Mountains to climb

Dustin shifted uneasily in his seat as he watched Aricia and Yaerwen talk with Defia the next day. It didn’t help that every time he saw the rogue Fractal his thoughts shifted to the kinds of blowjobs only she and Bleu could deliver, both women not needing their throats free in order to breathe. The previous evening had been interesting; he’d been glad when Rye and Emily had both acquiesced to Defia’s request for any welcome orgies to be postponed. Partially because he agreed with the rogue Fractal’s reasoning, and partially because after she’d done her best to drain his balls dry with her mouth he wasn’t entirely sure he’d survive a full orgy at that point.

That was, he had to admit, technically hyperbole. He’d cum way more times with his other women before now than Defia had managed, and it wasn’t as if she was the only woman who could do improbable things with her body that he was sleeping with. It was, however, a good commentary on her capabilities with her mouth, and he’d been only slightly concerned when instead of an orgy Emely had dragged Defia into a corner to talk about submission.

That’d been last night - now it was the morning after, and Defia was discussing her upgraded status with the other two women that had earned permission from his existing partners to jump into his bed. He wasn’t sure exactly how the Lieviran and Hoxx would handle things, but he was pretty sure it would involve both of them making a play for intimate time sooner rather than later. He probably should have a word with Meli about that - he didn’t usually interfere in the date night scheduling, but in this case, he felt it might be worth doing a few swaps to ensure the new girls didn’t have to wait too much longer.

Other matters commanded his attention in the present moment though, and he coughed politely before knocking his knuckles on the table to call the attention of all the gathered women back to the task at hand. “Alright, everyone. I called you all here for… okay, for breakfast, thank you Naera, but also so that we can discuss our mission status and the next actions we are going to take. Emely, if you would?”

The Feliax woman smiled at him, tapping her tablet before she began to speak. As a holo of a fairly normal looking rocky world spun gently in the centre of the table, she explained their next destination. “We’ve spoken with and gotten approval from the Hoxx and the Moa’thif now. That leaves the Uil’l and the Tho’unn before we’re done with this area of space. The next stop as I think we’re all aware is the Uil’l; this is their homeworld. They’re interesting subterranean dwellers with a almost Rabyth-like love of machinery; they provide the bulk of the industrial power for the group.”

Pausing, she adjusted the hologram, the planet slicing into neat a cross-section that revealed a range of factories and forges extending throughout the crust. “According to our information, at any given point in time they are always having a range of technical issues, which presents us with lots of opportunities to get in their good graces. Put simply, our task on this trip is to put Rye in a room with one or more of their problems and let her carry us to victory.”

The bunny girl gave a snort. “Ya just want to spend time with Dusty while I do all the work Emmz, admit it.” The grin on her face showed that she was joking around, and Emely answered with a most unprofessionally stuck out tongue.

As the two women engaged in some light banter, the azure medic to Dustin’s right leaned forward in her seat. “It will be nice for once to not have to worry about the away team getting into combat.” Bleu mused, then sighed. “But I assume the risk of electrical or chemical burns will be higher. I’ll start prepping medbay once we’re done here.”

Having finished her verbal duelling with the engineer, Emely rapped her knuckles on the table as the medic sat back, to get everyone to focus on her once more. “I wasn’t entirely done,” she said, before prodding her tablet. “So, they have a range of technical issues, yes, but there are other factors to consider. We’ll probably be there for several days; just helping with one or two minor issues won’t cut it, and no matter how good Rye might be, she can’t alter the laws of physics on a whim to speed up testing or construction. What do we want to do with the downtime?”

Dustin glanced around the room, eyes narrowing at that point. “How likely do we think it is that only the Moa’thif were being interfered with by the Durathisians and Fractals?” He asked, frowning. “I have no issues with everyone taking some rest and relaxation if they’re not needed to help Rye out, but if there’s more espionage going on we probably should have a plan to handle it.”

That cooled the mood significantly. Meli and Emely exchanged a glance before the Velca spoke. “With regards the Hoxx, husband - after we identified the threat on Thif, Emely and I sent a message to them to check for any unusual activity. At present, we’ve only had reassuring communications back.”

Yaerwen leaned forward at that point. “Two reasons why that’s all you’ll get. One, much as I don’t want to admit it, my people just aren’t that important to the Tho’unn or this area of space. The Uil’l are better at making things, the Moa’thif are better at building things - we used to be good fighters, but those days ended with the empire. Now we’re just included because of our historical role. There’s no reason to interfere with us. And secondly, we’re naturally friendly - but unpredictable. The Moa’thif would never think to go deep into their spires, right? Well, Hoxx kids will burrow into or climb over anything if they think it might be interesting. No way any weird stuff happens that we don’t find out about it.”

Her face soured at that point. “Possibly, we’ll find out because some people will stumble over it and die; that was how we found a whole bunch of volcanic traps before first contact according to my history lessons, if I’m remembering right. But either way, anything happens back home, we’ll know about it.”

That was both reassuring and oddly relatable. Dustin made a mental note to spend some time discussing his youth in Contact City with the amber-haired woman. In the meantime however… “And the Uil’l?” he asked the room at large. “They live underground, right? Sounds like there’d be lots of places for things like those zombies to hide.”

Meli nodded at that. “Correct, husband. Multiple options, although the tunnels themselves are exceptionally well monitored and policed if the Uil’l’s reports are to be believed. As long as we take some basic safety precautions with anyone leaving the ship we shouldn’t run into any issues even if there are Durathisians there. And we can spend some time observing to see if there’s any rumours or signs that there’s non-technical problems, just in case.”

Dustin sighed. “That makes sense. We can’t comb an entire planet unless we can use the scanners, and I doubt even Rye and Defia can make something that’ll pick Fractal signals out against a backdrop of industry under a hundred feet of solid rock. So, we have to hope for the best with this destination and focus on what we can control - which will be up to you, love.” His last words being addressed to the bunny girl who gave a lazy thumbs up and returned to tinkering with a circuit-board.

Shifting in his seat, Dustin took one last glance around the room and made a decision. “Alright. How long do you think we’ll need to be there for Emely?” The fox girl glanced at her tablet, shrugged, and held up four fingers.

“Four days?” Dustin checked before continuing. “We’ll split the downtime into shifts then. One shift downtime aboard, one on the planet surface, one shift sleeping or resting but ready to act in an emergency, and one active and working to support Rye. Trea’k, Emely, Meli - can you organise a rota for the general crew? Yril’k, Bleu and Sammie, you three take charge of organising the bridge, medical and security teams. Rye, allocate engineering however you want but make sure they get downtime too. Defia, you can work with Rye.”

Turning to the others as the bulk of the women present moved into clusters to get on with their planning, Dustin smiled. “Naera, you and I have a date night next I believe? I’ll monopolise your time for a bit then, but otherwise you’re free to fit in where ever you’d like. As for you two…” he paused, eyes flickering between Yaerwen and Aricia before glancing over to his wife. “Meli, could you swap things around to move the ladies up the date night rota? Assuming I get some downtime and there’s not a sudden Fractal based emergency, I’d like to spend some more time with them and this stop off seems as good a time as any.”

The Velca nodded her head, then returned to where she was already in discussions with Trea’k regarding the downtime scheduling. Behind her, Aricia and Yaerwen shared a glance before beaming at Dustin. From across the room, Defia leaned in to whisper something to Rye, causing the Rabyth woman to burst into laughter. With the mood shifting into the warm comfort of people anticipating a holiday, Dustin’s eyes flicked back to the hologram of the Uil’l homeworld. Two more days of travel, and they’d hopefully get their first real break since leaving Earth.