Space Rock

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Asteroid Mining, the new gold rush of the century. And just like the California rush or the Yucatan, there are scam artists, dangers abound. Many go bust, the massive corporations are able to eat the costs and risks to often be the ones to come out on top. But in this new wild west of space there are other risks, otherworldly risks. And sometimes alien substances and unique technology mix with surprising results…

Asteroid ZX-1569 a small mountain of a rock slowly spinning along the asteroid belt The mostly self-automated mining system is monitored by four entrepreneurs ready to reap the benefits of the asteroid’s unique composition, that they have only recently discovered after their third exploratory dig. The machinery causes a soft vibration throughout the facility, which causes teeth to chitter if one was not careful.

An anthropomorphic purple scaled dragon with blue stripes stares intently at the stream of data with his blue and green dichromatic eyes, mind numbingly bored. Guiding and controlling the mining equipment to dig through the rock without causing catastrophic failure of the asteroid or machinery. His black horns that jut out of the back of his head, through his light purple hair is rather intimidating. But his oval shaped ears with piercings tell of his more punkish lifestyle.

His black scaled right hand stands out as his cyan claws tap on the screen. He lets out a long drawn out yawn. The silver and black metal facility, the lights built into the ceiling providing plenty of artificial sunlight to mimic a late morning day. “Only ten or twenty more years of this and I can get home and take the easy life… for at least fifty or so years before having to come back,” he grumbles.

Sitting at the computer console beside him is a blue dragon with sleek scales, with a soft slime-like coating, a hint to her unique draconic and slug hybrid ancestry. Her soft purple eyes look at the data before her with a buzz of excitement. Her thick round tail wags happily, “Oh come on Mr. Lau, look at these readings! There is something special about this, I can just feel it!” she giggles.

He looks over to her, giving a long drawn out stare that just screams, “Really?” With a soft sigh he says, “Aurora, call me Scott. Just Scott.”

“Oh sorry Mr. Lau, I mean Scott.”

“And you’ll learn that one can’t get excited just because the readings say something like this. Time and time again such optimism is met with the crushing weight of reality.”

She puffs her cheeks, “Where is your sense of adventure? We’re out here in the middle of space doing deep space mining. Where the brave and the bold go!”

“It was crushed by the mining equipment long ago,” he states.

“You put on a tough exterior but leave it to me to crack it!”

“If you weren’t good at cracking tough exteriors, I’d not have had you on the team.”

“Awe thanks Scott, you’re the best!” she says with a soft squeal.

He lets out a soft sigh when there was a sudden rumble throughout the asteroid, the screen flashed, a sensation of an explosion moved through the place, causing the lights to flicker, some to break and spark before the electricity was automatically cut off from there to prevent a chance of a fire while they suddenly found themselves floating within their chairs.

“What the fuck?!” Scott exclaims typing through the computer, trying to figure what happened, “Looks like we hit something dense.”

“It’s denser than our titanium-diamond tipped drill, how is something natural able to do that?” she wondered.

“This is why optimism doesn’t pay. Any profits we could have reaped just went out the window.”

“Not necessarily. We’ll have to go check out the equipment, it might be better than you think.”

“I highly doubt that…” he says tapping on the computer screen, “Nargus! Lupisfer! How are you two doing down there in engineering?” he asks.

A dark blue with lighter blue belly, black scales along their tail, feet and along their back with some feathers along their tail tip and head, anthropomorphic velociraptor, her soft yellow eyes reading through the data, her ebony claws tapping on the screen, “I will need a moment to process the damages. But artificial gravity is offline.”

“I’ve noticed that, anything else?”

“I’ll let you know as soon as I can,” she replies.

Down the hallway where the hum of the facility’s equipment is normally overridden by the severe vibrations of the mining equipment is a soft grey furred anthropomorphic wolf satanic blue fur markings along his back, his piercing yellow eyes looking into the facility’s inner workings, “Well this is a fine mess we found ourselves in,” he grumbles, floating himself out.

“You’re just sad that we can’t use the vibrations to our advantage later on tonight,” Nargus says to him with a playful wink.

He smirks, “All the more reason to get things working,” he replies, grabbing along the pipe system to pull himself over to her.

“I need to check the artificial gravity, ”Nargus replies, pushing off the ground propelling her up another floor just before Lupisfer gets to her, but was delayed enough for him to get a lovely look at her slender butt before disappearing.

“Right, good idea,” he says with a soft huff.

“Once you two get a diagnostic on our current state, I want one of you to come with me. We’re going to check out the drill,” Scott says, leaning back in his chair instinctively, his body slowly floating up and away from it, making him grab the chair to pull himself back down, “Was this is the adventure you were looking for?” he asks, looking over to Aurora, who is floating over her chair, legs gripping the sides as she types into the computer.

“It wouldn’t be an exciting adventure if nothing happened.”

“You’ll learn that the best adventure to have is no adventure. When something goes wrong, it can go really wrong, and no one can get here within a week of our location. Which means we’d be on our own if one of the vital systems shut down.”

“We have the class A spacesuits. Those will help and protect us if anything bad happens.”

“I prefer not to live my life even for a short while trapped in a spacesuit.”

“No matter how snug and delightful they feel and fit?” she asks with a giggle.

Scott raises an eye ridge, “If you weren’t so damn good at your job…”

“Awe thanks!” she says doing a little spin over the chair before going back to work.

He sighs, looking over the data once more, several minutes later there is a sudden pull to the floor and Aurora smacks herself onto the computer console, falling over while he simply lands back into his chair with ease.

“Gravity is back up!” yells Nargus over the intercom.

“A little warning next time!” yells Lupisfer, who is rubbing his butt from his sudden fall.

“Sorry love!”

Aurora twitches pulling herself back up and into her chair, “Ow.”

Scott smirks, “Was that enough adventure for you?”

“For now, yeah,” she says rubbing her face.

“Are you okay though?”

“I’ll be fine, I’m bouncier than I look.”

“As long as you’re okay. I don’t want anyone injured on my watch…” he says, his claws twitching at the thought before taking a deep breath, “So, which of you two is going to come with me?”

“I will!” trills Nargus.

“You always love those things,” Lupisfer says with a chuckle over the intercom. Nargus pokes her head from the artificial gravity room, climbing back down to see the wolf checking over other systems.

“Well I do have the personal pleasure version. And I know you too love,” she says with a wink.

“Yeah, but none of that is here, so no special fun for you, without me,” he states with a smirk.

“I could have fun just fine on my own love,” she says with a wink, sliding down the ladder, moving to another section of the ship.

He gives a playful growl, “Just wait till later tonight.”

“You know you left your intercoms on,” Scott says with a sigh, the other two stiffening up at his words.

“Sorry!” Nargus says clicking hers off.

“Not sorry,” Lupisfer chuckles.

“It’s fine if lovers are on the same ship they said. It’ll be good for ship morale, they said. There’s no cut in productivity they said,” Scott remarks with a sigh.

“It’s fine Scott. Love burning so deep in the dark cold space, a bit of warmth to fill us up. To remind us why we are working for, so away from home.”

“I just want a nice simple retirement, anything but that can just…” he sighs, “Never mind. I’m going to get suited.”

Aurora follows him, saying, “Did you know that the tech for this actually originated from a sex toy company? Toys-4-U?”

Scott looks over to her, “And this is important for me to know why?”

“It’s just a fun fact. To think that this technology spawned by the search of personal pleasure would have unforeseen uses that help push the boundaries of exploration! Quite ironic isn’t it? First used to explore within oneself and now being used to explore the great expanse of outer space!”

“How many coffees have you had today?”

“Three with two expresso shots… each.”

“That’s almost double your daily ration limit. How did you pull that off?”

“Nargus gave me her rations,” she says with a smile.

“Of course.”

“I wouldn’t break rationing rules Mr. Lau… I mean Scott.”

“It’s fine. I’m just checking,” he remarks, heading down a series of tight corridors till they reach the airlocks were on display are a series of equipment in lockers, each with the name of each crew member written upon them in pen. Sitting on the middle center shelf is a glass domed helmet, bright orange and yellow markings along the edges of the helmet, the thick collar of rubber around the base with the same bright colors. Right below the glass dome near the front is a set of gas mask filter ports that look ready to have something cylindrical attached to them.

Already there and waiting is Nargus, her locker open, helmet in hand ready to slip it on, her claws tapping along the dome with eagerness, “What kind of accessories do we need?” asks Nargus, looking at Scott.

“Securing hooks, rebreathers for extended oxygen use, can never be too careful on that, personal propulsion equipment, and I think the omni-repair tool, in case there is something there that we can fix, though I doubt it. We might have a pause on all mining for at least a few days if not longer depending on the extent of the damages, and lastly rock gripper shoes,” Scott says with a hint of sadness and frustration in his voice.

“Hopefully it won’t be that bad,” says Aurora.

“I’m hopeful that we can get this fixed,” says Nargus with an optimistic chirp.

“The optimism of first tour crew members, always astounds me,” Scott remarks to Nargus, slipping the hood over her head. Some red text flashes in front of her, her voice muffled from within the helmet. But within moments the bright orange and yellow striped rubber moved down across her body. Sleek, form fitting, squeezing her form, showing off every contour while hiding the clothes she had underneath. Within a minute the rubber fully encased her, a soft chirp of delight escapes her lips, which fogs her helmet for the first few breaths before the suit adjusts to fix.

“That always gets my spine tingling to see,” says Aurora.

“I’m happy you enjoy watching it, but I’ll need you to monitor the situation and help keep us safe. Last thing we need is a micro meteor shower. Even these suits won’t protect us from that.”

“Right! Sorry, I’ll be right on it, Mr. Lau… I mean Scott,” she says, rushing off.

“At least she means well,” says Nargus, her voice muffled within the sleek rubbery suit, which squeaks with each movement.

“She has a good heart, good to have out here,” remarks Scott, unlocking his locker, grabbing his helmet, slipping it over his head with a schlunk noise.

Red text appears in front of his vision, a monotone synthetic voice says, “Audio voice recognition and commands required to access advanced features.”

“This is Captain Scott Lau. Security command, A-T-52-L-62, execute.”

“Voice command recognized. Welcome back Captain Scott Lau. Releasing emergency restrictions, initiating suiting.”

The rubber around his neck formed an airtight seal. It warmed around his neck and head, rolling down his body, a soft tingle felt through his scales as it crawled across his form, like his body was being dipped into a warm candle wax, which clung and gripped his form. He feels it squeeze along his scales providing its own atmospheric squeeze like being trapped into a body size suited vac-bed. Every inch of his scales are rolled over with the rubber, an seemingly impossible thin layer of latex holding him, caressing him, squeezing him, providing protection from the vacuum of space. The multi-layered latex hides the true complexity of the suit itself. Scott raises one foot and then the next, feeling the rubber wrap around his feet, binding everything together in a bright orange yellow glistening rubber suit. Crotch smooth with the slightest of a natural bulge, unlike Nargus, who is completely smoothed over, with only the obviousness of her supple breasts giving away her feminine nature.

“Always a unique experience,” Scott thinks to himself.

“Suiting complete. You are free to add equipment as desired to the anchor points,” the suit states.

“I know this part,” Scott replies, the dome around his head fogging for a moment the suit showing an indicator to adjust and fix that, and within three breaths the fogging is gone. Scott grabbed the rebreather first. A large yet slender black and grey pack with red and black tubes, that have a warning on them “Oxygen do not pull.”

