an endless voyage continued ch 23
Imported from SF2 with no description.
While Maya watched the video feeds from Callie and her team aboard the mining vessel, a human security team had secured the disguised Xians aboard a troop transport shuttle and were preparing to take off. They got permission from the Lee's bridge, and the transport's pilots ran through a checklist as they brought systems online. Finally they fired up the engines, and taxied into position on the flight deck, alligning with the open fighter bay doors. the pilot locked the landing gear brakes, and opened the throttles to full afterburner to run the engines up prior to releasing the brakes.
Both turbines wound up smoothly coming up to full power without incident, and the pilot was reaching for the brake release when the shuttle lurched forward and began to accelerate angling off to the right.
"Turbine overspeed, number two engine, sir." the co-pilot reported.
The pilot attemped to cut the throttles back to idle, but nothing happened.
"Its no use, the throttles are stuck open." He reported. "I'm releasing the brakes, overriding the safeties, and pushing engine one to war emergency power to compensate for the number two overspeed." He worked as he spoke, and moments later, the shuttle sped across the flight deck and glided into space, its hull shuddering from the stresses of accelerating faster than it was designed to do.
Now that the ship was safely outside the Lee's fighter bay, the plan was to point the nose at Excalibur's fighter bay, then cut the fuel pumps, and dump their deuterium into space. it was wasteful, but it was also about the only way to stop a runaway engine. If it worked, they'd have sufficient momentum to reach Excalibur, using maneuvering jets to slow down, and coast in to a semi-controlled emergency crashlanding.
The pilot never got the chance to try it. Moments after they cleared the fighter bay, engine one faltered, and spun down. The pilot tried to restart it, but it wouldn't start. the HUD showed the entire fuel system heavily clogged. switching to the backup system got the engine to start, but only for a moment before it once more became clogged.
With the remaining engine operating well into the red, the pilot had sufficient power to steer toward Excalibur, but pressure and temperature warnings blared, drowning out the overspeed alarms. Moments later, engine two exploded. The pilot had cut the fuel quickly enough to stop the flames following the fuel lines, thus preventing the main tanks from igniting, but the damage from the exploded engine was severe. pieces of turbine blades and other debris was imbedded in the ship, slicing through the primary hull and penetrating the secondary hull enough to cause several slow pressure leaks. Fortunately they had plenty of spare O2, and the pilot dialed up the cabin pressure to compensate for the leak.
Combat foam between the outer and inner hull flowed into the openings attempting to seal the holes as it was intended to do, but the damage was so jagged and uneven all the foam did was slow the leak rather than stop it.
the pilot informed Excalibur of the new problems whilst working to use maneuvering jets to get the ship back on course and stop the spinning the explosion had caused.
"Copy that." Maya said on comms. "Yer Deuterium was tainted, Callie jus' reported findin 50,000,000 gallons a' refined Deuterium on the minin' ship, deliberately tainted with microparticle debris. small enuff t' bypass mos' filters an' cause all sorts a' nastys. Ah'd avoid usin yer maneuverin jets any more'n necessary too, cause they're liable t' get clogged 's well. Unfortunately until mah engineers've checked our supply Ah caint risk sendin a rescue troop transport, s' here's what we're gonna do. y'all slow yer momentum t' full stop, an' we'll nudge forward on maneuverin jets, dead slow, around 5kph or so an scoop ya up with our fighter bay. 's gonna take bout an hour 's yer air gonna hold out?"
"Barely ma'am." the pilot said. "The combat foam slowed the leak, but we're still bleeding atmosphere slowly. At the current rate we're leaking we got a hair over 68 minutes of air remaining."
"Ah'll see what Ah kin do t' expedite thangs, but given the problem Ah'd rather not fire up the main engines before Tina gives the all clear." Maya said.
"Understood Excalibur." the pilot said. "We're pretty shaken up and two people are dead but the rest of us have only minor injuries."
"The prisoners dead too?" Maya asked
"Unfortunately no." the pilot said. "They tried to escape when the explosion happened, but we got them under control."
"Good." Maya said. "Sit tight, we'll git ya aboard ASAP."
With that she returned her full attention to the video feeds and comms from Callie and her team.
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"You're going to want to see this, ma'am." Evan, a male collie on the security team said over suit comms.
He held up an ac20 fighter autocannon round he'd found in the ore refinery foreman's quarters, so Callie and the others could see the cracks in the casing.
Callie took the round and in the process of examining it her right thumb poked through the case which crumbled in response to her touch.
