Jen was bounding through the air as she followed R'ka. The incredible forward jumps that she was making actually allowed her to keep up with the huge alien who was scrambling through the tree branches without making a single sound. She knew that R'ka wasn't moving as fast as she could because R'ka was still staying behind Kwei who was also moving through the tree branches.
Moving like this would definitely take some getting used to. Land, take a few running steps to maintain balance and speed, and then jump with the enhancers in her boots to hurl her high and far through the air. She'd tried running a little earlier, but she quickly realized that it was something she would never be able to do. Whatever those systems were, they took too long to activate and deactivate to allow running at any speed. As it was the constant bounding made her one hell of a difficult target to hit!
It had been explained to her when she had first tried on the alien gear, that the link for communications and to allow each to know the location of the others while cloaked had already been exchanged. That was the reason she was able to follow the two aliens while they were cloaked. Both R'ka and Kwei had explained a few things to her about how the various systems were controlled, but as good as she was, she knew that she'd get better with practice.
'I need to quit thinking of them as aliens and start thinking about them as allies or friends.' Jen instructed herself firmly. 'They did save my life after all!'
When Kwei arrived at his ship he decloaked it and waited for the two females to enter before re-engaging the cloak. He then led the two straight to the armory where the equipment to modify or actually fabricate metals was located. He quickly retrieved the two masks that now belonged to Jen and handed them to her.
Jen held the two masks in front of her as she looked down at them for a moment. "You'd know more about what to do with them than I would. You do what you need to do with them. At the very least, that will give us a mobile base to operate out of while we try to find a way to get off this planet. The first thing we should do once this ship is mobile again; is go pick up those supplies. I don't know for sure, but I'm betting there were a few things there that you two know how to use, and there was a lot of gear that I know how to use! After that; hopefully we can park this thing somewhat close to the cave, so we can store the stuff here. It's not the best solution, but it's one that will work for now. Having it close by gives us an emergency escape if things go south." Jennifer said before offering the masks back to Kwei.
"You speak in wisdom and in honor, Jen. But these belong to you by right of victory. They are trophies." Kwei said seriously.
"Look my friend." Jennifer interrupted quickly. "We can sort out who owns what at another time. For now, the three of us need to work together, because I don't think that any one of us is going to be able to get out of this alone. That means we use what we have, and if that means that I give up a couple of things that I really have no use for; then so be it!"
Kwei had no idea what to say in response to that, so he simply bowed his head in a show of sincere respect. Then he turned to R'ka.
"There is still some meat left from the hunt earlier, the two of you should eat. I'm not certain how long you had been held captive by those bad bloods before Jen returned our freedom and honor, but I have no doubts that they did not provide you with food. Jen needs to eat something as well; her supply of blood was greatly diminished while we were treating her injuries." Kwei said before he turned to work on the two masks.
"I hate to say it, but he's got a point. I'm already hungry again." Jen admitted.
"I wonder why." R'ka muttered with a shake of her head as she thought about Jen's breeding frenzy earlier.
It only took a moment for Kwei to link the two masks to his ship's computer, but the hard part was actually mounting them on the ship's hull where they would provide the most sensor coverage.
Jen followed R'ka's lead until the reached the room where the food was both kept and served. That was when she reached out and grabbed R'ka's hand. "I want to talk to you for a few minutes if you're willing?"
R'ka looked down at the female who was reaching up to grasp her hand. It was a strange sensation, because she now knew that this physically tiny female was actually very experienced in combat. "What do you want to speak to me about?"
"Let's sit down first, because this isn't the kind of conversation to have while walking." Jen said as she looked up at R'ka. Jen kept hold of R'ka's hand as the two continued to the small dinning hall. Jen pulled the woman over to a bench and the two sat down. Jen pulled of her helmet, but told R'ka to keep hers on.
"R'ka, I'm taking my helmet off so you can see my face, and know that I am serious about what I'm saying." Jen began earnestly.
R'ka nodded her head and motioned for Jen to continue.
"I know that you said you enjoyed what we did earlier in the shower, and that you said you wouldn't mind if I did stuff like that to you again." Jen said before she took a deep breath.
Jen knew that there was no way to get back to Earth any time soon, and considering what she had learned, she was almost positive that she'd get executed for crimes that she hadn't committed. It was a hard and daunting truth that hurt much more than she was ready or even willing to admit. She knew that she had no choice but to make a new life with these two aliens as her friends. The door for the possibility of something more had, by some miracle that she still didn't understand, already been opened in the shower earlier.
"I… I think I would greatly enjoy showing you how two women… or females as you say… you and I… can have sex with each other. I want to establish some… rules… if you will though. If there's ever something you don't like, then say so. There's a lot that I can show you, and a lot of things that we can try. If we try something and one of us doesn't like it, then we leave that out. Sex is supposed to feel good, not to be used to hurt someone. Although there are some who actually like being tied up and hurt in horrible ways, I'm not one of them. If we do have sex, I want to enjoy it, and I want you to enjoy it! Is that clear?" Jen said seriously before lifting her helmet to put it on so she could understand R'ka's reply.
"You are saying that you would like for both of us to enjoy such activities with each other. I will say that I received a lot of pleasure from the things you were doing. So if that is an example of what you can teach me, then I believe that I will enjoy learning from you." R'ka answered sincerely.
