Remiel's Fall From Grace - Chapter 7 (Patreon)

(Ebook) (All) (Ch. 1) (Ch. 2) (Ch. 3) (Ch. 4) (Ch. 5) (Ch. 6) (------) (Ch. 8) (Ch. 9) (Ch.10) (Ch.11) (Ch.12) (Ch.13) (Ramda Dakimakura)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate it. I'm gonna have chapter 8 out by the end of the week. ^_^

Remiel’s religious upbringing on a puritanical space colony has left him wholly unprepared for Captain Ramda Uweko’s stunning herm wolf hybrid beauty. On his journey to earth, Remiel struggles with his extreme attraction to her and all the things he thought he knew about himself. Enticed by Remiel’s shy lust, Ramda gives chase. And things only get hotter and heavier from there.

Remiel's Fall From Grace - Chapter 7
by Zmeydros
(edited by Tiliquain and Sheera Castellar)

The first draft of my message telling Ramda I wasn't worth her time was a mess. Since the second draft only barely improved on the first, I just deleted it and started over. Five drafts and two hours later, I was sweating and my chest was so tight that I worried my ribs were going to snap.

She needed to know the truth, but I was completely incompetent and couldn't write a coherent message to save my life.

Deciding to try one more time, I wrote, "You're a beautiful and kind person and I'm going to cherish the moments we spent together. Because I'm likely going to keep going out my way to avoid a part of your anatomy that you're proud of, I should stop seeing you so you can focus on people who can enjoy all of you."

I thought for a moment and then added, "I remember you complimenting me on my ability to look past my upbringing. Honestly, I don't think I'm strong enough to do that. I'm more likely to go back and forth and never actually figure out what I want. You have better things to do than wait for me to make up my mind and I'm sorry for the time you've already wasted on me. Thank you for believing in me, but you don't need to trouble yourself any longer. I'm sorry I didn't tell you this in person, but I'm really bad at this sort of thing."

It wasn't great, but it rambled less than my other attempts and I didn't think I was going to be able to do any better. Why couldn't I just tell her in person? Didn't I owe that to her? What if she found something I said offensive? Getting off my bed, I decided to just talk to her like a normal person.

Nervous twitches in my body and a feeling dizzy suffocation got me to sit right back down. I wasn't a normal person, I was an utter mess in the shape of a person. The courage I needed to face her just wasn't there. and I'd just have to send the message...

Shit, I couldn't do that either. I was all anxiety without any direction.

The anything room was free and VR games often calmed me down. I stood in front of the door and then waved my hand at it to get it to open. The maximum amount of time I could check the room out for was an hour and a half, which gave me fifteen minutes to strap in for the next jump. It was a shame I wouldn't be joining Ramda in the bridge this time. Wait, the reason we couldn't do stuff with her pussy was a lack of time and she mentioned we'd have more time after this upcoming jump. I blushed. Was she hoping to get up to more lewd stuff on the same day?

If I didn't send my message, I'd kinda be standing her up, wouldn't I?

I was too nervous to be horny, but that didn't keep me from wondering whether her snatch was canine like her prick. And that's all it took for me to remember her cock tip slipping into my mouth. She'd tasted so--

To get that out of my head, I busied myself by activating the VR crane. It came out from a tall skinny door in the front wall, holding an exoskeleton. The crane attached to the sides of the exoskeleton at the center of mass, allowing it to spin freely any which way. Getting into the exoskeleton, I waited for it to inflate the air bladders and get a snug hold on my body. The air was at the perfect temperature and the air pressure was just enough to get a hold of me, so I couldn't actually feel that I was being held. It was like wearing a cloud.

I loaded up a puzzle game I'd been meaning to play and entered a world with incredibly complex Gothic fractal architecture where gravity always pointed to the nearest floor, wall, or ceiling. The great thing about this game was that it managed to trick you into thinking you were walking on walls and ceilings by having the crane tilt you subtly to give your inner ear the wrong idea only to get you standing upright normally without realizing it.

