Chapter 8: Educational Viewing

She turned off the camera on her way back from the bathroom. With a wet cloth she wiped the 'mess' Commander Tucker had made on the floor during the recording. Her test subject was still sitting on the desk chair, leaning back with closed eyes, and his semi-erect organ still in the grip of his right hand. Although somewhat pleasurable by the look of it, she could easily sense that the procedure had been highly embarrassing for the chief engineer. Apparently masturbation was an extremely private undertaking for humans and performing it for an audience or even a recording had been most discomforting for both Ensign Sato and Commander Tucker.

She disposed of the stained cloth into the laundry chute and started cleaning the Commander's phallus and hands with the second cloth. Somewhat wide-eyed in surprise he accepted her ministrations. When she was finished she leaned in and exchanged a kiss with the Commander and expressed her gratitude for his cooperation.

This appeared to lessen his discomfort and the smile returned to his features as he pulled his underpants back up. Having seen that she wore partial clothing, he had opted to leave his blue underpants on as well.

"As much as I love the reward, I hope I don't have to do that again," he said while she put the second cloth in the laundry chute as well. She served him another helping of his favorite beverage. It was already the forth bottle, but the Commander did not appear inebriated.

"I regret the discomfort," she replied, "But I am afraid some of the upcoming experiments might have the potential to be uncomfortable."

"What do you have in mind?" he asked and from the way he squinted his eyes she could tell that he suspicious.

T'Pol arranged her meditation cushions on the wall at the back of her bunk until the arrangement looked vaguely like a sofa. She sat down and indicated her guest to join her.

"Nice touch on the Yoga pants by the way," he said while taking a seat next to her, seemingly forgetting to continue chasing an answer for his prior question. "This is much more sexy than being completely naked."

"My mother insinuated the same. Can you explain the difference?"

"Well, look T'Pol," he opened and her eyebrow went up as she did not readily understand why cupping her right breast was part of the explanation. "Our primary sexual organs, as you like to call them, are made to feel good. But if you look at the first experiment; neither any of the guys nor any of the girls has said the thing between our legs was the most attractive part."

She poked away at her PADD entering the new information. "So I take it that baring one's genitalia is considered unattractive?"

He shook his head. "Not unattractive per sé. Take your meditation for instance. If you had done that completely naked it wouldn't have been a very modest picture. You sitting there topless in yoga pants looks sexy. You sitting there presenting a direct view straight at pleasure central looks naughty and a bit obvious, as if to say 'here, make that feel good'. That make sense?"

She nodded her understanding and continued writing down the new information, but she kept getting distracted by the Commander's fascination with various parts of her anatomy. Apparently humans even applied a meaning to various states of undress. While many of their mating customs appeared quite pleasurable, she did wonder how a species had survived that long by possessing such complex customs regarding the biological process of procreation. On second thought however, she noticed that this very topic had never come up.

"Commander, I noticed that the topic of procreation is almost never mentioned in connection with sexual relations. Considering that this is the main purpose of engaging in intercourse, I find this quite confusing."

He smiled, consuming his beverage. "That, dear Subcommander is because procreation isn't the main purpose of havin' sex, at least not for humans. It took until two hundred years ago before we got our heads around it. It wasn't called the sexual revolution for nothing. Basically there are three types of sex. First, for procreation obviously. Second, there is makin' love, that's what we call having sex with someone you love as a way to show that. And then there's casual sex, where the only point is to get pleasure and relax.

"So my theory that it relieves tension is not as wrong as your often provocative remarks make it appear?"

"No, it's not," he admitted. "In fact it's a great tension relief."

"Why did you mock my comments then?" she asked, calmly without too much reproach.

"Because it's not as easy as just sayin' 'have sex' when someone is tense," the engineer replied. "Sex is literally a very intimate thing and even if it is casual it requires a lot of trust. Would you be sitting like that in your quarters with, let's say, Travis?"

"Most likely not," she admitted.

"Back then before Risa you just assumed that we could run down there and bang everything in a skirt, but that's not how it works. I tend to think that we're comfortable enough with each other that we could even tackle some of the 'advanced experiments', but that wouldn't have been true a year ago, and believe it or not, it would have been me who'd have declined."

"It would appear then that, while effective at easing tension, sexual relations are rather ineffective at that because of its complex requirements."

"Now you got it," he said with a grin.

When he returned from the bathroom after getting rid of some of the previously drunk beers, he stopped in the door. Leaning against the door sill, the ship's chief engineer observed the Vulcan with a small smile on his face. Even though the absence of most of their clothing had become sort of customary lately, the sight of T'Pol in nothing but a pair of tight yoga pants was still as spectacular as the first time he'd seen her topless. Looking at the spectacular bust of the ship's science officer was not in danger of getting old anytime soon.

Apparently she noticed his prolonged absence from her side on the makeshift sofa atop her bunk. When she saw his appreciative looks, T'Pol put the PADD aside and leaned back to give him an unobstructed view at her physique.

"You're getting better at that," he noted and rejoined her on the bunk. "Or were you just done entering your data?"

"No, my gesture was deliberate. You are mostly fascinated with my bust and my derrière, so it was logical to afford you an unobstructed look to increase your pleasure."

"Sounds a bit dry," he admitted, still smiling. "But in essence you're starting to get the hang of it."

"I'm afraid I will not be able to use the colorful vernacular that humans apply to various aspects of intimate customs," she explained in reference to his 'dry' accusation.

"It was not meant to be criticism, T'Pol. The whole point of the exercise is that we are genuinely ourselves during intimate encounters. Nothing is more of a turn off than knowing that your partner is play-acting."

She nodded her understanding.

"Commander I have procured educational material on the matter and I wish to review it with you as I believe it is time to start conducting 'advanced experiments' as you called it."

"Sex Ed films?" he asked, slightly bemused, but instead of answering she started the recording on her view-screen on the opposite side of her cabin. The timing was more than unfortunate as Trip had just taken a swig from his beer and the drink was explosively expelled through his nose. He coughed helplessly for a while before looking at T'Pol in dumbfounded bewilderment.