"It's the Ocean!" Part 4: Twin Trouble (Backpost)

Posted on Mon Sep 22nd, 2025 @ 8:04pm by Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen & Petty Officer 2nd Class Sakura Tanikawa & Petty Officer 3rd Class Fulvia Benvenuto & Crewman Apprentice T’Vel & Captain Calypso Skyie & Lieutenant Rebecca McMillen & Lieutenant JG Rala & Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Lieutenant JG Katie Kellerman

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Unnamed Class O Planet

[A While Later, Bay Side, Clothing Optional Beach]

"It seems so unlikely that you were able to convince me to join you here." T'Vel walked with Fulvia and Sakura from the beam-down site to a wide empty spot of the Bay side beach. Each came down wearing a light robe and carrying towels, while Fulvia also carried a small supply bag. They spotted a few familiar faces and waved to them as they found their own place to set up.

"And yet, here we are," Sakura observed.

"It's not hard to imagine, Tee," said Fulvia. "Vulcans like the sun and the sand and the hot. This has all three."

"And no one likes tan lines," Sakura added.

"Exactly! See, she gets it. Ah, here's a perfect spot!" Fulvia set her bag down, laid out the towel, and doffed her robe, smiling as the sun caressed her body. "Ahhhh. We don't really have beaches like this on Sigma Iotia. And really if we did, they'd be a warzone, since every family would want it."

The other two followed their friend's lead and within a moment they were all lying on their backs, letting the sun warm them.

"Incoming," Sakura whispered to the others. Fulvia turned her head to see Espersen walking in their direction, swim trunks wet from an earlier dip on the other side of the beach. He had an insulated bag over his shoulder.

"Whatever it is, sir, we didn't do it!" Fulvia called out to him.

"Relax, I come in peace," he said. "I meant it when I said rank is left on the ship. We're here for R & R. I have something for you." He opened the bag and tilted it forward to show the contents: ice cold bottles of beer. "The red labeled ones are replicated synthale. The blue ones are authentic, from Michelle Erilin's stock."

Each of them reached forward to take a bottle -- two blue, one red. "Thank you, Alexander," Sakura said, leaning up on her forearms and elbows so she could open and quaff her drink.

"You're all right, Espersen," Fulvia said, raising her bottle toward him. "But what are you doin' with those on, Bossman? I thought this was a nude beach!"

"Clothing optional, Fulvia," he clarified.

"C'mon, Mister E, live a little!"

T'Vel joined in. "I understand no one likes tan lines."

He chuckled and nodded, pulling down his trunks and folding them into a side pocket on the bag he carried.

"Good on ya, Boss," Fulvia said.

"Will you now help with sunscreen?" Sakura asked.

He smirked. "That's pushing it."

"Cally's with a bunch of others over there," Fulvia said, pointing to where she'd previously waved. "I bet they'd want beer too."

Alexander nodded. "Thank you. Enjoy your day, ladies." And off he went with his cooler-bag of ice cold beer to find Cally and the others.

**

Rala might have appeared to be napping, but after figuring out which twin was which and watching them head back to their towels, and settling down herself, she’d been listening for any sounds they might have made to indicate them swapping places again. She was pretty sure she still had them sorted out.

One of the twins heard footsteps and glanced over. Her eyes lit up and she turned to her partner in crime. "Showtime," she whispered, keeping her face turned away.

Rala opened one eye and watched, deciding not to interfere with their game...at least for now.

As the footsteps approached, and the Commander couldn't help but see them, both girls turned over and put a hand over their eyes to shield from the sun, grinning. "Hello, Alex!" they said in unison.

Calypso snickered as she looked over at Alexander with a smile, "Welcome, Alex, to the fun part of the beach!"

“Cally,” he said, nodding to the Captain, then to the others. “Rala, Rebecca. Um.” His eyes darted between the twins. “Kellermans.” He caught himself lingering a little longer than he should have on, well, each of them, so he quickly shook his head to ground himself again. He once again opened his cooler bag. “I come bearing refreshment. Beer, both synth and real. Enough to go around.”

Rala opened her other eye and rolled over onto her stomach, propping her chin up on two hands, the end of her tail twitching lazily. “Beer, you say?”

The twins smirked and jumped up, walking over. "Excellent," one of them said, looking in the bag. "I enjoy a hard one." She smiled up at his expression. "Drink that is."

"Don't antagonize someone who brings you beer," the other one said. "I'm sure he's tired of lugging that big thing around." She smiled up at him.

Alex snickered at the double entendres, and was not at all arguing with the fact that two beautiful naked twins were flanking him.

"Truth be told, we really don't have much of a taste for beer," the first twin said, smiling. "Alcohol was never my vice."

"And drinking would really interfere with my work on board," the other twin said. "So I generally try to avoid it." She batted her eyes at Espersen. "I mean, you'd agree my job would be much harder tipsy, wouldn't you? Fun as it would be to see."