Everything around me was situated in different bands of a rainbow's spectrum depending on my orientation and where I was in the eccentric world. It all kinda looked like polarized light from different angles as it traveled through plastic. It was so breathtaking that I found myself pausing just to gawk at my surroundings. A big hurdle to my enjoyment was me obsessing about my message to Ramda. Every time I thought about that, I worked to get lost in the game again, but I felt like I'd only been playing for like ten minutes when time was up.

It took me a moment to adjust to normal physics when I stopped the game and got out of the exoskeleton.

Walking back into my quarters, I checked the room service menu for quick order items. Basically, you could order from the large room service menu and wait for stuff to be prepared, or you could order stuff that was already on hand and being served in the mess. Sometimes, like right now, there were items that could be delivered within just a few minutes. The trays were magnetic so I could just put it inside and then eat it after the jump. All I had to do was order something that wouldn't get messed up by a bit of zero g.

After the day I had, I felt like I deserved the readily available chicken fingers and waffle fries. The moment I put in the order, I opened my message to Ramda wondering if I deserved comfort food.

If I didn't send the message before we jumped, she'd be wondering why I wasn't there. She might even call me, forcing me to make up some sort of excuse. If I waited too long, it might distract her while she was making final preparations for the jump. I had to send it now!

With my breath caught in my throat and my hands shaking, I hit "send."

I'd just made the biggest mistake of my life. I had to take it back, delete it before she could read it. Shit, the "undo" feature wasn't showing up because messages to the captain of a starship were part of the black box record. The "read" indicator wasn't checked yet, though. Maybe I could hack into the network and delete it before she read it? Even if I could, that would be tampering with ship records and I'd risk jail time.

My room service order delivery notification popped up.

Ramda's voice came over the ship-wide channel. "All hands prepare for FTL jump. Secure yourselves and all objects in your vicinity. If the tie-down nets for your luggage have not deployed, notify me or Tammy immediately. Artificial gravity will be shuttered in T-minus five minutes and counting."

Just after the jump announcement, the "read" indicator on my message to her lit up and I felt a stab in my chest. Was Ramda going to be mad at me? Was I having a heart attack?

My door chimed and I went over, thinking it was a reminder that my food had arrived. When I opened my door, Daniel's hand grabbed the front of my uniform and he yanked me out of my quarters while I yelped in surprise.

"You've got a lot of nerve," he said, shoving me against the wall.

My heart was beating so fast that my body ached. The three-meter-tall hallway felt very small now that I was being held captive "L-let me go," I stammered.

Holding me against the wall, he reached down, opened my room service tray, and ate a handful of my waffle fries. "You think I can't count to three or something?"

"I didn't take your waffle," I said.

"How did you know it was a waffle if you didn't take it!?" he yelled.

"I didn't mean to!" I said.

"How can you eat something without meaning to?"

He grabbed one of my chicken fingers and bit off some viciously before throwing the rest on the floor and stepping on it.

"How about I order you some chocolate chip waffles and we can call it even," I said.

"No," he said. "I'll consider us even if you confess to kicking that robot and ask Josiah to write you up."

"But then I might get sent back to Trinity Stronghold," I said, my stomach clenching.

"It's just as well. Cowards like you don't deserve to go to Earth," he said, his face an inch from mine. His breath smelled like honey mustard dip. He'd probably eaten chicken fingers before he'd come over to harass me.

I'd never felt this trapped and my blood suddenly ran hot. Without thinking, my right knee found his left thigh and he stumbled backwards. I used the opening to try and run, but his hand grabbed my arm and jerked me toward him.

Then he slammed my front against the wall.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Let me go. We need to get strapped in!" My cheekbone was pressing against the wall so hard that it really hurt.

He laughed. "What? you scared of zero g?"

I stomped on his foot.

He yelped in pain and let go of me.

This time when I tried to run, he grabbed both of my arms and tripped me. I fell to the ground face-first and he stepped on the small of my back while still gripping my wrists.

"Let's try this again. What are you going to tell Josiah?"

Ramda's voice echoed throughout cavernous, cargo-friendly hallways. "Pre-jump safety check: If anyone is unable to get into a safe position for FTL transit, you have ten seconds to notify me."

