Chapter 84: Chapter Seventy-Three Hallway Encounters and A Shared Experience

 

Kiru turned the corner. She was just coming back from her meeting with Megumi on the roof. It seemed however she wasn’t the only one returning as she noted Qei standing in front of the door with Zalla. As she noted their presence, she also picked up what Zalla was saying, and her posture. It seemed she was aggressively flirting with Qei, whose bare skin was now flushed a rather vibrant red. Kiru was tempted to cloak, and get closer, but instead she simply ducked behind a conveniently placed plant and listened in.

With an exaggerated pout, and leaning forward to emphasize her six boobs, Zalla said, “Are you sure? Not even a kiss goodnight? You really don't know what you are missing.”

Qei just shook her head, and darted into the door without a word. Closing it behind her. It seemed Kiru had missed the juicy bits already. A bit of a shame. It could have been interesting. Although she wasn’t too late for the fireworks.

The door slammed behind Qei with thunderous force, and Zalla stared at the door for a solid minute unmoving. Her eyes wide, as if she had not expected what happened. Finally, she seemed to process it slumping to the floor with an angry pout. Slamming her tentacles into the ground several times, as she expended her energy on the floor. She didn’t seem to be taking rejection well, and Kiru had the feeling it was best to stay put for a moment or two. The loud thumping of tentacles against the floor may have been a clue, but that didn’t last much longer. Suddenly she stopped, but she was still pouting on the floor.  A moment after that she started asking the air about when she went wrong. 

Now that it seemed much safer to go out there, Kiru hesitated for a moment before stepping towards the Iniri. She felt a bit of relief about a lack of response from Zalla towards her approach, and she picked up her pace quickly closing the distance. Without a word, she knelt down pulling Zalla into an embrace and giving the Iniri female a head rub. After a moment, she seemed to calm, and then Kiru noted that her eyes were a little puffy with some moisture leaking from them. It seemed a little rejection had her quite upset. She said nothing as she had nothing to say, and words didn’t seem right.

After a minute or two Zalla pushed back against her, and half muttered, “What did I do wrong?”

Kiru sighed. That was a hot question if she had ever heard one. She hesitated a moment before replying, “Well, I only saw the end of it, but I think you came on too strong.”

She pouted, “Too strong? But, ... but, that... always works. I’ve never had a girl turn me down like this!!!”

Kiru suppressed a chuckle, and replied, “Yes, but with other girls you can get in their heads. Qei, not so much, right?”

Zalla nodded, “It’s part of what makes her so intriguing beyond being so cute.”

Kiru smiled, this was clearly more than just an idle crush. Zalla must have fallen hard for the blushing biomech. Kiru considered her response, when Zalla mentioned, “It’s the same with you, but Qelu already claimed you, and I like Qei more anyway. Please tell me how I can...”

Kiru cut her off, “I think you should slow down. Try a few dates, and get to know my sister. Rather than using the come on strong, Iniri approach, try the Neku approach. You know how that works right?”

“Um, I know a cute pair of twins that are dating each other, does that work?”

Kiru thought about it. “I guess you could ask them. Just make sure to make whatever they tell you your own,” said Kiru. With a strong feeling about exactly what she would actually do.

Zalla smiled, and suddenly turned, kissing Kiru on the lips. Stunned, Kiru didn’t resist as a tongue slipped in playfully. It lasted only a moment before Zalla pulled back, and thanked her before darting up, and running down the corridor. “I’ll be back tomorrow! I have some twins to meet. Don’t let Qei wander off, I want to get this right tomorrow!” she shouted.

Kiru sighed, well that was one headache solved. Now she had another one, and tomorrow, well... In the meantime, she figured she would head in and check on Qei.

---

Qelu glanced up from the floor, as the door to the complex hallway opened again. This time to admit Kiru. She smiled and waved a free tentacle. Glad to see her. Especially after Qei had rushed in all upset. Speaking of Qei, she was now nestled, into Qelu’s lap. Qelu was rubbing her head and had been comforting the girl. Qelu wasn’t sure what had happened, but it had Qei quite upset. To the point that she had started crying not long after she had rushed into the apartment so noisily.

