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Currently busy explaining the reactor modifications he had made to the Admirals flagship, Tanda continued to point what he had changed over the last year and how his discoveries would improve the fleet's overall performance.

"Would these modifications be possible on a D-class shuttle?"

"I don't see why not. Are you thinking about trying to do the same on your ship?" Tanda replied, sliding a data board back into place.

"I could attempt to walk Michael through the process. I am unsure of the success rate of such an endeavour, however. He is capable and able to make common repairs, but this may be out of his depth."

"Well, once my shift is over. I'll head over, and we can take a look at the ship's reactor then." Tanda offered, walking to an open panel with a smile.

"Thank your Tanda. I am sure Srettia and Michael would be ecstatic to hear about such modifications."

Tanda finished with the last of his repairs and stopped to look at a nearby camera. "How are the two of them doing anyway? What's their deal?"

"They are navigating cultural differences."

"Ahh, got it, none of my business anyway. So where do you want to go next?" Tanda asked, closing up the reactor panel and dusting himself off.

"Have you made any other modifications like the one you have just shown me? If so, I would like to see them."

"Just minor ones around the ship, most of them result in reduced power consumption so nothing big."

"I see. I think our time may be up regardless. The Admiral will be requesting of you to create armour for Srettia momentarily. I suggest meeting up with Rowan to begin blueprinting."

"Well, that sounds fun. I guess I'll go bug Rowan and see if we can get started. Have any ideas on how this can work?" Tanda asked, walking towards the nearest lift.

"Building around Srettias horns will take weeks of testing. I suggest bypassing and slightly enlarging the helm."

"Alright, that makes sense." After a bit of walking and two lifts, Tanda approached Rowan with a wave and leaned on his counter. "Rowan, I have a question for ya."

"One moment Tanda, I have the Admiral on the line." Rowan replied, holding up a finger.

After a few minutes, Rowan cut the line and looked over to Tanda with an odd look. "Just the man I needed to see. Got a job for us to do."

Tanda held in a laugh and shook his head. "That so? Well, first off, can ya print me out an earpiece since I'm here? Forgot mine in engineering."

Rowan seemed to dig around in a drawer and help up a device. "This do?"

Tanda eyed the piece with distrust but accepted it anyway. "Yea, I suppose, now what's the job?"

Rowan opened the door to let tanda in and informed him of the Shuttle refit and armour request the Admiral had. "So our day is now borked, Maybe even the week."

"I have created an initial design for you, Is there a place I can share it?"

"Whoa, that was quick, but sure let's take a look at what we can do." Tanda said aloud in response to Jack speaking through his earpiece, confusing Rowan.

Grabbing a holo emitter and uploading the file, Tanda and Rowan were greeted with a rough wireframe of an incomplete armour. "Well, I'll be. That's mighty fine work there, Mr. Tanda."

"Uhh, Thanks, Rowan. It looks like a few places could still use work, though. The tail needs a rework, and I don't think the neck portion is flexible enough." Tanda announced as he walked around the holo projection.

"You may be right. I did not want to sacrifice defensive value."

"Well, they can't defend themselves if they can't move properly. How about we remove the armour and thicken the mesh?" Tanda poked away at a console and moved his hands around, reducing the armour portion and added additional mesh around the neck and tail.

"That could work. I still feel there should be some form of armour over the mesh, however."

Tanda was lost in thought for moments, attempting to develop a possible solution to the tail issue before snapping his fingers and pulling up a datapad. "Hey, Rowan, you remember that K9 assault armour from a few years back with the regenerative plates? Can we print that here?"

Rowan began checking the database for the schematic while Tanda was off muttering to himself. "Yup found it. It shouldn't be a problem from what I can see."

"Great, thanks, Rowan." After a few tries, Tanda finally got the plates to cover the neck and tail in a way as not to hamper movement.

"This will work. Flexibility with defensive value. I suggest adding a tail spike of some sort, however."

Tanda raised an eye at the suggestion. "Why's that?"

"Srettia has a habit of jabbing Michael in the side with her tail when he does something stupid. I feel this will get her point across sooner."

Tanda lost it, nearly doubling over at the comment. "You feel almost killing him will help him learn? Well, sure, why not? I'll add it to her close combat frame."

After a few hours of programming with help from Rowan and Jack, Tanda completed the prototype suit and took a few steps back to observe his work. "Well, I'll leave the rest to you, Rowan. I gotta head off to the shuttle and see how they're doing."

Rowan watched as Tanda walked towards the exit, talking to himself the entire way. "Ohh fellow, he is."

