Love at first sight

"I can't reach it."

"Well, stretch a bit more."

"I've stretched as much as I can without my bones popping out of their sockets!"

"Can't you just, you know, wriggle in a bit further?"

There was silence for a moment. Then a very exasperated Conrad sighed. "Oh, for Heavens sakes..." He started wriggling. But backwards. Soon, he had manoeuvred his way out from the access compartment and turned to face his colleague.

Scott looked hopefully at Conrad's flushed face. "Did you-" was all he managed to say before Conrad cut him down with a withering glare.

"No. I did not" he stated, getting to his feet and towering over Scott who was still on his hands and knees. Conrad looked down his not-too-large, but straight, nose at the communications technician also scrabbling to his feet. "Send in the drones" he ordered half in jest, turning away from Scott and waving a hand dismissively over his right shoulder as he headed for the biological operations station.

Just as he reached the smooth, clear crystal interface, his comm beeped in his ear. Cocking his head slightly upwards and to the right, a habit that most users of sub-dermal communications affected, Conrad answered it. "This is Folkard. Go ahead."

"Sir" it was the young twist/spin operator. "The Engineer has arrived."

Oh, bugger! Conrad immediately thought. All that fart-arsing about under the comms console for Scott has made me lose track of time. Shit. However, he recovered his composure to answer. "Very good. I'll be there shortly. Folkard out" and he cut the connection.

Striding across the small bridge on his long legs took mere seconds. Conrad paused at the rear doors and nudged Scott in the the back with his elbow as he stood by the comms console. "Look after things here, Starovski. And don't break anything else." Permitting himself a small grin at Scott's expense, Conrad left the bridge. Then allowed the panic to take over.



He clattered down the stairs to the next level, his mind racing with ways to apologise for being late. The new commander and engineer had been specifically picked by the admiralty for this mission, for this ship. The fact that none of the few crew already aboard had any real idea what the mission was to entail, had caused rumour and gossip to be rife for the last few days. Anticipation and nerves were at a high. The unknown quantity of their commander and other senior officers, including the engineer, had even got to Conrad. Normally calm and collected, he'd been swept up in the tension and secrecy of this assignment. The added pressure of being the ranking officer on board for the last three days hadn't helped either. He couldn't wait to pass the responsibility to those that wanted it.

In his haste, and wrapped up in his thoughts, Conrad unconsciously projected his astral form from his body. It sped through the small ship leaving his physical body behind, but still linked to it by an unseen, but shimmering tether, rather like an umbilical cord. Reaching the twist/spin room, Conrad passed through the unopened doors. It was only then, after the automatic doors had been unresponsive to him, having had no approaching physical form to sense, that he realised what he had done. He drifted to a halt by the figure at the control console. Immediately, he started. The figure wasn't Midshipman Matuzevicius, the slight, boyish looking, red haired girl from engineering. Instead, it was a man. A tall, though not as tall as himself, man wearing the uniform of the Royal Fleet. A commander. The Engineer. He must have dismissed Matuzevicius as she was nowhere to be seen. Conrad stared at the Engineer, taking in the details of his masculine features: His short, straight, brown-black hair, cut a little severely around his delicate-looking elfin ears, tapered at the nape of his thick neck; His dark-tanned skin with a curious red hue to it - Not that of a blush, or from exertion, but more of a natural pigment; And his strong smooth nose with its slightly flared nostrils.

Conrad gasped silently in his astral form, or so he thought. The man's head snapped around and faced him, but his eyes, with their deep black irises, didn't focus on him. Conrad was riveted to the spot. This man, the Engineer, was so very handsome. His slightly narrowed eyes were framed by thick but elegant dark eyebrows above, and a very faint dusting of barely noticeable red-brown freckles on his sculpted cheekbones below. His skin was smooth, unblemished, except for a small scar at the outer edge of his left eye and the beginnings of five-o'clock-shadow. Impulses travelled back and forth along Conrad's shining astral umbilicus, conveying and confirming emotional stimuli from this encounter.

The engineer turned his attention back to the crystal console, his lips pursing slightly as he manipulated the interface. Rather delicately despite his large hands, Conrad thought as he watched, like a concert pianist he'd once seen giving an impromptu performance in a hotel bar. The lights around the platform opposite dimmed as the twist/spin generator engaged. Silently but brightly and oh so quickly, a female figure appeared to uncurl from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Conrad never tired of witnessing the marvel of this instantaneous transportation. A second later, and it was all over. A commander, The Commander, grinned at the Engineer and almost leapt from the platform towards him, her pretty features, haloed by fine blonde hair, alight with joy. The Engineer swept her up in his arms, her infectious grin causing him to reciprocate, his lips pulling apart in a broad grin exposing his strong just off-white teeth, including curiously pointed and elongated canines and lateral incisors. Together, they radiated their love for each other.

Conrad felt the pull of his physical body as it reached the doors outside the room. He was glad of the distraction. The dark grey doors parted with a small pneumatic sigh. This slight interruption was all that was needed for the Commander and the Engineer to disengage from each other, their smiles disintegrating, their demeanours falling easily to those of serious professionals. It was as if the last few seconds had never existed.

As he stepped into the room, the physical and the astral merging, Conrad, as befitting a witch, did not salute. Instead he inclined his head in a small but courteous bow. In the milliseconds spent with his head directed at the floor, Conrad let his heart fall. He raised his head with a well practised smile, not insincere but nevertheless a facade.

"Welcome aboard, Sirs."