offer, I will be sure to use it should a situation arise," he replied.

We let go of each other and Maria looked at T'Luk, "Well now that you're introduced, I'd like to show you to your quarters if that's ok."

T'Luk kept his eyes locked on mine as he responded to her question, "That would be good," he paused before adding, "I will see you later Kai."

"See you soon, T'Luk," I replied. He nodded and turned to follow Maria as they began to walk down the corridor toward his quarters.

I didn't move, neither did I hear Alex call my name as I continued to watch him walk away, until Casey stood in the way; bringing me back to reality. I stared at him for a second.

Casey looked at me and back to where T'Luk had walked off and started to smile, "ooooh, maybe someone had better tell Blake he has competition," he started to joke.

What competition? T'Luk is a completely different class, a much HIGHER class than Blake the hologram. I just mumbled a response, "Yeah, sure, whatever."

"Look at that grin, that isn't a `whatever' kind of grin," added Alex who was nearly jumping up and down with excitement.

H'Jan stared at me before he began to smile himself, "It looks like our boy Kai here has a crush on our new shipmate."

The other two watched me, awaiting a quick reply, but it never came. Instead I stood there smiling; thinking about the Vulcan who had just walked into my life.

Any comments and constructive criticisms are greatly appreciated, especially if it's just to say "I want chapter 2!"

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