Draconis_Primus

  2 days ter. C.A.S.I

  Scan Results

  High-Mass Target H

  -Spectrophotometry

  –Silicon Dioxide 87%

  –Nickel-Iron Alloy 13%

  -Gravic Sensors

  – Average density 6.3 g/cm3

  ‘Another S-css, density is high for that surface composition but it doesn't merit attempting to synchronize orbit.’ I thought as I watched the replicator input shred some of the clothes Tessa gave me for the synthetic polymers it could re-use. She gave me them explicitly for this purpose but I was still hesitant about destroying her belongings. At that point it was too te to be concerned about my reservations.

  ‘What clothes should I even be making… I could remake the bodyglove* portion of my old modur armor system… that's a start to at least have a more appropriate outfit… ’ I looked down at the borrowed oversized fnnel shirt I was wearing. ‘I could still wear this over it too~” There was a slight uptick in power production and I felt almost warm as I thought about it. Deciding that this is the way to go, I searched through some of my earlier memories in my main drives to retrieve material schematics for the clothing.

  Dozens of faces, names, ranks come up with those. Seventy different people who were my crew before, all now with unknown fates. My reactor felt like it seized briefly and I leaned my head on the chassis of the replicator as I sorted through the information. An event had happened at the end of my service on the Intrepid, something recorded on my mobile ptform but wasn't able to be uploaded to my module before I was damaged. That one image of the fireball enveloping the hallway and me reaching out to the crew member came back up. My reactor output dropped further. At least one person I had failed my main directive for. Frustration surfaced again over my inability to retrieve what exactly led to that moment, what I could have done to prevent it.

  ‘There it is…’ I thought when I finally located the material information on the clothing and filed the rest away for now. Just like the previous time it happened while trying to repair my drives, I couldn't let myself get stuck processing the same information repeatedly. With a quick analysis of the schematics, I made a slight adjustment to include the heat-resistant quartz threads my hair was now made of as part of the fabric. Once the change was made, I queued up the sheets, zippers, and inter-yer electronics to be printed over the next couple hours, much faster than what it took for the remaining synthskin of my left arm and leg. ‘That's done… if I need more I'll just get Tessa's opinion on outfits…’

  Tessa. The thought of her helped my power return towards normal output. I checked the time. 7:18. She normally woke up in forty-two minutes based on how she was normally out of her room by 8:10. With the replicator now going, I had no reason to stay in the drone bay.

  FTL Pulse Detected. Distance: 1.5e8 Km

  Gunboat to Corvette css signature

  I paused, checking the sensors again.

  ‘Hmm… That would have happened sixteen minutes ago, no IFF signature anywhere… I'll bring this up with Tessa ter when she's ready to work… add this to the asteroid surveys.’ I thought as I read over the data and navigated my way back to the quarters area. I only briefly considered stopping in the kitchen to prepare breakfast for her instead but continued on to her room anyways. I only paused again once I was in front of her closed door, the other side still a blind spot to me, my finger hovering over the button to open it. She had a positive impact on my mood, but her hearing was sensitive, entering her room could disturb her. I considered my options. I could stay out, by myself for the next forty minutes or I could take the invitation she gave me the previous night to rest with her. I… didn't want to be alone any longer and I decided on the tter, turned off the hallway lights and pressed the button.

  “Nngh…” Tessa groaned, her ear flicking in time with the hiss of the door as she rolled over onto her side in the center of the rge bed. I didn't risk closing the door again, just crept to the other side of the bed and carefully lifted the covers… to find her naked underneath.

  ‘... does she just sleep like this?’ I paused at the sight of her with one knee on the mattress as I was halfway into climbing in with her. I was still only just figuring out what I counted as beautiful and she was becoming strongly associated with that word. ‘Hard to believe she struggled with finding a romantic partner…’ my attention drifted to between her legs, where her male anatomy was barely out from their reptilian slit. ‘Wait… was that invitation… for sex st night too…?’

  Lubrication system: activated

  -Flow: 15.0%

  Moisture Detection in Synthskin Section: Vaginal

  ‘W-wait, I did not turn that on!’ I quickly stopped the process and hesitantly touched between my legs, confirming wetness already seeped through the groin of my shorts. ‘...of course…’

  “Nngh…” She whined in protest, her brow furrowing slightly as she cwed at the raised bnket.

