Breach of Conduct

"Hey, you okay?" Taga asked, leaning forward.

Enn nodded, sill thinking. "Yeah. Doing the math now to see how far my rations can get me."

"You said you've got rations to make it half way, right? I can skim some of my food off for you. I have rations for half a full cycle."

Enn was surprised. "Wait, really? They were gonna stick you out here alone, half full?"

Taga just pulled her scalp back. "I don't mind. I have a lot of stuff to read. More if you lend me that little book in your room."

"Chondrite's chance in the Void of that ever happening."

"How about a chondrite's chance on the ground, eh?" Taga pointed to a fist-sized meteorite someone had collected at some point in the past and left on the table beside him.

"Suffice to say you're not getting into that book again unless you fight me for it," the human answered with an eye roll.

Taga's lips pulled back in a grin, revealing all her teeth down to the molars. "I think I'd like that."

For a moment, Enn couldn't tell if she was joking. A few moments of tense silence broke into laughter as the rilo released him from her gaze. She flattened against her sofa again with an amused sigh.

"Had me going there for a second."

Taga nodded. "Had you going the whole time. Nothing like a rilo to get your blood pumping, right?"

Enn caught his wit as it orbited close enough to catch again. "You're still not getting that book."

"We'll see. You'll be reading me embarrassing poetry in a cycle. Two tops."

------------

Forty-three days later, both of them had forgotten the book of bad poetry and riddles even existed.

Enn raised his arm again and trembled slightly. Fuck, it was hot in here. This close to the station's steel skin, everything felt like it was burning when he touched it. Even the floor was getting his boots warm, not that it was anything new at this point.

He and Taga had done this once already, spending en entire day cleaning an air filter off. The storm was still trying to pass outside like a thumb-sized kidney stone. Nothing had changed except for the fact that they were coming up on a relatively softer spot in the whirlwind battering at their little rock in the middle of the sand sea.

This time, cleaning the filter was taking a lot longer than it should have. Taga slammed her fist into the floor and Enn watched her handheld skitter across the floor toward the charging port behind him.

"Fucking useless thing! What's the point of charging it if it doesn't hold any! Nanda fuck it all!"

"That Nanda a good lay?" Enn asked, sliding the handheld magnetic field aligner back over to Taga.

"Fuck off, Enn. Tired of this gerushit."

"Hey man, I'm just as fucking done with it as you are. But we have to get this done soon. Our fresh air supply is under twenty percent and I don't feel like baking us with the recyclers. Besides, I've never seen them turned on so they might not even work at all."

He heard the scrape of metal on metal as his companion grabbed her handheld off the floor. "Worst system I've ever seen. Who doesn't just automate this shit from the power bank?!"

"This is some original colony stuff here, Taga. The fueling stations are over a century old, probably older than most of the cities on Kalaso in all honesty." His handheld died. "Oh come on."

Taga slid hers over to him. "Here. I'm done with this today."

Enn wiped the streaks of sweat rolling down his face and whipped his hand to send them flying. He watched them evaporate in seconds. It cannot still be this hot with eleven percent direct sunlight. There's just no way.

"Hold up," he said, sticking an arm out to block Taga's exit down the ladder hatch. "We have to finish this."

"With what tools? Yours just died. Mine's out of juice. There's only one left. We can't share one, genius."

"Oh fuck off with the attitude. I don't want to be up here either, asshole."

Taga pulled back one side of her mouth with her fingers. Apparently, that was the rilo version of jamming your middle finger in someone's face. She continued past without saying anything else and dropped head-first down the hatch without trouble. A thump at the bottom made his teeth grate.

"Real fucking nice of you to take all the water too!" he almost shouted down to her.

A canister ricocheted off the ceiling and skittered across the floor under the filter. Enn set the two dead handhelds down on their charging ports and grabbed the lukewarm canister off the floor. Sitting down, he just poured some of it on his head and heaved a groan from somewhere deep in his lungs. This was exhausting and going absolutely nowhere.

In seven hours they'd gotten probably half the filter cleaned off. They could run it for a few days in the current conditions before the system shut it off and demanded they come right back up here to spend another painstakingly-tedious day in the sweltering heat.

