System Overclocked -ch26- (Patreon)

Wrench was now bored.

He’d been lurking in the Tongsta corpse for a bit now.

Other than moving it over to the side of the bridge it’d been completely ignored since then. No one had bothered with it otherwise.

It was somewhat surprising as he’d genuinely thought they’d move the corpse somewhere for safe keeping. For Hume it was the filter so that there wasn’t any future issues.

Apparently Tongsta didn’t have those concerns, or these Tongsta in particular didn’t. The corpse was nothing more than something to be moved around while going about your duties.

Then again, maybe their bodies don’t rot the way a Hume does.

Maybe… maybe those stupid machines are theirs are made out of Tongsta?

Who the hell knows.

Damnit, if I knew they’d be like this I would have made a break for it. There’s no reason to sit here like this at all.

Now I’m even further from the access duct.

Damnit.

Shaking his head, Wrench came to the final thought that he needed to get out of here as soon as possible. He was just wasting time and he had no idea how long his zero suit would have oxygen.

After a time the breathable air in it would get thin unless he took it into an oxygen filled enviornment. After that it just refilled itself all on it’s own thankfully.

If it didn’t, he and Tickaht would’ve likely perished a while back.

Wrench felt a strange and heavy vibration in the air. One that made his teeth feel strange. As if they were rattling against one another.

“The hell is going on now?” demanded the Tongsta that’d taken over. They were standing in front of the strange machine that’d stripped the Tongsta goop off Wrench. They had two tentacles inside of it.

“Something just blew up in the armory,” reported another Tongsta.

After the newly-minted captain had taken over, a number of Tongsta had left. There were now only three Tongsta inside of the bridge.

“What?” squawked the Tongsta. “The armory? Everything is put away safe there.”

“Well, something blew up and—”

A much larger rumble shook Wrench this time. As if a rather large detonation had gone off.

“Damnit!” swore the captain. “Okay… we’re closer. We’ll handle it. Let the repair crew know to keep working.”

The captain pulled his tentacles out of the device and floated over to the exit hall.

“Bridge to repair crew two, continue repairs. Going to the armory,” said another Tongsta before the other two joined the captain.

Well. I don’t know why that happened and I don’t care.

Time to go.

Wrench flew out of the tunneler.

He was covered in dead Tongsta goo.

It was literally all over him.

Uh, fuck.

Taking a few seconds he shot toward one of the Tongsta-like machines. He quickly rolled himself over it repeatedly. Cramming his body against it in a hug, only to try and do the same with his back.

It only took him about ten seconds he figured, but it was worth getting all the Tongsta off of him.

Kicking off from the machine he shot toward the access point.

Which opened wide as he did.

Someone was standing there just inside, waiting for him. He of course knew who it was instantly.

“Tickaht!” breathed Wrench and simply flew toward her.

“Ah… Wrench you—”

He caught the Grae up under the arms and hugged her tightly. Trying his damndest to crush her into himself outright.

To which the lean and muscular Grae responded in kind. Her hands gripping to his back and pressing tight to him.

Not letting her go Wrench eased up on his hug and then grabbed the grate. He pulled it up and latched it into place, before getting his arm back around the Grae. Once more engaging in just holding to her.

“Yes… hello, Wrench,” mumbled Tickaht. “Hello. I… ah… hello.”

Tickaht tucked her head in and had it stuck into his neck. Her arms had retracted partially and were now pressed to his waist. Her legs had drifted up and had linked around his thighs.

In a weird way, Tickaht had turned herself into a backpack that was on his front.

“I came back. I know I was supposed to stay there but… I just kept getting angrier and angrier,” growled Tickaht. He could hear the anger in her words. That anger was growing with every word as well. “My thoughts kept turning back to you being hurt. Or getting caught. And… and… and I just got angry. Really angry.”

Tickaht finished by headbutting him. Her helmeted head thumping into his shoulder. She did so three more times.

Listening to her, Wrench had begun moving them down the duct. He’d done what he wanted to in the bridge. Right now he wanted to get back to the tank and get his suit refilled with oxygen.

