Syl
Syl looks up from her new desk as the battle stations alarm tears through the ship outside of the Redoubt. The klaxon was harsh and grating on her sensitive ears, by design of course, it certainly managed to get everyone’s attention, even when it wasn’t sounding in most of the ship.
For all the simulated danger occuring on the bridge and in the gunnery spaces they were still safely in port, guarded by a large contingent of ground troops from the Dauntless who were keeping an eye on things as human and contract alien workers continued to modify the Crimson Tear into her final form.
“Hmm... seems there’s another drill. I wonder if they’ll win this time?”
She remarks aloud, not really addressing any of her staff, but they all nod and make some form of response anyway. Syl reaches down and gives Mikasa some reassuring scratches as the pup wakes up from her nap at Syl's feet only to settle down again as Syl soothes her.
The battle drills made the new civilian staffers nervous. It was the nature of space flight and space travel, especially as you left “civilized” space as they were intending to. But it was one thing to know that... and be excited about an adventure in space, allying yourself with a newborn stellar power on the rise, and another to be subjected to human style discipline and training on the subject.
The Tear was unique in that sense. She was the first major vessel in the Undaunted fleet, between the Dauntless and the rag tag privateers of the EFL, to have a mixed human and alien crew and be under human command. Which meant human style discipline and training, even for the civilians.
Luckily Jerry had a variety of advisors alien and otherwise to draw on to ensure he wasn’t pushing his alien shipmates too hard compared to their usual work cycles, but their determination to ensure even civilians could perform damage control duties or protect themselves in the absolute worst case scenario was unfamiliar to even experienced spacers.
Still the mix of doctrine, thought and tactics had resulted in some fascinating innovations so far.
The Redoubt was one such innovation.
The design of the Volxtara class Light Mass Conveyors was quite normal for large space borne vessels with minimal intention to spend time in the atmosphere. Even in a dry dock like this, mass axiom fields and a specialized cradle kept the ship cushioned as opposed to truly landing as the Dauntless did in the bay next door.
The exterior of the ship was four massive rectangular modules that were arranged around a central pillar that formed the core of the vessel. The external modules extended out past the bridge of the vessel and ended where the drive core began. The gaps between the four modules and core had originally just been a latticework of supports and heavily reinforced passageways leading from the modules to their neighbors and to the core of the ship. The space was mostly used as “cold” storage.
The humans had covered over these gaps with thick armor to protect what could be vulnerable spots in a more serious fight that your average cargo ship didn't have to think about.
The core itself was made up of three modules. The first was a small separate module forward that held the bridge and a wide variety of sensor arrays. The human modifications had also included much heavier armor and a series of point defense weapons systems, protecting the “nose” of the vessel and the entrance to the interior of the ship in case something slipped past the ship’s exterior into the open space between modules.
Behind that was a long cylindrical shape. This was what was now called the Redoubt. Originally just the crew section of the vessel it had been expanded, fortified and turned into a combination of its original purpose and something of a bunker for civilians and dependents that were slated to travel aboard ship. With an independent sick bay and its own small dedicated power plant and life support systems, the Redoubt could be isolated in the event of an emergency and serve as something of a life pod. There’d been talks about giving it its own engines, but they couldn’t figure out how to make such extensive modifications.
They'd settled for designing a system to explosively decompress the accessways to the Redoubt and adding a variety of automated anti personnel weapons. More than enough to spill a bunch of power armored or mech suited pirates into vacuum and render them into carbon waste. The EFL had been consulted extensively to make the Redoubt a prize that simply wasn't worth taking... and that was before they made it inside and had to fight whatever crew had made it there before separation and were ready to defend their families to the last man and woman.
The third module was the primary power plant and engines, which sealed off the aft end of the vessel with their size. The Tear was generously equipped by most standards in terms of power generation. The original design intent of the Volxtara class had been that the outer modules could be easily removed and replaced, so the power plant had been selected to give it enough juice to cover all the conceivable needs of a very flexible vessel.
In practice very few people converted the Volxtara class from its base configuration, instead opting to modify the massive modules it came with internally as the Undaunted were doing now.
