Now I could see what had happened, and I felt terrible for the group. I turned to Jill, but she seemed to know what it was thinking.
"After there is a pool we can all relax in."
Well, I guess there will be no more work on the shuttle, but I think everyone needs a chance to relax.
Chapter 80: Extra PT
After we finished eating, everyone dragged themselves at Jill's directions to the area that held the pool. Mikota complains until I pick her up, and the other girl scolded me for doing it, say she was just going to do that every time, but I still felt terrible from earlier. I dropped her at the girls changing room and then went inside the men's, but I heard some strange sound coming from one of the stalls.
I needed to change fast and silently from the sounds so not to bother the two of them. Oh yes, extra PT, alright, but I was happy for both Kyrin and Irellia. I quickly changed into trunks and left to the pool area.
When I got out there, none of the girls had made it out yet. It was probably because of my rush to get out of the changing room. I looked around, and it wasn't fancy, but it was shaped like a giant kidney bean. The most incredible thing was that I could see steam come off the water.
As I walked to the edge and sat down, my legs slid into the warm water, and then I let the rest of my body slide in, off the edge. I sank into the water, and the warmth enveloped me, giving me a sense of calmness that I held for about five seconds until I saw bodies splash into the water. I pushed back to the surface and broke the water to see all the girls except for Jill and Sasha, and Maxine, who was not changed.
Jill was in a two-piece navy blue UW issue bathing suit while Sasha wore a towel. I swam up to them as the other girls frolicked together in the water. I made it to the edge and pulled myself up, the water rolling down my body.
The women openly admired me, but I could feel why it might make them feel this way when I did it. The women all got big smiles as they noticed my discomfort and started to laugh. I played my embarrassment off with a question.
"Maxine, you can't go in the water?"
"It's not that I can't, but it takes a great deal of energy to be in it, so it's not what I would call relaxing," Maxine smiled at me.
"Ah, sorry, maybe we can find something to do on Prime? Is there anything you like to do there?"
"Hm? We could go to the sand baths; they are warm and exfoliating!"
"Deal, as long as I still have some skin left after, hehe."
I heard a splash behind me and turned to see Sasha was gone into the pool, but I couldn't see her. I looked over at Jill, and she explained to me.
"Sasha is an Oceana, so she is able to move freely in the water, but she had to take all her clothes off to do so. The only time you cant see her body is if she is out of the water or you are underwater with her."
"Interesting, well, Jill, are you getting into the water as well?"
"Yes, I was thinking about it, WAAH!"
I scooped Jill up off her feet and jumped in the pool, as she screamed to put her down. We both plunged into the water, and she scowled at me before pushing away. I pushed off and swam back up. The pool was about three meters deep in the two ends, but only waist-deep in the middle.
I swan over to that area, where Tama and Mikota were splashing each other. They each had the UW two-piece suit, same as Jill, but each gave a different appeal from the race and body types. Mikota was taller than Tama, but she had smaller breasts, but a curving bottom that my eyes lingered on before checking out Tama. She had a large chest and an ass to go with it, but she was almost a head shorter than Mikota.
They both stopped splashing each other when they saw me coving their way and looked at each other. They shared a mischievous looked, but all I wanted was to come and relax, though it looked like I would be best to turn around, but it already too late. I tried to turn and swim away, but both of them were on me like sharks.
After wrestling with the girls and then finally relaxing in the shallows, everyone decided to leave. I had to agree that I was tired, and the rest looked to be on their last legs. Kyrina and Maxine had gone to bed long ago, and Jill was carrying Tama when they came from the changing room. I ended up taking Mikota back to her room before heading to my own.
In the morning, we all met up in the hall to eat. Kyrin was sitting by Irellia, but neither was acting weird. I don't know why they hid it, but I would have a talk with Kyrin later.
The sooner everyone started to accept that this was a game, the sooner they would start enjoying it. There was no need to hold back feelings, but I could understand why Kyrin would be a bit worried since it probably looked like I was running a harem.
I grabbed my food from the oven thing and headed over to eat with the rest. I sat down with Tama and Kyrina, who were both eating toast with jam. I had my eggs on toast while everyone ate in silence, dreading today's PT.
Once everyone finished, they all left with only Kyrina and myself left.
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah, sorry about only showing up after."
"No need to apologize; what happened? You came with us, and I see you go inside the change rooms, but you only came out right before Maxine left. Did something happen?"
"Not really, I was just nervous after seeing all the girls change, even Jill has a nice smooth body with the circuits running around her body. I don't know, I guess I was worried about what you might think of me because I'm not like them, I have skin missing replace by machine parts, and I change into a tiger!" Kyrina's eye had started to water, so I got up and moved to sit beside her.