“Um, yes…” Alexander said, confused. Wait…which one is that? Oh no.

Rala stifled a giggle. “It may not be yours, but alcohol is one of my vices. Someone hand me one of the real ones, please?”

“Absolutely,” Alex said, retrieving one of the authentic beers. He opened it and walked it to the resting Rala. Damn. He hadn’t really considered before how she might look under the uniform. Now he knew, and was impressed. “Here you go.”

Rala noticed Alex’s gaze and decided to try something she’d never have considered before getting to know this particular crew. She arched her back a bit more, propping her upper body up on the elbows of her second pair of arms, forearms crossed just under her chest, which experienced interesting effects from the movement. She reached up with one of her first arms to accept the beer, saying “Thanks,” and attempting to school her expression into one that she hoped he’d read as ‘I saw you looking, and I don’t mind.’

Alexander couldn’t hide a flush coming to his face. “No problem,” he said, before moving off.

“Rebecca, I thought ahead,” he said, turning to the smallest one present. His hand went back into the cooler and he pulled out a beer glass that he had replicated to her scale, along with an ice cold container of synthale with a spigot.

"OOoooooo, well thank you kindly." She accepted the glass along with the container.

He looked back toward the twins, now having definitely lost track of which was which. He briefly thought he had an idea but now it was gone.

Before going back to them, he playfully tossed an ice cube onto Cally’s bare stomach.

The Captain had been watching his expression with a smirk, then it was almost in slow motion that she spotted the ice cube in flight, but was unable to move. She started with a yelp as the freezing water impacted and the temperature differential was instant. She scooped the ice cube and flung it back at Alex, missing him, "Hey, that's not nice!"

“Sorry, I couldn’t help it,” Alex said. “Too inviting a target.”

Rebecca watched the ice cube sail through the air in almost slow motion, playful giants all around. The yelp made her giggle. "Oh geez, hey hey not me, noncombatant noncombatant!!" as the cube sailed overhead from the throw. Rebecca was all giggles, never in harm's way from the icy boulder.

The twins, still on either side of Espersen, watched his eyes and looked behind him at each other and grinned.

"Isn't he considerate to bring the right sized glasses," one twin said.

"But mean to throw that ice cube," the other noted.

"If he'd stuck to the nicer part, it might have been easier being his student," the first one said.

"Oh please, you were hardly his student," the second one said, turning to face her.

"I was technically his student," the first twin said, also squaring off, Alex still between them.

"Oh please I was more his student, you were a placeholder!" the second twin said. "That's why he even remembers us!"

"He remembers us because of you!" the first twin said.

"Or maybe it's just because of you!" the second twin countered.

"Please he prefers me far more," the first twin countered, grabbing Alex's arm and pulling him against her.

"Oh please!" the other twin said, grabbing his other arm and pulling him against her. "If it weren't for me how boring would things have been there for him?"

"So, what, suddenly he's your favorite professor?"

"I'm certainly the more memorable student!"

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

They both turned to face him, hands on their hips. "Tell her she's wrong!" they demanded in unison.

Alex’s eyes darted from one to the other as they spoke in rapid fire, and dropped the cooler when they started pulling him up against them. He looked pleadingly to Cally, but he knew in his heart of hearts that he was on his own. Maybe the ice cube was a bad idea.

He could ask a question, something technical that only Katie would know. But no, they’d just each stay quiet. He could state a detail from the class wrong. It was hard to resist the urge to correct someone. But probably not hard for these ones. He had thought only one would be comfortable pulling him up to her body like that, but no, both were. Speaking of hard…

“You both,” he tried, cautiously, “made that semester quite memorable. In distinct, but equally effective, ways. I was in parts both gratified and annoyed to have each you in my class.”

They glanced at each other and smirked. "Such a diplomatic answer," one of them said.

"That's why he's the XO. He makes decisions, hard," the other one said, grinning.

"You mean hard decisions," the first one said.

"Yeah both, whichever," the second one said.

"Well, either way, thanks for saying you could be gratified for either of us," the one on the left said, jumping up and hugging him tight, pressing against him before he could react. As she dropped to the ground, her mirror jumped up as well, kissing his cheek. "Ditto!" she said, grinning. They went back to the two empty towels and laid down nonchalantly, one of them stretching on her back and the other turning onto her stomach and hiding her face.

The entire performance left Espersen at a loss for words. And thoughts. Did that just...? Blood rushed to his cheeks, among other places, but certainly excluding his brain, leaving him a standing, silent mess.

Rala’s gaze followed the twins back over to their towels, then returned to Espersen. “Certainly an interesting response.” She sipped her beer, her gaze flicking down, then back up. “In more ways than one, it would seem.” She managed to keep her voice steady, but she was grateful that the others were likely to miss her cheeks and the sides of her snout darkening slightly.

