Highway to Krell - Hetero Edition

Clayton hesitated for a moment before replying, a scowl on his face.

"I...I can't be sure. I will need to perform some tests, take some tissue samples, do you think we can goad him into the X-ray machine?"

"Webber says they're compliant, just tell him where you need him to go, and he probably will. The rest of us have more work to do."

"I would like to stay and help Doctor Clayton," Sousa announced eagerly, but Kate cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"Negative, Doctor Clayton will study the specimens on his own, meanwhile I want Doctor Webber to return to the Krell barracks and see what she can find out. Ask them about this one, ask them about the lizards, take your time and interview as many as you can. I'm not satisfied with what we got out of them on our last visit, but since we found no physical evidence of their involvement we should take our investigation elsewhere."

"O-On my own?" Webber asked, a touch of fear in her voice.

"Come now Doctor, they're friendly and compliant, you said as much yourself. I'm not asking you to bunk with Borealans, just to interview some Krell. The rest of us have field work to do."

"What do you mean by field work?" Sousa asked suspiciously.

"We're going into the vents."

"I didn't sign up for this," Sousa complained as he crawled through the ventilation duct on his hands and knees. They were deep inside the air filtration system now, miles and miles of interlinked ducts that transported fresh air around the station and carried away the waste gasses for recycling. Sousa, Dubois and Reid were crawling in single file, with an engineer clad in yellow overalls at their head, his helmet-mounted flashlight illuminating their way in the gloomy passages.

"I didn't even sign up," Dubois complained from the back, his tone surly. "I got conscripted like some muddy colonist in the planetary defense force."

"Your complaining won't speed this up," Kate chided, then the engineer leading them stopped and sat.

"Take a breather," he advised, pulling up a map on his tablet computer. "I need to figure out where we are and where we're going next."

"We need to get above the mess hall, we know that's where some of them ended up."

"Affirmative Doctor Reid, but these systems are like a maze, if you don't want to get lost in here we need to keep a very close eye on where we've been. Right now we're in duct Q4-807, that stands for the eight hundred and seventh passageway in the fourth quarter of the torus, which puts us at maybe a ten minute crawl from the mess hall."

Dubois leaned against one wall of the vent, rubbing his scuffed knees.

"How do you guys keep track of all this? What 'appens when a fan dies or something like that?"

"Well, then we come in and fix it. Sensors alert us to the general area where a malfunction or breakdown occurs, then we shut down the fan system in that area so we can reach it and repair it."

"So that's why there's no airflow?"

"That's right, can't have people turning tight corners and walking into fans, that's one mess they don't pay me enough to clean up."

"Don't people need air?" Dubois asked, his tone a little sarcastic.

"Yes, but there are redundant systems that can temporarily handle the load. This is a battle station after all, fully equipped for sieges, the Pinwheel can take a lot of damage and still keep the life support systems running." The engineer tapped at the screen in the gloom, the glow illuminating his grizzled face in a blue light, then after a few moments he waved them forward. "Ok, we take the next left down here, stay close and don't get lost. Without the station blueprints you'd probably die of thirst before you made it out on your own."

"That's encouraging," Dubois muttered as he began to crawl again.

They traipsed through the winding maze, turning corner after corner, with no sense of direction or distance in the cramped space. Their engineer guide was correct, without the map they would certainly become hopelessly lost, if you laid these vents out end to end they would probably stretch down to the damned planet the facility orbited.

As they rounded another corner there was the sound of startled scurrying, tiny claws scratching on metal and echoing into the distance. Kate pushed past the engineer, turning on a handheld flashlight and shining the beam down the vent. She illuminated a very frightened lizard, its beady eyes reflecting in the darkness. It chirped and scrambled away around a corner and out of view.

"There's one! After it!"

"Hang on Doctor Reid," the engineer complained as she jostled past him. "Don't get too far ahead, or you'll lose sight of us!"

