Trying To Get By Ch. 03

"Can I have another kiss?" Chen-Ya asked.

Nika grinned, "Of course. We need to learn how you like to be kissed if it is to be our job."

She leaned over and kissed Chen-Ya's lips again. It was a soft and slow kiss that she offered. Chen-Ya returned it and lifted her forearm as much as she could to touch Nika's hair and then hold her head.

Their lips parted and Nika felt a soft and warm tongue slowly seeking hers. Nothing was hurried, though it was explorative and did not go very deep. It was only soft and it felt so very sweet to Nika.

"I have not been kissed like that since I lost everything and became what I was made into," Chen-Ya whispered. "You kissed me like my Nishta always did.

"I understand now. I would do anything for you all - for what was done, for the family that you offer without me asking for it." She reached for Sveta and kissed her as well.

She looked at Sveta, "There was something wrong. It was you and Ksana. What happened?"

Sveta explained how she had become withdrawn after the modifications which were made to save her and how she couldn't stop it, how it hurt Ksana.

Chen-Ya understood right away. "It changed when you found me, didn't it?"

Sveta nodded, "I don't understand it, but then I don't really think that I need to. At once, I saw that you needed help and part of me fell in love with you in a moment.

"It changed everything for me.

"I knew that you needed us, I needed you and I suddenly needed Ksana again."

Chen-Ya nodded, "Then I want my life again. I don't know when I felt like this. I feel good now. I know there is someplace for me to belong.

"Mother grew sick and there was nothing we could do. We were very poor. She died and Su-Zha and Nishta did everything - anything for us to stay together, stealing to eat - anything. We lived like that until I was just almost of legal age. Sheyni had just become of age before me.

"I've been alone since people came to take us away. My sisters would be taken to work colonies and I would go to some facility. We only needed another little while and we could have had rights as a family. My sisters already had real jobs. They hadn't stolen anything in two years. We knew it was wrong, but it was better than starving.

"Nishta, Shayni and Su-Zha fought them, but ... they only had the weapons that they could steal. Police were there and I saw my sisters die for trying to keep a family of young girls together.

"I remember taking Nishta's shooter from her hand. I wanted to be with them. I wanted to be killed right then. I killed three of them. I had better luck, I guess.

"They told me to put the shooter down, but I wanted them to kill me. I screamed at them and fired."

She looked down, "I woke up as a machine. I've been alone since then. Someone could take my body from me, put things on that I didn't want. Take my life away from me and make me a slave to an old man.

But four girls weren't allowed to take food so that they could eat."

Nika hugged Chen-Ya tighter, as much as the seating position allowed. "It was long time ago. I am thankful for this chance to mean something more for my old friend Ksana and for such a beautiful girl who needs us like we need her somehow."

She looked down, "I hope that you might love us just a little like you loved Nishta, Shenyi and Su-Zha. I fell for you out in the snow. Ksana and Sveta fell as we tried to hold you together as we walked. As we did it, we were as we always had been before we were shot to pieces."

She smiled, "You finished all of us when you opened your eyes and whispered that you were sorry that you thought that you were with your sisters again."

She chuckled softly, "Ksana, Sveta and I were the same in that moment. We have never wanted to be someone's sister so much in our lives."

She kissed Chen-Ya again, it was just as soft, but this time, Chen-Ya pulled back a bit and licked Nika's lips as well before searching for her tongue to suck it very softly.

She reached to slowly take Nika's hand and place it onto her breast cover. Nika opened her eyes and looked into Chen-Ya's.

After a moment, Chen-Ya began to whisper so that her lips stayed against Nika's very lightly. "This is what you all saved. What is here already loves you.

"I knew only this kind of love until I was alone, but I have never felt it again until now. I was always sad, always lonely, but I never showed it to anyone.

I begin to feel stronger. I have never had limbs as you have given me. My eyes didn't work like they do now. I didn't grow from the time that I was made into this. Now, my sisters have made everything better."

She touched the panel over one of Sveta's breasts. "I want what is in here. I want Nika's and this one and Ksana's. I give my own for it and I hope it's enough."

She kissed Sveta for a moment, "I have not been near so many people who are not like the one who did this to me. Is it ... is it alright to be here like this? To have my hand here?"