“Well, I wasn’t angry. I was scared. Scared about you finding food. Finding water. Getting oxygen,” Wrench admitted, not releasing his hold on the Grae. He held onto her and flew onward down the duct.

“I just did the same thing over there, that we did here,” she grumbled. “It was very similar, just bigger. Didn’t find food though. Wasn’t able to find a Tongsta dispenser. I’m hungry.”

That made sense to him. Any Tongsta location would likely have similar duct systems.

“You were scared?” Tickaht asked in a quiet voice.

“Yeah. Like I said. Wasn’t sure you’d be okay.”

Tickaht grunted at that. Gently thumping her helmeted head against his shoulder. Over and over as they flew down the ducts.

“I was scared, then. I was scared that you would get caught or hurt,” finished Tickaht, her head laying down to his shoulder now. “Scared and angry. These aren’t normal feelings for Grae. It all makes me angry.”

“Pretty sure you’ve been doing a lot of non-Grae things as of late. Can guarantee most Grae don’t have sex with Hume or want to play house with a Hume. They don’t put on Hume clothes and then run around talking to them.”

Tickaht honked softly at that. He was fairly certain that was some sort of sigh for her in this case

“I was never a good Grae to begin with but… yes. You’re not wrong. Though I do think that there are other Grae like me. Others Grae who… ah… want to play house with a Hume.”

“I’m sure there are Hume who wouldn’t mind playing house with a Grae either.”

“Most Grae are satisfied with our culture and beliefs. If you were to ask ten, nine would say they’re happy. I think I just had bad experiences in my early life and… and that just set me up for the rest.”

Wrench felt that sounded likely. There would be just as many Hume who were happy with their situation in Hume society.

It was individual Hume that made Habs bad, not their strange caste system.

“I’m looking at you, Tickaht. I’m longing for you,” Wrench offered up. That felt like the best thing to say to her at the moment.

“I want you to only to look at me. Long only for me. I’ll be your only Grae,” whispered Tickaht, suddenly sounding panicked. “It’s all too fast. Too sudden. Too much. But it feels right. Is it that we’ve been trapped alone for so long? It’s been a long time, hasn’t it? I’ve had two child-catching cycles go by.”

Wrench had done his best to keep track of time, but he wasn’t sure. Nor did he know if a ‘child-catching’ cycle was the same as a Hume female’s period, but it was likely. He just didn’t know how long that cycle was for a Grae.

Best he could figure it was something close to two months since they’d been on the ship. Though he couldn’t be sure.

Without any way to measure time, it could have been sixth months, it could have been two weeks.

“My only Grae, huh?” Wrench asked, reaching the back of the ship. Taking the turn he went down and then toward their tank.

“You have Stripe and Seventh already. As well as a number of others who don’t seem to matter as much. I want to be the only Grae amongst them,” Tickaht stated, her head coming up off his shoulder. Her strange black and red eyes were staring up at him through the visor.

“That’s fine. I… honestly I only wanted one woman in my life. Period. Stripe seems to think that can’t happen given my position,” Wrench muttered honestly. It was something he’d talked to Stripe about several times now.

“Yes. I would agree. You’re clearly above and beyond what a normal Hume would be. To believe you can close your life off to others is silly,” agreed Tickaht. “In Hume society, or Grae society, someone with as much power as you would have multiple people tied into their life.”

Wrench peered through the grate. He didn’t see any Tongsta lingering around.

Unlatching the grate Wrench exited the duct. Then he closed it.

Shooting down quickly toward the tank he levered it open.

There was a hiss of oxygen blasting out as normal.

Moving inside he quickly closed it behind himself and then hung there in the dark.

Tapping into his System, he quickly brought up his Nervous System and gave himself the ability to see in the dark.

Tickaht was gazing at him with wide eyes.

Catching her eyes with his own, he smiled.

“Let’s get you fed, my poor Tickaht. We’ve done enough as Gremlins at the moment,” Wrench murmured.

