Broken Boundaries Ch. 07-08

'Engine test, done.' said Asitha and marked the list of tasks they needed to perform. 'Replaced damaged control circuitry, done.'

'I finished rigging our home with cables. The current struts are secured by weak magnetic locks and should disconnect with little force.' said Tiness. 'To be sure, most cables should break to keep the pods from tearing apart if the ships do split too far.'

Alain nodded. 'Worst case, the two ships break apart but our home is still attached to one side. I doubt it'll come to that since they're fused together pretty tight. What's left?'

'Testing the engine controls.' said Asitha. 'Since we don't know how the whole thing will react when we fire all engines we'll have to wing it during the manoeuvre.'

'I have a half filled fuel pod sitting near a dock.' Alain said. 'We'll divide it after the test when we know which side needs more.'

Tiness looked at a flashing red notice on Alain's tablet and a shiver ran down her spine. 'What's this?'

Alain looked at the tablet, then grabbed it at once. 'Hull breaches!' he said while another notice appeared. 'We're getting hit early!'

'But the debris is still at a distance!' Asitha said, knocking another tablet from the table as she took hers with the proximity detection output.

Alain ground his teeth. 'The system must be ignoring projectiles that would have been deflected by the standard shield of the ship and that's out of order! I'm such an idiot!'

'No time to blame yourself!' said Asitha. 'We have to leave now!'

They rushed to their suits and their fingers trembled while trying to perform the suit check. Alain looked at Asitha and Tiness for a moment before putting on his helmet. 'Stay safe.'

Asitha's heart pounded. 'You too.'

Tiness looked worried and nodded quickly before putting on her helmet. They left the airlocks at both sides and hurried along the hull to enter the warships while sparks flashed at some points in the distance.

'I'm inside.' said Alain after he entered the service hatch.

'We're just getting inside.' Asitha said. 'Tiness should reach the bridge in a few minutes and I'll be at engineering two or three minutes after that.'

'All right. I should have reached engineering here by that time.' said Alain and pushed and jumped through the corridors as fast as he could. 'Keep your suits on for safety.'

'We will.' said Asitha.

Tiness reached the bridge of the Amaroth and activated gravity controls at the door. 'I'm on the bridge.' she said. 'Activating the controls in a moment.' With a few button presses on the main console all the other consoles on the circular bridge came alive. Moving fast from one to the other, she turned on the critical systems and confirmed their status. 'All systems are up. No irregularities.'

'Good.' said Asitha and activated the engineering systems. 'Everything seems to be fine at my end.'

Alain plunked down two portable terminals and hooked them up to the engineering console on the Walkurea. 'I'm powering up engineering here.' he said and opened the warship's back-end console. Engineering came alive along with the consoles on the bridge. 'Get ready to ignite the engines.'

A display projected the relative position of the warships in the solar system and the trajectory of the incoming debris onto a bare wall while Alain powered up the engines. 'Power up!'

Asitha started the engines on the Amaroth and a tremor ran through both warships. 'Powered up!'

'Confirmed!' said Tiness and jumped up at several sharp cracks near and far. 'More hits!'

'Alain heard one behind him and saw flames spewing from one of the engine cases. 'Shit!'

'What!?' asked Asitha.

Alain rushed to shut down the engine. 'I only have three engines but that should still be enough!' The flight systems of the Walkurea turned green. 'Are you ready?'

'Good to go here!' said Tiness.

'Same here!' said Asitha.

'Then on my mark!' said Alain. 'Power at one percent! Three, two, one, mark!'

Asitha and he hit thrust on the consoles and another tremor ran through the ships. Asitha monitored the engine output. 'Clear!' she said.

'Clear!' said Alain. 'I'm switching to reverse!'

Deflectors around the engine exhausts opened like flower petals and directed the thrust backwards. A continuous low tremble ran through the warships. 'We're moving!' said Tiness. 'Direction three-seven-four!'

Metallic pangs resonated through the hull. 'It's raining!' said Tiness.

'Increase power to five percent over the count of ten!' Alain said and adjusted the engine controls slowly while counting.

'Done!' said Asitha.

'Tiness, roll to your right at one degree until we're at forty-three! We'll use the bottom of the ships as a shield!'

'Yes!' said Tiness and steered the ship into a rotation. 'We're moving at thirteen K with heading three-six-nine!'

