Overclocked -Ch 27- (Patreon)

Staring up at the Aerial-Hab, Wrench now knew what Goodie had done.

He was certainly surprised to say the least, but he wasn’t disappointed about the change. Having inhabitants in an Aerial-Hab helped with diversifying the closed ecosystem that they all shared.

While there wasn’t much in the way of interaction, having them there allowed for many other opportunities as a Fixer to help balance everything.

“This is-it’s all… I… it’s so big,” Seventh whispered, standing just outside the bounds of the filter with everyone else. It was morning now, which meant all the School-Hume of Wrench’s Hab were probably eating or getting out of bed.

Wrench wrestled with the immediate and somewhat infantile response that sprang to his mind at her words. After a second, he spaced it into the void and turned to look at her.

“It’s not so big once you get used to it. It’ll just take some time. I’m sure you won’t have any issues,” he remarked with a small nod of his head.

Seventh snorted at that, grinned, and looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“Oh? Is that why you brought me along? So I can get used to how big it is?” she asked with a coy look.

Apparently, while he’d managed to fight off the libido demons lurking about his mind, Seventh hadn’t.

Or she hadn’t bothered to try, which was actually pretty likely, given her background.

“Wrench, you didn’t… force yourself on her did you? That’s terrible,” Stripe asked with what sounded a lot like shock in her voice.

“No, no, he didn’t do-no. No,” Seventh stated clearly and firmly. Even reaching out to lay a hand to Stripe’s shoulder. Chuckles, Freckles, and everyone else were all moving toward the pens. Passing across the open field and looking around as they did so.

Pistol and Popsicle were lingering around Wrench rather than moving up with the group. They both looked incredibly pleased to be here, as well as excited.

“He didn’t do anything to me. We were forced to pair up once before your Tong-uh… before Goodie let Wrench trade one of his prizes away to get me. For me to come here,” Seventh explained. “I’m a seventh-generation-champion bred Brawler. They wanted me to push out Eighth, with Wrench as the daddy.”

“Oh. Well. That’s fine, then. Especially if you’re actually pregnant. This is a generational Hab. We’ll need kids from many couples,” replied Stripe with a warm and genuine smile.

“I see that. I wouldn’t mind having Eighth here, either. They’ll be given a different life than what I had, that’s for sure,” Seventh agreed.

Everyone fell silent at that and then began trooping along toward the pens as well.

When Wrench got to a point that they could probably see him through the windows, the door to the pens popped open and the School streamed out.

Dusky, Sparkle, and Duchess were at the front and led the way straight to him.

“Wrench-Head!” called a number of the School as they approached.

“It’s so good to see you,” Dusky breathed out in a rush as they all got near to him.

Faster than he could process, they goaded him out from between Stripe and Seventh, and into their School. Circling up around him and asking him a never-ending stream of questions that he could barely respond to before another was asked.

“I’ll explain it all at dinner, don’t worry,” Stripe offered, as Wrench stumbled through his answers. “I promise. Don’t worry. Everything is positive and good.”

The School had apparently not realized Stripe was there, or were perfectly accepting of her being inside their ranks. Their response to her being there was no response at all, other than a universal nodding of heads to her words.

“But what about that?” inquired Sparkle in a breathy tone, one delicate hand pointing up to the Aerial-Hab above them.

A number of vines, trees, and other decorative elements had been added. Providing a way for one to make it down from above, and back up, if they had the abilities to do so.

Which meant there was likely Grae up there that could easily be in the lower part of the Hab as much as the above.

Realizing this was an opportunity for him to alleviate a fear he expected them to all have, or a concern, he exited the School. Moving to the edge where everyone could see him, he held up his hands as everyone looked his way.

“It’s just an Aerial-Hab. I have no idea why Goodie got it, but she did,” answered Wrench with a smile and a laugh. “It’s not a bad thing. I promise. The only real interaction you’ll ever have with it is if a Grae decides to come down, and that’s somewhat unlikely. They’ll be as wary of us, as we are of them.”

Once again, he didn’t want to over-state knowledge he didn’t quite have, but he knew a few things about them.  He had met enough of them before to learn how to care for them at least, and what he didn’t know, he could infer as well.

