Raptor One – Chapter 56
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The ship repair has gone till the late night shift, but it was complete, we had to rush the repairs so we won’t stay the entire twenty four hours, when we saw the ship back into it’s optimal state, fully repaired and space worty, we couldn’t help but marvel at the beauty of it, at the end i named it ISS – Tenacity, afterall, it came into being, was mangled countless times, and now it was beached so badly it was basically scrap as even it’s bones was damaged, but it was tenacious, never let us up to the end, and here it is now, back with us, better than ever.
I sigh and stretch, i rub my ears on Zu belly where my head is resting, she giggle because of the motion and looks at me.
I open my left eye and look back, a grin appear on my face before i roll into my stomach and start to slowly grawl up on Zu, making sure to feel all of her fluffy fur and count the colors of her feathers before stopping in front of her, face to face.
Her face blushing red as we are on the middle of the sleeping pack right on our bedroom on Jason’s bar, i leam in and give a chaste kiss, small, sweet and short, finishing the kiss i start to rub my face on her, she can’t help but do the same, her sensitiveness to the pack reducing by a lot as we rub our heads together, i lean a little further in and nibble her lower ear, getting a gasp and a shudder before leaning back into a kiss again, this time less chaste and more intense.
“Go get a room you two.” i hear Li’luk chuckle out, i finish the kiss and look to my left while rubbing my head under Zu chin, the Li sisters coming into view as i do so, Li’luk is looking with a grin while her sister Li’lak look at us between her the gap of her paws.
“It was damn time, i could hear her complaint a mile away. ” Su’ra voice come from my right, so i run my head back to the right, Zu however as brave as she is decided to rub her face into my chest, hiding her deep blush as my chin rub her upper ears and head as i look right, there i see Su’ra with his straight face, a grin hidden inside him, Su’zu being cold as ever just nod, i chuckle before getting up and taking Zu with me.
“Let’s go, we got a day ahead of us to finish, this may be our last work as a ‘strander’, so just bulldoze through the exertion, I'll get the ship ready and loaded for us by tomorrow. At least I'll try.” i chicken out on the promise, it’s my first time as a trader vessel captain, I'm not even sure I'll get the ship outside into space this week.
Zu who was hugging my chest hit me on my arm. “Hey, no chickening out, go for it.” She say with a smile as she looks up at me. “I believe in you.” Li’lak say in a shy tone but with confidence. “Well be waiting for your order Captain.” Su’zu nod at me and say with a salute, Su’ra followed right after with a salute too.
“Da, da, i won’t chicken out, I'll try, let’s go down and eat, but first I'll have to put my power armor first.” i say more to Zu than myself before leaning in and kissing her again before i lean more to whisper into her lower ear.
“Prepare yourself, I'll mark our pile of pillows with our love with or without our pack present.” i whisper into her lower ear, a trace of finality in my tone, showing I'm losing my cool.
Taking my head back as i see her face red as her fluffy fur is all up as if we where bellow zero, i laugh a little as i suit up and grab my helmet.
We walk down the stairs into the bar counter, there’s too little space on the kitchen for a entire pack, not to say exhausted ones as i watch the pack sit on the bar stools as i enter the kitchen.
Placing my helmet on the table i start cooking some healthy food, some seasonings are hella expensive as they are planet based items, that means they are expensive and cost extra as they travel all the way here into Beta Stratta.
Working with nutrient paste as a main ingredient is interesting as i can transform it into a variety of tasty food using the bare minimum effort and time, using some seasonings i decide to make...
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Let’s go with meat flavor pizza.
After finishing with the form and getting the taste correct i thro it into a heating device, and done, now let the claw out and slice both pizza into six pieces each, and done, I'll keep one in the heating device.
Returning with six plates and a hot meat flavored pizza the pack noses twitch right up as they look up from the bar counter, their eyes shining as i see hunger in it, placing the pizza down i put the plates in front of each and serve the pizza.
“Forgot to brew the coffee, let’s eat first, coffee can be the appetizer and waker right after.” i say and point at Su’zu. “Niet, no avalon wine for you today tovarishch, or you’ll fail to stay awake later.” i say to Su’zu and he nods, following my order.
We eat in silence for some moment before we start talking again.
