Tealioss station

Sola had been the last vessel out of the system, hanging back as less powerful or larger craft streamed away from the disaster site and through the jump point to the system containing Tealioss station. As they dropped into normal space, Dustin was relieved to see a crowd of emergency vessels already waiting for them. Not for the first time he wished he’d had a medical team aboard - while the folk who had been in the pods they were carrying were the least impacted by the crash, he’d have been happier if they could have been checked over before the weave-jump brought them to this system.

The smaller medical ships dotting her hull like barnacles on some great astral whale, Sola slid smoothly towards a docking bay on one outstretched arm of the station. By the time they were in the final approach the last of the pods and their occupants had been transferred, and so it was with the relief of their mission of mercy now being over that Dustin watched the connections reach out to link his vessel into the station’s grid. “Right.” He said as soon as the ship was secure. “Sola, begin repairs. Alert me if there are any emergencies, but if it’s just casual communications please let them know we are resting after the rescue and will get back to them.” Then, dragging himself slowly from his chair he gave a vague beckoning wave to the three women who were similarly staggering upright now that the adrenaline had fully worn off. “C’mon, lets go shower and then fall over somewhere for a few hours.”

When Dustin awoke sometime later, he found himself trapped under the weight of three bodies. He vaguely remembered them all shedding clothing as soon as they’d entered his quarters, and from where he could just about peer over Rye’s shoulder he could see a trail of undergarments leading out of the door to the ambassadorial room. Twisting his neck the other way, he spotted the pile of towels trailing out from the massive shower room - vague memories of Rye slumped against one wall while she prodded the controls to put it on the group setting returned to the forefront. They’d washed - well, stood under water mostly - and then gotten dry enough before dropping down onto the soft mattress covering of the suite.

At some point after they’d crashed out the others had curled up to him - he was pretty sure that they hadn’t been this close before sleeping; Meli lay with one arm sprawled above his head and had somehow managed to tangle her legs with both his and Emely’s, the fox girl lying half across him so that she could use Rye’s hips as a pillow from where the bunny girl had snuggled into his shoulder on the far side from his fiancé. All of this was of course wonderful and showed the closeness of their relationships, but that didn’t help the fact that he needed to answer the call of nature. With a groan, he managed to wriggle free from Rye’s grasp and untangle his legs from the other two; as he scooted backwards and stood up Meli gave a little huff and wriggled sideways causing the fox girl she was entwined with to wake. Emely looked around hazily until her eyes found Dustin at which point she blinked owlishly at him for a moment before shaking her head to clear it and scrambled out of the pile of bodies on the floor.

Dustin put a finger to his lips, grinning down at the other two. In the absence of himself and Emely, their lovers had moved closer until they found each other - at which point Meli had semi-sprawled out again, although this time with Rye’s arm firmly wrapped around her breasts. Giving Emely a nod in the direction of the ready room, Dustin ducked into the bathroom to deal with the issue that had woken him before joining her. As he walked in, the fox girl wordlessly handed him a gently steaming mug. “Drink up sir, then you’ll want to see Sola’s report on the damage I expect?”

Taking a mouthful of the hot drink, Dustin winced and nodded. “How bad is it Sola?” He asked, sinking into his customary chair and watching Emely picking up a tablet to scan it - for information about the station they were docked at he guessed. “Negligible internal damage from the atmosphere invading the cargo bays; this will be repaired today. Hull damage is minor but extensive, current estimation of two days downtime to fully repair, alternatively I can patch the significant damage to the point we can resume travel - this will extend the full repair time to four days but we can start moving again tomorrow.” For a moment, the AI paused before continuing “Additionally, I am detecting potential destabilization on one of the main thrusters. Currently this does not need repair, but preventative maintenance will require all the thrusters to be not in use. Estimated total repair time unknown, but less than one week.”

Frowning, Dustin picked up and tapped his own tablet a few times, skimming the details of the damage the AI had left out in the verbal report. “Very well. Begin repairs to the thruster as a priority; if you can do that and the hull at the same time then go for it, if not then once the thrusters are back fully operational switch to getting the minimum done so that we can get underway.” Then, with a sigh he tossed the tablet back on the table. “I really hope there’s something of worth for us on this station Emely, it looks like we’re going to be here for a bit longer than we had planned.” His comms officer glanced up. “There’s a few things we could do - both work and otherwise, captain. Work wise, there’s trading - we’re not running low on anything, but a little bartering should get us some different supplies and potentially help spread the word about humans and what you can make. Additionally, we have a request for a meeting with the station overseer - he wants to thank us for our help with the rescue efforts.”

Pausing to double check her tablet, the fox girl continued. “Outside of work, the station has a large recreation and shopping area that should be fine for all of us environmentally speaking. There are a range of locations we could visit including drinking venues and a sports hall. I recommend we make plans once the others have woken up in that regard, but I’d like to put the case forward for this.” With that, she slid her tablet over to him and Dustin glanced at it. “A jam night? I mean, it could be fun to listen to new music I guess.” Emely nodded “Yes. Also, on stations like this people don’t expect you to know the songs, it’s all about the vibe when you play. We could probably join in a bit if we wanted to without getting in anyone else’s way.”

As she said that, a rather sleepy voice answered her. “Join what without getting in the way, Emmz?” Rye half staggered over to the automat, hit keys on blind autopilot and drained half of the drink that emerged in a single chug. One ear twitching slightly as she adjusted to being fully wake, the bunny girl turned to the others. “Right, now I’m not half zombied by tiredness - what are you two scheming?” As Rye sat down to nurse the rest of her cup, Emely filled her in on the situation - only to have to do it all over again a minute later when Meli finally joined them in a state of waking. To Dustin’s surprise the other two were not just accepting of the fox girl’s plan, they seemed enthusiastically for it. “It will be an interesting study” Meli had opined, earning her a kiss on the cheek from Rye along with tousled hair and a comment of “of course you’d see it like that, nerd” from the Rabyth woman.