The Voyages of the Starship Harem Ch. 01

boredom strikes! and with it a new story to concentrate creative juices on! lets hope i can focus someday and get one of these going on a regular schedule...

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I tossed her limp, nearly lifeless body into the brig. I can't believe a simple trader like me would of ever needed one of these, let alone use it. But alas there has been a rise in stowaways amoung lesser ships in recent years.

My little stowaway put up one hell of a fight, then again what can one expect from an Insomnian.

Crazy little race of sleepless humanoids. They look almost like us, except each one tends to adapt a mineral like quality to patches of there body. My little girl here had arms that looked like they were made of obsidian, tempered obsidian if my broken arm wanted to add it's two credits worth. combine that with a natural heart rate nearing 300 BpM, and the psychological effects of their "language" and you got what is essentially every hologames version of a berserker class character.

That language in question is just maniacal laughter to those that haven't learnt the dialect, and those that do seem to lose a sense of sanity about it. Hence how their language earned the title "Insane".

She was built like a gymnast of Earths old days; long lean legs, sculpted torso (at least what i could tell from her now tattered shirt), and arms that looked just slightly too long for her 5'9" frame. I was lucky to get a hit in with my "Crater maker" hand cannon with how fast she could move.

The fact that she was still in one peace after a near point blank shot is a testament to her solid body. Nowadays most captains and crew carry licensed weapons from military and government sanctioned armories. I preferred to custom build my stuff. My crater maker is a modified Magnum handcannon from earths older days, modified to shot a single two centimeter anti armor round, an electric trigger attached to my gloves that allow me to fire it even when out of my hands, and a recoil mitigator that turns the kick back into extra propulsion for the bullet.

And she took that at less then 15 feet. If she wasn't still alive I'd of thrown her in the air lock and payed for the littering charge. But here she stands...sort of...here she lays, trying her hardest to breathe with the hole in her lung.

"If you behave in there i can have the ship patch that hole up for ya kiddo." I offered, mainly to make peace with my captive, the last thing i need is to piss her off, my ship can't take what she can dish out.

"Gah! Ahhahahahaha! AAAAH hahahahaha!" she retorted, I'll just assume she is the proud type.

"If you sit up straight the on board AI can send in medical drones and heal you up, but not if your gonna fidget and roll around on the floor like a cooking eel."

"Bahhahahaha!" Good i wish i had that universal translator installed, then again i here even AI can't handle the language too well.

"Alright, lay there and die, not like i need the money if you got a bounty on ya, just leave my ship in one piece and I'll drop you off at the next port."

"Geehehehehe!" she rolled over onto her back and just laid there, the calmest I've ever seen her since i caught her on board my ship. I stepped out of the room and ordered my ships Steward AI; Diveriant, to patch her up as good as she can, and to expect resistance. As for me, i was headed back to the helm to pilot my ship back to the nearest port, hopefully forward in my journey.

I'm just a simple trader, not even shipping guns, fuel matter, or important geegaws. Right now i had a load of Earthen potatoes, from their greatest supplier somewhere in it's western continents eastern islands way up in it's northern territory. I lost a few crates but all in all only one potato was damaged, when she throw it at me and dented a reinforced wall with it, a testament to her races amazing strength and the quality of those damn spuds...

My computer beeped at me letting me know it had the nearest port and best path figured out. My ship wasn't powered by the same propulsion as major warships and trade vessels. I had a Solar Wave Rider, if i were to simplify it it's the space equivalent to earthen sail boats. I'm locked into a single galaxy, but within the confines of that galaxy I'll be one fast and nimble ship. If i ever take a galaxy to galaxy trade request I'd have to ask a trade barge to house my ship for the portion of travel between galaxies. But i felt fine trading Earthen goods across the Milky way for now.

Thankfully my path was on the way to my next trade point. It was a desolate planet as well, so i might be able to salvage some money from those crate-less potatoes after all. I'm not evil like that but, when your starving for something besides bread and water a floor potato is a 200 credit steak. Feeling nice i decided to put the auto-pilot on and keep my "guest" company for the short ride.

