Broken Boundaries Ch. 03-04

He chuckled and stacked the extra containers and some glasses he picked up from one mess on the side of the counter. 'I'm looking forward to it.'

He sat down and began his daily routine of checking for changes in the Walkurea's systems and skimming over the logged messages but his eyes were drawn to the fluffy white and the red striped tails and their owners while they were cooking. He couldn't quite get the idea of stroking their tails and petting those two out of his mind. 'You're going to cause an interplanetary incident, you idiot.' he muttered as he redirected his attention once again to his tablet.

'What was that?'

He looked up startled at Tiness standing at the couch. 'What was what!?'

'I thought you said something.'

He sagged in relief that she hadn't heard. 'I was just talking to myself when I checked the systems.' he said and gestured at his tablet.

She smiled. 'Oh, okay.' she said and held up a glass. 'Shall I pour you a drink?'

'I won't say no to such an offer.' he said. 'Just be careful you're not going to spoil me.'

She giggled as she picked up a bottle from a cabinet Alain had found in another suite and made it home to his booze stash. 'You deserve it at least for now.'

He nodded at his approval of the whiskey she presented. 'Then I'll make full use of it.' he chuckled and followed her swaying curves and tail with his eyes as she returned to Asitha's side.

Asitha grinned a little. 'Keep it up and he will accept your offer when you do.' she said quietly.

Tiness blushed and chuckled. 'Hush, I'm not going to do that!' she said and continued with her task.

Alain put his tablet aside when he was done, started his music playlist, and took the opportunity while waiting for the girls to finish cooking to sort out his laundry and get the machine running. When he returned he noticed the girls' tails swaying in rhythm with the beat of the rock blues music playing. He chuckled and watched them until Asitha looked back at him. 'What?'

'It looks like you're enjoying the music.'

She chuckled. 'It has a catchy rhythm. What is this music called?'

He moved up to them and peeked at what they were doing and smelled the first scent of frying meat. 'This band plays mostly rock blues.'

'Rock blues?' asked Tiness.

'It's one of many genres we have in music. You'd have to listen to several songs to begin to understand the genre and the differences between them. Even when listening to a lot it's not always clear.'

'I like it.' said Tiness and swayed her hips. 'It is energetic.'

'One more reason to come over then.' chuckled Alain and snatched a carrot.

'Hey! No snacking before any meal!' Tiness said and pushed Alain towards the couch. 'Go do whatever you do and wait until we're done.'

Alain laughed. 'Yes, mum.' he said and made crunching noises on his way from chewing on the carrot.

He spent his time reading a weapon manual he'd found a short while ago in a mostly empty armoury because he was curious about the technology. He put it aside when the girls placed the first plates on the table and examined each one. 'If it tastes as good as it smells, marry me.'

'What!?' said Asitha and almost dropped the plate she held. 'Who!?'

He grinned wide. 'The way to a man's heart is through his stomach, as we say back home, and I agree. A woman who can cook well is a keeper. Two are a treasure to behold.'

Asitha blushed. 'You humans are strange.' she said and placed her plate on the table and returned to the kitchen where Tiness giggled as she finished the last of the courses.

When they all had settled on the couch Tiness picked a movie based on the title. It turned out to be a comedy about two strangers ending up in the middle of nowhere by accident, but as soon as the first romantic mood hit she was reminded again of Asitha's teasing and blushed. She glanced sideways and the stance of Asitha's ear told her something similar was on her mind. What Alain was thinking, she couldn't read from his expression but it seemed he just enjoyed the movie and thought nothing more of it. It put her mind at ease and she figured these kinds of things were everyday occurrences for humans. She figured she'd probably think nothing of it soon enough as well.

Alain tried not to compare the situation in the movie to him and the Silth girls. "Two strangers is not the same as two different species." he thought. "Besides, we're talking about movies and not reality." He glanced sideways at the girls. "I don't even compare to one of their own strong males." He tensed his body a little. "Maybe some extra training would be good."

By the end of the movie all three were left with a warm and cheerful feeling and Alain chuckled as he retracted the screen and turned on the music again. 'And they lived happily ever after.'

'They did?' asked Tiness.

He stretched. 'It's a stereotypical ending to old fairy tales in my world and sometimes it's used as a joke when the expectation is that the characters are going to end up fighting again after a while.'