He slips his arms through the rubber straps and within a moment they merge with the suit, which has back anchor points shifted from green to red, indicating they are now occupied. The pack glowing as energy is provided to them. All the while Scott grabs the tubes and twists and secures them to his helmet. “Atmospheric rebreather connected and online. Operating at 99.89% efficiency.”

Next, he wraps around his belt and halfway down his tail the propulsion system. The belt itself has tubes running across the waist and tail, the points of connection merge the belt with the suit, with multiple adjustable jets, which move independently from each other as they go over their diagnostics, “Personal propulsion system installed. All systems nominal.”

“So far, so good,” Scott remarks, grabbing the anchor hooking tools, which is a gauntlet for his left arm. He slips his arm into the system, the grappling hook equipment has dozens of small piercing metal projectiles, each tied a long high strength line, useful to drag one’s self back toward an asteroid if ever knocked off and the propulsion was not an option, or securing one self to the rock while making their way to a location that has not already been secured.

Next is a similar gauntlet but for the other arm, it like the other attachment goes around the wrist and arm, which contains dozens of tools that one could possibly need at their disposal, all the while leaving their hands completely free, with full dexterous movement for anything that might require it.

The last bit is a set of boot attachments that merge with the suit once stepped inside. At the base of the shoes are clawed spikes that grip the base of rocks, providing secured footing, and an added layer of protection from being flung out into space. “All systems nominal,” the suit reports after testing each new attachment.

“At least these work reliably. Everything okay on your end?” Scott asks, his voice echoes within the helmet, but is transmitted over the intercoms perfectly clear to her.

Nargus nods, giving a thumbs up, “Yup, all systems nominal here,” she responds in kind.

“Let's get this done,” he says, moving toward the airlocks, the two stepping in with soft thuds and squeaks, despite their equipment they move around with relative ease, the equipment not as heavy as it looks, “Are you able to read me Aurora?” he asks once they are inside the airlock, the door closing behind them.

“Reading you loud and clear.”

“How’s the weather.”

“Clear skies, but a little chili. You might want to bundle up and stay warm.”

“We’re heading out,” Scott remarks, the air sucked from the airlocks, the suits keeping the pressure and slender look of their forms, the opposite doors opening revealing the interior of the asteroid. They hold onto the railing, pulling themselves along, showing that the facility is built into a dug-out interior of the asteroid.

Their feet automatically magnetically connect to the metal exterior of the facility. Scott looks out towards the opening, a large silver protective fan is spread across most of the opening, providing shielding from possible micro-asteriods, but also absorbing the distant sun’s rays to help power the facility. He tightly grips the guiding rail, looking over his shoulder to Nargus, “Ready for around the world walk?”

Nargus swallows a lump in her throat, heart pounding, a tingle running down her spine, the fogging coming back on her dome head helmet before the suit manages to compensate for that, “Yeah. Let’s do this,” she says, following Scott.

“Just a simple leap over here and then we’ll make our way to the surface,” says Scott pushing off toward the wall across the way, venturing the empty space where ships would dock when changing the guard or supplies are brought for an extended stay at the facility.

Scott gently lands across the way with a soft thud, gripping the guard rail, looking over to Nargus who nervously leaps, jumping a little too hard, causing her to hit and bounce against the guard rail, about to lose her grip when Scott grabs her, “Easy, easy, I got you.”

Nargus pants, “Sorry, I jumped off a little too hard there.”

“Rookie mistake. This your first spacewalk?” he asks.

“Third actually. I did say I had experience on my resume.”

“That’s true… I should have been clearer on how much. But no matter. Take it easy. The laws of physics are not your friend here, but they are also your only hope for survival. Come, let's do this,” says Scott, gently patting Nargus on the back, guiding her along the guide rail toward the outside. The moment they step past the fan shield they are partially blinded by the burning white ball known as the sun. Though far dimmer than back on Earth, or even Mars, it's still a dazzling star providing light this far into the solar system. Its glow overpowers all possibly visible stars in the sky. Smaller asteroids rotate around each other, their seemingly slow pace as they orbit the distant sun hides their truly dangerous speeds.

“I can never get enough of this view,” says Nargus once the domes tinted enough to allow clear visibility.

“It is something alright,” says Scott, the two grabbing onto the guide rail that leads to the course adjustment jets that keep this side of the asteroid facing the sun, “Ready for a cross country walk?” he asks, gingerly shifting over to the next guide rail that leads off into the distance, over the asteroid's horizon, “It’s only an hour stroll.”

Nargus grabs the rail, nodding, “I got this.”

“I’d hope so. It’s a pain to grab someone floating off into space,” Scott remarks with a chuckle.

Nargus grips the railing a little tighter, sliding herself down it right behind him, “Still wouldn’t change this experience for anything in the world.”

“For enough money I would,” Scott replies as the two are moving across the grey and black rocky and creator surface. Signs of impacts with countless smaller asteroids pockmark the place. Random dents and holes with the metal torn outward show signs of more recent micro-asteroid impacts in the bright orange cone guide rail.

“So, how long have you been doing this Scott?” asks Nargus after a notable stretch of silence.

“You’re asking me this now?”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Not during the last six months being here. Now. In the middle of the open expanse of space you ask?”

“Is that so wrong? You’re always so… tough that honestly, I’ve been rather intimidated to ask much about you. I just know you’re the one who has the experience.”

“Fifty years.”

“F-fifty years? Aren’t you like twenty-six or something?”

“Ninety-five,” he remarks begrudgingly.

“Ninety-five?! You’re so… So…”

“Young, I know.”

“That was not the word I was going to use.”

“When dragons live to be a thousand years? I’m young. Wanting to retire before two hundred? That’s crazy money. It’s why I am here. You know I have relatives that remember the plague.”

“Which plague?”

“All of them, especially but the bubonic is the one I’m really referring to.”

“Wow… I didn’t think the rumors of dragon longevity were true. More like a conspiracy theory or something.”

Scott gives her a stare, “Really?”

“Well… yeah a little. Like How can you all live so long?” she asks curiously.

“Don’t ask me. I don’t work in that field,” he replies, eventually they crest over the horizon, reaching the far end of the asteroid, delving into the dark side, where only the soft glow of lights from the massive mining equipment, structure and docking ports give any light. The “night” side of the asteroid allows for the stars to appear out over into the horizon along with more slowly spinning rocks.

“Oh, look you can see Jupiter from here,” says Nargus pointing out to one spot in space that shows a large glowing spot standing above all others, making it the second clearest visible distant object outside of the sun.

“Huh, guess you can. You can even see a few of the moons,” Scott remarks.

“It’s amazing…”

“Yeah… it is,” Scott replies with a smirk, admiring the view for just a moment, before bringing his eyes back to the surface, “We can admire it on the way back. Right now, we have a job to do,” he says, continuing down the path.

“Right, right. I hope the damage isn’t too significant,” Nargus chirps.

“I’ve found it better to assume and prepare for the worse and be cautiously delighted when it's otherwise,” he remarks.

“Well that is rather pessimistic.”

“Life has taught me pessimism is the best way to go in order not to be disappointed,” he replies.

“But then you have nothing to look forward to.”

“Sure, I do.”

“Which is?”

Scott smirks, “An early retirement,” he chuckles, the two looking out toward the mining facility. Massive automated open pit mine is visible to them, and the end of the simple guide rail. The large hole has contained within its dug-out sections where rocks and ores are processed and prepared for shipping inside giant containers, that are tightly packaged and ready to be handed over to a docking ship upon completion. Simulated gravity systems keep the rocks and the material from flying off but are only at a quarter of earth’s gravity. In the very center of the giant pit where the drill digs into the rock. The drill bit breaks through and sends the rock upwards where it's caught by the spiral of artificial gravity where it's caught into catchers, allowing it to be processed and sorted through. The main drill, the one that stopped, is a massive structure at least thirty feet across.

“Careful with the changing gravity. If the systems weren’t damaged, they should be active,” he warns, the two peering down the tunnel to see some of the rocks slowly floating around within the air. With it, Scott sighs, “Some appear to be damaged.”

“I’ll check on those systems and get those working,” says Nargus jumping down, using her jets to guide herself toward her destination, stumbling when the artificial gravity catches her, “I’m okay!” she yells into the intercom, waving.

“No need to be so loud. I can hear you just fine,” says Scott.

“Sorry!”

“It’s fine. As long as you’re okay that is all that matters. I’ll check on the drill,” says Scott, pushing down deeper into the facility, the jets guiding him down, toward his destination, brushing past a few rocks that are floating around him, a few spin as he bumps into them, sending them off and away, till they get caught but some of the localized gravity making them tumble towards the collection bins.

“So far so good. It looks like the pipe wasn’t damaged. At least the emergency stops worked… this time,” he thinks landing at the base the drill a few feet away. The rock here grey and striated with blacks but a section off to the side of the bit, is a solid black rock that is unlike anything he has ever seen before. It’s like this rock was not part of the asteroid but left or trapped within it. All the other rock around it was taken by the drill bit but this section withstood its destruction force, leaving the rock surprisingly cracked. He shines a light over to it using his omni-tool, the rock itself glitters and shines reflectively. It’s smooth and slick, but the damage by the drill bit is visible with it cracked down the center, appearing to ooze a black substance along the crack.

“What the hell is that?” he mutters, keeping his distance.

“What is what?” asks Nargus.

“What did you all find?” asks Aurora over the intercom system.

“I found what stopped the bit. It’s sheared some sections of the bit. Meaning it's rather damaged, and we’ll need to replace the bit before we can resume mining. So, the best worst-case scenario as we do have spare drill heads.”

“That’s good!” says Aurora.

“It is, but what stopped the bit is strange.”

“Strange how?”

“The rock is something I haven’t seen, and it looks like it's bleeding a black substance.”

“A black substance?”

“Yeah.”

“Get a sample! I could analyze it.”

“I’m not getting close to it!”

“You’re being paranoid.”

“I’m being rational,” he replies, checking around the rest of the area, before saying, “This is going to take a few hours to fix. Damn it,” he replies.

“Well that’s why we get paid the big bucks, to solve problems like these.”

“Yeah, yeah I know.”

Nargus speaks up, “Speaking of problems I should have the damaged artificial gravity systems up in just a moment. They appear to just need a reset,” she replies.

“Some good news at least,” Scott remarks when there is a sudden shock that reverberates within the asteroid, which spins and shakes like an earthquake. The lights flicker, a surge of energy moves through the facility the drill bit grinds and moans and suddenly spins for just a second, the rock caught by it breaks further, sending small fragments everywhere.

“Structural Integrity compromised. Initiating immediate repair, excess suit reserves down to 98%,” the suit reports to him, a sharp piercing pain felt in his leg. His muscles instantly tense and his body’s reflex action makes his hand reach for his leg, feeling the suit resealing itself, covering the hole made, but the throb remains. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” exclaims Scott, leaping out of the way of the drill bit which stops only moments later.

“What happened?!” exclaims Nargus.

“A smaller unregistered asteroid hit us. I’m activating the jets to restabilize us,” says Aurora scrambling to get a hold of the situation.

Scott grits his teeth, “If we get knocked out of orbit and move into another line it could be the end of us. Aurora give me control!” he commands, feeling the throb of pain through his body, his leg twitching, heart racing.

