Oil and fur

Dustin blinked owlishly as the viewscreen cut out. The last day had been one big headache of stress for no real reason. The transfer of the Theria noble had gone off without a single issue, the flight had been completely uneventful, and the cargo bay currently held a sample range of seeds in cryo-storage that had come as a gift from the grateful groom (at least, Dustin thought he was the groom) for the speedy and respectful delivery of his betrothed. As Sola powered out of the system - and her service robots started the lengthy process of getting the shuttle bay fully back to it’s intended purpose - Dustin walked into his quarters and sighed. Leaning with his head up against the wall he groaned. “That was too long. Next time we do a mission like that, I want a full crew compliment so I can put someone else in charge for a bit.”

Then he turned and walked into his bunk room, kicking off his shoes and unbuttoning his dress uniform as he did so. He’d be glad to be back to casual wear tomorrow - they had a long set of jumps ahead before the next contact with sapients, and while there was a bunch of scanning and sample collecting to do en-route it could be done on their own time with no rush. Which just left the Rye situation to deal with. He glanced at his bed, and not for the first time thought there was something off about it. Sure, it was larger than Meli’s - or those of the general crew cabins he’d glanced at. But if he really was supposed to be some kind of harem builder as an ambassador, he would have thought they’d have given him a bed that more than two people could fit into comfortably.

“Sola, question” he said, trying to phrase it in a way that made sense without seeming improper before giving up and shrugging as he concluded “is there a bigger bedroom aboard?” The AI’s response was quick and to the point. “Yes Captain. The Ambassador’s room, accessed by voice command from your ready room.” Dustin paused, debating whether or not to go look at it now - but no. He had a bunk, he was tired, and even if he ended up with both Meli and Rye sharing it at the same time it’d just about fit the three of them comfortably as long as they were close. Instead, he climbed wearily onto the mattress and face-planted into the pillows - asleep almost before he landed.

The morning came with an alarm; he’d asked Sola to set it for him earlier the previous day in full expectation that when he finally went off-duty he’d crash out and forget to prime one. Dragging himself through the morning routine of shower, dress and then out to the ready room for coffee and food, he was surprised to find that Meli hadn’t joined him. A message from her was waiting for him on the terminal though, and he scanned it as he ate. “Greetings Captain. I believe you have decided what to do about our chief engineer, and I feel my presence this morning might distract you. Therefore, I have opted to review my notes on the Feliax as we are only a few weeks away from their space and our final two missions require little preparation beyond the basic. I do not want a repeat of the issues with Rye, so I am second guessing myself. I will see you - hopefully both of you - for dinner later.”

Well that was that, wasn’t it? His fiancé - he still sometimes tripped over that thought, still struggling with the feeling that this was all a practical joke the universe was playing on him - his fiancé was basically telling him to go and help the Rabyth woman out with her needs. Dustin straightened up. What was important here? Making sure his crew - his friends - were happy. And apparently that meant having sex with attractive bunny girls. Or at least, one specific bunny girl. He nodded to himself, drained the last of his morning mocha and stepped out of his quarters in the direction of engineering.

The doorway to main engineering was sealed shut, red warning lights flashing above it until he stepped closer. He wasn’t sure what kind of sensors Rye had working, but the instant he got close the lights flashed green and the heavy bulkhead door slid open, warming his face with a blast of heat from within. Stepping inside, Dustin took in the state of the room even as the heavy door sealed again behind him. Tools were spread everywhere, cables and ducting trailing between banks of half-assembled machinery. The massive reactor was running hot, it’s auxiliary power output being routed into a range of what looked like scratch-built oscilloscopes and sensors that were slowly moving around a rough model of the ship that appeared to have been made out of old automat meal packaging. Beyond that, machines stood with their cases removed, grease buckets sitting nearby with brush handles rising like the masts of a doomed sailing vessel from the thick black sludge.

Looking around, Dustin didn’t notice Rye at first - until she shifted one of her legs. The Rabyth woman was at the far end of the room from him, bent over with her torso engulfed by the hardware she was currently working on. After a moment of watching the shift of her hips, he coughed somewhat embarrassedly. Rye jolted at that and there was a loud clanging noise from inside the machine followed by an “Owww” as she crawled back out, one hand rubbing at the back of her head. “Should have made an alert so I didn’t get startled” she muttered to herself and stood up, turning around and putting her hands on her hips. “So, captain… you decided to come visit me in my work-nest then?” Dustin didn’t reply for two reasons. Firstly, he wasn’t entirely sure what to say - “yes, lets have sex” seeming terribly unemotional and “of course, sexy lady” sounding like the opening to a bad porn holovid. The second reason he didn’t say anything however was down to Rye’s appearance. Her golden fur was streaked with grease, and in the heat of the engine room she’d removed any form of secondary layer under her dungarees. Which she had for some reason decided to tie at her waist instead of fastening over her shoulders, leaving her naked from the waist up.

The Rabyth woman followed Dustin’s gaze and grinned before closing the gap. As she did so, she sped up - at first she had been sauntering with her usual cocky walk, then briskly - then running, her muscles driving her into a final jump before she collided with him, throwing both of them to the floor. The impact hadn’t been that hard - Dustin had reacted pretty quickly when he realised what she was about to do, but the sudden pressure of her lips on his took away what breath he had remaining. When she broke the kiss a moment later, Rye looked down at him with a mixture of need and lust in her eyes. “Captain… I need this. You know that or you wouldn’t be here. It’s all I can do to hold back, please…” Dustin pulled her down to him, cutting her words off with another kiss.