I started composing a message to Ramda using my HUD, but Daniel interrupted me by pressing harder on my back.

Grunting in pain, I struggled to get my arms free, but he held them firmly, saying, "I see any sign you're trying to send a message, and I step harder. You need to face your fears, scaredy cat."

"This isn't a game, we could die," I said as I started feeling lighter.

Daniel cackled like a maniac as the artificial gravity waned. But then he couldn't hold me against the floor and we were just drifting slowly upwards and backwards. Within seconds, we were a meter and a half above the floor.

My mind was in crisis mode. All the anxiety from before was taking a back seat to me trying to figure out how to survive the gravity being turned back on.

The calm voice of the Anvil Point's flight controller came over the ship-wide channel. "Connection established. Spatial forging in: ten."

"Daniel, you need to let me go," I said.

"No," he said.

" --seven."

"Do you want broken arms?" I asked.

"--five."

He pulled me toward him and put me in a head lock as he said, "You can't scare me."

"--one. jump."

As all the colors of the spectrum separated and my middle ears told me we were spiraling down a drain, I struggled against him, saying, "We need to separate so we don't hit each other."

"Blah, blah, blah, you're not going anywhere until you promise to do as I say," he said.

We were two meters above the floor and slowly spinning, surrounded by chicken fingers and fries. "Try to get closer to the floor, at least."

"What, never jumped off the high dive?" he said in a low, menacing voice.

My voice echoed as time moved erratically before smoothing out when the spatial bubble fully formed. "Damn it, Daniel! You could get crushed by me!" I tried to hit him in the stomach with my elbow, but he tightened his headlock the moment I tried.

As I started to pass out from lack of air, I squeaked out, "Stop!"

"Not until you promise me," he said.

My body went limp, my lungs burned, and my senses blurred. I felt jostling in my middle ears as our spatial bubble reconnected with the universe.

Our slow rotation put the spotlights directly above me and all I could see was a blinding white. Then, I started to feel the pull of gravity. I vaguely heard Daniel cry out and then felt a crunch when I landed on top of him. His arms went limp and I took in a deep breath before getting into a coughing fit. The world came into focus as the burning in my lungs lessened.

As I got onto my hands and knees, I saw Daniel with chicken fingers and fries scattered all around him, soaking up the blood that was gushing from the back of his head. I immediately hit the medical emergency button on my HUD and the ship's klaxon rang loud and clear as blue flashing lights chased each other along the handrails. Ramda responded that she was two minutes away.

Complete and total overwhelm settled upon me. I couldn't think of anything that would help Daniel as he spilled more blood on the floor. They'd told us in first aid class to not move people with head injuries. So I just grabbed Daniel's hand in case he was aware enough to know someone was there.

Ramda arrived with a first aid kit and quickly looked Daniel over, checking for broken bones, before saying, "Carefully lift his shoulders while I lift his head. We have to get trauma sealant into the wound without bending his neck."

"Okay."

She grabbed the hair on the top of his head with her left hand while holding trauma seal spray in her right.

With my whole body shaking, I lifted his shoulders up off the floor. I couldn't see the gash, all I could see was his bloody hair as she sprayed sealant into the wound.

Just as we were about to lay him back down, Tammy arrived with a gurney and she helped us get Daniel onto it.

On the way to the med bay, I mumbled my way through telling Ramda what happened. She was furious at Daniel, but I wasn't feeling much of anything. Instead, I was sick to my stomach and felt like collapsing into bed.

The med bay was a typical compact ship's hospital with imaging equipment, a surgery bay, and ICUs full of monitoring equipment. The doctor was a curly-haired upbeat woman with a blue-scaled dragon tail named Ms. Harmon. Her tail almost matched the color of the benches in the waiting room, which was a metal tube with a bunch of closely-packed navy-blue seats coming out of it. The mesh the seats were made out had a bit of give to it and was quite comfortable.

The automatic transparent doors throughout the med bay made cool hissing sounds when they opened and closed. The walls were a lighter, happier metallic gray with a bit of pink in them.

