Engineering miracles

Rye closed the cover with a bang, causing the woman next to her to jump. “Dunno why you’re hanging around me if you’re gonna be that jumpy, Naera” the engineer said, tightening the bolts that held the lid on the secondary buffer array down. “Stuff bangs and bleeps all the time in engineering.” The shorter woman nodded. “Yea, but if I’m gonna cook the best food possible I’ve gotta really understand you. The captain…” Rye held up a hand and Naera corrected herself. “Sorry - Dustin - has me on trial until we get to Earth, which could be under a month away. It’s only another week to Rakhsport after all, so I’ve got to have a clear idea of what ingredients I’ll need by then.”

The Rabyth woman shrugged. “Food’s food, if it’s cooked well. It’s not like it’s a fusion turbine or a plasma array where the feel of the thing matters.” That earned a half-snort half-chuckle from her companion, and Rye threw Naera a grin. “Yea, I get it. You’re like the nerd when it comes to focusing on stuff. Or me, I guess. Anyway, we’re done here. Gotta head down to engineering to check a couple of power linkages and then it’ll be up to the main bridge. Oh, and ya can’t come with me for this bit, got some confidential human tech nearby that I can’t let ya see, sorry Naera.” At the engineer’s words, Naera bit her lip for a moment before nodding. “Alright, I’ll meet you on the bridge then. Tho, can I ask a question while it’s just the two of us?”

At a brief nod from Rye, she gestured vaguely in the direction of the upper decks where the rest of the senior staff were. “You’ve given almost everyone else a nickname. Dusty, Nerd, Emmz, I’m pretty sure I even heard you call the ship’s counsellor treacle the other day, which I looked up and it’s a human food made from the runoff from sugar refining.” Rye gestured for the other woman to get to the point. “So I’ve been cooking food for a week now, hanging around for meetings even though I usually don’t have a clue what you’re all talking about; at least the doctor makes some points sometimes while I just feel like a fucking table decoration. When do I get a nickname? And for the love of freaking starlight, do not use table decorations as part of it.”

Rye ran a hand over her face, then blinked. “Fuck me, I’m picking up Dusty’s mannerisms.” She thought to herself for a moment, then smiled. After the over the top session the night before Naera had joined them for breakfast for the first time, in addition to a new record count of orgasms delivered by her female partners she had also gained a neat set of flowers on the innermost branches of her pairing tattoo, encircling the heart. It shouldn’t be surprising she was picking up her partner’s manners. Realizing she’d not replied to the now impatient looking short-stack, she sighed.

“Ya don’t. No offense, but my nicknames are…” A very attractive green face looked up at her with a sour expression and flashed a row of vicious looking teeth “reserved for real crew, right? And I’m just on trial.” Part of Rye’s brain - the part that Dustin and space travel had activated - told her to boop the woman on her adorable nose, but sensibleness (and a wish to not lose a finger to those teeth) reigned. “No. My nicknames are for people that… well, ya know me and Dusty are pairing, and Meli’s his li’ah’a, and Emmz is part of his pride and…” The olive blush spread across Naera’s face. “Oh, starlight. I didn’t realize they were that kind of names… Fuck me, and I was so jealous about them too…”

Rye couldn’t help herself if she’d tried. “Not fucking ya right now, thanks. I’ll give ya a nickname if we ever do though, don’t worry.” Then, the Rabyth woman’s old insecurities hit her like a truck, and she more or less shoved Naera in the direction of the bridge. “Right, gotta go get this err… yea, fix the thing, engineering, see ya on the bridge, bye!” she babbled before bolting. Behind her, Naera pulled her hat off her head, silver hair cascading down over her shoulders and turned it over and over in her hands, seemingly contemplating something before nodding to herself, returning the hat to her head and walking briskly in the direction Rye had pointed her.

While this conversation had been going on, Dustin had been doing his best to keep his expression neutral and his erection under control in front of the bridge crew. He’d arranged to meet the others involved in the weave-jump project there to test scanning with the new buffer setup - no flight changes probably, but Rye wanted to see how her work was progressing. She’d more or less told him she expected the new tech to melt on first use, but would be using the data she got from that to get a non-self-destructing version built before they left their next stop. He’d told her she was a miracle worker and kissed her - but the memory of that wasn’t what had him struggling to keep his pants flat.

Rather, it was the conversation he’d had with Trea’k just before heading to the bridge. They had both been busy, and for one reason or another the discussion on why she’d been so protective of Emely and Rye after the pairing ceremony hadn’t happened. He’d finally remembered to ask her about it - and she’d been very blunt. “Put simply, my mate, I was worried I had overstepped what our mutual lovers had expected. As you know, Emely is quite… willing to please, and Rye has tendencies towards giving up control. I was advised that for the ritual purposes, we should aim to overstimulate Rye and so - I won’t recant all the details, but both of our loves were very good girls for me.”

He’d naturally had to pry into that in more detail - and his mind was now conjuring images of the things he’d not been present for. The image currently occupying his thoughts was the point in the night when Rye and Meli had agreed to their relationship moving into it’s new form. Trea’k had, perhaps unsurprisingly to anyone who considered her form for more than a moment, the ability to spin a limited form of webbing. It wasn’t true spider silk, and dissolved quickly in water - apparently, it was normally just used to cushion eggs on their travel from her ovipositor to the ground.

In the envoy’s case however, it also could be spun into a quite effective bondage material - and so she had (with Meli’s help) neatly trussed Rye and Emely both up, before wrapping one arm around the bunny girl and lifting her from the floor while Meli used the Feliax woman as a seat. In between gasps at her lover’s tongue-work, Meli had quizzed Rye intently on her feelings for the others while Trea’k had teased the Rabyth with her free hand. That had just been the start of the night, with Trea’k apparently taking the more dominant role that Dustin usually occupied in sexual encounters. After telling him all of this, his lovebug had actually seemed quite worried he might be upset. Given that all the women involved had apparently enjoyed themselves immensely, he wasn’t sure why she’d thought that - but had reassured her anyway. Asides from mild envy that he hadn’t been there - which faded the instant the Vex’ess woman suggested that if he wanted to they could repeat the encounter with him present - he was just happy that Rye’s pairing ritual had gone well.

Dragging his thoughts back to the present as he felt himself start to stiffen, he shifted in his seat and glanced down at his hand. Yea, the ritual had definitely gone well. The ring of his tattoo now had longer tendrils - a spiral growing towards his fingertip and one a half inch or so onto the back of his palm. The growing ink looked vaguely plant like, and the fact that it marked the deepening of his relationships made him smile - right in time for another plant to burst through the door. “Captain, Rye says… fuck, forgot what she said, but she’s just doing something then she’ll be here.” Dustin frowned at Naera. His chef seemed distracted by something, and he adjusted his seating just in case.

With a nod to show his acknowledgement of the message, garbled as it was, he reached out and thumbed the comms to call Meli. If they were nearly ready to try the weave system, she’d want to be on the bridge instead of in the lab working on whatever side project she had going with Trea’k. He frowned again at that thought - his fiancé seemed to be putting in even more work on that as they approached Earth. He trusted her - but should he inquire as to what she was working on? As a good partner, should he give her space or show an interest?