"You are beautiful in your own way. Your body is like a work of art that I do not mind looking at; in fact, I find you quite pleasing to look at. You're just as pretty as the other women, so don't sell yourself short, OK?"
I pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead. Kyrina wrapped her arms around me and held onto me for a short while until pulling back. We both got up and walked down the hall to our hangar, but I took her hand this time, causing her to smile while still looking ahead.
We worked on different things for the rest of the day, and slowly but surely, we got the ship put back together and started testing. We skipped lunch, but Jill came and brought us a sandwich platter and some drinks, making us stop for a short rest. I turned while Kyrina changed, and I slipped out of my MAS suit.
We sat on the floor and had a small picnic with Jill. We talked about how the others were doing and how long we were from the destination. It turns out that we would have another week of travel by shuttle to get to the planet Prime because of Gargantua's proximity. The storms hadn't started in earnest, but that wasn't the problem. The gravity between planets was too much for a ship of this size on the surface.
After we were all done, we thanked Jill and got back to work. It took us till well past supper to get the last system tested and the pressure seal test, but we finally finished. Both of us wanted to get finished so we could get back to training with the others, so we push to get it all done.
Later, Jill and Sasha would find us sleeping in our suits curled up in a corner by an open panel we had finished testing.
Chapter 81: Looking Out At The Stars
We got up sore in the morning, our place to fall asleep was the last panel we had tested, but we had got it done. Kyrina yawned and pressed into me before pushing off. She gave me a hand up, and we left the ship and hanger, going to head to the mess hall to get food.
Everyone was already there eating, so we slipped in beside them after grabbing cereal from the mystery box. Everyone looked just as rough as us. Even though all of the others had slept in a bed and not a corner of a ship.
Irellia looked over at us and smiled.
"So, I hear you two worked hard last night to get finished. What's the big rush?"
"We wanted to get back to training; we don't want to get left behind."
"Well, only three more days of PT before we are on the ships heading to Prime, so expect hell."
Everyone
groaned; I think they assumed that this was hell already. I wasn't excited for the next couple of days, so I would have to push hard, and I know Kyrina would work just as hard. We all finish eating and then head to the hanger for laps.
The next three days went by in a blur of sweat, training, eating, and more training. On the third day's end, Irellia told us that we were at a barely passing level to survive the trip and that we would need to be training on the ride there and once we got there. She also stressed that the other option was death because winning didn't stop the race. Even if you didn't win, you would still have to get back after.
The entire thing was a significant risk, but the reward was so great that the whole galaxy wanted a piece and was willing to risk their lives for it. It was a chilling idea, but I couldn't deny the idea was thrilling, and I was more than excited. During our training, Armond came to each team and gave us pointers to help with the race.
For us, he suggested that I ride Kyrina for the long trips across open areas and comfortable travel. Then, when things got tough, we could switch, and I could carry her using my gravity assist stabilizers to run where I needed when in a pinch or a fight. That was another thing Armond stressed to us over and over, this would be dangerous.
The problem with someone becoming King by winning the position is having another person threaten that position, so the King sends out people to prevent others from finishing. I would try to keep a low profile while in the capital Wabasha. If the King gets wind, you will be in trouble. He might send people after you before the race. On top of the King beginning a problem, there are many different kinds of giant monsters that love to pray on racers and are not affected by the weather.
The whole thing sounds crazy, but that didn't make me change my mind. We all trained hard and pushed ourselves to the limits. When the day came to leave, I felt like we had made some progress. We had to say goodbye to Irellia, Kyrin, and Jill. We promised we would be back, but I stopped and whispered into Kyrin's ear.
"I'll take good care of your sister, OK? But you had better take good care of Irellia!"
I slapped Kyrin's back before turning and walking to Jill and Irellia. I hugged and kissed Jill but only hugged Irellia and told her to be happy with Kyrin. She gave me a warm smile and hugged me again like she had been waiting for me to say those things to her. I was happy for the two of them, and maybe, in the future, we will find more partners for the girls.
We all loaded onto our shuttles; each group had to take its own shuttle except for Tama and Mikota, who left with Sasha and Maxine. Tilly and Iona took Irellia's ship after we said our goodbyes, but Iona was dancing to the ship as soon as she left my arms, and Tilly kissed me before joining Iona. I guess Irellia's ship had more bells and whistles than ours did.
"Ready for the next step of our journey? Do you think we will make it OK and everyone else? A lot of things we don't know."
"Yeah, but we will learn them on the way; let's go. It is going to be a long trip, hehe," Kyrina said after coming back from saying good buy to her brother.
We boarded on to the ship and sat down in the gel seats, allowing them to close around our bodies until they felt like nothing but cushions. I started our ship up, but I let Alta do almost all the work, I just touched the thing that I was told to, and even then, it felt like Alta was just trying to make me think I was helping. I wasn't complaining about the lack of work. In fact, that meant we could have more time to get ready and plan out tactics for the race.
