System Overclocked 2 -ch23- (Patreon)

<Tickaht NSFW Scene Here>

Wrench shook his head and once again lamented the fact that they couldn’t actually check the room for a Tongsta before hand. They simply had to hope that there wasn’t anyone in the compartment when they opened the maintenance door of the tank.

“All you can do when walking into an ambush is be prepared for that,” Tickaht advised from behind him. A hand was placed on his back as they both hovered there against the door. “If there’s a Tongsta, we do just what we said. Rush up and into the access point for the duct, shoot down it. Find a new place to hide.”

Nodding his head, Wrench couldn’t disagree with that. That was the plan they’d come up with after all and had been what he’d suggested to a degree.

It just felt lacking even then.

On an exhale, Wrench pushed the door open and quickly moved back behind the wall. Peering out into the compartment he looked to where he’d expect a Tongsta to be.

There wasn’t any there.

His eyes flit about the room quickly, checking everywhere else, then the hall that led into the compartment. There wasn’t any Tongsta anywhere.

“Good, good,” Tickaht said and moved past him and then went upward.

Wrench grabbed their toilet and shot off to the corner. Dumping the contents out behind an odd console that was half mechanical and have goo, he shook it clear.

The waste water and splashed against the wall and then got stuck on a metal lip. It didn’t look like it was going to float outward and remained in place there.

Perfect.

Moving back to the tank he put their toilet back down, then dumped water using his hands rapidly.

He wasn’t too concerned about spilling as it’d evaporate all on it’s own.

Once it was reasonably full he moved the bucket back to it’s original position near the not-filter.

Exiting the tank he shut the door and looked up.

Tickaht was there, holding the grate open and watching their surroundings.

Joining her he entered the duct.

She shut the access point behind them and then looked to him. Her head slowly tilting to one side.

He could see her face behind her helmet and a gradual Grae smile was spreading across it. Her eyes growing wide and round.

“We hunt now?” she asked in a tone that had a happy growl accompany it.

“Yeah. See if we can find a Hume Hab, or just Hab systems, we can get ahold of. If not that, then we’re on a scouting run,” Wrench murmured quietly. “Tools, furniture, anything we need to make our lives better.”

“Tools?” Tickaht asked.

“Cups or bowls would be nice. Or anything else that might be useful to make our lives a bit easier to live in the tank. I have no idea how long we’ll be there till we can get back to Goodie,” Wrench admitted. “So yeah. Stuff like that.”

“Ah… yes. I understand. You’re right. I don’t have a mind suitable for home-making. Thank you for handling that,” Tickaht replied with a honking chuckle. She reached out and ran a hand along his neck, down to his shoulder, and pausing at his elbow. “Okay, what else?”

Wrench had to forcefully wrench his mind back into place. He had a mind filled to the top with memories of having sex with Tickaht.

Given the way she was touching him it lent itself to how touchy-feely she’d been during their love-play.

“If we can’t find a Hab, or Hab systems, then we should try to find the main cargo bay again. With the transports,” continued Wrench, pushing his thoughts along. “That’ll be how we get out of here. Maybe.

“If they put into a port it’d link into our implants and fire off a signal. So we just have to try and wait for a transport being launched.

“Could manage that by either just sitting in the cargo bay, or trying to find whatever their command center is and listening in.

“What d’you think? What sounds best to you?”

“Scoutting for a Hab… I don’t think we’ll find one,” muttered Tickaht. “You’re right that these aren’t pirates. They’re rebels. They live to fight. It’s a warship hunting warships. The idea of one of them having a Hume Hab is… far fetched at best. It’d give their position away, would it not?”

“Yeah,” agreed Wrench.

“Then we should scout for one, but not expect one. Your second idea is also our true goal,” Tickaht continued with a dip of her head in a nod. Many of her original mannerisms and body language was moving at break-neck speed toward Hume. He had no idea if she was doing it on purpose. “— try to find their command center. It’ll give us an idea of what’s going on, how to act, and what to do.