She didn't heed his warning, her eyes fixed on her prize as she rushed around the bend on her knees, stumbling as her long lab coat caught underneath her. These damned vents were just slightly too low to crouch in, she would never catch one of the agile little creatures in this manner. That wasn't the objective though, she had to keep it in sight long enough to see which direction it fled in, logic dictated that frightened animals would flee towards the safety of their nests.

She slowed and peeked around the next corner, trying to catch the little creature by surprise, her flashlight aimed at the floor to dim the beam. There was light here, slats in the bottom of the ventilation shaft allowed beams to pass up from what was presumably the mess hall, motes of dust hanging in their golden glow. There were lizards, at least a dozen of them, her quarry slowing to join the safety of their huddle. As she brought the light to bear on them they scattered, skittering across the metal floor and hissing as they vanished into the darkness. They were all headed off in the same direction, Kate wanted to pursue them but she thought it wiser to wait for the engineer before proceeding. She realized there was an odd smell in the air, and she shuffled forward a little to take a look through the slats. They were indeed over the mess hall now, above the kitchen to be precise, the scents from the cooking food rising to the ventilation system. That must be what had drawn so many of them here, the promise of food. There were no insects or pests for them to hunt on the station, and Kate wondered if they were cannibalistic, that might help ease her problem somewhat.

The rest of the group caught up with her, shuffling on their hands and knees as they rounded the bend.

"You see where they went, Doctor Reid?" Sousa asked, out of breath.

"Yeah, they all went in the same direction, if I'm right they have a nest down here somewhere. Maybe that's where they've been breeding. Follow me."

CHAPTER 3: GOOD VIBRATIONS

Webber walked up the path that led to the entrance of the Krell barracks, her tablet computer clutched tightly to her chest as her heeled shoes clicked on the artificial stone, passing beneath the palm trees and decorative ferns while loitering Krell turned to watch her with curious eyes. She didn't wear the heels for show, they were not flashy or sexy, merely in order to gain a crucial inch so that her taller colleagues might take her more seriously. At five feet and four inches she was so often overlooked or treated like a girl, while her credentials put her at the top of the list of xenolinguists for a hundred light years. Though prominent in her field, at times like this her timid demeanor let her down.

She weaved out of the way of a passing alien and brushed her straight, blonde hair from her eyes, adjusting her spectacles and trying to avoid being stepped on by the giant reptile as it lumbered past. She had nothing to fear from a logical standpoint, the Krell were not aggressive or dangerous, in fact they were a damn sight friendlier than most humans she might come across on the station. Still, she was a slight woman, small in stature and meek in temperament. She was most at home transcribing alien texts at her desk, or subtitling exolanguage broadcasts for human consumption, all of this field work was putting her far outside of her comfort zone.

She didn't resent being reassigned to Reid's team, but even if she had the authority to refuse the order, she would probably have lacked the will to stand up to the intimidating security chief. The man was made of scars and metal, on this station his word was law.

She passed through the Krell-sized automatic door and wandered into the barracks, wondering if she could find the individual she had spoken to the day before, she might feel more at ease if she could see a familiar face. There were familiar faces all around her however, the damned aliens were impossible to tell apart at a glance. Sousa would know how to identify them, the number of teeth jutting from their jaws, the shape of the scales or some other biologist trick that wouldn't be evident to her.

As she wandered through the building, she realized that she wasn't entirely sure what Reid had wanted. Interviews yes, information on the odd Krell they had found, but getting anything more complex than a 'yes' or 'no' answer was going to be an ordeal. She had some translation software on her tablet that might help though, as much as the program struggled it could at least supplement her own knowledge in cases where the frequencies were too low for her to hear.

As she approached the common room where the pools were, she heard one such sound, a low rumbling that vibrated her bones and set her teeth on edge. It was like a low growl, but it didn't sound aggressive. It wasn't a part of their language that she recognized, and so she inched forward to peer around the door frame so as not to disturb them. The room was packed with Krell, the corridor and the bedrooms she had passed had been empty but there were two dozen here, crowded around the shallow pools and stacked on top of one another. The rumbling was coming from one such pile, an especially large specimen was lounging with his head in the water, too shallow to submerge it completely but deep enough to cover his lower jaw. He seemed to be vibrating the water so that it splashed and danced in mesmerizing patterns, the noise of his growl so incredibly deep and low that it washed over her more like a physical force than a sound. She broke out of her stupor and hastily turned on her tablet computer, recording the odd vocalization as the display continued.