Sveta smiled, "Ksana and I know most of these ones here. There are a few new ones now, but I do not think that any of them could be more than happy that you are alive."

There was a soft chiming noise and display lights in the armrests came on.

"And anyway," she smiled, "we have used up the time that we had to say hello. Hold my hand and lie back with your head against the support.

--

H'Yan-Ah looked over from the command seat after getting settled in it once Ksana was there to take over the piloting. She saw Dana looking over the displays as Yonyi helped to get her oriented with the displays and the controls.

"Does it look anything like what you were familiar with?" she asked.

Dana nodded in a vague way, "Sort of. Things like this tend to follow a bit of a theme - since the functions don't really change much. Find the threats and targets, categorize them, lock them up by assigning assets and then attacking them. I've just gotta figure out the lettering and what it means, and Yonyi is really good at that so far.

"Where are we going, if I'm allowed to ask?"

"You can ask," H'Yan-Ah smiled, "but you might not want to hear the answer. All I can say at this point is that it involves elves."

Dana stared for a moment. "Elves.

"Sure. Why wouldn't I want to accept that? I'm on a ship with centaurs and walking wolves - no offense intended."

She smiled, "Ok, I just wanted to know, is all. I'm good now."

Everyone on the flight deck laughed.

--

Tahnyal sat on the bed leaning against the wall in the dimness of her quarters. She thought about where she was now and where she'd been, trying to decide whether this latest twist was looking to be a plus or more likely, just another minus in her life. Recognizing the tendency within herself to lean toward a more pessimistic view, she was making a bit of an effort to avoid it if possible.

She smiled a little grimly. What she was at this point in her life was not something which tended to handle depression well at all.

She had things to consider which she found that she didn't even want to think about for the moment, but she knew that sooner or later, it was going to come up between her and Rhasht.

He needed her.

Well he needed a bitch for certain, anyway. They'd known each other for a long time, all the way back to the little school in the small valley where they'd both been born.

His people weren't popular, given their nature in the eyes of most people there. It was at least a little understandable, she supposed. But there hadn't been one single sign of any of them regressing at all, and Rhasht's family were there in the role of security for the mines and protection for the rest of the people in the valley.

And they performed those roles to the letter and beyond.

Yet if anyone lost a single egg hen to a predator of any kind, it was the wolf-folk who were looked at and spoken of in hushed undertones for a time by the do-little, know-nothing shits who had nothing better to do than tell each other lies in the bars after their shifts in the mines.

Tahnyal had an older cousin, a shiftless creep who'd fit right in with the gossip weasels once he was grown and old enough to pretend to be of age at any bar that didn't card it's patrons well enough. The single high point in his life had been to get a job at the mines and spend the next year and some working on a lame plot to lift some ore one night. But thankfully, it had been found out and he'd gone to prison.

There was a soft knock on the door to her cabin. Tahnyal turned her head and looked at it, wondering a little. Rhasht's voice had already been keyed to it, so she wondered if he'd forgotten somehow. Something like that wasn't like him, but then it had been a bit of a strange day for all of them.

She said "Open," in their speech and the panel slid open smoothly.

Tahnyal saw that it was Yonyi, the smaller of the two hooved girls. Well, the two footed ones. She was hobbling a little with her injured foot from the trap and she was carrying a platter of some sort in her hands and looking a bit nervous. It reminded Tahnyal of the incident where Yonyi had been injured because one of the two males from her planet - though not of a kind which had been known to her and Rhasht before they'd joined the crew had set the thing to catch Yonyi for some fun and abuse at her expense.

She could still see the traces of Yonyi's painful tears from earlier and it still pissed her off.

Yonyi spoke then, but it was in her own language and Tahnyal didn't understand any of the sounds that she heard, though she did find them interesting and a little intriguing. She was a bit different, Tahnyal thought, of a kind that she'd never seen before, but that was alright too in her book.

But she just wasn't really in the mood to talk to anyone much at the moment, still annoyed over what had been done when they'd all met and tried to figure things out between themselves. It wasn't Yonyi's fault of course, but Tahnyal tended to get a bit moody - though she was aware of it in herself.

Yonyi was a comms type and could handle pretty much any kind of signal traffic from what she'd indicated. But at the moment, neither of them could understand each other at all.

