In over the head 5 (OOCS fan fic)

First

“I’m telling you, I have no idea how he ended up in my room. You and everyone else keeps asking the same thing. How about instead of making me repeat myself you bother with your own love life instead.” Amina was fending off more questions she had no answers to, this time from the ship’s lead or rather, only engineer, A Dzedin woman with a penchant for exaggerating.

The Cannidor’s temper was teetering on the brink. For one, the engineer kept the lights low which made it hard to see anything, and she wore a pair of goggles because ‘they are cute.’ Despite having absolutely NO need for them biologically or otherwise, plus her habit of exaggerating everything. And now she was asking the same questions as EVERYONE else was asking. In the past hour she had to stop herself several times from grabbing that stupid pair of goggles, pulling, releasing, and letting the elastic do the rest. And the urge was only getting stronger.

“Believe me I would if I could find one. Hand me the clamp would you.” Xinia replied while extending one of her hands out from under the bulk of pipes and wires she was under. Amina dutifully obliged, placing the clamp into the waiting hand.

“And don’t worry, I get it. If it was me, I wouldn’t show my face for a while. Waking up and having your man freak out when he sees you is nightmare fuel.” She slid out from under the machine; her overalls smeared in machine oil. “But if you got him in bed once, you can do it again, and with a little luck, permanently.”

Amina stared at Xinia, the woman’s goggles staring back. They were well within reach; all it would take was a quick grab and release…  Resisting the urge AGAIN, she instead looked away with a huff.

“I told you already, nothing happened.”

Standing up Xinia laughed. “You want it to stay that way?”

Amina frowned.

 “What, is there something wrong with him?”

“What do you mean ‘wrong’?” Amina said with a scowl.

“You got your eye on someone else?”

“Not exactly. No.”

“Then go for it.” Xinia walked over to a wall port and pressed a button, while grabbing a mug with her tail. A quick shudder and the freshly serviced bundle of pipes descended back into place as the gravity jack powered down. Another pressed button and it emitted a hum of moving electrons and liquid. “Good, that’s done.” Turning back to Amina she resumed. “A man is a man. Preferences are for when you have too many credits to spend or lose. Go for it, at a minimum you get some good experience in the sack.”

Amina puffed out at the mental image.

“I would have killed for the opportunity at your age.” Xinia continued sipping her long since gone cold beverage.

“WHAT!”

“What, ‘what’? There is one man on the ship, and we don’t make station for another couple of days, and when we get there what are the odds of finding a man willing to give you more than a second look?”

Amina was about to respond. When a familiar scream echoed.

-AHHHHHHHHHHHH!-

In unison both women sprang for the door to the ship’s main passageway.

They opened it just in time to see Jenna run past at full sprint, August clutched tightly in her arms, flailing, kicking and screaming.

“KANZ RALT!” Xinia exclaimed

The curse was barely out of her mouth before Jenna was past followed by Sasha and a few paces back, a gasping Cistene.

“Was that…”

The duo made to follow only to be caught up with the rest of the crew who apparently had the same idea.

 Seeing a familiar face Amina made her way over.

“Whats going on?” she asked.

“Don’t know. One moment the captain, first mate and Cistene are in the mess hall next he starts screaming and they are running like mad.” Elisya said through the grunts of running.

Rounding a corner the crowd pushed through a sizable door and into the med-bay.

Not actually a room and more like a wing of the living space. One wall was lined with several beds partitioned by hard light emitters, the opposite wall was lined with doors to specialized rooms and storage, one of which the screaming boy was rushed into. Looking into the operating/testing room on the far end  the crew gathered could see the captain and the first mate trying to restrain the boy on the bed while the ship’s doctor frantically dug through a series of drawers. A few women started to raise a commotion, their view being two women forcefully pushing a man onto a bed against his will.

The crowd moving on inertia was about to spill into the room.

Inside Jenna shouted something and Sasha ran to the door and pulled a lever. Immediately an opaque hard light door separated them from the rest of the crew, a faint ‘Operating’ sign blinking slowly above the header. Though the sound dampening qualities were excellent, the muffled yelling and shouts could still be heard inside.

The crew now silent and dumbfounded stood there.

“Should we do something?” Someone asked.

Meanwhile in the operating room August was fighting for his life, which ironically was exactly what his perceived attackers were thinking.

 After a moment of confusion brought on by the massive woman suddenly lunging for him, he had decided that he really was in danger. And with his mind supplying all the fear fuel he needed he settled on the other fear response. Fight. And attempt to he would, screaming, thrashing he may have even bitten someone. All in vain as he was more or less wrestled onto a flat cushioned… something.

