Outpost 2: Snowed In - Bisexual

"Hey! You ok?" Schaffer shouted.

The pilot poked her head through the door that separated the troop bay from the cockpit, in the process of removing her flight headset, and looked him up down before replying.

"I think so, but I'm not sure about the shuttle, you see any obvious damage on your way over?"

"You're parked on the side of a snowdrift, but beyond that I didn't see any damage, no."

"Had to set her down quickly, the winds are unpredictable, nearly lost control back there. I figured a controlled crash was better than an uncontrolled one."

"My name's Schaffer, I suppose you're here to bring me my groceries?"

"That's right, can't believe how fast this storm rolled in, one minute I had clear skies and the next I was flying through the middle of a blizzard. I'm Riya by the way, guess I'm going to be grounded for a while."

"At least until the storm blows over. This shuttle is gonna be buried under a foot of snow within an hour, we're gonna have to wait until the blizzard runs its course, then we'll dig you out."

"We?" Riya asked. "I was told there was only one guy manning this base."

"You didn't think there was a little too much food here for one person?"

"The thought had crossed my mind," she said as she stepped into the troop bay, steadying herself against the hull. "I know this outpost isn't on the books, didn't think I should be asking too many questions."

Schaffer struggled with how to explain his living situation to the pilot, while he was technically the only UNN employee on site, that didn't account for the two dozen Borealans who lived in the base along with him. UNN personnel would be aware of their furless cousins who served extensively in the armed forces, but the Polar variety were a lot less common, and these ones were locals. He decided it would be a better idea to get her into the base and out of danger first.

"You have an environment suit with you?" Schaffer asked her.

"There are some emergency suits, do I need one?"

"Temperatures out there are thirty below zero, I don't recommend making a run for the outpost without a suit. Trust me, I've done it before," he added.

He waited while she retrieved the garment from a compartment in the cockpit, then pulled it on over her flight suit, zipping it up and securing her helmet. She activated the short range radio, and Schaffer tuned in, hearing her voice come through with a hiss of static.

"Ok," he said, "take my hand and follow behind me. You can scarcely see a few feet in front of you out there and I don't want to risk getting separated."

Schaffer hit the door control, and there was a rush of frigid air as the wind flooded the bay, it was like stepping into a walk-in freezer. He led her out of the dropship and into the snow, giving her a moment to examine the tilted vessel as it lay on the drift, then after ensuring that the landing ramp had sealed properly they set off towards the base. She staggered, the planet's high gravity increasing her body weight by about thirty percent once she was free of the shuttle's artificial gravity field.

"Don't worry," he said to her over his helmet radio, "the base has an AG field set to Rarth norm."

The footsteps that Schaffer had left in the snow had already vanished, but he knew which direction to go in based on which way the shuttle had been facing.

The wind was almost strong enough to blow them over, and they had to hunker down against the hail of snow that battered their suits, Schaffer's heart skipping for a moment as they entered the white void between the shuttle and the outpost where neither were visible. He was relieved when the structure came into view through the blizzard in front of them, and they arrived at the main door, a fresh pile of snow now blocking it. He felt Riya's fingers tighten around his hand, her suit radio fizzing to life.

"Is the door blocked?" Schaffer could barely hear her over the cacophony of sleet and hail hitting the roof of the base. "Can we get inside?"

He hammered his fist on the cold metal, and stepped back a little, seeing a glimpse of Zagza's white fur through the window as the massive alien put his shoulder to it and forced it open. The two humans scurried inside, the Polar slamming the door closed behind them, and Riya removed her helmet with a hiss as she broke the suit's seal. She wiped her brow and breathed a sigh of relief now that she was in standard gravity again, looking back at the door and the pile of snow that had followed them in, then she turned towards Zagza and yelped in surprise.

She saw a wall of white fur before her, the fairly short woman standing just below chest height in comparison to the nine foot alien, a golem of muscle and insulating fat contained within a wholly inadequate animal hide loincloth. He looked down at her quizzically with his piercing, blue eyes, from what to Riya was quite a height. She leapt backwards in alarm, Zagza scratching the beard-like fur on his chin with his curved, black claws as she pressed herself up against the door.

