Broken Boundaries Ch. 07-08

'I'll try to approach it.' said Alain.

'Be careful!' said Tiness and gripped her gun.

'I'll back off at the first sign of a threat.' he said and pushed himself gently towards a pillar in front of him. 'I'll move step by step.' The spider stayed motionless on the wall while he paused for a minute at the pillar and observed the spider. He did the same at the bench he paused at next, and another pillar after that, close enough to see it had two black lenses at the front of its head and a smaller set behind them on the side. Its abdomen had a crab shell contour and was somewhat flat. 'This thing's pretty big now that I see it up close. The body's about the size of my torso. I'm going to move to the bench in front of it.'

Tiness felt her heartbeat in her throat. 'Please be careful, darling.'

Alain blushed and nearly slipped as he pushed himself away from the pillar but the spider moved and darted across the open space towards an open air vent. 'Alain!' said Asitha.

'Nothing happened!' he said and turned to see where the spider went, just in time to see it slip into the duct. 'Crap! It just shot away from nothing!'

'Did you see how?' Asitha asked while she jumped into his direction, following Tiness.

'I didn't see anything like a jet thrust but I thought I saw something shooting through the air before it jumped.'

Tiness pulled close to Alain and looked at the air vent. 'We're not going to find it in there.'

'Maybe we caught something on the feeds.' said Alain. 'Let's go check them out.'

They returned to the bridge and Tiness pulled up all the feeds with footage of the spider, and they watched them closely for any clue on the spider. When they were watching the feed from the rest area Asitha chuckled suddenly. 'What's up?' asked Alain bemused.

She grinned a little at Tiness. 'Darling.'

Tiness blushed at once. 'I just blurted it out because I was worried!'

Asitha giggled. 'Nothing wrong with that. It was just so sudden for the first time.'

Tiness glanced at Alain, who blushed as well. 'If you don't like it..?'

He leaned closer to her and kissed her. 'I do like it.' he said and chuckled. 'I just don't know what to call you two yet.'

Asitha pouted. 'I don't know either but does that mean I don't get a kiss?'

Alain laughed once and pulled her closer for a kiss. 'I have kisses for you two any time you want one.'

She grinned. 'All right then.'

'Ah!' said Tiness.

The two others looked startled at her. She pointed at the screen. 'Sorry, it was just that the spider escaped just now.' she said and rewound the video.

Alain chuckled. 'Right, we were busy with that before we got distracted.' he said. 'Although in a very nice way.'

They watched the feed again and Alain pointed at the screen. 'It turned a bit and extended two legs before it jumped.'

Tiness rewound and played it in slow motion. 'Wait! did you see that?' asked Asitha. 'Something shot across the screen.'

'Maybe I can overlay the images to make it clearer.' said Tiness and worked on the console. The image blurred at some points but contrast increased on others. 'That's it!' said Asitha.

The three of them looked at thin wires extending from the tips of the spider's raised legs. 'It pulls itself across open space by wires.' said Alain. 'That's what I call a very interesting feature.'

'Do we try to trap it again?' asked Tiness.

Asitha pondered. 'We don't really have anything to trap it with while it can escape from us with those wires.'

Alain leaned back and frowned in thought while Tiness watched the spider return to the crates and scurry around. 'What if we don't try to trap it but have it come to us instead?'

Asitha and Alain looked at her. 'How?' he asked.

She nodded at the screen where the spider pawed at the robot parts again. 'Maybe it just wants someone to fix it?'

'Disposal storage.' said Asitha when they arrived at the spider's compartment. 'Everything in here would've been trashed anyway, so maybe that's why they didn't bother clearing it after the crash.'

They shone lights inside and as expected didn't see the spider. Looking closer at the crates they noticed they contained mostly defective electronic and mechanical parts. Alain turned over the crate with the spilled robotic parts and looked inside. 'These must be the spare parts for that thing.'

Asitha reached inside and took out a portable terminal. 'Maybe this'll give us a clue.' she said and booted it up. The screen opened up on a selection menu and she chose documentation. 'It's an experimental drone for the military. This terminal contains all the technical documentation.'

'Nice.' said Tiness. 'Then we can try to fix it.'

Asitha nodded and returned to the menu. 'It has a command console.' she said and opened it and text scrolled up. 'This is output from the spider's operating system.' she read the last few lines. 'Avoiding hostiles.' it says.

Tiness noticed movement at the doorway. 'It's here!'