"Good! Come on, let's grab some food." Jen said with a smile.
The two were almost finished eating when Kwei entered the small eating room with a large smile on his face. He quickly snatched up Jen's modified mask and held it out to her.
Jen held up a single finger on her left hand in a signal to wait while she quickly chewed and swallowed what was in her mouth before donning her helmet. It was pretty obvious to her that Kwei wanted to tell her something. Otherwise, he wouldn't be trying to hand her the helmet.
"Your suggestion works perfectly! With those two masks in place on the outer hull I can guide this ship through the atmosphere. Still can't enter orbit, because those engines are too heavily damaged, but we do have some options available now. It means that we can gather the supplies from the bad blood camp and then land near R'ka's cave." Kwei grinned once Jen had her mask on.
"That means that we can rest well, while being properly hidden in my cave. It will also mean a way to store some types of meat that spoil no matter how well I try to preserve them." R'ka said while donning her mask so she could understand what Jen said, knowing that she would join in on this.
"Good point R'ka! A reliable form of food storage is something we'll definitely need. Plus, now that this ship can at least be flown in the air, we'll have a means of extraction in case things go south. Pray for the best, but prepare for the worst, because Harrigan's Law is nothing to mess with." Jen put in.
"Who is 'Harrigan'?" R'ka asked curiously.
"I don't really know to be honest about it. I know about Murphy though. He's famous for making a couple hundred 'Laws of Life'. His third law goes…'Anything that can go wrong; will go wrong!' And that's pretty bad, but Harrigan's Law says 'Murphy was an optimist', and that's even worse!" Jen answered.
"What is an 'optimist'?" R'ka asked in confusion.
"An optimist is someone who is always looking at the positive side of things." Jen answered.
"If saying that anything that can go wrong will go wrong is looking at the situation positively, then I do not want to know just how bad things can get!" Kwei exclaimed forcefully.
"Exactly! So we need to prepare for the absolute worst that we can think of. So if it happens… we'll be ready." Jen shot back firmly.
Kwei, Jen, and R'ka made fairly short work of getting everything loaded into the ship. It had been decided that the stuff could be sorted out once they had landed near but still away from R'ka's cave. None of them wanted to give away the location of that refuge, because it was in a truly ideal location. Fresh water, both to drink and bathe in was provided from inside the cave. While the nearby forest to the south provided a variety of meat and game from that area, even as the plains and mountains a ways to the north provided different types of meat. Then there was the fact that they were situated on the coast. The cliffs were an ideal nesting place for birds, so there would be that meat and eggs during nesting as well. The thought of fresh sea food was certainly on Jen's mind when she really thought about it, so there was that advantage as well.
They had landed the ship on top of the cliffs that held R'ka's cave, but set back in the sparse woods so that they couldn't be quickly detected if the ship was found. They spent the next two days hunting for meat and other supplies after cleaning everything out of the food storage units aboard the ship. Stocking up heavily had proven to be a good idea because they had to spend the next six days sorting through the numerous crates of stuff that the four males had accumulated.
One ooman phrase that both Kwei and R'ka quickly learned was 'put your mask on'. It was something Jen would say to one of them to make sure that she was understood. It was also something they could tell her when they wanted to be understood. Another thing that was set up were the sleeping arrangements. Even though there was enough space aboard the ship for each of them to have a room to themselves, Jen insisted on sharing one with R'ka.
Jen had several reasons for that. For one, she knew that R'ka was basically a teenager. Granted that teenager was three times her size, but still. For another, she wanted to get to know R'ka better; because while the alien woman was very confident in some things, she was hesitant and nervous about others. Then there was the fact that she'd already had sex with the woman. It was something made her feel very awkward while facing R'ka. She felt like she had been a total slut with the way she'd acted while caught up in… whatever it was.
There was a bit of an argument over how the stuff in the crates was to be divided. Both R'ka and Kwei felt that since Jen had killed the males, everything was hers by right; Jennifer disagreed. They needed to pool all of their resources if they were to survive. It had taken all of her patience to finally make the two of them see things her way. Well her patience and a full day of arguing with them. She had to admit that either one of them was stubborn enough to give a drill sergeant or commanding officer fits. Put the both of them together, and they could drive anyone bat shit crazy, but she couldn't fault them for their honesty.
One of the first things R'ka had done was to stock up on healing serum and pain blocker in her personal medical kit, but she had also made sure that there was a large supply in the cave as well. They would not be caught in a situation where they lacked healing supplies again. There had been a total of five medical kits obtained from the now dead males, and she had stocked those properly before giving Jen one to carry, and taking a second for her to carry. That had left three fully stocked medical kits and the portable scanner in the cave. Their personal kits would allow them to get to the cave where they could either be treated properly, or stabilized enough to be taken to the ship for full treatment.
Having access to the cold storage on the ship meant that they could stock up on a large supply of meat. The equipment on the ship made it possible to preserve the hides from the animals they killed. With a dozen sets of clothing that was softer than the finest silk, Jennifer felt like she was in heaven. She had even talked R'ka into making her one skirt, and a dress out of slime beast hide. Although there was only a tan color to everything, it still felt incredibly luxuriant against her skin.
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