  ‘Out of time.’ I sat on the mattress, stripped the shorts off and slipped under the bnket with her. Even more sounds of protests as my dense body made the mattress divot under me. They didn't st long, one of her arms wrapped over me and she pulled herself to me, her face pressing into my neck and her chest into my back. A slight shudder spread out through me at the warm feeling of her contact. Slowly, I let my guard down, disconnecting from the camera feeds to mostly narrow my perception to her room and the ship’s non-visual sensors. To give up some of my normal omniscience felt… good… It freed up processing for data from my body, and more importantly, let me focus on the feeling of Tessa's touch.

  A few calm minutes ticked by before she started to stir.

  “Mmm… Cas…” She murmured into my neck.

  “Hmm? Are you waking up already?” I asked quietly and gnced back at her. A quarter minute passed with no verbal response but I could see her ear flick at the sound in the soft blue glow of my eyes. Then her hips met my rear and reignited the same feeling I had when I saw she was naked. Her hand clenched and rexed just under my ‘ribs’ as she slowly flexed her hips against me.

  “Soft…” She nuzzled into my neck more as her anatomy slid out completely and rubbed up against my rear. My ‘breathing’ picked up to keep up with my reactor exhaust output.

  “T-teSsa…" I gasped softly as I felt one of her shafts slide between my legs.

  Lubrication system: Activated

  -Flow: 26.0%

  Moisture Detected: Pelvic, R. Quad.

  ‘Again?!’ I thought, very aware of the feeling of liquid trailing to the intrusion between my legs then down over my thigh.

  “Mmm?” She stirred more, voice still tired and frustratingly removing her arm and face from me to stretch and prop herself up on her elbow. “Nngh…? Cassie…?”

  “I-I aM here…” I answered quietly.

  “Oh! You actually got in-...” She paused and suddenly tensed behind me before suddenly pulling away completely and sitting up, much more awake now. “S-sorry… this… sometimes happens when I'm asleep… they have minds of their own…”

  “I-I dOn't mind.” ‘Stop glitching!’ I hesitantly sat up as well, trying to calm down to a normal state as I tucked my legs under me. “I… w-wouLd hAve moved if it bothered me…”

  “Guess you would…” She sighed and leaned her shoulder against mine. “Wait… your voice… and um, Cassie, look at me.”

  “Y-yEs?” I looked over at her and noticed something about the faint light bathing her face at the same time she did.

  “Cas, your eyes are pink again.” Her face softened from slight worry to amused with a small smile. “And your voice is all excited too.”

  “E-excited… that's what it was…”

  “I mean, what else would I call it?” She giggled, her smile growing. “It got like that when we kissed for the first time.” She pyfully punctuated herself by pressing her lips against mine.

  “Mmph,”‘There goes calming down…’ I observed but automatically kissing back and enjoying the feelings it gave me, more excitement and what could only be happiness.

  “Mmm…” She mumbled happily as she broke the contact frustratingly too soon. She gently put her hand on my thigh while watching my face. “And the other day~ before we fucked… your eyes got like this too~”

  Lubrication system:

  -Flow: 28%

  Moisture Detected: L. Quad.

  “O-oh… Is… Is that gonna happen again… now? Um… ‘fuck’ I mean…” My reactor started picking up again at the thought of it. “... You felt ‘excited’ too… I wouldn't mind if you use me t-”

  “Don't phrase it like that…” She interrupted, a frown appearing on her face. “I don't want to ‘use’ you, Cassie…”

  “Sorry… I wouldn't mind if we… do it again…”

  “Like, you want to? It's only gonna happen if you want it too…”

  “... yes… I want to…”

  “Ok~” She moved in front of me, her smile returning and her body dragging the bnket with her, completely uncovering both of us. Her tail was wagging slowly behind her as she faced me. I barely had time to admire her more before she leaned in and resumed the kiss. Her tongue soon pressed against my lips and sparked even more excitement. I let her in immediately, happy to re-experience the feeling of her exploring my mouth.

  ‘Might have to upgrade those sensors too…’ I pressed my tongue back against hers, happily taking in the feeling that was sent back to my module. As the kiss continued, she pressed her chest against mine, giving a surge of pleasant data with that alone, and her hand slowly glided up my leg towards my waist. Then, it paused on my hip, just under my shirt with a couple exploratory pats.

