Kaleidoscope XIII

Friendly Fire

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Command Bridge

The Starbreeze, Hero Class Science Frigate

Darius Prime Debris Field, Darius System

07:11, 36/2/2

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"Brakes please!" Iolvin held his paws forward to brace himself, an air shield raising out of instinct as a large chunk of former planet rapidly encroached at several dozen kilometers per second. "Luluuu~!"

"We sort of forgot this part." Ilaria slammed her holograms all around, suddenly frustrated they had no joy due to Carbon's commandeering of the system. "At least we'll die in the right universe. Fuck."

"Reverse thrust isn't cutting it." Carbon shifted strategies and tried to change course. "We just can't reach the delta-V we need. Prisma, thoughts?"

"Well I think you're going to scratch the paint." The android lost a bit of her glow and animation as she crunched the numbers. "Full to starboard and ventral thrusters will increase chances of a deflection rather than an impact. Maybe add a five degree rotation to the right nacelle wing too. That's about all I've got."

"Well it's better than instant death." Carbon engaged the requested thrusters and released the controls, preferring to embrace his mate in the next seat. "I bet Volk's laughing his ass off right about now, huh?"

"Knowing him, probably. He did have a tendency to laugh in the face of danger. Had the skill to follow through with it, too." Sydney leaned over and gave her mate a kiss. "But never when family was involved. He'd soil his pants if he were here."

"More important matters, guys!" Ari snagged the freed controls and corrected the ship's roll to align her belly with the asteroid's coming surface. Just before impact she raised the nacelle wings out of the way, allowing the thicker hull of the underside to scrape and grind on the rocky bumper. "Shi~t!"

"Cut the wing thrust!" Just in time, Carbon closed the exhaust vents in the wings to prevent the added friction their now downward direction would have caused. "Good call, but--!"

"Impact detected." Prisma braced her unconscious captain in his seat. "Pressure change detected. Firing emergency doors in lower deck."

"Crap." Carbon took over the controls again to add some leftward yaw, a protrusion rapidly approaching. "Hold on to something! It's too close!"

"Ah!" The starboard wing snagged the outcrop of rock and broke it loose, yet not entirely free as it was held by softer vegetation and soil. This worked similarly to break-stop cord to rapidly slow the Starbreeze to a halt, though Vixellyn's poorly-secured crash harness had quite the opposite effect. "Art!"

The panthott reacted well before the call, his one remaining arm stretching out to grasp Vix's own wrist-to-wrist. "I've got you!"

"Gravity systems disengaged." Prisma walked over regardless, magnetic systems in her hindpaw pads keeping her attached to the metal floor grating. "Do you require medical assistance, Vixellyn?"

"I... uh..." Vix's eyes rolled about as the zero-G environment played for the worse with her stomach. "Not quite yet, but..."

"Nobody will call you out for making a mess, Vix. Unusual circumstances and all." Artemis unlatched his harness, grabbed a space sickness bag from the side of the seat's base, and joined Vixellyn in floating about the Bridge. "Honestly I don't do the best like this myself. Just... try to focus on something else nearby maybe?"

"Probably the worst you could do, actually. Instead, imagine the asteroid here is the ground with a horizon way out there. Try to find a 'down' to use." Carbon reached for a sickness baggie with a queo and passed it to Sydney. "There's meds that can help in Medical. We should probably all head over there to get checked up anyway, emergencies pending."

"Good call." Yoyo eased out of his seat, probably the most grateful in the room for the lack of gravity due to his injuries. "Arty, think you can help me with your brother?"

"Uh, sure--"

"No, leave him. He's physically just fine and we might place him in danger moving through unsecured areas when he can't defend himself." Caitlyn floated over to Vydr and verified her claim with a magic-imbued paw to the otter's chest. "He's stable and this is a safe, reinforced room. Let's seal the windows and stuff just to be sure."

"How the hell did you come out of me, space-child?" Sydney fought back her stomach and snatched the space sickness bag for her own. "Let's move. I'd like to find your sister sooner than not."

"Sure thing, mummy."

Ilaria finished signing the plan to her deaf girls, then effortlessly flew down the port hallway with the aid of nanite tendrils sprouting from her back. "I'll pass the meds in favor of finding Pepper. I'm pretty sure he brought his suit onto the Starbreeze and we'll need to do repairs."

"Communications are still partially operational and connected to Pepper's exosuit. Audio and video systems do not have enough bandwidth due to a broken antenna." Prisma fired small ionized air thrusters about her frame and joined Ari. "We should probably use secondary radio systems for now. Let's inform Pepper down in the fore cargo area."

"He was in the front of the impact? Oh, fuck..."

"Vitals are transmitting in acceptable tolerances, despite the area being depressurized." Pris lightly grasped Ari's shoulder from behind as they reached the fore elevator shaft for a course change. "Don't worry, Ilaria. He's a smart kid."

"Thanks, Pris."

"Well that's good to hear." Carbon used his vines to navigate and guide the others. "The people-movers still operating, Pris?"

"One of the two, yes. The ventral system has blockages."

"Got it. That makes sense. Probably safer to stay on the dorsal side anyway." Carbon snagged the proper side of the elevator shaft and created an ottery rope to the area between the main and upper decks. "All aboard. Medical is near the tail and zero-G isn't easy."

"Thank you, love." Sydney pulled herself around her mate to reach for one of the chain-linked handles of the people-mover. "Two stops, right? It's been a while since I've used this."

"Spot on, hon. I'll be right behind you to help on the other side."

"This isn't hurting you, is it?" Arty struggled to climb Carbon's vine-rope with just one paw, but made things difficult as he tried not to clamp too hard. "I mean, these are a part of you... Can you feel this?"

"Yes, but don't worry about it. They're pretty stiff when I stretch them out like this. You won't hurt me, Arty." Carbon used his spare queo to snag Yoyo with its flowery tip. "Here, Yoyo. Try not to move your arms too far until we can scan your chest."

"Thanks, but I'm fine. It's just like getting shot in a combat vest, that's all."

"I've been shot in and out of a vest. Trust me, you still need a scan." Carbon tugged the proud otter to the passageway. "Your turn, baby girl."

"I'm... I'm not a baby anymore, dad." A squeak betrayed Cait's words as she too got the vine-pulling treatment. "I... I-I help people now, I'll have you know. I can handle myself."

"I'm not saying you can't." Carbon followed behind his daughter and grabbed a handle for the both of them. "You should still take the help though. Helping each other is why society and family exist. Don't waste them unless you're prepared to lose them."

"Damn, dad really did a number on you. You're back to sounding like him again." Yoyo painfully laughed as he reached the proper destination and released his handle. "Incoming!"

"Ah!" Yoyo pinned Sydney to a wall with his momentum, leading to an awkward stare between the two as his leg shimmied between her thighs. "I-Idiot. Move, please?"

"You know, you're cute every now and then." Yoyo gave the ottkat a playful lick on the nose and shoved away. "Let's see... Medical is right there..."

Carbon landed next to his mate with a hearty chuckle already rolling. "He's right, you know." He went in originally intending a similar lick, but a hint of jealousy from the wanting look in Cid's eyes drove Carbon to plant a kiss instead. "At least you're not focused on your stomach, right?"

"Yeah, just a bit lower. You wouldn't believe what I caught him doing on my phone." Sydney sighed as she realized what else was being held as evidence as she watched her daughter glide to the Medical Bay door. "Maybe later. You're all cut up, love. Let's get that fixed."

"Oh, yeah. I guess I am sort of bleeding everywhere." Carbon gave his wife another kiss and reluctantly pressed away to join the others. "Elliot? You in here? Alive and well?"

"Alive, yes yes. Well, no no. It's hard enough to patch people up when we have gravity." Elliot kicked from bed to bed, fastening his patients down with a set of bungee straps specifically designed for the weightlessness of space. "You guys look like crap. Give me a paw and I'll find some stuff to clean you up. Any larger or deeper cuts that need sutures?"

"We managed to block the bigger stuff. I'm not leaking too bad. Arty, you took a heavier blast of that glass."

"There's a decent piece in me, yeah. I left it in to stem the bleeding though." Arty found a beam laden with loop straps and anchored himself with his fore- and hindpaws. "Vix, you take any hard hits? You look... confused."

Elliot tightened the last strap on his side while Carbon handled the rest with his vines. "Concussion, maybe? Anyone hit their heads?"

Vixellyn shuddered as Arty shook her from her daze. "N-No... I'm fine. I'm just... lost in thought. A lot happened back there."

"Okay, well you look like you're just shredded a bit. And don't think I don't notice the lack of that arm, Arty. Let me stitch you up and we'll save the limb for later." Ellie navigated to the panthott and earnestly wilted into a heavy sigh. "It's not that bad. Rip that sucker out of there and use a few adhesive suture strips. Clean it and I'll check your work."

"Damn, you're that busy?"

"See the lack of beds? Three of Cid's guys are back there acting tough, but all these refugees...?" Ellie looked over a sea of incapacitated Gnomes, then pointed to a connecting room. "Actually, you might want to check on Cheren, Arty. She's... doing well for now, at least. I'm not sure where to begin with her though. Djinni aren't known to come in for checkups after all."