“We’ll also know if they’re heading for a port. We can pre-emptively get ahead of it and then get into the transport.”

“Agreed. And even beyond that, we could deliberately cause a failure or fault so that they’d have to go check it. If we do enough damage, it’d be forced to go to a port, in fact,” concluded Wrench.

Then he gestured down the pipe ahead of them. Tickaht let out a soft honk. He couldn’t tell if it was a chuckle or something else.

Turning she began moving down the pipe.

She didn’t throw down as much speed as she’d done previously.

Not even after they took the turn in the pipe.

She moved at a speed that was fast, but not overly so. Wrench had no issue flying along right at her side.

Though he had tried to stay at her ankle at first, she’d slowed down for a second to move beside him. He imagined it probably had some type of significance in her head.

Slowly, one access point at a time, Wrench and Tickaht slowed down at each.

If it wasn’t something they could identify quickly, they’d come to a stop and peer inside. By and large, they found that most compartments were what looked to be barracks, storage, and empty compartments.

While they spotted numerous Tongsta, the vast majority of them weren’t speaking. They were sleeping, working, or going about their business. Never realizing for a moment that two pairs of eyes were watching them.

“I feel like a gremlin,” whispered Wrench while they flew on after inspecting an empty room.

“What?” asked Tickaht.

“A gremlin is a small creature that lurks inside machines and vehicles. It causes problems and breaks things. Superstitious belief and make believe,” explained Wrench. “The concept is basically the opposite of a Fixer, I suppose.”

“Yes. We are Gremlins. Small predators can be just as dangerous as large ones,” replied a laughing Tickaht. “We should most definitely cause problems. With so many systems and spaces empty, it shouldn’t be hard at all to make an issue. Should it?”

“No. Not at all. Just getting into one of their machines will cause problems,” admitted Wrench. “Beyond that… there’s a bunch of sensitive components that doesn’t respond well to water. Water isn’t a normal element they want or need. They view it as a problem and try to keep it’s usage, limited.”

“Oh? How fortunate that they’re that different from us,” Tickaht murmured, her voice falling off as they came up to the next access point. “Or that they think of us as pets.”

Easing up to the access grate, Wrench looked inside.

This room was on an interior line rather than an exterior line. Where the compartment was at the center of the ship, rather than the exterior.

He assumed this because this access duct, or pipe, they were in went everywhere through the ship. Only to return back to it’s point of origin.

It was a closed loop.

Given how most things were laid out, that meant there would be four points that a compartment could be on.

Two exterior, two interior.

As soon as he saw the contents of the room, he’d found one of their goals.

The engine room was laid out neatly in front of them.

There wasn’t even a Tongsta on duty in it that he could tell.

Given his previous experience with a Tongsta warship, he now knew exactly what he was looking at.

On top of that, the last one he’d been in had exploded, which meant he had a great advantage on making this one possibly do the same. He could even set up some type of container that could create a drip feed right down into a machine that’d be like a fuse of sorts.

He wouldn’t even have to linger to make sure it went off.

“This looks important,” remarked Tickaht with a hiss. “We should gremlin this compartment. Right?”

Yes… we should very much gremlin it,” agreed Wrench. Then he gestured with his head. They needed to keep moving and scouting it all out. “This is the engine room. I hesitate to want to go after it immediately as it could leave us marooned. We’ll keep looking for any other targets.”

“Ah, yes. That is definitely a target for us, but also one we must be careful about. I see your point,” mused Tickaht.

They moved on down the duct.

***

Peering out of the access point, Wrench really wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. They were quite literally looking down in the heart and brains of the rebel ship.

He and Tickaht had finally found it at the exact end of the access line. Beyond this point it moved back down and away. Down along the other side of the ship.

No one was speaking.

The Tongsta were there, but nothing was being verbalized in any way. They were quite literally floating around, manning stations, and doing nothing at all.