The gravity system was set up so that the core of the ship was “down” to the modules, even the fourth module that was presently located beneath her feet. It made moving from the Redoubt to some of the modules a rather stomach turning experience if you weren’t prepared for it. Even if all you had to do was stand on a floating platform.
Syl smiles into her mug of tea for a second as she finishes laying in work orders and ordering supplies for her new cloning labs. They’d be taking up large portions of modules 2 and 3, which made up the port and starboard “sides” of the ship relative to her, extensive to be sure, but considering their scale of potential work just from the preliminary orders they’d received and the contracts they were negotiating with the Undaunted colonial authority they couldn’t get the labs finished soon enough!
Not that the cloning labs were the only thing on her plate. She’d found herself named as her husband’s Director of Operations and more or less in charge of the non military parts of the ship. It was thought that a civilian face to the operation as opposed to a purely military one might be more friendly to alien commercial partners, and there was no doubt that Syl was a highly qualified business woman to survive running her specialist service on Centris for as long as she had. But there weren't just commercial things to consider.
No, she had to review the plans for things like quarters for civilian staff, galley facilities to feed them, storage for the same. The sick bay was under military control, but with the Chief Medical Officer, Commander Joanna "Bones" McCoy, being human, Syl had been asked to help supply the hospital with appropriate modern medical equipment worthy of a major hospital on Centris.
Each module would have a small sick bay for daily concerns, but the Undaunted had determined that module 1 would play host to a full hospital, complete with multiple operating theaters and recovery rooms. Special care had been taken to include an extensive maternity ward and appropriate specialists in that budget.
“I wonder how long it’ll take for a human woman to require the services of our maternity ward? Surely they like sex and desire children in most cases like anyone else.” Syl wondered aloud, thinking about the human women she’d met recently.
She rather liked Sharon “Zombie” Graves, the younger woman was quite charming, and had a close bond with her husband because of their mutual service in the United States Marine Corps, an elite branch of the military of the nation they were both from, America. Graves was a talkative, energetic woman and apparently an absolute expert on electronic warfare. Sharon had been a pilot flying a fighter aircraft called a “Super Hornet”, but an injury had left her unqualified to fly.
Rather than lose her wings, she’d “cross decked” to the Navy, the ocean going kind, and trained as an electronic warfare officer. In her time in the back seat of a specialist aircraft without an ejection seat, she’d flown several missions where she’d even supported Jerry while his unit was in the field, albeit without either of them knowing the other existed. It was a shame really, if Sharon hadn’t been human, Syl would have practically been begging her to join their marriage. She was the kind of girl a family could always use more of!
Commander McCoy on the other hand... Syl shudders slightly. That one was a piece of work. Cold. Calculating. Ruthless was perhaps the only word Syl knew to describe her interpersonal skills. Her bedside manner was lacking, but Syl had seen first hand after a work site injury when McCoy was interviewing for the job of Chief Medical Officer that she was incredibly proficient at her work. Both with axiom and traditional human medical techniques. She’d been in awe of how quickly she’d taken control of the situation and gotten the injured woman patched back up. Still. She was standoffish at best, and detached from most of the rest of the crew.
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Syl couldn't rightly characterize her as a man hater, a mysterious mental malady that Sharon had told her some human women suffered. If only because Dr. McCoy seemed to treat everyone and everything with equal disdain.
Dealing with her had been quite hard on Nadi, who'd been looking forward to a new human colleague in the field of medicine.
She finishes another electronic document, this one a requisition order for the new gunships the Undaunted had designed with the help of their newly selected human and alien pilots. It was technically a military matter, but Syl had quietly taken over that type of paperwork too in the last week or three.
A few more clicks on her computer routes the document to the Undaunted’s new and admittedly very minor bureaucracy for approval as Sharon herself drops into the chair in front of her desk with a cheery smile on her face.
“Hey Syl!”
“Zombie! Is the exercise over already? I mustn't have heard the 1MC call.”
“Yep! We won! The stealth torpedo Wichen came up with? Tore the guts out of the Tiger’s propulsion and knocked half their boarding torpedoes out. With their mobility reduced they were easy prey for our guns. I hear Wichen won a month’s pay off of Mabby over a bet on the outcome of the rematch.”
