An Endless Voyage: ch:3
Tom would have liked to be in the lounge watching a movie with Rena, as Maya was busy, and Chloe couldn't leave her cubs, but unfortunately he didn't have free time today.He was helping out in the armory, since Callie had taken over as tactical officer while Chloe tended her cubs. Kara was with him in the armory, as she had been assigned as acting armory chief. Kara was a border collie, and she was about a year older than Tom. She normally assisted Callie, but now Tom was assisting her. They were performing routine maintenance on the primary autocannons, greasing the various mechanisms, and checking the feed mechanisms that carried the massive 40" shells. They also had to manually load a round into the breech of each autocannon, which was itself no easy task. even for a kuvasz like Callie, hefting the monstrous shells around was hard work. it was supposed to be a two person job afterall. For Tom and Kara, it was onlya little easier than it would be for Callie to do it alone. The weight was distributed more evenly, but the combined strength of a reasonably fit (but still beerbellied) human and an athletic-build border collie bitch combined was about equal to the brawny kuvasz who normally did the job. Kara was teaching Tom how to recognize the different munitions. Each type of shell had a different colored band around the nose, and grapeshot ''flak'' rounds had the actual shell portion made of a sort of clear polymer which was filled with thousands of 1" metal balls. Those shells effectively turned the ship's main autocannons into giant shotguns which were very effective against enemy fighters or fast, lightly armored starships. Solids, were just that, massive solid shells, designed to punch through the armored hull of battleships. HE shells were like solids, only the shell contained an explosive charge that detonated on impact. Flares produced a brilliant light, and gave something for missiles and torpedoes to lock onto when a ship is otherwise jamming their tracking systems. ECM rounds were just the opposite. They carried electronic countermeasures. surveillance equipment such as eavesdropping on comms traffic and contained a tracking device. fired into an enemy's hull-plating they gave a means of tracking an enemy vessel as well as listening in on their comm traffic. Incindiary rounds carried a capsule of JP20 which ignited on impact to start fires inside any vessel the shel penetrated. Aurocannons were the ship's workhorse weapons. reliable and effective, despite being old tech compared to XR lasers and antimatter missiles and torpedoes. Thankfully Kara wasnt in heat so Tom was able to focus on work without distractions. Sam and Maxine managed to get a seat near the front row. only Sarah and Esther were in front of them, and obviously the beagle and lab were not too tall for Maxine to see over their heads. She had to hold Sam in her lap so he could see the screen
good though, and he leaned back, using her left breast for a pillow. The movie was an adventure/romance film, about a team of mammilian archaeologists exploring the ruins of a Cor-Ai city. They were underground, as the ruins had been buried by millenia of settlement, but the team was desparate to press on. The protagonist was a lioness who was in love and trying to win over a male kuvasz that was the expedition's linguistics expert. the guy that translated the ancient stone writings. Maxine was surprised at how ''normal'' the movie was. The characters were Mammilians, but other than that, it could just as well have been any ancient ruins on earth the team was exploring. The only thing that really felt ''alien'' about it, was the ways the characters went about flirting with eachother. Of course she'd been on Excalibur long enough to know what the characters were doing though. She slid her hand down, and began to give the sheltie tummy rubs. Sam responded by raising up to lick her face, and kicking his leg out like a feral dog would do. After a bit he turned around on her lap enough that he could lock her in a passionate kiss. Maxine slipped her hsnd into his pants, feeling of his sheath, and began to gently rub it as they kissed. Sam's breathing grew more rapid. Only not wanting to break the kiss prevented him from panting like mad. His tail began to wag happily. Maxine loved that his breath was a lot nicer than Maya's had been when the Admiral had sexxed her in, and his tongue was small enough to explore her mouth freely. He had dog breath of course, but it wasn't anything like Maya's. Sarah unfortunately ripped a big noisy fart that would make Maya jealous, ruining the moment just when it was getting good."Gods! Gunner, stuff a cork in it." Esther scolded. "Its Dawn's bean soup." Sarah said. "Eat much a that and you'd be strokin the afterburners too.""Fighter jocks." Esther sighed. "Everybody farts. Its no big deal." Maxine told the two in front of them, then to Sam "Now, where were we." She pulled him back into a kiss and began to stroke his rocket through his sheath once more. She was very curious about it, having never felt a male canine before, and she liked what she felt. Sam was surprised to see she was cool about the whole thing, but when he broke the kiss, it was only to say; "I love you, Maxine. I want to be with you forever.""I love you too, Sam. More than anything." Maxine said. "Your the first guy other than Tom who didnt treat me like property, and Tom is purely a platonic friend. "She paused a moment, and kissed him again, then began to rub his sheath faster, and said. "If you like, after the movie we can go back to my cabin, and "Play Tom and Maya" for a few hours. I have to spar with the Admiral this afternoon, and then do some work in the simulators, but I'm free until
