The Eros Expansion

by Prax Venter

  “Yes. Primary, secondary, and tertiary firewalls are deployed.”

  Johnson ran his fingers through his greasy hair. “This shouldn’t be possible. You gave the station assistant custom hardware, software- shit you made her know how to move with that snake body instantly. How did you figure all this out so quickly?” he asked, staring at Ahnix.

  Mark answered for her. “She’s not from around here.”

  Vale patted her large hand on Erica’s metal back. “You feel up to helping out with communications? It’s okay if you aren’t ready right now.”

  “I would like to help. Interfacing feels like it would be… fun.”

  Johnson snorted. “Just don’t fry your new brains prancing around in that nightmare of a mainframe.”

  The exotic cat-girl’s tail jumped once and shot him a venomous look.

  “She won’t.” Ahnix then held her furry hand out to Erica and said, “I am Ahnix, and I know interfacing can be fun.” As the cat-girl finished her sentence, she vanished and reappeared next to the wall of the cargo bay, about ten paces away from where she started.

  “But you have to be fast.”

  Erica smiled and slid an inch toward Ahnix before she looked up at Vale. The giant naga gave her a reassuring nod, and the station’s virtual assistant found the confidence to weave her metallic body over to Ahnix.

  “You’re so fast,” Erica said when she reached the wall. “I didn’t even see you move!”

  Ahnix held her hand out and motioned down to the iron ball held between the metal naga’s hands. Erica looked down at the ball, gave it one more squeeze and then handed it over to Ahnix.

  “You can have this back soon. I promise. But you need your hands free to interface properly.”

  “I understand.”

  “Good. Now, we need you to get in and gain access to communications.”

  Johnson came up behind Ahnix. His demeanor changed to be a bit softer as he realized that his life depended on Erica succeeding.

  “Yes. Please target the closest settlement- Vermeil Seven. Then broadcast the default distress signal.”

  The metal naga blinked her green eyes at Johnson and then looked at Ahnix for support. The cat-girl gave her a slight nod, and Erica’s smooth features took on a determined squint as she focused on the task at hand.

  The station concierge assistant put her hands upon one of the consoles, and Mark saw the display start to flicker wildly.

  “Ah- it’s… too messy- angry,” Erica said through evident pain.

  “You’re moving too slow!” Ahnix said sternly next to her. “Go fast! I know you can do it.”

  Erica focused intently on some intricate dance only she could see and then a light trill of laughter burst from her metallic lips.

  “I see! Zip before it zaps.”

  Ahnix rewarded Erica with a slow nod. “Good job. Now find Coms.”

  “It’s here but broken. Nothing is where it is. The FTL antennae can’t find anything.”

  “Oh shit, of course…” Johnson said. “The station is out of alignment. Remember when the lower decks blew out into space? Yeah, we could be anywhere now- we could be about to crash into the sun for all we know.”

  “No,” Erica said. “We are headed away from the sun at nearly seven miles per second. But we need to update position data before we activate the array. Nobody will hear us.”

  The metal naga bent her head forward, and the screen began to flicker faster. After a moment, Erica pulled away from the wall and looked at the floor.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t do it. The fresh readings get overwritten before I can apply it to the FTL antennae array. And the file is too big and far away. The station corrupts the data when I try and pull it here all the way from Stellar Cartography.”

  Vale came sliding over and put her hand on Erica’s smooth shoulder. The metal naga turned her glowing green eyes up to Vale’s.

  “It’s okay, Erica. I don’t know a lot about this station. Can you tell me what stellar cartography is? Sounds like star maps.”

  “Yes. I like to give information! Stellar Cartography is a data center and sensor cluster near the top of Eros Station. The sensors collect data, and very complicated formulae continually update our position in the universe relative to celestial bodies and other points of interest. It looks really neat too.”

  “She’s right,” Johnson said. “If you take her there, she might be able to store the chart data in her brain.”

  Ahnix nodded. “We’d have to take her to the communications center afterward.”

  “You were probably going to need to do this anyway. Good thing you made her mobile after all.”

