Broken Boundaries Ch. 05-06

Asitha leaned back in her seat. 'All right, let's find out if we can find two more suitable pods and build a new home for ourselves.'

***

The three went around together on the warships and found another suitable emergency pod on both the Walkurea and the Amaroth, and the cross sections with several hatch adapters. To create a sense of neutral ground and keep things easy for everyone, the four large pods were connected like a four leaf clover above the wreckage of the impact, with the two original crew pods on top of them connected through the two cross sections at the centre. Alain fixed the nearby connections to the Walkurea for backup power and air supply while Asitha and Tiness did the same on the Amaroth for backup power.

Asitha inhaled deep in their newly built home. 'This is so much better than the synthetic scrubbers.'

'Definitely.' said Alain. 'I'll show you the two gardens that I revived to get this naturally fresh air later.'

Tiness chuckled. 'You won't have to smell our animal scent everywhere now.'

'Oh, I didn't mind.' he said. 'I even thought it was somewhat comforting, reminding me again of my young days with the cats around the house.'

She blushed and Asitha sniggered. 'And now you have once again a home with two large cats.'

He grinned. 'Yeah, life is good.'

***

'Home again!' said Alain when he entered the living, as they decided to call it, days later.

'Hey.' said Asitha while she updated the inventory for their cargo drone. 'Had a good catch?'

'Just one set of valves that gave me trouble because all the high pressure pipes were bent and put force on them, the rest was easy. I had plenty of time to tend to the garden but now I'm covered with dirt.' he said and chuckled at his black fingernails. 'I never imagined I'd be digging in the dirt in space.'

Asitha chuckled. 'You can use my shower, Tiness is returning soon.'

'Thanks.' he said, picked up fresh clothes from his new personal pod, and went to the pod formerly used by both girls and which had been turned into Asitha's personal pod. He entered the shower and relaxed in the weightless mist of water.

Tiness climbed down the ladder later. 'I'm done.'

'The two circuits?' asked Asitha.

'Stored in the cargo pod. The container was full enough to load it.'

'Good work.'

'I'm going to freshen up.' Tiness said and headed for her pod. 'I'm getting hungry.' She took a quick dry air shower where streams of air blew through her fur, then began brushing herself.. 'Shaz!' she cursed when the handle of her brush came loose. She pushed it back but it came loose again, laid it aside, put on a fresh shirt, and went to Asitha's pod. 'I'm going to borrow your brush, mine just broke.' she said to Asitha.

'All right.' said Asitha while she calculated the yield from the Amaroth for the period. She looked up at once when she realised what Tiness did. 'Wait! Alain is in the shower!'

Tiness didn't need the warning any more when Alain stepped out of the shower. He covered himself quickly with his towel. 'Not again.' he sighed.

'I, was just borrowing Asitha's brush.' Tiness said as she blushed. She picked up the brush quickly from the shelf next to Alain, and hurried out.

Asitha almost bumped into her and chuckled at her embarrassed face. 'I guess you just found out what I saw that time before.'

Alain walked out of her pod. 'Don't blame me for any nightmares you'll get.'

Asitha sniggered. 'Who said we'd get nightmares? Maybe it's you who has to worry about that.'

He grinned as he passed her. 'Being seen naked by two pretty female creatures won't give me nightmares. That only brings me pleasant dreams.'

Asitha chuckled but blushed just as much as Tiness while she returned to the couch.

His remark came back to him when they were lounging after their meal and he realised how easygoing the girls had become around him. They laid their tails across his lap for him to stroke and casually leaned against him as if they had always done so, and it had felt just as natural to him lately. Coming back to their shared pods after work on the Walkurea had really become coming home for him and the girls were an important part of it. He glanced at Tiness and Asitha giggling at the animated superhero getting stretched to her limit and the stronger pounding in his chest made him aware of what had sneaked up on him. He couldn't deny that he'd become very attracted to the both of them. He took a gulp from his drink deciding he'd just wait and see how things would unfold over time.

***

Alain hummed at the mess inside a first aid medical bay in the Walkurea. The control systems he had to retrieve were located at the back wall but the corner where he needed to be was full of equipment thrown there by the impact. He was glad it was the last task on his list and he put his tool case aside and began clearing the debris to reach the panel in the wall. Many smaller items like desk equipment, sample holders, small cases, and handheld scanners went flying through the medical bay when he pulled larger equipment away But didn't get in the way of doing his job and he returned home by the time he'd expected.