Sharon chuckles, clearly rather pleased with the outcome herself. “Probably gonna snag us an unholy amount of money in custom small arms too. Skipper wove the advertising for Wichen’s other side gig flawlessly. Like dangling a fresh cooked steak in front of a... dog actually. Though I wouldn’t call Captain Lilpaw that to her face.”
Sharon thinks for a moment. “Honestly I really wonder about this being a “galaxy of thirst” like some of the boys call it. All of you seem normal enough, even the pirates seem pretty normal.”
“I've always thought that was a bit uncharitable ever since Jerry explained what it meant to me. Did you ever take a tour off the Dauntless sweetie? It's a very different world from the ship.”
Sharon cocks her head for a moment. “No actually, I never did take shore leave. I volunteered for the Tear before my leave rotation came up and I’ve been neck deep in our EWAR and other electronics systems ever since. I have a couple centuries of catching up to do. I know this one gal, Harriett, she’s okay, a bit high strung. Vanished a while back after coming back from liberty. Had an encounter with a Deep Craig Nagasha, went from plain Jane to... well. Like everyone else in the galaxy. Mega stacked.”
Sharon gropes her own fairly humble, even by human standards, breasts for emphasis.
“Could go for some of that. Maybe not the watermelons you girls all seem to be smuggling, but get up to a nice set of all natural double ds. Breast envy no more! That’ll show those bitches in the locker rooms back in high school and college!”
Syl cocks her head. “I’m sorry, breast envy?”
The raven haired human woman nods. “Oh yeah. Human women are absolutely vicious to each other when it comes to personal appearance and the like. I opted out of that somewhat by becoming a Marine. Most civilians won’t mouth off to your face because you’re the kind of girl they simply can’t understand, and boys like a badass bitch who manages to keep herself looking even vaguely cute. The Michelle Rodriguez effect, an actress who did a lot of action movies and stuff. She actually partially inspired me to be a pilot. Anyway, if you end up as a “have not” in the genetic lottery on things like the size of your tits, it can be a bit demoralizing. I got teased a lot in high school, but none of my boyfriends ever complained.” Sharon shrugs. “Guess it doesn’t really matter out here, even Doc Nadi has jugs that’d make a plastic surgeon back home cry they’re so big.”
“...A what?”
“...Oh right, I guess that wouldn’t be a thing out here. Cosmetic surgery’s a thing though. Back on Earth the most popular form of cosmetic surgery for women is breast enlargement. Since we don't have axiom, various mechanical techniques have been developed over the centuries.”
“To compete for men?”
Syl’s very confused now, the thought of having to surgically enhance one’s breasts beyond what axiom provides was an alien concept indeed, but then, Cruel Space was as about an alien environment for her as could be imagined.
“Partially.” Sharon shrugs again. “Honestly I think a lot of the competition between women in Cruel Space is more to do with dunking on other women so much as appealing to men. A lot of women, feminists they’re called, try to either completely ignore the process or divorce it from its traditional role of making oneself more attractive to attract a higher status male and get them to compete for you.”
The Volpir vixen erupts in giggles, laughing into her hand. “I-I’m sorry Zombie, I really am, I’m not laughing at you or your culture, but having to display to have men compete for you. It’s just... out here it’s so different! You’ll see once you take some proper liberty here on Centris. It’s even worse out of the core worlds. I mean, goddess love them, but there’s many women even here on Centris who haven’t even seen a man in years! Possibly their entire lives. I know a few girls who haven’t had a woman in their line impregnated the old fashioned way in generations!”
Her hand drops self consciously to her stomach. She was still nice and trim, not even close to showing yet, but she was very conscious of the little lives growing inside her.
“Perhaps it’s wrong to laugh. It’s tragic on some level in your cruel space, and a tragedy in stark contrast to out here. That’s the galaxy you live in now... I know the human men, even Jerry, find it a bit funny, the... thirst as they call it. But imagine, having grown up without a father, because there was no father. Or even a grandfather, maybe not even a great grandfather, imagine having the dreams of any little girl... of having children. Of having a family. I know our clans are strange to humans but everyone wants safety, security, to have people to raise their children alongside people they can rely on at least. Even those hundred girl marriages are out of reach for a lot of women in the galaxy.”
