The day Svetna gave in and headed off into the shopping portions of the ship. She’d had to admit that the outfits Plynx and Augusta had purchased did seem fun. Plynx had picked out an outfit that bined highly utilitarian overalls with a form fitting shirt decorated iric shapes that all together screamed ‘sci fi’ to Svetna. Meanwhile Augusta had somehow found an outfit that looked like if the outfits of Louis XVI had been crossbred with Mod fashion from the 1960s and somehow produced actually coherent clothing. More impressively it actually looked good on her.

  As such, curiosity had gotteter of Svetna. As well as Thisbe. Meanwhile O’tmyil had o actually buy anything with her holographiature, but she was happy to go hunt for inspiration. And Vivian... she was tent to e along and see what the others wore, but was near enough to her due date to want to wait until she was back to her normal physique to go shopping for clothes. She did jokingly ask to see the others try on some swimsuits as payment fing her all about the ship, but Svetna had been pnning to look for those anyway.

  Actually reag the rge atrium that served as a multi-yer shopping street along the spine of the ship, Sveltana was briefly distracted by looking up and out at the rippling energy of jump space above them. It was mildly unnerving to someone used to being pbound. Just that oransparent yer between them and a vacuum harsher than that found in deep space.

  The view only kept her attention for a few moments, though, the off once again. Both her and Thisbe teo lean a bit goth in their fashion sehough Thisbe’s was more firmly Victorian in trast to Svetna’s sportier tastes. That meant they’d likely gravitate to simir stores.

  Or, at least, that had been the pn. Ohey saw the actual styles on dispy three Earthling women found themselves mystified by the sheer range of options. It was hard to even know where to start, from shimmering lumis to simple square pieces of fabrid theo embroidery as plex as the captain’s uniform. There was so much to see and the three of them began to flutter about from store to store, excited by eaew discovery.

  “And you said I had been easily impressed,” Augusta said to Plynx as they followed aed Thisbe to aore.

  Svetna was going to grumble about it, only to be distracted by the way Thisbe was sniffing the clothing.

  “W--what are you doing there?” she asked.

  “I... right, your sense of smell isn’t as good as mihisbe replied, looking slightly embarrassed. If she’d been paler or more full of fresh blood she probably would have blushed. “But, there’s a pattern to the sts on this outfit. I’ve never entered anything quite like it.”

  Svetna then noticed the clerk, who was somehow best described as a mix between a dog and a moth in a way that was actually rather adorable, watg them nervously. It was likely they’d realised Thisbe was the supernatural of the party (perhaps due to her ents about senses of smell) and seemed somewhat frightehough, also fused, if Svetna was reading the alien body nguage correctly. Likely because of Thisbe’s petite frame and friendly nature, a stark trast from whatever the clerk had likely heard about supernaturals. Especially pared to the Zuumults that formed the first dynasty, Svetna remembered that they were apparently very rge...

  “W-would grace like to try outfit on? Store should have in size,” the being said in slightly tricky to follow English.

  Not that Svetna could pin, sidering how little time they’d had to learn the nguage. Even if gactiguage education was far ahead of any terrestrial methods.

  “Oh, thank you, but I would like to browse a little longer,” Thisbe said with a polite smile. “It’s simply such a new cept.”

  “Of... of yes,” the clerk replied with a small nod.

  “Perhaps I-Issiod’rian should be the oo help Thisbe-love with these outfits,” Plynx said, stepping forward. “Human noses are not so good at this... though your-human eyes are much better at visual details and colours.”

  Sveltana could only nod. It had been iing to learn that Issiod’rians had a tendency to be a bit far sighted and had colour vision more on par with cats than apes. It likely came with being ivores rather than desded from fructivores like humans were.

  “I’ll go check out aore, and I’ll let you know if I see anything I think Thisbe might like,” Svetna replied before setting out.

  In the end she found a store where bck was king. Specifically a bck so deep it sort of messed with the eyes. The designs were smooth in ways that plimented her figure as well, a few pops of purple, red, or blue to help define her shape and trast against the impossible bcks.