"You brought her here? I was going to ask about her, actually." Arty winced as he pulled a shallow shard out of his forearm with his teeth. "Is she stable? Anything?"

"I think so. She's acting weakened, perhaps like she's in pain... but I don't think she can feel pain." Elliot groaned as his personal Slate lit around the edges to silently signal an urgent message. "Not more... She found... huh..."

"Busy, Elliot?" Carbon inspected the results of a Gnome's failed body scan, diving in deeper with his queoo for a Link. "Crap, you're overwhelmed. These guys are scan-proof? What's the--?"

"There is no plan. So far my options are keeping them comfortable. Most of them are bleeding out and I can't figure out how to stop it. They've got fucking lava or whatever for blood so cauterizing isn't viable." The otter slewed mid-float into a wall, his concentration too lost within his Slate. "They found someone in space? Well fuck me..."

"In vacuum? Who?"

"Ah... apparently a survival pod or something was near whatever we just hit. They say there's some kind of vitals readout that looks flat." Ellie shoved off his wall and into the hallway. "I'm going to check it out. This person might be more critical than the rest. Cait? Think you could try your hippie magic stuff? I'm almost out of options for saving these guys."

"D-Druid magic..." Caitlyn placed a glowing paw over one of many searing hot wounds. "I'll t-try my best."

"That's my girl." Sydney grabbed a steel prod and poked at some lava-blood, her eyes widening as the cheaper metal started to bend like a noodle. "Watch where you touch, Cait. And try not to let their blood touch the beds."

"It's... not blood, per se." Cait groaned lightly as she tried to figure out what she was sensing with her magic. "It's... salt? Can salt become a liquid?"

"Anything can given enough heat, and they sure as hell seem to have enough." Iolvin created a protective glove of insulating air and prodded at some blood floating in the air. "Molten salt, eh? Didn't they try making batteries out of that at some point? Where's Robby when we need her?"

"It's actually Cold War era tech. A bunch of things like missiles and space probes still use salt batteries. Anywhere you don't care about the heat or damage makes sense." Carbon reconfigured the scanner he Linked into and gave another try. "Aha. They're basically using potassium salts as part of a living battery system. Seems like it works as a carrying medium for nutrients like our own blood, too."

Cait paused her magic as she thought out a plan. "And how does that help? What's the way to stop them bleeding?"

"You spend enough time around Robby and Lulu, throw in a bit of Adri, and you sometimes get some ideas that stick. Check it." Yoyo nudged over to a cabinet and rummaged about, pulling out a canister and a some sort of medical spatula. He popped a seal on the can and sprayed the tool, the steel freezing in his still-gloved paw. "You want to safely stop a battery, you freeze the contents." He touched the spatula to a wound and the salt immediately hardened into an exact match for the bits of dark slag dotted about the soldier's body. "See? They probably have another way to neutralize it, but cold seems to work fine if you're careful."

"Huh. There's some brains in there after all." Carbon smirked as he found a spare canister of liquid nitrogen and joined the effort. "You saw the man. Find more of this and be very careful with it. And can't Ari freeze things with her nanites?"

Yoyo sealed another wound and moved on to the next patient. "She's probably busy with the damage control downstairs. I think Sissy can work with cold too though."

"Except Qesis stayed behind on the Volk, so that's a bust. What I wouldn't give to have their bigger medical bay right now." Carbon rolled another patient over from her side and stared a moment before waving to Yoyo. "Uh... Hey, can you take a look at this one, Yoyo? Wasn't she one of the few you had connected to your waist?"

"What?" Iolvin took one look and yanked himself over the swatch of Gnomes between them. "Excelle! Crap, what happened to her?"

"Far too much to handle, apparently. I guess the battle didn't end when we left the scene." Carbon helped turn the Gnome in her bed and started sealing her wounds through holes in her plate armor. "I'm pretty sure this isn't steel because even I'm having a hard time bending it. Must have been Gaia's work that did this to her."

"This poor girl was only protecting her home. Fuck Gaia." Yoyo eased off Excelle's helmet to check for trauma, finding nothing but a set of confused eyes darting about his face. "<Hey there, Shortstack. Try not to move. We're closing your wounds for you.>"

"<You have red... No, that is not the red sand. How...?>" The Gnome hissed as Carbon sealed the last of her large wounds. "<C-Cold!?>"

"<Sorry. It's the best we could think of to help since we don't understand your biology well enough yet.> Yoyo froze his spatula and pressed it to a bunch of smaller cuts along her clavicle. "<Keep still as long as you can. Until we can scan inside you we don't know if there's internal-->"

"<My king... I thought you were lost to that witch. I... fought in your name.>" Excelle took her king's paw and brought it to her chestplate. "<I am yours. We... must perform bonding ritual, so if you die... I follow...>"

Carbon finished his work and moved to the next patient. "Damn, that's intense. What the hell did you get up to while I was patrolling?"

"Right, you know Ukrainian too. I'll... explain later. Just don't freak out if anyone here calls me their king..." Yoyo unlatched the breastplate and inspected a light graze against a breast. "<I guess your armor is special enough if it kept Gaia away from your heart. Good. I like to know you can be safe."

"<Our people are here...>" As Excelle surveyed her high-tech surroundings she gained a shiver of fear for the unknown. "<Where... are we?"

"<You're on our spaceship, the Starbreeze. We had to evacuate because...>" Iolvin paused a moment, unable to sugar coat the tragedy that just occurred. "Your planet is gone, Excelle. Whoever we managed to rescue... they're all that's left of your world. Our world.>"

"<My...?> The reality of the situation settle into despair as Excelle darted her eyes from guard to guard. "<These are a-all that r-remain?>"

"<I don't know how many there are, but apparently there's more in the cargo bay below us. I'd guess from the size of the ship we used to land... maybe this many are down there as well.>" Yoyo cradled the newly defaulted queen, rocking her slowly in his arms. "<I... I can't imagine what it's like to see your people culled to only a couple dozen...>"

"<We... have strong king. We will... r-rebuild...>"

"Damn. Let me know if I can help, Yoyo. I've been in that pit myself." Carbon leaned in closer to listen to a soldier speak some unknown language. "First thing we can do is build a translation module for a Slate or something. We can't help them if they can't speak their worries."

"I'm working on it." Prisma generated a hologram in the main bio-scanner's result display. "We have an oddity coming your way, so perhaps clear out a room for quarantine. Also I've given my basic translations to your mate, Carbon. I believe she might decypher this language quicker than my systems can manage."

"Sydney? She's dealt with a lot of languages, but--"

"She means Eve, dummy." Sydney nudged over to the emitter and looked into a nearby security camera. "Where is she? I'd like to check on her."

"She is sharing a room with Cherenkov--number three." The door to the room squeaked and hissed as it unlocked. "Please keep exposure to a minimum and seal the doors between passages. Cherenkov may be susceptible to contaminants in her state."

"You know what's wrong with her?" Artemis moved over to the door, pausing to witness the two oddballs inside. "I won't make her sick with my wounds, will I?"

"My concern resides mostly with the unknown entities, these... Gnomes, as they've been called. Your biology cannot harm her." Prisma opened the door automatically and beamed a focused cone of audio to Arty. "Please... She admires you, Artemis. Perhaps your presence would benefit my daughter."

"Daughter, huh?" Arty pulled himself inside, keeping his tone low until Sydney and Vixellyn were through the door as well. "I don't understand it, but I'm glad she's got someone like a mother looking after her."

"You make her smile. She needs to do that more." Pris reappeared at the head of Cheren's bed and looked down into her daughter's eyes. "I'm not good with organic emotions, but she has a gift for it. To think, the first attempt would be the most lifelike..."

"Mom... You're embarrassing me." Cheren fluttered her eyes and turned her gaze over to Artemis. "You're safe. I'm glad."

"Cher... How can you be happy? Your lamp..." Arty pulled himself over to the edge of the bed and gripped Cheren's paw. "Gaia crushed your home. She did something else to you too. How can you--?"

Cheren smiled as she weakly grasped back with both her paws. "She didn't know she would hurt me. The last time she did that to me was... productive, perhaps."

"She said something like that too. How do you know her? She's from another universe."

"That's still coming back to me. Apparently I locked away those memories upon coming back to our universe. Sorry if I'm a little patchy in my recollection."

Prisma gauged the confusion in the room and spoke a long-kept secret. "My daughter's charge was to investigate another universe. Specifically, I had gathered some odd readings during the collapse of the Xor singularity about sixteen years ago." She replaced her own image with the waveforms of the initial readings. "Using this unique code, I generated an autonomous probe to solve this equation--a unit of offspring, so to say.. Once her nanites took physical form she departed... and came back corrupted."

"So Gaia did hurt her!"

"No, Arty. She... discovered me. She was alone, drifting in the wake of Xor. She lost everything she loved, and to see a new face after so long..." Cher rolled to her side, her other end looking a fair bit more translucent than normal and worthy of hiding. "She Linked to me while I was nothing more than basic programming. She gained a lot of information from my studies, but also... she shared a cohesiveness in turn. It came with consequences, but... I found a new reason to exist. My code desired iteration, change, evolution... procreation."

