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Michael was actually pretty comfortable for once. Other than his room, the ship's temperature had been turned up to the point where he was always a bit sweaty or sticky. He didn't mind it much, considering his shipmate needed the heat to be set in such a way.

Right now, however, he felt amazing. It felt like a light cooling blanket covered him, and it was sucking all the heat away. Slowly stirring from his nap, he tried to remember if he had left his couch, promptly concluding that he did not and that he should still be in his crash couch. Seeking to rectify his confusion, he moved to rub the sleep from his eyes, quickly realizing that the cooling blanket was hampering his movement slightly.

That's when he slowly realized that the blanket wasn't a blanket at all. It was his Shipmate. "Wonder how this happened."

Michael looked down to see Srettia lying atop him. Arms wrapped behind his back, clutching onto his shoulders, while her forehead dug into the crook of his neck.

"Well, there goes my plans to try and take things slow. I guess I'll have to talk to her about this and how humans do things. Maybe related to her people and figure this out. I wonder how this will go over with command." His thoughts were racing at what was happening, and he gently freed his hands, moving them to embraced Srettia. He moved his left hand to trail along her back to rest on her right shoulder, and his right hand slid to her hips, tenderly feeling the smooth scales along her back while doing so.

"I wonder if it's just me or if her species just moves fast. But... This isn't so bad. " Watching as she snuggled into his embrace, Michael smiled. " I hope those diplomats figure things out quick, or things might get messy when I try to bring her home."

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Tanda stood excitedly at the doors to Leda's engineering hub. Being brought by the Admiral as a personal favour, Tanda wanted to get an early look at the new fold core. Instead, he was looking at four very large and very armed soldiers. "Um, I'd like to get a look inside, please." He tried, with his best smile.

"Denied." Was his only answer, which made Tanda quite upset.

"Any reason the chief engineer of the seventh fleet flagship wouldn't be allowed into the core fellas?" He inquired politely, trying not to step on any toes.

"Authorised personnel only." Were the only words he could get out of the large men before they made it clear he wasn't wanted in the area.

Not taking no for an answer, Tanda walked away and decided a new approach was needed. First, he tried asking around, trying to see if he could get authorization. When that came back as a negative, he began going from engineer to engineer, soon finding that oddly, no one was able to get in or even knew anyone who could get in.

Then he tried loitering around outside engineering, trying to see if he could randomly come into contact with an authorized engineer. Finding that in the two hours he waited, no one entered or exited engineering. When the soldiers at the door started to make their way towards his location, he was forced into a hasty retreat.

As a last resort, he tried contacting the Admiral, who replied he was busy with Chrarada and the base Commander, so he didn't have time to help, unfortunately.

So now he was sitting at a table in the mess hall, looking through the base schematics with his mapping tool. Chuckling at his brilliance, Tanda started charting out his devious and brilliant ultra master plan to get into engineering.

Which led him to his current predicament. "UsE tHe WiRiNg TuNnElS, No OnE wIlL sUsPeCt ThE wIrInG tUnNeLs. No one thinks to make them enviro-friendly either." Tanda muttered to himself, using his shirt sleeve to wipe the sweat off his brow. Crawling along the cramped and dusty tunnel, Tanda took a deep breath from his breather. "Just a few more kilometres, and I'll be rid of this crap hole, then I can gaze upon humanity's future." Is what he thought.

"What the hell is this!?" Tanda nearly yelled, looking at the weird humming pipe blocking his way. Pulling up his map, he rubbed his head in annoyance as it showed all clear to the core. "It's obviously not an empty tunnel, you dumb map. There's a pipe in the damn way." Tanda shouted at no one.

Pulling out his scanner to figure out what the pipe was, he decided to press it very gently against the extremely large, humming metal pipe.

"Alright, let's see what you move around... Coolant neat, power gotcha, some gasses yup, antimatter alright, dark mater... Strange matter..."