"B-Borealan!"

"Don't be afraid, he's friendly," Schaffer said as he took the woman by the arm in an attempt to calm her. "This is my friend, Zagza. He's one of the Borealans who lives in the base with me."

"One of? How many are there?" Riya stammered.

"About two dozen."

"Is this...does the UNN know they're here? Is this legal? I thought this base was classified?"

"They're not UNN personnel, but they're here with the consent of the Admiralty, I maintain the equipment and my pack lives with me. The brass kind of owed me a favor, it's a long and complicated story that I'm not permitted to tell you."

"Your...pack?" She gave him a strange look, and he immediately regretted referring to them that way, it had been a while since he had talked to another human for longer than it took to unload the supply crates from a shuttle and he was out of practice. This might be a good opportunity to refresh his human social skills.

"It's ok, they're not dangerous. Besides, you know what they are, so you must have at least a passing familiarity with Borealans."

"We have them on the station of course, yes, but as a pilot I don't interact with them often. Besides, these ones are all furry."

"They're Polars, a sub-species of the Borealans you're used to seeing. They're actually quite a lot friendlier than their cousins."

"I'll take your word for it," she said as she brushed herself off. "Sorry, you took me by surprise." She directed the apology towards Zagza, but the alien just cocked his head at her.

"They don't speak much English, they're native to the region," Schaffer clarified.

"What the hell is going on in this base," she muttered to herself as she began to unzip her environment suit.

After stowing her suit, Schaffer gave her the tour of the base, starting at the kitchen where a few of the aliens were clustered around the dining table eating their breakfast. He wasn't sure if her clearance level allowed it, she certainly couldn't access the room that contained the monitoring equipment and transmitter controls, but he couldn't leave her in her crashed shuttle and he couldn't very well lock her up in the store room either. Before Schaffer had been able to provide the Polars with canned vegetables, most of their diet had consisted of meat from the wild game they hunted, and while it was still their primary source of nutrients they enjoyed supplementing it with human dishes. Today the meal was some undisclosed seared meat, along with some canned sausages from last month's delivery that they seemed to have taken a liking too.

Osha was cooking, the giant female was the only other member of the pack that rivaled Zagza in size, and she greeted Schaffer with a wave and a warm smile. She noticed his companion, and lumbered over to get a better look at her. The base was built for humans and while the ceilings were high enough to be comfortable for Borealans, the taller ones still had to be wary of hitting their heads on hanging pipes or light fixtures. Osha's wide hips bumped against the table as she leaned down to run her claws through Riya's straight, black hair, examining the long strands with interest.

Riya seemed a little alarmed, the Polars had no concept of personal space or the boundaries that humans took for granted, and he eased the curious female away as she chatted to Zagza in their native tongue.

"She came on the ship," Schaffer told her, gesturing to the air and miming the noise of a shuttle's engines. She understood and nodded, a gesture the aliens had picked up from him, then she leaned over the table and hooked a dripping steak from some native animal in her curved claws. She offered it to Riya, who recoiled, wrinkling her nose.

"I'm a...vegetarian."

Ever matronly, Osha would not be satisfied unless she was sure that everyone was being fed, and so Schaffer accepted it instead. He took a large bite, it tasted good, they had discovered the barbecue sauce and had been putting it to good use lately.

He led her out of the kitchen as the other pack members craned their necks to get a look at her. The base was circular, with one corridor that ringed a large, central room built to house the computers and satellite equipment. The installation was designed to intercept communications traffic from the different territories of the planet, which functioned somewhat like countries would on Earth, then parse that information and relay anything sensitive to the UNN's intelligence branch. It had originally been designed to house several crew members, with living quarters, dorms and even a common room that branched off from the main hallway. Over time, the extremely remote location and harsh environment had driven many of them stir crazy, and after a series of suicides and desertions the staff of the base had been steadily reduced until it was completely automated.