"She returned and began to split her code base. Out of control, she would have dissolved away... but in doing so she would create new life." Prisma brought back her avatar and sat on the edge of the bed. "My experiment gained life, and with it the one thing I truly seeked--the will to propagate herself. The Djinni were born, but as partials to a whole they required synchronization to retain integrity."

"And so they need places like lanterns to perform that. Ah." Arty respected Cher's intent to hide her damage, pulling the sheets over her for better coverage. "Well can't we just find another vessel? What'll happen if we don't?"

"Part of synchronization involves reinstating my nanites against a set of deactivated standards. They degrade with use and must either be repaired or replaced using the originals. Then any remaining changes are ingested to create patched standards." Cheren nestled into her friend's grasp, completely unafraid. "My standards were lost with my old lantern. Without them, I will atrophy away, unable to update. That, or I could establish a new set of standards..."

"The last time she did that, she lost all memories of what came before. It was necessary after returning from her charge, but now..."

Arty sighed at Prisma's explanation. "You helped your daughter live by removing who she was. That must have been the worst moment of your life."

"After learning her nanites could restore their state when in contact with Gaia, I now regret withholding this information."

"No, mom. I would have just gone back and made things worse."

Sydney looked over from Eve's bed. "Worse?"

"The reason Gaia is here is because of me. She learned the key to my charge, my research. We're lucky she didn't find us until the experiment on planet Vasily. If I would have known I could restore myself, I'd likely have sought her out sooner."

Artemis took a moment to check on the moaning Evelyn in her bed before returning to Cheren. "One way or another she still found us. What's she after though? What did she learn from you?"

"The simple version then? My research found that black hole singularities are linked to stars." Cheren loosened her grip on Arty's paw as she thought quite a few steps ahead. "She learned that black holes are like pipes into other universes, where entropic energy is collected, compressed back into a useful state, and fed to that universe. The resulting energy supports an otherwise unsustainable reaction in the core of a corresponding star, making the fusion-fission viable."

"So... when Xor was collapsed what happened? You said Gaia's Xor was collapsed too, right?" Arty groaned as everyone else in the room seemed to understand the events better than him. "That energy has to go somewhere, right? Where did it go?"

"Well normally it seems a singularity feeds an existing star, but theoretically with enough gravity and energy from enough singularities a new star could be generated from scratch. Hm."

Evelyn slowly raised her head with a low groan, her paw covering her eyes from the ceiling lights. "Well ours did, for a moment anyway. Maybe that's why there were odd sensor readings." She took a moment to gain her bearings and then heartily embraced Sydney. "Hey, honey. I'm so sorry if I worried you."

"No, no. I'm fine, love. I'm more concerned about you."

Arty reached over and rubbed Eve's shoulder. "Welcome back. You doing alright? No... damage, or whatever?"

"Well that bitch shot me with a space laser from orbit. I'd be lying if I said I was perfectly intact." Eve sat herself upright and stretched her arms. "I lost a lot of energy regenerating my gravitational fields. It's nothing a session with my brother and his spare entropy couldn't fix."

"That's... That's it." Vixellyn pounded one fist into the other. "Xor went away and left behind another singularity, right? Wasn't he your brother?"

"Yeah, Flynt. He burns matter a lot like a star and feeds me the leftovers. I guess that makes him some sort of singularity like me." Eve finished her stretching and slowly pulled herself out of her bed. "You don't think he's involved, do you?"

"Well it's a long shot, but what if he's what was made instead of a star?" Vix glided to Cheren and grabbed her shoulders. "Do you remember anything about Flynt from your time in Gaia's universe? Did he exist there?"

"N-No, I don't think so..."

"Damn... Then the Nexus might..."

"She's finally starting to understand. Looks like the fun's about to start." Glitch defied the lack of gravity and walked on the ceiling, waving down to Arty. "My Author just found her pen."

"I'm not sure what that means, but I'm starting to think the Nexus might be related." Vix joined the Figment near the ceiling for a hint or two. "You know more about the Nexus. You said it split off from a single point, right? Do you remember when?"

"Where's the fun in that? I'd rather make a game of it. Hint: it's also the day your were conceived."

"Do you think I have time for games?" Vix slammed a paw into the ceiling, making a slam at first but then literally punching through the bulkhead. She reeled back her paw and the paw-shaped hole became quite the point in her favor. "I don't know what the fuck I can do, but I know I can do that to you. Care to play that game with a cheater?"

"I... I see. I'd rather live hungry than eat sour glamour, yes." Glitch shook her head at the missed opportunity but eventually fell into line. "Your suspicions are correct. Our Nexus was borne the same day as Flynt."

"That--!" Vix took a deep breath as Arty joined her with a rearward hug. "That was all you had to say, Glitch. Sorry. I'm freaking out right now and I shouldn't have threatened you."

"Well at least you made it entertaining. No worries, Author."

"So... I guess I missed a lot more than I thought. Vix can melt space now?" Eve tugged Sydney's tail and joined her on the opposite end of the room. "And what's my brother got to do with this? You're thinking he's the reason we're in this mess?"

"No, I'm responsible for Gaia deciding to investigate the matter. Her actions have been questionable at best, too." Cherenkov rolled in her bed and shut her eyes. "She wants to bring back her Carbon, and now I think she realizes Flynt is a key to doing that. Honestly I'm lost though. Can anyone fill in the blanks?"

"Well you said matter was converted as it passed to another universe. Maybe that's it." Eve tugged her wife over so they could keep Cheren company. "What if Gaia thinks she can extract her Carbon out of Flynt?"

"Ah, I see. Further, what if destroying him returned the energy back to her universe? That would bring back anyone she--"

"Kill him?" Evelyn cut Cheren off as she looked inward for the answer. "If... If I lost Carbon and Flynt wasn't... my brother necessarily..."

"You would. That's what it means to be mates, in the worst of ways." Sydney squeezed her wife's waist in a tender hug. "If I lost everything, I might do whatever it took to see my mates again. To kill so many people though..."

"Or bring them to balance, maybe?" Prisma exchanged her hologram with one showing the duo of planets violently occupying the space around the Starbreeze. "What if her original plan was to manually correct differences between universes? The hypothesis is that if our universe matches hers perhaps it would gain the same Flynt-like being."

"I'm not sure that was entirely her doing." Arty paused as he remembered the likely scenario that Vix reeled the duplicate planet to their universe. "She does seem to be killing by some pattern though. It might be corrective, but it also might be unrelated."

"And in any case, Gaia seems to have been searching for a keystone in the archway." Cheren balled up tightly and ignored Eve's touch. "I may have shown her that key. What will that mean if she's in favor of corrections?"

"It means the Furnace might be in trouble. Crap. We need to get back there before she does." Artemis pushed away from the ceiling and took Cheren's paw. "Does she know the location? How much did she get out of you?"

"I'm not sure. I remember where the Vapor Furnace was when we left, but I don't know the itinerary beyond that. Thankfully you stole my attention from that information.

"That's good. We might have a chance to catch up then." Arty gave Cheren a firm grasp and a pat, then pushed himself toward the door. "Come on. We need to get this ship moving again so we don't lose the advantage. Rest up and I'll check up on you soon, Cher."

"Stay safe, Arty."

"Oy, hold it. I'm helping out too." Sydney broke with Evelyn and grabbed Arty's ankle for a start. "Eve, could you kindly work on our new guests' language with Prisma? That could pay off if they happen to be good with a spanner."

"I'm not sure they know anything about spaceships. They're still concerned with saving princesses from dragons." Arty cleared the door, then manually shut it once they were through. "Actually when I think about it, the princess is the dragon in this case. Huh."

"That girl is no Snow White, let me tell you." Sydney remembered the footage she had of the Gnome princess becoming a queen and shivered. "Well in any case, they're pretty strong and we could use that to fix up the place."

"Mum!" Flanked from her lower side, Sydney broke from Arty by the weight of her two girls. "Thank the gods you're alright. I thought I lost the both of you..."

Sydney pulled Leannan from the combined ball of cotton-candied fluff that attacked her and gave the worried child a hearty hug. "I'm sorry, Lea. Are you fine yourself? You didn't get injured after we left you?"

"Nothing a spray-adhesive couldn't fix. You taught me to run from those odds, so I did." The blue-accented ottkat pulled into the hug all the tighter, then pushed back in a swell of shame. "I... sort of lost my weapon though. I know you upgraded it custom for me, but it was snagged on--"

"It was a gun--a tool. Your life and health are more important, especially to me." Cid reached to her leg and pulled out Carbon's borrowed 1911, then after a moment's hesitation she gave the pistol and the spare magazine to her daughter. "Use this. It's loaded, so use caution."

"But what about you? I can't take your only gun, mum."

"My only gun? Who said that?" Sydney kicked off the nearest surface and headed for the hallway. "No, I think fate left me a much more appropriate weapon just for this occasion."

"What? I didn't see an armory listed on the manifest." Lea offered a paw to her sister, one that was rejected. "No? We should follow mum."