Tiness giggled. 'Humans are silly.'

Alain grinned. 'You're definitely right about that.'

Asitha's tail quivered as she stretched. 'I can understand why our government is hesitant to open up to you humans, too unpredictable from our viewpoint.'

Alain chuckled. 'I don't blame them one bit.'

The girls gathered the food they prepared for the next cycles and Alain gazed at the amount they left behind. 'Are you sure to leave all this?'

Tiness gave him a warm smile. 'Take it as part of paying you back.'

'I think I won't have to cook much until you come by again, thanks.'

She giggled. 'Unless you eat everything at once.'

He grinned. 'I'm tempted to anyway, but I'll try to hold back and not burst out of my suit soon.'

The girls took their space suits but Tiness hesitated for a moment and hung it back, then turned to Alain. She suspected the drinks suppressed her normal behaviour but she didn't care, and she hugged Alain just as the woman had done with the man in the movie. 'Thank you for coming to me.'

His heart pounded at the unexpected hug but he hugged her back after a moment. 'As I said, no problem.'

She pulled back and blushed as she put on her suit and stepped into the airlock with Asitha. They waved goodbye when they rounded the pod and went towards their own pod along the Walkurea's hull. 'It's beginning to look like one of our stories now.' chuckled Asitha.

'I was just doing the same ritual humans do to express their thanks. You saw the movie.'

'I did, I did.' said Asitha and decided to wait to see what might happen for her amusement.

Tiness felt hot under the collar while her consciousness began questioning the boldness of her move.

Alain felt giddy when he dropped into his bed while the sensation of Tiness's softness lingered against his body. The resolve to not ask if he could pet and stroke them cracked.

***

'Crap.'

'Something wrong?' asked Asitha over the communicator a few days later.

Alain blew sweat from his nose. 'Not really, but I need to pull some some stuck debris out of the way for this task and it makes me sweat a lot.' he said and turned down the suit's cooling a notch. 'It makes me wish I could take a good and long relaxing bath but all I have is standard showers in the pods. Even the one in the new pod isn't much bigger.'

'The one we have now is a really good one. It's roomy and our fur is sprayed from all sides while we're floating. It simulates floating in water the way we like to do at home.'

Alain imagined his body getting sprayed by cool water. 'That sounds really great about now.'

She chuckled. 'Want to try?'

Alain blew another drop of sweat from the tip of his nose. 'Can I?'

'Yes. You let us borrow your kitchen, so why not borrow our shower?'

'I'll come over when you're done with your work.'

'All right.'

Alain pulled on a panel to bend it out of the way with renewed vigour from the thought of taking that luxurious shower.

***

Alain observed how Tiness worked the controls and explained their purpose. 'I think I get it.' he said and looked once more around the spacious shower cabin. 'Thanks for showing me.'

Tiness gave him a quick smile. 'I hope you'll find it as soothing as we do.'

He chuckled. 'I'm already convinced I will.'

She gestured behind her. 'I have to return to my work but take your time.'

'Thanks again.' he said and took the bag with his towel and change of clothes while Tiness donned her suit, then realised there was no changing room to undress in. He stepped back towards the airlock to ask Tiness but heard the hiss of its cycle. With both Asitha and Tiness working, he figured he wouldn't have to confront them with a close look at the human anatomy and undressed, although still quickly.

Inside the cabin he turned off the artificial gravity and turned on the nozzles which covered him in a cocoon of mist. Immediately, the sensation of floating in water rushed over him and he closed his eyes while every muscle in his body relaxed and sweat and fatigue washed away from him.

***

Asitha looked pleased at the container of equipment she had recovered in less time than expected. Some of them had become exposed and made for easier disassembling. She took the container and pushed it in front of her while she pushed herself towards the outside service hatch, and towards the probe waiting to return at the next scheduled departure. She secured it inside the short row of cargo compartments which made it look like a dragonfly with miniature containers along its body, and went into the crew pod to quench the thirst that plagued her during the last task.

***

Alain startled awake and panicked for a moment from disorientation before his brain kicked in and he remembered where he was. He relaxed again and took several deep breaths to energise himself, them rinsed himself in the mist of water after lowering the temperature a bit to a refreshing setting, and engaged gravity when he felt more clean than he'd done since arriving at the job.

