NEW TOS The Captain's Woman 1/1 [PG-13] (Moreau&U [Mirror 
Universe])

Title: The Captain's Woman
Author: Paula Stiles (thesnowleopard@hotmail.com)
Webpage: 
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Andes/3071/arch.html
Series: TOS [Mirror Universe]
Part: NEW 1/1
Rating: [PG-13]
Codes: Moreau&U

Summary: Just how high can a captain's woman go in a 
man's world? Set some years after "Mirror, Mirror" and I 
ignore all DS9 canon in this one.

Disclaimer: If I owned any of it, would I be writing 
fanfic?

Archive: ASC Trekiverse, yes. Anyone else, ask, first and 
the answer will probably be yes.

Note: Blame this on Djinn and Rabble Rouser, who got me 
thinking about tough women in miniskirt uniforms.


THE CAPTAIN'S WOMAN


     "Marlena? This is a surprise!" The lone woman's 
voice cut through the loud conversation around her. 
Moreau turned, reaching for the dagger in her thigh-
length jackboot, then relaxed when she saw Uhura.

     "Nyota, what brings you here?" she said. She leaned 
back against the officer's bar, spreading her arms 
possessively across it. Uhura might be a threat in the 
future, but not a physical one and not here. An admiral 
wasn't worth killing over. An admiral's position might be 
a different story.

     Uhura leaned casually against the bar next to 
Moreau. "I like to come back to Earth every so often, 
touch base. It's always best to be careful, even now."

     "Ah, yes. Men's politics. It's a dirty job but one 
must lower oneself to it from time to time." Moreau 
exchanged a knowing smile with Uhura, while the men 
around them in the dark, smoky Starfleet boardroom 
preened and intimidated each other. Her ship didn't make 
it back to Earth for repairs very often; she was enjoying 
the opportunity to hunt fresh game.

     Uhura ordered a shot of tequila and a refill of 
Moreau's vodka martini from the bartender, a scarcely-
clad, sullen blonde who was the only other woman in the 
bar. "How are you liking the Defiant?" Uhura asked.

     "Quite well," Moreau purred, rubbing her bare 
midriff. "The chief engineer is most attentive." Uhura 
grinned. "And yourself? Does the Enterprise suit your 
tastes?"

     Uhura stretched like a cat. "Let's just say that I 
am enjoying myself a great deal, now that I've 
established myself. Mr. Spock is a very cerebral man, but 
he'll stay loyal as long I remain attentive to his needs, 
which are simple enough." Her grin turned feral. 
"Torturing Mr. Sulu to death did wonders for my 
authority, though I did have to exert myself in my search 
for a new Security Chief. Not that I didn't enjoy it."

     The drinks came. Moreau waited until the bartender 
had gone to serve a group of drunken engineers at the 
other end of the bar before she resumed the conversation. 
"Which did you enjoy, then? Torturing Sulu to death or 
finding a new Security Chief?"

     Uhura raised one plucked eyebrow. "Both, of course. 
Though I do have to change them every few months or so. 
They get ambitions."

     Moreau nodded. "I have similar problems on the 
Defiant. It's a hazard of the job, I suppose. You need a 
bully in that position or he can't give you good 
security, but then he thinks he can bully you."

     Uhura snorted. "Oh, don't I know it! Sulu was a pig. 
So are his successors, but at least they're *my* pigs. 
When they get fat enough...." She drew her finger across 
her throat and laughed.

     "Oh, yes," Moreau agreed. "I'll take watching out 
for the snakes underfoot to walking four steps behind and 
working on my back after a full shift any day."

     Uhura fingered her shotglass thoughtfully before 
knocking back the tequila. "It was such a simple solution 
when we thought about it, working together. And you and I 
weren't the first, either. Look at Chapel on the Yorktown 
or Rand on the Lexington." She smirked and leaned 
forward, lowering her voice. "Just how was that other 
Captain Kirk, anyway?"

     Moreau smirked back, masking that one, small frisson 
of regret. "Very informative. Once I learned how to use 
certain assets--" She would not mention the Tantalus 
Field, nor its function of making her enemies disappear, 
in public. "--the way forward to our meeting of minds was 
so clear." She glanced around the room at the preening 
peacocks in their bright tunics and gold sashes and felt 
that small regret again. Not one man here was worthy of a 
captain's woman. "They're not stupid, you know. They'd 
rape us to death right on this bar if they knew the 
truth."

     Uhura followed her gaze and sighed. "I know. It was 
all I could do to keep them focused on our jailers in 
that other universe, instead of fighting each other or 
taking their frustrations out on me. That was when I 
finally realised there were other options."

     "And other kinds of men?" Moreau suggested.

     Uhura shrugged one bare shoulder. "Perhaps someday. 
Though I'm not holding my breath."

     "No, I suppose not." Moreau sipped her drink. 
"Still, it would be nice to run my ship without having to 
look over my shoulder all the time." *And have men I 
could trust to run it for me.*

     Uhura lowered her head. "True, but until then, I 
have a proposition for you."

     "Oh?" Moreau set her drink aside and gave Uhura her 
full attention. Or as much as she could spare from 
watching her back in the officer's mess at Starfleet 
Headquarters.

     "Some friends of mine are coming to Earth to discuss 
some business with me. I thought you might want to join 
us here tomorrow evening."

     Hmm. That sounded promising. "Would these 'friends' 
be named Chapel and Rand, by any chance?"

     "It's possible." Uhura looked amused.

     Moreau leaned close enough to smell Uhura's perfume. 
"I think I might like that kind of meeting," she growled. 
"What time tomorrow?"

*********

     Having concluded her encounter with Uhura, Moreau 
left the bar to retrieve her bodyguard, then beamed back 
up to her ship. As usual, she immediately took the 
turbolift up to the Bridge to check in. She always found 
a hands-on approach best; it forestalled any nascent 
conspiracies. In the turbolift, she tugged the front of 
her tunic, command gold like Uhura's, further down her 
cleavage and straightened her miniskirt. One of her 
bodyguards handed her a mirror so she could check her 
hair. The first thing she had done when she reached her 
present position was make her bodyguard all-female. The 
young, ambitious amazons who guarded her were too far 
down the command chain to threaten her at the moment, and 
they could tell a role model and mentor when they saw 
one. They protected their own futures even as they 
protected her person. She could always transfer them once 
they moved up a few rungs and became competitive.

     The turbolift stopped and the doors opened onto the 
Bridge. The entire second shift Bridge crew jumped up and 
stood at attention. "Captain on the Bridge!" barked the 
officer of the watch, her current paramour Chief Engineer 
Alvarado.

     She felt the eyes on her, far hungrier than any she 
had felt when she was the captain's woman. Yes, power was 
indeed an aphrodisiac. Throwing back her shoulders and 
lifting her chin, Captain Marlena Moreau of the ISS 
Defiant strode onto the Bridge to claim her rightful 
throne--the captain's chair.

END