Alain consulted his display. They couldn't divert too much from their current orbit, otherwise they'd drift away or fall into the sun's gravity well without the power to recover their position. 'Take heading three-seven-nine!' he said while adjusting the directional thrust of the Walkurea.

The hulls groaned at the forces on both ships and the direction of the impacts moved slowly around the ships. A thunk and a muffled explosion caused another tremor through the Walkurea's hull. 'Shit!' said Alain and switched to a view of the outside of the ship. White smoke drifted from one of the loading bay doors.

'Alain!' called out Tiness. 'What happened!? You're on fire!'

'The spare fuel pod must've been hit in a bad way and ignited in the bay!' Alain said and activated the emergency systems around the bay. 'Fire is spreading through several corridors!'

'Can't you kill it by vacuum!?'

He typed commands on one terminal. 'Too much damage! I can only open one corridor to space!' A buzz from the other terminal demanded his attention. 'Shit! One of the lines to the bridge has gone down, I'm on the backup line now!'

'Bad!?' asked Asitha.

'I will lose control if the fire spreads more! I need to stop it!'

'Can we help!?'

Alain switched to the engine controls. 'Open up a console on your tablet and listen on port twenty-two!'

Asitha did so on her tablet. 'Done!'

Alain typed more and a moment later the engine controls of the Walkurea opened up on Asitha's tablet. 'You have control of the Walkurea now, increase power output to eight percent slowly! We need to get away as fast as we can!' He hurried out of engineering. 'Tiness, keep us in orbit!'

'What are you going to do!?' she asked.

'I'm going to flush the fire!'

An alarm on the pilot's console took Tiness's attention before she could speak. 'Shaz! Engine control failure! I've lost partial control of the ship!'

'I see it!' said Asitha. 'One of the circuits we replaced failed! I'll replace it!'

'No! You need to stay at engineering! I'll go!' said Tiness and rushed out of the bridge. 'Keep the ship on course with the engines!'

Asitha placed her tablet on the engine console and adjusted the power output from both ships while the hits from debris rang around her.

Alain pushed himself through the service corridors close to the hull. The sight of holes in opposite walls reminded him of the risk of getting hit but he had no time to be afraid. If control to the bridge was lost they lost control of both ships. Heat radiating from reddening structures told him he was close to the bay and the main source of the fire. He avoided touching anything as much as possible and only briefly if he had to. Sweat poured down his face as he caught sight of the service hatch leading to the corridor connected to the one on fire and the outer hatch. Another tremor ran through the ship and the wall behind him ruptured and belched out fire.

Tiness found one of the tool cases they had left around the ship with a few spare circuit boards, and jumped through the corridors towards the failed controls. When she reached them a burned out mess of molten cables awaited her. 'Lots of damage here!'

'You'll have to fix it fast!' said Asitha. 'I can't increase the power of the engines to eight percent without pushing us out of orbit!'

'Got it! I'll work as fast as I can!'

Alain groaned from the heat and climbed through the hot hatch, his suit covered in burn marks from touching any part of the structure. Dizzy spells came over him and he forced himself to get to the outer hatch before passing out. 'Alain!?' said Asitha. 'Alain!? Are you all right!?'

'Almost, there.' he groaned and pushed himself once more towards the end.

'Alain!?' asked Tiness. 'You don't sound good!'

He caught the rung at the hatch and the locking wheel. 'Just a little, hot under the, collar.' he wheezed while turning the wheel to unlock the hatch. The hatch flew open from the air pressure and he gripped the rung tight while sensing he'd lose conscious from the heat of the fire rushing past him.

'Alain!? Alain!?' Tiness called out after a loud static burst from his side. 'Talk to us!'

'Tiness!' said Asitha. 'Focus on your task! I'm sure he'll be fine!'

Tiness clenched her jaw. She knew she had her own priority right now. 'Yes.' she said and furiously cut the damaged cables.

Asitha gripped the side of the console. "You'd better be fine, Alain." she thought.

'I'm done!' said Tiness after a few minutes and hurried back to the bridge. There, she changed course as sharp as she dared without splitting the ships apart and they shuddered while the engines made the correction. 'We're back on course!'

'All right!' said Asitha and increased engine power, increasing the stress on the ships to the point of the groaning of the hulls drowning out the staccato of the debris impacts. 'What's the status outside!?'