Sharon nods, the totality of the galaxy’s situation really hitting her as she just listens a bit.
“What Jerry told me is called lesbianism is quite common. There’s little stigma, because you’re unlikely to get romantic or even physical comfort any other way... your menfolk are special in that regard. To get to love someone. To be loved. It’s a miracle for me. That he’s got enough love for my sisters too, and our other sister wives is even more special. He works so hard for us, to be a husband and lover to us. To be a father to our children before they’ve even been born! I deeply appreciate human culture for giving him that drive. I hope if our clan produces any sons, they’ll learn the right lessons from their father in that regard, and maybe the galaxy will end up just a bit more gentle. One thing remains the same however, women most certainly dress up and otherwise work to “dunk on” other females. Albeit with a slightly different intent.”
“Yeah... hadn’t thought about it all like that. It’s easy to pass it off as a bunch of over sexed, or under sexed rather, thots or focus on the biology involved. But there’s cultural factors from centuries, thousands of years of things being like this, and that’s post reaching galactic civilization too! I suppose my sociology professor would be rather smug. There’s really reasons for why things are the way they are, whether they make sense to you as an outside observer or not.”
Sharon wrinkles up her face, clearly trying to switch subjects to a lighter topic.
“Well, at least being bi won’t be too weird out here, what with it being common and all.”
Sharon grins and shoots Syl an unmistakably lewd look which makes the fox woman blush a bit.
“Zombie!”
“What? I can look. Kinda hard not too with all the beauties walking around these days. You included. Jerry’s a lucky guy... thirteen times over, weird as that is to say. I’m just lucky I like curves... I suppose I dig what I don’t have myself. Still, I feel bad for the guys who like smaller breasts, the wider galaxy’s hell for them and feminists.”
Syl snorts “Hmph, I suppose you’re not wrong, but I am someone’s mother now you know.”
“Everyone likes MILFs. Though the idea of you thickening up even more is kinda terrifying, even if the opposite apparently happens out here. Sides, if I wanna get handsy I just have to join the marriage right? Wouldn’t even need to go straight girl on girl then, three ways are hot, and guys love a little bit of lipstick lezzing out. Be a bit weird cause Jerry’s my CO, but he’s a hell of a Marine. Never thought about straight up polygamy either, but if that’s the way the galaxy works...”
The human woman breaks into laughter and sticks her tongue out at Syl.
“Kidding. Not sure I’m ready to be wife fourteen for anyone, never mind the skipper.”
Sharon rises and composes herself quickly, straightening out her uniform.
“Anyway, I was coming to get you for lunch. Jerry’s ordered a 24 hour pass for anyone not actively involved in construction and he’s having the galley whip up a pizza dinner for everyone. Pizza’s a disc of bread covered in a sweet vegetable sauce and cheese then baked. Usually you add toppings. Apparently the cooks have figured out an alien safe version they’re calling moon pies.”
“Why pies?”
“I’ll tell you as we go! Come on, let’s get the rest of the civilian staff and go have some fun!”
Syl rises and smooths out her blouse. “Alright, one more thing, where’s Jerry?”
Sharon snickers. “Oh he’ll be along shortly, Evie pounced him into his ready room the second Wichen was distracted and tried to lock the door. Wichen got in via an access vent. Both of them apparently get all revved up by combat and Jerry doing his whole master and commander thing. So he’ll be tied up dealing with them for a bit.”
“Hmm... maybe I’ll take that galaxy of thirst thing back under advisement... if the behavior of my sister and sister wife are anything to go by.”
“And yours. Considering you’re pregnant, not once, not twice, but six times! Good god girl, clearly you must get up to some serious fun in the bedroom to get knocked up like that! Or is that normal for Volpir?”
Syl can’t resist a smug smile spreading across her face.
“No, I am very blessed, and very lucky. Now let’s hurry up, I am eating for seven after all.”