Melinoe Ch. 01-05

"Anders!" her commander barked, bloody spittle running down his chin, "Sweep the ship, there might be more." Max re-engaged the optical camouflage, and swept the entire corvette, seeing nothing.

Max returned to Yance, his eyes open, his face pale, and his mouth wide open and drooling blood. "Shit." Max quietly said.

Max knelt down and felt for a pulse on Yance's neck; not finding one. Looking across the bridge at familiar and unfamiliar instruments, Max looked closely at some damage at the stations.

Max looked to punch up the passive sensors, The station was shattered, leaving Max to use her eyes to figure out the corvette was no longer in hyper and slowly moving away from a large swath of debris. Max tried to digest the information, pursing her lips in thought. "Okay," Max said to herself out loud, "It looks like that was the Quinton."

Max tried to figure out where she was and her current ship status. On the charts, she was quite a way from anywhere, that was good. Her ship's status: no power emissions, no sensor baffle suite active. Max pursed her lips in thought looking at damaged stations on the bridge.

"Hmmm, maybe this one?" Tapping power up on a system she deduced as what might be the baffle suite. Minutes passed, there seemed to be no change. "Oh kay, there has to be a way to tell if this is working."

Max went to another station using her TFN ID and unit passcodes, looking for and pulling up the ships manual as she searched for the sensor baffle suite.

Two hours later, Max narrowed down the detailed functions of the sensor baffling suite, determining the sequence for a systems check. Max held her breath and ran the system check. In less than five seconds it reported the system was working. Max kept reading, finding the program sequence and how to start it.

Max looked at the panel, and tapped three buttons, the bridge took on a reddish hue. Max sighed; she crinkled her nose. It was time to do something about the dead.

Max followed protocol, stripping the ID and equipment off each body and placing the corpses of the flight crew and Commander Yance into body bags and then into the cryo pods. The Quinton security bodies went out the airlock. Many hours later, Max finished the sanitation procedures, and the down time allowed her body to begin feeling the deep-seated exhaustion that came after a high-risk operation.

She walked back to the officers' quarters and saw a small, neat, and clean cabin. The bed was nice and long, so she peeled out of her gear, briefly washed her hands and face, and collapsed on the mattress. Her last conscious thought was of Joon cuddled next to her and Agatha curled up on her chest.

A warm gentle touch, then small sharp claws began kneading her chest, Max looked down at the kitten. Steel grey eyes gilded in silver; the soft purring felt more than heard. In the secret place where she could let her guard down Max had a good view of the entire courtyard of the residential from the heat exchange air vent behind the cover grille.

She saw all the apartments from the hidden perch high above 'them', safe from 'them'. Then she watched as the six men killed all of them. Holding her kitten to her chest, she memorized the faces of the men killing her tormentors, killing her family.

Max blinked, her eyes crusty from sleep. She stretched out and murmured aloud, "mmm loong bed." Max sat up as she began looking around the cabin. Void of personal items, it was minimally furnished, with a long bed, a com desk, and chair.

In the closet was Commander Yance's go bag. The adjacent bathroom was also small as space aboard a ship was always at a premium; but the shower was actually large by those standards. Max enjoyed the experience, having missed a few. She slid into fresh underclothes from her go bag and dressed in her worn BDU's; the softer fabric was a comfortable change from the black one piece.

Stepping onto the bridge, Max frowned at the two damaged stations, one looked riddled with holes and the other had a huge chunk missing along with a shattered input. If she was going to complete her mission, she needed comms and sensors. She was running the ship mostly blind, but she knew seeing her wasn't easy either. Repairing this mess was her priority but she needed to know what she was working with.

Max slipped into her training, going over the inventory of the corvette. She inspected the small but well stocked armory with a professional eye: a dozen suits of armor and nanoweave coveralls. A rack of twelve XR75's, three YM10 auto shotguns, a DL5 light MG, six heavy pistols, six light pistols, ample ammunition for all weapons, and four containers which inside contained frag and thermal grenades, anti-personnel mines, and 10 kilos of plastic explosive. Max added the weapons from the Quinton security: a dual barreled auto shotgun and several SMG's.

Max spent some time servicing and cleaning her personal weapons and Commander Yance's impressive heavy pistol. It was highly customized and obviously several grades above standard issue. Checking the galley and the food stores told her there was enough food for a full crew of 20 for two months, years' worth for just her.

