EG 3 Ch 19 (Patreon)

Violet was startled by the kiss and while her eyes were wide in shock and her hands on her cheek, her tails were going a mile a minute behind her. Telling me she was shocked, but certainly not upset about it.

I had crossed a line that I’d drawn earlier and it was a little of a surprise to myself if I was honest.

"A kiss," I answered plainly, enjoying her reaction. "Most people consider it a display of affection."

"It wasn't on the lips," she muttered, and I rolled my eyes, grabbing her by the chin and surprising her a second time by planting another on her lips.

"Captain." Lily's voice came over the communicator. "You have stopped moving. Is everything all right?"

I paused, grinned down at Violet, and mouthed ‘sorry’ before hitting my communicator. "Just kissing Violet in an empty room," I answered, as the Kikai in front of me went wide-eyed.

"Interesting," Lily said. Though it wasn't the kiss that was so interesting as what came next. "Congratulations, Violet. That sounds like a wonderful technique to keep the captain out of trouble."

The divine Kikai stared at me with astonishment and, it seemed, a small reprimand at the edge of her lips. "Lily could have gotten very upset. Even if she’s trying she still has jealousy," Violet cautioned me.

"I promise, if I am the one who makes Lily upset, I'll fix it," I explained. "Now, I think I have work to do on this terminal." I pointed to the one in the room with us. As the captain’s quarters, he had access to most of the ship here, enabling them to work late and at all hours if necessary.

Violet pursed her lips as she stared at it like it had insulted her ancestors. "Yes, please. I'll cover the door, while you work on that," she took a step back and turned off her beam saber, her eyes flitting over the room before she decided to start poking around rather than hovering at the door.

I wasn't worried. She most likely could reach the door in the blink of an eye if needed, certainly before it could slide open far enough for anyone to wedge their way into the room.

She walked over to the bed and simply flipped it over, kicking through any of the mess she made and upending each and every drawer she encountered, before sticking her face close to the openings she made and rummaging her hands around for secret compartments.

As much as the next person, I would love for there to be a secret compartment with the password for everything, but just diving into the guts of the tablet was ultimately far easier. My fingers danced over the digital keypad, going through simple terminal routines, checking to see what, if any, security was on this device.

"Biometrics," I said, and tapped the communicator. "Lily, any chance the captain still has a hand?" I asked.

There was a long pause on the line. "Unlikely," Lily said, sounding a little guilty.

"Oh, well, that's okay. I figured it was unlikely anyway." I told her.

"I will endeavor to try and retain more body parts in the future." She answered.

"It's really okay," I said quickly, pausing and shuddering at where my imagination went. "And please don't make, like, a pile of body parts on every bridge you take." Already I could imagine the horror show I'd walk into if I let her cling to that misconception.

"If you have a picture of the man, perhaps I could try and replicate some of his biometrics." She offered.

"It's fingerprints, Lily. Those aren't genetic." I said already moving onto the next solution.

"If you can find a picture with his hands, I could mimic them based on that,” she offered.

I paused. That was a novel idea, and I started furiously digging around the room. "I'll find something," I said excitedly.

"I will be there shortly, Captain." She told me.

"Find anything?" I asked Violet as I started going through more.

"No, but I'm sure this guy is vain enough to have something." She actually pulled out what looked like a feather boa, if one had tried to make one out of a lion's mane.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Oh, you're supposed to kill them with your bare hands, and then you get to wear their mane. It's, uh," she hesitated, "a rather grotesque ritual and very old."

I made a face and nodded. "Right. Killing things for sport, I assume, is not a uniquely human trait."

She lifted it up and brushed her hands through the fur. "He didn't kill this with his bare hands. If someone had hunted this, they'd get a nod of respect, even from me. But they hid it here. The fur is clearly singed." Violet clicked her tongue.

"Oh, so he's a fake." I understood what she was saying far better now. "And fakes like to show off," I interpreted, and did a small spin of the room, trying to think where he might have done his best to show off.

I smiled, another thought popping into my head.

"We don't need a picture." I must have had an unhinged grin, by the way I started tearing things apart until I found a corner of dust, which I scooped up and then gently blew all around the terminal.

"Ah, fingerprints," Violet said in understanding.

Around the same time, Lily walked into the room, and I pointed at the dusty print. "Do me a favor and copy that."

Lily stared at it for a second, and then pressed her thumb to it, holding still for a moment before applying her new fingerprint to the terminal, and it unlocked.

"Ahem. Wonderful. We won't have all of our answers, but we at least know what he was supposed to be doing." I said, diving in.

“In case you need it again.” Lily grew a bulbous part out of her hand and dropped it next to the station. It was literally a thumb and I assumed a small sac of organs to keep it alive for a few hours.

Gross, but useful.

Our plan hinged on two critical details. We needed ships to be patrolling near the station. And we needed them to occasionally have to check back in.