None of them had tentacles out, though Wrench felt like they were operating the controls despite that. That this was part of what made Tongsta so strange at times.

That they could act upon things that were made specifically for them, that Hume just couldn’t understand. In ways that weren’t discernible.

It might even be why they think we’re non sentient.

Did they put a bunch of Hume down in front of something they consider simple? Something basic?

We failed that and forever after they just thought we were animals?

Hm.

By and large the Tongsta don’t seem to genuinely mean us harm, it just comes down to the Tongsta themselves.

Like… Hume.

Just like Hume.

Unwilling to speak, Wrench and Tickaht stood watching.

They’d been hopping to be able to listen in to what was going on. That didn’t seem to be likely given that they weren’t speaking at all.

Tickaht huffed and appeared to be frustrated. Not that he could blame her, he was feeling pretty annoyed himself.

The fact that they weren’t saying anything that they could hear, would make it nearly impossible to get actionable information.

Tickaht looked around rapidly, her helmet turning one way, then the other, then entirely spinning around. She was clearly looking for something.

Then she stepped away and quickly bent over. She picked something up, spun back around, then whipped her arm forward.

What?

Wrench couldn’t react to how fast she moved. By the time he understood what was happening, what ever she threw, had already slammed into something in the control room.

“Huh?” said a Tongsta. “What was that?”

“I… don’t know?” replied another Tongsta. “Xxhht, go take a look.”

Errr, they’re talking now. Were they just not talking up to this moment?

Just-just working away?

What in the hell.

Tongsta are so damn weird.

Just standing there worthlessly.

Fricking zombies.

Looking to Tickaht he found her shaking her head slowly. She was apparently just as confused as he was about the situation.

Moving away from the access point she pushed him into the duct ahead of herself. Bringing him away from the grate.

She stopped a good distance away from it and turned him around. Holding him by the shoulders she pushed her helmet’s visor up to his.

“Wrench, I’m going to go back to the one of the rooms. The one you said was the cafeteria would b egood. I’ll cause a disruption there. You stay here and listen. See what happens,” she requested. “If this works, one of us can go cause mayhem, while the other listens and watches.”

Thinking on that, Wrench found no way to refuse her suggestion. It actually made sense. The only real issue he had with it, was he was nervous about her doing the sabotage.

“I’d be better at causing issues,” argued Wrench. “That and I think I’d be more likely to survive a Tongsta attack.”

Tickaht’s cheeks immediately turned read, a grimace snapped into place on her face, and her eyes became rounder than he’d ever seen before. It was as if she’d lit up from the inside with his words.

“Thank you for caring for me. For wanting to protect me. The reason I said you should stay here, despite you knowing how to break things better than I, is you would understand the Tongsta better,” Tickaht countered. “Thank you for your care. I enjoy it. I want more. I long for it.

“But in this case… it’s better for you to stay here. The point is to understand what they’ll do when things break. Not to break things. I can do that well enough without really knowing how to do it.

“You said water breaks things. Maybe I’ll undo my zero suit and aim for one of them. With the weightlessness of the environment I’ll be like a squirt gun. I just have to get close enough that aiming is trivial.”

Blinking several times, Wrench really had to process what’d just been said. Then he nodded his head once he had.

She’s crude.

She’s to the point.

She makes Seventh seem polite and delicate.

She’s a whole lot of fun.

I rather like it.

Reaching up, Wrench put a hand to Tickaht’s visor.

“Be safe about it then. When we get back home you and I are going to have a very long talk with Stripe,” stated Wrench. “Long talk and see what she thinks. Though I’m fairly certain I know what she’ll say.”

Tickaht’s grimace stretched to the point that it looked like her jaw might unhinge.

She even began to practically vibrate in place.

“She spoke to me several times when she had the chance. They were quick but… I understood what she wanted. What she intended,” Tickaht whispered. “I’ll be safe, because I already had a talk with Stripe. I made my intentions clear to her, and she accepted them gracefully.”