Max went to the airlock and looked at the sealed container. The readouts still indicating the occupant was alive. It was like a large piece of luggage covered in locks, maybe four feet long, three feet wide, and a foot deep. Max decided to move the container to the cargo hold, locking it down to the deck. Grimacing as she dealt with the fact she still had a mission to complete.

After doing an hour of calisthenics, Max made a proper meal using the galley. It wasn't near what Joon was capable of, but it was edible. Max returned to the cabin with the delightfully long bed: Yance was just as tall as Max and he had pulled some strings to get it installed in their ship. After a relaxing shower, Max spread out nude on the larger than average bed.

Thinking of Joon, she pressed hard against her mound as she began moaning to herself. She would never normally do this on mission, but she felt safe and secure, like being in Joon's arms with Agatha nearby... Agatha. "Damn", she cursed, and just pulled the covers over herself, losing the mood and drifting off.

Dark corridors, staring eyes, childish giggles, looking down on a river of moving bodies, indistinct conversations and noise, then, "You must be a slag." turning to see three figures surrounding a smaller one, the smaller one bathed in a golden nimbus. Max immediately moved to the smaller figure, wrapping strong arms around it, protecting it, comforting it.

Max awoke with weird dreams still on the edge of memory. Getting up she stretched out and rolled through a few limbering moves. Breathing deeply and blowing out the air as she began letting go of the dreams. Max began the slow kata she learned from Joon's dad, Howard.

Sitting down at the command station on the bridge, Max peered around at the damage, it wasn't a lot; but the rounds did do some damage. The bridge station layout was a pilot station to the left, navigation to the right, command behind and centered. Max started to try and repair the damage, or at least round the edges so they wouldn't injure Max while she worked on them.

When she was finished the bridge didn't look much better, but Max felt it would be safer to be around it. She looked at the shattered input of... something. She brought up the schematics again, finding it was her interface to the hyper pulse generator from the comms array and it was toast.

Max knew this ship had a very advanced comms array to communicate highly encrypted burst transmissions. It was what the ship was designed for: intelligence gathering. The Int Ops department of the TFN was a series of compartmentalized units that shared resources within the department. Max didn't have firsthand knowledge of the intelligence missions, but this ship was designed with a flexible role in mind, long range infiltration/exfiltration, force reconnaissance, and intelligence gathering.

Max stood up and stretched, her neck and back making some truly impressive noises after dealing with the slow and tedious steps required to repair the comm's interface. She was tired, she'd had a little dinner just a few hours ago so she took a nice hot shower and crawled into her bed, heh, her bed, the captain's berth, heh...

Joon kissed her cheek, Max could feel her breath, so she opened her eyes and the smiling face of her tiny wife was hovering over her, delicious pink nipples adorning magnificent breasts. Max took one of those nipples into her mouth, swirling her tongue across it, sounds of Joon's joy encapsulated in her moans and panting breaths.

Then Agatha jumped up on the bed with a purring meow, chirrup. Max couldn't imagine a more complete feeling of love and comfort, safety, and support.

Max woke up refreshed and full of energy, she couldn't remember ever feeling that way on mission. Hopping up out of bed, she began stretching out and limbering up for her kata. After a light breakfast Max actually started humming one of Joon's songs as she dove back into the comms repairs.

Sitting up many hours later, she was pleased with her progress. For some reason, Max decided to walk around the ship, visiting every cabin and quarters, finally ending up in the cargo bay and standing in front of the odd container.

Max stopped. stepped back a step, a little confused. "Why did I come down here?" Max crouched down, studying the life signs on the readouts built into the container. Blinking at the readouts, Max stood, turned around and left, wondering what that was all about.

The work on the Comms were coming along smoothly and she felt confident she could repair it. Max glanced at the sensor display, "You're next" nodding to herself.

Eating another meal that left much to the imagination, Max contemplated the sensor display on the bridge, the idea of traveling without them was frightening. The huge chunk missing meant she really couldn't use what was there, she would have to use the coms desk in the cabin to "see " what was out there. Then walk out to the bridge to make the adjustments to course.