It didn’t hurt that he’d learned more recently, when he visited Dickhead’s Hab.

There’d been a number of Fixer manuals on proper care for Grae, as it was expected for the Fixer to tend to them.

“Beyond that, they’re really only interested in metallic items that are shiny, or fruits. If you have either of those, don’t leave the pens with them. You’ll likely lose them,” Wrench continued with another laugh. “They’ll come down, take it, and then scurry back up and off.

“And if you do bring it out, and a Grae takes it, just… let them have it. It’s not worth the trouble trying to get it back, and they’re much more physically fit than we are. They can even —”

There was a hard thump next to him as a Grae appeared.

It looked nearly identical to the one he’d seen previously in the other Hab. However, it had several scratch marks across its lower abdomen that looked like it’d inadvertently been harmed, or harmed itself, during the transfer to this Hab.

Wrench guessed this, since the scratches were deep and looked a lot like Grae claw marks, but there were no signs of violence elsewhere.

If it was a fight with another Grae, it wouldn’t have stopped with the claws.

There was a communal squeak, shriek, and gasp at the creature’s sudden arrival.

“They can even drop down from above if they want to,” Wrench finished and looked to the Grae. It’d decided to stand up to its full height and was an easy six foot six. Taller than himself, in fact. “This is actually a perfect example of a Grae. If you pay close attention to much of its anatomy, you’ll find that it shares some things with Hume, but there’s a great deal that it doesn’t as well.”

Wrench held his hands up and to the Grae, and waited.

The Grae’s red eyes moved from his face, to his hands, then back to his face. Slowly, it tilted its head to one side, almost to a ninety-degree angle.

“While their eyes are particularly note-worthy, they’re not actually that special,” Wrench said, and then slowly reached out with one hand. So long as he did it very slowly, and carefully, he didn’t think it’d bolt or harm him.

The fact that it had appeared as it did, meant it was far more curious than the one he’d seen in the other Hab. That one had hissed at him and fled.

Coming close to the Grae’s face, Wrench paused. Then he slowly pointed a finger toward her eye and looked back to the group.

“They see more or less the same way we do. All of the manuals and machines for keeping a Grae list it out as being similar in their needs,” Wrench said. Then he moved his finger down toward the Grae’s mouth. “They eat the same stuff we do, surprisingly. Their teeth are similar as well.”

The Grae’s nose wrinkled and it opened its mouth and closed it around Wrench’s finger. He wasn’t concerned about this, as he’d found several passages that noted Grae tended to taste test things.

“Realistically, there’s no way for us to communicate with them that we know of,” Wrench continued, ignoring the Grae as it idly gnawed carefully at his finger without any real intent to bite him. “They’re sentient, aware, and can think and reason as well as a Hume can.

“A bit more animalistic than we’re used to, but very much just another pet species the Tongsta doesn’t understand. Just like us.”

Wrench looked to the Grae and stared into its eyes as it held his finger.

“I kind of need that back,” Wrench murmured and smiled at the Grae. He pulled his finger back an inch to see if the creature would let go.

It did so, then showed its teeth to him.

Shit. Err… do I have anything it’d want on me?

Hm.

Oh!

Reaching into a pocket, Wrench pulled out one of the pills Small-Boy had given him.

Slowly, Wrench moved his hand toward the Grae’s middle. Causing it to look down at his hand, then back to him.

Seeing no resistance, and that it wasn’t moving away, Wrench continued.

He briefly laid his fingertips to the wounds. There was a heat to it that made him wonder if it was actually infected. He gently patted the wounds, then held up the pill in front of himself.

“Here you go. Take this,” he stated, then mimed eating the pill. Then he held it out toward the Grae. “Take it. Eat it. It’ll help. The way your body fixes things isn’t that different from my own.”

The Grae’s brows moved lower when he’d touched it, then together when he held up the pill.

Slowly, it leaned forward and took the pill from his hand with their mouth, rather than using their fingers.