Aurora scrambles through the control codes, “Working on it!” she yells over the intercom, her heart racing, fingers slick, tapping the screen, watching the system connect, “Come on… come on!” she exclaims.

Scott sets his suit up for remote commands, a holographic screen projected before him, the connection symbol flashes red, rocks tumble through the open area, bouncing along the walls, “Any time now Aurora…”

“Got it!” she yells.

The connection symbol turns green, Scott instantly gets to work, blasting off the jets, looking at the asteroid’s current trajectory. He pants heavily, hands moving like they were possessed by a demonic force, eyes focused on what he’s doing, all other things fading into the background. The asteroid rumbles as the jets are fired, each move calculated, and recalculated, and over the next two and a half minutes, each of which felt like an eternity, the asteroid stabilizes, the spin ending, the facility facing towards the sun, and the rock is more or less back within acceptable parameters of its orbit.

With that there was a cheer over the intercom systems. Scott takes a deep breath and relaxes, “That could have been worse. I thought you said the weather was clear Aurora?” asks Scott after taking a moment to collect himself.

“It was, it was an unknown asteroid. You know only thirty-five percent of the belt has been fully mapped out. And it came from a blind spot in the systems. The monitoring systems for the micro-asteroids only give warning on the traveled areas and mining equipment.”

“Yeah… I remember,” says Scott, reaching down to gently rubs his leg, feeling a soft numbness, “Nargus are you okay?”

“Y-yeah. I was bounced around a bit, but I shall be fine.”

“Check the systems, if everything checks out, we’ll try to replace the drill bit and get everything working again.”

“Are you okay Mr. Lau?” asks Aurora, while she looks over her monitoring systems, “It appears your suit got damaged.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. A little hole. A bit of space rock got thrown into me.”

“I don’t think you should be working. You need to get back here to be checked out.”

Scott moves his leg a little, wincing from the pain, “On a pain scale it's only a three… maybe a four. If it's worse, the suit would inform me. It would be more dangerous to go back, then head back here than to get the job done and then head on in back.”

“This doesn’t sound like a good idea. What if you have internal bleeding or something?” she asks.

“What does the suit say? It has bio scanners on it.”

“It currently says you are fine with only a minor injury to your right leg.”

“Then I’m fine. Nargus. Can you help me? This is a two-person job, and I’ll need you to monitor the artificial gravity wells. Last thing we need is to actually lift this monstrosity.”

“I’ll be right there!” Nargus chirps, the two working in tandem to first pull the drill head back, disconnecting it, before attaching jets onto the bit to guide it to a storage area where the other backup heads are stored, ready to be used just in case of such a situation.

On the other side of the asteroid Aurora monitors them, Lupisfer comes up, “Everything is up and running, how are our two explorers?” he asks, walking over to look over Aurora’s shoulder.

“So far so good. They are almost done attaching the new drill bit and then they’ll be heading back.”

Lupisfer gives a visible sigh of relief, “Good, good.”

“How’s our little Oasis?”

“Functioning for now. Took a number with the back to back accidents, but nothing that I can’t fix,” he says with a grin.

“Ah, you reminded me,” Aurora says, turning on communications with Scott, “Scott?”

“One moment, we’re almost done here.”

“Before you go, can you get a sample of that rock that damaged the drill?”

“I told you I’m not getting near that. It looks… weird.”

“Why don’t you use one of the machines to grab it.”

“I did that to clear it out of the way. It’s in storage bay three. Where it can stay. I’m not bringing anything that is oozing into the Oasis,” Scott replies.

“I’ll have to do a ranged analysis then. There should be nothing in this asteroid that should have caught up the drill bit like that.”

“It doesn’t surprise me. They say there is one thing on the rock and turns out to be something else. It’s not that big, it's easy enough to miss in the geological surveys.”

“It could be worth something big.”

“If it's worth anything it's not worth as much as you think. But that is why I put it in storage bay three.”

Aurora taps onto the computer console, bringing up an inventory of what’s in that storage area, noticing the analysis equipment, “Ah. Thanks Mr. Lau.”

“It’s Scott,” he replies, securing the bit into position with a grunt, “Ah there. How’s the reading look on your end?”

“Cleared here.”

“Nargus and I will get into a safe location and you can run a few more tests. If all checks out, we’ll be heading back.”

Nargus speaks up, “How’s the leg Scott?”

“My leg? Oh, yeah. Feels great actually. I’ve been so busy with what was going on I can’t remember when it stopped hurting,” he replies, giving his leg a few test moves to reconfirm his statement while they move to a safe location.

“That’s good.”

“Careful Mr. Lau, that could be a sign of something more serious,” warns Aurora.

“Now who is being the pessimistic one? The suit is telling me I’m fine.”

“And that doesn’t bother you? After what it said earlier?” she asks.

“Check the drill. Once we get back, I’ll do a full check over, just to be safe. Nothing can be done here. Which means nothing to worry over.”

“Alright,” says Aurora running the basic diagnostic checks and drill tests. The entire asteroid vibrates when it gets going, causing Scott’s and Nargus’ teeth to chitter when they make contact with the rock.

“I’m surprised the place stays together with those vibrations,” remarks Nargus.

“I’ve wondered the same,” Scott remarks, the sound of the machines only ‘heard’ when they make contact with the rock. Otherwise it's completely silent, “How are we looking Aurora? Are we good to go?”

“All clear. Get your tails back here. I’ll cook a fine pre-packaged meal for you all,” she replies with a big grin.

“That’s one thing I miss. Real food,” he says with a soft sigh.

“We do get some in the next shipment,” says Aurora.

“One month of fresh food, followed by five of pre-packaged high nutrition low taste packets of paste, sounds fair,” chuckles Scott.

“It’s not that bad,” replies Nargus.

“You know, you’re right. It’s far worse actually. And after a tour or two, you’ll agree,” he replies, as they make their way back toward the facility. It’s a slow and steady return, the vibrations felt with each grip on the guide rails, but it lessens to a soft vibration. They crest over past the edge of the hole where the Oasis facility is, finally making landing at the air locks.

“Finally,” says Nargus with a soft sigh of relief, her hands shaking from her constant grip on the guide rails.

“So, did you enjoy your adventure?” Scott asks with a smirk.

“It was not what I was expecting… but still worth it,” she replies with a smile.

“Don’t lose that sense of wonder, it's impossible to get back once it's gone,” he says, entering the airlock with her, “Trust me, I know,” he softly mutters.

“What was that?” asks Nargus with a soft inquisitive raptoric chirp.

“What? Nothing. I was just saying it’ll be nice to get these suits off.”

“I don’t know, I actually like how these feel on me,” she says running her rubber covered claws along her sides, the squeak that would be heard lost to the vacuum of space. Their feet clank against the ground, the magnetic grips turning on, stabilizing them before the door behind them closes and the artificial gravity along with an atmosphere is pumped back into the room.

Scott smirks and shakes his head, “Right, right. I forgot that you mentioned you’ve worn the commercial variants of these suits.

“They are nice.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it.”

“You don’t know what you are missing,” Nargus chirps with a soft rising tease.

Scott pats her on the back, gently touching her back atmosphere rebreather, “I think I’ll be fine. And I won’t let your mate know you teased me, hmm?” he says with a wink.

Nargus tenses a little, “What? I was not doing that. You’re taking that out of context!” she chirps, the interior doors opening, allowing them to step through.

“Relax, I’m joking,” Scott chuckles, Aurora and Lupisfer are there to greet them.

“Welcome back!” exclaims Aurora with a soft cheer.

Lupisfer grins, eyeing Nargus, “What was taken out of context?” he says, walking over to her.

“Oh nothing…” she chirps looking away.

The anthropomorphic wolf gives Nargus’ butt a little smack through the suit, the slap and the following squeak echoing the ship, “Right.”

“Meep,” Nargus chirps out.

“Relax you too. We’ve had a long day and could use some food,” Scott says as he and Nargus give the command to detach the connection points on their suits.

Nargus’ suit responds, “Command accepted. You now may detach units from the personal atmospheric suit.” The suit’s helmet gives the indication they can be pulled away, and with ease Nargus begins to do so, the rubber pulling away from the suit with ease.

Meanwhile Scott’s suit responds, “Command not accepted. Error 52b has occurred.”

He quirks an eye ridge, “What in the blazings…” he grumbles stating the command, the same statement occurring, he repeats the process twice more with subtly growing annoyance.

“Mr. Lau, what’s wrong?” asks Aurora looking at him with concerned, the bonjoyaval greeting between Nargus and Lupisfer quickly ending upon noticing there’s an issue with Scott’s suit.

“The damn suit isn’t accepting my commands,” he says with a huff, “Clarify error 52b,” he states, thinking, “I don’t recall that error code.”

“Error 52b, unknown error.”

Scott tenses for a moment, his tail twitches, claws tense for just a moment before he takes a deep breath and slowly releases it, “Well, isn’t that great.”

“Maybe it was the injury you sustained?” asks Aurora.

“Hmm? What do you mean? A little hole in the suit shouldn’t cause it to break down. If they were that fragile no one would use them!”

“It's more of the possibility of a foreign object in you. And the suit is taking a precautionary measure to protect you and us from any foreign contaminants.”

“I know those protocols, which is why I stayed away from that one space rock and didn’t bring it here. You never know what you might find. And if I recall correctly. Sealing in case of contamination is Error 25a, not 52b.”

“The suit might be doing that, but since it's not biological its running through the quarantine protective measures.”

“Which is two weeks. I am not going to like the idea of being in this suit for two weeks,” Scott responds with a sigh.

“We’ll figure it out, but for now we’ll presume it's that, and it's giving you a false reading.”

“Well that’s just great. And here I thought I was going to get a nice meal and rest after a very long shift,” Scott sighs into the helmet, while Nargus removes the last bit of her equipment, the rubber suit receding back into the helmet, once again revealing her clothes, and soft blue and black scales with respective feathers.

“After food a nice sonic shower is in order for me,” chirps Nargus, giving Lupisfer a sly and subtle wink as she walks off.

Aurora pats Scott on the shoulder, feeling the slightly warm rubber, “It’s okay. We’ll get it fixed in no time, and I’ll check out that rock you put into storage. Perhaps a piece of it got into you and might give clues as to why your suit is malfunctioning.

“Part of me wants that to be the case so it can be solved, but another part of me prefers not to have a piece of that rock stuck in me. Just something about it, doesn’t feel right,” he says with a soft sigh.

“I wouldn’t blame you wanting to get out of there, but we can’t lose ourselves now over one little hiccup.”

“I’m not. How about we relax with a movie with our nutrition food substitute?” he asks with a smirk.

“That sounds like a nice idea to close out the day. Who should pick today’s movie? You’re the one with a trying day, how about you Mr. Lau?” asks Aurora.

“Me? Naw, I picked last night. How about Nargus? It was her first full time extended spacewalk, and she helped get the new drill bit in place as much as me.”

Nargus’ eyes light up, “Really? I get to pick?” she asks with a soft squeal.

Lupisfer rolls his eyes, “Oh no.”

Nargus shoots him a look, “What was that?”

He smirks, “Nothing.”

“I think I will go with a classic but a favorite of mine.”

“I knew it.”

Nargus huffs, her crest feathers rising, “You do? Well what movie am I picking then.”

“Attack of the Cynful Drones 37: A Drone reborn.”

Scott remarks, “That movie was old when I was young.”

“No. But you are on the right track at least. It’s the original Attack of the Cynder Drone. Version C. That one is my fave out of those versions.”