  While it was less Thisbe’s style she ended up buying one dress from that store, before the pair then found the ones where Augusta had done her shopping. They seemed to be run by both Lanthoneans and Kobaroians, expining the slight military-chic to the ornate designs. But they’d had dresses, and they’d had outfits in bck, decorated with patterns of gold, white, or single colours. A few even had a variation of shades of bck that were impressive in how they danced in the light with their subtle variations pying against shadows.

  It really was such delightful fun to shop alien fashions. Especially when Plynx aying, as she had nearly endless funds.

  Uhe ‘House of Fujikawa’ which had ied paces and prestige from the 2nd Dynasty, but utterly bankrupt coffers.

  Still, that was a matter for ter. At the moment she and the others were following O’tmyil towards one of the onboard restaurants. Acc to online reviews it was the best one aboard the U’ri, and Svetna hadn’t tried much space food yet. Just a little of Plynx or Bokarza’s efforts to cook with terran ingredients.

  As they walked, however, Svetna realised they’d just walked past a child she’d met (briefly) before. A human child. Not that she reised the kid. In fact the way she realised she khe child was because she’d barely noticed them despite being the first human kid she’d seen on an alien spaceship.

  It was a level of blending into the background that meant it had to be Agent Lee’s child, and so the man with the child ossibly Lee’s husband? That she wasn’t as certain of, but she supposed it made sense if he was expeg to been in space for a fairly long period. Well, whatever the reasoning, Svetna was going to try to keep a for young Random in future, just to say hello. Mostly just because she liked kids, and, well, any kid of Agent Lee’s was going to be fasating to spend time with, she was certain.

  After four days on the ship Svetna found herself feeling just a little stir crazy. Sure, the gym was amazing, and she was getting ba shape after O’tmyil had let her sck a touch with all the travel around the Earth. And, yeah, there were three world--no, gactic-css restaurants (or, at least, she figured they were gactic-css with the lynx was thrilled to eat at them). Her suite was also amazing.

  But... it was still all one ship. There was only about two or three city blocks’ worth of stuff. The views were also more or less unging, those rippling patterns of colour that felt like someone had tried to recreate pid via tye-die. It was , but teo make one feel a little queasy after more than a couple minutes watg it go past.

  In the end she found herself spending most of her time in the suite, watg various movies on the holo-tv. There was a lot of gactic media to see, though figuring out what would be fun to watch, what would be b, and what would just be fusing was very hit or miss. For instance, Issiod’rians were one of the more human-like species in the gaxy psychologically, but they were still wired as ambush predators. Which meant their eyes were extra focused on movement and so some of their movies had, just... too muent for Svetna to handle. Apparently they had a motto of ‘why use a cut when you swing the camera’. Or they’d just show some small animals hopping about in the woods for a while, though Svetna retty sure that was mostly for kids’ movies.

  Then there were Kobaroian movies, which teo have very slow plots. Or ten minute plus ks without any sort of dialogue, just sery (usually focused on the flora) that was beautiful but... not beautiful enough for Svetna to want to spend ten minutes watg it without plot. Still, the actual fight ses were generally amazing. At least to sapphic viewers, resulting in Thisbe and Augusta both joinio watch the rge muscur alien women engaged in all out brawls, filmed without any sort of objectifying male gaze.

  Half the time Lanthonean ‘movies’ were simply inprehensible. As if someone had taken the most esoteric Frenew wave films and decided those were still too accessible to the masses.

  Augusta insisted she enjoyed a couple of them.

  Oh, and the less Svetna said about ema from the Corporate Alliahe better. She’d thought Destiny movies were soulless products of too many focus groups.

  Then, at st, they dropped out of jump space. Once more she and her partners had been called to the bridge to watch them slip out into the regur universe agaie the fact they were returning to normal space, however, she found this transition more dramatid impressive, for they were slipping out into the gactic core. The space around them was deh stars, whi turn were illuminating any gases and nebue preseweeo create a view that surely would have shocked the as used to skies marked only by stars.

  Having grown up with the light pollution of Hammer City and Toronto’s bined shine, Svetna simply hadn’t been ready for it. She let out a genuine gasp.

