"Remind me again *why* we're doing this?"  Kathryn Janeway
complained as she clomped down Voyager's corridor.  Her cycling
cleats were giving a good imitation of wooden shoes as the clunk, clunk
of her progress echoed off the walls.

"It's therapeutic, " answered Chakotay. "Good exercise, nice scenery.
Besides biking is easier on the knees than Velocity with Seven. And I
do believe that Doctor said if you tore your ACL again, he wasn't going
to fix it. He was going to let you hobble for a month so you'd
appreciate having two good knees and take better care of them."

Janeway grunted reluctant agreement and allowed herself to be led
down the hall to the transporter.  She was relieved that there didn't seem
to be too many crewmembers loitering about. She wasn't thrilled at
wearing the lycra bike shorts--they were awfully snug, although she
had to admit they looked awfully good on her First Officer. She hadn't
noticed recently just what a tight set of buns he had. She lagged back a
bit to get a better view. He had nice calves too.

They beamed down to the planet's surface.  They materialized few
meters away  from a brightly bannered rental shop. Chakotay entered
the shop and returned a few moment later with a pair of helmets under
one elbow and pushing an elongated bicycle built for two. He handed
one the helmets to Kathryn. She put it on while he squeezed various
levers and rocked the  shifters back and forth.

"You didn't tell me we were going to be riding a tandem."

Chakotay grinned. "It's safer this way. You won't be going anywhere
without me." Kathryn groaned at the ancient moldy joke. "Besides,
Chakotay continued, " I wasn't sure if you had ever learned to ride a
bike." He glanced at her covertly while continuing to fiddle with the
gear shifter. "Not everyone does anymore. Bicycles are a lot more
common on the colony worlds than on Earth. Cheaper than airbikes
and easier to maintain."

"Efficient too, " commented Janeway as she visually appraised the bike,
"Most efficient form of personal transportation ever developed by
humans. And I do ride. I was a category II during grad school, but
didn't have the time to maintain the ranking afterwards." She took in his
look of surprise and smiled winningly at Chakotay. "I may be out of
practice, Commander, but I do remember how to ride a bike. You know
what they say..." She pulled the bike out of Chakotay's hands and
balanced it between her palms, testing the bike's center of gravity. "I'll
steer. " At  Chakotay's look of dismay, she remarked, "With your
record with shuttles, you didn't really expect me to let you drive, did
you?"

There was the usual confusion over getting both of them mounted on
the bike. In the end, Kathryn perched her seat and remained still while
Chakotay, since he weighed more, got to push off. They each clipped
into the pedals and they were off. After a few experimental laps around
the village square, they turned off down a paved pathway which the
proprietor of the rental shop had recommended. The path was fairly
level with only a few gentle rolling hills. Soon Kathryn and Chakotay
had grown accustomed to the rhythm of pedaling together. Kathryn
was sweating lightly, but the breeze of their movement cooled her. It
felt good to be out in the open air.

About twenty minutes after heading out on the bicycle trail, Kathryn
pulled on the brakes, slowing them to stop at the side of the path. She
dismounted and gave a small embarrassed grin. "I have to...visit the
woods. Be right back." She trotted towards the trees, tugging loose the
chamois in the seat of her shorts which had managed to creep higher
than was comfortable. When she returned, the bike was lying on its
side in the grass and Chakotay was sitting beside it with a flimsy
spread across his lap. He looked up as she sat down beside him. He
handed her an insulated drink bottle, which she accepted a little
grudgingly. "I know, I know, " she grumbled half heartedly, " I
remember the drill. Drink, even if you're not thirsty." Kathryn took a
mouthful of the water which was cool enough to be refreshing, but not
cold enough to give her stomach cramps. She looked over at the plastic
film Chakotay was studying. It was a map.

"Are you ready for something a bit more challenging?" he asked.

She knew he was baiting her. The barely suppressed dimples gave his
humor away every time, but she liked to pretend ignorance. She put a
challenge into her voice. "Just what did you have in mind,
Commander?"

His finger traced a route on the map. "There's a an old unpaved path up
ahead that leads over a mountain pass. The turn off is about half a
kilometer farther up this trail. The climb looks pretty steep, a couple
thousand meters. But, " and the teasing in his voice grew stronger, "if
you think it's too much, we can finish this loop and go back to the
village and have some lunch."

Kathryn pretended to think it over, staring off at the distant mountains,
then back at the map. "I'm game for it," she said, nodding toward the
hazy peak.

She was the first to the bike, and she took a moment to adjust the seat,
using a small hex wrench to lower the seat post a two centimeters and
to angle the saddle's nose down a bit more.  She liked her seat a bit
lower if she was going to do some serious uphill climbing, and if the
truth be known, she had been off a bike too long--years in fact--and
already her bottom was feeling a bit tender where the points of her
pelvis rested on the seat. She shook her head ruefully. Despite
improved aerogels and bio-mimetic padding, bicycle seats are never
really comfortable. Oh, when she was riding frequently, she'd had her
real leather saddle nicely broken in and contoured to fit her perfectly,
but the seat was--was where? She couldn't remember. At her mother's,
she thought, but it could have just as easily been at her apartment in
San Francisco too. Anyway, the seat and the bicycle were a long ways
away.

Chakotay pushed them off and they pedaled easily to the turn for the
mountain trail. This trail, unlike the one they started out on, wasn't
paved, but the knobby tires on the bike provided sufficient traction and
they rode on with only a bit more effort. The trail was pretty smooth,
with only a few easily avoidable ruts and no washboard bumps.
Kathryn was glad she was in the front seat. She could hear Chakotay
grunt every time the bike jounced over a hump. Since the rear seat was
position directly above the bicycle frame's upright post, all the force of
the bump traveled directly up from the rear triangle to the rear seat--and
right into his ass. No amount of padding nor the rear spring
suspension could completely eliminate that jolt, although both helped
minimize it to a reasonably comfortable ride.