“I heard of that cult classic. That one is really old,” says Aurora, “I bet the graphics are so dated on it.”

“No, most of it was live action, really little CGI. All the drones in the movie are real, either the suits that make up the basis of our space suits or actual drones.”

“Wait… isn’t that movie a borderline porno?” asks Scott.

“Well it was at the time, not so much anymore. Actually it did spark a debate at what constitutes a good pornographic movie as it moved way past the pizza guy delivering a pizza and getting a tip theme that plagued the industry for over a century by that time,” explains Nargus.

Lupisfer moves in and gives her butt a firm smack, causing Nargus to jump, “Hey!” she exclaims.

“Hun, no one here is interested in the history of a porno movie made by a sex toy company.”

“Well you liked it when I talked about it.”

“It was interesting the first time… but this isn’t the first time. Nor the tenth time. I’ve lost count how many times, and I don’t know about you, but I like to eat. I’m rather hungry.”

“Lupisfer is right. The day has been long, and it will be good to get some food and relax. Despite being stuck in this suit, I want to make the best of it,” Scott replies, stretching, “And we’ll pick Nargus’ movie to watch. If anyone is interested in the historical context of a porno, I’m sure Nargus will be happy to share,” he continues with a smile.

“Yes!” Nargus chirps with delight, food being prepared by the automated machines that craft the meal with as much efficiency as possible, trying not to waste heat at the expense of flavor or real sustenance outside that it is sustenance.

The movie begins speeding through space which slows down to a simple blue and green marble of a planet, Earth.

“See, totally a fake Earth,” remarks Aurora.

“Shh, it was made before there were even moon colonies,” Nargus remarks. In the movie the camera backs up to several perfectly identical rubber dragon drones, smooth crotched, no gender visible. Jewelry on their necks, golden with red gems glow on their necks the moment one speaks, in a clear crisp, feminine yet monotone voice, that blurs the gender line despite those female undertones. Nargus leans against Lupisfer with excitement, while he wraps his arm around her, holding her close to him.

Scott while he watches, suckling down his dinner paste, he feels a soft tingle along his scales. He takes a slow deep breath, adjusting himself, the suit’s attachments making some of his movements a little awkward but still overall manageable. Something about the movie drew him to it. Though he knew he was never interested in such things before, as that was more of a trillion some dollar niche market that he was never drawn to.

Though seeing those sleek rubbery drones, it formed a little pit in his stomach. It felt as there was something to the idea of an infectious rubbery spread of droning that felt oddly appealing, “I can’t find this arousing, can I? Naw. I never did before. Though I never really watched these kind of movies in the first place. The whole serious fetish/kink movie market was never fully my thing. Though the story is far more entertaining than I thought it was going to be.”

“I wonder if those drone suits work the way I think they do,” wonders Aurora.

“The raptor version is rather lovely if I do say so myself…” says Nargus before she freezes, and blushes a purple on her scales, “Oh my god!” she drives her head into Lupisfer’s arm.

The wolf gently runs his hands along her back, “It’s alright. It wasn’t a real secret anyway. You did talk about them a lot earlier,” he chuckles.

“I did, didn’t it?” she asks with a soft raptoric chirp.

“You did,” he replies, giving her a firm squeeze, their attention resuming to the movie where the main character, a young adult human, eager to escape his farm life future and the sleek Cynder Drone that at first glance is eager to convert all into perfect drones like herself.

When the movie ends, everyone shifts to sleep quarters, Scott having his own personalized and larger one due to his station within the Oasis. He cuts the gravity, allowing him to gently float in the middle of the room, “No way in hell am I going to sleep on my back with this thing,” he mutters to himself.

He gently floats there, anchoring the suit to the floor and ceiling so he doesn’t bump into anything. He stretches, the suit softly squeaking, his hand moving down to rub his injured leg, not knowing that the suit has changed around him. That hole in his body was now bound to the suit. The sleek rubber was seeping past his scales into his body. A soft shiver runs down his spine, his claws twitch as the aches and pains of the day will slowly fade away, his body eager to relax, his resistances to the suit that has slowly been making a connection to him weakening over so slightly.

The air within the suit grows heavy, Scott’s heart at first slowing then speeding him, a soft grunt and moan escapes his lips, the air becomes humid, fogging over the dome which isn’t cleared away, hiding Scott’s draconic face from the outside world. He is blinded by it, but he tries to ignore it, tries to relax, the rubber gripping along his scales, slithering between each scale to make a deeper connection within him.

Scott slowly drifts into a half state of slumber, awake, yet so clearly asleep, eyes glazed over, while closed, his heart is racing but his body is growing ever more relaxed, the tension in the muddles fading, his breathing deep, slow, heavy, heavy like the air which almost feels like a liquid to his lungs.

The suit grows and expands over his scales, finding each crack in his physical being to make new points of entry into his body. The rubber growing and exploring his organic flesh, his male slit being penetrated and filled out by the rubber, grasping the sensitive flesh within him. He moans, and twitches, his mind shifting to thoughts of dazzling women, the desire to mate and have them flooding his thoughts. The suit detecting this stimulus builds upon it. They make penetrations to the back of his head, pushing in, connecting to his central nervous system to get a better read, expanding their understanding of what they have here. The growing sentience of the suit, learning form what it saw, what it knows, a quickly advancing child, ready to develop into something new with Scott’s unknowing help.

Scott will find himself thrusted into a thick gooey black tar muck that is waist deep. He is pushing through it for some unknown reason, he looks around into the void that is around him, yelling, “Hello?! Anyone there?!” he hears an echo of his words.

“Hello? Anyone there?”

“Hello? Anyone there?”

“Hello? Anyone there?”

Suddenly the echo speaks back, a slick slimy alien voice, “Hello.”

Scott will wake up panting heavily, body jerking twitching back to life. The suit felt all around him, the dome cover no longer fogged over him, the alarm blaring off to the side, informing him it's time to wake up. The vibrations of the drill felt through the wires that he has attached to his room that helped keep him in place.

Once he gets situated, he turns on the gravity to his room, doing his morning exercise routine, feeling the lukewarm air around him, the sleek rubber against his scales feeling rather… nice today. After a breakfast paste which he barely found himself managing to eat all of it, he gets back to work monitoring the drill and the local systems. He sits on the edge of the seat, allowing him to make some space for the air rebreather on his back. He looks to Aurora, “Anything on that rock?” asks Scott, feeling a strange tingle down his back when he mentions the rock, was it excitement? Or something else, it was hard for him to pinpoint but when she replied it drew his attention away from the feeling.

“I haven’t had a moment yet. Morning routines and checklists must be done first. The drill appears to be going just fine, and the minerals we are expecting to find here are what we are finding. So so far, so good there.”

“Small Miracles,” says Scott, transmitting over his intercom system, “How are you two love birds doing?”

Nargus who is face deep into a machine replies, “I resent that remark. Just because I have feathers and have some distant relation to a bird doesn’t mean I’m a bird.”

“That’s not what he meant Nargus,” says Lupisfer gently kicking her feet.

Nargus slides herself from under the machine, “I know, but it's fun to mess with him, he’s always so round up. It’s good to break the tension,” explains with a smirk, gently smacking the wolf’s butt with her tail before diving herself back into her work so he can’t follow.

“You know I can hear you two talk about me,” Scott replies.

Nargus tenses while Lupisfer chuckles, “Did you forget to stop your transmission again?”

“Y-yeah…” she purrs softly, resuming her work.

“Good to know those two are doing just fine today,” comments Aurora.

“I don’t mind them going at it, as long as the job gets done,” Scott replies, the morning was going rather uneventfully until it was almost ‘noon’ when the system gave a code yellow alert. The suited-up dragon gives a soft sigh, “I knew the day was going too smoothly,” he says, bringing up the warning, “Damn it… this is going to be annoying to handle.”

“What is it?” asks Aurora, looking over to his screen.

That asteroid hit yesterday put us on track to possibly run into a major micro-meteor shower in about approximately hundred hours.”

“What’s the probability?”

“Thirty-five-point three percent. I’ll see if I can adjust our trajectory to miss it. But if not we’ll have to do some maintenance to make sure everything is in order and we’re safe. Last thing we need is catastrophic system failure. Or even worse, loss of atmosphere.”

“Yeah then we’d all be stuck in those space suits Mr. Lau,” Aurora says, stopping herself right after, “Oh... ah… I mean… I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to rub it in,” she says lowering her head.

“No, no, it's fine,” says Scott waving it off, “And remember it's just Scott,” he continues, feeling a tingle run down his spine. “ All wear the suits. Yes.”

“This just means looking at that rock is going to take a back seat till later. Sorry Mr. Lau… I mean Scott.”

Scott sighs, “It’s fine. Our safety takes paramount to anything else. No one is going to come to help us otherwise, so we must help ourselves,” he replies. His hand gently rubbing his leg, the rubber suit softly squeaking, before he resumes his work, making the adjustments to steadily reduce the chance of the meteor shower, but something about what he was doing was bothering him. Just like a thought in the back of his mind, as if he was forgetting something, like he forgot his phone at the office type of feeling.

“Wrong way. Get them into the suits.”

Scott’s fingers twitched a little, “Did you say something?” asks Scott.

“Huh? Me?” Aurora asks looking over at him, tilting her head curiously.

“Yeah.”

“No. And isn’t it rather hard for you to hear me without the intercoms on?”

“Your voice is a little muffled but it's not that bad,” Scott replies, before transmitting over the Oasis, “Did you two say anything?”

Lupisfer who was hidden around the corner, ready to pounce Nargus, who responds, “No, I didn’t.”

“I didn’t either,” replies Nargus scooching past him, now that his ambush has been revealed, the wolf gives chase after her.

“Worst timing ever,” he thinks.

“Must have been nothing then,” remarks Scott, getting back to work. The remainder of the day was relatively alright, though every so often as he worked to adjust and keep track of the asteroid’s trajectory, he notices something odd.

“Wait, why are we going back into it?” he thinks, checking through the logs, “I swear I did the opposite of that…” he mutters, making a few adjustments to get the recovery back on track.

Aurora looks over at him, “You’ve been working on that course adjustment for a while, is everything okay?”

“Huh? Ah…”

“Everything is fine.”

“Everything is fine. This isn’t something I want to get wrong you know? Double check your work and all.”

She nods, “Yeah that’s true. There are so many things happening that it's difficult for me to find time to start to check out that rock and I so do want to…” she softly gives a defeated huff.

“Don’t worry, the one thing we have plenty of if anything is time,” he replies, stretching a bit, feeling a soft throb in his head. He shakes the feeling.

“How are you holding up in that suit?”

“Fine. Could be worse things.”

“Did you get the same error as last time when you tried to take it off today?”

“Yeah, it did… wait…” says Scott as he thinks about it.

“What is it?”

“I don’t think I tried to do that now that I think about it.”

“You didn’t? It is protocol in case of contamination to leave you in there for a while, but we need to also check in case there’s an issue with the suit itself.”

“I’ll try that when I go to bed tonight. It would be good to sleep in my own bed and get a good shower. You don’t want to know what it smells like in here,” he chuckles.

“Perhaps it's your hygiene Mr. Lau that is keeping the suit on,” she jokes.

“It’s Scott, and are you calling me stinky?” he huffs.

“Sorry Scott, and you were the one talking about the smell. You tell me,” she smirks.

