A princess on a mission

Travel through the stardust-filled system had taken far longer than Dustin had expected. Instead of a quick day trip, it’d turned into a three day drift - partially to make Meli happy, partially because navigating around some of the larger aggregations of space debris had taken more careful piloting than Sammie had initially thought, and partially due to an odd interaction between the dust and the ship’s thrusters.

Simply put, whenever Sammie throttled the ship up beyond a certain speed, the power-curve fell off compared to their normal rapid output. Rye had said it was due to the way the sublight engines moved the ship, the magnetic field they used to compress and contain the thrust behaving erratically around the charged particulate that they were swimming through. Whatever the reason, it took them noticeably longer than planned to travel onward to the system containing the research outpost they were next scheduled to stop at.

Those few days had been interesting, to say the least. Defia had been almost inconsolable. The rogue Fractal had retreated to the engine bay, sitting staring at the fusion reactors with an intensity that would have worried everyone around her were it not for the fact that she’d asked Rye… no, had begged Rye to be allowed to do it. Something about the swirling mix of energies at the heart of the reactor was apparently bright enough for her to focus on it and ignore the rippling screaming waves of distortion from the dust that surrounded the ship, as far as Dustin understood it.

Jaisyl, meanwhile, had been grating on everyone’s nerves. While she had apparently taken a liking to Aricia and was clearly trying to be polite to the others, cultural differences kept on crashing into even her very best of intentions. So far, she’d managed to piss off Bleu during a medical check-up, annoy Naera by refusing the plant girl’s good natured offer to make her a dish from her home planet, and irritated half a dozen junior crew by attempting to order them around like palace servants.

The Naera thing at least Dustin had smoothed over - especially when Jaisyl had explained that she’d just not wanted to put any kind of pressure on “one of the handful of your consorts that actually don’t hate me and would gladly see me trip out an airlock”. His reassurance that Naera enjoyed cooking, and that the plant girl wouldn’t have offered if she didn’t want to do it, followed by a Tho’unn tasting session with the princess, Naera, and Aricia had done a lot to mend that particular bridge.

Never the less, Jaisyl was seemingly a natural at irritating people, and so with that in mind Dustin headed down to her quarters as the ship drifted from the jump point towards the arctic planet on which the research station was located. She answered on the second buzz, the door sliding back to reveal the princess dressed in… Dustin blinked. She was wearing fluffy pink pyjamas, with tiny slippers that had been styled to look like highland cows. The pyjamas he’d have understood, but the slippers…?

“They’re the first pair I found that were comfortable. Do not mock them or I will close the door on you, ambassador.” Jaisyl said icily, noting his gaze. “I am… that is to say, the Lady Emely has already made me aware of the bovines on your homeworld. I am aware that this looks like I am walking around stepping on others of my own kind and the implications that has as a royal are not lost on me. Now, did you want something?”

Dustin nodded, doing his best to regain the initiative. “Yes. I’d like you to join us in the ready-room in half an hour for a mission briefing. I’ll be leading a party down to the surface to drop off some cargo, and I want you to come with me.”

That earned him a frown from the princess. “You want me to do manual labour?” she asked at last, before shaking her head. “No, do not answer now. I am part of this crew, as you and the irritating Feliax are so fond of reminding me. I will find out more at the briefing… just, may I know who else is coming? And what attire I should be wearing?”

For a moment Dustin debated telling her to wait until the briefing, but thought better of it. Emely had reported the issues the Tho’unn woman had been having with outfits, so that at least he could give her a heads up on now. “We’ll be wearing suits for this one - Meli and Rye ensured we had some that’ll fit you perfectly. I’d advise wearing warm clothes underneath regardless - a thermal top and leggings maybe? The suits in theory are thermally sealed for vacuum but if we’re cracking our visors open to talk to people it’ll get really cold really fast.”

He paused, trying to remember his earlier planning session. “As to who’s coming with us - you, me, Aricia because she rarely saw snow as a child and asked to come along, Yril’k and Rye. Sammie will be in charge while we’re gone, and it shouldn’t be more than a few hours on the surface - but we’ll discuss all that in a bit. Is that okay?” Jaisyl nodded in reply, and Dustin left her to get ready; he wanted to have a few last minute words with Emely before the meeting to ensure there weren’t any surprises when they started talking - and more importantly, no opportunities for his fox girl and the princess to further butt heads.

With everyone gathered, the ready room had it’s usual quasi-domestic atmosphere. Even the presence of Yril’k and Jaisyl didn’t do much to change it - Dustin smiled as his various lovers carried on their own conversations as they waited for Defia and Rye to arrive from engineering. The Fractal woman was doing much better since they’d left the dust-strewn system behind, but Rye had offered to let her stay for another day or so to be on the safe side, and the pair had apparently been bonding over thruster dynamics.

When the last pair of ladies had finally taken their seats, Dustin tapped the console. “Alright, everyone - this is the latest data on our current destination, Octis IV. Bleu, if you would?” It felt vaguely wrong asking the medic rather than the chief scientist to lead the explanation, but the doctor had been clear - no major work for Meli until she’d given birth, even desk work. As the brunette scowled at him, the Queri leaned forward.

“Octis IV is home to a research station studying a number of forms of **** life. Unusually for such a cold world, both biological and mineral lifeforms have been detected living in clusters around areas where gravitational shear from the twin suns and the nearby gas giant causes the ice to fracture; studies indicate that in some places there are liquid micro-oceans of water beneath the ice crust, while drilling has found underground mercury lakes that are inhabited by a number of creatures feeding on gasses released from geological vents connected to the planet’s core.” Bleu delivered the explanation in crisp tones, before moving on to their mission.

“Unsurprisingly, the conditions on such a world are not particularly good for either the researchers or their equipment. We’re arriving in the summer - it’s averaging a balmy twenty to thirty below during the day, not counting the **** wind chill. In other words, outside is fine if you’re in your suit, but try and avoid cracking your visor for long periods if you don’t want me to have to treat you for frostbite. At night, temperatures plummet, so please do not go outside without protective gear after dark.” Bleu was very firm on that point, glaring around the table before she continued. “We’re here to supply the locals with a food top-up until their regular resource ship arrives, along with some specialist hardware they ordered from a Tho’unn supplier that’ll let them image underground much more efficiently. Additionally, they are having some issues with one of their power generators and have asked if Rye would take a look.”

She paused, then shook her head. “Of course, knowing Dustin he’ll probably find the entire base has been taken over by a space monster or something. It should be a simple supply run - please try and ensure that it remains so?”