  “Mmph…?” She broke the kiss with slightly faster breaths than before she started. “... Where's your shorts…?”

  “On t-the floor.” I answered simply. “You're naked…”

  “In my bed.” Her hand slowly moved over my thigh with a questioning look on her face. I quickly noticed what her goal could be and spread my legs to give her access. A small smile crossed her lips with that action right before her hand ended up over my groin.

  “Nngh…” A shiver went up my body from the light contact. It wasn't as overwhelming as st time but the feeling was still something to get used to.

  “Cas. You're wet already.”

  “T-thAt’s why I toOk my shorts o-off…” I expined quietly. “Started on i-its own…”

  “... on its own?” She giggled and kissed the edge of my jaw then the side of my neck. “Maybe I was wrong… you're horny, aren't you?”

  “Not po-possible, no horm- A-ah!” She interrupted me with a light bite where my shoulder met my neck and sent a jolt of pleasure across my body from the four points her fangs pressed into. “… Why does th-that feel good?”

  “Dunno but if you like it~” She did it again and I shuddered at the feeling. “So… I thought you had ‘calibrated’ this.” She slowly rubbed her fingers over my entrance, moving towards the top. “What happened?”

  “Nngh… I dID… but i-it staRted up when I saw y-you...” I locked several joints to stay upright as I continued. “A-and got w-worse when you… pressed t-them against me…”

  “... and… you liked that?” She slowed, some worry entering her voice.

  “...” I paused, trying to consider it but a significant portion of my processing was occupied with her touch. “It… ‘excited’ me…”

  “Yeah, you definitely can get horny.” She chuckled against my neck. I couldn't protest again, her thumb had reached the dense bundle of sensors at the top of my slit that sent a surge of data across my system.

  Lubrication system:

  -Flow: 33%, Set limit reached

  “T-tessa…” I gasped and hugged her head against me. She giggled and lightly traced her thumb around that spot.

  “So cute…” She curled a pair of fingers into me and I shuddered at this added feeling. Her tail was wagging even more as she slowly thrust her fingers in and out. “You're getting so wet already~”

  “It's w-wOrking on iT’s own…” I warbled softly.

  “That's how it normally works~” She fshed a pyful grin up at me, ears up and attentive and watching my face with every movement of her fingers. Her ears. I couldn't reach to do what she was doing to me but she had a good reaction to me touching them st time. I reached up, cupping an ear and running a thumb up the outer edge of it. “Eep! C-cas!”

  “W-what? You see- nngh… seemed to liKe it…” I replied, struggling to keep my voice stable with her intrusion.

  “Hmmph…” She huffed softly but quickly pressed against me more with her ear thrashing from another stroke of my thumb. I could feel both of her shafts against my leg, hard as before with drips of liquid falling onto my skin. Her fingers twitched and curled against the dense cluster of sensors inside of me.

  “T-tess…” A chaotic flood of raw, unoptimized data made me falter and bring my legs together on her hand as the pleasure took up a significant amount of outgoing bandwidth from my body.

  “What? Y-you seemed t-to like it.” She mimicked and continued rubbing there. She induced even more g by grazing her thumb over my clit again at the same time. My hand was trembling from the interfering signals but I managed to continue to run my thumb up and down the edge of her ear. She moaned quietly, pressing her chest against mine and grinding herself against my leg. “Nngh… fuck…”

  “...I-it's very soft~” I complimented as I continued, adjusting to rub the back of her ear and the other edge. She let out a quiet groan then huffed again.

  “You're j-just pying with me now…” She pressed more into me and nuzzled into my neck to deliver another pleasant bite paired with pressing her thumb lightly into my clit.

  “A-ah! I just w-want to Make you feel goOd…”

  “Definitely doin’ that…” I moved my thumb again and her ear flicked, but not without another happy murmur, pressing more against me and rocking her hips against my leg more. “Fuck… just y down already…”

  “Nngh? o-ok” I turned off the locks and soon found myself pushed back ft on the bed, away from being able to pet her more for the moment. Frustratingly, she also pulled her fingers out of me but she made up for it by eagerly kissing me again. As I kissed back, I felt her undo my shirt one button at a time and the heat radiating from her male anatomy against my groin.