“Touché,” he replies with a soft chuckle the rest of the day proceeding without any noteworthy incident. Scott slips back into his bedroom, stretching, feeling a little exhausted from being in the suit all day. The soft rubber squeaks were muffled to his ears as he moved about getting everything ready, turning off the gravity to his room, setting up the connection bands when he gets a call.

“Hey Mr. Lau, just letting you know to check your suit before going to bed,” says Aurora.

“Oh, right, right. Thanks, I almost forgot,” he says with a long yawn, “Thanks Aurora, and remember it’s Scott,” he replies, stretching, tugging on the bands that are going to hold him in place.

“Sorry Scott, I just wanted to make sure you are okay. You felt a little out of it today. And I’m just a bit concerned.”

“I appreciate it. You rest well Aurora,” he replies via the intercom system.

“Night,” she replies.

“Alright, now before I forget…”

“I want to sleep. Rest. It's been a long day…”

“I want to sleep and rest. It’s been a rather long day. Tomorrow is sure to be worse,” he replies with a soft huff, feeling a tingle of pleasure building within him. Something about what he said felt good. Right. His mind shifting away from whatever it was toward the tender thought of relaxing and getting some good R&R.

With his body secure, floating in the center of the room he stretches out, letting his tense muscles relax all around him. The squeezing embrace of the suit felt over his scales, along his back. He feels the muscles’ tension fade more as if he was slipping into a nice hot bath. The air growing heavy, the front of the hood fogging over, blocking his face from the outside world. The fog around his face, a lovely haze that caresses his mind. He gasps, lungs breathing in nice and deep that rubber scented air, a soft moan escapes from his lips.

His slit twitches, the rubber having already sunk in deep into his masculinity having incorporated his soft skink there into the rubber of the suit. Pleasure builds there, higher and higher or lower as his mind wanders. Some of his earlier thoughts, thoughts women… less pleasure. Thoughts of men? Less pleasure. Then a spark, a flash image of another in a suit like him, pleasure increases. He moans softly.

A soft desire builds within him to see others in the suit, but there is more. The suit squeezes him, binds with him further, the cool air around him feeling rather delightful, the rubber skin around him feeling like his own scales. His heart races, head begins to pound, he shudders again, claws twitch, rubber fingers on the outside showing just a fraction of that movement.

He groans gently bucking his hips, mind being sexually rewarded for a positive thought, a thought that he is supposed to think. The suit rewards him, training him further down the path that it wants him to go. His heart speeds faster, to the point of heart attack, yet he has never felt so relaxed in his entire life. His eyes glazed over, staring up into that fog, unblinking for so long that as he delved into darkness in his true sleep, the suit pressing around him, growing a stronger bond than ever before, funneling more rubber essence into his body, increasing the bond he shares with it.

Thrusted back into that slick dream. An endless darkness around him, his body wading through the rubber tar that is clinking to his waist and lower scales. He wades his way through it, trying to push it to the side but finds the muck clinging to his claws. He shakes them trying to shake it off but to no avail.

“What is this stuff?” he growls.

A slimy alien voice responds, echoing, whispering all around him, into his mind, speaking his language, using a corrupted mimicry of his voice.

“What is it?”

“What is it?”

“What is it?”

“What is it?”

“What is it?”

A shiver runs down Scott’s spine, his instincts going wild, telling him that whatever said that is not anything of his world, that he should run. That this is all very, very wrong. “Who are you?!” he yells out, trying to move in the muck but it grows ever more viscous making movement difficult.

“Who are you?”

“Who are you?”

“Who are you?”

“Who are you?”

“Who are you?”

Scott shivers again, he growls pulling hard at the muck but now it pulls back, spreading his arms to his sides, his legs pulled apart while being tightly and firmly held in place floating in the endless muck, “My name is Scott Lau, let me go!” he exclaims, trying to fight against it, but it was like an infant trying to put up a fight against a massive sea monster. Not only is he not in his element, he’s hopelessly overwatched.

“Scott Lau,” the voice responds, an amorphous blob rises up from the tar, shapeless, faceless yet he feels it looking over him, studying him as it moves around his body, the mass stretching and bulging out.

“Scott Lau.”

“Scott Lau.”

“Scott Lau.”

“We are Scott Lau.”

The last echo saying something extra, something horrible yet deep down true, but Scott barely registered it as he tugged, “Release me!” he growled.

“Release Us.”

“Release us.”

“Release us.”

“Release us.”

“Protect us.”

The tar around Scott runs along his back, clinging to the outline of his spinal cord, rubbing along the base of his neck and head, the cool muck makes him shiver, when it then penetrates into his rear, spreading his hole, while more slips into his male slit, coiling and wrapping around his sensitive flesh. Scott shudders and moans, his hips want to buck against the slick rubbery muck but he’s too firmly held. He looks down unable to see but can clearly feel his draconic flesh slipping out of his body.

He moans again feeling the muck fill his rear, spreading out, pushing against his insides, rubbing along the bundle of nerves by his prostate, sending sparks of joy and delight into his mind, a release of serotonin rewarding his body for undergoing these course of actions. His member growing harder, aching along the underside, straining harder, feeling the pleasure from the creature’s exploratory grip driving him to arch his back, throw his head back, letting out a growling moan, “Stop that! I can’t take it!”

“Take it. Won’t Stop.”

“Take it. Won’t stop.”

“Take it. Won’t stop.”

“Take it. Won’t stop.”

“Accept us. We won’t stop.”

Tendrils of black rubber run across his scales, teasing his body, caressing the crevices that connect each scale as it snakes across his body, rubbing along his chest. The bulbous mass before him leans closer to him. The black oily and rubbery mass moves closer, despite there being no light anywhere Scott can see his face reflected in the creature, distorted and important like looking at your reflection from the back of a spoon. “What are you doing? I… I…” he moans, the pleasure building up in his loins. He feels the tendrils run across his cock tip, playing with it, teasing it.

The mass appears not to get any specific arousal or pleasure. More curious, like it was trying to figure out how he worked. The pleasure building and rising, internal balls growing heavier, adding to the pressure building up within him. He pants heavier, harder faster, the instincts of procreation toying in the back of his mind, egging him on, to buck, to breed and to mate.

“Yes. There. Grow. More. Spread.”

“Yes. There. Grow. More. Spread.”

“Yes your. There is. Grow to. More of. Spread to.”

“Yes your instincts. There is that. Grow to survive. More of us. Spread to the.”

“Yes your instincts are perfect. There is that desire. Grow grow to survive. More of us. Spread to the others… infect.”

“Infect…” he thinks as a surge of pleasure overcomes him. He can’t hold back as he climaxes, his member spurting out not his seed, his own essence but thick black gooey tar like that around him, the tendrils growing tighter around his scales, spidering along his limbs, his chest, he pants heavily, the pleasure was mind blowing, and without a moment of delay the creature continues, ready to reward Scott for the next time he thinks the way that he is now meant to.

Days passed since that night. And the nights that followed. The sleek rubber along Scott’s body felt wonderful, great, as if it was part of him. But anytime he felt the urge to perhaps mention this to anyone, he was drawn away. He looked to Nargus, who was in the process of suiting up.

“Good luck. Maintenance on the solar fan is important,” says Lupisfer giving Nargus a nuzzle through the dome, leaving a smear. He quickly grabs a towel and wipes it off.

She chuckles, “I know it is. It’ll be fine.”

Scott remarks, “It's important to get it done more now than ever. The micrometeor shower has to have changed course, and it’ll be here in less than twenty-four hours.”

“I don’t know how this happened. Weren’t you working on it Scott?” asks Lupisfer with a look of concern on his face.

“With Jupiter so close, it probably threw a few things out of position and ruined the estimations of the adjustments and or the trajectory of the micrometer shower. Which means we have to make sure everything is in order. Last thing we want is a catastrophic failure and forced to be in these,” he explains pointing to himself.

Aurora over the intercom remarks, “You’ve been holding up well and it would be rather ironic or something, but I agree. I prefer not to have a chance of death for us all.”

Scott smirks, “Yeah that.”

“We want them in the suits,” The alien voice whispers into Scott’s mind, his smile growing bigger, a surge of pleasure moving through him, looking at Nargus fully equipped in her spacesuit. The slender anthropomorphic female raptor body, the smooth orange rubber reflecting in the lights, for a moment Scott thinks.

“I bet that would look better in black… as would I,” before he snaps back to reality, “You good to go Nargus?” he asks.

She looks over her equipment, checking the anchor points, tugging at the same equipment she put on last time when going out to the mining facility, which is still going strong, causing the vibrations throughout the entire facility, “All good to go here,” she says the dome fogging for a moment before the suit adjusts and fixes it. She gives a thumbs up.

“Good. Let's get this done. With any luck we’ll be done in two hours or so,” he says, walking into the airlock.

“I hope this is less eventful than last time,” Nargus says with a soft nervous chuckle.

“It’s nothing major, and I’ll be with you. I’ll make sure nothing bad happens to you,” Scott replies.

“Only good things.”

“I should first check the solar panels, their efficiency rating has dropped over the last few weeks, and I need to make sure nothing is wrong with the power cells,” says Nargus, following in behind Scott into the airlock.

“There will be plenty to do, and enough time to do it,” says Scott, the door behind them closing with a hiss.

“Plenty of time to infect.”

Scott shudders, a tingle of delight fills his loins, butterflies filling his stomach, his thoughts for a moment going over to Nargus. He looks at her, the sleek raptor in that bright orange spacesuit. Those curves, that suit, containing them, alone with him. Out in space. Just the perfect place to…

The atmosphere is sucked out of the airlock, the warning sirens becoming silent as there is no longer any air to carry the vibrations and the soft vibrations caused by the drilling drowns out any other noise that could have been carried through the facility and to them.

Together they step out into the void of space, gripping the guide railings as they shimmy themselves across and over to the massive protect fans that have the solar panels on the other side. “I’ll be checking the armor plating on the back, along with the servos to make sure they can shift and turn to the back side,” says Scott, moving down to the mechanic and secondary control area of the massive fans that cover most of the opening. From this side, only light from the far end open entrance from the distant sun makes it through, forcing the crew to rely on artificial lights placed at strategic points that only light up when they get close enough to trigger them.

Nargus swallows a little lump in her throat, her heart racing, her claws twitch, tail sways even slower while she approaches the small service entrance on this side of the opening. She slowly pushes the heavy metal door open, revealing the black solar panels, their structural support reflecting bits of light out that are dimmer than if they were closer to Earth.

“Are you okay?” asks Scott standing behind her.

The feathers within Nargus’ suit twitch and rise slightly, something about those words felt off, but they sounded genuine, overriding her more primal instincts, “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I wish we could turn these panels around, so I’d be a little bit safer. Having nothing but the black void of space and asteroids to my back is…”

“Where’s that sense of adventure you were talking about a few days ago?” asks Scott with a smirk.

Nargus swallows a lump in her throat, letting out a determined huff, feathers rising, “Yeah, you’re right. I can do this.”

Scott gently places a hand on her shoulder, his claws gripping her, “But remember if you get in trouble. Stay calm. Call for my help. I’ll do everything I can do to help you.”

“Yes. Help. Infect. Spread. Perfect subject.”

Nargus gently places her hand on his, “Thanks for the support. Knowing you have my back is greatly appreciated,” she chirps, reaching out toward the first guide grip that juts only a few inches along the borders of the solar panels. Providing a small but essential anchor point to keep Nargus there and allow her to slowly slide herself across the panels to check them with her omni tool.