"My place is here, for now. I can help these people, Lea." Caitlyn pressed toward her last patient before she was similarly love-tackled. "Go help mum. I'll be right here if you need me."

"Will do. Take care, Cait." Leannan kicked hard toward her mother, barely meeting her as they passed into the hallway. "So where's this stash of guns? Anything neat I could use?"

"Oh it's just the one, and it's definitely neat. It might make a good heirloom, actually." Sydney changed course and drifted towards the Bridge. "So how would you like to see the pistol your grandpa used, Lea?"

"Grandpa had a gun? Wow. That's got to be a relic."

"One that punches big holes. Don't underestimate anything because of age, sweetie. Some antiques pack a big wallop."

"I hope we're still talking about the gun..."

"You and that muzzle of yours..." Sydney chuckled with her daughter as they drifted along, but grabbed the bulkhead for a pause as she spotted a commotion in the aft elevator shaft. "You need a paw, mates?"

Ilaria waved as she guided a large device of some kind while Elliot and Robyn pushed from behind. "Thanks. We've got this. My boy might need some help up front though."

"We're heading that way, actually. Good to know." Sydney craned her neck as she got a clearer view of the odd coffin-like device. "Is that a person in there? You sure you've got this?"

"I can't imagine we'd do any more harm to a corpse floating in space, so I think you're clear." Ellie paused his motions while the others adjusted to move up the shaft. "We're just getting the specimen to a scanner before the gravity is fixed. Wouldn't want this thing to thaw in the middle of repairs, now would we?"

"No, that would not be pleasant. We'll let you do that then." Sydney tugged the wall and restarted her drift. "Let's get that magnum and then see how best to apply ourselves."

"It's a magnum? Nice." Lea followed her mother enthusiastically out of view. "Revolver or automatic? I've always wanted to see..."

"That girl is becoming the mirror image of her mother. Good to see they get along so well; it helps coping with bad situations." Ari finished correcting the orientation of the capsule and led herself ahead of it yet again. "So what about our friend here? Think you can learn anything with an autopsy? Or were you heading in another direction?"

"No, an autopsy sounds like the best course of action. If this body could stay intact after all this destruction we'd probably want to know how."

"I'd love to take a closer look at the pod, myself." Robyn put her shoulder into the initial push, making sure not to waste time by moving slowly. "She's all scratched up on the outside, but the core still has power. Even if it's just to keep the lights on like this, that's still technology worth salvaging."

"Well in any case it needed to be moved. Those seals Pepper made are only temporary and we wouldn't want this getting sucked out into vacuum when we break them." Ari looked up as they reached the main deck and made a proposal. "How about we drop this off in the lab in Observation? There's tools there that might crack it open easier than a scalpel."

"My tool bag is up there too. Works for me." Robyn kicked the deck floor in passing and sped up the pace. "Mind the leg, Ottah. Use those wiggly bits, yeah?"

"I'm pretty sure I could kick through a wall with this new leg, Pillow. Still..." Ari created a pair of tendrils from her shoulders using her nanites and tethered them to the sill of the next deck. "One coffin slingshot, coming right up. Got a place to anchor this thing?"

"I'll grab some straps. Lay it over the work table, Ottah."

Ari slowed the pod to a stop, resorbed her nanites, and oriented the device to match the floor layout. "This table over here?"

"Aye, that. Here." Robyn tossed a rolled ratchet strap to Elliot and rejoined the effort. "Just a bit... Woah. Halt right here."

"How do I... Oh, I see." Ellie unrolled the strap and brought it around the foot of the pod. "So this will solve your end of things. Care to pull the body out while the gravity's still off?"

"If it won't be nasty, sure. Looks... comfy in there." Robby ratcheted her end of the case until it was seated on the table. "I mean that person in there seems at peace. She must have gone quietly."

"Nobly, even. Looking in better light, that armor she's wearing is lined in some fancy gold damascene." Ari leaned over the clear front and stared at the Gnome inhabitant's detailed helmet. "Maybe one of the refugees will appreciate this? Give us a hint to the importance, even?"

"I'd actually think your brother would want to take a look. Yoyo's still got an anthropologist in his blood."

"Well you're not wrong, but I think we have more pressing matters at--"

"Ottah?" Robyn finished helping Ellie with his strap, her attention diverting to her wife's stunned expression. "What is it, Ilaria? Damn--we didn't crack the glass with these straps, did we?"

"I'm just paranoid or something. I thought she just moved, but that must have been you guys--" Again Ilaria froze, though this time she reached for the flush edges of the glass-like material. "She's alive! How do we get this thing open?"

"I don't..." Robyn pulled herself alongside the canister and shuddered as the helmet turned her direction. "Crikey! Let's figure this thing out fast, yeah?"

"She's actually alive? But even life support pods only last a few days at most, and it's freezing in there" Ellie hovered over the container and shook his head in disbelief. "Well fuck, if she isn't lucky. Yeah, let's figure out where the latch is at, pronto."

Ari swirled around the perimeter to no good effect. "There's no controls. Does she have to open it from the inside?"

"Or they're on the side we just pinned down. Hell, we might have hit a key to wake her."

"No, a process to wake her would also very likely open the hatch soon after. We might be missing a piece of the whole puzzle." Ellie sighed as he came up blank. "She looks calm in there, but she's stuck until we can figure out a safe way to--"

A loud set of thuds on the transparent aluminum outer hull brought a wave of relief to Ilaria's pounding heart. "Thank the gods. Rhyme, you beautiful tanuki you!"

"She's outside, love. She can't hear you." Robyn groaned as she got a better plan in her head. "I'll keep checking here. Ottah, let the pooch back inside. She's probably got her tools, yeah?"

"Oh, good point. Give me a sec." Ari made a paw signal toward the dorsal airlock and then leapt through zero-G to meet her. She primed the rotary collar for a fast equalization and let her wife do the rest. "I want to make sweet love to you so hard right now, Rhy."

"That's the shit you say when we're all in an airlock?" cooed Elliot.

"No, but thanks for the idea. Ha." The system finished cycling and Ilaria lunged into the airlock, helping Rhyme pull her bulky suit through the hatch with a hearty hug. "You're the pup of my dreams, you know that? Perfect timing."

"Hm? I can't really hear you." Rhyme unlatched her heavy helmet and tossed it back, letting it hang by a custom spring mounted hook to stay out of the way. "You look like you're having a hell of a party. Please... try not to scare me like this, honey."

"When and where I have a say in the matter, I promise. Not every day you get to call roadside service in the Black though." Ari pressed her head forward into a kiss, then pointed over to the strange pod on the table. "As much as I'd like to get flying, there's someone that might be suffocating in there. We don't have the tools to crack that egg, so..."

"Sounds like cutting beam territory. I just popped in a fresh chox charge too." The tanuki used her suit thrusters to expedite her movement to the table, then pulled out what appeared to be a pocket pistol with a large lens in place of a barrel and a lead to her suit coming from the handle. "Okay... This glass looks like quartz so no go, but the rest is... some alloy of titanium. It's heavy stuff but nothing I can't cut. Give me some room, Robby?"

"Absolutely, love."

Rhy fired up her cutter's beam, then fed it gas particles to perform the actual cutting through friction. "Where the hell did you find this thing? And what's with King Arthur?"

"We've got the whole Round Table to match. It's a bit of a story, but they're the inhabitants of Darius." Robyn gave the table a slap as she moved behind her wife's cutting. "Well they're refugees from the universe we just visited. This one here's the real deal from ours."

"Ah. Well thankfully they're small and their tech is bulky, because I'd hate to cut this poor guy." Rhyme finally rounded the whole of the pod and connected with her point of origin. "This thing's thick so it's not a clean cut. Got something like a prybar pawsy?"

"Ask and you shall receive." Robyn found her tools nearby and whipped out a tiny crowbar. "You mean this slice o' fried gold right here?"

"Exactly. Thank you, honey." Rhy jammed the hooked end into her origin point and fought her way into a loose wiggle. "That did it. Looks like it wasn't pressurized, too. Hey, you alright in there?"

"They don't speak English, Rhy. A few know something like Ukrainian though." Ari helped shove the lid of the pod down the length of the room and then faced the armored Gnome directly. "<Can you understand me?>"

The Gnome didn't verbally reply, but some sort of light flashed from beneath the helmet.

Elliot nodded as he reached to test the girl's vitals. "That was... positive. At least she's responsive."

"It's a girl?" Rhy craned her whole body to the side and noticed the slight hint of feminine curves in the breastplate. "Okay then. I guess I played too many of Yoyo's video games with 'boob armor' as he calls it."

"Yeah, that's probably not good for an adult, let alone kids. The designs are pretty neat though, I have to admit."

"Guys... we have an issue. There's no pulse, but then again..." Ellie fumbled with the helmet for a moment, eventually releasing a security latch to then allow the helmet off the girl's head. Once clear though, it appeared as if there was yet another more form fitting helmet acting as a ceramic mask or interface. "I think... this is her face. Guys, she's not a Gnome like the others. She's... uh..."

"Is she a robot? An automaton, even?" Robyn inspected the odd mask, finding it was in fact seamlessly inlaid as a full replacement for a face. "This is interesting. A cyborg, maybe?"

