What are friends for, anyway?

“Emergency Broadcast”

By Joseph Manno

If one woman aboard possessed fluency in body language, it was Vaerth Parihn… and right now, the Orion was delivering a veritable treatise: She never quite touched Brett King, but it sure as Hell felt to him like she had.

He leaned in for a kiss.

She never seemed to move… but he never quite touched her, either.

“Eyes front, Ensign,” she whispered, snapping him back.

He heard the lounge doors whisper twice… and, at once, Parihn’s expression, both facial and physical, relented.

Brett shook his head.

“Is Molly gone?”

Parihn nodded.

“Did she look upset?”

The Orion grinned.

“Yeah.”