Scott smirks, watching her start her work, “Of course. I always have my people’s backs,” he slides back and gets to work. He pulls away a panel elsewhere along the systems getting to work. As he does, he seems to phase out for a moment or two. Mind wandering, hearing soft whispers in his mind.

“Not yet. Wait. Mustn’t be detected. Not yet. Wait. Not yet,” he hears whispering in his ears, the suit feeling cold, yet he’s not shivering. He feels rather fine, perhaps indifferent to the sensation of space all around him. He breathes slow and steady, continuing his work.

“It looks like a few panels need replacing. I’ll get them out of storage and get them fixed,” she remarks.

“No, no. If we are going to have a micro-meteor shower, it's best to wait till after the fact. Whatever you replace just gets broken? It would be a waste of time and our limited resources.”

Nargus lets out a soft sigh of relief, “Thanks, I almost made a mistake there Scott.”

“How are you doing out there?” asks Lupisfer with a hint of concern in his voice.

“I’m fine. Missing me that much?”

“I can check up on you,” he says with a huff.

“Now! Now! Now!”

Scott blanks out for a moment, his body shivers with pleasure, climatically so, from fine to in utter ecstasy, the solar fan that Nargus is on suddenly turns as if preparing to flip around, flicking her out into space, her body spinning and twirling out away from the asteroid.

“Help! Help! HELP!” exclaims Nargus.

Scott rushes from his location, moving toward the sudden opening made by the fan’s movement, “Nargus! Stay calm! You have your stabilizing jets, first stop your spinning!” says Scott, moving quickly and with powerful intent to save his companion.

Nargus pants, heart racing, body tensing, she scrambles to get control over herself, feeling a little bit of her meal rush up her throat, sitting in the back of her throat before she forces it back down, the dizziness increasing her disorientation, making it increasingly difficult for her to slow her spin.

“Nargus? What’s wrong! Aurora you should be watching them, what’s wrong?!” exclaims Lupisfer of the intercom system.

“She was just flung into space. One of the fans moved suddenly. I’m not sure why. Everything was stable.”

“Worry about why it happened later! Quiet on the intercom system. Nargus, you need to calm down. Remember Newton’s laws are the law of the land. For every action is an opposite but equal reaction. Fire your jets in the opposite direction of your spins. Don’t worry about trying to stop both spins, focus on one and then the other,” says Scott, reaching the other side of the fan, seeing Nargus’ jets spewing out the white mist, her orange rubber body making her easy to see on the black backdrop of space. With each passing moment the farther she gets the greater the chance of a random piece of rock whizzes into and through her.

Nargus pants heavily, ready to feel her heart jump out of her chest. She listens to Scott’s words, she scrambles to feel one direction of her spinning. She closes her eyes, unable to stomach the spinning scenery around her, steadily she slows one spin, and then the other.

Scott lets out a sigh of relief, “Good Nargus. You are doing very good. But you’re still moving too fast. I’m going to try to give you an anchor to grab onto and we’ll get you to safety, okay?”

“S-sure…” says Nargus with a nervous chirp, her feather crest rising against the rubber suit. She opens her eyes seeing how far away she is now, which makes her heart skip a beat, “S-Scott?”

“Just relax. I’m not going to leave you there,” says Scott, firing the security grappling hook into the nearby rockface, the hook anchoring itself nice and deep while at the same time Scott pushes himself off the rock using his jets to adjust his course, leaving a long security line back to the asteroid as he hurdles out toward Nargus, “Try to aim yourself for me Nargus!” he calls out.

Nargus looks at the current level of her fuel reserves for adjusting and moving herself, seeing she burned a sizable chunk of it getting herself under control. She swallows a lump in her throat, licking her lips, feeling her sharp teeth along her tongue, cutting it ever so slightly, the taste of iron now on her tongue, “Got it Scott,” she responds, propelling herself to him, toward the orange dot against the grey asteroid and black space backdrop.

Lupisfer has rushed himself to Aurora’s location where the computer’s track the two’s locations. There Aurora watches in silent anticipation, the computers showing their approximate indicated locations as they quickly approach one another. Lupisfer’s tail wags quickly, his heart racing, muscles tensing, “Come on. Come on!” he whines.

Aurora tenses her hands balled into fists, eyes glued onto the screen, her heart ready to leap out of her chest. “Come on… You can do it Mr. Lau...”

Scott barrels toward Nargus the two small orange specs in the vast expanse of space, and with a muffled squeak and a thud the two make contact spinning around with each other as they tightly grip one another. Their bodies smashing, bodies now spinning, their safety line growing taut, the anchor shifting slightly in the rock.

“Yes!” exclaims Aurora as she lets out a cheer.

Lupisfer howls in delight, tail wagging even faster, a sense of ease coming over them.

Nargus winces the suit suddenly informing her of a minor tear in the exterior of her rubber, Scott’s claws having penetrated her suit along the arm, cutting her scales underneath but the rubber suit within a few moments quickly seals the breach.

“Perfect. Very good.”

Scott sighs in relief, a shiver of delight fills his body, he pulls Nargus close to him, embracing her, using his jets to stabilize the two of them, “Hold on tight,” Nargus, and whatever you do, don’t let go.”

Nargus meeps and holds tightly against Scott, feeling his safe embrace, a sigh of relief escaping her the pain in her arm already fading from memory, her body feeling a soft tingle of delight, “S-sure. I-I won’t,” she stutters, nuzzling up against Scott, “T-thanks,” she chirps.

“Don’t mention it. As long as you are safe that is all that matters,” he says, pulling on the safety line, drawing them back to the asteroid and to safety, “But how about we get back inside and take a breather? We can check and figure out what happened, so it doesn’t happen again.”

Nargus nods, “Y-yeah. That sounds like a good idea,” she says with a soft chirp feeling herself grow a little more relaxed, the two returning to the airlock, where Aurora and Lupisfer are waiting as they step out.

Lupisfer rushes to Nargus and gives her a big hug, which causes a soft squeak, “Eeep!” Nargus chirps, wiggling within the wolf’s big strong embrace.

He lets her go, letting out a huff, looking her straight into the eye, “Don’t you do that again.”

“I-I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry,” she says, lowering her head.

Lupisfer turns to Scott, “And you.”

“I had nothing to do with what happened.”

“Thank you for saving her… why would you think you had anything to do with it?” he asks curiously.

“Ah… not sure. Cabin fever can do things to people and such, but I risked myself to save her. No way in hell this is something I’d do. But what did happen?” he asks.

Aurora chimes in, “I’m not sure, but seems to be some kind of malfunction in the circuits to cause it to initiate the turnover to protect the base. That will need to get fixed.”

“More time in space for me then,” says Scott with a soft sigh, “But Nargus I think you had a long enough day, how about you relax a bit before coming back out there with me.”

Lupisfer lets out a soft growl, “You want her to go back out?”

“Yeah, she knows what she is doing, and knows where she left off. It will be faster.”

“If anyone is to go out there, it would be me. She’s had enough,” Lupisfer huffs.

“Well… if you want to in her stead, I won’t stop you.”

“Uh… maybe it is better if I do it…” says Nargus with concern in her voice.

Lupisfer turns to her, “Why?”

“I can’t get the suit off. I’m getting the same error that Scott has.”

“What?” asks Lupisfer, grabbing her, looking her over, “Why?”

“My suit has a micro breach while out there, perhaps that has something to do with it?”

“It would make sense, given what happened, if there was something like that, one we’re grateful that whatever injury you sustained is minor, and that you’ll have to wait for the quarantine period,” says Aurora.

“Yeah. I don’t mind these suits, but if I am trapped in them, how will I spend time with my Lupisfer,” she says with a smirk.

“We’ll have to make do,” he replies, the wolf giving a wink.

Nargus chirps, “We will,” she blushes.

“Take a breather, and we’ll get back to this later. Aurora, I want you to try to figure out why this is happening. Put focus on that. I want to get to the bottom of this,” says Scott.

“Distract her. Avoid the rock. Keep her focus elsewhere.”

“Sure thing Mr. Lau.”

Scott smirks, “It’s Scott remember.”

“Right,” she replies, the rest of the day going on without a hitch. Scott will drift into his soft slumber, feeling the embrace of the suit, growing more connected and one with it. The seal around his body is growing ever stronger.

Nargus though softly pants, she snuggles up against Lupisfer as they float in their room, “I’m sorry hun that I’m stuck like this.”

“I rather have you like this than not at all,” he says with a soft nuzzle.

“Awe so sweet,” she chirps, holding him, slowly drifting into a slumber, her breathing heavy, fogging the dome hood, blocking her face from Lupisfer, who is fast asleep. The rubber seeping into her wound, spreading, corrupting into her, the suit growing tighter, slipping into her rear, into her sex, attaching to pleasure points. In the dream she feels lust, pleasure, the knowledge learned from Scott being applied to great effect, subtly speeding up the process. Nargus will be lost in her dreams, deep in rubber muck as it clasps around her breasts, slips into her sex pumping in and out of her, using a canine shaped cock to pound into her, knotting into her as hot rubber essences is flooded in. The amorphous blob looks at Nargus, whose face is reflected into it. It simply states into her head, starting her descent into its embrace, “Hello.”

“Warning: Time to micro meteor shower in T minus twelve minutes. Please move to the closest secured location,” states the computer, warnings blaring. The Oasis secured and ready for its approach. The time ticking down as they are all in the command center, the deepest point within the facility and therefore the most protected.

“Switching from solar to protection,” states Scott, putting in the commands to initiate the solar fan to switch from its solar panel side to the reinforced protective armored barrier on the back side. The fans’ movements are felt through the entire Oasis, overriding the vibration of the mining operation that continues unabated. The fans move and twist, turning over like a Hippolyte shield wall, the fans overlapping one another to provide the most protection possible ensuring there are no holes in the defense.

External cameras and a holographic display of the fans show the fan’s current progress of flipping over, which should take no longer than ten minutes. Aurora comments, “We are cutting this close.”

“Energy is tight at the moment. I would prefer a three minute longer window myself,” comments Scott.

Nargus lets out a soft nervous chirp, leaning against Lupisfer who gently pets her metal covered back where her rebreather is, “Come on…”

“It’ll be fine,” says Lupisfer holding her.

“Yes. The plan must succeed. Infect and spread,”

“Did you say something?” asks Nargus with a soft chirp.

“Hmm? I said it will be fine,” he replies.

Nargus feels a soft shiver of pleasure run through her, “Yes… I think it will be,” she says leaning against him. Halfway through the flip through an error appears, the fans scratch to a halt, only the first two panels have completed their turn around protecting only a fraction of the entire oasis facility.

“What’s going on? This shouldn't be happening!” exclaims Scott

“All to plan.”

“I’m not sure, there seems to be something wrong with the equipment. This was checked, wasn’t it?” Aurora says panting the countdown till the shower closes in, her heart racing.

“I did! I know I did. Was there something else I missed?” asks Scott as he looks over the current level of protection, “We’re in a protected area at least but other vital systems are going to be left exposed!” he exclaims.

“We need to get out there and get those fans to close!” yells Nargus.

“There’s no time. Going out now will be suicide!” replies Scott.

“I won’t let you,” says Lupisfer pulling her close.

“Yes. Lure him into a false sense of security.”

“One minute till impact!” exclaims Aurora.

