Void's Psionics (41 page)

But there became a problem. An issue of
space… or lack thereof.

It was that night that they were underway and
after a long and exhausting day Oliver and Renee were ready for
bed.

So too was the Pride.

Bad news…

They all wanted to sleep
together
with
Oliver and Renee. In the same bed. Renee’s bedroom was large,
but not enough for twelve giant cats all about as tall as she is
standing and them on all fours. They didn’t realize it till then,
but each night when Renee and Oliver slept in the Flare, the Pride
had all slept tightly around the fighter. Except for those who
changed shifts to make sure no danger approached their master and
his mate.

The matter was brought to the captain’s
attention when Nova and the others would not take no for an answer.
It was their duty to ensure the safety and well being of their
masters. Jake was completely tickled while Renee was ticked. His
solution was to repurpose the private flight deck to second as the
new quarters for them all, including an adjoining door for where
Sparky and Rose to transfer their nest. Renee protested that she
would be on the other side of the ship if there was a medical
emergency and time would be wasted when she specifically had her
room connected to the med bay for just that reason. Jake admitted
it was a sacrifice, but the ninth floor was mainly reserved for two
primary flight decks that must remain available at all times. The
private one where the Flare, River Skipper and three Seekers was
the only space large enough to alter for their new space needs. He
also said that most emergencies makes her leave the med bay anyway
and the elevator systems were roughly the same in regards to speed
to reach the other levels and areas most frequented. She didn’t
like it, but accepted the truth of that logic.

The truly excited one was Sparky as it meant
they would room closer together.

Captain Dorgen worked with the ship and
altered the private flight deck to rearrange it’s corner into a
large living space complete with a large communal bathroom for
human and not after learning Ligers loved the water and could use
their armor to work soap into their fur to clean themselves and
even use a standard Drake toilet or go to the forest to relieve
themselves. It took about a full day to make a to new bedrooms and
a bath along with a seating area to watch the holo-screen for news
and vids.

Renee’s tune changed that first time everyone
climbed into bed together. The Pride left them alone to make love,
but after, every single one of them gathered on the enlarged bed
for sleep. It was a little warm with all the large bodies,
including Oliver, but it was oddly serene and peaceful. Having
Sparky not ten meters away also made for a sense of security and
for the first time in weeks from being rescued from the mercs she
had no nightmares. Not even a bad thought occurred. She had slept
soundly surrounded by soft and pleasant fur.

Sadly she was awoken by a rough tongue up in
her armpit. She realized sleep was so good everyone but the top
female was already gone and she was telling her to get up. Sparky
at the door thought it was retribution for her laughing during the
trip back to space from Drakken Prime with her laughing at his
cramped misery.

Oliver got back to work on the Gravity Forge
project and Renee returned to her own in genetics.

A routine of sorts was established soon
enough. The Ligers, when allowed to explore, liked the second floor
forest greatly. Oliver and Renee worked separately in the day.
Sometimes she was needed as medic, but most was spent in her
private and sterile lab. Also Oliver spent each morning honing
swordsmanship, played Zalie to practice with his Hunter brothers.
Sometimes played Zero Ball too.

For meals, Oliver would fish one Piranha and
prepare it for the two of them, but the Ligers played with the
deadly carnivorous fish before eventually each singling out one
grey scaled, meter long fish with sharp teeth and a deadly bite.
The cats had their fun before having a meal. Each needed about one
Piranha sized Beast every other day. They could eat a quarter of
their weight in a sitting, but would no need to eat again for about
two or three weeks if they gorged.

Five days into FTL Jake Dorgen’s voice
connected to Oliver’s com as he was sitting beside Jacob Wrench
working together on the Gravity Forge carefully connecting delicate
gravimetric strips to the inner walls of the third of four shells.
He didn’t tap his ear till Jacob gave the thumbs up that the wire
thin strip was put properly in place per Oliver’s again revised
schematics. “Sorry, Captain. I was doing delicate work.”