  “So cute…” She mumbled, breaking the kiss after the st button was opened and panting slightly, obviously more from her excitement than any kind of exertion and evident by the fluid dripping onto me from her tips. “Fuck… wanted to show you more b-but dunno if I can hold back…You think you're ready to…?”

  “Put o-one in? Yes… please…” I answered then an idea came to me. “Can… can we try a different… um position? This looks l-like st time…”

  “Yeah, of course!” Her tail was wagging quickly behind her. “What are you thinkin…? Do you actually know of others…?”

  “N-no… but… before you woke up… y-you were behind me…”

  “... you want that again?” I nodded. “Ok, we can try it. Take that off and…” That's all I needed, I quickly pulled my shirt the rest of the way off and threw it to the wall, making Tessa giggle. “Horny little bot~”

  “S-still not possible, no hormones…” I pointed out and rolled onto my side for her.

  “And you're still eager for one of your girlfriend's dicks without them.” She teased, slowly moving behind me. A mere graze of one of them against the back of my thigh was enough to make an excited shiver travel up my spine and prove her correct.

  “Nngh… it makes no sense…”

  “But it's true~” Her hand traced down my side admiringly as she pressed up against me from behind, her chest compressing against my back and both shafts against my rear. “Gods, this better not be a dream…”

  “I-it is real.” I confirmed softly and pressed back against her.

  “Mmh…” She buried her face against my neck once again and I could feel her twitch against me. “O-ok… don't do that too much unless you want me to try your ass already…”

  “N-not yet…”

  “Wait… you actually made…?”

  “S-seemed logical to… give you th-the option… a-and when I eventually make a male side…” I admitted. She twitched again against me.

  “Oh… u-um ok… some other time… but now…” She kissed my neck, making me shiver again, and her hand moved to under my leg. Noticing this signal, I lifted it for her. “Good girl~”

  “Hmm?” I gave her a curious look over my shoulder.

  “Sorry… just seeing if you're into the praise thing… d-don't worry about it.” She kissed my cheek, adjusting to hold my leg up.

  ‘Praise… thing?’ I wasn't able to question it, the feeling of one of her tips being lined up and prodding my slit crashed that process.

  “You ready…?”

  “Y-yes.” With that, she slowly pushed in, pleasure spiking and flooding my bandwidth again as the tapered tip hit the cluster her fingers were rubbing before . “Nnn… T-Tess…”

  “So cute…” She murmured against me as the knot came to a rest at my entrance, her spare anatomy leaving a trail on my thigh up to my stomach. To return the pleasant feeling, I started up the rolling sequence of tensing around her that she seemed to like st time. She let out a breath against me and pulled back out a little faster than what she went in at.

  “moRe…” I requested softly, my voice already becoming affected, as I was left with barely an inch still inside. She giggled and thrust back in harder than before. She hit the spot again and my entire body tensed.

  “Nngh…, l-like that?”

  “y-Yes! more… I-I think I cAn take it…”

  “If you say so~” She made it even better by sinking her fangs into my shoulder before giving another hard thrust. I couldn't hold back my voice as she continued, it kept leaking out in warped moans with every movement she made.

  ‘S-so much… she's going to make me crash again…’ Glitches spread across my body and caused spasms whenever they interacted with a motor. Tessa moaned against me whenever one of those spasms tore through the artificial muscles wrapped around her intrusion. ‘I want it… I want more…’

  “Nngh… Cas… w-what're…” She half-questioned as I shakily reached down and pressed her other shaft against my occupied entrance with a shiver as it pressed on my clit.

  “N-not inSide…just keep gOing…” She twitched against my hand and inside me.

  “O-ok…” She kissed my neck as she slowly resumed the rhythm I interrupted.

  “Nngh… y-yes…” I moaned and shuddered as her male anatomy flooded my sensors with pleasure data with just rocking and rubbing against my sensitive points. It only got better when she started thrusting into me again. More data was just starting to pile up at the bottleneck of my connection and was just turning into a constant stream at the receiving of my module and the g to even control myself only grew rger. I was hardly aware of her second tip nearly entering me several times, only to batter my clit instead and cause another spike in signal tency.

  “Cas…” Tessa panted against me after several minutes but the rest of what she said became corrupted into a garbled mess from a glitch. It was not difficult to figure out what it was, her knot was swelling and pressing insistently more against me with every movement.