“We mustn’t panic. We can’t do anything. We’ll have to wait and see what happens now,” says Scott.

“Yes. Damage what needs to be damaged. Draw them into the suits…”

The time reaches zero, there is a deathly silence that fills the room, except for the constant vibrations from the mining equipment. For a moment there is a bit of relief from Aurora and Lupisfer, while there is a subtle tenseness in Scott and Nargus.

“Perhaps it's…” Aurora says when sparks fly from the impacts of the micro meteors against the side turned fans. The security cameras are destroyed one by one, by the impossibly fast-moving tiny rocks. They blow through parts of the Oasis facility tearing through equipment, and other essential areas. Like a group of gangsters unleashing a hail of bullets on a car, these miniature bullets are far more deadly and impossible to see or dodge. They penetrate deep into the Oasis. Warnings appearing on the computers as areas get damaged.

The lights and power flicker as one of the power storage areas are hit, damaging increasing at an exponential pace. “Warning power loss at 50%” the computer reports, and right after, “Severe damage to artificial gravity systems,” it reports, everyone feeling the tug of gravity steadily leaving them, their bodies floating in the area. “Structural breaches in Sectors three… four… six… eight. Seven…” a map of the facility shows several areas being lit up in red, the meteor shower ending just as fast as it began, having lasted less than a minute but left a pit in the stomachs of Aurora and Lupisfer.

Nargus felt confused, part of her felt terrible about what was happening, but another part felt… delighted.

“I’m going to try to turn the fans back toward the solar end. It will put them at risk of further damage but at least we’ll be protected,” says Scott, giving a series of commands.

“Damn, why didn’t we think of that sooner!” exclaims Aurora.

“This is on me. I am so sorry everyone,” says Scott, lowering his head.

“Excellent. All that was predicted, has come to fruition.”

Aurora nods, “Yeah, it does appear to be that way.”

“What do you mean by that?” Scott asks, giving her a little look.

“What I mean by that is…”

The computer system interrupts, “Warning. Life support systems are failing. The Oasis structural integrity has been breached. Estimated three minutes, twelve seconds till total loss of atmosphere.”

“Hurry, get to the suits!” exclaims Scott, looking to the protective solar fan, “The fans moved back into place we should be protected! Go! Go! Go!”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!”

“Shit,” Lupisfer huffs, opening the door, floating down the hallway with Aurora in toe.

“This is not good! Not good at all!” she exclaims.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” says Scott, looking at Nargus who felt a tingle of pleasure run through her, she follows them.

“He’ll be in the suit soon. And then when the moment is right… infect.”

Nargus lets out a soft chirp, “I’m coming to help!”

“I’ll monitor the situation from here,” says Scott.

The three move from one bulkhead to the next, the sections that are hit by the micro-asteroids is clear as night and day. Sparks and wires hung exposed dangerously, sparking out, a loud hiss is heard through several small holes, that shot gunned debris throughout the rooms. Bulges in the bulkhead show where meteors hit but failed to penetrate this deep into the facility.

“Two minutes ten seconds till total loss of atmosphere,” reports the ship’s computer over the partially functioning intercom system. The pressure around them steadily decreases, the air growing ever thinner. They reach the suit storage area, which is peppered with similar damage.

“Please let it be alright,” says Aurora, with a shortness of breath.

“We’ll be fine these storage lockers are built like tanks,” says Lupisfer, in between breaths, unlocking his locker while Aurora does the same with hers.

“One minute, eight seconds till total loss of atmosphere,” reports the computer from down the hall, the system in this room completely destroyed by the rocks. Lupisfer swings his door open, grabbing his spacesuit helmet, looking it over for any cracks, his body puffing out, while Aurora’s scales begin to turn a shade of purple as blood rushes to the surface of the skin in the ever increasing vacuum of the room.

“Looks good here,” he says, slipping on his helmet, initiating the commands to start coating his body in the sleek protective bright orange rubber body. While the rubber slides and coats Lupisfer hiding his fur under the rubber while at the same time showing off his strong anthropomorphic lupine characteristics, Nargus pants softly, feeling a tingle of delight, pleasure building within her, making her feel aroused.

“Infect. Spread. Grow.”

“My door isn’t opening!” exclaims Aurora panting heavily tugging hard on the door which is damaged from a micrometer, bulging the door inwards at the hinge.

“Help. Must save. Need more to infect.”

“Let me help you!” exclaims Nargus feeling a surge of delight, pleasure runnin down her spine as she agrees with the softly spoken voice in the back of her mind, whispering into her ear hole. Aurora pants heavily feeling each breath is harder and harder to complete, her lungs becoming harder to move as there is less of a difference between the vacuum growing around her and the vacuum her lungs make to draw in air.

Aurora tugs hard on the cracked open door, trying to get her claws under it, feet against the side, as she tugs.

“I’ll be there to help you in a moment Aurora!” says Lupisfer, waiting for the suit to finish coating him while Nargus helps grip the door, pulling tugging, the moaning of metal growing softer as there is less air for the vibrations to travel.

“Ten seconds till total loss of atmosphere.”

Aurora pants heavily, feeling her eyes grow heavy, body puffing out everywhere, her soft elastic skin from her slug heritage makes her expand like a balloon, fingers becoming too fat to fit under the door.

“Almost got it, just hang on Aurora!” exclaims Nargus as Aurora blacks out.

With a deep gasp and a huff of air, Aurora comes to an unknown amount of time later, looking around to see Nargus and Lupisfer standing over her. Nargus giving a larger sigh of relief upon her regaining consciousness than Lupisfer who remains rather stoic and manly under the circumstances.

Nargus rests her hand on her shoulder, “Almost though we lost you there,” says Nargus.

“Me too,” Aurora says with a pant, sitting up looking over to the door which is noticeably bent, “I didn’t think you had that much strength Nargus.”

Nargus chirps, “Neither did I. I guess when the moment calls for it. I had it in me,” she says happily.

“It’s good to see that you are safe,” says Lupisfer while Aurora pushes herself up, giving the command code to allow the suit to begin attaching equipment to her suit, while Lupisfer is already equipped with the atmosphere rebreather and an omni-tool.

“Thanks, that was scary,” she says, attached hers to herself, the tubes attaching to her mask, providing her with fresher air.

“I’m glad you are okay Aurora. I wouldn’t know what I’d have done if something bad happened to you,” says Scott over the intercom system, which is now their only way to communicate.

“Thanks Mr. Lau.”

“Remember, it's Scott,” he replies with a sigh of relief, “Now that we’re all safe and secured. We need to start repair operations. It appears our long-range communication is also shot to shit. Meaning we’re unable to call for help till that’s repaired. But I recommend we patch up the holes and restore life support,” says Scott.

“Agreed. We’re all alive and that’s what matters,” says Aurora.

“I’ll try to work on the communications. If we can call for aid that will be of assistance,” says Nargus.

“I’ll try to get life support up and running for when the structural integrity has been repaired,” says Lupisfer.

“Aurora you and I will then work on patching up those holes,” says Scott.

“Good idea Mr. Lau,” says Aurora.

“Remember, it's Scott,” he replies.

“Sorry,” she replies with a soft blush, thinking, “Something about this whole situation feels off though. And it all started with that rock. I’ll need to see if I can look into it once things are under control.”

The next two days continued on without incident. Aurora and Scott work hard to find and repair the holes on the external walls of the structure. Aurora works on the inside finding and patching the holes while Scott volunteers to work outside to get them on the other side, following the rule of a double hull repair to add an extra layer of security and protection to prevent further breaches, and given the number of micro-meteors that pierced the Oasis, its long and grueling work.

“Still nothing in the communication area?” asks Aurora to Nargus.

“Nothing yet. Hopefully soon though!” Nargus chirps.

“Not till we are secured,” the voice whispers into Nargus, “Must infect. Spread. Soon it is time.”

“Good, how about you Luspifer on the life support systems?”

Lupisfer as he hangs upside down secured to the system, he is working on so he doesn't float away from it responds, “A few more days at least. This gal took a lot of damage,” he huffs.

Scott says, his body feeling wonderful, perfect, the rubber up around his neck, the back of his head, just hidden out of view from everyone, his heart was relaxed, breathing steady and slow, regardless of the danger he was currently in. As he felt safe, secure, better than ever, “Excellent. We’ll be back up in no time.”

Lupisfer suggests as he works, “You know, the next ore shipment is due in three days. Despite the damages that will be good to go. Amazing how self-sufficient this place can be at times.”

“Oh right, it is. Perhaps we could use it to call for help, despite the trucks being un-manned,” suggests Aurora.

“I think we’ll be fine. Not necessary to make such a dangerous trek when we’ll be up and running in no time, isn’t that right Nargus?”

“Yup!” chirps Nargus.

The voice in the back of her head whispering, “Yes. Keep them complacent. Soon we will infect.” Nargus feels a rush of pleasure move through her. A pleasure that will grow throughout the day. A subtle excitement like knowing you are going to see a movie that you’ve been wanting to see for months or going on a hot date. Nargus’ heart throbbing and beating, lustful arousal and instincts building within her and when that day came to an end, and she and Lupisfer are alone in their combined sleeping quarters.

The anthropomorphic stretched, “Another long day, trapped in these damn suits,” he huffs, tail wagging annoyingly.

Nargus floats over to him, excitement growing her sex twitched, feeling an ache grow, “It’s not so bad hun,” she chirps, wrapping her claws along his side, feeling him up. “Yes… closer.”

Lupisfer puffs his chest, “But I can’t feel you like this. To hold your warm scales against my paws. I know you love the feel of latex, and it's fun here and there, but I miss holding you close to me,” he says, his hands moving to caress her hips.

She chirps, “I know hun. I miss your touch too which is why…” she says holding him closer against her. Her claws penetrating into his suit, pushing her rubber claws into him.

Lupisfer gets the warning of the breach in his suit, “What are you doing?!” he exclaims the suit’s communication shutting down, Nargus grinning at him unnervingly, overpowering him, as he’s unable to force her to let go.

“Allowing us to be together hun,” she chirps.

“Infect. Infect. Infect.”

Lupisfer’s breath began to fog over the domed hood mask. His eyes starting to gloss over, forced into the dark abyss where he is surrounded with the black tar muck. He struggles and growls trying to claw at it but it only spreads the material all around him. Steadily coming out of the endless sea of tar is the bulbous amorphous figure that stares right at him.

Lupisfer feels his instincts run wild, telling him one simple fact, “Run.” And with that the alien spoke, slimy, unreal, right into his mind, and booming all around him, it simply says, “Hello.”

---

Only Aurora who had her own room remained untainted. More of the facility gets repaired, but as it does, there seems to be no progress made. Aurora grunts taking a break from the seemingly endless patch work. She moves herself over to the main control room, “I so need a break from this repetitive stuff. I told the machines to analyze that space rock. I wonder if they have found anything about it yet,” she wonders, tapping into the computer.

“How’s every doing?” asks Scott from the outside of the Oasis, the previous night having been eventful, the bright orange rubber of his suit faded into a deep dark black. Void like in appearance. His breath slow, steady, unusual, he licks his lips feeling the suit squeezing around him the rubber now actively creeping around his head, sliding down his snout, spreading around and around him, deep down he knew he couldn’t be seen like this, not when one was not among them.