"<Please, if you can understand me we need to know. If you understand, just move an arm or... blink, or something.>" The creature turned to 'face' Ilaria, then a mimic of her expression appeared as light on the surface of the gray mask in a quite simplistic stylization. "<I'll... take that as a yes. You can't talk, can you? Uh... make a circle for affirmative and a cross for negative, perhaps?>"

A perfect white circle appearing on the odd display mask caused Robyn to lean forward in awe. "That's bloody amazing! Did you tell her to do that, Ottah?"

"Yeah. She can answer basic questions. I just hope we can figure out if she's healthy with simple queries though." The mask swapped back to a neutral cartoon expression and then again shifted to a circle. "What? She just answered yes again? To what?"

Rhyme shrugged and watched the odd creature. "You sort of asked if she was healthy."

"In English though. She can't possibly know English." Again, the display flickered with a fresh circle. "Holy shit. She really does understand us. Um... Did you learn English right now or did you already understand it prior?"

"That's not a yes or no--" Robyn shut her mouth as two answers appeared in vertical sequence, a circle then a cross. "Oh. Okay, this just might work."

"Okay, at least you're healthy and have a good head on your shoulders. Now we just need a name for you. Do you have a way to represent who or what you are?" The girl took a moment to respond to Ari's query, her expression mimicking a thoughtful squint. She took a second to sit herself upright, then a question mark appeared over her display. "How the hell do you know what that is? We haven't shown you written English yet."

"That's not exactly true." Rhyme pulled out a reinforced data terminal and noted a set of odd radio frequencies in use. "I think she comes with WiFi."

"Interesting. She learns from our own data banks." Robyn scoured the girl's pod for information. "I'm guessing she doesn't know her name or wasn't given one. Any clues on your side there?"

"I see a few symbols here I can't read." The girl followed Ari's gaze and then provided a rough, raw translation on her mask. "The study copy of albedo. That's... uh..."

"Sounds more like Prototype 'Albedo' to me. I could get behind that for a name." Robby smiled for the girl and it was met with a very emotive clone. "See, she likes it. I'll call you 'Al' then."

"That's not exactly a girl's name, is it?" Rhyme shrugged her shoulders and studied the very strange light making up the girl's facial expressions. "She's got a CRT monitor for a face. Something more appropriate..."

"Phosphor, perhaps?" Elliot finished his attempts to determine if the girl was organic like the Gnomes or not and only ended up shaking his head in defeat. "Maybe a combination? I think Albedo Phosphor makes a good full name when I say it, actually."

"Albedo Phosphor..." Ari mumbled the name to herself, agreeing it sounded nice but not sure it applied to a female still. Then the girl's face lit up with a series of typical emotive hearts and settled the matter. "You like it, huh? Well if you have an official name we can change to that later, but if you're cool with Albedo then so am I."

"Still, if she's a prototype or part of some project we should get her to Medical for an exam or two." Ellie offered a paw to help Al out of her casket. "If she's got kinks to work out, we'll want to find them early. That's even supposing she's a machine and not a cyborg like Robyn proposed."

"I'll help you get her there. Ah, don't forget her helmet." Ari snatched the armor piece and led the two back down the elevator shaft. "Think you can head to the forward hold to help Pep, Rhy?"

"That's the plan. The Volk is standing by for repair and extraction from this rock. I've got to make sure she's at least airtight first."

"I suppose that means we'll need more advanced systems online again. Boo." Robyn gave the pod a hard slap and then grabbed her tools. "I'll get back to you later, my lovely. For now though... how about gravity first? Can you get our girls to help me with that?"

"I'll pass that on to them after helping Ellie, sure. Be careful, and use the intercom system if there's danger. We haven't checked all of the engineering sections for damage." Ari shot out a tendril and began towing Al and Ellie. "I love you!"

"All my love, Ottah!"

"Love you too, honey!"

After a moment Albedo quirked her head and lit up with hearts and question marks. "What now? Do I love them? Or why? Or... you? I don't understand."

"Oh, I think I do. We're stranded in the middle of space in a busted ship and you've got a grin plastered over your muzzle." Elliot joined that smiling while Al shifted her hearts into a flurry of animated heart explosions and confirmation circles. "She's curious how you're so happy."

"Honestly? I am happy. I know I shouldn't be, but I am." Ari grabbed the main deck ceiling and hooked the three in the right direction. "When I see my family coming together to solve problems like this, I can't help but smile with pride."

"Amen, sister. Amen." Ellie waved a paw by the door controls and guided the others into Medical with a fresh case of the warm and fuzzies. "You've got a cold touch, right? Then let's patch us up some lizard people."

Guest Lounge, Courtesy Deck

Volk, Legend Class Cruiser

En-Route to Vapor Furnace Prime

18:23, 36/2/2

---

"Is this where he said to meet?" Artemis paced the central hub of the Guest Lounge, checking a few private rooms that appeared occupied. "Did he mean in one of these? He didn't give a room number."

"Art, maybe we should return to Cheren. What if something happens?" Vixellyn tugged on the panthott's arm, trying to convince him without being too much of a nuisance. "I kind of want to stay close to you and her right now. You're like my new family."

"I would normally go along with that, but this is my dad we're talking about. He tries to give me space, so it's a bit odd he'd call saying he needed my help with something." Arty Linked himself to all the nearby security cameras and sighed when none of the private rooms revealed themselves. "No eyes, huh? Let's knock on a few doors and find him first. The sooner we help him, the sooner we can go back to keeping Cher company."

"Okay--as long as we can stay together."

"Are you kidding? I'd never ditch you like that--"

"Arty!" Zoë peeked her torso out from one of the rooms and waved to get the hybrid's attention. "Hey, we're over here. Sorry, but we didn't know which rooms were open when we called. Oh... and you brought Vix? Uh..."

"Of course. She's having a hard time, so I thought a bit of change in environment might help." Arty nudged the door open and held it for Vix, only regretting his gentleman's gesture when he was forced to shut the door behind him in haste. "Dad! What did I say about this? Don't reel me into random family sex stuff!"

"Arty! Hey, sorry. I didn't know if that message could be seen by others, so I left this part out." Iolvin sat back with one arm around his visibly disgruntled husband's shoulder and the other guiding Excelle's waist as she rode his cock knot-deep. "Oh, crap. I didn't think you'd bring Foxy if this sounded like a quick thing. Zoë, grab something to cover us, please?"

"No. You want to fuck everyone you see, so everyone gets to see you do it." Adrian looked away from his husband, just jealousy flooding his expression. "Ignore him, Zoë. He wronged you too."

"Adri, I said you didn't have to be here for this. I know it hurts, but Excelle insisted she needed to do this as soon as possible. We... Fuck, I want to talk later, but... Ah..."

"And I'm supposed to just let it happen?" Dee broke free of his husband's reach and paced near their wife. "I fell in love with Zoë right alongside you, but this is different. You can't just rope some new woman into this household and expect it to--"

"Adri, it's not like that! If this is part of what she needs, I'll oblige. After this we're done though. I'm sure she'll still be close, but I won't have sex with Excelle. This is purely political... and not how I would have chosen to handle things." Yoyo tried to slow Excelle to keep his composure, but winced and fought twice as hard when she sat on his knot and took it into herself. "Gods... I-I never w-wanted to hurt you or make you unc-comfortable, Adri. I love you."

"Uncomfortable? You love me? Fuck, honey... Love is the entire point! I love you, not her!" The progressively angrier otter punched a nearby wall and left a small dent. "This woman is in between us and what we have together! It's not the sex, it's the intent!"

"And what if he did this to save us from being stabbed to death?" Zoë reached out and pinned Dee by both shoulders. "Honey, you need to see it from their perspectives. Remember my situation before becoming your mate. There's more to it than you're seeing, and the language barrier isn't helping."

Arty shielded Vix's view with himself and reached for the door. "Yeah... Maybe we should let you guys work this out?"

"W-Wait! I need you or this'll just... have to happen again..." Yoyo groaned as he finally succumbed to the insane heat squeezing his manhood, the Gnome riding it visibly swelling as he filled her beyond normal capacity. "F-Fuck... I'm s-sorry, but... Ah..."

"Great. At least you're incompatible. Like hell I'd let her have our kids."

"Eh... I'm not so sure about that, DeeDee. Those nanites inside both of you can do some wonders." Elliot slid the door closed as he answered a summons of his own. "Also... how the fuck isn't she dead with her other injuries? Is that why you called me here? I'm not equipped with a crowbar and a jack, you know."

"No, she's fine... Ah, damn..." Yoyo slowed Excelle to a stop, their tie already painful enough without the added motion. "Excelle wants to perform some ritual on herself. She mentioned it would modify her body somehow so I thought it best to have you here in case. Ditto Arty, because it sounded like she was describing magic. That might just be mistranslation though, considering the state of their civilization."

"Ask her why." Adrian shook his head as he stood before the Gnome. "I want to know more before I let her go through with it. If... If there's a good reason for this, she needs to build more trust."