They saw the spider near the doorway just before it vanished into the shadows again. Asitha read the additional output. 'Return to maker it says. It must be trying to find the ones who created it.'

'And it probably sees us as hostiles because we're armed.' said Tiness.

'Shall we see if it comes to us if we show we can repair it?' asked Alain as he looked at the leg in his glove.

***

'It's here.' said Asitha while she monitored the spider's command console. 'It designated us unknown entities.'

'I see it at the entrance in front of us.' said Tiness. 'It worked.'

Alain looked at the spare parts in front of him on the floor of the rest area. They had sealed off and pressurised the whole section so they could get out of their suits and wait for the spider to find them with the crate they'd taken from the storage. 'I hope these parts work though.'

Tiness scrolled through a log on a tablet they'd found in the crate as well. 'I think so. These should be spare parts for the test they performed on this thing. From the sound of the notes the team that built it wasn't very happy with it getting turned into a military project, and certainly not when they said it wasn't ready for battle testing.' She skimmed further. 'The operating system is an AI based on the behaviour of a loyal pet and they feared it couldn't handle threats of destruction. They took it and put it through a field test anyway and declared it unsuitable after it was shot.'

'That explains the damage.' said Asitha. 'And why it's reacting to us in this way when it's a new AI and hasn't learned to interact much.'

'We'll just have try if we can get through to it if we treat it as a smart pet.' said Alain and picked up a segment of a leg. 'Can you show me the construction prints?' Tiness held up the tablet for him to read and he attached two leg segments together in a clear way for the spider to see. 'So, there's a coil of wire inside the thick middle segment of the leg, with an end that can cling to surfaces through a tiny electric charge. That end is either fixed to the tip of the leg or shot like a bullet towards a surface.' He held up the section of leg for a moment. 'Any change in status?'

'No.' said Asitha. 'That might be a good thing though.'

Alain attached the inner segment of the leg and held it up. 'I see its threat index lowered.' said Asitha.

'It must be realising we're not a threat.' said Tiness. 'We can do this.'

Alain looked at the leg. 'I'm going to try something.' he said and stood up.

'What are you going to do?' asked Tiness.

He chuckled. 'Show off my brilliant construction work.' he said and moved towards the spider.

'Stop!' said Asitha when he was halfway to the entrance. 'Threat index went up.'

'Okay.' he said, put down the assembled leg on the floor and gave it a push to slide it further towards the spider, and moved backwards to the girls and sat down. 'Now, we wait.'

The spider crawled forward after a little while. 'Examine.' said Asitha in a hushed voice. It moved carefully towards the leg and when it reached it a little later it pawed it and rolled it over. Asitha hummed low. 'Your work wasn't that good.

He looked at her. 'What? Why?'

'It only says potential maker found.'

He snorted and coughed while she grinned and Tiness laughed. 'Fine.' he said and cleared his throat. 'I'll assemble another leg. It needs two new ones anyway.'

The second leg was assembled quicker and Alain moved towards the spider until it backed away, then slid it across the floor before returning to the girls.

'Good job, threat index is lowered again.' said Asitha.

They watched the spider paw at the second leg and take it into its mandibles, then wait. 'Status?' asked Alain.

'I'm not sure.' said Asitha. There's no other change I'm aware of.'

'Maybe it's reluctant to come closer because we're here next to Alain.' said Tiness. 'We should try moving further back.' She put down the tablet for Alain and moved further back with Asitha.

'Yes, threat index went down.' said Asitha and the spider moved bit by bit towards Alain.

When it was near him, Alain held up the tablet with the assembly instructions for attaching the leg to the body for the spider to see. 'Shall I replace your damaged leg?' The spider moved forward again, put down the leg in front of him, and turned his side towards him. 'You'd better upgrade me from potential maker after this.'

Alain took his time to remove the remains of its leg to avoid being seen as a threat again from sudden moves, and checked every step while attaching the new leg. 'This should be done.' he said and sat up. 'Test it.'

The spider turned around both ways, moved the leg in all directions, shot the wire towards a wall, and retracted it. It went for the first leg Alain had assembled and returned it to him to replace the other damaged leg. 'You are now a fully fledged maker.' chuckled Asitha.

'Good. My reputation and pride as a tinkerer was at stake.'

The second leg passed the test and it seemed to Alain the spider acted less wary. 'Threat index is very low.' said Asitha. 'Tiness, try moving towards Alain.' Tiness stood up and halfway towards Alain Asitha said "Stop'.