The soft sound of grating glass caught his attention when he stored his tool case and he opened it up. 'Crap.' he said at the shards of a vial in one corner. "Must have drifted into the open case while I was busy." he thought and cleaned up the box before going down.

Tiness smiled when he went to the kitchen corner, lured by the smell. 'I found a stew recipe in one of the cook books and wanted to try it with what we have.'

He took a deep whiff of the scent from the large pan. 'I'm sure it'll taste as good as it smells.' he said and chuckled. 'I almost feel sorry for all the men who miss out on this but I'm selfish enough to want to keep these things for myself.' He stole a slice of tomato. 'And Asitha of course. I don't think I would have left our solar system if I'd met you two before at my home town.'

Tiness smiled and continued while Alain went to fill out his report for the day. "I might have not left either." she thought.

***

'That was delicious.' said Alain after wiping his bowl clean with a piece of space bread. It wasn't exactly like real freshly baked bread but it was close enough and it could be preserved for a long time, which is why it was used in space where there was no access to the ingredients to make the real thing. 'I'm looking forward to the next thing you'll try.'

Tiness giggled. 'I don't know if it'll turn out good again.'

'You spoiled us with this so it'll have to.' he said and gave her a wink.

She chuckled and poked his side. 'Better watch out you won't turn into a large blob.'

'I don't mind as long as I can eat this well.'

'What was that movie called again? The blob from outer space?' asked Asitha and smirked.

'Don't diss culturally important movies!' said Alain and grinned, then remembered one item he'd packed when he left Earth. 'I just remembered something.'

The girls watched him gather their dirty dishes, dump them at the kitchen, leave for his pod, and return not much later with a small blue box. He pulled a data disk from the box, inserted it into the media system, and gave each of them a pair of gloves and short socks.

'I was reminded of one of the first games that I played many a night until the morning whenever I could.' he said while he donned his gloves and pulled the short socks over his feet. 'It's a fantasy science fiction game and one of the monsters you need to defeat to level up are slimes. Those space blobs come in small and large sizes.' He noticed the blank stares at him. 'It'll be easier to explain by showing you.' he said and activated the game. 'I'll skip to the moment where we as a group begin our adventure. The intro tells you you're on your own, or in this case one of a group of friends, who are hunted because they'd been sent an ancient artefact by a father who hasn't been seen since childhood. The goal is to evade the hunters while growing stronger and gaining weapons by performing tasks for the lifeforms we meet during our travels through a giant maze world. Eventually we'll learn the truth and what we need to do to save not just ourselves, but more.'

The screen flashed to a dim, steel hall with broken equipment and components from electronics and machinery strewn around and the view of three figures in casual clothing. Alain shuffled his feet and the middle one moved forward. 'To walk, you just need to press forward with your feet as if you're walking.' He leaned forward and reached out to the floor. On screen the figure picked up a piece of pipe. 'The gloves control the hands.' He made a throwing motion and the pipe flew forward. 'Go ahead and try it. This is a safe spot to try out moving and when you get the hang of it, I can show you how to change your character to any of the species available in the game.'

Asitha and Tiness moved around and quickly found out they could throw stuff at each other without the character getting hurt, and laughed out loud while trying to defeat Alain, who evaded and tripped them easily.

He grinned wide when the girls gave up eventually and panted slightly from the effort. 'All right, looks like you got the hang of using the controls, now we can customize our characters.'

The screen split in three views, one above the other two side by side, and he guided them through the options, and Tiness chose a slender, fair skinned alien species with seductive curves and a tight black outfit, while Asitha chose a clunky buff robot, its dark paint job faded by time, rust, and grime, and Alain chose a humanoid species with a half canine face, large pointy ears, and a long, thick tail. The shape of its chest underneath the tank top left no doubt about the gender. 'You play a female character?' asked Asitha.

'Of course.' said Alain while he chose shades of blue for the character's furry legs, arms, ears, and hair. 'I told you I prefer looking at females. They're much cuter.'

Asitha chuckled. 'Even my character?'

He smiled. 'This robot species is genderless, but even then, knowing it's you behind it makes it much better.'