Before long other Krell had joined him, they lay quite still in the water, yet the surface jumped and vibrated as if it were full of tiny, hyperactive fish. The readout on her tablet showed a frequency of twenty two hertz, plotting a graph of the sound as it continued to record. It was starting to give her a headache, it was too intense, she could feel it penetrate her very body.

In fact the powerful vibrations were beginning to bother her in a different, more private way. How on Earth did they produce such a powerful sound? Webber was torn between staying to document the odd display, possibly never witnessed by humans before, and leaving to preserve her modesty. Perhaps she could stash the tablet computer somewhere nearby, and then return to collect it later?

There was a flurry of splashing and activity from one of the pools, drawing Webber's attention, and she dropped her train of thought as she crept closer to see what was happening. She peeked around the door, the hallway and rooms behind her conspicuously deserted. The largest Krell who had started the strange chorus of rumbling calls was man-handling a smaller specimen, wrestling it to the ground and...mounting it? Her face burned crimson as she placed a hand over her mouth, the sound must be a mating call of some kind, nobody had ever seen the Krell mate before. Yet how was that possible? These Krell were all male, did homosexuality exist in this species? Somehow she doubted it, they would have seen some sign of it before now.

As her glasses began to mist from the intense humidity, she watched the smaller alien struggle, splashing in the water before appearing to accept the larger Krell. It raised its rump, wide hips and a fat tail...wait!

The shape of its body, the fat transported to the hips and thighs, the stunted snout, this was another example of the strange specimen they had encountered earlier in the day. There were more of them, that proved beyond a doubt that what they had taken back to the lab for examination was not some kind of genetic defect or a subspecies, but could it be a female? The Krell had never presented a female of their race to a human before, it was presumed that they were confined to the homeworld, perhaps due to a primitive chauvinistic culture that valued its female members only as mothers to be protected. That was all speculation though, all anyone knew was that the UNN only ever encountered male Krell, they provided only male soldiers to fulfill their commitment to the Coalition.

The massive Krell penetrated its partner with a low grunt, thankfully their coupling was out of view from Webber's perspective. She couldn't see a lot between the recessed pool and the piles of Krell, but she could hear it, powerful thrusts slapping against flesh, growls and grunts of effort and glee as they copulated in the pile of shifting bodies.

She pulled her eyes away from the scene, her back against the wall, should she be watching this? Was she peeping, did the Krell have the same concepts of modesty and privacy as humans? The damned vibrating call was effecting her, the rumbling traveling up through the metal floor as she sat on it, her heart quickening and an embarrassing wet patch forming in her underwear. She was wearing a long skirt under her lab coat, she had considered it demure, but now she felt exposed. Her face burned feverishly hot, sweat making her clothing stick to her skin as the heat and stifling humidity washed over her, the rumbling and the sound of rutting from the common room...it was all making her head spin.

"Come on Lena, get a hold of yourself," she muttered under her breath, trying to stand on her shaky legs. She risked another quick glance past the door, at least it was intended to be quick, now her eyes lingered on the mating pair. Most of the Krell who had been obscuring her view had dispersed and the sound was now diminishing, had they perhaps missed their chance to get in on the action? In parting they had given her a better view of the sordid scene, the massive, muscular Krell leaning over his mate as...whatever gender it was...rocked with his powerful thrusts.

She couldn't take her eyes off them, and she wiped the lenses of her glasses with her sleeve as she watched the enormous male slam into his mate, driving a sharp cry from it as it squirmed and wriggled. It wasn't a cry of pain, but of pleasure, intense from the looks of things. The male was a golem of scales and muscle, broad shouldered with a massive chest, his biceps bulging from beneath his leathery skin as he moved. The sheer mass of the thing...a shame she couldn't see their genitals from this vantage point.

