Chapter 8: 8. Alone

I stood just inside the starboard airlock and watched as Piper and Sarah climbed into a pair of old mismatched e-suits. They were obviously civilian equipment, and neither of them fit the two young women very well.

Another thing I noticed was the captain's side-arm was missing. She had a pistol on her belt when she first rescued us, but I couldn't remember seeing it there recently. I wasn't sure when she removed it, but perhaps after she decided neither of us posed a threat.

As I watched, I decided the e-suit Piper was getting into was probably her own personal gear. It didn't fit great, but it wasn't too far off either. It was a dull grey colour, and there were some obvious patches and repairs. Sarah's suit fit her a little worse. That wasn't helped by her long blonde hair, which had been hastily tied into a loose ponytail. Her suit was bright yellow, the kind of hi-viz colour you saw people use in shipyards or other dangerous EVA work.

According to our captain, she didn't normally suit up to use the shuttle. This was more of a precaution, since they'd be flying through a debris-field. If the small craft's skin was breached the occupants would be safe in their suits. It also meant they'd be ready for some EVA work if they found anything valuable and interesting over there.

I wouldn't be accompanying them on this trip, for a few reasons. First, they folded up and stowed all the passenger seats in the shuttle to make room for salvage, only the pilot and co-pilot seats remained. Second, Piper knew how to fly and Sarah knew where to find valuable equipment on the ship, Sarah could also identify what equipment was likely to still work and what was scrap. I didn't have any useful skills for this little mission, I'd just get in the way. And finally, with my fox ears and tail there was simply no way I'd fit into anything but a custom-made e-suit.

Once again I found myself wondering what I was thinking about when I became a foxgirl. As much as I loved my big bushy tail and my fuzzy pointed ears, I knew they were going to make my life a lot more difficult in several ways. I already knew finding clothes would be an issue, now I knew it'd cost a fortune to get me an e-suit.

"I expect we'll be out there at least two hours," Piper told me as she picked up her helmet. "No more than eight though. It'll depend how it goes, what we find. We might do some EVA work and load up the shuttle if we come across anything small and valuable."

Sarah commented, "As far as I know there's no cash on board? Some of the crew had local coin to spend on shore leave, but the Imperium uses credits, digital money. Having said that, I know there's a safe in the captain's cabin, anything terribly valuable would be in there."

She added, "If weapons are something you'd trade in, there's an armoury. It'll be stocked with small arms, for the marines and boarding parties."

"There's also the ship's armaments," Piper pointed out. "My first choice is engines, they're valuable and easy to sell if they're intact. If not, we'll go from there."

Her attention returned to me, "Take it easy, get some rest, explore the ship, whatever you want. See you in a few hours."

"Good luck," I told them both. "And stay safe."

I stepped back out of the airlock and they both put their helmets on as the hatch slid closed and sealed. There was a small window in the door and I watched the two of them step through the outer door into the shuttle. Piper pulled the heavy door closed behind her, and that was that.

Alone, I made my way back to the cockpit. I felt a small shudder through the deck as the shuttle launched, and a few seconds later I saw it out the window it silently glided past in the direction of the wreck.

I gently settled into the copilot seat to watch, but that reminded me yet again of my tail. I wasn't going to be able to spend hours at a time in that chair, it was just too uncomfortable.

Special clothes, special e-suit, and special furniture. I wondered if I should visit Jenny again and switch to something more practical, but the thought twisted my stomach. I was already too attached to the new me, I knew I couldn't give it up.

"I wonder if Piper would let me swap this seat out for something more tail-friendly," I said to myself.

My eyes drifted over the mess of loose cables and mismatched equipment bolted to the control panels, and I felt my lips curling into a smile. "Something tells me she won't mind too much if my chair doesn't match hers. Mismatched seats would probably fit the decor in here better anyways."

Outside the windows I couldn't spot the shuttle anymore. It was lost amid the debris surrounding the wrecked starship. I did my best to find it, but with so many small moving objects out there I couldn't pick up which one contained my crew-mates among the hundreds or thousands which were just twisted metal or...

With a shudder I realized at least some of those small objects could be bodies. I felt a pang of sadness, and of worry. For me they were just ship-mates, people I worked with but didn't really know. Sarah said she knew half the people on the ship. At least some of those bodies would be her friends. And she was out there with Piper, flying through that mess. They might even try entering the wreck looking for salvage. I really hoped she'd be ok.

I continued staring out the window, but eventually I realized all those moving and spinning bits of wreckage were making me dizzy. I finally got up and left the cockpit, and decided to check out the cabin where I'd be living from now on.

Before going into the cabin I went back to the lounge and found my med-kit, it was on the table next to the sofa. Beside it was a large rugged-looking black pack that I assumed belonged to Sarah. She said something about having some personal gear stashed in the engineering life-pod.

At first glance the crew cabin wasn't much. A bunkbed stretched across the back wall. The beds were decently sized, and I felt myself grinning again. With my new smaller body, even a single bunk was kind of spacious now. Both bunks had privacy curtains. They didn't do anything for sound but at least you didn't have to worry about your roommate seeing you while you were asleep in there.

On my right was a large double-wardrobe, the side closest the bunks was marked for the upper bunk, the side closest the door for the lower bunk. And opposite that was a small desk with a single chair. A computer terminal sat atop the desk. Finally, next to the desk in the corner on the left was a small washroom.