The robot on screen moved as she punched him playfully against his shoulder. 'Just as long as it's female, eh?'

He shrugged. 'I'm not complex.' he said and chuckled. He looked at Tiness. 'Why this species?'

Tiness smiled a little at her character. 'She's completely the opposite of me and I wanted to be like that in the game.'

'I see. Although I don't think cute and sexy are opposites.'

Tiness blushed but before she could say anything, Alain activated the first scene and armed troopers in black rushed on the screen. 'It's impossible to fight these, so run!' he said and quickly shuffled his feet to make his character run.

Asitha and Tiness quickly followed and fixed their attention to their characters as they fled the scene and ran through narrow corridors, stairwells, and watering systems.

***

'I can't hold out much longer!' groaned Asitha while she pinned the four-legged, elephant sized and white creature against a wall.

'Just a little more!' panted Tiness as she restrained the four chubby limbs growing out of the wailing creature's front with her coding magic forcefield.

Alain jumped up via thick pipes running along the wall towards the flat head with two eyes on each side of the hole that was its nose, and rammed his short, black carbon sword into the top of the creatures skull with a loud, sickening crack. The girls jumped back as the creature's wail faded and slumped forward, and Alain jumped away just before it struck the floor with a deep and dull thud.

'We did it!' cheered Tiness and hugged Alain tight. 'We beat it!'

'That was exhilarating!' said Asitha and slumped against the both of them in a tired hug. 'First that battle against those nimble and deadly service droids, then this monster.' She stretched and groaned. 'It's been a long time since I moved this much, even if we did most from the couch.'

Alain chuckled. 'I know how you feel. I think this is even more strenuous than using the exercise harness. The game entices you to get up more from the couch with each challenge.'

Tiness sighed. 'I will definitely not wake up before the next shift.'

'I'm sure I'll feel all my muscles later.' Alain said while he stroked their backs. 'But the fun's worth it.' He chuckled. 'It's even more fun than when I found the loophole and blasted through the game with an overpowered character.'

'I vote we do this more often instead of the mandated exercises.' said Asitha. 'This is much better as well as more fun.'

'I agree!' said Tiness. 'It won't be long before I feel more fit than ever before if we do this daily.' She looked up at Alain. 'Can we?'

Alain smiled. 'This game can generate a crap load of different opponents so there's plenty to fight. Even then, I have several more games that will get your body moving.' He looked up. 'And this is a nice motivation as well.'

Asitha and Tiness pondered for a second before they both realised what he meant. 'Is that so, eh?' said Asitha and hugged him tight. 'You want more?'

He laughed as he tensed to counter her tight embrace. 'I give! I give!' he said and grinned when she let go. 'At least until I gain a bit more strength.'

She poked his chest and smirked. 'That sounds like a challenge.'

Alain chuckled. 'I'll go train for it right away. I might just like that more than gaming.'

She smiled deviously and stretched. 'This is it for me though, I'm going to enjoy a very good sleep.'

Tiness yawned. 'Same here.'

'Then I bid you lovely partners in this adventure sweet dreams.' said Alain. 'If you] re attacked by drones or monsters though, you know whom to call for help.'

The girls giggled and went to their pods while Alain poured himself one last drink to settle down while he still felt their embraces and tried to block the thought of how their fur would feel against his skin. He downed the drink quickly and went to his pod before they'd see his growing physical condition.

Asitha sat on the edge of her bed and giggled. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid.' she said to herself while she rubbed her thighs, then sighed and rolled onto the bed, giggling softly until she fell asleep.

Tiness clutched her thick tail in front of her as she laid on her back in bed, smiling softly while smelling the faint scent of Alain in her fur from all the stroking he'd done.

***

'There! Don't let it get away!' said Alain to Tiness.

'Got it!' Tiness said while she sent a quantum blast from her hand to the last of the large woodlouse looking creatures that had attacked a group of people.

Asitha giggled at the dishevelled state of her robot frame and the clothes on Tiness and Alain. 'That's some damage we took. You hardly have anything left to cover you.'

Alain stood proud. 'And this is why I play female characters. I have no desire to look at some bulky frame of an oversized male when I can enjoy the one perk of a rough fight.'