Alain fished out a replacement piece for the part of the spider's wide and flattened abdomen, and held it out towards her. The spider kept still for a moment, then turned its abdomen towards Alain. 'Your turn.'

Tiness replaced the damaged shell and Asitha chuckled. 'Second maker found.'

Alain raised his eyebrow at the spider. 'Hey, why did you designate her as maker right away and me as only potential first!?'

Tiness giggled. 'A female's touch?'

Alain frowned at the spider. 'Don't try to charm your way with them, they're my girls.'

Asitha laughed out loud. 'It just logged potential resource conflict.'

***

By the time the three had replaced every broken part of the spider and it passed all testing procedures, they were mostly familiar with its workings. Its threat index had gone down to zero and Tiness used a rag to rub as much of the grime as possible from its body and its eyes. 'Did you see any mention of a name for it in the documentation?' she asked Asitha.

'Only the technical project name.' said Asitha. 'Not even useful to base a name on.'

Tiness looked at the spider. 'What name would suit you?'

'How about Spidley?' said Alain.

'Spidley?' Tiness asked and looked at Alain.

He chuckled. 'There's this superhero character on our planet called Spiderguy.' he said. 'The way this spider drone can move with the help of wires reminded me of him and his creator Steve Lee. Then it just popped up in my head, Spidley.'

Tiness giggled and looked at the spider. 'Is that fine with you, Spidley?'

Asitha chuckled. 'The designation in the console just changed to Spidley.'

Tiness hugged the spider. 'You're now a member of the family!'

Alain shook his head and smiled. 'Can this family get any weirder?'

Asitha smiled at him. 'I think there's enough potential here.' she said and he laughed.

'We do need to do something about your looks though.' Tiness said to Spidley. 'These bare parts and grey colour don't suit you.'

'There's a supply of spray paint on the Walkurea.' said Alain. 'We can give him any colour you want.'

Tiness hummed while she looked at Spidley. 'I think I know!' she said and took the tablet. After a flurry of gestures she showed it to him. 'What do you think?'

Spidley touched the tablet with one leg.

'He must like it.' said Asitha. 'What did you choose?'

Tiness grinned. 'Secret.' she said and looked at Spidley. 'Shall we do it right now?' Spidley raised a leg and she looked at Alain. 'Where can we find the paint?'

***

Asitha chuckled while she and Alain went back home and Tiness and Spidley were busy with his new paint job in the Walkurea's storage. 'This job has turned out even further from what I had imagined when they sent me here.' she said as they moved along the safety rungs on Amaroth's hull.

'Same here.' said Alain. 'I could imagine myself with a real pet, but a spider, and a robotic one on top of that?'

'I think it'll add to the fun we have. I'm glad we're not a normal family.' said Tiness over the radio.

Alain chuckled. 'Yeah.'

Asitha hooked herself to the next rung and jumped forward. The hook snagged on a deep cut and the rung broke in two. 'ALAIN!' screamed Asitha as she tumbled away from the hull.

Alain didn't take a moment to think. He unhooked himself and jumped up with all his strength towards Asitha.

He grabbed the back of her suit, and threw her as hard as he could towards the hull.

Asitha grabbed the first thing she could hold on to and turned around. 'ALAIN! ALAIN!'

'What's going on!?' asked Tiness while her fur stood up straight in fear.

'I fell away from the hull but Alain jumped after me and pulled me back but now he's falling away!' said Asitha.

'Shit!' said Alain. 'Go find that cargo picker to pick me up!'

Tiness rushed to pull on her suit. 'I'm on my way! Where is it!?'

Fear gripped Alain's heart. 'Oh FUCK!'

'What is it!?'

'It was damaged in the fire!'

Asitha's heart stood still as she looked at Alain tumbling farther away from her. 'Another! There must be another!'

'I'm going to search it!' said Tiness, suppressing her panic while she donned her suit, then saw Spidley shoot away along his wires. 'Spidley!?'

Asitha tore her eyes away from Alain to rush back to the outer hatch of the Amaroth and search for anything that could fly and rescue the one she loved dearly. She reached the hatch and yelped when Spidley shot out of it, devoid of most of his shell.

He oriented himself for a moment, then jumped towards Alain.

'Spidley!?' said Asitha as she watched him fly off.

Alain saw the drone head towards him. 'Spidley!' he said and reached out to him.

The next moment wires hit his arm and he wrapped them around his wrist. Careful not to break the hold on the hull, Spidley slowed down Alain, then reeled him back in.