  “It will still be a couple of hours until we reach Throne World,” the captain said to her, “but it is likely good to begin pag now.”

  “Y-yes. Right,” she replied, though she struggled to take her eyes off of the tapestry of stars ahead of them.

  Thisbe and Vivian were both simirly transfixed at the sight, though Plynx was able to get their attention off of the awesome sight. Actually arriving back at their suite there were a number of crew members ready to help them pack, which Svetna appreciated. She had ended up going on a few shopping trips out of boredom.

  With the extra help they were nearly done when there was a buzz at the door. Opening it, Svetna found the captain there.

  “Yhness... we have some surprise visitors who were impatient to see you and your wives,” the man said.

  “Surprise. Visitors?” Svetna replied, slightly worried what that could mean.

  Space pirates? Gactic terrorists? A hostile military?

  She saw simir calcutions running through the heads of the various security personnel Lee had assigo her at the moment. The tall redheaded woman who had had horns cracked her ned rolled her shoulders, seeming more ready for a fight thahers.

  Also, had she just gotten taller?

  “The guests requested I keep it a surprise, but I assure you there is no hostility involved,” the captain said, seeming to realise how tense everyone was.

  “All the same,” O’tmyil said, walking over to Svetna’s side... only the out a small ‘oh’ and begin to smile.

  “You know who it is?” Plynx asked, having also hurried over.

  O’tmyil nodded. “We are not in any danger.”

  Despite her assurahe body guards stayed alert as the group followed the captain through the ship. They were paid to be paranoid, so Svetna couldn’t really bme them, but she trusted O’tmyil. Uhey were dealing with a threat so dangerous they could trick her with false digital information... but she had generally gotten the impression that such things were unlikely based on how Plynx or Bokarza talked about her. So her judgement was something Svetna trusted.

  Stepping off a final elevator (which had been slightly crowded) they then had only a short walk to a dog port Svetna hadn’t been aware of. The halls on that level seemed a bit more utilitarian, which she holy somerefered. It was easier to get a sense of the scale without all the crystalline fag in the walls.

  After only roughly a dozeres they arrived at the dog bay... and Svetna found herself looking across as Bokarza, the rge woman’s clubbed tail flig about with the enthusiasm of aed puppy. It was a good thing she was standing in the middle of the rge room.

  “Svetna! Vivian!” she shouted before rushing over.

  Before Svetna’s brain finished processing the surprise she found herself lifted off the floor and spun about by Bokarza’s thid strong arms. The squeeze of her hug was a little oight side, but there were far worse ways to end up with a cracked rib than the hug of su utter tank of a woman. To her surprise, Svetna then found herself lifted onto Bokarza’s broad shoulder while the other woman happily gave Vivian a light sp on the arm with her free hand.

  “It had been too long since I was with either of you!” Bokarza decred.

  “It’s good to see you too, Bokarza,” Vivian said, having only winced slightly at the sp.

  She may have been taller than the alien woman by a handful of timetres, but she was a bit thinner and cked the heavy gravity adaptations of a Kobaroian. It was important to remember that Bokarza was stocky by the standards of Kobaroian women, and so was much more solidly built than Vivian's tall for a human frame.

  “Great to see you, really,” Svetna added. “I thought you were busy with Kobaroic gover affairs, though?”

  “I fihose,” Bokarza said with a ugh, her tail still wagging wildly (Plynx and Augusta were both eyeing it nervously). “O’ktaubr and I had po meet you all on Throne World, but then the High Archivist said that everyone should have their attendants before arrival.”

  “Attendants?” Svetna asked.

  “My siblings,” O’tmyil replied simply.

  Possibly on some wireless cue from O’tmyil, that was when her brother O’ktaubr stepped out from the airlock carrying a small and pin box. Though he art of the same produ line as O’tmyil he had taken the form of a Kobaroiao having lived amongst them. Bokarza set Svetna down and then took the box from the holographic artificial man. Box in hand, she walked forward, looked about to say something, and then stopped.

  “Wait... They’re your family, O’tmyil. You should be the oo do the introdus,” Bokarza said, which resulted in O’ktaubr rolling his eyes behind her.