If anyone asked him, he would say that he put up a valiant effort and that he was close to breaking free. At least until the bipedal shark woman twice his height and about four times his weight made use of her extra mass. She threw herself on top of him, pinning his arms and wedging his head in the crook of her elbow. Her strength felt unreal, like fighting a vice, if it was lined with felt.

The last thing he remembered was the little blue woman running over with what looked like an icing spatula.

She placed the wide part on his forehead and instantly he felt unimaginably tired. Despite his best efforts, fear of death, and a second adrenaline dump, he fell asleep.

 

20 seconds ago:

“OW, he bit me!”

“Hold him still!”

“I’M TRYING!!”

-“AHHHH!”-

Cistene had a black eye where one of August’s desperate flails had caught her in the face.

“Where is the AIS?” Sasha yelled while struggling to hold August’s legs down.

“I’m looking!” Cistene was frantically digging through a drawer throwing items left and right. “GOT IT!” She half-flew to the bed where August was doing his best to wiggle free. Thumbing the power button, she put the device on his forehead. Almost immediately he was comatose, the little device having done its job.

With her patient now sedated she began preparations for cleaning his stomach. Sasha helping wheel over the relevant machinery at her instruction.

“What else do you need?” Jenna asked as she settled August’s body on the bed in a more natural manner.

“Nothing yet.” came the reply from the small doctor as she powered up several large machines. “When this finishes, I will need to wheel him to the full body scanner so I can assess the full scope of damage. After that I will have a better idea.”

“Alright.”

‘What had happened to him?’ She thought. Chances were good he would live, if worst came to worst they could put him in stasis until they reached the Nest, where a proper healing coma could be performed. Until then he looked serene and not in any pain, which was a small comfort.

Before she could get do much else her wrist comm let out a chirp, the tiny screen showing the ship’s security officer. Walking to a corner she pressed the answer button. “What’s going on Kyrie?”

“Captain.” Kyrie greeted. “It looks like the entire crew followed you and is now outside the operating room. They look like they are ready to tear down a wall. Is everything alright down there?”

“I hope so.”  Jenna sighed. “Right. I’ll deal with them.”

Good grief. What was this day coming to. All it took was one man with some mysterious backstory and concerning scanner readouts to throw everything out of order.

‘Why do men have this effect on the galaxy.’ she thought looking upwards.

Leaving the operating room, she was greeted by the wide-eyed stares of just about everyone on the ship and a choir of questions. Some wanted to know what happened, others out of the loop were asking if that was a man, and more were asking what she was doing.

“Quiet!” She yelled, raising her hands. Waiting for the noise to cease before continuing. “For those who missed this morning’s commotion. Yes, there is a man on the ship. No, I don’t know how he got here. He took a fall from the upper level in the rec room. So I had Cistene give him a med-scan.” She paused wondering how best to put it. “He has traces of medical grade stimulants in his system as well as high strength acid in his stomach. We needed to act quickly to minimize the damage to his… internals. Cistene is now in the process of giving him the medical aid he needs.”

“Why was he screaming?” someone asked

“I saw you holding him down!”

This started the crowd again.

“OKAY, OKAY! Quiet down!” when silence returned Jenna spoke.

“He doesn’t know Trade, so I doubt he understood what we were doing or why. Secondly, he might have been in some pain from the acid in his stomach…” She and the crowd collectively winced at the implication.

“Any other questions?”

A hand shot up. “So… He’s not your husband?”

“No…”

“Boyfriend…?”

“No…”

“Boy-toy…?”

“…”

“Sorry.”

“You are on bathroom duty until our next stop.” Jenna said pointing at the woman.

A few girls snickered at the exchange and one fist pumped, while the disciplined woman sagged a bit.

“Any other RELEVANT questions?” no one made to ask any more. “Alright. When we reach Nest, we notify relevant authorities and fill a found persons’ report, until we get there NO ONE goes near him without me or Cistene giving permission first and definitely not without one of us in the room. Understood?” Jenna gave a severe look to the women in front of her. It must have been effective, as the crowd collectively nodded.

“Good. Now all of you go back to what you were doing.” With a wave of her hand the crowd dispersed gossiping as they went.

Just as the last of them were leaving Sasha came up behind her.

“Cistene is ready for the full scan.”

“Right.” With a sigh Jenna walked back into the operating room.

Moving him to the next room was not an issue now that he was sleeping. What was an issue was what the lager scanner said when it finished waving its arm over him.

“That can’t be right.”

All three women were staring at the screen displaying the newest report.

“Please tell me that this thing is broken.” Sasha pleaded

“It’s so normal and so wrong all at the same time.” Cistene said under her breath.

Jenna turned to the doctor.

“Just how bad is it?”

Cistene looked up.

“I don’t think we have a male Tret on board.”

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