Chapter 38
"You two seem perky today." Melgara smirked at Lily and me as I came in for another checkup. They were getting more frequent, but I also knew that they were planning several experiments.
My entire evening had been consumed by Lily. First, we spent a good portion of the evening in bed, only for my stomach to growl and Lily to demand that I remain in bed while she went to scavenge for food.
I was becoming concerned that she had been watching too many videos on lions lately, based on the side comments she made that ‘female lions are the only ones that hunt’. I was tempted to point out that had been disproven, but she seemed to get great joy out of ‘hunting’ for me, so I left it alone.
That resulted in her coming back, stuffing me with calories, and then resuming more horizontal physical activity. I would say with quite a bit of enthusiasm.
"Yeah, well"—I scratched my cheek—"Lily and I are just going through another phase."
"All good, I hope?" Melgara asked, with a raised eyebrow, only for Lily to bob her head excitedly.
"Good! Great, even. Though I am somewhat curious if there's anything we can change in the human genome to make sure he has enough stamina for my desires," Lily answered.
“That wasn't enough?” I coughed into my hand.
“It scratched the itch,” Lily answered, and I wanted to sink into the floor.
After she had brought me food, we had then spent a very large chunk of the morning on a second wave of affections, which went on for no less than four rounds. If I were honest, I was shocked that I wasn't completely raw this morning. Then again, Lily was well lubricated when she wanted to be.
"And how do you feel about this, Captain?" Melgara asked.
"Fine, I guess. No man is really going to turn down more; it's just I hadn't realized that she still wanted more," I said.
Melgara shook her head, focusing on Lily. "It is very important to communicate these kinds of urges, so that the captain has the opportunity to satisfy you."
"Yes, of course. But we don’t have time to keep him in bed for weeks at a time. So, this is the compromise." Lily bobbed her head.
Melgara smirked. "And don't wear him out too much. He does have other responsibilities," she said, "and if you do want any modifications, it would be best if he's well-rested, so we can get baselines and other areas of focus in order."
"I would hate to be the source of delay," Lily said thoughtfully and then turned to glance at me out of the corner of her eye. "How are you feeling after last night, Captain?"
I flexed for effect. "Like a million feds," I said.
"Well, you're definitely worth at least a million feds. Though I would never sell you." Lily smiled and nodded. After saying that last part, Lily frowned at her own words. "I don't like how that sounded. There is no condition in which the sale of the captain is acceptable."
"He can take a joke," Melgara said, leaning forward and putting a hand on Lily's thigh.
"Of course." Lily nodded. "Is there anything you need from us for the ongoing research?" Lily asked.
"No, besides some peaceful, less eventful moments so that we can focus.
The captain will need to be under observation.
We've already figured out a fair bit from your isolation of multiple kikai genes.
" Melgara gestured to the side, where I realized part of how they had been doing their research.
There were a number of tails simply sticking out of the side of the wall, obviously connected to Lily's body that ran throughout the ship.
I suppose while we'd been doing everything else, there was no reason that Melgara and Lily couldn't multitask.
"Anything interesting worth sharing?" I asked Melgara. "Like, if you were to do what you wanted, am I going to have a tail?"
"I actually think not"—Melgara smirked—"but we won't know until we try, and we won't understand if there are secondary or tertiary responses that might work in Lily or Violet, but when it comes to humans, it causes long-term unforeseen complications.
Unfortunately, the body is too complex, even with Lily, to run experiments.
We won't know a lot until we try on a live subject. "
I noted several organs floating in a container not far away. I did my best to ignore those for a moment. I didn't need to know where they came from or why they were there, and I was fairly certain I did not need the details.
“Do they make you uncomfortable?” she asked.
I rubbed my face. "Can you just put a cloth over those before I come next time?" I gestured at the organs, and Melgara chuckled.
"Oh, of course, I didn't realize you'd be sensitive to them," she answered.
"You know what? Yeah, I'm sensitive to seeing what I assume to be other humans' organs." With Lily and Melgara's resources at present, I was fairly certain they were from someone who had caused us trouble. Somehow, that didn't make it any better.