Tickaht slowly nodded her head.

“Then sex,” she blurted out quickly, her mouth forming into a flat grimace and her eyes widening out. “I… I really like sex.”

Wrench smirked, snorted, and nodded his head in return. He wouldn’t say no to bedding Tickaht. It’d become quite enjoyable.

“Keep looking at me, Wrench,” whispered Tickaht. “Keep longing for me.”

***

A sudden and heavy boom shook the tank. It caused Tickaht to jerk away from Wrench, her tongue searching around in his mouth only a second before.

She had somewhat of a fixation of kissing him and using her mouth liberally with him. He had no idea why but didn’t fight her on it.

“What?” she asked, a smile popping up instantly.

Still kinda weird that a smile and grimace have swapped their meanings for a Grae.

“Not sure but whatever it was, we should probably go find out,” he suggested with a sigh. For the last several hours they’d just been exploring one another in their bed. Relaxing and enjoying each other.

Tickaht honked, hissed, then grunted. She leaned back over him and kissed him again. Her tongue pushing into her mouth.

It seemed she disagreed with finding out what it was.

Another boom shook the ship, this time it was much louder.

Groaning, Tickaht eased her face away from his and put it to his shoulder. She let out a slow honk and a click. Then got up and went to where their suits were.

“I did try to set things up so that more things would go bad later. I just didn’t think it’d take this long,” admitted Tickaht. “I thought they weren’t going to go off at all.”

“Wait, that was you in the armory? I mean… I probably should’ve guessed given the timing you showed up at,” observed Wrench while floating over to the zero suit.

“Of course it was. I could see you in the dead Tongsta. I wasn’t going to leave you there so I provided you an escape. A suitable distraction so that you could escape,” Tickaht elaborated while getting into her zero suit.

Wrench was unable to look away as she jiggled and bounced her impressive assets into it. Of course she caught him watching and the grimace that spread over her face was instant. She was quite pleased it seemed given the extent of that grimace.

“Yes, yes, I’m looking, I’m longing. Shut up,” growled Wrench, making it to his suit and getting into it.

“You can’t look away from me, Wrench. You stare. I’m not as big as Stripe though. You don’t look at her like you do me. You stare so much,” accused the Grae, her suit settling into place before she grabbed up her helmet.

“Yeah, yeah. I stare. Whatever. You like it, I like it, why not stare,” growled Wrench.

“Stare more. Please. Stare until you can’t,” hissed Tickaht as she shifted her boobs around in the suit.

“How pissed would you be if I stare at other Grae?” he asked suddenly curious.

“I’d tear your fucking eyes out,” Tickaht said warmly. “Good thing I know you’re only asking because you wish to understand.”

“What if I really wanted to go Grae tribal? Get rid of all my Hume and an entire collection of Grae women?” teased Wrench, pulling his helmet down now that he was in his suit.

“I… well… ugh. Maybe?” allowed Tickaht surprisingly. “Yes. I understand. As long as I’m the Stripe of the Grae.”

“I’m just teasing. You’re the only one I want. The rest of your kind seem really skittish and not so nice. Come on. Let’s go,” he said, changing the subject quickly.

Tickaht got her helmet placed down firmly on her head and then hesitated. Her hands were held at her sides and her fingers spread out.

Then she reached over and grabbed him. Hugging him tightly.

She held him for several seconds, before she hit the maintenance door’s mechanism and opened it. Pushing it wide she shot out of the tank.

Well.

I guess I get it.

She was told her whole life she’s weird and Grae should be spreading their genes. Far and wide.

Now she’s stuck in a small room with a Hume she’s having lots of sex with and was worried about.

Then again, I’m definitely feeling very strange about her myself.

I think… I think I want to try and run her down into a relationship like I want with Stripe. Been spending a lot of time just talking to Tickaht about everything.

Exiting, he closed the maintenance door and chased Tickaht up toward the access grate.

The Grae pulled it down and then scooted inside right after Wrench did. Pulling it up and closing it behind them Tickaht looked to him.