My immediate reaction wasn't very positive. It was literally a small square cubicle that served as sink, toilet, and shower all in one. The toilet folded out from the wall, and the tiny sink was in an alcove above that. There was a mirror overtop of the alcove, and above all that was the shower head. The floor was a couple inches lower than the cabin deck, and angled slightly down towards the middle where there was a drain set into it.

For a few moments my attention was captured by the mirror. I almost couldn't believe that cute girl I saw in there was really me. And as my lips curled up into a wide smile I noticed something I'd overlooked up till that point. I had fangs.

They weren't huge, they were pretty much hidden unless I smiled wide or opened my mouth. But they were there. I was a cute foxgirl and I had cute little fangs.

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I continued smiling at myself in the mirror for another minute or two before something else suddenly struck me and I momentarily forgot about my fangs and my cute face.

A shower head and drain meant this antique ship had actual water showers!

I hadn't had a real shower in almost four years, everywhere I'd been posted used ultrasonic showers. A second later my med-kit and nightshirt were on the lower bunk, and I kicked off those slip-on shoes. I practically jumped into the little stall and slid the door closed behind me.

It took a half minute to get the water temperature just right, then I was in heaven. Warm water rained down and cascaded over my soft skin while I stood there with my eyes closed and a beatific smile on my face. I probably wasted another ten minutes just revelling in the sensations.

Eventually I found the soap dispenser in the alcove with the sink and I started washing up. That lead to some more blissful feelings as I was almost overwhelmed with the euphoria of my first shower in a feminine body. I soon forgot about showering as such, and just focused on the sensations of my hands moving over my soft, supple skin. I gently squeezed my boobs and felt a tingle of pleasure as my thick pink nipples hardened. At the same time I felt another tingle between my legs.

For the next little while I was lost in some self-exploration. By the time I finally emerged from the shower a half hour had passed and my fingers and toes were slightly pruny. And I was very, very happy.

On the other hand I was wet and there was something wet and heavy slapping back and forth across the back of my legs. I twisted around and my blissful happy mood sank just a little as I discovered how sad and silly a fox tail looks when it's soaking wet.

"Ok... I need to find a towel," I muttered to myself.

Fortunately it was in the first place I thought to check. The wardrobe had several shelves and a few drawers, and a couple towels were in there on a shelf. I got myself dried off as best I could, then ended up sitting on the lower bunk with a pair of towels as I tried to dry my tail.

I wasted over an hour doing that, and it was my only real complaint so far. I finally got to enjoy a real water shower, but with the fox ears and tail an ultrasonic shower would probably work much better.

When my tail was more or less dry I found somewhere to hang the towels next to the washroom. Then I pulled that big black nightshirt on again.

I sat back down on the bunk and opened up my med-kit and pulled out the scanner, I was curious to see what it'd say about the new me. It took about sixty seconds to do a thorough in-depth scan, then another minute or so for the small device to churn through the raw data before it finally displayed its findings.

To my surprise it no longer identified me as human. Now I was classed as an unknown human variant, and it warned that approximately fifteen-percent of my DNA was outside human parameters.

I'd assumed my ears and tail were basically advanced prosthetics, sort of one step up from purely cosmetic. Instead I was confronted with the reality that my vulpine traits were potentially a lot deeper than I expected. And unfortunately it was beyond the capabilities of my handheld scanner to do any deep genetic analysis.

On the other hand it did identify me as female, which put a smile on my face.

After that I turned the scanner off and tucked it back in the med-kit, then took a quick inventory. I needed to replace one can of the wound-sealant, two ampules of trauma-shots, and one ampule of painkillers.

I had no idea when and where I'd find that stuff, unless we could recover some supplies from the Hammersmith's infirmary. I'd have to mention that when Piper got back.

The next thing I wanted to do was familiarize myself with the mess. After all, I offered to cook for Piper and Sarah. I needed to be sure I could actually do it. I didn't bother with the shoes for now, the floor on the upper deck was all smooth and seemed safe for my bare feet. It was just the lower deck and engineering that was unpleasant metal grating.

When I emerged from the cabin I had a quick look around and verified my ship-mates weren't back yet. I hadn't been keeping track of time but it felt like at least a couple hours had passed. Nowhere near the eight hours Piper said would be the longest they might be away, so there was potentially lots of time yet.

I started by checking every one of the storage units and drawers in the mess, both above and below the large C-shaped counter. I found plates, utensils, cookware, cups, everything you'd need in a functional kitchen. I already knew where Piper stored the booze and the glasses, I also found which doors held pantry-like items and which ones opened onto cold-storage for fresh ingredients and cold drinks. Finally there was a small storage room just aft of the mess which held bulk goods and a couple cases of emergency rations.

Next I inspected all the equipment. The cooking unit was old but still functional. There were four induction burners on top and a modest combination convection-microwave oven beneath. The antiquated auto-chef powered up and I had a look through its limited repertoire of pre-programmed selections.

There were about fifty selections, and just under half of them were complete meals. Another dozen were drinks, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover about a dozen entries would produce raw ingredients that could be cooked the old-fashioned way.

Finally I discovered an automated washing unit under the counter. Dirty dishes went in one end and clean ones came out the other end.

All in all I decided the mess was pretty well equipped. It was a step or two above what we had back at home, maybe like a small commercial kitchen in an older facility on my home-world. It was perfect for feeding a handful of crew, provided at least one of them knew how to cook.

And I was confident I could do a good job at that, even if I wasn't quite ready to be Piper's co-pilot.

With a grin I whispered to myself, "And if cooking doesn't work out, I can always fall back on the ship's mascot job..."