Walking back into the brig i was surprised to see her standing there calmly. The hole on her shot the only thing left of my shot to her chest. The bad part of that was the fact that her breast was almost completely exposed, no nipple unfortunately, or would that be fortunately? god i need to hit a whore house soon.

"Good news kiddo!" I was cut shot by a sharp thud as she gave the force field a good punch as she stared daggers at me, Something tells me she hates the name... "The next port is only a few minutes away, hope you got a taste for stagnant water and mystery meat, it's a desolate planet." I smiled cheekily at her, that quickly faded as she threw a tantrum inside that cell.

The force field could keep her contained, but the rest of that room wouldn't be able to keep up with her strength. Insomnians were masters at utilizing momentum, and every bounce off the wall left a bigger dent in it. I had to calm her down, but within that lied the risk. An Insomnian needs to keep their heart rate above at least 160 BpM, and they don't fall asleep, no matter how much you tranq them. I had to calm her down diplomatically.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa there, calm down! Look, maybe we can work something out, i won't leave you in some piss poor jail cell ok, just stop breaking my ship apart!"

She stopped bouncing at least. and just kept wailing on the force field now, and her laughter turned into manic sobs as tears rolled down her eyes. Obviously she wasn't a stowaway for law breaking purposes, or else she'd be made of steelier stuff, that or she is playing the pity card, it's hard to tell when i can't understand her.

"Ok, alright, calm down, lets make a deal ok. If you sit there and don't move a muscle, till i get to port, i won't leave you at that prison, I'll look for a place that might treat stowaways with a little mercy, how bout that?"

"Noooooooooooaaaaahahahaha!" Well, that was almost Earthen Neutral...not sure i can take it as that though, cause she is still wailing on my force field. Her laughter language died down into blubbering sobs, and she eventually fell to her knees, still beating on the force field. I was puzzling things over in my head when my ship activated her holographic self-image.

I could of chosen her image but i left the ship to design herself an image, and i guess she decided to go for irony since she was more or less a house wife of the ship. She was plain more or less, other then her choice of sparkling silver hair, and the ornate pattern on her ankle length dress, reminiscent of Earthen Aboriginals. give her a plain white shirt and innocent smile and petite facial features and boom! you got Divariant.

"Captain, if i may interject. Doing a quick study of Insomnian encounters, many have speculated a mental impossibility to "do nothing" amoung their species. With their accelerated heart rate and human like features, they may need to move or fidget to keep up their heart rate."

"Noted." I nodded to her and looked over my prisoner one last time. "Okay, as long as you don't bust nothing I'll consider you well behaved. Diveriant, can you toss in a few things she can play with? just in case she gets board and wants to shadow box herself or something?"

"Yes captain." Diveriant faded away, and materialized a few broken ship parts into the cell, along with a few children's toys from when i play taxi during the trading lulls. I then returned to my seat for the few minutes of travel i had left.

With planets like this there isn't any welcoming committee, but there are about fifty anti vessel guns pointed at you the entire time your landing and until you leave their effective range. I made things quick, not wanting them to scan my ship and find my passenger in the room designated "brig". As expected the mention of the potatoes origins helped knock off a lot of the loss I'd take for selling "floor goods", i mean, most potatoes get washed before you cook them so a bit of dirt ain't gonna hurt 'em.

1000 credits later i was airborne and leaving the planet. Happy to be rid of the red glow that accompanied my ships sensors detecting a weapons lock. Back in my seat i decided to check on my guest. I laughed as the broken ship parts lay in a single crushed lump in the corner, she had apparently used them to test her strength. But she was now jumping around the room swatting at air it seemed. She wasn't damaging the ship so i couldn't really say anything to her about being rambunctious.

"Divariant, think our guest could use some time to stretch her legs?"

"She is stretching them plenty sir, She has apparently found some entertainment with the Force Impacted rubber ball."