These ships would only be an effective early-warning measure if they were quiet and crawling the system the whole time. At least the way I figured it, if they didn't announce their presence to whoever they discovered and instead reported it back to the station, the station could in turn gain the element of surprise.

"Aikari, I'm sending you over all of these logs," I stated into the communicator, only to hear the angry humph of the AI.

"I probably could have cracked that, you know." She told me.

"With all of the subtlety of a smash-and-grab," I said, repeating her own words.

"Well, yeah. I'm not some sort of counterintelligence AI. I'm just a fucking historical bot," Aikari huffed.

I wondered if I didn't sense a certain longing in her as she said those words. But that feeling seemed like it should be absent from a bot. "We'll try and get you a few modules, perhaps. With some practice, you could be more." I offered.

"Yes, please." The AI suddenly became incredibly sweet, and I knew I'd hit the nail on the head. Quite firmly at that, if I had to guess.

"Oh. Ohhhh," Aikari said.

"What?" I frowned. She sounded far too interested.

"This guy had some very interesting fetishes," she said, and I couldn't help but facepalm.

"Is that really what's important right now?"

"No, but I mean, Boss, you did just send me a lot of very illicit images. If I didn't know better, I would think you were after my fluffy tails."

I didn't have to be on my ship to see her projection. I could imagine the digital Kikai clutching her bundle of tails, a fake blush dusted across her cheeks.

"I already have enough tails, thank you. I hear by the time she's done, she's going to have a full nine." I stuck my hand into the fluff beside me, only for Violet to let out a very unwarrior-like eep and jump.

"Warn a girl before you touch her tails," Violet said, even as she batted me in the chest, as if begging me to grab them again.

I leaned over and kissed her atop the head. "Later. We are a little busy here."

Her tails fell flat, and her eyes opened wide with her mouth joining them.

"I said later, you little vixen." I couldn’t help it as my lips twisted up into a smirk.

Now her jaw was working, but it was only opening and closing, without a lick of sense escaping it. "I... wha... what?"

"Are you done having fun with her?" Lily's voice came over our comms.

I chuckled. "Yes, done," I grinned. "Unless, of course, Violet's going to take up the option right here and now."

"I... what? No," she said, suddenly coming back to herself and glaring at me.

I was, in fairness, having perhaps a little too much fun now that I'd decided I wasn't going to be so distant from the Kikai. “Aikari, let us know when you find something amongst those files that isn’t the captain’s porn stash, please and thank you.”

"No longer detecting any life signs on the ship," Melgara cut through the chatter.

Minnie nodded. “Into the Void’s embrace they have gone.”

Able to stop constantly scanning for threats, I took a breath and relaxed a little.

"What are we doing with this ship?" Aikari asked.

"Well, if a certain AI wants to stop making weird jokes about the files I sent her," I glared into the distance, hoping she could feel my wrath, "then we're going to take this ship and head back to the station."

"I like that idea," Lily said.

"Good, because you're coming with us. We'll need multiple of your skills, and probably a few fake bodies, to at least pretend like it's an active ship," I quickly finished setting up the ship and headed back towards the Griffon.

"Understood, Captain." Violet snapped a salute with her tongue out.

I stared at her long enough that her tongue slowly drew back in and her smile turned awkward. I grinned at the shift. "It's fine. Lily uses the title inappropriately all the time."

"Yes, my captain." The words rolled off of Violet's tongue smoothly enough that I felt it travel up my spine like a shiver.

"Duly noted, and save that for later." I winked at Violet, unwilling to lose in this regard. I already had Lily, who was more than capable of controlling the situation. I didn't need another woman so determined to take control.

***

Our stolen ship puttered up to the station as their scans swept over us. Lily had created a number of decently functioning ‘bodies’ that hung around the ship, quite literally, from her mycelial networks. Each and every one of them was there just to fool the scanners. None of them so much as twitched.

The comms blipped on the unfamiliar bridge, and Lily, having molded herself into the captain of this ship, stood with her arms crossed behind her back.

"This is the Nautilus, coming in for refit and resupply, may we come aboard?" Lily greeted the other Kikai who popped up on the screen.

"Welcome back, Captain Welsh." The operator said it with a firm nod and a careful eye that swept over Lily and the rest of us. "Your bridge seems a little scarce these days."

"It's been a long trip." Lily didn't explain any further, instead standing with her arms behind her back and a resting bitch face of an expression, waiting on the operator.

"I see." They cleared their throat. "Well, come aboard."

The call ended swiftly, and Lily turned back to me. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, I think she's just a raging bitch," I answered with a chuckle that Lily didn't seem to fully appreciate as her aged Kikai features shifted into a frown.

"Oh." The helivore paused and folded her arms behind her back. "I do not like being the captain."

"Maybe in the future Aikari could do something to digitally alter you to take the role instead. Sort of a deepfake." I said.