Tickaht reached up and put her hand on the same spot for his own helmet.

“Now… watch them. Watch the ruckus I cause,” Tickaht demanded, then fled away. Spinning through the duct as she sped away and down it.

“Alright… well… let’s go see how they react to bad things happening. It should prove enlightening. Maybe they’ll even talk about their plans if the damage is bad enough,” mused Wrench to himself. Moving back down the pipe he reached the access point.

The Tongsta had once again falling silent and weren’t saying anything at all. They were completely still, unspeaking, and at their positions.

Damn creepy.

Absolutely creepy.

Not moving, barely breathing, Wrench stood there. Trying to see if and when Tickaht made her move and if it’d be obvious.

There was also a slowly growing unease in his chest.

In his mind, there were four people that he didn’t want to see harmed or bothered. Three felt obvious to him, and the fourth was a sudden surprise.

Stripe is easy… I guess I’m trying to marry Stripe. Everything else is secondary to her. If she said to push everyone away I would.

In fact, I tried.

She was the one who pushed me to Seventh.

Now I can’t imagine not having Seventh in my life. That big Brawler and her unused brain… she’s a great companion. Someone I can count on in a stand up fright and to take hits for me.

Goodie is an obvious one because-because she’s mommy.

Patron saint of the Hume.

Without her we’d lose the best chance I’ve ever heard of, seen, or even dreamt of.

And now there’s Tickaht.

A strange, wild, freespirit alien that genuinely seems to hunt me, or tempt me, in equal measure. That’s the weirdest one out of all of them.

Now I’m sitting here worry if she’s going to—

A distant rumble broke through his thoughts. Then the ship itself shuddered violently followed by sirens, alarms, and a whole bunch of things all happening at once.

“Explosions in-explosions… in the armory,” reported a Tongsta. “The whole thing just-the sensors-its all exploded. It’s a non-flammable compartment so there’s no concern for fire. The explosion blew out a hole in the hull and it’s been exposed to space.”

What?

“Space?” asked someone in a shocked voice.

“The emergency shield went up immediately. It’ll need to be repaired quickly, but the shield should hold. Nothing was ejected in the split second that it was spaced,” continued the same voice. “The whole compartment is absolutely boxed though. Boxed husked. There’s just… it’s boxed. That was our main armory for the forward Star Cannons. We’ll have to repair it at a station.”

“Damnit. Damnit all,” growled the other speaker. Wrench was betting on them being the captain of the vessel. “That’ll put us ahead of schedule but… but without the forward star cannon we won’t be able to stick to the schedule anyways.

“Alright. Put-put us on a course for the xxhht station. Swap the xxhht when we enter the clan space.”

“Aye,” answered someone else.

Then Wrench was bumped to one side a few inches.

Looking over, he saw Tickaht.

Grimacing at him and her tongue sticking out and rubbing at one of her serrated teeth. There was a very pleased look to her face.

He’d seen it a number of times now, so he’d know it immediately.

Though it’d been in the dark and with her pressed to their bed, but it was obviously the same. She was incredibly pleased.

“I blew it up. I pooped on it,” she got out with a wheezing honking laugh. “Emptying my bowels right into the control system. It was a weird Tongsta goo machine so I had no idea what to do with it. You said liquids were bad for it and… well, I went to the bathroom on it.

“I figured why not. I wasn’t feeling well, my guts were hurting weirdly, and it just all came out. I figured… it was perfect.

“Actually, now that I consider it maybe you think it’s gross. I don’t really think it’s gross but I’m Grae. We prefer to live in trees than pens and compartments. All our bathroom needs are done in the corner of the Hab from the canopy. Is this gross for a Hume?”

Oh.

That’s right.

Tongsta dispenser food gives you the shits.

Damn that’ll suck for a while.

“No, it isn’t gross. I just didn’t think about it,” Wrench mumbled.