'Alain!' cried Asitha and hugged him as tight as she could in their suits.

He pat her on her shoulder. 'I'm safe now, I'm safe.' he said and took hold of one of Spidley's forelegs. 'Thank you, you saved my life.'

Spidley put his other leg on Alain's glove.

Tiness rushed towards Alain and hugged him as well. 'You really scared us!' she panted.

'It's all right now, all thanks to Spidley.'

She pat Spidley's head. 'You're awesome.'

After everyone had calmed down, they discovered the reason for the accident was the rung getting damaged by the early debris impacts and they moved carefully along the hull towards their home with Spidley in tow to throw a lifeline if another accident happened. Tiness went on to finish his paint job because she thought he really deserved it, while Asitha and Alain continued with their plan of getting ready to eat.

Out of their suits, Asitha pulled Alain close and kissed him urgently until they parted out of breath. 'Wow.' he wheezed. 'What just happened?'

She caressed his cheek. 'Because you saved my life.'

He smiled softly at her and caressed her ear. 'I need to do that more often.'

She frowned at him and tears welled up in her eyes. 'Not at the cost of your own!' she said and hit his shoulder, then wiped her wet cheek. 'Sorry.'

He pulled her head against his shoulder and stroked her back gently. 'No need, my love, no need. I'm sorry I made a stupid joke.' he whispered while she trembled against him.

***

By the time Tiness and Spidley returned, Asitha had calmed down and abundant food was prepared. Tiness hurried into the living and kissed Alain passionately. She blushed when she pulled back. 'I couldn't stop thinking of this all this time, sorry.'

Alain smiled at her. 'Never, ever be sorry for this, cutie.'

She smiled softly at him, then hopped back to the hatch. 'It's time to present the star of the day, Spidley!'

Spidley came in and Asitha and Alain smiled. 'He looks great!' said Asitha as she moved up to him and knelt to admire his white body, with the thick middle segments of his legs in sky blue and a stripe down the middle of his abdomen in the same colour, on top as well as underneath.

'You did a great job.' said Alain and pulled her gently against his side by her waist. 'Spidley, welcome to your new home.'

Spidley waved his two forelegs.

***

'Asitha?' asked Alain while he lay in bed after they wanted to turn in early and she and Tiness stood at the end. Her purring was soft but the urgency unmistakable.

She sighed and clenched her thighs together while her tail swayed left and right. 'I can't wait any longer.'

He nodded and she crawled onto the bed, her eyes locked on his, and she kissed him as urgently as her body desired for his.

She pulled back and lay on her side and Alain looked at Tiness fiddling with her shirt while her ears were flat and her tail wrapped around her legs. 'I'll leave you two alone then.' she muttered.

'Tiness,' Alain said before she moved. 'when I realised I couldn't be saved I was frightened to death. Not for me dying, but me losing the both of you and leaving you by yourself.'

She looked at him.

'Get in bed right now or I'll take you right there where you stand.'

Her ears stood up and a wide smile grew on her face when the meaning of his words took hold. She barely held back on cheering and jumping into bed but she still hurried to be by his side. He pulled her close and kissed her deep.

Asitha giggled at Tiness's dreamy look in her eyes and Alain caressed their cheeks. 'I just can't get enough of looking at your cute faces.'

Asitha reached down his front. 'I hope you have more in mind than looking at us.'

He smiled while his whole body grew hotter. 'A lot more.' he said and slid his fingers down their soft backs and underneath their quivering tails while kissing them passionately again.

***

Asitha and Tiness snuggled tight against Alain and purred in great satisfaction and caressed his front while he dug his fingers deep into their soft back fur and alternated kissing between them. 'I don't have words for how good I feel right now.' he whispered.

Asitha stroked down to his abdomen. 'I have nothing better to wish for, my love.'

Tiness giggled softly and kissed Alain's neck. 'The only wish I can think of is more of you deep inside me.' she whispered, and tingles of excitement crept through her body from her toes upwards and caused her tail to quiver again.

Alain chuckled, kissed her, and caressed her muzzle with his nose. 'Be careful what you wish for, cutie, this isn't the only place I'll do it in.'

Tiness smiled softly at him. 'You don't have any hesitation any longer?'

'I'm completely comfortable with you if you're satisfied with me.'

Tiness kissed him again. 'I'm perfectly satisfied with you.'

Asitha giggled and poked Tiness's nose. 'Seems you enjoyed being our plaything as well.'