“Bridge?” he asked.

“Bridge” agreed Tickaht, though she didn’t fly off. She floated there, staring at him.

Realizing she wasn’t going to move off with him, he started moving away slowly. Only to pick up speed as he went to match her own speed.

More and more he was realizing her mentality was shifting in her treatment of him. Shifting away from the direct “chase me so I’ll chase you” and more towards a far more comfortable variation of it.

“Are you actually mad that we’re more comfortable with each other?” he asked, sensing some of her discomfort more keenly now.

“I…” breathed Tickaht her voice fading away. Her shoulders relaxed and she visibly shed the tension. “No. I- I’m not. I’m just mad at being scared, I think. Scared about what to do and how to act with you.”

“I mean, I was pretty happy with how you were at the start, and I’m equally happy with how you are lately. You can be both or either and I’m happy,” offered Wrench. “Though… I do think you’re suffering from some type of Grae depression. You’re not getting something you need to function correctly and it’s causing you problems.”

Tickaht huffed, then nodded her head slightly.

“I’ve had a vitamin deficiency before. It got so bad my fingers and toes were tingling,” Wrench said as they shot down the ducts.

“Really?” asked Tickaht in surprise.

“Yeah. So… I really wouldn’t be surprised if you’re feeling off because you’re missing something. Don’t fret over it and know I was happy with how you acted at the start, and how you’re acting lately. Either is fine.

“Let’s get some tunnelers just in case, by the way. No idea what’s going on. No sense going in without a weapon.”

“I… yes. Yes! Look at me, Wrench. Long for me,” demanded Tickaht a second before shooting ahead of him. She spun in midair as she went and stuck her arms out. Spinning like a top and picking up speed.

Grinning, he chased after the Grae.

They stopped at the armory and each picked up a tunneler. No one had been in there though he saw the massive blackened corner of the room. Clearly where Tickhat had set off some explosives.

There were no Tongsta here, nor did it seem as if something new had happened here. The boom didn’t come from here.

Quickly, the two of them were shooting back down the duct to the bridge.

When they arrived, Wrench was surprised.

There were only three Tongsta on the bridge and they seemed to be working frantically at their consoles. None of them were talking and completely involved in their task.

“Keep them out,” growled one of the Tongsta. “Those damn loyalists can sit out there all damn xxhht. Till they cube.”

Loyalists?

Did Goodie make it here?

Ha.

I bet she did.

She probably slapped Captain Boyfriend into action.

That means we need to make sure they can’t do anything.

“Status?” asked the Tongsta.

“Still xxhht from being able to move but… that heavy cruiser out there isn’t going to just let us leave, are they?” asked one of the Tongsta.

“Better to try that then get boarded,” answered the captain.

Okay. Time to attack I guess.

“Need another tunneler,” hissed Tickaht. She put down the weapon and then shot off at a blistering speed. Shooting down the duct as if she were an arrow escaping the bow-string.

Hm.

Seventh would’ve tried to figure out how to fight them with what we had.

Stripe probably would have been of no help or fretting over him. Such a situation wasn’t within her wheelhouse.

Tickaht’s response was to it was to get more weapons for the initial attack.

And me… I just want to smash it all.

Tickaht came back in no time, lugging behind her two more tunnelers. They were now at a total of four.

Standing there at the grate, she looked to him. He could see the massive grimace on her face. If she were a Hume, Wrench would’ve described it as ear to ear.

“I’ll take the two on the left,” she whispered and nodded her head. “They’re closer. I can get to them rapidly. You take the one in the far back.”

Wrench looked to the three Tongsta.

Her plan made sense.

The third was significantly further away.

It’d be possible to hit the two closer ones in the same time it’d take to get to the third.

“Good luck hunting, Tickaht,” whispered Wrench.

Tickaht flinched, then momentarily leaned toward him. Her helmet pressing to his.

“Yes! Good hunting, Wrench” gushed Tickaht a second before throwing the catch on the grate and shooting away from him.