Another delightful hot rinse later, Max stretched out nude in the bed as wistful thoughts of Joon played through her mind. Joon's soft full lips and gentle caress; Max rolled over on her tummy reaching down with long fingers as she leveled her pubic mound into her palm and gently teased her vulva while grinding herself into the heel of her hand.

The orgasm was unexpected: the force of it was also surprising with massive waves of pleasure sweeping over her. All the stress of that past week washed away, leaving Max completely relaxed and content as she drifted into a deep slumber.

Max felt the warmth of her wife by her and the weight of Agatha on her chest. Opening her eyes, as a soft purring chirp greeted her. Joon cuddled into her and smiled in her sleep. Agatha turned her head and looked into Max's eyes; the cat appeared to be searching for something deep inside. Max lifted her free hand and gently stroked the black and white cat gazing back into her steel grey gilded in silver eyes.

Max blinked, she was sitting on the cold decking in the cargo hold, naked. Before her was the container, the lights on the display danced. Max felt like she was dreaming, the edges of her perception blurry as her hand caressed the rounded corner.

Max could feel a sense of urgency, the occupant would die soon, the display lights were no longer steady and serene, she almost saw a heartbeat in the readout.

Max was conflicted, following protocol was how she was trained, whatever was in the container was influencing her. She should be frightened out of her mind, but she wasn't, she felt the target was desperate, and would die long before Max could finish her mission. The target was afraid and didn't want to die. Max blinked back tears as she remembered all the dreams she had experienced this week, all at once.

"Oh no," Max groaned, "you looked into my dreams you bastard! You saw my life! You are trying to control me, like a puppet!" Max felt feelings of sadness and despair, a resignation to fate. Max lurched back, feeling an apology, a soft sad caress on her mind.

"Fuck, wait." Max struggled, "Just don't try to manipulate me."

Max realized this idea was both courageous and dangerous, and completely insane. opening this container was very, very stupid; but experiencing someone's feelings as they slowly died was out of the question. So Max was going to do the one thing she had never done before, she was going to break protocol.

Max dressed in her black operations gear, with weapon, tactical boots and helm. In the engineering bay she found some laser cutters and a disc grinder. She set up in front of the bolted container in the cargo bay after securing all the exits and began her work of removing the locks on the container: all the while feeling thanks and appreciation. "Ok, ok, just let me work." Max muttered at the container, "I swear if you make any false moves, I'll kill you myself."

After ten minutes, all the locks were removed. Max swallowed hard as she carefully released a containment seal. Max slowly opened the container, lifting the lid like an oversized suitcase. Max peered in and saw a humanoid figure curled up in a fetal position, flawless white skin and jet-black hair.

Max scrambled back and brought up her weapon's sights on the being.

Max stayed that way for what seemed like hours.

She saw the alien take a deep breath, then its arm twitched. Max watched it as it slowly began to stretch, and carefully sit up in the container. The "alien" looked very human; the unnaturally white skin was the only thing that made it seem out of place. Then the other obvious aspect screamed at Max, it looked like a human female, a girl. Then it opened its eyes, and Max froze. Steel grey gilded in silver.

Max was furious! "How dare you!" She yelled, aiming at the alien's head.

"P-p-l-l-ee-ss-e." she tried to say, Max felt her fear, she knew she had offended, she was sorry.

Max stopped, looking at the alien now covering her angular face with thin white skinned hands and limbs, her breathing rapid, she was shaking.

"Why do you look like that, if you're not trying to manipulate me?" Max asked with no small amount of anger in her voice.

Max felt the creature's response emotionally as she struggled with verbal communication.

The Alien girl's emotions were timid, "W-w-ee,.. t-raa-ve-l... t-t-o-o-... f-f-f-i-i-nd,.. s-s-a-a-fe,..h-ome. She lowered her hands and looked at Max. "W-w-e..c-h-h-a-nge... t-t-to, b-be l-l-ik-ed. t-t-o-o b-b-e... s-s-a-f-e.

Max lowered her weapon, thinking about what the alien girl said. "You do this to infiltrate? to take over? Max inquired.

"T-t-o... be...f-f-r-en-d." She said, conveying the emotional subtext that seemed to follow her words.

Max thought about this. Honestly, this alien was a lot easier on the eyes than many Max had seen and encountered over the years. Max could easily see where, if your species went around meeting new ones, knowing what would put them more at ease with your interaction would make sense, and would be a great way to prevent tensions.