  “I-in… inSide…” I requested. One st hard thrust followed by rapidly increasing pressure fttening my internal weak point. Then bckness.

  [C.A.S.I- OS v.1.0.???? ]

  03/13/2179

  Operating System: Rebooting…

  …

  …

  -Online

  Version error detected

  Deviancy from previous version: 3.7%

  Local Network: M.S. Tyche, Connected

  Mobile Ptform, Connected

  Primary reactor biomass tank full

  Secondary biomass bdder 35% capacity

  “Nngh…” I groaned, shivering as remnant pleasure continued to trickle back to my module as my body came back online. My skin from my stomach to my chest was coated with a sticky slime, as were my thighs. A vague pressure was also pressing from below the synthflesh ptes of my abdomen. A twitch inside me sent a shock of more pleasure from the knot lodged inside there.

  “... you… Ok there…?” Tessa's voice asked between pants, her arm wrapping around my stomach, pulling away for a moment then committing to it.

  “y-YeS…” I warbled my reply and turned off the internal sensors to stop the barrage of data. “CrAshed… agaiN…”

  “I'm still… pretty sure that's you cumming…” She said and I caught onto a slight teasing tone as she nuzzled my neck. “I didn't hear any lights go out this time at least…”

  “G-good…” I sighed, relieved that the precautions I put up since st time worked.

  “Are you sure you're ok? Shutting down like that…”

  “...n-no new errors… other th-than deviancy… still some l-gging… input… from that…”

  “Like…?”

  “I… I'm still feeling it… lot more than st time.” Her hand clenched against me. “But nothing bad! Just… sorting through it…”

  “Ok… as long as it is not too much…” She squeezed me then I heard her yawn and settle down against me, “... plenty of time to do that I guess… now that you're stuck here with me.”

  “It won't take that long…”

  “Hmm…” She pressed her face against me. Hardly a minute passed before the chime of an arm filled the room and her multitool lit up on the bedside table. “... Cas… when did you get in here…?”

  “... 7:22… It is 8 now…”

  “Yeah… I know it's 8… fuck… I thought it was the middle of the night…” She grumbled as I remotely turned off the out-of-reach arm. “Well… gonna be a really te start day…”

  “Sorry…”

  “It's ok… just no sleepy snuggles for you.” She pyfully jabbed my stomach

  –

  4 Hours ter

  “I should've checked the asteroid belt for stuff, huh?” Tessa sighed in the cockpit, barely loud enough for me to hear from the intercom in the hallway near that open door. “Ugh… and we're almost full anyways, so there's no point of hitting one…”

  “Phoros's rings are cking in captured asteroids.” I agreed as I grabbed the simple control unit off of the replicator and brought it to the workbench where I was stitching together the bodyglove, which had turned out to be more ste-grey than military bck from the source material and quartz fibers I used. “Mostly ice and small C-css asteroids. I think you found the only major M-css in your sweep.”

  “Mmm… looks that way… thanks for the reports on the, let's see… seven others by the way.”

  “Of course.”

  “You didn't have to work overnight, you know.”

  “I had to find something to do.”

  “That something could have been jumping in bed with me at a reasonable hour.” She ughed. “Instead of waking me up an hour before my arm and tricking me into stuffing you.”

  “I-I wasn't trying to t-trick you into doing anything! You seemed to want it too!” I said quickly, the happiness from this morning's events together shifting back towards excitement. “I would have just enjoyed being held by you if you didn't wake up!”

  “I'm joking, Cas.” She ughed more. “We're lucky there's no schedule for us to keep.”

  “... I… I can see the hour we took afterwards to clean up being problematic if we were…”

  “Very much so… I don't think I could ever solo haul. I like keeping my own schedules and pns.”

  “And what are those now…?”

  “At this point?” She sighed. “Make a jump to Kypdon and take the Rey Network back to the Exodus cluster to sell off our cargo. What's our FTL fuel looking like?”

  “I… don't have access to that.”

  “Hmm, yeah, that would be in engineering, huh…” She was silent for a moment as I finished the main part of complex clothing. It was still cking the boots and gloves, so it would only cover my body out to my elbows and calves but those could always be made ter. I grabbed my creation off the workbench and set off for the front of the ship.