Enn slipped going down the ladder, falling flat on his ass hard enough to click his teeth together. Despite the temperature difference of almost thirteen degrees, which should have made things much more comfortable, down here wasn't much better than the filter rooms. For an entirely different reason.

The smell.

With infrequent fresh air exchange, the entire station smelled like spent hormone cocktails about to go down a lab drain. Humans didn't smell particularly good when their cellular waste collected in the air, but rilo didn't have much of a leg up, despite having twice as many. Maybe that was the problem? Who knew?

Regardless, Taga's foreign scent was making him more irritated than exhaustion or discomfort normally should. Combined with looking at her smug, predatory features, it made his jaw clench often and hard.

Sometimes, he woke up and wanted nothing more than to go and punch her sleeping face to get her to be quiet. Other times, he wanted to find out what it would be like to pin her down to the floor in a submissions hold. Stranger still, he'd had a couple of erotic dreams about her that didn't end particularly badly.

He shook the last thought out of his head. Yeah, no telling what she'd do to me if she knew that. Probably try to electrocute the memory out of my head. Or cut it off and say it was an accident. Fucking-

He shook that one out too, sitting up this time. Alright man, she's not the enemy. You're both exhausted and over the whole roommate thing. He shook the mix of sweat and water out of his hair and slicked it back. Over the course of their tenure here, he'd shaved his face plenty with a monoblade, but saw no reason to clutter up the shower drains with hair. If they clogged, there would be no other option but to console himself with sticking the barrel of his sidearm in his mouth.

Enn found his squadmate on the floor, breathing heavily with her face against the comparatively cool area under the entry table collecting junk.

"Just kill me," she moaned. "This is horrible."

"You wanna do a double suicide thing? Shoot on three?" Enn joked.

Taga seemed to consider it before lolling her head to the other side so she could look at him across the room. "You'd miss. I know you would."

Enn slumped into the sofa. It conformed to his body in an uncomfortable way that made him want to put something between it and his skin. He was too tired to do anything about it though and tried to just enjoy that it wasn't at a higher ambient temperature than his core. It's the little things, he told himself.

"So," he offered. "Sorry about upstairs."

Taga waved a foot lazily. "Forget it. You're hot. I'm hot. It's fine."

"Cool. Anyway, you wanna take a minute down here to get some food going? I could us some fuel when I come back down."

"You gonna finish the job?"

He shrugged. "If the handhelds hold out. Working three in rotation should get me far enough to run the thing for a handful of cycles. We can get another one really scrubbed and calibrated by the time it gets shut off."

"You make it sound like we're gonna do that."

"Yeah," he answered, knowing that if put to a vote they'd both shoot it down. Something had to change though. This was unbearable. No communication with the outside world. No resupply. Actually rationing food, albeit comfortably enough. That was disregarding the obvious air quality issues on all fronts. And the heat. It still amazed him just how hot it was despite the sun not being visible for over thirty days now.

"I would kill for a dehumidifier right now." Taga rolled her upper body over and lay staring at the underside of the entry table, unblinking. "Or a good bowl of dambda. Fuck man, even some cheap dechra sauce to put on something would take me over."

"I just want a sandwich. A mint, meat, and cheese on a thick-ass slice of lembas round. Void that sounds so good right now."

"Lembas round huh? You from farther east?"

Enn gave her a thumbs up. "Nt'vkion."

"Where's that? Out past Terminus?"

"Rudow."

Taga gave a snort. "No kidding. Your home planet is a Unity stronghold? No wonder you got assfucked with a post like this. I always thought you just gave it to some Lt's crush or something."

Enn wiped his face with a slight grin. "No, just unlucky I guess. Never even got laid before I shipped out."

"Shit, eight years in and you're still waiting on a good lay? That why you keep waking me up humping your pillow?" Taga pantomimed thrusting the junction of her upper and lower halves against an imaginary object held in both hands. Her loose clothing clung to her body like a film. Somehow, his thoughts started gravitating toward the idea that his dreams might not just be that.

Shut it, brain. It's all the hormones sticking to everything we touch. Admittedly though, seeing the alien on the floor humping an imaginary pillow seemed an awful lot like she was holding an imaginary version of him instead. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back, blowing out a tight breath.

"Didn't think you could hear what me and Lieutenant Bedframe's girlfriend were doing at night. She's gonna be pissed when I tell her you've been listening in."