"Its the alloy used in the casing." Callie said. "the guy pulled this round to see if his plan was working, and from the looks of it he had sabotaged the ingots of metal alloys they were refining for us, so when we cast cases and loaded ammo it became hard and brittle. If this round were chambered and fired the case would disintigrate in the chamber, and the bullet lodge in the barrel, the next round would ram through it, and hit the other bullet when fired causing the gun to explode."
"THat was my assumption as well." Evan said, "Though it would not surprise me if they sabotaged other metals as well."
"Agreed." Callie said, then to Maya: "Admiral we found a sabotaged autocannon round I believe was a result of sabotaged refined ores. I realize you are not going to like this, but I recommend you pull all the ammo belts and examine each round for defects....and this may not be limited to ammo, have Tina run a molecular scan and metallurgical analysis on every plate, every ingot, bolt, nut, and bar crafted since we met up with the mining ship."
"Copy that." Maya said. "Y'caint do no more out there, come on home. Ah'll make arrangements t' check everthang out."
"Understood." Callie said. "We're on our way. Strike Lead out."
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It was slow going. Kayla piloted Excalibur slowly toward the damaged troop transport.
Meanwhile in the fighter bay, all the technicians were hard at work, stowing munitions carts and fuel hoses, moving fighters around to clear as big a path as possible, and dragging out emergency gear.
"Let's move people!" Feena, the Saluki girl Bill of the CSS Jackson was dating, who was one of the lead fighter bay technicians shouted. "Hose the flight deck down with combat foam, get the fire supression gear in place, stow those Deuterium hoses and clear a path. we got a bent bird coming in hot, and she's purely ballistic. no engine power and venting atmosphere!"
"Yes ma'am" came a round of replies, as everyone on the flight deck worked as quickly as possible to make preparations to recieve the damaged troop transport.
.......................................
When she came down from her climax, and Tom stopped cumming deep in her canine pussy, Karen spoke briskly to the computer "Computer, override gravity control in the main transporter room, and disengage artificial gravity, authorization Karen 59091 blue blue, yellow gamma orange alpha." she said
The computer chimed, and the artificial gravity deactivated. As they floated upwards and her vaginal sphincter still held them together, Karen took advantage of the weightlessness and flipped Tom onto his back, locked him in a passionate kiss, and began to bounce up and down as Tom's cock once more grew stiff.
Tom could hardly believe his good fortune. He returned the sexy spaniel's kiss with equal passion, and did his best to buck his hips and thrust into her though the lack of gravity made things difficult. It felt strange being weightless, floating free and gently gliding and tumbling about as they worked to pleasure eachother. Tom couldnt help wondering if "Death by Fortune Cookie" was actually a possibility, but Karen felt so wonderful he felt he wouldn't mind if it was. He finally understood just what his best friend Hank meant when he'd compared Karen to "Aphrodite" a goddess many humans worshipped who was similar to the Canid's goddess "Kayla". As for who was more fun he couldn't say, both Karen and Maya were equally wonderful in unique ways, and trying to make a comparison would be like comparing apples and oranges.
"Mmm...Done this before?" Karen broke the kiss briefly to say, shifting her body about in such a way that centrifical force caused Tom to thrust deep in her swollen honeypie as they gently floated and tumbled about.
"N...Not....I-Intentionally." Tom managed...."Oh! Gods! Yes!....Was...power...failure...and...well, you know Maya..."
"Yeah.... I can Imagine..." Karen panted, then once more resumed the kiss.
Tom paced himself, allowing their momentum to do most of the work, and used both hands to toy with Karen's fancy ears.
The lack of gravity made it difficult to maintain any sort of rythm to his thrusting, and Karen's teats leaked droplets of milk which floated around them joining the other tiny spheres of estrus honey, precum, lovenectar, and anal gland secretions floating around them.
"Gods! Karen! you're so wonderful!" Tom managed between passionate kisses. "I want you to have my puppies!"
"I would love that." Karen managed to reply. "I love Hank more than anythng...But I have always felt there was something between us as well."
"I love you too." Tom replied, once more moving his hands to Karen's shapely rump so as to pull her against him with each thrust.
...................................
"Fuck yes! H-harder!" April commanded. "Gods! Hank! good boy! stuff my big dirty shithole hard."
"Gladly princess." Hank replied, working to increase his pace. As a force of habit his hands moved involuntarily and began to toy with the hybrid's kuvasz ears as he rode her canine tailhole long and deep.
"Ahh w-what are...you doing...?" April asked panting in pleasure. "My ears are not erogenous."