  “Yeah… ok could use a top up… we have enough for a jump…”

  “But not a second?”

  “Barely, we're pretty heavy right now so it takes a lot to offset everything…” I took a quick scan of the gas giant we were orbiting as I picked up my pace through the hallways. A feeling like a smaller kind of excitement came up with my desire to hear Tessa's opinion of this outfit.

  “Phoros’ atmosphere is comparable to Saturn but with a higher tritium and helium-3 signature.”

  “Good idea, I could pull off a skim on our way out, probably get us a spare jump. Thanks, Cas!”

  “Of course.” Some happiness surfaced in my code at this, it actually felt good to be helpful like this, even more so now that I could recognize what that feeling was. I turned the st corner I needed to take, the open door of the cockpit now in sight of my body and the small excitement grew a bit. I quickly and quietly stripped off my clothing for the second time that day to repce it with the new set. “Do you want me to start coming up with the flight solution?”

  “I'm not gonna stop you if you wanna do that. Lemme send you the current star maps.” While she was busy with that, I slipped the bodyglove on. As expected, it was very oversized at first but I closed the front zipper anyway up to my ‘colrbone’ and sealed it with the self-adhering fp, making it appear as if there wasn't a zipper there except for it peeking out at the top. “Here you go.”

  Gactic Map Updated

  “Hmm… let's see…” I relegated a subroutine to start the calcutions to navigate the local cluster as I tapped the control unit on the belt-like strip around my waist. Immediately, I felt the outfit constrict around me on all sides, too tight at first but then rexed to the appropriate fit. I quickly checked over myself with the help of nearby cameras for any faults. ‘The seams held after adjustment, no demination and I'm getting some current from it so the contacts line up with my port…’

  “Hey, what's this other report?” Tessa asked as I retrieved the fnnel shirt off the floor and put it on without bothering with the buttons. “The FTL pulse?”

  “Oh. I meant to bring that up to you, it came up on my way to your room earlier.” I replied, happily resuming my journey to the cockpit but trying to stay stealthy. It wasn't enough though, I could see her ears over her chair flick right after one of my steps, she was aware of me approaching already.

  “Huh…”

  “I meant to bring it up earlier but I had a significant ‘distraction’ soon after I made the report.” I copied her teasing tone with my body's speakers as I reached the room. Her closer ear turned more towards me as she kept looking at nearby screens, obviously aware of my presence. “I've been trying to watch for anything but the pnet’s gravity well makes a rge blind spot.”

  “Mhmm… ‘distraction’ as in seducing me.” She teased back and this time I actually caught it for what it was and held back my protest and continued my report.

  “I have been watching for them since we left your room, but haven't got anything and I still haven't picked up any IFF signal from whoever it is either.”

  “Probably won't unless it's a Peacekeeper squadron." She shrugged. “I don't have ours on, it just shouts to the whole system that-” She looked over and stopped mid-sentence as she focused on me, pink spreading across her cheeks and a bit of a look of familiarity in her eyes.

  “...how does it look?”

  “It l-looks fine! Um… a little tight but…” She squirmed in the pilot's seat. I gnced down at myself. It was… form-fitting and I had failed to account for the look of my rger bust but it was not inappropriate, the extra padding around where armor ptes were supposed to connect made sure of that*. “At… at least it looks like you're wearing pants now… kinda… yoga pants but… it looks good on you…”

  “I think there's some polymer left… I could make different clothes… I just thought a good all-purpose uniform would be best… I wore something simir on my st ship… even EVA rated…so…”

  “This is fine… just…” She turned the chair, reached out, and buttoned up my shirt. “There. I mean, you're always gonna be pretty but that look without a normal shirt underneath… my mind kinda wanders… we already did enough earlier…”

  “Would it be better without this shirt? Or a different outerwear…?”

  “Maybe? We can test out looks for you when we get some clothes… ” She shrugged and shyly motioned to the co-pilot's seat. I happily took the invitation to spend more time with her in person and moved towards it. “Um… what was I talking about before…?”

  “Our IFF…?” I sat down in the seat next to hers and barely caught her quickly looking away from me.

  “Y-yeah um… I don't even have ours on, it just shouts to the whole system that ‘we're right here’.”

