The next destination

The clean-up after their bout had been a playful affair; while there were separate booths in the ambassador’s showers Rye had tinkered with the control panel and the dividers had slid into the wall, while additional sprinkler heads had slid out of the ceiling. The result was a shower that was more like standing in the rain, and while the four of them were truly fucked out - even if Rye’s saliva had made it so Dustin could go again, he had no wish to - they were all happy to just be close, hands idly touching soap-sud covered bodies or helping to work the residual sweat out of fur. Eventually however they dressed in the clothes Rye had ordered brought over, and stepped out into the ready room.

As he left the room last, settling his t-shirt over his head, Dustin contemplated his lovers. Meli, his fiancé, dressed for once in jeans and a t-shirt mimicking his own style. The outfit which on him looked loose and casual looked far more impressive on the dark haired woman, her prodigious curves stretching the material out in all manner of interesting ways. Spotting him watching, her ears flickered with happiness and her amber eyes sparkled. Rye meanwhile was facing away from him, bending slightly to pick up some gadget she’d left on the table earlier. The net result of her position was that her powerful thighs and calves were on full display given she was just wearing shorts and a tank-top rather than her usual overalls or dungarees. Her golden hair was for once not tied up either and spilled down, blending into the fur on her shoulders.

Finally, he turned his attention to Emely. The bubbly redhead had dressed the quickest of all of them in a plain tunic-dress that combined with her fox-tails and short haircut put Dustin in mind of a wood nymph. Or possibly, given her species and own submissive nature a wood-nympho would be a better description. In any case, she had headed through to the ready room first and as a result had already gotten drinks from automat for them all, as well as a plate of biscuits one of which she was idly nibbling as the others walked in. Smiling at her, Dustin took his own snack and walked past to the head of the table, sinking into his seat with a contented sigh.

“Alright, now we’ve formally welcomed Emely to the pride, the crew and our relationship, we really should do some actual work.” He began, causing the women to sit, straighten up, or otherwise turn to give him their full attention. “Before we picked up our new recruit we had planned our next stop. We’ve got a few jumps before we get there, and I think the crew is large enough now to allow us to have proper shifts on the bridge - we don’t need them immediately, but I do think it’d be a good idea to get used to having them in case we ever do. Before that however, Meli, Rye, is there any need to change our plans in your opinion?” The two women shook their head, so Dustin tapped the holo controls on the table in front of him. “In that case, let’s review our next destination.”

Emely leaned forward, studying the small system that had appeared in the holo projection, a handful of planets gently orbiting a warm yellow star. As she did so, Dustin began the briefing. “This is GalCount-X-278 to give it it’s crude technical name, and given I can’t split my tongue in half nor have two sets of vocal chords I won’t attempt to pronounce it’s far more friendly name in the language of the two species we’re about to get involved with. To that end, chief science officer, can you recap what we know about the situation for our comms officer?” Meli smiled over at Emely and touched her own controls. The holo blurred and split, revealing two models of aliens. One was bipedal, looking almost like humans until you noticed the tail and claws on the feet. The other was a quadruped and looked like a cross between a rhino and a deer - albeit one with six limbs, given the four legs were joined by two arms that protruded from behind it’s head.

“The Selssa are a reptilian species, notable in that they evolved to be warm blooded. Highly territorial, but otherwise peaceful. The Dronth meanwhile are a herd species with a strong social drive. Around four years ago they were both given colony rights to different planets in X-278; unfortunately for reasons unclear at present the two species have become confrontational about the settlement. Both colonies are in a state of suspension as neither species wishes to commit more resources to a site that could be at risk. We have been asked to research the cause of the confrontation, resolve it if possible and if not review the colonies to provide evidence to the council to adjudicate as to which species should gain ownership of the system and which should receive recompense for abandoning it.” The Velca’s words were clear and to the point as she outlined the situation to Emely who for her part appeared to be hanging on every word.

When at last Meli fell silent, Emely ran a hand thoughtfully through the fluff of her tail fur for a moment before nodding. “On the surface captain it sounds like a personality clash between the two species, however it’s probably something deeper than that.” Her voice was bubbly as normal, but with an edge to her tone that left her sounding far more professional than Dustin had heard before besides during her querying him back on her home world what seemed like a lifetime and not just hours ago. “I don’t know either of the species specifically; chief science officer, what class are they?” She asked, tapping her chin thoughtfully when the woman replied that the two species were both class nine. Dustin had no idea what that meant, but his new comms officer seemed to spot his lack of understanding and explained.

“Class nine species are one up from your own, captain. They’ve gained free weave-flight but only have at most a couple of extra-system colonies outside their home star. For two of those species to be at loggerheads like this… Something deeper must be going on; if it was just a diplomatic spat between colony leaders the most likely outcome would have been both species replacing the leaders rather than risk the colonies. We should proceed with caution.” Dustin nodded at her words; he’d been planning on being cautious in any case. Despite all of Meli’s reassurances - and those of her uncle back on Earth - that conflict between sapient species was basically non existent outside of piracy, recent human history still lead to him having concerns when he learned that two groups were seemingly arguing over territory.

“Very well” he said at last, nodding around his crew. “We have a few days downtime before we reach X-278. Emely, you may spend your time as you wish between now and then, I trust you to be prepared to advise once we arrive. Meli, double check the sensors are working to your satisfaction - I want a full scan of the system as soon as we jump in. Rye… I hope we won’t need it, but can you make sure our ace is fully functional and run a systems check on the weapons systems? Just because the two governments have requested our involvement, that doesn’t mean the locals will be as friendly.” The three women acknowledged his orders in their own way - a demure nod from Emely, a smile and the sound of fingers tapping on a tablet as Meli started work immediately, and a casual thumbs up from Rye before she kicked her feet up onto the table and stretched. “One question before I go start checking things then Dusty if we’re using names not titles now - you said you wanted us to run shifts on the bridge. Who’s up first?”