"That little shit!"  Beka yelled, as she marched onto the Maru's bridge.

"Oh dear, what has Harper done now?"  Trance grinned, looking up from the environmental controls.

"He rewired the Maru's back-up exotic matter drive to power a high-speed porn download from Ikandi Drift.  He's back there with half a dozen high-res data crystals storing the damn stuff."  Beka threw herself down in the pilot chair.  "It's not even good porn.  It's lesbian sex designed for men, not real lesbian sex.  Completely fake.  And with really bad hair."

Trance's tail twitched.  "You know about lesbian sex?"

Beka paused, then swivelled around, grinning.  "I know all sorts of sex.  I even got a Persied off once, and they aren't normally sexually active in the presence of mono-gendered species."

Trance looked impressed.  "Really?"  Her eyes narrowed.  "You're joking with me, aren't you?  You spend all your time on the Maru, when did you get all this experience?  You certainly don't practice on Harper.  Or me."

Beka waved her hand.  "Misspent youth.  Whenever living with my dad got too much, I'd jump ship and spend a month or two tramping my way through the seamy underbelly of the universe.  Or is that 'steamy underbelly'?  Anyway, it was a lot of fun."

"Tramping?"

"I'd pick out a nice looking man or woman, chat them up, let them buy me dinner and a few drinks, and usually got a nice place to sleep and breakfast in the morning.  I could go for weeks with just a pocketful of credits and a short skirt."

Trance gasped.  "Beka, you were a whore!"

"I was not!  I never took money for it, and I always chose someone I wanted to have sex with anyway.  It was just casual sex with perks."  Beka stared off into nothing with a dreamy smile on her face.  "There was this doctor on Eldorado Drift… she showed me so much.  I stayed with her for almost three months.  The things she could do with soft fruit…"

There was silence for a moment, until Trance nervously cleared her throat.  "Uh, I've been growing strawberries."

Beka's attention snapped back to Trance.  "Have you?"

"Uh huh."

"Is that an invitation?"

Trance flushed a little, her purple skin becoming momentarily pinkish.  "I'm always interested in learning new things."

Beka rose from her chair and slinked over to Trance.  "Good, because I have some very interesting ideas about what to do with your tail."

~

"Oh.  Oh!  Ohhhhhhhh!"

"See, forget about champagne and strawberries, they taste best when licked off… here."

"Mmmmmhmm…"

"And here."

"Huh-uhhh."

"And here."

"Ohhhhhh aaaah!"

"Now where did I leave those plums?"

"Eeeeeeee!  Eeeeeeeee!  Eeeeeee!  Eeeeeeeee!  Eeeeeeeeeee!  Eeeeeeeee!"  *gasp*

"We should have recorded this for Harper.  He might have learned something."

*gasp*  "Oh, you are so going to find out what my tail can do."

"Bring it on, plum princeSSSS!"