"Sorry princess, force of habit." Hank said. "Karen loves that."
"Her people enjoy aural stimulation, Mine do not." April said. "Play with my nipples instead."
Hank was more than happy to oblige.
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On the bridge, Maya watched closely as they drew closer to the damaged transport shuttle.
"Steady Kayla." Maya said, trim 2 degrees t' port, maintain 5kph."
"yes ma'am." Kayla replied.
"Erika give me fleetwide." Maya said next.
"Go ahead Admiral." Erika said pressing some buttons on the comms console.
"All ships this's Admiral Maya, given what happened with the transport shuttle its safe t' assume all our deuterium reserves could be tainted. Maintain auxiliary power an' avoid startin yer main engines till we kin determine what fuel's safe t' use an' begin reprocessin what ain't.
The problem was caused bah Xian sleeper agents disguised as Canids....but thanks t' our new ultrasonic weapon we got a way t' weed out any more imposters tryin t' infiltrate the fleet. The enemy kin disguise their appearance all they want, but they caint change their biology...this new weapon kin tell us if'n there's any more saboteurs in the fleet.
"The enemy can look like us now?" Mike asked
"They have thus far only made themselves look like mammilians, but theoretically they could make themselves look like any race they want." Maya said. "But that's the least a' our problems. we gotta check all our fuel, an' while we're at it, check all our munitions as well. Ah'll know more once Ah question the saboteurs but fer now jus check yer fuel an' ammo, an' be ready fer anything."
"Copy that Admiral." came the replies.
"The sooner we git back in t' Hyperspace the better." Maya said. "Good luck. Excalibur our."
At that, Erika closed the comm link.
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In the fighter bay everything was as ready as could be, artificial gravity had been dialed back to 1/4 of normal, and Feena remained in contact with the bridge, relaying course corrections to Kayla as she watched the damaged troop transport as it slowly nosed through the open bay doors, and began to pass through the forcefield preventing the bay from decompressing.
Once the ship was fully inside the fighter bay, it dropped like a stone. even with the reduced gravity it crashed into the flight deck hard enough the landing gear buckled under the strain, and it scraped and bounced along the flight deck, the combat foam absorbing some of the impact, until it finally came to a stop.
Feena and two other technicians popped the main hatch, and the human security personnel exited the ship dragging the prisonerw with them.
"take those two to the brig, deck 6." Feena told the security officers, then she turned to the technicians helping her and gestured to the two dead security officers aboard the ship. "Get those two to sick bay so Doc Natalie can do a postmortem." she said. "I'll check the ship over and see if it is salvageable."
"Is that even p[ossible given the damage?" the pilot who stayed behind asked.
"Theoretically yes." Feena said. "Assuming the structural integrity is largely intact, welding on an new pylon and fitting a new turbine would be relatively easy."
"You have a spare CJPSA XP-03 Deuterium turbojet you can install?" the pilot asked.
"Obviously not, but the antequated Canid Jp5450 turbojet engine is roughly the same size, and weighs half as much. We'd have to replace the other engine as well so as to maintain the balance of the shuttle, but it is doable." Feena replied.
"The troop shuttle Stars and Bars /was/ entirely human-built." the pilot said. "Your proposal would make her some kind of half-Canid Franken-ship."
He paused. "No offense I know your technology is superior....its just...we take pride in our accomplishments."
"As do we." Feena said. "And installing the Canid engines would change the ship little. her powerplant would be canine, but the shuttle would still look and feel human built."
"Ok, do what you need to do." the pilot said.
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One of the nurses put the corpses in stasis to preserve them, as Doc Natalie was unavalible to perform the autopsies at the moment.
The good doctor was due for her own yearly colonoscopy, and she obviously couldn't perform it on herself. Normally she assigned the task to Tom, as he was interested in learning medicine, but since he was busy with Karen, Natalie had called Doc Grayden over from the CSS Lee to do the job instead.
"Not that one." Natalie told Grayden who was collecting the equipment he needed. "The 1/4" scope is Molly's but what she doesnt know is I use it on Karen, Grace, Hira, and the other smaller girls too. Use the 1/2" diameter scope...its a little large for my size but it will fit. The larger scopes are much too big, designed for big girls like Maya, Ashley, and Callie."
The little beagle helped Doc Grayden set up the colonic irrigation machine, and select the proper sized waste hose, then positioned herself on her back on an exam table with her feet in stirrups and her furry rump hanging over the edge in such a way gravity held her tail down out of the way.
