"Personal cloak activated," Smith muttered. "Shhhh."
Lieutenant Jones looked at his shadowy form through the advanced visual acuity contacts. Then she leaned forward and put her lips against his ear. "You sound so serious when you say that," she whispered.
"Be quiet," he answered. "She'll be in here any minute."
"Don't touch anything," she said. "And behave yourself when she comes in."
"What?"
"She's beautiful."
"And hundreds of years old by now," he said.
"She has a thing for Andorian blood orchids."
"I hate orchids," he said.
"But Andorian blood orchids!" Jones said. "Do you know how hard they are to keep?"
"No," he said. "Who cares? They're flowers."
"You know, that's what I don't get about you," she said. "I've seen you go hundreds of light years out of your way, and go back a thousand years just to have a drink called... What was it called?"
"Ek'zeru." Smith said. "And technically it was just 800 years at the time. Local time anyway."
"Yeah. A Vulcan cocktail. You went by yourself. Against orders. To Vulcan. Pre-Sundering Vulcan. For a drink. And a flower is too much work? Not worth your time?"
"But it was a good drink," he said. "A really good drink."
"And you didn't bring me one!"
"You don't like Vulcan drinks. No, that's not true. You like water."
"Not even the point," she said darkly. "You went back a thousand years against orders for a drink-"
"A very rare drink."
"And you didn't bring me one. You didn't bring me anything."
"I can go back and get you a shirt or something. Well, they were more like togas. Robes really. But I'll bring you something."
"Don't bother," she said. "So who served you this drink anyway?"
"What? Nobody."
"What did she look like?"
"What do you mean?"
"Your eyes are sparkling and you're turning red. I struck a nerve."
"You've hit them all at one point or another."
"No, really. Was it some gorgeous Vulcan priestess?" She grinned wickedly. "Come on. You can't tell me you weren't looking for them. I know you like Vulcan women."
"Baby I love you. Only you."
"Hah!" She laughed. "Enterprise. NX-01. October 23rd, 2155."
"It was research! And you were there. Twenty people were in the room. And she was-"
"T'Pol."
"I didn't go anywhere near her."
"But you were watching her." She struggled to keep from laughing. "You were watching her the whole time. And Saavik. Tell me you didn't think about 'researching' her." She folded her arms against her chest and glared at him. "It's like an obsession with you."
"Wait, what?" He asked. "What's gotten into you? How did we get on to my problems? Which aren't obsessions, by the way."
"If you really love me..." She let her words trail off as she turned her back on him.
"What? What do you want?"
"I shouldn't have to tell you. You should know."
"What?"
"Bring me one."
"A Vulcan?"
She laughed. "You wish. You're disgusting."
"Well what do you want?"
She turned back to him and answered, punctuating her words with kisses on his neck. "Andorian. Blood. Orchid."
"Do you know how hard they are to keep?"
"Shh," she said, suddenly all business. "Here she comes."
Ekaterina Romanova entered her quarters and moved immediately to the safe built into a bulkhead. After she keyed in a ten digit combination, the door slid open to reveal, among other things, a small glass case half full of glowing blue/white crystals. She removed the case and set it on her desk. Then she accessed her personal computer console. "Computer, scan grid 1138."
"Acknowledged."
"Is Temporal Pulsar 327675 present?"
"Negative."
Romanova wrinkled her nose in frustration. "When is it due to reappear?"
"In sixty seconds."
"Continuous scan of area. Enhanced visual on monitor."
"Acknowledged." A section of the bulkhead shimmered to reveal a large monitor that revealed what appeared to be an empty region of space.
"Time to appearance?"
"Forty five seconds."
"Focus holo-recorder on the case on my desk. Begin recording when the pulsar appears."
"Acknowledged." For thirty seconds, Romanova sat quietly, her gaze switching from the monitor screen to the glass case and back.
On the floor, in the corner and safely cloaked, Smith and Jones watched the entire scene quietly, mouthing words to each other.
"Whose idea was this?" Smith mouthed.
"Seven", Jones replied silently.
"Agent number seven? Isn't she retired?"
She rolled her eyes. "Like a hundred years ago. I'm talking about Gary Seven. Supervisor 194."