After discovering a black market being run right under his nose out of the UNN's largest space station, Schaffer had been 'reassigned' by a corrupt Admiral, in effect banishing him to the base in the hopes that he would simply die of exposure or kill himself. He didn't want to say that he had twisted the UNN's arm, but after the whole situation had been resolved, they had agreed that having him man the base along with his new friends was the best solution for both him and the UNN. He was immune from reprisals by any remaining mobsters who might have escaped the net, and he wouldn't be leaking any details of the scandal to the public.

Zagza still trailed behind them, his black claws clicking on the metal floor, the alien tall and wide enough to almost completely fill the hallway. He probably wanted to vet her, to make sure that she wasn't a threat to his pack, he was a kind-hearted creature but protecting his family was still his primary responsibility. Schaffer showed her the common room, the location of the bathrooms, and the store room where their supplies of food and replacement parts were housed. There were aliens milling about all over the place, and while Schaffer was used to living in such close proximity with them, he understood how it might make Riya uncomfortable.

The common room was empty right now, the smell of Osha's cooking had spread through the base and drawn most of the Polars away, and so they took a seat on one of the couches. The room was fairly large, there were low tables intended for tablet computers and drinks, vending machines that were now empty, and a few game machines intended to keep the staff of the base sane during their long deployments.

"Would you like anything to drink?" Schaffer asked. "We have most things, besides fresh fruit juice, anything like that will be dehydrated."

"I'll take a tea if you have any bags," she replied, and Schaffer left to find some. Zagza lingered at the door for a moment longer, then followed behind Schaffer, leaving Riya some time to herself.

CHAPTER 4 - SIZE MATTERS

Riya played her eyes around the common room, noticing that one of the couches seemed to have been destroyed, as if something large had torn it up and crushed it. The vending machines were empty and had not been restocked, they appeared to have been unplugged from the wall, too. Everything looked old, not necessarily unkempt, but it was obvious that at some point the base had been left to decay for a long period of time without any kind of maintenance. There was old water damage on the walls, the furniture was all scuffed or torn in some way, there were loose pipes and wires hanging from the ceiling. This whole situation seemed very odd to her, why would the UNN have allowed these aliens to live in a classified listening post? Why did they seem to be feeding these natives along with their one staff member? This Schaffer fellow was behaving strangely, almost as if he was uncomfortable around her, awkward. Was it because he hadn't seen a woman for a while, or had he been living with these 'Polars' for too long? He had referred to them as his pack, maybe he was just a 'crazy cat person', albeit with 'cats' that were twice the size of a human.

For now she was stuck here, she could see the snow hammering against the windows, but at least with the help of the aliens she might be able to dig out the shuttle once the storm had blown over. It wasn't all bad however, the base was heated and they obviously had ample supplies remaining. There was that giant male too...woof.

She had indeed known what Borealans were, while she wasn't familiar with this local breed, she saw the strapping smooth-skinned variety on the Pinwheel frequently during her downtime between deployments. They were huge, heavily muscled warriors hailing from the temperate regions of this planet, the high gravity of their homeworld endowing them with the bodies of Greek Gods. Rumors abounded about their...'interactions' with the recruits who shared dorms with them during integration training, where the bad tempered aliens were taught how to interact with humans and how to behave in a military setting. As a pilot, Riya had never needed to undergo any such training, her interactions with the aliens were limited to ferrying them to and from combat zones when her carrier was operating on the front.

The aliens were not exactly approachable, colloquially referred to as 'Mad Cats' by the Marines, their ferocity in combat was matched only by their notoriously antisocial behavior. Were she to approach one, she had as much chance of having her head cleaved from her shoulders as being taken to bed, and her meek demeanor had never allowed her to try. It was something that she had fantasized about on many a lonely night, the stuff of trashy romance novels that she would never admit to enjoying, 'Claws of the Tiger' being a personal favorite of hers.