"Let her be mad," came the dismissal with a hand wave just as detached.

"So, where are you from, Taga? Most rilo live up north in the Remallan Electorate, right? Somewhere close?"

It took her a few beats to answer. "Dhalasin, at Yrindon."

Enn rolled his head back forward in surprise. "What, Karg space? Really?"

A little smile crept into her features. She must have been expecting that. "Yeah, really. Edge of Karg space, bigass planet called Dhalasin. There's a few million of us there if you can believe it. Probably more now; been about sixty years or so."

"Your planet as tame as Machairos was when I went there? I got the feeling that Kargs keep things pretty quiet no matter what system it is."

A shrug. "Tame enough. We had our own quarter though, so they pretty much let us fuck off and do whatever as long as we played it cool around them. Never had any pirate issues though like you all do out here."

Taga maneuvered herself up off the floor and went into the kitchen. She came back with a calorie bar and handed it to him, halfway through one of her own.

"Thanks."

"Nah, thank you for grabbing me out of whatever that was," she said back, laying herself across the couch with her rear legs draped over his lap and off the end of the couch. He gave her leg a squeeze behind the knee and she groaned.

"Sore?" he asked, setting his food down to continue with both hands.

She nodded. "When I don't get to exercise like I'm used to, my legs lock up. The weight room in here is designed for bipeds." She adjusted her legs and Enn wrapped one hand around the front of her legs and the other around her tender ligaments, massaging gently.

"You could always do some climbing around outside. Might work off some of that indoor stress," the human joked. Taga seemed to consider it seriously for a little while before waving the idea off with one hand.

"No, I'm not scrubbing down my gear and washing it again just to stretch my legs better." Her mouth pulled back in its predatory grin, which he'd learned was a sign that there was going to be a joke at his expense. "Besides, I have my own personal slave here to help unlock everything with his key-fingers."

"Not sure I'm the slave here," he said, tugging lightly at the thin garment wrapped around Taga's frame. "You're the one wearing nothing but rags."

Her grin widened, making her features twist in a familiar and strange way. "And if we go by surface area, you're wearing half the clothing I am, you tease."

"You can't see my dick through my pants though," he fired back jokingly.

"You been sneaking peaks at me when I'm all sweaty?" She lowered a hand to the crux of her hips at the junction of her upper and lower body. "Should I be worried that a human is going to sneak into my bunk and have his way with me?"

"I can already see that report: Private Taroth found in no less than thirty-two pieces after sexually assaulting Privae Anahu. Damn shame he couldn't keep it in his pants."

Her eyes narrowed, lids closing along a vertical axis. "You'd drive me that wild, huh?"

"Yeah, a one-eight-nothing human verses a three meter rilo. Like you'd even notice I was there if I didn't give you one of these first." Enn squeezed the alien's joint again, rolling her iron-hard tendons between his thumb and fingers.

Taga gave him a hard look. "Oh I'd notice if you whipped it out on me. Rilo have a sensitive nose, human. I can smell everything you do; it just lingers in here for cycles." She let the implication linger for a few moments before laughing. "If you could see that face!"

Enn rolled his eyes. "As if you're any better. You know I can actually tell which room you've been in because it's stuck to the walls."

"What, my scent?" she jabbed. "Please, there's a reason I get up before you, and it's not 'cause I like to make field coffee."

"It can't be that bad."

"Enn, when you give the injector a little tug, that door opens," she stretched an arm out toward the bunkrooms. "And I can feel it on my skin; it's the stickiest scent here. If that was the first thing I woke up to every morning I'd implode."

She took a deep breath in as if to pull some fresher thoughts into her head, ribs shifting over one another in their overlapping lamellar fashion as her chest expanded.

"That bad, huh?" the human said, taking his calorie bar up off the arm of the couch and biting into the looted dessert. Buttery. A little sweetness crammed between a mix of yeast and citrus. Not half bad for something that cost probably thirty centi's to make, tops.

"I regret that," Taga admitted as she breathed out slowly.

"Regret what? Better I know, right?"

She swung her legs out of his grip and rolled off the couch into her six-legged posture. "I'll be upstairs. You're on cooking duty."