Tanda paused for a second to try and remember his particle physics while he put away his scanner. "What the fuck is with this pipe!" He yelled, backing away slowly. Tanda frantically started to look around for a possible way forward, but to his dismay, he could only find one. "Seems the only way to continue is to hump the pipe until it leads out or to a dead end." Carefully, Tanda hugged the pipe and began his journey.

Shimmying down the pipeline was a real pain and an interesting lesson. Sometimes the pipe would be hot, Other times ice-cold. However, most of the time, it was uncomfortable, and the gravity shifted around while the area would look funny, or it was just plain hard to breathe. Eventually, however, he saw a light.

Increasing his speed, he grew nearer and nearer to his objective. "Soon, my beautiful fold core, I'll make you sing me your secrets." Excitedly Tanda exited the hole and entered the engineering bay.

Tanda then looked around for his prize and saw the most beautiful and terrifying thing he'd ever seen. It was a massive cone surrounded by all manners of consoles and wires that looked to be pumping all sorts of energy, gasses, and particles into the peak, which was then funnelled into a large sphere connected to all kinds of pipes. He also noticed It was surrounded by tens of soldiers, all pointing their guns at him.

"Uhh, hey guys." Tanda smiled and waved. Unfortunately, he was more interested in the jump core and ignored the warnings being yelled at him. Trying to shimmy down towards the core slowly, he saw a quick flash from the corner of his eye, followed by pain, then nothing.

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Srettia slowly stirred from her slumber, feeling pleasantly energized from the heat she absorbed during her short nap. Slowly opening her eyes and scenting the air, she suddenly froze when a small chuckle reached her ears.

"Is that the equivalent of a morning greeting?" Her heating stone asked.

Quickly remembering where she was, her eyes darted around, trying to take stock of the situation before quickly noticing where her hands were and where Michael's hands were. She shakily looked him in the eyes for answers. " You're not mad?"

"Mad for what?" Michael asked, confused by the odd question.

"I have stolen your heat without your permission or knowledge. It is a severe crime amongst my people." Srettia replied, not meeting his eyes.

"Well, I don't mind. I have plenty to spare. Not like it's a hassle for me just to make more."

Srettia hesitated before asking the question that was burning in her mind. "So, you're okay with this then? I was worried you weren't interested in me."

"I'm actually more worried you'll get sick of me. I'm not the smartest cookie in the jar when it comes to women, you know. I mean, I once got into big trouble when navy command found out I was dating my ship captain for a year. Which, by the way, happens to be the only exception to the rule, apparently. The worst part is, I didn't even know I was dating my Captain. So not only did I get into trouble with command, I had the entire ship hating me. They ended up having to transfer me to a new flight base the same week." Michael laughed for a bit at the memory.

"But even I'm not dense enough to miss your signals. Though truth be told, I only noticed a few days ago. So try to take it easy on me."

"You really are an idiot." Srettia managed through a laugh. "How do you pull something like that off? Didn't know you were trialling someone. You're weird."

"Trialing? Is that like dating?" Michael asked. "And on the captain bit, I thought we were just having fun hanging out as friends. She thought they were dates. Which was weird because we never kissed or stuff like that, so it's not like I was leading her on or anything. Then one day, we got called into command, and the damn Admiral is giving us shit, which at the time confused the hell out of me. So when I objected, and it all became clear, the Admiral laughed, dismissed the claim, then us. After that, things then blew up, and everyone on the ship wanted me dead."

"Well, if that's the case, then I'll make things clear. I am having you trial for partnership." Srettia stated, gently squeezing Michael. "We normally just claim a male we are interested in, but a trial is not unheard of."

"Uhh, what exactly does that mean? We humans don't really go through trials and such when selecting a spouse." Michael inquired. "Do I have to fight your dad or something?"

"When a female selects a male, the two can decide to go through a short trial period where the female determines if the male can provide sufficient heat, nourishment, and companionship. If the female decides that the male meets the requirements. The two become partners and begin a family."