  Vale pressed the metal naga close, and Mark could feel her worry for Erica’s safety out among the murderbots. Ahnix felt it too.

  “Don’t worry, Vale. Remember who designed her?” With that, Ahnix lifted the iron ball she was holding for Erica. “Activate eyebeams.”

  The metal naga obeyed, squinting her eyes. An instant later, tiny green lasers zapped out and struck the ball. Ahnix fearlessly held still for the demonstration and then tossed the iron ball back to Erica.

  “Show Vale the pretty little hole you made.”

  Erica smiled and held the ball up for inspection. From where he was standing, Mark could see the deep crater she had drilled in a fraction of a second.

  Ahnix continued, “She’s fast, too. I’ve seen how you move around this station. That sexy naga body was built for the tubes and tight vents of this place.”

  Mark felt Vale flush and saw a wide smile grow on her elfish face. Erica looked up at the giant naga and mirrored her smile.

  “Fantastic!” Roo said. “We could use another badass naga on our side.”

  Mark nodded. “Then it’s settled. Next mission is to escort Erica to this Stellar Cartography place.”

  “Your upgraded shield is just about dry, sweetie,” Betty called from her stool. “Have a look.”

  Vale patted Erica on her smooth head and turned to collect her shield. The smaller, metal naga moved with her, weaving her shiny tail silently across the cargo bay.

  The giant naga bent down and collected her shield off the floor, and ran her fingers over the black, matte substance covering its surface. Betty stood up and slapped her hand against Vale’s upgraded black shield.

  “That’ll take some serious punishment before failing you.”

  Vale bowed her head deeply. “Thank you, Betty. I’m sure this will help us all survive a little better.”

  “It’s supposed to stop those robots’ energy beams, right?” Roo asked.

  “That’s right,” Betty said, putting her hands on her hips.

  Roo got that mischievous twinkle in her eye, and Mark felt her excitement spike.

  “Erica,” Roo called playfully. “Activate your eyebeams on Vale’s new shield.”

  With a silver blur, the smooth metal naga moved a few feet away from Vale and then paused.

  “Ready?” Erica asked, her shiny face bright with excitement.

  Vale looked from Roo to Erica, then held her heavy shield out away from her body clutched in one hand. Mark saw her toned muscles stand out on her arm from the display of pure strength.

  “Ready.”

  Erica squinted her eyes and two bright-green beams converged in the center of Vale’s shield. This time, the blast lasted a good five seconds before Erica blinked and stopped the attack.

  Everyone inspected Vale’s shield for damage and saw absolutely nothing. There was no hole, blemish, or anything showing that it just absorbed a focused laser attack.

  Mark saw the smug look on Betty’s wrinkled features and felt a grin spread across his face.

  “Told you Betty knows her stuff,” Willard said before going back to his nonsense book.

  Vale pulled the shield to her, holding it in both hands and Mark saw her eyes start to dart back and forth.

  “Shield Bash Bonus?” Vale said, breathlessly.

  Betty crossed her arms, sticking
her hands into the top of her blue overalls. “Yup. It’s that diamond mist coat. A hacked corporate-level crafter can produce some fine composites.”

  - 18 -

  They took a short break before they headed back out into the station. Mark was sitting on about one-half of his essence reserves, but it was a little after midday, and the group’s mood was to move forward, so he suggested a quick lunch. Mark said he had a taste for pizza, and Vale and Ahnix shocked him when they said they had never had it before.

  He thought back to the day he lost feeling in his hands- ordering sausage pizza from a machine. But nothing terrible happened when Mark pulled the three large slices of dripping cheese out of the crafter, however, and he watched closely as his cat-girl and giant naga attempted to eat pizza for the first time.

  “I’ve never seen this shape,” Vale said, lifting hers off the plate. “But we’ve put melted cheese on bread, with vegetables.”

  “But coated with smashed tomatoes and giant hunks of greasy sausage?” Mark asked, raising an eyebrow. Neither could say they had the combination before, and they sampled what Mark described as a ‘perfect flavor synergy’. Vale was on her second slice by the time Ahnix ripped the meat and cheese off hers and left the bread and sauce on the plate.

