A Viper's Nest Ch. 10

"Captain," she called out, "I suggest we evacuate the bottom two pods. If we allow the transmission to pull power from them, it should be strong enough to reach the station before the Ericius can strike," Zozta said.

"Agreed," replied Captain Eki. She leaned over to her right and touched the pod's intercom, "this the Captain, evacuate the bottom two pods. We'll be draining their power to aid the transmission," she ordered.

Zozta watched the screen to her left, which displayed footage from inside each life pod, and waited for the last Viper to leave. Once they were empty, she tapped away at her pad and sent the additional power to the communications array. Glancing at several screens, Zozta was able to ascertain that her suggestion was correct.

"Transmission sent," she called out, "with the additional power, it should arrive at least an hour being the Ericius fleet attacks," Zozta said.

"I pray that it does," Eki replied.

*****

John looked at the map displayed on his pad as he walked down one of the corridors inside the Minerva. A few of the pilots were with him and most of them were chatting amongst themselves. Despite having lived aboard Matriarchy ships for several days, he still had difficulty navigating the identical corridors. John was determined that during his stay on board the Minerva he would finally be able to move about on his own, without requiring assistance from anyone else.

"What are you looking at?" asked one of the pilots.

John looked up and made eye contact with her. The Viper's primary scale colour was dark green and her secondary scale colour was cream. They formed a diamond pattern that started just above her eyes and went across the top of her head and down the back of her hood. Inside each diamond was a smaller diamond of glowing yellow bioluminescence. The pilot's eyes and mouth also glowed a vibrant yellow.

"The route to where we'll be sleeping tonight," John replied, "I thought it best to know where we're going," he said.

"Can't you smell it?" the pilot asked.

"Smell what?" John replied.

"The pheromone trail," she said, "that's how we know where we're going. We use the map first and then follow our pheromones. Are you sure you can't smell anything?" the pilot asked.

John breathed in and then shook his head, "all I can smell is that I need a shower," he replied.

"That's true," the Viper said after breathing in, "there's a communal shower attached to the pilot's quarters, I'm sure Nuki will be happy to help you," she said with a wink.

Before John could reply they arrived at a t-junction and were greeted by several more of the Viper pilots. Flight Lieutenant Nuki was with them and when she spotted John he somehow found himself in front of her. After the two groups greeted each other, everyone was off again, down another identical corridor, only this time the volume level from the various conversations was much louder.

"I was very impressed with your performance today," Nuki said. She had placed a clawed hand on his right shoulder and was guiding him along.

"Thank you," John replied.

As the larger group of Viper pilots walked down the corridor, John swore he noticed a few of them look in his direction. Some smiled while others seemed to look annoyed. Turning a corner, they came upon another group and as they were greeting each other, John counted them all. Twenty Viper pilots in total.

"I hope you don't snore," the Flight Lieutenant said.

"Pardon?" John replied.

"Snore. I said I hope you don't snore," Nuki repeated.

"Oh, erm...I don't think so, no one has said anything," John replied.

"That's good. I can't wait to get you into my nest," Nuki then lowered her head so that it was level with his left ear, "I expect you to be as vigorous with me as you have with the other Vipers you've fucked," she whispered and then laughed as John's face went bright red.

Before he could reply there was a cheer at the front and looking ahead, John saw a pair of large doors open. The group of twenty pilots started filtering into the room and when he and the Flight Lieutenant reached the doors, John was pushed inside by Nuki. Looking around, he could see that it was a very large, circular room with a domed ceiling. The design was similar to Quartermaster Milsi's quarters but on a larger scale. There were a total of fifteen nests, each one was recessed into the floor and had an abundance of pillows. Couches, chairs, and desks were positioned at set intervals around the edges of the room and as John looked to his left, he watched as a few Vipers walked through a large door.

"That's the bathroom," Nuki said as she walked past John.

"Good to know," he replied, "I'll use the shower when they're done," John said.

"Follow me," the Flight Lieutenant said and then walked over to a nearby nest. "This one's mine," Nuki said as she deactivated her collar.

John's face was lit up by the Nanos retreating across the Flight Lieutenant's body. Shortly afterwards, Nuki folded her hood against her neck and pulled the collar off. Looking at her naked body, John saw how her porcelain white secondary scales continued down from her neck. They went across her chest, down her abdomen and along the underside of her tail. John's eyes were drawn to a pair of large pink nipples and the very large breasts which jiggled as the Flight Lieutenant turned to face him.

"Before you start drooling," her voice pulled John's attention away, "the bathroom is free," she said.

Looking to his left, he watched as three naked Vipers appeared and headed over to a nearby nest. With a quiet cough, John headed for the bathroom. As he walked, several pairs of eyes watched him. Realising that he would need to just get used to the added attention, John deactivated his collar and threw it towards the nest that the Flight Lieutenant was now stepping into. The last thing he saw before entering the bathroom was the agile tip of Nuki's tail threading itself through his collar.

*****

Nearing the halfway point on their journey towards Border Station Five, the Ericius fleet risked detection by having the smaller, more agile ships ignite their engines. The plan was for the faster vessels to sow confusion amongst the Matriarchy forces stationed at Border Station Five while giving the much larger and slower vessels more time to arrive. The Ericius flagship and the trio of battleships that escorted it launched torpedoes. Once they had passed the smaller ships, their crude onboard computers shut down so that the torpedoes could remain undetected. Each one was programmed to activate its engines when the onboard passive sensors detected the station.