“
It can wait, Lad. You need
to come to the bridge right away.”

Oliver felt a shiver of fear and Nova as well
as the rest of the Pride all lifted their big heads to look at him.
“Jake? What is it? Why do you sound worried?”

“
Bridge. Now.” The tone was
flat.

Fearing the worst he sent his thoughts to the
bridge as he reached the elevator to already find a lift at the
ready. He found many minds on the bridge, but something blocked the
minds and found it was Sparky, but the Drake didn’t respond. It was
like a telepathic net he couldn’t circumvent. The door opened and
left only enough room for Nova and three more to fit before
shooting up and around the network of tunnels to reach the Bridge.
It would have been a straight shot had there been space to still
work in Jacob’s workshop, but the new Gravity Forge was proving to
be much too big to fit down there in the power room.

As the bridge went ‘ding!’ Oliver jumped so
hard he hit his head when there came “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

Nova roared and the threat in it was
unmistakable, but even that didn’t stop everyone from laughing so
hard many grew red in the face.

The head injury was pushed aside as he
noticed everyone most important to him laughing and wearing bright
pointy hats. Jake’s laugh was loudest after Oliver’s reaction and
how he kissed the elevator’s ceiling with his scalp. Finding his
beautiful woman slapping her chest to breathe beside Jessica and
Andrea almost put a smile on his face, but he was too confused.
“What…”

It only make the bridge laugh harder.

Renee eventually came forward wearing the
sexy Solarian wisps of clothes, there her arms wove around his neck
and smiled with still unreleased giggles. “It’s your birthday,
Idiot. You’ve been so busy you didn’t notice us making preparations
for it. It isn’t easy with her around me most of the time.” He
pointedly looked to the alpha female with her who Oliver didn’t
think clearly enough to try and look through her eyes. “Today marks
one year since we pulled your ass out of that tumor, looking like a
damn giant skeleton in skin. It marks the day you came into our
lives like a fucking Keptl Goliath.”

“
Be nice!” Jessica slapped
her bare freckled shoulder lightly and Renee let go of him to also
stick out her tongue at her pale faced and auburn haired aunt. “He
became part of this
family
.” She corrected with a flip of
her middle finger at the insulting pink tongue aimed in her
direction. Jessica gave him a warm and loving hug. “Happy birthday,
Oliver. And before you say you don’t know when you were born
exactly, when you slid out of that membrane… to me that constitutes
a birth.”

“
Aye, Lad, yer officially a
year old back on Earth as of ten minutes ago.” Jake said as he came
up and slapped his back with more force than necessary. “Never had
a toddler been through half as much as ye.”

Surprisingly Vanessa the ship’s cook came up
next and poked Oliver in the center of the chest. “Do you know how
hard it was to make a cake out of Beasts? If not, let me tell you.
It is a royal pain in my ass. I’ve never struggled to make a
delicious meal and I’ve been a five star chef for three hundred and
twenty three years. Since I graduated at sixteen from cooking
school. Renee told me you got really ill once with a bite of bread
since you can’t process complex Carbs so making a delicious cake
was not going to happen.” She poked him again, but with a smile
this time. “So I slaved over raw Piranha for weeks trying to make
you something sweet. I had to dispose of too many carcasses to
count, but…” she stepped away and lifted a flourishing arm and the
crowd moved away to show off a large, blue frosted cake topped with
a whining baby made of plastic.

It was the decoration that really made Oliver
laugh. “You all did this for me?”

“
Sure as hell didn’t do it
for me.” Vanessa took his hand and dragged him over to the enormous
birthday cake able to feed everyone twice over. Ready to cut it was
her mate. Behind them Chloe was holding baby Taylor wearing a
cheeky grin. Vanessa lifted her hand and created a small bundle of
electricity to light the single wax candle. “It’s tradition to make
a wish before blowing out the candle.” She prompted when he didn’t
know what to do so overwhelmed by everyone.