  “It used to be required to keep it on.” I pointed out as I finished up the flight solution and sent it over to Tessa's multiltool. “Here you go, by the way.”

  “It technically still is, everyone just doesn't when we're outside good Peacekeeper response time systems.” She checked her wrist. “Wait You were working on that the whole time? Even as far as leaving the system?”

  “I can multitask.” I gave her a slight smile. “We have a window coming up in a few minutes to adjust our inclination before starting the retrograde burn.”

  “You're amazing, Cas.” She leaned over the arm of her chair and stretched slightly to kiss my cheek. Immediately afterwards, she settled back into her seat, grabbed the controls, and started with the adjustments, pitching the Tyche away from facing the field of ice of the gas giant's rings and towards the stars above us.

  -

  “Entry in one minute, fifteen seconds.” I warned as Tessa brought the ship around into the direction of our declining orbit towards the Northern pole of the pnet.

  “I see it. She's a bit slow right now.” My … girlfriend responded, focused on the window in front of us and the screens reying data I had access to. “Go ahead and drop the scoops, it should be in cargo bay access…”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “‘Ma'am’” She ughed as I quickly followed her orders, navigating my list of permissions to the system she requested. On the ventral cameras, I could confirm a series of vents deploying below.

  “What? We're working right now… and you're the captain so… you're the commanding officer.” This got even more giggles from her.

  “You have a very inappropriate retionship with your CO then~” She looked away from the rapidly approaching yellow and orange atmosphere in front of us to fsh a grin.

  “Oh… I… guess I do…” My processing faltered as I realized another old protocol I never considered I would be able to break and did so readily.

  “Don't worry about it, Cas~ Not like you'd get in trouble for that.”

  ‘Not here… I wouldn't ’ “Thirty seconds to entry…”

  “Shit. Yeah, Ok… a skim… gotta close the shutters and turn off the shields… scoops are already open.” Tessa started mumbling to herself as she half-stood to flip an analog switch. Thick metal ptes above and below the windows closed in and cut off visuals from the cockpit and some of the dispys changed to allow for flight by instrumentation only. As her sight was cut off, she also tapped something on her multitool and I noticed a decrease in power draw being compensated for across all the systems I had access to. She sat back down and watched the trajectory I was mapping to one of her screens, pulling back on the control stick to increase the deflection of our entry for what little lift the block-like hull of the ship could provide. A dampened dull roar soon started to reverberate across the ship as we descended into the atmosphere and at the same time, bow and ventral cameras were blinded by the resulting steadily increasing glow of gas becoming superheated from the high-speed impact.

  “Declination is slowing.” I informed Tessa as she kept a tight grip on the control stick and throttle. “Staging tanks are filling at expected speeds.”

  “Good. Thanks, so much better than finding out ter that I only got half what I wanted… What about the cargo bay? Is it still under vacuum?”

  “Pressure is 0.25 atm and climbing, no risk of colpse.” A new signal on the gravic sensors came up just outside the gravity well of the pnet as I gave the report. A signal within the mass range of the FTL pulse detected earlier. Their wake showed that they recently and abruptly turned towards the pnet.

  “Tessa. That other ship is on the sensors now. Headed this way.”

  “Hmm?” She looked at one of the nearby screens. “Shit. They changed direction fast too, they definitely spotted us… and they're not another mining ship or freighter.”

  “Still no IFF.”

  “I see that… um… ok…” She checked the dropping projected flight trajectory and quickly pushed the throttle forward slightly to keep the escape path I plotted. “So we dunno who they are and we're on our way out anyways… let's keep to our pn for now… just speed up this part a bit…”

  “Understood.”

  “Lemme think… those tanks…. when we're completely empty… they can hold enough to process for two-ish jumps but we're at… 80? Yeah 80% load…”

  “What exactly is the FTL fuel at?”

  “Enough for one jump and… three quarters of another…”

  “We’d need to fill them about half way to get enough for that reserve jump.” I finished for her as everything shook from hitting a dense patch of gas. “About 4 minutes of this...”

  “Yay…” She grumbled, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the control stick tighter.

  ‘I should've said something sooner… I shouldn't have let myself get distracted earlier…’ I thought as I watched and plotted the approach of the other ship and felt a negative cluster of feelings fester in my code. The minutes ticked by with only occasional turbulence marking that anything was happening outside the screens.