"She has?" I looked at the monitor again, and couldn't see anything bouncing around the room. But i did notice that the rubber ball wasn't sitting idly on the floor. I hit a few buttons to slow down the video feed but still couldn't see anything. Divariant took over once she knew what i was doing and slowing the speed down to 50,000 frames per second i was finally able to see a red streak bouncing around the room, barely missing her, and being further accelerated with the occasional swat. Shit, I heard Insomnians have some crazy reflexes but she wasn't even dodging the ball, she was throwing it around herself and making to go faster and faster. I had to see this in person.

I practically ran to the brig, and jumped through the door. My ears immediately rang as the sound of the ball bouncing off the walls assaulted my eardrums. I made the stupid mistake of speaking my amazement at what i was seeing. She immediately stopped and stood in the center of her cell, staring my down with icy eyes. The ball still bouncing around inside there, missing her but just barely, her wrist length, jet black hair occasionally moved as the ball whizzed past her.

"I kept my promise, and for the most part it looked like you kept yours." I started, looking down at the mass of ship parts now turned ball. She turned to look at it and gave me a wry smile in return. "Now, if you promise not to break anything else on my ship I'll let you walk freely till i find you a new home on some planet that uses community service, also if you stop that ball, i don't need to doing any damage too."

A loud clap of "PAH!" accompanied the sudden screech of steel as the impact of the ball in the palm of her hand made a sonic impact strong enough to explode inside that tiny confined chamber. The ball then feel from her open palm and lay flat on the floor, like a piece of paper, as the material tried to once again reform itself as rubber does. A look of panic quickly crossed her face as she looked at the ball and the now damaged cell and thought she just ruined her good behavior record.

I quickly laughed off her worries and calmed her down. "Easy girl, i really don't think you could have avoided that. But if you feel that bad maybe you can help Divariant fix it up as we travel. deal?" I extended my hand as the other worked the code pad to remove the force field.

She looked quizzically at my hand for a moment before extending the same gesture, but not placing her hand in mine. Thinking she didn't know how a proper handshake agreement was made i stepped forward and closed the gap and our hands together. "The deal is made, and Divariant is our witness. Don't go breaking your end of the bargin or you my friend will end up in court."

"Ha!" was her retort, in the same fashion as someone who would cynically add "and i forgot to laugh" afterwards.

I have no idea if letting an Insomnian loose on my ship is a good idea or not, but i'd be lying if she hasn't shown some damn good skills for a body guard.

Before my Insomnian stowaway could become a part of my ship she had a few tests to go through. The first of which is the ever present physical. Though by all accounts she looks perfectly healthy to me, i need to test her limits to know just how well her body can hold up to everything the galaxy has to offer.

Standard tests revealed her hunched form was bigger then i thought:

***

Height: 6'4" (when erect) 5'9" (while slouched [prefered stance])

Weight: 230 lbs

B/W/H; 36?/30/32

Arm length; 1.125 meters

***

Having no idea how to measure a woman's bust i never even tried, not to mention i don't see how knowing will help me in the long run, uniforms tend to be loose fitting.

Much of her weight comes from her forearms, where her skin takes on the obsidian qualities. Scans reveal that while she moves her arms her circulatory system softens the skin and allows for fluid movement, but at an instant she can harden the skin. A standard punch from her delivers almost two and a half tons of force.

It's gonna be hard to find a suitable test to run in the holodeck. She is quick, nimble, strong, untiring, and stubborn. And lets not forget she managed to sneak onto my ship undetected. Considering she can't sit still to long I'm thinking of placing her in earth prehistoric era, much of those larger predators enjoy a meal on wheels so to speak.

As she runs for her live in a slightly controlled environment, I'm gonna review the security footage to find out just how she snuck in to my ship.

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Turns out the fidgety fuck can breath in space a bit. Footage from outside the hull caught her clearly "swimming" in space, and prying open the airlock hatch, without damaging it i might add. The inside of the airlock doesn't have cameras, so i didn't see what she did once she got inside. but no other camera caught her moving around my ship in the 8 hours between her boarding and my finding her.

I'm gonna have to install more cameras the next time i land. I thought i had enough of the ship covered. Looks like I'm not getting to the bottom of this mystery yet.

"Diveriant, can you take a break from auto-pilot for a moment and give our guest a complete body scan?" I'm gonna find out how she can breath in space for now, no two aliens are ever alike when this ability pops up.