then." "I would like that very much." Sam said. "but we won't do it like Tom and Maya. We can just relax, explore eachother, and see where it goes from there.""sounds good to me." Maxine agreed. On the bridge...Maya reclined her captain's chair, listening to her staff giving reports, and issuing appropriate responses as she sat there, staring out into the neon colors of hyperspace. She always found this view relaxing. She had a lot on her mind at the moment, with another heat cycle fast approaching, and all the time she'd been putting in changing Chloe's cubs for her, and her won pups starting to act out in school. It was bad enough that little May (named after Maya's mother) was always as constipated as she was, but April was getting to be more of a spoiled brat than Molly, and that was saying a lot. on top of that, May was having accients because of the medicine she was taking. and Tom Junior had started wetting the bed after overhearing Maya saying that she and Tom were planning another litter, and Callie saying she was pregnant. Amaia was a big help in that regard, taking care of the pups when Tom was busy and Maya was on the bridge. Then there was Molly. the spoiled little badgeress was in heat again, and it made it difficult to focus.Molly kept a close eye on the sensors, scanning for any sign of Xian activity along their current flightpath, as far as the sensors would reach. Spoiled as she was, she was diligent in her work. Callie meanwhile, kept an eye on the tactical display. ready to raise shields, arm weapons and polarize the hull at a moment's notice. At the same time, she was running computer projections, simulating combat with various types of Xian starships in an attempt to find the most effective places to target their weapons. At two weeks along her pregnancy wasnt even showing yet, but it was very much on her mind. She dreaded the checkups, but what was really on her mind was she hated the idea of being sidelined as a result of her pregnancy. Erika monitored the comms, as usual. It had been difficult for her settling in, being the only pitbull on Excalibur, but she had come to terms with that now, though there were times she still felt lonely. She wasn't exactly the social type, but for the first time in her life she was actually happy. Maya had bested her in the field of honor, and clamed her as her bondsman, so she had had little choice but to try to fit in, and now Excalibur felt like home. She wasn't seeing anybody, but she had a brief fling with a lion man on the pleasure planet Aphrodite III a while back. Other than being sexxed in by Maya that was the only intimate contact she'd had in a long time. Ashley went down to Sick Bay, for a sparring accident. She arrived just as Natalie was finishing Karen's ultrasound, and a nurse looked at the cut over her right eye
while the good doctor put the machine away and disposed of her gloves. Natalie told the spaniel she could get dressed, and was free to go, then handed her a datapad with a copy of the ultrasound pictures on it, and cautioned her her tailhole would be sore when the numbing lube wore off. Then the good doctor turned her attention to Ashley. "Sparring accident." the kuvasz said."Aye." Natalie said. "Looks like ya got carried away." "Rena got carried away." Ashley said. "I got distracted.""Well its nothing I canna cure." Natalie said. Karen headed straight to the bridge. She wanted to show Maya her ultrasound pictures before she had to go to work. Besides Holly could handle the transporter room a few minutes longer.She was embarassed because her tailhole felt funny, and leaked bubbles she could not control. She kept her tail down to hide the wet spot in the back of her pants. Nonetheless, she continued on, and when she reached the bridge she headed straight for the Admiral's chair, and handed her the datapad. "Don' worry bout' leakin a little." Maya told her as she took the datapad. "Caint be helped cause yer numb.... ah bin there mahself.""Thanks." Karen said. but it didn't really make her stop feeling embarassment."Yer pups're lookin strong an' healthy." Maya said. "Y' got nothin t' worry about.... but y'mahght wanna meet me in mah cabin s' Ah kin tell ya what t' expect.""SUre. I would like that." Karen said. "After lunch sound good? I have to recalibrate the transporters.""Works fer me." Maya said. "Jus' don't overdo it. Ah know y' don lahk nobody touchin yer transporters, but AH made the mistake a' workin when Ah's in yer place, an' it aint pleasant.""I will be careful." Karen said. "I would appreciate it if you get on the transgalactic net and send these to Hank's email though. you can give me the datapad back after lunch.... and go ahead and show them around the bridge for me." "Sure." Maya said. "Dismissed."Karen saluted, and then left, going to get to work on the transporters. Maya passed the datapad around the bridge, and once everyone had seen it, she left Kayla in command long enough to run to her cabin, and upload the ultrasound to her PC so she could email them to Hank.