Cally watched appreciatively as 'things' happened with Alex and her smirk only got wider as nearly instant karma hit him. "If it helps, Alex, you've got some ice there to cool off if you so desire, makes some problems go away."

The teasing Captain breaking his reverie, Alex playfully stuck his tongue out at Cally. "I'll leave this here. There are water bottles too, for anyone who doesn't want a beer." He cast a look to the Kellerman twins. They had their fun, at his expense, and while it might've been a little meaner than anyone intended, he could see the humour. Looking won't exactly make it go away. He switched to Cally. Not helping. Rebecca. Still not helping. Rala. Oh come on.

"If anyone needs me," he continued, "I'll be in the water. Cooling off." Then he considered a moment and looked back to them. "Does anyone want to join me? For a swim I mean."

"I think I'll stay here for a bit," the face-down twin said.

"We'll see," the face-up one said.

“I may be convinced to in a bit, I’m having a good enough time where I’m at right now, lots of rather nice views.” Cally grinned widely.

Rala watched him go, her gaze lingering briefly on the beach’s other occupants. “Ditto.”

"Oh no no I ... I think I'm fine here. Crashing waves and all the water in the ocean isn't that fun for me anymore. I'll just, you know, stay here and make sure everyone here is, you know, safe. Someone has to mop on all that sunscreen and, well....." Rebecca offered as a reason to avoid the terrifying ocean.

Once Espersen's back was turned, Kally sat up and reached over, tapping Katie's rear to get her attention. They quickly and silently swapped towels, and Kally leaned over to give Cally a huge kiss. "Thank you for not spoiling my fun," she whispered in her ear, grinning devilishly.

Cally savored it for the couple of seconds, then whispered back, “It was too interesting to miss! Besides, he blew whatever chance of pity making me help when he tossed the ice. Not that there was much chance of it in the first place. Torturing one’s second is a classic pastime of a skipper.” Cally winked, “Especially when it’s harmless fun.”

Kally then stood up and, in Katie's sweeter tone, said, loud enough to be heard, "actually, a dip sounds good!" and bounced over to the shore.

"Um," his brain started to short circuit again. "Yes, of course. Come along. It'll be fun." I think. He reached his hand out toward her.

The blond girl smiled and took his hand. "Such a gentleman, escorting me down," she said. As they waded deeper into the water, she let go of his hand and dove forward, kicking hard, splashing him and flying off through the water.

"You know," Katie said, quietly, propping herself up on an elbow. "The irony is, after she gives him an aneurysm, she's the one who has to repair it."

“As long as she returns him in mostly working condition, I’ll be happy.” Cally chuckled back, “I don’t want to get stuck on the ship all the time when I can go have fun on other planets.”

"Like you don't have fun on the ship," Katie teased, turning back on her back and closing her eyes.

**

In the water, Alexander sighed and just sat down in the water, letting the waves lap over him. I'll never know which one that was, he mused. The mystery would eat at him for a while.

He understood 100% why they had their fun at his expense. He got that he was an easy target; he was a hard-ass instructor to most of them, at least for a bit. The Captain, for her part, took great pleasure in his torment, but was always harmless about it, and with her he was comfortable giving as good as he got.

Had the twins taken it a bit far though, riling him up to embarrass him in front of friends and peers? And that final splash didn't seem playful at all. Benvenuto, for all her love of messing with him, seemed to understand at least that was possible to go too far.

He wouldn't let them get to him though. Not today. Today was about the sun and the surf. So he closed his eyes and let the waves wash any frustration away. It would be a good day.

**

From their vantage point further away, Fulvia, Sakura, and T'Vel watched their boss get tormented so deliciously. They couldn't hear much, but the show was obvious. Confusion by a pair of overwhelming twins, who were also pulling them up against their bodies.

Fulvia didn't want to laugh too loudly, but the performance was award-worthy.

"He does not seem to be taking it in stride anymore," Sakura observed, pointing to him sitting in the water, having just been splashed by one of the twins, who then left him alone in the water.

"You gettin' anything from him, Tee?" Fulvia asked.

"I am no empath," T'Vel reminded her friend. "I only seem to pick up and react to the very strongest feelings."

"Yeah, and did he have any of those?" Fulvia knew which ones those were.

The Vulcan paused and considered. "Yes. He was in a serious state of...neural excitation--"

"He was horny as all get out?"

"Is that not what I said? Nevertheless, there are traces of that lingering but it is passing. What has replaced it however is not quite calm. More like...forced calm."

"Ah hell." Fulvia got up from her towel and put her bag across it. "Save my spot, will ya?"

A moment later she was sitting next to her boss in the water, letting waves crash over both of them. "There's an island about a click that way. You can just see it there. A few trees, some rocks. A nice place to sit and zone out the world." She playfully nudged his shoulder. "C'mon, Mister E. Let's go on an adventure." She waded further into the water until she could start swimming properly.

Alex grinned, and then followed her. Sounds like fun.


To be continued...