Yonyi held up the platter and wiggled the fingers of one hand from where an article dangled.

Tahnyal saw the speech bracelet and got it then, so she smiled a little and pointed to the table, indicating that Yonyi could set the thing down there.

The faun smiled and nodded nervously and placed the platter down. She looked at the bracelet and slipped in on.

"Thank you," she smiled, still in a nervous way, "It is too large for my wrist and I fear to lose it."

Tahnyal nodded and stepped forward, "Here," she said, "Let me try to get it fitted on you and it won't be a problem then."

A moment later, Yonyi was smiling and nodding, "Much better. Thank you ... I do not remember your name, sorry."

Tahnyal smiled and spoke her name.

"You look lost, Yonyi," she said, "Where were you taking that?"

She tried to ignore the wonderful smell from the platter, noting that it was some kind of meal, heavy on the meat - which she could not identify by smell, but it seemed pretty grand as far as her nose could tell.

"I wanted to thank you for what was done for me before," Yonyi said, "On our ship before, I never saw the ... those males. I did not think that - I was not prepared for the trap. Not expecting it, I."

Tahnyal nodded, looking frustrated, "None of us were, Yonyi." She smiled then, "You made this for me?"

Yonyi nodded, "I had many of them. I made this for you and I go to eat my meal now with Dana."

"Oh," Tahnyal smiled, "the human that the Yautja threw into the snow like Chen-Ya. Has she spoken with H'Yan-Ah yet? Do we have a job for her?"

Yonyi nodded, "She needs to learn the weapons here, but she was a person who used missiles on a human warship once."

Tahnyal nodded as she sat down before her surprise dinner, "Good. Maybe she'll be better than the asshole that Rhisu blew away today. If he actually had been good at his job, we might not have gotten caught so easily."

She smiled then, wanting not to sound so much like a mean-hearted old werewolf bitch, "Don't mind me, Yonyi. Things sometimes have a way to work themselves out for the better."

Yonyi nodded and got up to go to the door.

"By the way," Tahnyal smiled, "I don't know if anybody else has stated the obvious to you before me, but ..."

She winked, "You guys look really good together."

Yonyi thanked Tahnyal and closing the door, she ran back to her cabin as fast as her injured ankle would take her there.

--

The door to the cabin opened and Dana looked up, just in time to see Yonyi hobbling toward her at high speed.

Dana could see without a doubt that, had her ankle not been injured, Yonyi approaching at the speed of happy could have consequences.

"Whoa," Dana smiled as she caught laughing Yonyi before physics in general took over and caused her to fall, "What's this about?"

"Nothing," Yonyi sighed, sounding like she meant it, "I took the meal to Tahnyal and we talked briefly. She is happy for the meal and I am happy for no reason but to see you again."

Dana held Yonyi tightly as she flinched ticklishly from the faun's happy nuzzling against her throat. "I could get used to this," she smiled.

Yonyi didn't understand the inference and Dana explained and Yonyi got the implication - that they would do 'this' often enough that Dana could grow accustomed to it, but she didn't comprehend how the word "this" came into it.

Dana laughed, still holding Yonyi, "I mean this.

"This thousand things that I've got going on when I hold you. Feeling that slightly cool nose against my skin, the wonderful way that I can feel your leg fur against my calves - ow."

"What is wrong?" Yonyi asked with sudden concern.

"Nothing," Dana grinned, "Now where was I? Oh yeah, needing to be quick when you're this happy and I see one of your awesome horns coming at my cheek.

Yonyi, I get to hold you and sink my fingers into that beautiful freaking MANE of yours when I hug you. The way that your tits are so ... so damn near HOT against mine because your people lived naked in mountain winds for freaking ever, the - "

"This is bad?" Yonyi asked, looking down at their breasts.

"No, this is amazing," Dana chuckled, "There's a difference. You just don't know enough about human women yet. If we ever have to bed down in an arctic climate, I don't care how many blankets and sleeping bags and freaking comforters we've got."

She smiled softly and placed her fingertip against Yonyi's breastbone between those snowy white mounds, "Ima be right here, Baby, all night."

She sighed, "Ok, stupid insipid moment over. I just had to get that gush out or I'd explode."

Yonyi fell still and after a moment, Dana asked.

