TrekQuest: Part 5
Part 5: When the going gets tough
We left Captain Kirk engaged in a furious battle with a blue plush toy vicious pterosaur.
Again and again it attacks! It's all Kirk can do to hold it off.
But, some distance away, Spock and Uhura are exhausted from their own perils. After successfully rescuing Uhura from the cliff, the battered pair scale its crumbly face, staggering out at last onto a plateau. A strange rock formation beckons them.
They stumble inside, seeking shelter from a slight rain that has developed. But the shallow cave's only accommodation is a cold, stone cairn, built by persons unknown and serving no obvious purpose.
"I can't go on," Uhura says. "My arms and legs are scraped, my hands are freezing..."
"Fortunately," says Spock, "I travel somewhat more prepared."
And he pulls from his utility belt a canvas shelter that readily expands into a cozy cocoon.
"Climb in, Lieutenant," Spock says. "Together, our body heat will warm you in moments."
Gratefully, Uhura squeezes inside and snuggles against the warm-bodied Vulcan. "Oh, this is comfortable." She burrows against him, her arms embracing the lean, muscular chest. She rests her face against the fabric of his uniform, hearing the faint but quick Vulcan heatbeat deep within. "Ve-e-e-e-ry comfortable," she murmurs.
Spock's legs have slightly parted, to make better room for her. "I, too, feel a certain... pleasantness, to our situation."
"We could be trapped here for hours," Uhura says, kissing his throat.
"Approximately 3.265 hours," Spock answers huskily, "before mandatory beam-up."
"We could do a lot in 3.265 hours," Uhura whispers against his skin.
"What did you have... oh."
"Umm."
"I... Lieutenant. ...Oh. Oh."
While Spock and Uhura fend off the elements, Kirk is still fighting that damned flying lizard!
He scrambles backward down the slope, seeking shelter in a crevice in the rock. But he finds more than mere shelter.
For at the edge of the little cliff, there sits a giant stone-- just like the one he hit the Gorn with in the "Arena" episode! The powerfully built Gorn had shaken off his attack, but this was a bird... sort of. Surely a big rock would work against a bird! Hoping against hope, Kirk hefts the stone, and throws!
The shot is true! With a squawk and a flutter, the pterosaur lies dead.
Kirk contemplates the bird-lizard. It really is quite beautiful, with its blue and gold coloration. And it's soft, too. Soft and fuzzy, not at all how he expected a pterosaur to feel.
He places a hand against its plush breast. "So warm," he murmurs.
He's tired after his battle, too. Lying on its back like this, its limbs spread, the pterosaur looks like it would make a comfortable resting place. He could lie, just there, on its belly...
Kirk freezes. For the first time he notices... the pterosaur is female. Female... and so inviting.
Trembling, Kirk climbs aboard....
Continued in Part 6