  Even though the cat-girl only ate half of Mark’s perfect flavor synergy, she sent him the honest pleasure she got from the part she ate. He didn’t think she would even be able to lie to him at all any more- their bond was that strong.

  Erica and Roo played catch with the laser-pitted iron ball while the others ate. Willard joined them for a slice of pizza, Betty cleaned up her crafting area, and Johnson studied the logs Ahnix left behind from creating Erica’s body.

  When it was time to go, everyone geared up and stood around Ahnix.

  “Need me to hit you, or you got this?” Mark said, sending her the concept of an extra Erica.

  Ahnix shook her head and teleported them all outside of the cargo bay. Erica did a quick circuit of the area, her segmented metal body silently swishing around, and Mark got a good indication of how fast she could really be. Ahnix held out her hacker tool while she and Vale consulted the 3D map projected onto the air. Shortly after that, they were climbing another maintenance tube.

  Just as Ahnix planned, the metal naga design allowed her to navigate the tube with ease. Erica and a fully armored Vale took the lead. The two of them looked like twins as they spiraled around the tube above him with their serpentine bodies.

  Ahnix no longer had to hack every hatch herself as the station’s virtual assistant was also an expert hacker, and their upward pace became a little rough for Mark.

  They stopped after about an hour at the fiftieth level to move horizontally toward the edge of the station where there were fewer security bots, and continue their ascent to the top. The dim halls of this shopping area were thankfully quiet. They reached the outer edge of the station and began to circle around while the black stillness of space hung outside massive, floor-to-ceiling windows on their left. The sun must have been on the other side of the station, and Mark saw the pinpoints of millions of stars scattered across the distant void of nothingness.

  When the silent, serene beauty was disturbed by a flickering light on the sleek, white walls of the corridor, Mark grew concerned. They rounded the gentle curvature of the station and faced a blazing inferno filling a large glass room in front of them. It was as if a live rocket was lodged into the hull of the station and its thruster was blowing white and blue jet-fueled flames everywhere. Above the door, stylistically warped letters read ‘Blackhole Bar and Grill’.

  “This wasn’t in the damage report,” Ahnix said, popping open her holographic map.

  “One of the core ventilation valves must have ruptured,” Erica suggested, scooting close to the glass doors. She turned around, her reflective body shimmering in front of the insanely hot flames behind her. “This must have just happened. The rupture must be sealed quickly, or the improperly vented plasma will burn a hole in the outer hull. This whole section could depressurize- that would be bad.”

  Ahnix shook her head. “The control for the valve is inside that room. There’s no way either us could survive that heat.”

  “I could,” Roo said, waving her soft fingers.

  Ahnix didn’t take her exotic eyes off the glowing map. “Yeah, but you can’t hack the panel.”

  “Can we maybe break a window and vent that fire into space somehow?” Mark said, trying to be helpful.

  “Yeah!” Roo said, “I’d love to smash one of these.”

  Erica pointed to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows separating them from the vacuum of space.

  “You might not possess the means to damage the reinforced crystal lattice of these windows.”

  Roo held up her hand to the closest window in the corridor, and Mark quickly reached out to grab her wrist.

  “Let’s not test it in here, okay?”

  The velvet girl bit her lower lip and put her hand down.

  Erica continued. “Besides, breaking the glass would cause the catastrophic depressurization I mentioned earlier.”

  Ahnix looked up. “Not if we seal the place off first. I can close the bulkheads and erect forcefields from out here. Wouldn’t a controlled breach trip the shutoff valve?”

  Erica slid up to Ahnix, her green eyes darting around as if she were trying to remember something.

  “Yes. That could work. But someone would still need to break the glass- from inside.”

  Vale crossed her arms. “There’s no other way?”

  Ahnix pointed to the map projecting from her arm. “I could seal this off, and we could go around, but it would take a lot longer- and there are a lot more security measures near the core.”