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Michael and Srettia were sitting on a bench watching Engineers and Mechanics swarm over their ship. Some pulling plates off, others installing new data slates.

"You're people work fast." Srettia stated, happily munching away on something called peanuts.

Michael just held onto his snack, knowing Srettia would want it later and watched as Tanda continued to yell at his minions. "Gives them something to do, I suppose. They're stuck here, so the only thing they have to do is maintenance or some other boring task."

"Well, they can slow down for all I care." Srettia commented, throwing a handful of peanuts into her mouth. "I won't be able to eat as much once we're out exploring." She continued, eyeing Michael for a moment before stealing his snack.

"The ship will be well-stocked with food so you won't have to worry, and we have a fab that can produce synthetic foods. So as long as we have mass, we won't starve." Michael replied, watching closely as Srettia opened his trap.

Opening the package with one of her claws, Srettia grabbed a small handful of the oddly coloured nuts and threw some in her mouth. " So what direction should we go first once we're out in space?"

"That's up to you Captain, I'm your trainer and effectively second in command according to the contract." Michael replied, grabbing some warm milk he had prepared ahead of time.

Srettias tongue started to feel weird. She scented the air to see if something was wrong in the hangar, but it just made things worse, and her mouth started to burn. Eventually, she lost feeling in her tongue, and it lolled out of her mouth uncontrollably. "Waf def yu ou taf e"

"They're spiced peanuts. Teach you to steal my food." Michael answered with a grin. "Here, put your tongue in this."He continued, handing her the milk.

After a few minutes of swishing her tongue around in the liquid, Srettia was finally able to control it again and glared at Michael. "That was mean, you know. I can't help it if your food tastes so good." She said, Jabbing him in the side with a sharp claw.

Michael only laughed in response, not minding the claw as his mesh protected him. "Alright, I'm sorry, couldn't help it." Pulling up a sector map, Michael held it up for Srettia to see. "So these are the systems the Admiral wants us to explore first. Just pick one at random, then we can hop to the closest bunch in the area after."

Srettia reached out to the map and returned Michael's evil peanuts in exchange. After a quick glance, she noticed a system close to a nebula and had a pretty decent idea. "I want to go to this one." She pointed it out on the map.

"Well, that was quick. Good pick, though. Lots of stellar objects in the area." Michael returned. Hitting a few buttons, the map zoomed in on the display giving the two a closer look at the system.

The two continued to talk about the sector and surrounding systems for the next few hours, waiting for Tanda to finish up on the ship. Eventually, the two decided that the first system was indeed an excellent place to begin their mission.

"Alright, you two enough flirting, It'll take around another fourteen hours for the full refit. Go get some food and get to sleep, and it'll be done by the time you wake up." Tanda exclaimed, walking up to the two.

"You and Jack having fun?" Michael asked.

"You have no idea, people have started looking at me funny, but we've crushed almost all our tasks in minutes. I wish we had a million AI's like Jack floating around the fleet." Tanda whispered to Michael.

"Tanda is much smarter than you, partner."

"Thanks, pal." Michael laughed. "Alright, We'll go get some chow and call it a night then. You two have fun."

Tanda and Jack watched as the two walked away to get some food. "How long until they figure it out?" Tanda asked.

"Until Srettia forces Michael down, I would assume."

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Chrarada sat on the bridge, watching the main screen as Ethuci's task force slowly approached her fleet. "Open a line to Commander Ethuci." She commanded cooly.

She didn't have to wait long for the male to appear on her screen, giving her that look he always seemed to have with those piercing eyes of his. "Taskforce commander Ethuci reporting, First Tail."

Chrarada stilled her tail and took a second to compose herself before addressing the male in return. "Good work, Commander Ethuci. I've read your written report on your meeting with the Terrans. However, I wish to hear your personal thoughts on the matter and discuss what's happening on the surface."

Ethuci stared directly into her eyes and nodded. "Understood, my ship will be in docking range in one hour forty-three minutes. I'll have my report ready for you by then."

"I look forward to it, Commander." Chrarada replied, breaking his gaze to cut the com.

Looking around the bridge, she handed command off to her second and walked towards her quarters to get ready. She then took a rather significant time to polish her scales and put on a more form-fitting uniform in preparation. Chrarada debated whether she should have dinner served or maybe some snacks, not knowing if Ethuci had eaten recently. In the end, she decided on a light dinner with some grubs to go with a late-night drink.