She startled herself with her intrusive, indecent thought, dragging herself away and trying to get herself back under control. It was time to leave, the heat was effecting her judgment, that must be it. She was soaked in sweat, wet in more ways than one, and somewhat ashamed of her lack of self control. Sure she might not have had a steady boyfriend since grad school, but she was a sophisticated woman, playing voyeur to an alien coupling was beneath her. She needed a change of clothes and a bath, some time with the shower head would set her straight.

As she moved to leave she was blocked by a wall of scales the color of spinach, her heart skipping and her hands shooting to her mouth to muffle her surprised yelp. The Krell had simply been leaving the common room, he was only now noticing her, and turned his head to look down at the trembling human who was hiding behind the doorway. She had been caught, a wave of shame washed over her and she felt as if the heat from her cheeks might melt the frames of her glasses.

The Krell was enormous, almost as large as the one who had initiated the mating call and was now reaping the spoils of his efforts in the next room, eight feet tall despite his hunched posture and a good fourteen feet from nose to tail. He was just as heavily muscled, though he had more fat around his belly and tail that gave him a kind of strongman physique. He peered down at Webber with his amber eyes, blinking the nictitating membranes that served as a third eyelid, his nostrils flaring as he examined her.

Was he going to pick her up by the collar of her lab coat and toss her out into the torus? She tried to stammer an excuse in English, all of her training forgotten under the intense stare of the alien. He was only a foot away from her, she could smell him, like wet leather as the damp air clung to his thick scales.

"I-I wasn't...I'll...I should leave," she stuttered, her lower lip trembling and her heart pounding in her ears. As she tried to slink away to the right, the alien placed his hand against the wall to block her passage, his arm thicker than her thighs and his seven stubby fingers splayed across the metal. She looked up at him again, now afraid, but he didn't look angry.

He loosed a low frequency rumble, shaking her bones and sending more of those arousing vibrations through her loins, another mating call. She tried to swallow, her throat dry suddenly despite the humid air, her thighs trembling as a telltale strand of her excitement fell from beneath her skirt.

Was he propositioning her? Oh God, oh God, what should she do? She knew the Krell words for 'no' and 'stop', simple concepts that were easy to get across, and yet...

As he leaned down to press his snout into her hair, his hot breath blowing on her scalp, the words didn't come. He roamed further down, his jagged jaws opening to reveal a purple tongue that glanced her skin, hot and wet as he tasted her sweat. She found herself leaning aside to allow him access, those jaws could have shred her flesh like pulled pork, but somehow she knew what he wanted from her. She had never been so aroused in her life, she was flowing like a faucet, her head spinning so much that she feared she might faint. His tongue wormed its way down her blouse, pressing between her pert breasts and leaving a trail of thick saliva, her heart hammered in her chest as she realized it was as long as her damned arm. Oh, the things he might be able to do to her with that tongue...it didn't bear thinking about.

She was rubbing her thighs together, lost in the haze of arousal and heat, and she started to slide her lab coat off her shoulders. This was dumb, this was really dumb, were they even sexually compatible? His...thing must be as big as her leg. She didn't heed the nagging voice of reason in the back of her mind though, dropping her lab coat in a heap around her ankles and starting to unbutton her blouse. Nobody ever gave her this kind of attention, she had never had an experience like this before, so raw and primal. She didn't consider herself an unattractive woman, but her work kept her far from the prying eyes of male colleagues, and ate enough of her time that courting on her days off was practically impossible. She couldn't say no, the ball had started rolling already and it was too late to change her mind.

Without warning the Krell placed his scaly hands around her hips, sinking his many fingers into the springy meat of her ass and lifting her clear off the floor, her back sliding against the wall. She stifled another yelp as he thrust his long snout beneath her flowing skirt, the demure garment now resting atop his head as he sniffed obscenely. Her legs dangled a good five feet off the floor, one of her high-heeled shoes dropping from her foot to clatter to the deck, her toes curling through the fabric of her pantyhose as the alien breathed hot air on her privates.