  Clearly he was ahat Bokarza hadn’t thought about them also being his family. The he and Bokarza had never had the greatest w retionship, but it seemed he accepted his sister outranked him and so kept his pints silent.

  “Thank you,” O’tmyil said, taking the box.

  She then slid it open, the lid somehow folding into itself to reveal six discs identical to O’tmyil’s dormant from. Pulling o, she ha to Vivian.

  “This is my brother noh,” O’tmyil said. “He will be your protector. I will tell you all how to awaken them ohey have been assigned.”

  A small raised eyebrow from Vivian drew a slight blush from O’tmyil. “We are not, in general, meant to fall for our charges... it is sidered potentially distrag. As such assigning you one of my brothers seemed safest.”

  “I guess if Bokarza’s also stuck with a guy I handle ooo,” Vivian said with a grin.

  Nodding, O’tmyil then moved on to Plynx, introdug the disc as her sister O’trayj. Another sister named O’myinis was hao Thisbe. Lastly Augusta received a brother named O’dypol.

  “What about the other two?” Svetna asked.

  “They will be assigo your children... though, O’ktaubr, why were they included at this time?” O’tmyil asked, turning to her brother.

  “I... this is everyone we could find,” O’ktaubr replied softly. “That--that is to say that I believe there are some others still alive, but they are missing. Though... weren’t O’dbael and O’xidayz with you when you crashed oh?”

  “They... they should have been,” O’tmyil said, her own voice soft. She was doing her best to maintain posure, but Svetna could feel the guilt and grief running through her. “They... they would have survived the crash. We simply haven’t found them yet. There have been limited time and resources to look for them.”

  O’ktaubr nodded. “And we just haven’t found the rest of the family either. But I’m sure we’ll get the full fifteen together again soon.”

  It definitely helped, but wasn’t quite strong enough to fully reassure O’tmyil. Not able to watch quietly as one of her loves was sufferiache, Svetna hurried over to O’tmyil’s side, huggihe move seemed to surprise the other woman, used to her position as an artificial beiing in receiving less f from others. After a brief hesitation she allowed herself to melt into Svetna’s hug, accepting the fort.

  “You will each wish to pce a thumb over the tre of each disc,” O’ktaubr expined as O’tmyil worked through her worry.

  That led to a number of slightly slow nods, everyone having been distracted by being worried about O’tmyil. After they processed the instrus, however, there was then a series of ‘ows’ as each disc took a blood sample, a shiver running through O’tmyil as her siblings sulted with her for approval of the new charges. A momehere were three fshes of light, each of Svetna’s wives (other than Bokarza) now their own defensive armour akin to that O’tmyil formed around Svetna.

  “Wow... this feels amazing,” Vivian said.

  “Far better than any Issiod’rian armour... that is the quality level of A’ma’or the Great,” Plynx added.

  “Fasating,” Augusta added simply.

  “Um... I just got an error code,” Thisbe said, staring down at the small disc currently fshing red.

  “Oh. Oh yes,” O’tmyil said, loosening herself from Svetna’s hug. “O’myinis, you’ll o use an iris s. Thisbe’s blood samples will be... variable.”

  There was a fused sounding sort of chirp from the disc, but then a fsh of light traced over Thisbe’s face. A moment ter she was also power armour.

  “Now everyone’s good and safe for the nding,” Bokarza said, yanking O’ktaubr over and switg him from holographi to armour mode.

  “Safe for... do you mean it’s dangerous?” the tall sultant woman asked, reminding everyohe security detail had been standing at the entrance of the dog bay.

  “Oh, um... it shouldn’t be, but the crowds that have e to celebrate the new empress are pretty impressive. We didn’t want to take any risks,” Bokarza replied.

  “How... how impressive?” Svetna asked, more than a little intimidated.

  AnnouLet's hope that scribblehub stays up today... had po post this update yesterday. Well, might be good reason to sign up with my patreon, if scribble does that again. (If it really does crash I'll probably start posting over on my AO3, but that's obviously no so great for being able to advertise.)