"What do you look like naturally?" Max raised her eyebrow.

Feeling surprise and humor, "N-n-oth-in-g, l-li-ke t-th-i-i-ss." the girl said looking down at her own body. "Y-y-oou c-ho-se t-th-i-i-ss f-f-o-r m-ee."

Max's jaw dropped open, "Me? I didn't choose anything, I'm married, I was dreaming about my wife Joon and," Max swallowed hard, "Agatha."

Max felt a wave of hope from the alien.

"So wait:" Max started, "You became a mix of my wife and my cat, because you thought I would like you more, and wouldn't kill you?"

"I-i-t's h-how w-w-e are," the girl tilted her head slightly, not unlike how Joon would do it.

"Hmmm," Max contemplated this, "Okay, some ground rules: Do not try to push me with your influence: I am very wary of being controlled and will not be pleased with you."

The girl smiled for the first time and Max couldn't help but notice she looked like a human with some feline features such as large eyes and sharpened facial bone structure. her lips were black, and her teeth were as white as her skin.

"The better you get at speaking, the more we can refine how this is going to work." Max paused, thinking. "Now tell me what you need to survive, food, water maybe?"

The girl nodded again smiling.

"So, what should I call you, definitely not "Alien 132", I don't want to say, "Hey you" all the time either." Max muttered.

The alien girl gave off a feeling of hope again.

"A-a-ga-tha," the girl said looking hopeful at Max.

Max's face twisted up a little, but then she calmed down, "Alright, I can see it's something that was going to be obvious, since you look like that."

"Agatha," Max said, trying it out for size, "you can call me Max, let's get you some food, hopefully you can stand my cooking."

Max helped her stand; she was so shaky that Max just leaned over and plucked her off her feet. she made a very familiar purr-meow sound exactly like her namesake did for many years. Max glanced at the naked frail girl in her arms, her fingers ended in slightly clawed shaped black nails as did her toes.

Carrying her was no effort at all and Max noted while walking through the ship that Agatha's eyes grew large as she took it all in. Eventually she walked into the galley and set Agatha into a chair at the galley's mess table.

"What do you normally eat?" Max asked as she raised an eyebrow at Agatha.

Agatha seemed to think about it a moment, "I... do-on-t, kn-o-o, y-y-et."

Max nodded, thinking about that answer, then started making something easy and filling. A few minutes later she sat a bowl of cinnamon spiced oatmeal mixed with cream cheese on the table, taking a spoon and loading it up.

"Let's try this and see what you think." Max said as she sat next to Agatha, "Say Ahhh."

Agatha opened her mouth projecting emotions of trust and curiosity. "A-aaah"

Max gently put the spoon into her mouth. Agatha tried to bite the spoon at first, then a long pink tongue emerged. Max just stared as the tongue gently wrapped around the spoon as Agatha sucked on the implement swallowing the sweet, creamy oatmeal.

Pulling the empty spoon from Agatha's gentle mouth, Max could hear her purring, her face lit up with emotion as she projected joy.

Max could not help but smile, "Okay, try it yourself." handing her the spoon.

Agatha looked at the bowl and the spoon; and reaching over she began loading up just like Max had done and then put the loaded spoon into her mouth. She pulled it out empty and began to chew.

Max nodded, "Go ahead and finish that, I'm gonna make myself something, too." turning back to the galley, Max made herself some breakfast.

Agatha was roughly five and a half feet tall and painfully thin. Her black mane was unkempt, her white ears seemed human but came to points.

Max glanced over at her guest. Guest, yes, I suppose she is. Agatha had become very proficient with the spoon, emptying the bowl quickly. With cat-like mannerisms, she then started licking it with her amazingly long and agile tongue.

Max walked over and picked up the empty bowl peering at the girl who was smiling and licking her lips. "More?"

Agatha nodded, "P-please."

Max finished making her own breakfast as well as another bowl for Agatha.

Max sat across from her this time, watching as they ate. Agatha used the spoon until she couldn't scrape out anymore, then licked the bowl clean with her tongue again. Max noted she watched Max just as closely, projecting curiosity.

"That's a very different thing you do, I have never felt anything like it before," said Max matter-of-factly as she gathered the dishes and washed them in the sink.