Grayden lubed the end of the colonic irrigation machine hose, and Natalie's canine tailhole, then he applied a bit of lube to his right gloved index finger, and slipped his finger up Natalie's butt.
Grayden felt around inside Natalie's butt, noting that her waste felt firm but malleable, normal, and finally withdrew his finger, raplacing it with the nozzle of the waste tube. He wiped his finger off with a paper towel, pumped the balloons on the nozzle tight anchoring it in place, and started the flow.
"I hate doing colonoscopies." Grayden said. "I know it comes with the job....but I got a hot date with Aisa later...and you know how jealous bears can be....When she smells Dog Ass on me she's gonna think I'm messing around.....Besides if I wanted to do this sort of thing I could've stayed in Louisiana and become a vet."
"Aye, but Aisa knows I canna do it on myself." Natalie replied.
The two of them made idle conversation while the irrigation machine did its job after that.
.....................
Once the new prisoners were secured, Maya made her way to the brig, and proceeded to interrogate them.
At the moment both prisoners were chained up in a single holding cell, as they'd be moved to individual cells after the interrogation.
"Y'kin drop the act." Maya said coldly. "Ah know exactly what ya are, s' tell me, Dick-Heads, whats yer plan?"
"Just enjoying the ride." the mining foreman said.
Maya stepped out for a moment, connected a cord with a pair of shocker electrodes to a power outlet, then returned to the holding cell and arced the electrodes together. "Ah'll ask ya again, what's yer mission." she said.
"Foolish bitch...Kneel before your gods." the deuterium refinery inspector spouted. The mining foreman simply said; "Maybe now we can get some real food."
Maya applied the torture device to the deuterium refinery inspector, causing him to scream in agony, then repeated her question, and told the mining foreman : "Yeah Ah reckon our food don' set well with yer alien digestive system...Tell me what Ah wanna know, an' Ah'll have Callie bring ya somethin more palatable."
"Dont tell her anything." the deuterium refinery inspector said, earning him another jolt.
Maya moved to zap the mining foreman next, but he pleaded ;"N.No...Ppp Please...Me talk for food..."
"Fair enuff." Maya said, activating the comms in her collar. "Callie Ah need ya' t' bring some Xian food t' the brig."
"We do not have any made up, Admiral." Callie said. "I could see if Ashley or Melennia want to make some, but it will take time."
"Jus' git a bucket an' fill it up." Maya said. "Sides Ah know y' need to....Unless y'went in yer suit earlier."
"Eww...of course not, Admiral." Callie replied. " I will bring a bucket as soon as possible."
The comm ended, and Maya turned her attention back to the prisoners.
The deuterium refinery inspector tried to break free of his restraints intending to kill the mining foreman before he could say anything, but the restraints held, and Maya zapped the refinery inspector again for trying to break free.
The refinery foreman screamed in agony and pissed himself as a result of the electric shock he suffered.
"Foods on the way." Maya said. "Now tell me yer mission."
"Ok me try." the Xian said. "We make stuff bad. he make fuel bad, me make metals bad....fuel clogs injectors and causes engine problems. metals really crumbly fall apart under pressure....make bad bullets make guns go boom."
He paused, staring at the deuterium refinery inspector, shaking in fear.
"Go on." Maya said. "He cain't git ya."
She zapped the refinery inspector again as she said it.
"we make things bad, so when you find Home things not work you not kill us then. we win." he paused then " We alsolisten ffind out your plans to tell other gods so we be ready for you. Me surprised the Canid empire not send more ships though."
"We aint with the empire, we're mercenaries." Maya said
"What food you have....Your chef can make Xian food? the Xian asked
"Not exactly...we aint bin able t' synthecise the protien sequence....but we kin make somethin' close....its close enuff y'kin digest it, an' its got all the nutrients y'need."
The Xian went on to explain in great detail what he and his partner had done to the refined fuel and refined metals, and how they'd been sending secure transmissions to a nearby Xian relay station detailing the fleet's course and speed each day, and their relative position in the Expanse.
All the while the other Xian continued to threaten him and kept trying to break free in spite of the torture.
Finally Callie arrived with the bucket of "food", and moved the refinery inspector to a separate cell so the mining foreman could eat in peace.
Callie tried not to think about what the Xian was eating, as she led the other Xian away. She felt her ears grow hot of embarassment at the alien commenting how much he enjoyed the 'food'
The mining foreman couldn't eat it all, so when he finished, Callie took him to a single occupant cell, and Maya delivered the remainder of the food to the deuterium refinery inspector who'd already been moved to a single occupant cell already.