Now she was stuck on this base for at least one night, snowed in with a whole pack of Borealans. While they were a little more portly than the chiseled Adonises she was used to seeing on the station, that one male in particular looked like he could crush a marble pillar in his arms, after getting over her initial surprise it had taken all of her willpower to avoid conspicuously drooling over him. She felt butterflies in her stomach at the thought of it, she could really do it, she could really make her fantasy a reality tonight if she played her cards right. The snowstorm was now seeming more like a stroke of luck, clouds with silver linings and all that, now the question was how to set her plan in motion.

Schaffer had given Riya the run of the base, he didn't seem to think that any of the aliens might pose any danger to her, their curiosity appeared to be benign. The only room that she was forbidden to access, the one that no doubt housed all of the spying equipment and computers, was locked with a key code that she didn't possess anyway. The outpost was not very large, yet she never saw more than a few of these 'Polars' at once, they somehow managed to vanish into the woodwork.

Most of them seemed to be clustered around the dining table in the kitchen, sharing meat and canned food between them, judging by their size and considerable weight it must take a lot of calories to keep them healthy. No wonder they had packed so many food crates into her shuttle, she hadn't known if she was resupplying a base or delivering famine relief for an entire damned city.

They seemed to spend a lot of time in the showers too, whenever she passed the cubicles in the bathrooms they were grooming and splashing around, no doubt their pristine fur coats required a lot of maintenance. Schaffer almost seemed to be avoiding her after first giving her the tour, almost like he didn't know how to behave around her, it seemed to Riya as if he was going native and could have used some shore leave to help straighten his head out.

Still, she kind of envied him, living with so many Borealans day after day. If these furry aliens were anything like their smooth-skinned cousins, well, he wouldn't be wanting for company on cold nights. This variant seemed friendlier and less aggressive than the breed she was accustomed to, did that mean that they were less sexually aggressive too? Would they take offense to her advances? While she started to blush at the very idea of offending them, the more logical side of her knew that it didn't really matter, it was very unlikely that she would see any of the inhabitants of the outpost again and even less likely that she would have time to socialize if she did.

She felt odd as she wandered the circular hallway, peering in on the aliens where she found them, met by curious glances from the blue-eyed creatures. Should she just go back to the common room and wait for one of them to come to her? Oh, what was she thinking? She was blinded by lust, practically trembling with excitement, her skin tingling as if electrified. What would her mother think of her right now, prowling the hallways like some kind of...lady of the night? Perhaps it would be better to just forget the whole thing and abandon this girlish fantasy.

She turned a corner, lost in her doubts, and ran face-first into a wall of fur. She yelped in surprise, stumbling and falling on her ass. She looked up at the giant male she had met earlier, what had his name been, Zagza? Something with a lot of Zs. He looked even larger from her seat on the floor, a massive loincloth his only clothing as he cocked his huge head at her, he was soft around the belly like a power lifter but his chest and arms were bulging with hard muscle. He reached a hand down, the size of a dinner plate with fingers almost as thick as her wrist, and she took it as he helped her up.

She felt like a little girl peering up at an adult, she had to crane her neck to look him in the eye, two piercing azure orbs that scrutinized her with an alien aloofness. She realized that she was staring, and averted her gaze, rubbing her arm nervously as she began to blush.

"S-Sorry...I didn't see you there."

The alien gave her a thumbs up, a gesture that made her giggle despite herself, he understood some basic English and a few human gestures at least. That would make things easier. Now that she was standing in front of him, the words weren't coming to her, she couldn't find the courage to talk to him. She could hear her heart pounding in her head, the Polar's round ears tracking her like radar dishes as if he expected her to speak, but all she could do was step out of his way so that he could pass.

As Zagza passed by her in the hallway she cursed her shyness, she had never been so close to living out her fantasies, and now she was just watching as the man of her dreams walked away down the corridor. Come on Riya, you'll never know if you don't try, the worst he can do is refuse you. As she watched his long tail vanish around the corner, she felt a new surge of courage rise in her chest like a fire, her trembling muscles seeming to move of their own accord as she set off in pursuit.