“Don’t chew it,” Wrench said and shook his head while making chewing motions with his mouth. Then he made a deep swallowing noise. “Swallow it. Whole. No chew. Swallow.”

The Grae wrinkled its nose, looked like it was considering chewing, then swallowed instead. It made a curious face and then made an odd honking noise. Followed by several soft chitters that sounded like clicking noise.

“It’s a girl?” asked Pistol.

“The Grae that are allowed to live with Hume are always female. The male ones are rather antagonistic,” Stripe offered. Repeating the same information he’d given her.

To be fair, it helps hearing similar information from someone else. Even if I was the one to give it to her.

“Alright. Well. Let’s all go have breakfast. We have things to discuss I imagine. Then I need to take Gadget and Swifty here through the ducts and get them aware of everything,” Wrench said, looking away from the Grae once it stopped making noise. “I’ll probably need to see about requesting an access tower to get to the Aerial-Hab as well. I’ll need to make sure they’re all hooked up, up there.”

“Good,” Dusky proclaimed and took his arm in her own.

“Yes, please,” added Spook from the side. The man had a smirk on his face and what looked like a stack of met-ape in one arm. “We have a lot to discuss. You didn’t mention how amazing your Hab was, Wrench-Head.

“The systems here make what should be the workload of ten or twenty Admini able to be done by one or two. This is an amazing Hab.

“Also, I don’t think you need to worry about the Aerial-Hab. There’s a ‘self-replicating skybridge’ in the loading bay. Goodie put it there when they attached the Aerial-Hab. I imagine that’s the connector you mentioned.”

“Of course they did that. And considering Goodie probably bet heavily on Wrench, we might get some upgrades,” Seventh interjected. “By the way, have they always been like that to Wrench? They dote on him heavily.”

“Yes,” came the communal response.

***

With a growl and a grunt, Wrench heaved on his namesake. The massive wrench felt more like he was holding onto it, rather than using it to rotate a bolt.

“Go-the-fuck-in-you-fat-bastard!” yelled Wrench, as he put the entirety of his being into the work.

With a creak, the bolt rotated fractionally.

Then it let out a pop as the self-sealing adhesive inside the bolt was finally released. The entirety of the skybridge being bond at an actual molecular level to the main Hab buildings.

“Holy fuck,” panted Wrench, letting go of his tool and then bending over at the waist. “I never want to do this again. Shit. Shit fuck. Fuck me.”

“No thanks,” Swifty got out in a pant not far away. They’d been taking turns on the bolts. “I’m into Gadget.”

“You can definitely get into me,” answered the female Fixer. She was sprawled out with her arms and legs spread out in every direction on the ground. “I ain’t gonna do fuck-all to earn it though. My body is… my body is broken. Yeah. Broken.”

“I get that,” Swifty muttered and then laid down on the ground as well.

“I mean, we’re done. Finally,” Wrench said and then stood up. “Now we just have to go up and check the sensors up there.”

“Have fun, boss,” Gadget answered and volunteered at the same time.

“Yeah, go get’em boss,” Swifty agreed.

Chuckling, Wrench let out a sigh, then nodded his head.

Stripe stepped up next to him and gave him a smile, offering him a water-bottle held with one hand, an oat bar in the other. Ever waiting for an opportunity to assist him, she was practically his assistant at this point.

“Here you go, Wrench,” she said, practically bouncing in place. “Good job! That looked really hard. Thank you for the hard work.”

Unable to help it, Wrench grinned back at her.

Her warm, bubbly, and helpful nature had won him over quickly. He found himself often thinking about her, or just wanting to be near her.

While they were still new to one another, almost barely more than strangers, it was hard on Wrench. What he saw barely starting to form, to grow with her, was exactly the type of connection he wanted.

Something neither Dusky nor Seventh had offered him, even though they both had already shared a bed with him.

“They fucking?” Gadget asked in a whisper that wasn’t quite a whisper.

“I mean, we were fucking with less flirting,” Swifty answered.

“I-eh… fair. Fair,” responded the Fixer.

Stripe turned bright red, looked down to the ground, and said nothing. Wrench didn’t miss the smile that was on her face though.