  “Guys, I can do this,” Roo pleaded. “I can trade projectile size for speed. If Mark enhances my Metalmancy really good, I bet I could punch through with a tiny pellet.”

  Erica wove her body close to Roo and put her hand on her white, velvet arm.

  “Please don’t get blown out into space.”

  Roo gave her a wide smile. “It’s okay. I’ll just make some wonderful, horrible hooks to hold onto.”

  “Alright, let’s do this,” Mark said. “If it doesn’t work, we just go around.”

  Ahnix closed her map and nodded. “Roo, you need to go in first, before I seal off the area.” Then she turned her half-lidded eyes on Mark. “Think you can hit her without being able to see her?”

  Mark focused his attention on the vast and potent bond he shared with his beautiful velvet construct and closed his eyes. Like Ahnix’s teleport, he had enhanced Roo’s basic attack many times.

  He opened his eyes. “Yeah. Pretty sure I can.”

  Roo put her hand on Mark’s shoulder and let it slide down his back as she walked toward the entrance to the Blackhole Bar and Grill. His eyes lowered to her short leather skirt as it lightly swished back and forth as her hips swayed. Her long, shapely legs pulled his mind off target and Mark had to shake his head to clear out the distracting thoughts. He had a job to do.

  When Roo pulled open the door, searing heat billowed out, and everyone but her and the metallic Erica shielded their face from the heat with their arms.

  The transparent door closed, and Mark watched his fabric girl calmly walk into the flames. Ahnix gave her a few seconds to clear the doorway and went over to a control panel on the wall. She tapped a few buttons on the interface and then on her hacker tool. A moment later, a massive bulkhead slammed down in front of the restaurant, and Mark heard a loud hum as a blue forcefield bubbled out in front of it.

  Roo was now trapped in a room filled with searing hot plasma. Mark closed his eyes, held on tightly to their bond and waited for her to tell him she was ready. He could feel her giddy excitement at being surrounded by intense swirling flames and at the prospect of creating a spectacular explosion.

  A few moments passed before he received an image of her blowing him a kiss from far away. It was time.
Mark traveled along their bond with his mind and quickly found the shiny reflective energy of her Metalmancy skill. As he had before, he visualized it as a liquid metal copy of Roo. Mark then mentally embraced the metal Roo and ran his fingers down her back to rest on her smooth, round ass. She had such a tiny, cute butt- just cupping it drove him wild. He poured this sensual, erotic energy into the metal representation of her ability and kissed her deeply.

  Mark felt the real Roo melt with intense pleasure. He kept up his side of the energy transference as long as he could, but many things happened at once that smashed his concentration.

  First, a loud blast drew his attention to the eruption of flames and debris being violently ejected into space. Second, his stomach dropped as it felt like the whole station shifted under his feet. Third, his connection to Roo pulsed with extreme worry and terror.

  He pushed everything else out of the way and focused on communicating with his velvet girl. He only received a jumble of panic from her and tried everything he could to send a message of calm. Roo’s chaotic mental cloud dissipated, and he felt a peaceful serenity wash over her. She was okay.

  Mark let out a sigh and finally realized that gravity had been turned off.

  “Mark! What’s happening?” Vale asked, her own panic raising. Her long tail wound around in the air sporadically as she tried to deal with the new, terrible freedom. Ahnix answered for him.

  “Artificial gravity has malfunctioned. Possibly due to the damage from the plasma leak.”

  The cat-girl simply teleported back to the panel she had been working on and typed a few more commands. A high-pressure hiss indicated that breathable atmosphere was currently being restored to the restaurant beyond. The thick bulkhead raised into the ceiling shortly after, and Mark saw melted metal covering everything, but it was otherwise completely empty.

  Mark felt terror raise in Ahnix. “I don’t see her.”

  “But you can feel her, right?” he asked, confused himself.

  “Yeah, she seems okay. Happy even. But where is she?”

  A loud thunk pulled everyone’s attention to the nearby window, and despite the lack of gravity, Mark’s heart fell through the floor. Far out in the blackness of space, a white human-shaped object was floating away from the station.