"Why does he care about orchids?"
She raised one fingernail to his cheek and tapped in time with her words. "Andorian. Blood. Orchids."
"I get it. Andorian blood orchids. So what?"
"Because they're temporal-blooming flowers."
"And?"
She rolled her eyes and struggled to contain her frustration. They might be cloaked, but they still couldn't make a sound without being detected. Which means that her desperate need to shout or laugh had to be restrained. "Just watch. And stop thinking about Vulcan Priestesses. Your pheromones are starting to smell."
Smith instinctively raised his arm to sniff at his underarm and saw her cover her mouth to avoid laughing. "I don't smell," he mouthed.
"Idiot."
"What?" He flashed innocent eyes. "Sorry, I didn't get that."
"I said you're very perceptive. A credit to your gender."
"Yeah," he grinned. "And my wife." A brief flash in the corner of his vision caught his attention. "What was that?"
Jones rolled her eyes. "Just the temporal pulsar we traveled 700 years to see."
He grinned the crooked grin that had helped win her heart years ago. "Oops."
She replied by rolling her eyes.
Still unaware of them, Romanova's eyes were glued to the orchid now in full bloom inside the glass case. "Computer, confirm that Andorian Blood Orchids only bloom during the appearance of a temporal pulsar."
"Confirmed."
"Scan contents of display case. Confirm that it contains a genuine Andorian Blood Orchid, and not a replicant or imitation or variation, such as an Aenar Orchid."
"Confirmed. The case houses a pure Andorian Blood Orchid."
"And confirm that Temporal Pulsar 327675 is no longer present."
"Confirmed."
Romanova set her jaw and let out a low growl of frustration. "Can you offer an explanation for the orchid's behavior?"
"Negative."
"Computer, I'm going to make some statements about the behavior of Andorian Blood Orchids, and I want you to tell me if I get anything wrong."
"Acknowledged."
"There has been no recorded instance of an Andorian Blood Orchid remaining in bloom for more than point five microseconds. There has been no recorded instance of an Andorian Blood Orchid blooming without an accompanying temporal pulsar flash. Furthermore, Andorian Blood Orchids are temporally synced with specific temporal pulsars." She paused, waiting for the computer to respond. It didn't. "The continued bloom of Andorian Blood Orchid designated 327675 represents a paradox." She raised an aristocratic eyebrow towards the computer, waiting for it to disagree. "Am I right so far?"
"Affirmative."
"Can you suggest a theoretical explanation?"
"Professor Sammie Jo Archer theorized that if a temporally synced item were to be removed from its native time period, it could display atypical behavior before such an incident occurred."
"Sort of a temporal causality loop."
"That is an imprecise analogy," the computer answered. "What the professor described is more accurately described as inverse temporal inertia. The effects of an event in the future having an effect on events or behavior of an object in the past."
Romanova swallowed her annoyance at the computer's manners. "Is there any way to verify that this may have happened in this case?"
"Negative. However, the duration of the orchid's appearance would be proportional to the displacement period."
"Meaning?"
"The shorter its continued existence on this plane, the closer the event of its disappearance."
"Hmm. Computer, can you theorize any other possible explanation?" At that second, the orchid vanished. "Computer belay that line of inquiry. Estimate projected time until theft of the orchid based upon its disappearance just now."
"Estimate five to thirty minutes. However, since this is a hypothesis the estimate is only-"
"Bridge, yellow alert. Shields up, security condition two. Scan for intruders or temporal anomalies in the area or on the ship." She looked at the case, again apparently empty. "They could be here, now, ready to take it." Then she looked into the empty space of her quarters. On impulse, she sniffed the air. "Come out of hiding, whoever you are!"
On the floor and still invisible, Smith grinned at Jones as he cradled a small round object in her hands. "See, I told you I'd get you one!" He mouthed.
"She knows we're here though," Jones replied silently. "It's your fault!" Then she wrinkled her nose in mock distaste. "She can smell your pheromones."
He instinctively sniffed his underarm again, just as she activated the retrieval switch. Seconds later they both vanished and were pulled back to the 31st century.