"I see. Well, that clears things up. It also answers a few other questions I had. We Terrans can take years to select our spouse."

"I can see where some confusion is happening then." Srettia began. "Maybe I should have been more clear with my intentions. For us, pairing is important. It's easier to survive with a partner, especially for females. Our heat retention is nowhere near our males. Something I assume is the same with the males of your species? Considering the amount of heat I can absorb from you."

"I wouldn't say that. I mean, we don't really retain heat as you do. We generate it, well, as long as we're fed properly, that is." Michael replied, rubbing her back for emphasis.

Srettia perked up, nearly falling off the couch. "What do you mean you generate heat? Is that why I can never steal it all from you?" she stammered in disbelief.

"Yup, we keep a standard thirty-sevenish, I think degrees. I think women run a bit hotter than men, but that's biology stuff I'm not really in the know of."

Srettia just looked at Michael, trying to understand what was just said. "So you mean to tell me. That I could just lay right here, stealing all the heat I want. And you won't be affected?"

"Pretty much," Michael replied, watching as Srettia attempted to prove the theory by pushing harder into him.

"I'm going to have to ask for you to spoil me for a bit longer than please."

"I don't mind. The couch is pretty big anyway." Responding to Srettia claim, Michael moved his leg a bit, allowing Srettia to wrap her tail around it.

"You should keep this generation thing to yourself for a bit. I don't want to be forced into fighting other females for you, though I would if it came down to it if one tried to claim you."

Michael laughed, wrapping his arms tightly around her. "Is that something that happens frequently?"

"Only for the males who have excellent heat retention or are exceptional at their jobs." Srettia replied happily. "Some females will go to extreme lengths to find and obtain one."

Michael got comfortable and checked his displays. "Well, I'm sure you won't have to worry. There is a full fleet of walking heat generators outside your system currently."

"Well, I'd like to put this generator to the test. Mind putting something on for us to watch?"

"That sounds like a good idea." Seeing that his time on the couch was not over. Michael pulled up an old comedy show called downtown and enjoyed his afternoon.

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Commander Kendra brown was currently in her room with Admiral Miles, happily sharing a drink and a meal with First Tail Chrarada.

"And you say this is all synthetic, fabricated?" Chrarada stared at her food in astonishment, much to Kendra's amusement.

"It is. The fabrication system is currently one of our more important inventions. Something we'll happily share with your people." Kendra added with a smile.

"We'll have to see what your diplomatic team has to say about that Commander. We don't have much to trade for in return." Chrarada returned, placing a piece of meat in her mouth.

Admiral Miles finally decided to step into the conversation. "The cultural exchange will likely be enough to get most of what you want and need. At the moment, the diplomatic team is willing to concede on most things just to have their name go down in the history books and forge good relations at this point."

Chrarada put down her drink and laughed. "I don't think that's something you should be telling me, Admiral."

"Well, I did tell you I would only speak the truth to your people." He said with a grin.

"Yes, but even so, things like that may be too much." Chrarada answered with a slight giggle.

"I just hope our team doesn't mess things up. I'll be triple-checking their shuttle tomorrow morning before they leave." Kendra added, putting her cup back down.

"You don't need to worry, Commander. I just put that in there to make sure they behave. I have no intention of harming you." Chrarada affirmed with a sly grin.

"I don't really care what happens to the diplomats if they mess things up. But there is no way I would let Chrarada get her hands on you, Commander." The Admiral declared, almost dropping his cup.

"Saying that can get you into a lot of trouble, sir. Especially with Chrarada here." Kendra retorted, piling up some more salad. Kendra rather enjoyed her meal with the two. Finding Chrarada strict but enjoyable, and the Admiral to be a rather charming person to be around. Unfortunately, a beep on her command band would interrupt her meal. Reading it, she got up abruptly and turned to the Admiral. "We have a big problem in engineering."

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