He held on to a rung while his feet touched down on the floor and stepped out of the cabin in a cheerful mood. Asitha nearly spat out her drink of water when he stepped out bare naked in front of her.

***

Tiness laughed at the blushing faces of Asitha and Alain after she heard the reason why Asitha and Alain avoided looking at each other when she returned to the pod later. 'I guess there's not much more left to hide between us.' she giggled.

Alain groaned. 'If I knew this would've happened I would have spent more time in the trainer.'

'Trainer?' sniggered Tiness.

'A harness that provides resistance and simulates physical exercise.'

Tiness nodded and looked at Asitha. 'Good thing you weren't about to take a shower yourself.'

Asitha coughed. 'Don't make it worse.' she said and was really glad she hadn't indeed. She didn't like to think about what might have happened if he saw her in the fur.

Alain finished the drink Asitha had poured for him and herself to calm down after the first mutual apologies, and stood up. 'Thank you again for the use of your shower, it was a really good experience.' he couldn't quite suppress a chuckle. 'By which I mean the shower itself.'

Tiness smiled at him. 'Don't hesitate to make use of it again, even if this time it turned out to be a surprise. We'll just have to put up a sign or something.'

He chuckled once. 'Warning, close encounters of the naked kind.' he said softly, then gave her a quick smile. 'I don't want to impose too much, I was already happy to take this one.'

Tiness giggled. 'Well, if you dare to take another one let us know.'

They waved him goodbye as he left for his own pod and Tiness turned to Asitha. 'So tell me, how did he look? Are they anything like our males?'

Asitha blushed at the memory. 'I didn't really see.'

Tiness giggled. 'That's not what you look like. Was he that good to look at?'

Asitha looked up at her. 'No!' she said and averted her eyes. 'I mean, it wasn't bad.'

Tiness leaned closer. 'Come on, tell me, I'm curious.'

Asitha sighed. 'Fine.' she said and sat back in her seat. 'He only has some fur down there, and his, anatomy, is fully exposed.'

Tiness's eyes went wide. 'Exposed? How?'

Asitha tried not to focus on the memory. 'Just, exposed!' she said and poured herself another drink. 'I don't know how else to say it.'

Tiness sniggered and leaned back. 'Guess I'll have to wait until I accidentally get to see it for myself.'

***

'Asitha? Tiness? I think there's something you need to see.' said Alain over the communicator as he looked at the detection system of the Walkurea.

'Something bad?' asked Asitha.

'I don't know but an unknown vessel is coming our way.'

'We'll come over as soon as we're done here.'

The girls looked at the printout and the small rectangle with a dotted line crossing the position of the warships. 'It's not from either of our worlds?'

'The system can't identify it even if it can give probabilities from emissions from the vessel.' said Alain and tapped on another list with numbers. 'It's either a clump of various vessels from other worlds, or it's a completely new technology not based on any current ones. We can't tell anything from this.'

Asitha looked at Tiness. 'As far as I know we're not expecting anything soon from our side apart from the next cargo probe. That one is not due to arrive around this time though.'

Alain nodded. 'Same here. We'll just have to wait until it gets closer to find out what's going on. We'd better prepare to hide our close contact if it plans to arrive here.'

Tiness pouted. 'Does that mean we'd have to eat only our Silth food?'

Alain laughed. 'I hope that would be the worst thing that could happen.' he said and smiled. 'I propose compensating in advance, I brought containers with scampi for today, they're a popular seafood.'

Tiness pricked up her ears and licked her lips. 'I'm all for that suggestion!'

Asitha chuckled. 'I don't mind.'

04 - Fight or Die

'..body ... on the ship ... landing for repair ...'

'Ship troubles.' said Asitha. 'Earth crew.'

Alain turned down the volume on the transmission. 'Seems so. I tried contacting them but they didn't respond, which could be caused by damage to their communications.'

'How long?'

Alain looked at the printout. 'Just over two standard days.'

Tiness sighed. 'We'd better not make contact after today then in case they pick it up or see us on the hull.'

Alain twiddled his thumbs. 'Yeah.' he said and looked at the drooping ears of the girls. He imagined his ears would look the same if he were Silth and his chest tightened a little at the thought he couldn't see them for a while, depending on the troubled ship coming. He stood up from the couch. 'All the more reason to indulge ourselves now! Let's eat and drink and watch movies until we've had our fill!'