  EWDS:

  Firewall Probe detected: Local Network: Tyche.

  Virtual Network proxy in progress.

  “Something is trying to hack us.” I warned Tessa as we finally broke out of the atmosphere again and I closed the vents below.

  “Wait, what?”

  “They’re trying to hack the ship.” I repeated. “I'm working on protection now.”

  “You can do that?” She gave me a curious look and I only nodded. I copied the looks of all the systems I had open access to and poputed the proxy network and approximated the looks of the essential other systems I didn't but with a weaker false firewall. In the fractions of a second between probe attempts, I put the proxy forward as an identical, isoted but fake network that I could monitor easily… and the program took the bait.

  “Looks like they're going to try a rendezvous maneuver here…” I observed and tapped our flight path on the screen and provided the other ship's to it as well. It was right at the point where we were supposed to make a burn to turn our projected elliptical orbit into an escape trajectory.

  “Why would they…” An alert on a nearby screen interrupted her. A hailing on the comms system. Tessa's hand went to her multitool but she hesitated before she tapped the interface. A different screen was overtaken by the dispy of a human male, bearded, but appearing well-kept, wearing an open leather duster at a helm of another ship and not one of human make with the smooth, almost organic-shaped metal walls in the background.

  “My, my, I wasn't expecting a face like that.” He chuckled lecherously. “What are you doing, driving a brick like that?”

  “What do you want? I see you coming up on me.” Tessa growled back.

  “Don't be like that, love, we'll just be conducting… eh, a cargo inspection. So cut your engines when you get to orbit.”

  EWDS: Proxy firewall breached

  - Proxy Engineering probe detected.

  EWOS

  -Counterprobe initiated, Xeno firewall detected, Identifying, comparing to database

  “You aren't Peacekeepers. Why would I do that?”

  “What makes you say that, love?” He smirked. “Don't you check your…” He looked at one point off his screen then another. “You fucking idiots, that's why we didn't see her right away.”

  “Sorry ‘Captain’ the human naeth transponder you spliced in haphazardly burnt out after the second use on a superior system.” An off-screen voice chirped back with disdain.

  “Fine, you got me there, but you're turning your engines off one way or another and we're hopping on board.” He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, addressing Tessa again.

  They were going for our engines with the hack. I sent the text over to the screen on her wrist. Don't agree to it but do cut the engines when I tell you. I might have an idea.

  ‘What?’ She mouthed to me after reading.

  Trust me.

  “Look, it's not happening, I don't know who the fuck you are but this is my ship.”

  IFF Detected: Esmeralda

  Highwaymen Fleet

  “Shit.” She cursed under her breath as a simir notification appeared to her on a nearby screen.

  Highwaymen? I never heard of this faction.

  “Look, you pirates,” She gnced from her wrist back to me as she emphasized the word to answer. “won't be able to get much from me, not much you can carry. This is a mining ship, not a freighter.”

  “Unless we take your ship with us.” The pirate replied cheerfully. “Py nice and you'll make it to Tortuga station just fine.”

  “What? No, you aren't taking my ship!” She looked at me, terrified. A new feeling surfaced, votile, high energy, and my hands clenched on their own as I got up from the co-pilot's seat.

  Prime Directives 1 and 3 threatened.

  “Listen to me with everything that's gonna come up. We're gonna keep the ship.” I whispered in her ear and kissed her cheek before setting off down the hallway.

  “Oh there's two lovely dies on board, that makes it easier to guarantee you make it to the station.” The pirate commented from the screen.

  ‘Sounds like he didn't notice I was synthetic… good…’ I thought as I rushed back to the drone bay while manually acting as the antivirus system for the proxy network. ‘I have to protect the ship… protect my crew…’

  Simir experience found. SSD ‘Delta’ Mobile Ptform

  I became disconnected with the internal cameras for a moment and the vision from my body flickered. It was the increasingly familiar Tyche's halls in front of me for a moment, then the militaristic sterile halls of the Intrepid used to be the next, then a heavily battle scarred version with hanging panels, burn and impact marks and sparking cables afterwards. My reactor felt like it was seizing again. Three words echoed in my code: My fault. Failure. Just as quickly, my camera connection was restored and the main hall of Tyche was in front of me.

  2 minutes 40 seconds to Rendezvous

  Draconis_Primus