After an initial rather steep climb the trail leveled to a less steep grade.
The easier riding gave Kathryn time to look around instead on
concentrating on trail obstructions and gearing. The scenery was
spectacular. Tall bluish broad-needled trees were interspersed with
slender multiple trunked leafy trees. The leaves were a delicate shade of
pale celadon and contrasted artfully with the dark cement gray tree
trunks.  Clumps of bushes grew beneath the forest canopy wherever
sufficient light filtered through, and a few late season flowers showed
exuberant bursts of orange, crimson  and rust. And in the backdrop, the
mountains loomed with long gray vertical expanses of sheer rock
peeking through the vegetation.

"It's beautiful!" Even as the words left her mouth, they sounded trite to
her. She wished she could summon some eloquence to capture the
feeling she was experiencing: the feeling of freedom and relaxation; the
physical challenge and the sense of well being that exercise brought on;
the sheer loveliness of their surroundings. "The scenery, " she
backtracked. "It's lovely."

"Oh, I'll agree to that." Chakotay's voice held a slightly ironic note. She
wished she could spare the attention to turn around and look at his face,
but the uneveness of the road prevented her. "From where I'm sitting,
the view is pretty spectatular."  She blushed hotly suddenly as she
realized that his view was quite different from her own. Chakotay's face
was not more than a foot from her own posterior so that his view was
primarily of her ass. Still he didn't sound too put out about it. She
decided to take the remark for a compliment.

"Break?" she called back as the trail, which had been mostly level,
began to rise again.

"Fine."

They leaned the bike against  a tree and found a couple of convenient
stones to sit on.  Kathryn stood alternately shaking one  leg then the
other for  few moments, both to stretch her thigh muscles, but also to
ease some of the ache in her seat. Chakotay pulled two foil wrapped
bars from a back pocket  of his jersey. Kathryn  accepted one of the
proferred unlabeled bars cautiously. "Please tell me that you didn't
pilfer these out the emergency ration caches on the shuttle deck."

Chakotay grinned. "Nope. Worse than that. Vulcan energy bars,
replicated from a recipe that Tuvok supplied." He cheerfully bit into the
brown non-descript rectangle.  Kathryn approached hers more
gingerly, taking a small sample bite. It wasn't bad. A bit gritty and at the
same time sticky, like peanut butter that was a bit too dry. The taste was
pleasantly salty with a underlying hint of something sweet--molasses?
The entire bar went down pleasantly enough, aided by copious amounts
of water.

Refreshed by the pause, they remounted and began the serious
business of pedalling up the steep incline. There was no conversation
during the ascent. Kathryn was too busy panting through her mouth to
draw breath for something so non-essential as talking. They ascended
steadily, cranking steadily and evenly.  There were only a dozen or so
meters to the top. "Shit," exclaimed  Kathryn as they topped a small
rise. An even steeper grade lay hidden behind the small hillock. "We're
going to have to stand. We're going too slow to downshift. Sorry."
With a grunt, she pulled herself upright on her pedals. Behind her she
heard Chakotay do the same. Their cadence speeded up and they
summited the pass.

The pass was all meadow. As they had climbed, the forest had
gradually dropped away, the trees growing more and more stunted as
they approached the tree line, until here, at the top, no trees grew at all.
The grass was a faintly bluish and so even that it looked like it had
been mowed like a lawn.  With a sound that something of both a sign
and groan, Kathryn stretched full out on her back. The grass tickled her
right ear, but she didn't care. She'd earned the right to lay here. Earned
the right. The thought reverberated. Earned the right. For the first time
in a very long time, perhaps since she'd first been drawn into the Delta
Quadrant, she felt the pride and exhilaration of achievement rise up in
her, making her giddy with it. She'd earned the right to feel this way.
And she felt like celebrating. She knew exactly how she wanted to
celebrate too. Her body had known long before her mind had admitted
her choice. Moist heat pooled between her thighs. (Sweat,  her mind
had said. Just sweat. But it wasn't.) She rolled onto one elbow and
looked down at her partner and companion only a moment before
leaning down to kiss him. He reacted with neither surprise nor
reluctance, opening his mouth beneath hers, welcoming her before his
tongue moved upwards to explore her mouth. Kathryn knew that she
being borne along on a flood of hormones and endorphins, but the
knowledge didn't bother her. She had earned the right to feel as she
did--and she was going to enjoy it.

Chakotay's fingers sought and found the seal along the front of her
jersey and opened it. He pushed her sport bra up so his hands could
knead and nuzzle her breasts. She wriggled her shorts down and
kicked them aside, then reached to strip off Chakotay's. "No
underwear, " she whispered in a smothered giggle, "I like that in man."

***

Several hours later, Captain Janeway strolled down the corridor
between the transporter and her quarters. She padded in her socks; her
cycling shoes swung from her left hand. She passed Tom Paris in the
hallway. He gave a knowing grin at her rather stiff gait, sweat-matted
hair and the dried blood of a long scrape that  was smeared down the
side of her right leg.

"Tough ride, Captain? You look like you ought to stop by Sickbay."

Janeway glanced down toward her bloodied leg and tried hard not to
grin smugly.  "Tough? No. And interesting doesn't begin to cover it.
As for the rest, I'll be fine. Just a skinned knee and a bit saddle sore.
I'm out of practice. Guess I'll have to remedy that."
 

The End

[Return to Ragpants' Stories]