"I... can't argue with that. That's more than fair." Iolvin pulled back Excelle's ear and whispered, "<What now? We had to have sex, but why? What are we doing, Excelle?>"

"<My king... Y-Yes! Right!>" Excelle snapped out of her orgasmic daze and locked eyes with the perturbed otter before her. "<I have wronged this one? You are close, no?>"

"<He is my husband, if that makes any sense to you. He doesn't like that we chose to have sex, let alone after our tryst from before. Right now he's demanding to know more before we continue this ritual of yours.>" Yoyo eased back into the couch and pulled Excelle with him, his touch sending a shiver through the Gnome's sides. "<Sorry, but I'm thinking I agree with him. If this isn't as important as you say then we just had sex for little more than enjoyment. I don't like it, but I'm not obliged in any way to listen to your requests. You'd better make a good case; I'll choose my marriage over something that would end it, without hesitation.>"

"<But you... You do not desire to own me? I not worth owning? I see... The queen did die...>" Excelle fell limp as she tried her best effort. "<You are still new king. Discard me, but not my people. Owner ritual only way I become queen, but... you have rights as well. Choices. H-Husband.>"

"<Then this is about formalizing my previous conquest and ownership of you? Honestly, I'd rather not take ownership of you at the expense of my marriage. What happens if I decline to continue?>" Yoyo shifted his gaze to his husband's face, who in turn met eyes with a hint of curiosity. "<My wife in the corner there, she would have had to banish herself to effectively her own death originally. I took her as a slave to prevent that, but we soon fell for each other... my husband included. I can't promise the same happy results, but I'm willing to try if the cause is just.>"

"<If I rejected, I... can no longer rely on my people. I will lose royal name. I will be... outcast... and now without home...>" Excelle sank into herself as she began to fear the worst. "<This is fine. I am alone now, anyway. Just... lead my people well for me.>"

"Adri, she's... Excelle needs to become my official property to retain her status with her people. They'll excommunicate her otherwise. My right as their king means I can keep her in favor, but only if I deem her worth keeping myself."

"So it's a bit like with me?" Zoë stepped forward and placed a hand on the Gnome's shoulder, perking her up quite visibly with hope. "I can't complain if she's where I was so many years ago. I know that pain. It... makes you want to do anything to escape it."

Adrian stepped closer and forced Excelle to look directly into his eyes using a paw to her chin. "And after this, she'll do whatever you say? She'll stay out of our relationship? No more sex?"

"<Excelle, what are your obligations as my... pet?>"

The Gnome fought back a smile as the conversation seemed to be heading in her favor. "<I must follow any command. I must protect you. I... must ease every frustration.>"

"<Can you keep yourself out of my love life? My husband doesn't want us to have sex. That's what Adrian wants to know.>"

"<I... cannot.>" Excelle again fell limp in defeat. "<As conquest... I am my king's new queen. If I do not please my king... I cease being queen and... become worthless. King must desire queen, in all ways.>"

"Damn." Iolvin painfully tested his knot, the tie not quite ready to be undone. "Adri, it isn't just sex. She needs reciprocity as a queen. We've got to try and make it actually work. Fuck, I have to exile this girl then?"

"Well she's the one that did this to herself." Adrian immediately regretted those hateful words, both the tears in Excelle's eyes and the start of a similar downpour welling in his husband's own driving him to back down. "That's unfair. She doesn't have a damned planet to which she can even exile herself. And... you sound forced into liking her, so she doesn't even have you..."

"Adri... I don't know what to do. It hurts so much, but I think--"

"She can't have her status as queen without both her kings agreeing, right?" Dee tilted the girl's face upward and wiped her eyes clear with his thumbs, hissing as he failed to realize they were steaming prior to his touch. "I can't say I'd treat her well, considering how she made our marriage uncomfortable. It sounds like we can always give her the boot if it goes sour though... so maybe if we're both working on it, for us...?"

"Adri... You really...?" Yoyo sat up straight and turned Excelle's head to better face him. "<Excelle, my husband is my equal, just as my wife. They need equal rights in all of this. What can you say about that?>"

"<Equal... rights? As man claiming new queen, wife cannot own me. Order, even love... maybe. H-Husband however...?>" Excelle slid a hand down to her nethers and rubbed the rear of Yoyo's swollen knot. "<Only one man can conquer here. Without conquest, husband only a man.>"

"<But if he conquered you in some other way, would that work? Could we find another test or something?>"

"<I am... unsure what more to conquer after you take my womb. Royal heir is very worthy.>"

"I think that could work out, but only if we find a way to let you conquer her with an equal worth. I've taken the right to her royal line, but what else is there?"

"Her future royal family status lies in her potential heirs. I see. That's how she stays valuable as a queen, I take it." Adrian took a moment to think about the matter, then smirked as he unzipped his pants. "Then I'll have to take her current status. Humiliate a queen and survive and that queen's reputation is forever in your paws."

"Adri, that's... a bit cruel, even for one of your jealous streaks." Yoyo protectively covered Excelle's chest and crotch with his arms in a loose hug. "Please, don't be mean for the sake of revenge. It's... the only ugly side of you, honestly."

"I... acknowledge that. I've been horrible before. I'm trying though; I could have punched this girl and stormed out, you know." Dee pulled out his hard dick and pressed it against Excelle's lips, eventually forcing his tip inside her mouth. "Fuck, that's hot." He held the Gnome's head in place and lightly thrusted into her mouth, ceasing once she gagged on taps against her throat. "Trust me, Iolvin. I won't subject her to anything I don't expect of you or Zoë. I just suspect that bumping up the pace might... make things uncomfortable for her, and enough she'll lose her pride as a princess to me."

"Don't hurt her. I do trust you, but I know you can lose your cool too. Remember what you did to Ashe all those years ago?"

"The laptop incident." Dee slowly removed himself from Excelle's tiny mouth as a gesture of good faith. "That's not my goal here, honey. In fact, this is part of me taking precautions." He knelt down and lifted the girl by her legs, slowly--and painfully for Yoyo--turning Excelle around to face the man tying her. "Did she enjoy that? She looks like she didn't like it, but she's getting wet again down here too."

"They're super sensitive where they glow, Adri. They also despise oral... mostly..." Yoyo thrust into Excelle to settle his knot inside her, unexpectant of both the large volume of magenta cum that leaked free from such a motion as well as the rather rock-hard renewal of his own manhood. "<Shortstack, don't take this the wrong way. I think my husband is planning to make you cry, but only so he has that to hold over you as... leverage.>"

"<I don't... enjoy the idea. However, exile is worse... and such may be sufficient conquest...>" Excelle's eyes shot wide open as she very much fought an unexpected pressure against her anus. "<What? He cannot think this is acceptable!>"

"<That's the point, Excelle. Sorry, but try to endure it.>" Yoyo peered over to spot what exactly was happening beneath her thick tail and sighed in relief. "<Just your ass? Damn, I was afraid he would do something far more sadistic. Shorty, don't fight it. Some women even love doing this and say it feels really good.>"

"<That place is dirty! Never meant for th-this!>" Excelle grit her teeth as Adrian pressed forward, spearing deep into her ass with the aid of her own spit and the love juices leaking from her pussy. "<It hurts! Stop!>"

"Adri, slow down. You're hurting her."

"It wouldn't be a conquest if I took it too easy on her. I could have gone in dry, you know." The otter used shallow shifts in his thrusts to drive deeper, burying himself down to his balls in seconds. "I'm not sure if she's going to burn away my dick first or rip it off at this rate. She's so tiny and... hot..." He started making slow, full thrusts that smacked his balls against Yoyo's own. "Fuck... I won't last long like this. And... Am I feeling you in there? Is this turning you on?"

"Don't blame me for finding my husband sexy, even if he's being a bit mean." Yoyo started humping as little as his knot allowed, finding a counter pace to his husband's for best effect. "<You okay there, Shortstack? You're squeezing me as well now.>"

"<F-Feels... very g-good... but s-so bad too...>

"I think she's feeling better about it. I know I definitely am too." Yoyo purposely angled his cock toward his mate's, letting Excelle's pliable womb and all the surrounding nerves better cross the path of Adrian's thrusting. "I'm about to cum, Adri. Just keep that up and... ah..."

"T-Too late!" Adrian hilted himself deep inside Excelle's bowels, his cock flagging directly against the side of the girl's womb. After a few surges of his cream filling, he pulled his cock entirely free and pressed it hard against the underside of Yoyo's freshly re-sealed tie. "S-Sorry, but she can't e-enjoy it all."

"Adri, w-wait..."

"<Wh-Wh-What?>" Excelle fell limp as her already stretched cunt somehow found the room to fit another cock inside. Massive pangs of pain ripped through her until her pliable flesh grew accustomed to the new pressure, then her drastically crushed nerve endings fed her nothing but orgasmic bliss. "<S-So ~g-g-good~!>"

Yoyo grunted as his knot took the worst of the new intrusion. "N-No more, h-honey..."

"There's not m-much left to take." Adrian gasped and struggled to stay in place, his legs weakening as his balls emptied into the Gnome's overstuffed cunt. Very little stayed in place, and none made it beyond the girl's false womb, but none of that mattered to the dazed Gnome. The three eventually crumpled longwise over the couch as Excelle quaked in mindless climax and her belly swelled further. "Damn... Let me do this more often and... I might be able to tolerate her."