Melgara hummed and busied herself as she found a tarp and began setting it up.
"As for other things—" I changed the topic. "You've gotten our supplies ready?"
"Yes, we're good for about three weeks, should anything happen. I figure three weeks is long enough for it to go one way or the other." Melgara shrugged. "And as for my friend I was inviting, I did want to have a brief word… She is odd.”
Melgara saying that and hesitating instantly made me worry.
"Is she safe to be around? Because I wouldn't want anyone coming to blows on my ship," I said, with a slight glance in Lily's direction, only for the helivore to suddenly find her hands incredibly interesting.
"No, she's—" Melgara paused and tapped at her lips. "She’s very old, and in some ways, she is quite jaded with life in general. She's a lovely person, but she can say things that others might find"—Melgara waffled her head—"off-putting."
I stared at Melgara for a long moment before letting it go with a sigh. "Sure, why not? It's not as if we're in any position to turn down help. You said she'd be willing to help with the kikai problem we currently face?"
"Oh, yes." Melgara nodded. "Especially if I ask. The message has been sent, but she's honestly not the type to respond. She is more likely to receive the note and then show up when least expected."
"Well then, I suppose when we least expect it, we'll be seeing her." I shrugged.
Melgara grinned. "You won't regret it. She's an old friend, and while she can be a little off-putting at first, once you get to know her, she's really quite the sweetheart."
I smiled, unsure what to make of that statement, but an ally was an ally. And we could use the help at present.
***
The next couple days flew by quickly. It felt like every time I stepped away to do anything, Lily would swing on by within an hour and successfully tempt me to peel that tight bodysuit off her body.
Even when I thought I would be too tired to go one more round, all it took was an over-shoulder look and a wink before I was pulling Lily into a maintenance closet and testing the soundproofing on yet another area of the ship.
It was vital work that needed to be done.
Of course, the rest of the crew weren't idle either.
When I wasn't dragging Lily off, I was chasing down the spaceport engineers and ensuring that we were pushing as quickly as we could to get the ship back amongst the stars.
And while I would never call him out on it, Brick did disappear for an hour to ‘help Tiri’ on more than one occasion.
But good for him. We all deserved plenty of stress relief with everything else occurring around the ship.
When Lily wasn’t with me, she was working on her own tasks.
She was the only person who could begin to help Violet in some last-minute practice that she claimed to desperately need.
Violet had Lily run through more than a few scenarios in short order.
I had peeked in on one of them for just a few minutes and found myself very grateful that the two of them weren't fighting on the ship regularly.
I wasn't sure that the ship would be able to handle the impact.
Both of them were forces of nature who, on more than one occasion, caused structural damage to the concrete barriers around the spaceport.
Not that any of us were going to report that damage, it seemed.
All of this work ultimately culminated in our group assembling in the cargo bay two days later.
Violet was wearing a particularly tight spacesuit designed to maintain her flexibility through whatever acrobatics she might incur while fighting the other divine.
Lily and I were ready for whatever might come next. We were perhaps more prepared than Violet in some regards.
"Are you ready?" Madam Chiksai had been with us these two days, though she had kept to herself through all of it.
The woman who had been incredibly strong when we first met her was now being so utterly submissive to Violet that I found it hard to reconcile the two interactions as the same person.
She was driven by the desire to survive.
That could cause even normal people to change themselves quickly.
"I think we're ready," I said, glancing at Violet for confirmation.
"We are," Violet confirmed, lifting her chin. Even as we were ready to walk to a fight to the death, Violet seemed unperturbed.
The rest of the group seemed more nervous. Tiri had been sniffling and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand enough that Violet had to console her.
"Do your thing," I encouraged Violet.
The black suit was unzipped tantalizingly low, though I had a feeling that was more for her personal comfort than any attempt to be erotic, especially when we boarded the shuttle, and she did little else other than stretch and test her flexibility.
My eyes did wander with her as she bent like the shape of a C. I blinked several times at the flexibility, and then she sprang back and did the stretch in the other direction.
"Remember, there's no assisting me," Violet told me, even as I could only grin at her admonishment.