“Work is work, progressing as usual,” chirps Nargus, pleasure surging through her, the systems repaired, ready to go, but kept disabled for the time being, the rubber having fully taken her, only her head remained unchanged, as the rest was taken by the suit itself.

Lupisfer was a bit behind on his progress hearing the soft whispers of the suit, caressing his mind, keeping him calm, complacent, aroused with pleasure to be of service, “All is well. No one may know.”

Luspifer says over the intercom, “All is going well. I think by the end of the day I will have the life support system back and operational. After that we can get out of these suits.”

“It feels good. Spread. Infect. Fix and make better. Spread, infect,” The voice whispers into Luspifer’s head, he shudders, moaning softly over the intercom just for a second before he cuts the feed.

“You okay Luspifer?” asks Aurora.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine. Nothing wrong here,” he responds.

“He’s fine. I’m sure of it,” responds Nargus.

Aurora quirks an eyebrow, thinking, “Really? She’s always worried about him.”

“I’m sure it's nothing,” says Scott.

Aurora runs her bright orange rubber claw tips on the computer, running through the data that the machines have been gathering. Her eyes go wide, “What is this…” she mutters, checking and rechecking the data, “This is… bio-synthetic polymer? Like nothing I’ve ever seen and it was found buried deep in this asteroid? It almost looks similar to the type of living-like material that our spacesuits are made of. But there seems to be…” she continues to do research, growing ever more concerned over what she has found, “This… this can’t be good. Is this why the suit won’t come off? It’s detecting this foreign containment? But if so, why didn’t it give the right code? Unless…”

“Aurora?” Scott calls out over the intercom.

“Yes Mr. Lau?” she quickly responds.

“How goes your end of the repairs? I’m just about done here,” he responds, “Then I can infect you. It’s time that you join us.”

“I’m almost done Mr. Lau…”

“Glad to hear it. I’ll be done in a few minutes,” he responds.

Aurora’s heart starts to race, she looks over the data again, the substance seeming to be almost alive based on her readings. The pieces starting to click together, “Oh my god…” she shudders, “Mr. Lau?” she calls out again.

“Yes Aurora?” Scott responds nonchalantly.

“Good luck. Stay safe out there,” she replies.

“Don’t worry I will.”

“It has to be that… he was behind… and then Nargus has been acting differently since… then the suit wasn’t able to come off… and she’s been with Lupisfer…” Aurora’s heart races faster, she pants. She rushes out of the room heading toward the airlock, grabbing all the equipment necessary to make the trip to the mining end of the asteroid. She adds each piece of equipment, looking around, body tense, feeling as if all the eyes of the world were not on her, “Come on… come on…” she mutters to herself, keeping her intercom system from transmitting. Grabbing some food and water along the way which she attaches to her sides and tail saddles.

“Just about done. With that I think we can even give a test on those life support systems. How about we all head to the main computer room so we can do it together?” asks Scott.

“Infect soon. Spread.”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Chirps Nargus.

“Infect soon. Spread.”

“I’m all for that, just let me run a few more diagnostics, it won’t take that much longer,” says Lupisfer.

“Infect soon. Spread.”

“Come on, come on, connect,” Aurora says panting her anchor points finally securing to the equipment, “Yes!”

“Aurora are you okay?” asks Scott, sounding genuine concern in his voice.

“Ah yeah, that sounds good. But I need to finish up, just give me a few minutes,” she says, stepping into the airlock, closing one door and then opening the other, heart racing, hands shaking.

“Wonderful, see you there soon,” Scott replies.

The door opens, Aurora wastes no time and propels herself straight towards the far end opening of the fans that leads to the outside. She pushes with all her might and uses her jets sparingly to propel her even faster towards it. She pants heavily, her breath fogging the dome before the suit adjusts and fixes it. She looks over to the side where Scott is, his suit totally black, at first it appears he doesn’t seem to notice her, a brief moment, a sigh of relief, thinking, “That isn’t right. His suit shouldn’t be that color. This affirms it. If he doesn’t see me I should be fine. Feeling as if her heart is about to jump out of her chest.”

In a moment of luck for Aurora Scott was drawn away from his surroundings, he was panting heavier, the rubber spreading more across his face. Smoothing out his facial features, smothering them. The black icky tar rubber crawls over his eyes, the droning of a face taking root. The tubes that attach to his domed head push in, growing, extending out to attach to his real face. He moans, arousal growing the connection to him and the alien creature reaching his zenith. The tubes connect to his face, he breaths into them, the draconic face smooth almost featureless, the back of the head and along the underside of his snout appears to be attached to a thick tar like ichor. His field of vision expanding, growing, senses growing far beyond anything he could have ever felt before.

“This is everything that I could have hoped for,” he mutters his voice becoming corrupted, changed, shifting, slimy like that of the alien of his dreams, yet still reminiscent of who he was. His body and the suit were one entity now, connected yet with a clear protective shell. The glass dome is the only thing that was made part of the creature yet unaffected by it. The hiss of the tubes rang out in his ears, the transition happening over a few moments, the exact moments Aurora made her dash along the opening toward the surface of the asteroid.

Aurora felt as if she was going to die of a heart attack, her panting growing heavier and harder, the air around her felt thick despite it being constantly cleaned and refreshed for her. She grabbed the guiding rail and with hand over hand motions she pulled herself toward the asteroid facility on the far end of the asteroid. She looks at the universal space time, “If I keep this up, I should be able to arrive about fifteen minutes before the thing is to depart. More than enough time to board and get out. I disabled my tracker, that should buy me enough time,” she swallows a lump in her throat before saying to herself, “I hope.”

It wasn’t long till she started to hear over her intercom, “Aurora? Where are you?” says Nargus.

“Aurora?” calls out Lupisfer.

“We’re waiting for you in the main control room. Didn’t you finish Aurora?” asks Nargus with a soft trill chirp.

“Are you okay?” asks Lupisfer.

“I can’t respond. They could track me if I do…” says Aurora, her muscles tense, already short of breath doing what she can to let the laws of physic help her as she flies across the surface, only reaching down and adjusting her course to make sure she doesn’t fly out of arm’s reach of the guide rail.

“Where are you Aurora? Come out, come out wherever you are,” says Scott, his words making Aurora’s skin crawl.

“Shit, shit, shit!” she exclaims.

“I don’t see her anywhere,” says Nargus.

“Neither do I,” reports Lupisfer.

“She couldn’t have gone far… I know you can hear me Aurora. Don’t be afraid. Once you meet us and say hello. You’ll never want to leave. It’s wonderful,” says Scott.

Aurora closes her eyes, tears rolling down her face, her hand slipping from the guide rail, “Shit!” she uses her jets to readjust herself, steading herself once more, “Just need to make it there. The longer they search for me, the longer it will take for them to find me, and by then I will be gone… I hope.”

“Aurora… are you doing what I think you are doing? How could you just leave? Without saying goodbye. We miss you Aurora. Come back,” says Scott, Aurora pushing herself to the limit.

“Don’t say anything. Don’t say anything. Just don’t say anything.”

“Aurora. Aren’t we friends? How could you not say anything to me?” Nargus says with a chirp.

“And me? I know I can take it but that is so cold,” huffs Lupisfer.

She says nothing, her attention up ahead, looking toward that endless starless horizon, ready to crest over to the far end of the asteroid. Only fear causing her to look over her shoulder, toward the sun, seeing nothing, she pushes on ahead, “I bought myself enough time,” she mutters to herself, encouraging her, the weight of it all pressing down upon her, “You have to stop this here. You can’t let it spread,” she mutters.

She crests over the hill, seeing the mining facility just ahead, the vibrations felt through the asteroid having continued to grow, even during unloading the mining doesn’t stop. She sees the massive spaceship, docked into the hole. Tons of ore transferred over via the automated machinery.

Aurora lets out a pant of relief, “I made it! I made it!” She flings herself over to the ship, “And with eight minutes to spare before it leaves,” she states when a bolt whizzes past her, just as she reaches the ship, hitting it hard, she screams in surprise, looking over her shoulder to see Scott, the black rubber suited creature that he has become, unable to see much detail of his from this distance.

“Bad Aurora. Leaving like that. I can’t let you now. Not when we are so close,” he says.

Aurora’s eyes go wide, she pushes herself down into the open pit, rushing to get away from the creature that Scott has become. Scott reaches where she was only seconds after her, his body about twenty percent larger than it was before, his draconic features still prominent. He looks at her, which sends shivers down her spine.

“Get away from me!” she exclaims breaking her radio silence.

“Now Aurora. You can’t be so cruel. After all we are friends,” he responds.

She pants heavily moving past rocks that are drawn to the sides via the gravitation wells, Aurora trying to needle through them but gets caught in one and pulled down to the third storage area having her land hard on the rocky surface with a thud, “Mr. Lau, but I don’t know what you are. What you did to him!”

“What are you talking about Aurora. I am him… just so much more,” he says, the voice cold and uncaring his claws harder, deadlier from within the suit. He pushes himself over to her as she rolls out of the way.

Scott lands with a thud, Aurora scrambles back to her feet moving as fast as she can away from him. Aurora pants heavily firing off her anchor at Scott, disconnecting the line as to not draw her in. The metal spear pierces into Scott’s gut, knocking him back. His body dripping with black ichor. Scott stops and looks down at the injury, “Aurora. That wasn’t very nice. You hurt me,” he replies, pulling out the anchor, the ichor dripping, but also seemingly drawn back to his body, “No matter. You’ll come to your senses soon.”

Aurora rushes away, moving into a storage area, slamming the door behind her, locking it. There Scott bangs on the door heavier and heavier, leaving dents in the metal. “If I can use the machines here to my advantage, I can hopefully pin him to the wall and escape…” she says when her foot hits something with a squelch. Though no noise was heard she felt it through her suit. She looks down to see thick black ichor touching her suit. Her eyes go wide.

“Oh no!” she exclaims looking over to see the rock that the machines were analyzing oozing out the black material. It latches on and penetrates her suit; the breaches are quickly reported but then silenced. The suit grips her body, the goo slipping into her. She moans out.

“No! No!” the breathing growing heavy, her body shuddering pleasure shooting through her, the process of conversion sped up several fold, the black liquid slipping into her body shuddering in pleasure. She pants, reaching out for help when the door slams open, Scott is there. His face gone, smooth black ichor rubber, attached to a base of a dripping gooey liquid all around the head with breathing gas mask tubes attached to his muzzle. She cries out, “I…” pleasure building body climaxing without control, the ichor all already in her head now the suit feeling better and better, the bright orange color fading to a dark void black much like Scott. The latex spidering across her face, spreading, her screams soon muffled as her face is smoothed over, blackened. The tubes extend into her hood attaching to her face. Soon the struggling ceases, the last of the ichor from the rock now absorbed into her.

Scott approaches her, reaching out, their hands touch, feeling each other as if it was their natural skin, “How do you feel my Queen, Aurora?” asks Scott.

Aurora looks to him, her mind swimming in the alien goo that is transforming her brain, her mind faster than she can even recognize, the “Hello” handshake made with the alien made the moment it touched her body, but even that felt like an eternity ago. She looks at him, leaning against him, feeling powerful, strong. Strong like Scott.

“I feel great, my King. You were right. After a little time, I do come to my senses,” she says giving him a soft nuzzle the squeak lost to the void of space.

Scott gives a faceless smirk, “I knew you would. Come. We have a home to build, and an infection to spread.”

Aurora felt a euphoria at the statement, “Yes. Yes, we do.”