"Excelle. Her name is Excelle." Iolvin reached down and slowly removed his husband's manhood from the poor Gnome's cunt, using the extra grip to pull his own knotted cock free in one motion. "<You alright, Excelle? I'm not seeing blood, but...>"

"<I... a-am fine. Shamed, but...>" Excelle suddenly reached down and held her hands over her leaking nethers. "<Husband c-conquered my... He steal my maidenhood... Make me unsuitable for... marriage...>"

"<And he owns it now. He's partly your owner now, right?>"

"<He... owns maidenhood...?>" The Gnome checked herself for blood or other damage and then resumed her cupping of fluids. "<Yes. Both own, but heir more important. Still, we now finish binding of owner... owners. We must finish while we have owners' seed.>"

"<Ah, so that's the point. We do something similar in my tribe, I think.>" Iolvin blinked a few times as he remembered the others in the room, finding his son sitting across the way with Vixellyn's paws moving in his lap and a similar motion in hers. "Uh... Arty? Bad time? I think we're good to go here and the uh... materials are fresh. We can wait though--"

"S-Sorry. We ended up like you guys while trying to stay distracted..." Artemis stood and fumbled with his pants, then headed over to aid his father's efforts. "How can I help?"

"Not sure yet. We'll make it quick so you can go bed that girl of yours properly, though." Yoyo rested back with the bulk of his energy drained, whispering into the heaving mess of a Gnome in his lap. "<Give us instructions. We're unsure what needs to be done.>"

"<You say your boy knows runes? He can make copy on my back?>" Excele took her handful of mixed fluids, bit her finger, and then started drawing a circular shape between her small breasts as if her claw was a fountain pen. "<He copies on other side, with same blood.>"

"Think you can make the same symbol on the center of her back? She says she needs you to use her blood, but it's deadly hot so be careful."

"I can do that but I don't have a good tool for it. Do we have something that won't melt?" Arty leaned in closer to memorize the symbol, realizing it's worth as he summoned his grimoire. "This is a magic circle. It's... well, the basis of all practical magic but we normally just visualize them since most are simple. The more complex ones like this are written to avoid mistakes."

Yoyo used his nanites to create a bunch of solid stylii out of compressed air, the insulating material hopefully lasting long enough to get the job done. "So it's actually magic? Well what's it do?"

"Well there's a lot of control modules... command-response switches..."

Adrian sat upright to give the finished circle--now framed in chevrons of similar runes--a much closer examination. "That sounds like a programming language. Is it some sort of geometric representation of one?"

"That's not far off. You guide the flow of energy, then feed æther through the system to change it and make it do your bidding." Arty took a stylus, tipped it in the muddy amber mixture substituting ink, and started cloning the spell between Excelle's shoulder blades. "Let's see if I can figure it out as I go... Lack of order symbols everywhere. There's heat, cold, electric discharge... Plenty of conditions for each. Actually, this is so complex I don't think I can link each to one another."

"Well it needs to be done. Can you make it work?"

"Can I? Hell, I'm already done. Let me double check though." Arty rounded Excelle's front for another look, then gasped in surprise as one of his manhoods became enveloped in warmth and wetness. "Vix? Are you sure you--?"

Vixellyn loudly slurped and popped her lips off Artemis' shorter cock. "You're still hard. I... can't let you stay like that and get blue balls, right?"

"That takes quite a lot of teasing, and some time to boot." Elliot gave Vix a light rub on the shoulder. "You can wait until you're alone, honey. I should probably tag along too, discuss something when we're done."

"Ah... Y-Yeah, ignore that then? Please?" Vix worked Arty's cocks back into his pants and tidied him up. "I mean... the blowjob, not having sex later--unless you want a blowjob later too! I mean--!"

"Shush, cutie. No need to announce it all." Arty chuckled as he corrected one section of the left chevrons, then tossed the slightly melted stylus to his father. "Okay, that's ready. Now what?"

"<What's next?>"

"<The arms on the sides... um...>" Excelle took the stylus and tapped beside the symbols, then tapped her neck in turn. "<They make collar. They... are flipped, hand in hand...>"

"Oh, I think I see what she means..." Yoyo tapped beside a chevron wing, then another in a similar spot. "See how these oppose each other when upside down? Make a choker for her out of those."

"Ah, that makes sense. These are containers that set context for the spell. If there's a place the spell affects, they need to exist there too." Arty began creating the collar with a fresh stylus. "So I've got a hint of how this works. I think these are blood seals, not at all because her blood is in it. Ha."

"And what's that mean?" Dee watched closely as the dark tincture stained Excelle's already dim blue skin. "It's like a blood oath or something? Magic pinky swear?"

"Well it looks like two sets of inputs are needed, but... I think this is heat activated. They have lava or whatever for blood, right? So I'm not sure this will work since you don't have that sort of energy in your own blood."

"That's not exactly true." Ellie reached over and gave his brother a pin prick with a syringe needle. "See that lime green blood? Those nanites are his blood now, and they use a very dense charged oxydium power source in each. That's why your dad has to plug chox batteries into his chest implant every now and then."

"See? I knew it was a good idea calling you over for this." Yoyo watched his son place down the final runes and nodded at the fine work. "So you think it'll work? How do we even do this? <Excelle, is there an instruction manual or something?>"

"<I hold you dearest to my heart, so you own runes I made myself. Please?>" Excelle took one of the spare stylii and poked Yoyo on his shoulder, drawing a hint of blood. She then placed that droplet of magenta on his finger and guided it to the center of the first magic circle. "<Touch my heart and know its strength, that it may become yours to wield.>"

Iolvin pressed his finger forward and the circle filled with magenta light, searing the runes into Excelle's skin with a permanent, dull glow of matching color. "<That didn't hurt, did it? Is that it?>"

"<It hurt little. Now... husband, on back.>"

"Adri, you see that? Touch your blood to the center of that circle."

"Oh, was that what you did?" Adrian dabbed his pricked arm and followed suit, a lime green light filling the rearward circle. Moments later the choker around Excelle's neck lit up the same brilliant baby blue as her own blood, along with the chevrons beside each circle. "I think that did it. That looked like it hurt, though."

"Not much, apparently." Yoyo caught Excelle hissing at the more substantial changes, the Gnome obviously hiding her pain out of pride or to ease her new owners. "So what's it do, then? <Shortstack? How do we know if it worked? Is it just for show?>"

"<No, very real. Now... if I disobey, I feel more pain. I have trouble breathing as well.>" Excelle rubbed her chest, the emblems now quite permanently burned into her skin and humming in a light glow. "<Further, if owners die of... not of old age, I too shall perish. This is the pact of conquest. This is proof king desires queen, for he may order her own death and she must then perish.>"

"<Okay, that's not what I signed up for. Fuck. Maybe I should keep the shock collar part to myself in case my husband still harbors ill will.>"

"<No! He owns right! To disgrace my name with such cheating--!>"

Yoyo calmed the Gnome and brushed her short hair clear of her flustered face. "Adri, she has to follow our orders now or she'll be hurt by this. And don't go getting killed, because if either of us dies unnaturally so will she. It's shit, but we can make it work."

"Well I can't speak with her anyway, so not like I can order her around yet. Maybe I she'd slap herself as hard as she can for what she did to you without my permission, but--"

Excelle cringed and clasped her neck in pain. "<Wh-What does he will? It burns!>"

"Oh, shit! <He wants you to slap yourself on your face with all you've got. Sorry, Shorty.>" Excelle raised her hand and smacked her cheek hard enough she drew blood from her nose, but afterward the urge driving such an act subsided. "Adri, watch what you say. You're beyond even now, so don't you dare take that any further."

"I... I'm sorry. Can you... tell her I'm...?"

"You aren't sorry, though. I can... understand that, however. Just don't make yourself into a person so ugly I can't forgive you anymore." Yoyo groaned as he regained his composure, giving his son a thankful pat on the shoulder. "Thanks, son. You and Vix should probably go finish what you started, especially if it might be the last chance we get before the shit hits the fan. Cherish her."

"Thanks, I guess?" Artemis slinked away and snatched Vixellyn by the paw. "I'm up for some private time still if you are. Unless you'd rather visit Cher instead?"

"No... We could be alone... just a bit longer."

"Ah, wait. I have something to talk about, and I need a few blood samples." Elliot caught the two before they reached the door and lowered his voice. "Well, a bunch of fresh nanites in your case, Arty. Those things can probably explain a lot of these weird offspring in your family, but I'll settle with you first."

"Wait, you mentioned that before. What's going on? Is my son healthy?" Yoyo set Excelle to his side and stood tall, ignoring his nakedness in favor of his concern. "My son's nanites aren't misbehaving, are they? I didn't know they would be passed along to him, but... do they need more power? Can we install a--?"

"No, it's nothing like that. His nanites are fine." Ellie looked to Arty as he gauged just how much he should reveal. "Your son is healthy, and so is Vix. That's all I can say without breaching their privacy."