The girls' ears pricked up. 'You're right, let's have fun!' said Tiness and looked at Asitha. 'I'll help cooking, you set up the rest.'

Asitha chuckled. 'All right.'

Asitha had chosen a horror movie because she was curious to see what kind of alien scared humans, and Alain chuckled silently when Asitha crawled against his side after the morphing alien appeared in its hideous form made from other aliens. She blushed at the end of the movie when she realised she had held on to his arm. 'Sorry.' she said and sat straight.

Alain smiled. 'In our world, that's what men are there for. To provide a safe spot for scared women to hold on to during movies.'

One ear went sideways. 'Really?'

He chuckled. 'Well, we hope to be anyway.'

Tiness giggled. 'Then next time we watch something like this I want to sit next to you too.'

Alain took the remote. 'I'll start one that's even scarier.'

'Noo!' she said and reached for to the remote across Asitha's lap. 'One is enough for today!'

He laughed. 'Just kidding.' he said and gave her the remote. 'It's your choice.'

She took it and pouted. 'Bad human.'

He smirked. 'Then don't tempt me with getting wedged between two lovely women.'

The girls blushed and Tiness hit his thigh. 'Human males are really bad.' she said and quickly started the next movie.

Alain nearly dozed off and woke up with a nod. He looked at the girls and smiled softly at their peacefully sleeping faces. After a stretch to chase a little sleep from his limbs, he unfolded his wall bed, carefully lifted Asitha in his arms, laid her down on his bed, and did the same with Tiness. "I wonder if you'd let down your defence like this if we were the same species.΅ he though as he watched them for a moment. He pulled a sheet over them and settled on the couch to sleep.

***

Asitha woke up from a dream where she and Alain hid from a slimy alien monster and blinked her eyes until she could focus her vision and see she wasn't in her own bed. She pushed herself up and looked around at the dim pod remembering watching a movie as the last thing, and at Tiness sleeping next to her. Her bladder urged her to get out and she waggled to the toilet, returning later to see Alain sleeping tight on the couch. She smiled softly at him. "Did you put us to bed?" she thought and wished she'd been awake enough to remember that. She returned to bed and snuggled up with the pillow smelling of him.

***

'Hey, sleep well?' asked Alain when Tiness sat up and stretched.

She smiled sleepily at him cleaning up the couch. 'I want this big bed.'

He chuckled. 'I'd offer to let you use it but I'd like to sleep in it as well.'

A fragment of the dream she had of snuggling with him popped up. 'Of course.' she said and blushed.

He moved to the kitchen. 'I don't mind you borrowing it on occasion like this though. It's like waking up on a relaxed morning with friends or family for a day of leisure.' He turned on the water heater. 'Care for a bite to eat?'

'Please.' said Tiness and glanced at Asitha stirring and waking up. "It does feel that way, yes." she thought and smiled.

***

Alain couldn't recognise the class of vessel when it arrived but after a longer look he suspected he'd been right in his guess, the vessel was made from parts of different alien ships. The lower dish from the main hull came from a human explorer vessel but the larger dish on top was from another species, as were the two engines at the back between the dishes. He couldn't be sure but the turrets on top of the hull were from yet another civilisation.

He didn't like the feeling in his gut when it came to a standstill at a straight angle to the Walkurea and the top of the dish made it look like a moon at the horizon. Soon enough two space suits appeared and headed his way.

He opened the airlock and watched as the two figures in worn and patched suits stepped inside. They took off their helmets and the first thing that came to his mind was henchmen. The unshaven man with coarse black hair and thick eyebrows grinned at him. 'Hey there. We need some parts to fix our damaged ship. I'm sure you won't mind that we take the cargo drone as a contribution to pay for them.

'Hey now-' began Alain but the younger man with dark blonde long hair pulled a modified gun from his front pocket. 'Sorg said you won't mind. Then don't.'

Alain froze. 'This is military property, you can't just take it!'

Sorg laughed. 'And who'll tell? You're alone here and the Silth don't care about what happens as long as they're not bothered. If anything they'll get the blame for your death.'

Tiness gazed wide eyed at Asitha as they heard the conversation in their own pod. 'They're going to kill him!' she said while her heart pounded in fear.

Asitha drew marks in the table top with her claws. 'If we didn't have our open channel we'd never have heard of it.' she growled. 'We have to save him.'

'But what can we do?'