"Yes captain," She replied as i switch from watching the information display and watching our Insomnian initiate fight off a pack of six hungry velocoraptors.

Not surprisingly she was winning, But what was most interesting was her wild fighting styles seemingly natural ability to combine self defense with wild offense.

Ripping off the leg of a downed raptor, she proceeded to use it to club another that leapt to claw at her with it's powerful feet. The impact spun it's head around enough to jar it's neck, but not snap it and take it out for the count. Another saw her back wide open to be jumped on and took it's chance, however she spun vertically with a small hop and tore into it's belly as it tried to claw at where her back was. Those long arms protecting her from a countering claw attack the beast summoned with it's dying breath. This left her down in a more savage style pose on all fours. The four hungry animals barked and chirped amoungst each other, discussing a strategy to kill their next meal. The woman took the initiative and dropped her improvised club and swung at the injured raptor, finishing it off with a fake out swing, following through by twisting with the missed blow, planting her hands onto the ground and mule kicking it right to the jaw, the momentum of her attack carrying her into the air as it reeled back. She then spiraled into a ball and gave it a finishing axe handle smash to it's sore jaw, dislocating it as the angry beast fell lifeless on the ground. The others ran off before she could turn around and taunt them.

The flow of combat was so smooth and engaging i had completely forgot about the scan i had asked for until Divariant reminded me that the scan results were in.

X-Rays revealed an organ map not unlike humans; Digestive tracts, heart, body maintenance organs. The only oddity was her lungs, she had a four pack, a second pair of lungs that looked just like our own. Scans couldn't conclude why as her system has them in an inert status. I'm guessing these lungs aren't used until required.

The scan also revealed that her oily appearance isn't natural, she was covered in lubricant and gear grease. Revealing just how she got into the heart of my ship; She crawled through the greasing pipes from the emergency access port inside the airlock. Which means she got in through the engine room, no doubt by prying open the emergency pressure relief port. I should of fixed that damn hinge in the last port, looks like my own laziness was my own undoing.

A beeping from my console alerted me, and i took a look at our aspiring bodyguard. She was running away from a ravenous T-Rex, and had jumped into the water to escape it. The organ map blinked and reveal that she was now using her inert lungs. Going back over the footage of her daring escape the scan revealed that her large inhale before her plunge had went into the spare lungs, and has settled in there. The weight of her arms dragged her down deeper into the water as she stared up at the barking king of primeval beasts, and the spare lungs worked just like normal ones, but with a controlled effort. They kept a steady flow of oxygen to the body, but at a severely reduced rate then her normal lungs, allowing her to keep minimal controlled function in an environment where she wouldn't be able to breathe. This could be extremely handy in many cases. i decided to test just how long she could hold a single breath for, and made the program surround the water with more hungry predators. I doubt the girl knew much about the creatures to question why meat eaters were working together for a single prey.

She wasn't in any panic it seemed. Her eyes slowly scanned the slightly murky waters for a way out, but couldn't seem to come up with any solution. I watched her vitals as heart rate and brainwave activity seemed to grind to a halt, at first i was concerned she was giving up, but heart rate stopped before it would become fatal for her, and brainwaves seemed to nearly vanish. She was entering a meditative state.

This must have allowed her lungs to work at an even more efficient rate, cause it was 30 minutes before her first breath choked. She tried to use her giant stone like arms to swim to the surface but her muscles were too weak to carry the load, even with the effect of buoyancy. Before she struggled anymore i terminated the hologram and watched as she feel to the ground gasping for breath.

All in all, she surpassed my expectations, not to mention provided some information about Insomnians to report when i next dock. When she caught her breath i turned on the intercom and congratulated her.

"Well Stowaway, hope you had fun with the exorcise." I smiled cheekily behind the one way glass i observed her from. Chuckling when she gave the Earthen hand sign for "fuck off". "Come on out and we'll fix you up with a shower, and maybe a room if you behave.

She gave me a maniacal laugh that i had no idea how to take. But her slow saunter to the doorway made me believe she wasn't as hostile as she was when i first met her.