"That is an interesting term," Violet said quickly, and I shrugged, playing off the knowledge that did not fit quite with this time period.

"Maybe it's a regional thing. Either way, it doesn't change what we're here to do." I piloted the ship towards our target.

“No.” Lily said quickly. “I do not like being any captain. I would rather not have my communication with others count for the whole ship. In the future Aikari can ‘deepfake’ you and you shall sit in the captain's chair, not me.”

I blinked and gave her a slow nod before she turned back to the screen with a deep set frown.

Melgara and Minnie had stayed aboard the Griffon along with Brick. Unfortunately, the Kikai forces were largely Kikai, with maybe a few humans mixed in. Brick would have stood out like a sore thumb, and Minnie would have probably drawn far more attention than anything else. Beyond them, we still needed Melgara to pilot the Griffon while we were gallivanting off, pretending to be Kikai soldiers.

The Nautilus met the station's docking bay as clamps latched on, before an airlock extended from the side of the station to collect us.

I took a deep breath. "Remember, we are going to do everything by the book."

I had read the captain's log and learned that she had been a rather stiff woman. She even had the military handbook in her bedside drawer. We figured the safest option was simply to stick to said book and follow it rigidly.

"You've got this, Lily," I said, knowing she had taken that book and tucked it away with her body on the ship to read through when necessary.

We stood waiting until the second airlock cycled and we were admitted into the station,

Lily stood up stiff to the Kikai on the other side. "Permission to come aboard," she said, her chin stuck up high in the air.

"If I could deny you, I would." The other Kikai scowled.

I could tell Lily was lost with whatever tension was between the two women, unknowingly.

"Can we just get everything done?" I asked, trying to sound like an exasperated employee. Though my speaking out caused the Kikai greeting us to glance at me with earnest interest.

"And who is this?" She sneered at me. "Another of your dalliances? Headquarters is serious. You have another allegation against you and they will take your ship and the bars off your shoulder."

I froze, because that statement changed my perspective on the captain. The book wasn't inside her bedside table because she was stiff. It was there because she was trying desperately to follow the rules, and I had no way of communicating that update to Lily who stood high-jawed, doing her best to stare down her nose at the woman before us.

I coughed into my hand. "I just got a recent promotion, ma'am. I'd like to think it's because I was qualified for the job."

Her eyes shifted to me like two lamps reflecting all of the disappointment in the world and landing it squarely on me. "I see. Don't expect it to last long. Get your shit and get off my station," she glanced at Lily and then did a quick about-face where her heels actually clicked together before she stormed off.

There was a pause as we all stood there waiting for the other shoe to drop, and apparently we were alone enough that Lily decided she could speak up. "What did I do, Captain?"

"You did nothing wrong, Lily. She apparently has a problem with our late captain." I answered.

"Oh," Lily said. "Well then, I suppose we will continue with the plan?”

"Yes, Lily. Kill them all." I instructed.

"The vaccine will work, right?" Tiri asked as Lily and I stepped deeper into the station.

"Confirm with Melgara. She made it," Lily said waving a hand. "All I did was make the virus."

Lily smiled and waved as people passed, holding her hand up to her mouth and giving one clean cough before grabbing the nearby pad and inputting the credentials we had managed to scavenge off the previous captain's system.

Lily turned back and saw the expression on my face. "What?"

"I think this is going to turn me into a germaphobe," I admitted.

"Don't worry, germs will never be able to harm you with me around," she said, and I believed her. Still, watching her strategically coughing and touching surfaces to spread an engineered virus around the station was at least moderately disconcerting.

We continued to move through the station. Our goal was to find the mess hall, but we only managed to make it so far before another Kikai scoffed loudly at Lily.

"I can't believe they let you back in here." The kikai stated.

"I haven't the faintest idea what you mean, though you're welcome to speak louder for those in back," Lily said, borrowing language that I had no idea where she'd picked up.

"One of these days, you will mess with someone and regret it." She sniffed at Lily.

Only for Lily to give a massive grin. "Perhaps that's already come to pass," she said, as the woman frowned at the inside joke.

"Captain, I believe we need to go get some food and then report in." I offered.

"Then yes," Lily said, chin up straight as she turned to Tiri and Violet. The former had a substantial amount of makeup on and an illusion hiding her extra tails. And Violet had what I could only call deep-set bags under her eyes, her hair messy, like she'd been overworked and under-showered.

"We'll make sure the refit goes according to plan," Violet answered quickly.

"Wonderful." Lily had a pep in her step as she continued on without them, arm hooked in mine.

"Well, if I'm a captain who's had some questionable relationships, then I can only bother you to help me keep my cover." Lily grinned, and I couldn't help but shake my head.

"For your cover, of course." I acknowledged.

The two of us headed off by ourselves, Lily being a walking disease factory and trying to touch any common-use surface she could.