She liked the idea of what they’d said, but didn’t have the confidence or craving to act on it at this point.

Wrench could wait till they were both more comfortable. He wasn’t in a rush, and he didn’t want to screw this up.

He was desperate for a real relationship.

“I’m going to head up then and check on the sensors,” Wrench said after taking a drink from the water. Then he took a bite of the oat-bar.

Stripe nodded her head quickly, reached out to briefly touch his forearm with her fingertips, then scurried off.

“Sorry, Boss,” Gadget mumbled after Stripe bolted. “Didn’t realize she was the shy and bashful type. Still on day one here.”

“Yeah, sorry Boss,” Swifty piped in.

“It’s fine. She and I are working on it,” Wrench murmured with a grin. Turning, he started going up the skybridge’s stairwell. It’d be a fairly long climb.

By the time he made it to the top, Wrench was slightly winded and planned on putting in a request for an elevator. There was no way in hell he’d be carrying anything up that stairwell that weighed more than his clothes.

Exiting out of the skybridge and into the Aerial-Hab area, he saw five Grae all turn toward him.

They’d been inspecting the area and its surroundings. He imagined they were curious, since it’d simply grown out of nowhere and appeared in their section of the Hab.

Four of them skittered off, two of them making their honking noise as they did so.

All of them probably afraid he was there to harm them.

The fifth did the opposite.

Dropping from the tree branch it’d been hanging on, it landed on the skybridge and stood upright. It made several clicking noises, a whistle, and a soft honk while walking toward him.

There were thin scabs along its stomach that were quite nearly falling off of her.

Ah. The pill definitely did its job. She’s looking at full health.

The Grae came right up to him and stared at him. Her eyes darted down to his water bottle and the back-end of his oat-bar.

“Uh, want it?” Wrench asked and then offered the remains of the oat-bar. He wasn’t above sharing with a Grae.

Except there was no mistaking he’d been eating it, he imagined. If they were particular they’d—

Wrench needn’t have worried. The Grae took it, popped it into its mouth and began chewing. Not caring at all that he’d been eating it.

He offered her the water bottle next, which she took and peered at curiously.

Making a quick motion toward his mouth with an imaginary water bottle, Wrench pointed at the bottle, then the Grae’s mouth.

Then he brushed his hands off against his pants and then walked over to the maintenance panel at the edge of the skybridge. The Grae trailed along behind him and began drinking from the water bottle.

She’d figured it out almost instantly and was now sipping at it while watching him.

“Well, you’re rather bright, aren’t you? I bet you’re just like me,” Wrench said, glancing at the Grae as he began to physically confirm all the sensors were seated, active, and sending data. “We think less of you because we can’t effectively communicate, but you’re alive. Thinking. Reasoning.

“Figuring things out in your own way. Just like me and how Goodie treats me.”

The Grae let out a soft grunt, followed by several whistles, clicks, and then a hoot.

“Exactly. It just sounds like noises to me, but you’re talking to me. Telling me I’m an ugly Hume, but interesting. Right?” asked Wrench with a grin and then began laughing. “Though, if we’re going to compliment and insult one another… you’ve got great racks. Impressively put together for a monster-like creature. I’d love to stare at you and watch you climb a tree.”

A look that Wrench easily identified as confusion came over the Grae’s face. Followed by a wide mouthed grimace and a repeated hissing noise.

No idea what the fuck that is, but maybe it’s her version of laughter?

Licking his lips, he sighed, closed the panel and then stood up. Everything was as it should be.

His trip up here would be punctuated by him never-having needed making it.

Suddenly, the Grae held the water bottle out to him. It still had water in it.

Wrench hesitated only for a second before he took it from the Grae, then took a gulp from it. Then offered it back to the Grae.

Who received it and drank from it as well.

“Well, you’re fun company,” Wrench admitted, looking at the Grae’s face. “Kinda weird. A lot like talking to a walking arsenal, given you could tear me apart. But fun company.

“Did you like that oat-bar? Should I bring you another one later? Eh… we’ll have to try some things out. No reason not to ply you with treats and snacks. You can help me up here.