"Theirs? Wait... Is Vix... preg--?"

"No no, Vix is not pregnant. Think before you speak, dufus." Ellie went to guide the two out the door for a chat, but Arty stopped him dead in his tracks. "What? I really need to ask you something in private."

"If it's about me, you can share it. I don't keep anything from my father, not after he willingly came back into my life. He deserves to know everything."

"Arty, this is really--"

"So it is about me? Everything, Elliot. If we can't fix it as a family, we definitely can't fix it alone."

"Crap." Ellie looked to his brother for support but only received the same steely family-focused stare members of this family always bombarded his way. "Fine. I don't know how to put this without it sounding odd. I certainly don't want to jump to conclusions either before I do some blood sequencing."

Adrian stood as well, but decided to hold back an embrace considering his nude, sex-stained self. "Just spill it, Elle. We can figure it out together."

"I think... Arty might be pregnant. No..." Ellie took out a data terminal and unlocked the medical records it contained. "Actually, I know he's pregnant. I've confirmed that much. I just can't make sense of how. The embryo only contains matching DNA."

Slack-jawed at the very unexpected news, Iolvin tried to rebuild his stature for his son's sake."W-Well that's good, isn't it? It needs to be a match to fertilize, right?"

"No, not this kind of match. I mean the two contributing RNA sequences are nearly identical... or maybe even fully identical. The differences are within the margin of error for the tests I performed." Elliot reached into his bag and produced an auto-syringe connected to a smaller terminal of some kind. "Vix, I could use a sample of blood. Arty, I'd also like some info from your nanites directly. I might be able to build a DNA sequence to compare with the embryo's. And since those little bugs might only work when you tell them to... I might need a sample of sperm, right after you, um... make love to Vix."

"Why does the timing matter?" Adrian moved closer and checked the equipment, noting it was pretty standard if compact gene sequencing gear. "Do the nanites change his DNA or something?"

"I only have a hypothesis, but you know how Yoyo and Ari shouldn't be able to readily have kids and now we have a zoo?" Ellie pulled up two different sperm sample records from Iolvin, taken at two noted dates. "I think the nanites can change your sperm to become viable if you will them to do so. Maybe if you're breeding someone in heat for example? But to think the changes could help someone span species lines, or even breed themselves...?" The otter took a deep breath and shook his head. "I'm getting ahead of myself. Solving Earth's cross-breeding woes isn't as important as your child right now, Arty."

"So... you think I might have knocked myself up? That's a hell of a design flaw there, dad."

"Hey, I didn't make myself this way. I certainly don't know where you got the second dick. Just make sure to wrap them both up after this if you can paw yourself into needing a crib." Yoyo looked back at his new effective wife as she rested over Zoë's lap. "Not that it's a bad thing if you're actually wanting a kid like some people, anyway. Doc, what options do we have though? Can we fix this if the embryo is a mistake?"

"I'm having the baby, dad. How could you even think of an abortion, especially knowing my beliefs?"

"No, no! I meant we should try to fix things if something isn't right. How could you ever think I'd not welcome more grandchildren to our raft? You know me better than that as well." Yoyo searched for his pants, then walked into them as he rejoined the group. "What's the plan, Doc? How do we make this right?"

"Well that's the odd part--I think the embryo is perfectly viable, beyond all normal biology. The egg simply shouldn't have started splitting into new cells without a proper DNA sequence to follow." Ellie took a moment to snag a hint of blood from Vix and put it through the sequencing process. "There's no explanation for this. Even in experimental insemination, eggs with same genes always die soon after implantation into the uterine wall. There has to be a difference the nanites created that we're missing."

"Take what you need, Ellie. Whatever it takes to figure this out."

The otter pulled out a second device and a fresh syringe phial for the injector. "Just a little pinch." The glowing blue sample popped out the injector and into the sequencer, then began running properly much to Ellie's surprise. "Good, the nanites seem to have the proper markers already. I'd hate to intrude on your private time with Vix. Or... you're not actively sexualy involved with anyone else, are you?"

"No. I'm only... doing that with Vix."

"That helps narrow things. I didn't want to find that the match was because family knocked you up." Elliot took a moment to examine Vix's results once they finished processing, then squinted at his data tablet with astonishment. "Or... I spoke too soon? Vix... No..." He double and triple checked the data, tosing his paws up at the end result. "Vix, I think... you're related to Arty somehow. Somewhere close, actually. Maybe a direct ancestor?"

"No... I mean, my dad was a fox and my mom was a red panda. We don't have otter or panther in our family at all, not for a bunch of generations. And actually... way back, the first furs on my dad's side were a fox and a bunny, I think."

"I might be able to look that up if the records are good enough. Vixellyn... Trotter? I've heard that name before." Elliot pulled up Vix's very shoddy medical history he'd been compiling on his own, then compared it to Arty's pristine official chart. "Let's see... Two generations is no go. Three... looks like a mess, but I don't see anythink looking--" The otter pulled up a single official chart, a scanned paper record from the former United States Army. "John Clarence Trotter, part of a special science team. His assignment post ID was this... and his CO was... Oh gods."

"So... we're cousins or something? That's... not so bad, if we're a few generations apart. Right?" Arty took a look at the data Ellie sifted through and a single heading stood out to him. "Project 'God Foundry', head director... Doctor Claire Optik. Optik? As in Carbon?"

"I... think that might be right, actually. Carbon served in the Army before transferring to the Marines with dad." Yoyo reached for Excelle's dress and held it out for her, the exhausted Gnome only waving him away mindlessly. "Does that have anything to do with the baby? Something we need to be concerned about, maybe?"

"No, just a very odd coincidence. It also sort of confirms we have the right person. Vix, Arty--you two have a common great-grandfather. The odd thing is he was listed as killed in action not too long after his wife--" Ellie shook his head, the jumbled history starting to make sense now. "I see. Only Vixellyn's side of the family is listed under that record. It looks like an Alice Trotter assumed his family name and had a little boy to keep the line going. She... may have been his mistress, or the other way around. I'm not too keen on your family history, Yoyo."

Arty grunted and checked the now-complete nanite sequencing. "Ellie, I just care about the baby. What's the verdict here?"

"Well give me a second, silly. There's a lot of... Oh. Wow." Elliot overlaid the results, then set them over the embryo's pattern. "Okay, the parts that matter actually look like they were from Arty himself. I'd say three-fourths of this chain is his, which shouldn't be possible. The rest... looks like it was bespoke crafted to match Vix, but only in a few ways." The otter gazed down at Arty's groin, then back to his face. "This was an accident, right? The only way I can see this happening is if Arty's nanites changed one of Vix's eggs, then somehow that managed to get implanted into his womb. That all supposes Vix even can make eggs in her condition. Arty, do you remember anything strange to say the least when you recently had sex? Say... in the last three weeks?"

"Well we had an incident the other day, but... I haven't touched my... my vagina at all until then. The other times, it was pretty straightforward with... me entering her..."

"I... don't think I..." Vixellyn mumbled to herself as she started putting pieces of the puzzle together. "We were playing around with... sorry, but your dong, Yoyo." She looked down at her own paws, certain that her newfound powers played a role in her actions. "You said Art needed someone's seed to be satisfied, Ellie. I just... took a condom and pumped it back into him..."

"Something must have happened in that exchange, like the nanites grabbed an egg through the condom. It could have been malformed as well. Hm." Elliot shook his head in disbelief at the idea though. "You had to have done something before that though. I mean it makes more sense if Arty was in heat, but the timing isn't right. This embryo is at least two weeks into division and that happened just the other day."

"I... I'm so sorry, Art... I couldn't, and I really wanted to have one, and... I did this..." Vixellyn bolted for the door, tears welling in her eyes as she slammed it behind her. "I'm a monster..."

"VIx, wait!" Arty pulled the door open to chase her, but the vixen was nowhere to be found in a rather large common room. "Where did she... go?"

"Well she's still got that tracker inside her neck, right? Sorry for the betrayal, but love wins out Vix." Elliot pulled up the Volk's internal scanner system and entered the tag ID. "Military ships use similar chips to track personnel these days. She should show up... somewhere...?"

Arty pulled the data tablet closer to spot the position, but couldn't make sense of the hundreds of tags showing. "Where'd she go?"

"That's exactly it... She moved halfway across the ship. That's physically impossible, right? She's twenty decks above us according to this... on Medical deck."

Artemis shared a ponderous expression with Elliot, then the panthott broke free with hints of terror beginning to form. "Oh no. This isn't good." He slid the door open and sprinted toward the central elevators. "She's dangerous! Let me calm her down!"

"Son, let me--"

"No, dad! Stay!" Arty triggered the lift's call button with his nanites, hoping to shave precious seconds. "If you care about this universe and everyone inside it, you'll stay away and let me handle it."

Iolvin stood half-dressed in the room's door frame, blocking the others from following at his son's request. "Why, son? What's the worst that could happen?"

Artemis threw himself into the elevator carriage when it arrived and punched the appropriate button. "Darius, dad. She can make what happened to Darius look like a prank." The doors slowly shut and only one thought repeated in that chamber. "God help her. Pray, please help her."