Kiru looked around, “May not back yet? I thought for sure she would be here by now.”

Qelu pointed at a door, “She got back about a minute before Qei did, and rushed straight to the bathroom. At first I thought she really had to go, but it doesn’t sound like it.”

Kiru shook her head, “I see. How’s Qei doing?”

“Well she calmed down, and now she is sleeping in my tentacles. Didn’t tell me a thing about what happened to upset her though.”

“I saw the tail end of it. It seems Zalla is interested in her and came on rather strong. I think she scared Qei.”

Qelu nodded, “Ah, I see. Guess that explains why she was so upset. I take it Zalla didn’t take the results well either.”

Kiru shook her head, “Nope, looks like they both had a mutual dissatisfaction with their evening. Although Zalla hasn’t given up. That might prove interesting. Well, for us anyway.”

Qelu giggled, “Yes, it just might. In the meantime, let’s get Qei to bed, and then we can do the same.”

Kiru nodded, and then helped Qelu carry Qei to her room. Qei didn’t seem to notice and was soon tucked in her own bed. The pair left her alone and made for Kiru’s room. During all this Kiru did note that Qelu was right; it didn’t sound like May needed to go, nor did it sound like she was taking a bath. 

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Kiru slipped into sleep, and soon found herself in that familiar courtyard. The only difference was that Qelu was here. All around her, she could see young Solean girls streaming into the courtyard on their way to the first class of the day. As usual their style of dress was somewhat unusual, and a bit distracting. Some were outright naked, others were half dressed, but her eye was often drawn to those girls walking around topless. She deliberately tore her eyes away from them, and made her way to class.

Today her first class was history class. According to the itinerary, they were going to start on the Battle of Somar Point today. Kiru had read up a bit on that in preparation for the class during a free period. Honestly, she had to since she often got distracted by her teacher’s boobs. It was embarrassing, but she didn’t know what to do about it. She pointedly avoided thinking about what happened when her teacher found out. Not that it helped, and she ended up blushing at the memory.

Somar Point was, to her knowledge, a rather pivotal event in Solean history that had occurred long before the founding of the Solean Empire. It occurred during the days of the Solean Alliance, the precursor state of the Empire. Although referring to it as such was a bit of a stretch. In that period, the Soleans were a nomadic people, with each Solean fleet being flagged by a mighty cityship which was its own state. They were only loosely aligned with each other, and this structure largely mirrored ancient city-states on Nekuri. In those states each city was its own kingdom, and they often had ties both political and economic with their neighboring city-states. These cities would even wage war with each other. However, if an outsider came in, they would band together regardless of past conflicts, or even current ones, to fight them off.

Her line of thought was broken by Qelu suddenly speaking up. “Why are some of them properly naked, while others are wasting time with clothes?”

Kiru turned, and sighed, “They have different values from us.”

Qelu gave her a look, one that said a lot but Kiru just hurried her step instead of explaining further. She had a class to get to, and she didn’t want to be late.

Reaching the classroom, she quickly took her seat, but Qelu went to mingle with a trio of barely dressed Solean girls gossiping in the corner. Something Kiru tried to ignore, especially after Qelu started flirting. It was hard, and for some reason that irritated her and she didn’t know why. Then her teacher came in, and her gaze was soon locked onto her naked breasts. As usual she wasn’t wearing a top. Giving Kiru an excellent view of her cute boobs. A pair of boobs she once again found herself staring at for a moment or two. She blushed when she realized it, and pulled her gaze up to the teacher’s face. Just in time too, as class was starting.

The teacher smiled, looked over the class, and prompted everyone to open their history books to page 9096. Kiru with practiced ease opened the holographic book to the stated page, and got ready to take notes for the class.

The teacher started, “Today we are covering the Battle of Somar Point, one of the more important events in Solean history. Can anyone tell me why it’s so important, and in what year the battle occurred?”

Kiru raised her hand and was soon acknowledged. Happy that she knew the answer to this. She was glad she had read ahead.

