Linda wakes up in sick bay.

When I came to, my eyes flickered at the blinding white light. I rolled around, trying to figure out where I was. I felt a hand on my arm, easing me to lay down.

"It's alright, ensign. You're on the Ishtar." It was Dr. Akira. My senses slowly came back to me and I recognized the features of the ship's sick bay. I was laying on a medical bed in a patient frock.

"What happened?" I asked weakly.

"We found you on the planet surface, naked and dangerously dehydrated." Akira stated. I felt a flush of embarrassment, thinking about what that scene must have looked like. Who found us? We must have looked scandalous, wrapped together completely naked. The doctor seemed non-plussed about it though, as she continued, "It's actually a common thing to happen. It's been found that people under **** overheating and dehydration would strip down in an effort to cool themselves off. We really should have sent you two down with hazard suits, but we didn't expect the terrain to be so dangerous..."

I didn't really want to correct the crew's interpretation, so I didn't speak up about that, instead I quickly looked around, "Where's Isa?"

"Lieutenant Greene is over there, recovering as well. She was in much worse condition than you were, but she will make a full recovery." Akira said, motioning to the bed across from me. Greene was still asleep.

I breathed a sigh of relief, happy she had made it out ok. Then I thought about the plant fluids. "Doctor... has there been any strange incidents with getting us onboard? Like damaged materials?"

Dr. Akira paused her tricorder scanning to think. She rubbed her chin, "Well, I had you two beamed directly to sick bay when we found you. Another team was sent down to collect your supplies. There hasn't been any reports of any damages and I didn't see anything broken."

I relaxed. "So, how long do I have to stay here?"

"I'd like to keep you overnight. My scans show recent sexual activity at a heightened scale. Dopamine levels are at virus levels. I'm conjecturing that you may have been exposed to some sort of airborne pollen or allergen which may have inadvertently set it off again. Hopefully that's not the case, but I need to quarantine you two just in case."

"You mean it could have been one of the plants that made us..."

I held my tongue. Akira gave me a wry smile and a small nod, "Time will tell if I'm right or not. If it was an artificially induced incident, the effects will run through your system and fade away. If it's a reactivation of the virus, it could have dangerous implications for the two of you. My depressant will have less potent affects the second time around and I don't know if they will be enough to maintain you libido levels if the virus were at full strength again."

"So we could end up..."

"Like the men..." Akira concluded sadly. "But as I said, we will have to wait and see."

Isa woke up shortly after my discussion with Dr. Akira and I filled her in on the situation. She agreed with me to leave out certain details of our away mission on the official report. We'd just summarize it to 'attempted to remove plant fluids through various methods' until we got pressed for more details. As for our potential virus outbreak, Greene had a different theory.

"It was the circumstance, it wasn't a plant," she dismissed.

"But Dr. Akira confirms that there are spores in our systems and our body chemistry has altered," I counter argued.

"That may be, but we didn't start getting overly sexual until after we'd already been intimately touching each other. Before that, it was professional," Green said. She was sitting next to me, on my bed and her proximity was making me feel warm again.

"Then why am I... feeling like this now?" I said as my cheeks began to burn. Isa was eyeing me as well and it only exacerbated my condition.

"Maybe because not too long ago, we were intertwined with our tongues down each other's throats," she said with a wistful smile. "I can't believe that it was some plant's spores that made us do all that. It felt so natural. We wanted it. I know I wanted it... didn't you?"

I could feel my blood pumping as I thought back to what we've done together, "Well... yeah, but..."

Isa rubbed my cheek with hers, "We'll be fine. This will all blow over and then we can maybe get together again and..."

The computer started a frenetic beeping and flashed red. Dr. Akira came rushing out.

"You two, separate beds, right now!" she ordered.

Isa hesitated, so Akira pried her off me. Nurse Leena came over to restrain me as well. I wondered if Isa was willing to go through with things even with the doctor and Leena present. Could we really be relapsing to the virus? Was I willing to get it on in front of everyone as well?