She disappeared up the ladder with noticeable haste. He thought about asking again later, but it wasn't important enough of a thought to entertain. His stomach growled unceremoniously as he swallowed another bite of what passed for dessert in a military ration kit. The meal itself wasn't much to look forward to either, but at least they had plenty of spice powder and water to make some sauce happen. It was no dechra sauce, but it'd get them through their stay.

------------

"Hey, station just picked up a docking tremor."

Taga blinked. "What?"

Enn refreshed the display and reread the feed. Something had indeed come down on the landing pad, right in the middle. "Yeah. Auto-response just kicked in. Scan's gonna begin once the pole's up."

"Someone's trying to dock with us for real?"

Enn turned to her with a hand palm-up, as if holding the answer that should have been obvious to her. "Correction: someone has already docked with us."

"You sure we didn't take a meteor strike?" She sat up and walked over to the comm log. "We haven't gotten any requests for landing. No IDs, no nothing."

"Well, check to be sure, I guess. Could be a false positive," Enn offered in return. Either way, something was on the landing pad outside. Something heavy.

"Comm's up. Broadnet if you wanna try running- ah shit, there really is someone out there. Pressure sensors say eight legs."

Enn grabbed a mic off one of the store hooks and tossed it to Taga. "I'm gonna go suit up and get out on the slab with an anchor line. How bad is it out there?"

She milled around in a few programs before getting him an answer. "Weather sensors say not too bad. I can't believe someone docked with us though. Wind's still over ninety kilometers an hour. Shit visibility."

Enn struggled into his e-suit in the far room, pulling the first layer on with significant difficulty. Not only was it heavy, he was still tired from the now almost eighty days of reduced caloric intake. At least the new arrival had caught them on a day where both soldiers were in a good mood. They'd gotten one of the air filters relatively clean and as well-calibrated as they could manage two days ago. The station felt marginally comfortable for the first time since they'd started this whole stay at Hotel Statwo.

Leave it to someone else to make them bust ass again after all that hard work. On to the next phase, Enn thought as he secured his boots and checked the suit electronics. Green light for everything. His HUD came to life with a cheerful reminder that several unrecommended mute setting were still active.

"Ah, fuck, are you kidding me?!" Taga yelled loud enough for him to hear through his helmet. He switched the comms on and it connected instantly to their joint squad channel.

"Everything okay?"

"No," came the gruff reply. A familiar chime went off and the sound of Taga's fist hitting the desk came right behind it.

"Was that the drone monitor?" Enn asked, entering the main room again to find Taga leaning far enough across the room without getting up to address the new notification.

"Yeah. Pad one says its open."

"It's open," the human repeated incredulously.

"Feris Theron out there must have blown it open on entry, the fucker." Her hand went up to the headset at her ear. Her face twisted in a same way it did when she lost at a card game. "Great. Now they're asking for permission to disembark."

"Why?" Regardless, Enn was already heading for the door.

Taga threw up her hands. "Fuck if I know. I guess we're getting company now."

"Alright, I'll go close up the pad for now. You go check these assholes in."

"Sure," she shot back sardonically. "Leave the rilo to run hospitality. I'm sure they'll love that."

Enn stopped at the chambered door. "You wanna-"

"Totally kidding, man." She waved him off with both hands. "Go fix the thing so it'll stop trying to make me do work."

Enn gave a thumbs up and stepped into the doorway. The door behind him closed and an exterior camera showed him the view immediately in front of the door. Dim light and visibility for about two meters. Everything except the coated concrete was a blur of yellow-orange dust and sand.

"Hey, switch comms to text format. I feel like that'll be a lot easier than trying to use voice out there."

"Done. See ya later." A moment later, the same in text appeared in the direct chat with her on his notepad. He linked the chat to his HUD and it settled idly into the bottom left of his periphery. He keyed the door open and stepped out into the storm, feeling the wind catch his body almost immediately. Fortunately, weighed down by his suit, there was basically no chance of him being blown away unless he managed to find a sail to attach to himself.

Doubtful, even as an accident.

He set his HUD up to give him a vector and line him up with the drone pad. 712 meters. He started toward it, trudging through the shifting sandbanks piling up and disintegrating at their leisure in front of him. Through the hazy, sandblasted air he could make out the signal lights of a small ship waiting to unload its crew. He turned back toward his objective and abandoned interest in their guests for the time being. I'll get filled in once I'm back. Nothing else for it now.