She had her answer when Yonyi laughed and pulled her down onto one of the bunks. When it passed, Yonyi kissed Dana very softly and smiled, "It may be that you are getting near to that place anyway."

There was a soft knock at the door. Yonyi groaned and got up to get it.

A figure stood out there, looking pretty forlorn.

"Who's - " Dana began as Yonyi began to ask questions in a different language.

"Prallah has some assistants for the work that she does, keeping the vessel operating well. For this one, she is still finding things and where they are.

There are four of them. Three are female and ... this is Paukah. The girls are like your kind, but shorter. Paukah comes from a world like the one I am from. He is very bright, but between the Wolven and how they treated him and ..."

She sighed, "The old boss often tried to keep him in his cabin. He has no confidence in his abilities anymore. We are not the same creature, Dana, but I feel for him and ..." she sighed, "It seems that he was sent here by the new bosses because we have a third bunk. I have tried to protect him before."

She spoke a few sentences to him and Pauka looked even more lost.

Dana had gotten everything that was said because of the bracelets. "Can I say something?" she asked.

Yonyi nodded, though Paukah seemed to be trying to brace himself against what he was sure was another refusal. Dana stepped over and put her hand on his thin shoulder.

"We've got a meal right there for us all," she said, pointing to the table. It means a few new problems since I haven't found any cutlery in here and I've only got the things in my pack, but why not share it and we can talk?"

-

"This will not be trouble for you?" Yonyi asked as they watched Paukah eat, struggling uncertainly with Dana's utensils.

"Not specifically," Dana replied. "I can see that he needs somebody, and you seem to be the one. I like him just to look at him because he's fine in his own way and he's trying hard. He's polite, but really shy toward me."

Yonyi nodded, "To me also, but that is what we had anyway. He was an orphan - I think you say. With you here, there is something else happening. You may not understand it."

She sighed, "He defers to you. He seeks to show that he accepts you because we seem to be together in his eyes."

Dana smiled, "My mind seems to have given in to the way that my heart wants things to be, Yonyi. Unless you have trouble with it, I want us to be together, I'm pretty sure. I can't seem to help the way that I'm drawn to you. I just don't know what this does to it. How would it work where you come from?"

Yonyi shrugged, "We are not from the same place, not even much the same kinds though we look enough alike. He would not last long there. But this is what I would do.

"I would try to protect him. Here, there must be large wild cats, yes?"

Dana nodded, "Yes."

"Then there must also be smaller types," Yonyi said.

Dana nodded, "I'm not familiar with all the kinds, but yeah, there are."

Yonyi nodded, "He is to me like one of these fox animals that I saw in the database would be to a coyote or a wolf. He is as large now as he will ever be."

She smiled a little, "But if I was living alone, I would take him and make my family of two with him, if I had no girl for me. We are not far apart, him and me. He is too small to force me into anything and he knows it. Also, I would not bully him. He already knows this.

"He just needs someone who cares. He is a male, but in this situation, he is so careful because he is afraid to ruin anything that he might have. I have known bolder girls - like the three who come from this world."

Dana nodded, "What about during the long nights when you're not hunting?"

Yonyi smiled, "If - as I said - I had no female, and if I saw that he needed something, I would help him, hold him close and use my hand, perhaps. He is not a child. He can ... contribute to the life, hunt, and work with me. We are not the same kinds, so if I really wanted it one night, I might let him."

She looked over, "But we are not on a cold and windy mountain, huddled against some rocks. We are here, Dana. You and I have said that we like other girls. We have said that we wish to try together. I think Paukah needs us, he needs me at least. How does that work?"

Dana said nothing right away. She only watched Paukah eat for a few minutes.

"Can he impregnate you?" Dana asked, "I'm not making any judgement and I'm not implying a thing here. I'm only asking."

Yonyi was surprised, but she shook her head, "His eyes are not like mine. He has no tail, his legs are like yours and his hooves are smaller. Not the same - and he comes from the forests near the mountains, not the mountains themselves."

She nodded toward Paukah, "And there is another thing. I spoke of him as a fox. A fox is not the same thing as a ..." she thought for a moment and smiled, "a snow leopard.

"Understand now?"

Dana chuckled as she nodded, "You know the damndest thing?" She looked over at Yonyi, "He smells SO nice. Not like any guy I've ever seen."