Tiness switched views at an engineering console. 'Our home has come loose but it looks like the cables are holding!' she said and switched views again. 'Both ships look like they're still in the same position and I see no more smoke at the Walkurea!' She tried other cameras but she couldn't get a better view of the bay where the fire erupted. 'Alain!?'Alain!? Can you hear me!?'

Alain groaned at the pounding inside his head. He remembered almost fainting and using all his willpower to reach into the front pocket of his suit. 'Alain!? Please respond! Alain!? Please!?' begged Tiness.

He cleared his throat. 'I'm still here.' he said and looked at the roll of tape wrapped around his wrist and the rung.

Tiness and Asitha sighed in relief. 'What happened!?'

'Fainted from the heat but the suit cooled down a little now.' He noticed sparks flying at the far side of the ship. 'What's the status?'

Tiness checked the pilot's console. 'We're on course. Rotation of the ships is nearly completed but there's quite some damage from the debris shower at the bottom of the Amaroth!'

'Running at eight percent power now but we had a delay when we lost control for a while.' said Asitha and looked at her tablet. 'Engines on both ship seem to run fine.'

Alain untangled his hand and crawled back up the hot corridor, the slowly cooling metal creaking at every side. 'Fuel status?'

Asitha checked. 'A little more than anticipated but still on the safe side.'

'How much longer before we're out of the target radius?'

Tiness checked the different clocks. 'Four hours and twenty-three minutes without counting the delay.'

'Hang in there, With a little luck we'll come out unharmed.'

***

The impacts of the debris lessened over time and Alain only felt relief when they were outside the projected radius and no more damage was registered for half an hour. 'I think we're safe now.' he said. 'We can reverse thrust. Asitha, power down on my mark. Tiness, reverse engine thrust next and then we can power up again to brake.'

No more words were exchanged during the braking manoeuvre and the anxiety at the groaning and creaking resonating through the hull, until Tiness spoke up again. 'We're back in original orbit and speed.' she said and sighed in relief.

'Power down.' said Alain and Asitha and he powered down the engines from the last two percent thrust. He wanted to sit down and drink but they had to make sure their home was intact first. 'Tiness, how's our home?'

Tiness had already switched views. 'Still there and doesn't seem damaged.'

'Let's go home then.' Asitha said.

She and Tiness were the first to arrive and with a little effort they returned their home to its original place and secured the struts to the warship's hulls. An inspection inside revealed no leaks and they were glad to get out of their suits and hugged each other tight. 'We made it.' sighed Asitha.

Tiness slumped down into the couch and looked around at the mess on the floor where anything not bolted down had spilled. If you don't mind, we'll leave the clean-up till later.'

Asitha picked up a bottle and glasses and slumped down next to her. 'I'm with you.'

Tiness looked up a little. 'Alain? Where are you?'

'Almost there. I had to take a look at the gardens and the store rooms. I had to know for sure if there was any damage and luckily they're intact.'

He arrived shortly after and Asitha hugged him tight when he entered the living. 'I'm so glad we're all safe.' she said.

'Same here.' he said and rubbed her back.

Tiness smiled shyly when Asitha let go. 'I'm happy you're all right.'

He chuckled and reached out to her. 'Come here.'

She blushed but moved closer and after an initial hesitation hugged him tight, and he rubbed her back. 'I don't think I could've survived this if it wasn't for you two.'

Asitha joined the hug. 'Nor we without you.'

They stood there until stomachs began to rumble and they laughed away the tension. 'I want to eat until I'm totally stuffed and drink until I can't lift my glass anymore.' Alain said.

'Not just you.' said Asitha and headed over to the kitchen to pick up utensils. 'We have something to seriously celebrate.'

08 - Family Additions

Alain barely woke up with Asitha and Tiness snuggled up to him and felt tired, but not the bad kind of tired. It had a sense of accomplishment and he knew the reason very well. They had worked hard and managed to avoid a likely fatal end from the debris tearing the warships and their home apart. He stroked the girls' backs softly. "No two ways about it, I am very lucky to have ended up here in the end." he thought. "I wouldn't trade living with these two for anything."

He stopped stroking and wondered if they hadn't yet cleared the debris because they were still sleeping together. He played back his memories and was sure they had done, then ate and drink until they had their fill, and then memories became hazy and with effort he realised they'd got up from the couch and with mutual support went to bed because they were too tired to get to their own by themselves. He chuckled silently. "No wonder." The two snuggled up tight at his side and in his arms was still a pleasant surprise to him and he stroked their back softly again.