“How was your life as a ‘lander’?” Li’lak ask me in a small tone, i look up from my pizza at her and nod before talking. “Life was great, we had a working city and a transport grid working, i lived in a spearhead city, or frontier city so to say, heavy armed as we had to deal with invasion into and from the dead zone where i was rescued from, where my clan did a last stand... *Uhum* Life was good as i aged my last two years as a kit into adult age, that being sixteen years-”
“Wait wait, you lived there sixteen years?” Zu ask me, i shake my head. “Niet, i lived there two years and something. Anyway, when i got into age i was into a girl, she was a chldhood friend of mine, she wanted a more serious relationship, but when she finally managed to convince me a headhunter found me and conscripted me on the spot, banning me from being committed, she decided to enter the army with me out of fury, but became a psy ops too later, while i kept myself more into Walker piloting, saved my life countless times too, i never had a good event while on foot, being vaporized was one.”
My pack was eating while paying attention as i saw their ears twitch sometimes, but my last words made the group look up from their food at me.
“Seriously? Almost vaporized? How so?” Su’ra asked me, i nod at him. “Yeah, there was a time when we got attacked, but a solar flare hit us right on time with the invasion, we had to defend with no walkers while the enemy had behemoths, they almost broke our line of defense if not for me restarting the two pillons that had to activate the emergency stop, restarting the pillons start a emergency purge, condensed melting air is released, i was forced to be catched on one because i had to lead a squad to hold a behemoth from destroying the pillon, i had to fly wounded for god know how many days before i lucked out and crashlanded on another grid colony deeper into the grid sector.”
My pack pay attention to every word i said as i utter it, their faces showing worry and excitement at the story, i look down at my neck sensor, it’s display showing the time for me, still enough time for some coffee.
I get up as i finished my pizza. “I’ll be getting our coffee before it gets late, i also forgot my helmet on the kitchen too.” i say and head into the kitchen to make coffee.
Making coffee is a no brainer, just need to think how you want it and put into the coffee machine, i do just that, semi sweet coffee, done with that i head to my helmet and grab it before returning to the bar counter and placing it where i was sitting before returning for the coffee.
Getting the small cups filled for each one of us i sit back into my bar stool and take a sip from my coffee.
“I wonder how they get coffee beans here on Beta Stratta.” Li’lak say in a small voice, i look at her and nod before saying. “Da, from my knowledge, our science guys have a gene splicing mini lab, if they have plant genes they can splice coffee beans with the natural resources we get, this is how the station kickstarted it’s nutrient paste meal, they spliced algae seeds for both food and biofuel for the station’s matter reactor.” i say to Li’lak, her eyes shine in wonder as she listens to my talking.
“How do you know all this?” Su’zu ask me, i take a big sip from my coffee before answering. “Simple, i researched it, my tricorder is not being used to laze around but to research knowledge and buildings, I'm a dead drop fan of drones, of which I'm researching like crazy, I'm planning to implement a drone system into Tenacity along with the small hangar, want to check my research?” i say and do some hand movement, one big archive pop up, waiting for me to slide it into a sender packet.
“No thanks.” Su’zu say shaking his head. “But i do think the drones can be very helpful, how will you use it?” Su’zu ask me again, i make some hand movements, the archive changing into a smaller one before i slide it into the travel packet, Su’zu open it on his tricorder on his wrist.
“Seriously?” Su’zu look back up at me as Su’ra looks over his shoulder into his tricorder.
“Seriously, modular Artificial Intelligence drones, this can enable both attack, defense, support, mining, building, repair, you name it, just need to know the tool.” i grin at Su’zu.
“And here i thought i was the crazy one!” Crazy say as he walks down the stairs, i just shrug and take another sip from my coffee. “Got it from you! I already have a broken mind, you just gave it a direction!” i say semi yelling as Crazy takes his time to reach us.
“HA! Good one! Now where the food!” Crazy say after getting close to us.
“On the kitchen, coffee is here with us.” i point at the kitchen and the coffee holder on the bar counter.
Crazy nods and head inside to get his food, i shrug and finish my coffee in one big gulp, can’t get enough of this thing.
“Enough chit chat guys, we have some work to do.” i say in a serious yet cold tone as i get up and put my helmet on.
They all nod, get up and give a salute before we each head into our own direction.