Tiness laughed at the stance of the female whose private parts were barely hidden behind the convenient remains of her clothes. 'That just looks so wrong.'

'Hey, I'm not afraid to show off my assets.'

Asitha took a swig from her glass. 'I think you might've been drinking too much during the game.' she said and sniggered.

Alain grinned wide. 'Meh, you're just jealous because you have none to flaunt around.' he said, then noticed the furry pet of the people jumping around merrily in Tiness's direction. 'Watch out! It's going to jump up at you!'

Tiness looked up from her tattered outfit just as the animal jumped at her and filled the screen. She yelped as she tripped backwards from the surprise.

'Ouch!' she said as she rubbed her behind, then saw the shocked stares of Asitha and Alain. She looked down at herself to see her shirt had folded up to her waist and exposed her.

'You're, not..?' said Asitha softly.

Tears flew as Tiness jumped up fast and rushed to her pod.

Alain sat down. "I'm attracted to a.." he thought. "But so much cuteness, it couldn't be.." He looked up at Asitha staring towards the entrance and slowly removing her gloves. 'You didn't know? Not even a suspicion?'

She looked at him. 'No one told me, and as far as I know all Tiness's information states gender as female.' she said and looked at the entrance again. 'They would've never sent a male and female couple here in the first place. Nothing in her behaviour hinted at her secret.'

'What do we do now?'

'Maybe it's better to wait and give her time.'

Alain nodded and stood up. 'Yeah. It's time to sleep anyway.'

Asitha nodded lightly. 'Sleep tight.' she said and went to her pod.

'You too.' said Alain and went to his, pausing for a moment to stare at Tiness's door. He crawled into bed thinking about every moment they had touched each other and could not fit what they'd discovered with Tiness. He also couldn't set aside what he felt for Tiness. He groaned and stuffed a pillow in his face when he knew he he had no interest in men but Tiness still seemed as cute as always to him. He sighed and went over the whole of the game from the time when he had finished it on his own to keep his mind busy until he could fall asleep.

06 - Steadfast Support

'Tiness?' asked Asitha and knocked on her door. 'How're you feeling?' She knocked again and looked back at Alain when there was no reply.

'She wouldn't do something radical, right?' he asked.

'There's an automated alarm when the environmental system detects a sudden change in people.' Asitha said and moved away from the door. 'She likely shut off the door control because she can't face us just yet.'

Alain sighed. 'How do you feel about all this?'

'I'm not sure. I can't say if things feel different for me now.'

Alain stared at the work list in his hand. 'Yeah, same here.'

Asitha looked at him. 'Our males would be furious. You don't feel that way?'

He looked at her. 'I just feel a little lost because I thought I got to know a little about her. Now I don't know how much secrets she has.'

Asitha nodded. 'Not much use sitting around and worrying.' she said. 'I'm going to do some work for now.'

Alain looked at his list again. 'I'm going to get some work done as well. Maybe she'll come out in the meantime.'

Asitha nodded and went up the ladder to get her suit. 'See you later.'

'Later.' Alain said and went to the kitchen to see what he could pick up from the Walkurea on the way back.

***

Alain looked in the direction of Tiness's pod at the end of the next day. 'Still nothing?'

Asitha shook her head.'

'But it's been two days now.' sighed Alain. 'She must be hungry.'

Asitha smiled a little. 'I think I can imagine her shame. Silth like her are shunned and harassed in our world. I'm glad you still call her a she.'

Alain sat back in the couch. 'Well, technically she's not, but I can only think of her as female. Her whole personality is just that, and although in her own way, but I still think she's just as cute as you.'

Asitha blushed a little. 'I think that's part of why she's ashamed and frightened, you are the resident male and even if you're not Silth, she has probably only known hardship from males.'

Alain nodded.

Asitha fiddled with the tip of her tail. 'I'm afraid for her.'

Alain looked at her. 'Why? Could she still decide to do something bad to herself?'

She nodded. 'Most Silth like her end it sooner or later because they can't cope with life any longer.

Alain sat upright at once. 'Then we have to do something!'

'She won't answer the door buzzer. She's likely afraid of our reaction.'

Alain stood up. 'Is there a way to open the door?'

'I'm not sure.'

'What about emergencies?'

Asitha looked up at him. 'Oh! There is an override in case of emergencies and power loss.'