Non-heavy petting

To Dustin’s complete lack of surprise, Sammie was equally enamoured of the curious little centipede they’d acquired. While Bleu ran the still-sedated bug through a gamut of tests before carefully attaching a patch over where it’s back armour had been damaged, the pilot hovered nearby, helping to hold things and generally getting underfoot as Dustin helped Rye to set up imaging equipment to try and get what data they could from the scavenged magnetic storage.

“It’d be a lot easier to scan this back on the ship.” Rye said as she worked “but if we do that we’d have to take them through the atmo, and they’re so old and fragile I’m not sure it wouldn’t cause them to lose anything they’re still holding. Would ask ya to land Sola, Dusty, but looking at the scans of what’s out under the deep desert, I’d rather not have to try to patch up her landing legs in orbit cos something tried to take a bite out of her.”

Dustin nodded at Rye’s words. “Yea, I’d rather we didn’t get my starship eaten when we’re light-years away from the nearest assistance and even further from a space-dock to patch her up. So, you’ll do what you can here?”

Rye waved a tablet vaguely in the air from where she was bent over and buried head first in the mounting rack she’d cobbled together to hold the drives she was trying to access. “Best I can, Dusty. Done a broad spectrum sweep on the electrics of one of the more pancaked drives, pretty sure I’ve got a clear picture on how they interfaced with the rest of the system. Gonna see if I can spin them up, working from most damaged to least to figure out if I can grab anything. But before that…” she straightened, and gestured towards one of the heavy duty cabinets mounted on the wall of the shuttle “…come help me get a magnetic-imager and hold it in place while I bolt it into this rig. Want to do a deep scan of each drive before I put power into them, just in case I cook something or I’ve got the protocols wrong.”

By the time Dustin had finished helping the bunny girl to manoeuvre what looked like a rather large microscope into position - and then held it in place, both arms straining against the weight as Rye part-bolted, part-welded it to her frame - it was getting late enough that the others suggested leaving scanning the drives until the following morning.

“I’ve secured our guest in a cargo container, with plenty of water and suitable nutrition.” Bleu said as she carried a crate of water bottles out towards where Sammie had already gotten the fire going once more, the evening sun casting rainbows on the sand where it passed through the glass of the bottles. “It looks like it’ll be healthy enough. Also, interestingly, they appear to be asexual reproducers. From what I can scan at any rate; I’ll check with Meli when I’m not so tired from walking and working tomorrow, but from what I remember of similar species on other worlds they will have offspring only if the conditions are right.”

Dustin frowned at that, before gazing up at the stars where the distant sparkle of Sola could be seen, hovering in the night sky. “Conditions are right, huh?” he said by way of reply, his thoughts drifting to the two women far above him and his own impending fatherhood. He stood, just staring quietly for a time as Bleu moved past and set about preparing food with Sammie - before Rye barged his shoulder, bringing his attention back down to the ladies he had with him and their evening meal around the campfire. “C’mon, Dusty. Ya can be all brooding, or broody for that matter, and wistful after dinner. Let’s go eat before I get so hungry I try and take a bite out of the shuttle like I’m one of the sand monsters.”

Allowing himself to be led to the fire, Dustin settled into his own seat and took the bowl of noodles and vegetables that Sammie passed to him. Biting into it, he gave a contented sigh. “This is really good.” He said, earning a grin from the pilot.

“You can thank my folks for teaching me to cook, Dustin. Still, it’s not hard to mix pre-prepared veg in a pan with sauce and stuff.” Sammie said, settling into her own chair as the others made similar appreciative noises. “So, what’s our plan for tomorrow? We said we’d decide tonight on if we’re staying on the planet beyond a day or not, right?”

Rye leaned forward at that. “I’d like to do a little more digging around the ruins, Dusty. We got a lot of drives from one room, pretty close to the top - deeper we go, the more water damage is likely to be an issue, but there’s plenty of higher floors still to scout out that might have even more stuff I can salvage. If I can pull some data from the drives first thing, we can see how useful it might be and make a decision then?”

As Dustin pondered his engineer’s request, Sammie gave a non-committal shrug. “I don’t really mind either way; you can keep trekking around in the heat if you want to, I’ll just sit in the shuttle and chill with a book or something.” The bunny girl stuck her tongue out at that, the pair grinning at each other before the pilot turned back to Dustin once more. “Seriously, though, we’re in no rush from a flight perspective Captain. Say the word and I can get us back to Sola, or don’t and I’ll remain on standby.”

Bleu stretched at that point - and Dustin noted he wasn’t the only one who’s thoughts were suddenly disrupted by the tension passing through the slime woman’s midriff. “Do you intend to make a decision tonight, Dustin? Because if not, I think I might retire early.” The Queri medic’s mouth suddenly flickered up into a grin that would have looked far more at home on Emely’s face as the azure woman turned towards Sammie. “Since you have been able to laze around all day in a nice cool shuttle, I wonder if you would mind helping me cool off this evening? The others look tired, and this heat is doing all sorts of interesting things to Queri biology…”

As Sammie’s blush spread across her cheeks, Dustin smiled to himself. Playful banter between his lovers was one of the best ways of monitoring how stressed everyone was - if they were joking around, it meant things were in a good place; despite the success of their mission on the Lievira world, things like Yril’k’s injury had strained their usual back and forth. Watching it return - especially in settings like this, while they were relaxing at the end of the day around a crackling fire - made him feel as if all was right with the world.

Rye watched as her fellow haremettes headed into the shuttle, Bleu’s hand resting possessively just above Sammie’s backside, then turned back to Dustin. “So, Dusty… Umm… ya know, it’s a nice night isn’t it?”

Dustin sighed, then picked up his bottle of water and shifted his seat so that he was sitting closer to the golden-furred Rabyth. “Rye, what’s up? Is this to do with the pairing thing you mentioned a week or so back? You said we’d need a day or so for it, I’m sorry that I’ve not been able to find the time since, but what with getting the ship out of the system, and then preparing for this mission and all, it’s been chaos.”

Rye shook her head rapidly, gold hair catching the firelight as she waved her hands in front of her. “No, no, Dusty, ya don’t need to apologize! I get it, I do. It’s more, like… I’m nervous about the next bits of pairing, ya know? It’s already serious business, but the next bits get really serious and you’ve got your babies coming with Meli and Trea’k and…. I’m worried even though I know I don’t need to be, ya get me?”

Dustin caught one of her waving hands and pulled it close to his chest. “Rye. Rye, listen to me. You do not have anything to fear - or to prove - with me or any of the others. Look.” He waved his finger in front of her vision, the intricate loops of his pairing mark spiralling around his skin looking like lace in the firelight. “We’re together, that’s what matters. Breathe, and then tell me what’s next so we can get on with it, so that I can reassure you that we’re going to be together forever, no matter what Rye Steamtender.” Then he paused and grinned. “Although, given we’re well on the way with the pairing ceremony, if you want you could take my name right now like Meli has and be Rye Smith.”