“The battle occurred on June 24th, 4163 SDE. It’s most widely known for the sinking of the Cityship Columbia with all hands, and marked the start of a century-long conflict commonly referred to as the Solean Crusade.”

“Very good Kiru. Missing a few key details, but you got the highlights.” She paused, turned to the board and started writing on the holoboard. Her boobs bounced as she moved, drawing the eye. Something Kiru found herself better able to ignore, but not completely. Maybe some good had come of that experience? A thought that made her blush again. She risked a glance at Qelu, but thankfully it didn’t seem like the other girl had noticed her embarrassing behavior. 

Her attention went back to the front as the teacher began, “On that fateful day at Somar Point, the Solean first and sixth fleets had met each other at Somar Point. As such several famous vessels were present at the battle including the Cityships Enterprise and Columbia. Some of the oldest ships in the Solean fleet. The Enterprise herself being the oldest operational ship in the entire alliance. 

“At the time, the two fleets had joined together to trade, and then they were going to jointly make a hyperwarp jump to a new galaxy. Nothing too unusual, and it wasn’t uncommon for two or more fleets to briefly join together and share resources for a jump between galaxies. Back then, a journey between galaxies took several months, and drained massive amounts of power. Fleets were often vulnerable just before and after a jump.

“Now can anyone tell me why this matters in the context of the events at Somar Point?”

Kiru raised her hand, but no one else did. After a moment, the teacher sighed, and acknowledged Kiru.

“The massive power draw shines like a beacon when a fleet is preparing a jump. As such their cloaking systems can no longer hide their position, and worse, the drain on the power grid also means that a ship has less energy for defense forcing them to power down defensive systems such as the shields, and main weapon batteries.”

“Very good, and precisely correct. There is more you could have mentioned though. Can anyone tell me what she missed?”

This time several hands were raised, and another girl was picked, “That massive power draw was what drew the Delkari to attack the Enterprise and the Columbia in the first place.”

The teacher shook her head, “Not quite the answer I was looking for. Although not entirely incorrect. Can anyone else guess what Kiru missed?”

A couple more hands went up, and Iris was picked this time, “It was common practice back then to engage in drive interlinking. Several ships would sync their drives and outputs thereby magnifying the effects of their hyperwarp drives. This allowed a hyperwarp conduit to be generated in a fraction of the time. Unfortunately while interlinked, all ships involved would be expending the majority of their power capacity on forming the conduit needed for a jump. A task that was especially complex for an intergalactic jump.”

“Very much so. Both fleets had little reason to suspect a threat and were engaging in that very practice then. Both the Columbia and the Enterprise were among the ships engaged in creating the conduit. Not exactly an ideal situation for when the Delkari showed up...” began the teacher as she started going over the subject in earnest. Turning to write on the board. Kiru jotted down her notes, and once again added a free-form drawing of her teacher.  At least this time, her notes also contained the important facts. Facts that outlined what a tragedy the battle had been.

Solean casualties in that battle had been high. The two fleets had been caught off guard when the Delkari had attacked. The Columbia had been a massive cityship the size of a moon, and with a huge population to go with it. Three and a half billion people had died when that ship went down. An utter tragedy. Not only had those people died, but the Soleans had lost nearly a thousand capital ships along with that cityship. Some of them were armed combat vessels, but others were not. They were armed, and armored, but only for direct protection. Those other capital ships had been industrial and agricultural ships with sizeable crews of their own.

As for the Delkari. Prior to this battle, the Soleans had had no contact with them, and knew little of them. As far as the Soleans were concerned this was a senseless, unprovoked assault. One they could not easily let slide. The Delkari on the other hand had an outpost unknown to the Soleans less than twenty lightyears from their jump point. When two Solean elder fleets had suddenly appeared with massive energy signatures near their outpost, the commander of that outpost felt threatened. He launched a ‘preemptive’ attack with everything at his disposal. Never once considering that the Soleans weren’t about to attack his outpost or anything else for that matter.

The class however ended before they got into what the repercussions of the battle had been. Although Kiru had a few ideas on that. Especially since she knew it was the start of a century-long war. She hadn’t yet learned how it had ended, however. Only how that war started.

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