“Be a Grae-Fixer. First of your kind. Right?”

Finishing off the water-bottle, the Grae peered at it. Then she gently set it down on the wall next to them. Only to turn her piercing gaze back on him.

“Stomach okay?” Wrench asked, then pointed at her stomach.

Looking down at herself, the Grae realized what he was asking.

She made the flat grimace at him once again, took his hand in her own taloned one, and pressed it to her stomach. She chittered in clicks, snippets of wheezes, and a whistle.

The warmth he’d felt earlier was gone and all that remained was the slightly odd feeling flesh of a Grae and the muscles beneath.

Wrench hesitated, then bent down, staring at the place she’d been wounded. It really did look better.

From close up, he realized that the scabs weren’t ready to fall off, they already had. They were just stuck there.

He brushed them loose with his fingertips, then nodded his head. Standing up, he looked to the Grae and smiled at her. He assumed at this point that the odd grimace was her own version of a smile.

“Well, I’m glad you’re better. Hopefully that was accidental after all and not someone harming you,” Wrench stated. “That’d—”

“Oh! Wrenchie! There you are!” Goodie proclaimed, hovering over the top of the Hab.

The Grae looked up at the Tongsta and then crouched down low.

Wrench unthinkingly put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it, looking up to Goodie.

“Hi Goodie. Just making sure everything is good up here,” he said and waved his free hand at the Tongsta.

“I bet you’re just saying hi to the Grae. Aren’t you? Cause you’re my special good boy. My baby!” Goodie excitedly gushed. “Thank you for taking care of them as well. I see you already set up the skybridge and everything. You’re such an amazing Fixer. Amazing!

“Though, wanna know something equally fantastic? Your mommy is amazing. You wouldn’t know it but I’m a spssss! There’s only a handful of those in every spssss! That’s how special your mommy is.”

Wrench could only nod his head. He had no idea what Goodie was talking about this time.

At his side, the Grae had slowly stood up and was staring up at the Tongsta as well. Wrench’s hand had slid down from her shoulder and now dangled at his side.

“Wanna see where mommy works? I made a special little Hab for you to come to work with me,” Goodie asked nervously. There was tension in her voice. “If you want to, that is. I know it wouldn’t be as comfortable as your Hab here but… it’d be nice to have you with me, Wrench. Do you wanna come with me? It’d only be for one day of your own time. That’s when my shift ends. It’s a short shift so it won’t be too bad.

“Then you’d come back to your Hab and I wouldn’t have another shift for a little while. So… what do you say? Wanna come with mommy, my good boy? My Wrenchie?

“I could show you around the spssss and where mommy works. You could go anywhere I do and no one will say anything. Everyone thinks it’s amazing to have the games champion on board with them.”

He didn’t need to be a genius to realize Goodie really did want him to come with her.

“Okay. I’ll go with you,” Wrench promised with a nod of his head. Then he kept nodding his head, remembering that she needed to see a great deal of that for her to understand.

“Really? You will? That’s great! Ooh! It’ll be so nice to have you with me Wrenchie!” Goodie cheered. “We’ll go tomorrow morning. Oh, oh, and in a few days, a bunch of the stuff I bought arrives!

“So many new and nice things for you Wrenchie! I ah… I hope you don’t mind, but I got a few specific special Solos. They’re all Prime-Demes! I’ve had them bound to you specifically in their profile, so you won’t have to worry about them being around other males.

“They’re really pretty! I picked them out while we were at the games! They had them on display and I won them with some special betting on you. Though I still feel really bad for having you in the games, Wrench.

“Oh, I hope you have some really cute Hume with them. We’ll keep a few so you and the mothers can raise them together, but we’ll have to find homes for some of the others. Nice homes. Your genetic line will have to be very carefully protected now.

“Especially if you end up having children with Seventh. That’ll be an amazing pedigree.”

Wrench only sighed at that, smiled bitterly, and nodded his head.

He didn’t need more women like that at all. With any luck he could trade them for things he did need.

The Grae began making sputtering, growling, and honking noises. Waving a hand up at Goodie.

She didn’t seem very happy about the Tongsta still being there, at all.