Asitha stirred at his side and snuggled up tighter. It might've been because of the last days but she felt more comfortable than she could imagine from a bed in an emergency pod, even if they'd made it as cosy as they had. She thought the gentle stroking of her back and the warm embrace was probably the reason and she was happy to be with Alain. "Alain!?" she thought and remembered sleeping once more in his bed because she was too tired to find her own. That wasn't the only reason though when a little voice in her head reminded her of the last couple of times they slept together, and how she'd always imagined that's how it was to live with a good mate. "He said we were cute and wanted to stay together but would he go as far as to become my mate? To actually be..?" The image of the two of them in intimacy brought back the memory of her sitting in his neck and the sensation of someone other than herself touching her there.

Tiness dared not move when she woke up and instantly knew where she was. It made her both giddy and nervous and she didn't want anything to end the situation she was in, even if this was all she would get from him. The time he pressed against her back and the sensation of his hips against her behind was something she told herself was a fluke, something that was unavoidable because of the circumstances, and that wishing he'd go all the way with her a futile dream. She wished his fingers stroking her back gently would stroke her underneath her tail as well.

Asitha's leg on his, and her hips pressing against his thigh, and Tiness's tail rubbing against his front brought back the memories of his close encounters with the girls and stirred his nether regions. He didn't know what to think anymore as doubts about just how deep his attraction to these girls was and how far he was willing to go with Tiness, and if they could accept that he couldn't choose between the two of them and if Asitha would be disgusted if he did choose to sleep with Tiness. He groaned in frustration.

'Alain? Are you in pain?' whispered Asitha.

He opened his eyes to see her and Tiness looking worried at him. His heart pounded at the sight of these two looking intense at him and he wanted to pull them tight and tell them he loved them. 'I'm all right.' he sighed. 'Just the tiredness rearing it's ugly head now that it's over.'

The look in their eyes softened and he cursed himself for his cowardliness. Asitha stroked his forehead. 'We have a good excuse to take it easy for a while. I don't think either of our sides will expect us to continue our work right away after all we did to save the ships. How about we clean up and then laze around?'

He chuckled. 'I like that idea.' he said and they looked at Tiness. 'I'm all for it.' she said.

After a quick clean up they prepared snacks and drinks and sank down in the couch. 'What now?'Alain asked.

'Movie?' said Tiness. 'To ease into things.'

'Good idea.' Asitha said.'

'All right, movie it is.' said Alain and gave Tiness the remote. 'Your choice.'

Tiness scrolled through the list while Alain poured drinks and selected a fantasy trilogy. Soon enough the girls cuddled up with Alain unconsciously while being engrossed into the movie. He himself only realised it when he already had his hands on their thighs and stroked the insides slowly with his thumbs, and he glanced sideways at them. If they showed any reaction it was them moving their legs against his and holding his arms even tighter against them in their embrace and he continued caressing their soft fur.

Halfway into the movie, the female knight knelt beside the wounded dragon that had helped her defeat the treacherous duke. 'Grego..' she said softly and caressed his cheek. 'Why? I was sent to defeat you.'

He smiled softly at her. 'A dragon's weakness, pretty maidens who try their earnest best to protect others and make them happy. Our nature compels us to support them even if they hates us.'

A tear rolled down her cheek. 'I don't hate you.' she whispered.

The girls gripped Alain's arms tighter and he smiled softly. 'I don't want to see the rest if they can't be together.' said Tiness softly.

'Don't worry.' whispered Alain and she relaxed her grip a little.

'If only real life were as simple as these movies.' Asitha said. 'We wouldn't have to live with all these hostilities between our species.'

Alain chuckled. 'If it was up to me I'd tell everyone Silth women are great.'

Asitha giggled. 'On what basis?'

'I admit, I only know the two of you but even if you were the only two nice ones, plenty of men would still want to be with a cute or sexy feline woman.'

She poked his cheek. 'You're full of it, as they say on your world.'

He grinned. 'Sort of.' he said. 'Which is why I need to excuse myself now.'

She giggled as he stood up and looked at Tiness staring after him. She knew that look all too well. 'You're in love with him, right?'