Noticing that time for the meeting was rapidly approaching, Chrarada thought it was best to go over his notes so she could speed the boring things up. She read up on the Terrans he wrote about, but having already met with Captain Andriet, who was part of the delegation, she skipped that part. The Admiral and the other two were still unknown, so she decided to reread that section of the report.

A chime rang, and she stored the datapad as she keyed the door. She was surprised to see the male she was planning for was standing straight in the doorway, not noticing how quickly the time had passed with all her preparation. "Ahh Ethuci, forgive me, I seemed to have lost track of time." She said smoothly. "Come, sit. We have much to talk about. Are you perhaps hungry?"

Ethuci, taking her up on the offer, sat opposed to her. "It would be rude of me to refuse the offer of a meal, First Tail. I have not eaten since this morning."

With a grin, she keyed the galley, alerting the cooks to prepare the meal she had decided on. "Well then, I have had the pleasure of meeting with Captain Andriet personally, so we can skip her. I agree with you that she seems friendly and... Excitable. Tell me about the other three."

Ethuci paused, looking for the proper words as he continued to return Chrarda's gaze. "The Admiral was a straight-tailed male. He negotiated from a position of power but made many concessions so they could send aid to Aaster. Even when I purposely insulted his intentions, he disregarded the insult and continued in a calm manner. Though I'm unsure of Terran biology, I was unable to scent what could be considered fear or deceit."

Chrarada nodded. "The reports from the surface are much the same. The Terrans seem intent on proving their sincerity. They seem excited, more than deceptive."

"Though it is odd, I agree. The mining captain seemed to get along with the Terrans rather quickly as well. As I said, I recommend caution, but I don't think they're dangerous."

Chrarada paused and thought about what she'd seen and what Ethuci had said, suddenly noticing that it had lead to an awkward silence. Thankfully the door chimed, and the food had arrived. Letting out a sigh of relief, she accepted the food and pass Ethuci his plate.

"So Ethuci." Chrarada started with a sly grin while picking at her moss. "Tell me about how you made Force Commander without my notice." Chuckling to herself as the male froze up.

"Ahh, well... I guess you could call it a battlefield promotion. I was the most qualified and experienced, as well as being somewhat close to the Terran crash. Command offered me the position while I was en route, and I took it. So now I command thirty ships." Ethuci replied, maintaining his eye contact.

Chrarada struggled to stay calm under the male's gaze and decided more fun was in order. "Come now, Commander. I'm sure there's more to it than that. You're one step away from taking me... Sorry, attaining the position of an Admiral.

Chrarada smiled and held in a laugh as Ethuci cleared his throat and took another bite of his food. "And now I have you to myself... Under my command, of course," Chrarada continued, teasing the Commander some more.

The dinner was delightful for Chrarada. Continuously teasing Ethuci and enjoying his gaze upon her was refreshing, and she found he was a strong male with a good moral centre. After their meal, Chrarada brought out a plate of grubs to snack on while they chatted a bit about the current events, making sure to tease Ethuci when she could.

Ethuci, however, was unsure if he was being tested or if Chrarada was indeed flirting with him. He was known for being a straight tail, but Chrarada's tail was also tranquil, and she was a stunning female. Scenting the air would be inappropriate currently, so he decided to do the next best thing and try to discern her motives from her eyes, so he waited for a good moment to strike.

"So Ethuci. Now that you're a part of my fleet, I may have tasks I need you to take care of for me, personally. This won't be a problem, will it?" Chrarada teased.

Ethuci saw his chance and decided to take perhaps the biggest risk of his life. "Of course not. I am here to service you in any capacity you require." He replied, staring directly into Chrarada's eyes. He watched them go wide for a second before returning to normal, suddenly realizing she wasn't playing.

Chrarada was struggling under this male's gaze and decided she needed to steal the momentum from his accursed eyes. "Care to join me for a drink, Ethuci?" Chrarada asked as she got up and went to her cooling unit to pull out a bottle. "This was a gift from captain Andriet. The Terrans call it cider." She said, beckoning Ethuci towards a nearby couch.

Ethuci smiled at the attempt and decided that this 'cider' sounded like a good idea and followed Chrarada. "I would very much like a glass, thank you, Chrarada." Ethuci replied, accepting the cider glass and waiting for Chrarada to pour herself a drink and sit down.

Taking a sip, Ethuci closed his eyes to delight in the taste and sensation, trying to think of a time in his life he felt so at ease. Feeling a slight shuffling beside him, a chill began crawling down his tail. Ethuci opened his eyes to the sight of Chrarada, who had wrapped her tail around his. He smiled and decided tonight would be a good night.

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