After leaving the main ship, our ship started to accelerate until we reached one AU and then held tat speed. The ship could travel for about four-hundreds days at this speed but no more, and luckily we only had to travel a week to prime. Once the ship was settled, we both got up and headed to the cargo bay for our PT. Training here would not be fun, but we had Irellia's, or you die speech for motivation playing through our heads to keep us pushing.
The days passed. We had many laughs, played a couple of different card games, and even sat together to read books that were saved onboard the ship. We sat together every meal, and I was really starting to enjoy our time together. Slowly, we began to form a connection that was a little different than before.
Each day we laughed more and started to spend more time together. We would talk about the race while holding hands, then she would move into my arms. We would stay like that until she would put her head on my lap. A couple of nights, we even fell asleep together, looking out at the stars.
I was starting the notice her more when we worked out, her chest heaving and the way her body looked in just her underwear. We both had begun striping down while working out to let our bodies breathe, even though the suit worked fine, but it was Kyrina's idea.
I watched her stretch out as we finished off. The moving parts that had no skin made her more beautiful in my mind. On the fifth day, I walked up to her after we finished working out and took Kyrina in my arms, kissing her and lowering her to the ground. She didn't resist; in fact, she pushed into my mouth, setting my emotions on fire.
The passion was ignited, and I wanted to take her right there, but there was no need to be hasty. Instead, I picker her up into my arms, kind of feeling silly about laying her down in the first place, but I had got a weird feeling on the ground. So I took her to our bunks and laid her down. I was about to remove my underwear, and then the alarm started to go off.
"What I this about? I need to get to the front now!"
I raced in my underwear to the front of the ship, and Kyrina was right behind me with our suits. I ran up to the chair and sat down, but I noticed a message on the screen.
//ENEMY VESSEL IS TARGETING US
Chapter 82: Damn Space Pirates
Targeting us? I didn't have time to figure out what was happened when another massage flashed.
//BRACE FOR IMPACT
*CRASH*
We were shaken violently, but the chairs created bubbles around us, and we were kept safe from any flying debris in the cabin. When the ship stopped shaking, our bubbles dropped, and we got up. I quickly put on my suit while Kyrina transformed into her tiger form. I wasn't sure where they had struck, but I ran to the cargo bay to grab my MAS suit.
When we got there, we could see the tip of a ship protruded through our hull, but it had released some kind of foam to keep the place pressurized, so we knew the needed air to breathe. I wasted no time and burst in after checking the camera and ran to Diamond edge on the opposite walk. Slapping my hand onto the faceplate, I turned and fell into the suit.
I jumped up as the suit close, and the ship started to open. Kyrina came to my side as I pulled out my swords and got into a stance. The ship opened to some kind of bear man with a patch over his eye, the spitting image of a space pirate, but I was not impressed. I dove at him, and cut the bear in two, then ran into the ship. I was pissed.
I cut down bear after bear, but soon Kyrina was there beside me, and it didn't take long to clear the ship. Fortunate for us, after ransacking their ship and pushing it out of our shuttle, Kyrina's eye were able to repair the damage like it had never happened. Unfortunately, that also killed the mood, and our earlier excitement was forgotten, considering the repairs took all the rest of the day.
The next day was more repairs and sorting through what we had found in the bear pirates' ships. A lot of it was nothing but junk, but there was a large hammer and a ring. I took the hammer and gave the ring to Kyrina. The hammer had a gravity switch that made the hammer heavy as you swung, so I thought it might be useful. As for the ring, it gave the user a triple overshield, but if the shields were broken, it would take up to thirty hours to recharge.
After that and eating, we settled down and relax for the night. This would be our last night alone before reaching the Planet of Prime. I didn't press her. Instead, we spent the last night watching the stars and just relaxing in each other's company. It was nice to just relax together after getting everything fixed from the pirate bear attack.
"What do you think the plane
t will be like? I mean, I know it is covered in sand, but what do you think the people will be like?" Kyrina asked as she pushed herself into my chest.
Kyrina was partially lying on me while I leaned against a bulkhead and looked out one of the observation ports. It was all stars out there and blackness, but I was made enjoyable to have as a backdrop while we talked. I leaned my head forward and kissed the top of her head before speaking.
"I'm not really, sure. There will be people from all over and not just Prime. I think we will run into a lot of new races and peoples, but we just have to be careful because everyone is coming here for the same thing."
"What do you mean? Do you think people will try to do something to use before the race?"
"Yeah, no doubt about it. You heard Irellia, even the King is out to get people here! What will stop the others then? The race isn't going to be the only thing that will be dangerous. We will have to stay together and not get separated, OK?"
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