“
If I have to make a wish it
would be we all come together every year if our paths ever divert.
I want nothing else except good friends to stand with me
forever.”

“
Well said, Lad, but yer
supposed to keep it private.”

“
Why? Some of you are
telepathic and it wouldn’t be fair if the others didn’t
hear.”

“
Hmmm. Point taken. Still, I
too hope to do this forever. It’ll be a good start to our own
tradition. What say ye, Ye Dogs?!”

“
Aye aye!” the bridge yelled
and busted out in bubbly laughs.

The cake was delicious to Oliver and Renee,
but the others didn’t find it entirely unpleasant, but hardly as
good as what they were used to. The Hunters liked it well enough.
There were no leftovers when Nova and the whole Pride were offered
the cake.

Presents were given by some. Stephanie made a
picture album using an antique book from the early twenty first
century and made paper to print pictures on and slid the memories
in the clear sleeves. Most was about him and Renee, but quite a few
were from the rest of the crew holding up posters telling how glad
they were he was found. Little trinkets were also made. Jake though
came through with a future gift for his future grandchildren, a
little action figure he had back a millennia ago when he was a
child. He was sorely grateful for all the kindness given to a day
he didn’t even think about.

The one thing he did reminisce on was it had
been the first day he had laid eyes on the woman of his very
existence.

Her present was secretly given when they got
to bed and it was between her legs. He liked the silken folds best
of all.

“
Five minutes till we exit
FTL.” Abdul told ship-wide.

Oliver looked at the Flare, complete with
special new attachments, in their quarters/private docking bay.
Oliver created a series of eleven miniature versions of the Flare,
which he called Sun Spots. They weren’t small and most of the raw
materials came from cannibalizing Deegen’s Seeker fighter. Eleven
miniature golden sailboats were mostly a cockpit with an engine.
Each one able to hold one of his Pride. Each Sun Spot, was
electronically linked to the Flare’s controls. Whatever Oliver
would do, the Sun Spots would do as well. He had yet to test in
real world conditions to see if they could keep formation, but the
Pride seemed to like each having their own ship to fly in and be
connected to. All engine tests were good and worked, but leaving
the Dorgenox’s barrier in FTL was a sure way to drop out in the
middle of nowhere for a test and be lost.

The Sun Spots though had yet to be outfitted
with weapons. It was still too early though the Pride made sure to
impress on their master they could press a button to fire weapons,
but could not transfer their limited psionic energies to refuel
their ships.

What’s more, The Sun Spots can fly separately
under Oliver’s command, but they each had special locking
mechanisms and a program Oliver wrote which locks them wing to wing
to make a large circle the much larger Flare can enter, attach to a
series of braces to lock them together so as to enter FTL together
so no one was left behind.

It sure made Sparky happy not to be so
cramped inside the River Skipper now that the Pride had other means
to travel to and from places.

After writing the program it was a simple
matter for the manufacturing systems to grow the Sun Spot hulls
from Oak and for Oliver to use his vambrace to recreate smaller
engines and thrusters for them to travel. Making things with his
Valek was easy now with the storage function made possible by the
cube. Making technology with it was faster than waiting for
availability when Jacob’s talents as chief engineer took priority
for maintenance.

Over a ways Stone and the others were doing
one last checklist over their sailed Seeker fighters, but soon were
closing them up. Oliver was busy too still working out some minor
issues to one of the Sun Spots to take up the idling time.

Renee was especially jittery as she stepped
out of the elevator to wink at her man. She said “I can’t believe
it, but it all fit.” She lifted an azure box with a strap over her
shoulder. Still she wore the enticing garments that showed off her
voluptuous curves and arousing flesh all for his viewing
pleasure.

And as Renee once guessed, a new trend was
set by nearly the entire female persuasion aboard the ship. Jessica
and Stephanie also stepped out of the elevator in near translucent
shimmery straps wound around their luscious bodies. Jessica put a
hand on her round hip to falsely seem upset. “I don’t know what you
did to make that storage box, but I want to know.”