I wasn't happy, I was miserable because Josiah had walked in a few moments after I sat down and started interrogating me. With awkward pauses, feeling like an idiot, and stuttering, I eventually answered all his questions.

Then he said, "When he wakes up, I bet he's going to tell me it was all your fault."

Ramda poked her head out of Daniel's ICU and said, "*If* he wakes up. His prognosis is about fifty-fifty at this point. He has serious head trauma and is about to go into surgery."

Josiah bit his lip and then said, "You better hope he wakes up. If he doesn't I'm gonna launch a full investigation."

"Per our contract, formal investigations must be done by a third party." Ramda said, "Would you want it made public that a MiraManna employee died from disobeying safety regulations?"

"How do we know that's what happened?" Josiah said.

"Regardless of what else we'd find in a full investigation, as evidenced by their location immediately after the jump, we know both parties disobeyed safety regs," Ramda said. "There's also evidence of a physical altercation preceding the accident and I think it's in your best interest to work with me rather than against me."

Josiah tried to say something, but Ramda ignored him and returned her attention to what was going on inside the ICU. After a frustrated huff, Josiah walked out.

Dr. Harmon and a short male nurse brought Daniel out of the ICU on the hospital bed and through the automatic double doors that led to the surgery bay.

After he was done helping maneuver Daniel into surgery, the nurse checked me over to see if I needed medical attention. Nothing hurt too bad, so he just gave me an extra-long-release anti-inflammatory. I was supposed to come back if I ended up in more pain.

Despite being cleared to go back to my quarters, I stayed at the med bay for another hour without really knowing why. Sure, I was worried about the complications that would arise if Daniel died, but that wasn't what was stressing me the most. I kept running the scenario through my head, trying to figure out how I could have saved Daniel from himself. Nothing I could think of worked because he had so much more fighting experience. I was so pointless.

And earlier today, I'd sent that stupid message to Ramda. Daniel was right, I was a coward. Having had it with this entire experience, I just kept beating up on myself until I was completely exhausted.

I was only vaguely aware of Daniel coming back from surgery because my eyelids felt really heavy and my eyes weren't quite focusing on him. Time passed without me noticing and just when I was about to doze off in my chair, Ramda walked into the waiting room.

With her wolf ears perked up and her tail wagging softly, she said, "He's awake and we think he's going to be okay."

"Oh good," I said, letting out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding.

"At first, they couldn't get his brain swelling under control, but things took a turn for the better a half hour ago," Ramda said, sitting next to me. "I can finally relax."

I hugged her from the side. "I'm so glad."

Josiah entered, glanced at me hugging Ramda with a raised eyebrow, and then went in to see Daniel.

Taking my hands off of Ramda like she was a pot of boiling water, I sat straight up. Josiah had just seen us together, shit.

Ramda leaned her head against the wall and stared at the ceiling, looking as drained as I was. Then she grabbed my hand. This had a different energy to it than the other times she'd touched me. This time, I felt more like when a friend reaches for your hand after hearing bad news: just happy to have someone else there who knows what they're going through.

Honestly, I felt the same, and her paw pads felt really reassuring against my palm.

Through the frosted laminate that made up the ICU's wall, we saw Josiah's silhouette move toward the door.

Taking her hand away, Ramda moved over so she wasn't sitting next to me when the ICU's door hissed open.

Josiah looked down at me, saying, "Since your stories don't match up, I'm going to issue both of you a formal warning."

"What?" I furrowed my brow. "What about the bruising on my trachea? I couldn't have done that to myself."

"Is this true?" Josiah asked Ramda.

"Yes," she said.

Josiah thought for a moment. "That just proves you two fought like children. Even more reason to give you both a warning."

I made a fist, but I didn't say anything.

"I'll have it written up by tomorrow morning." Josiah narrowed his eyes at me. "You two better behave yourselves the rest of this trip or I'm sending you both back."

"Yes sir," I said, weathering a wave of nausea.

Satisfied he'd put me in my place, he walked out.

Turning to Ramda, I said, "I can't believe I'm getting written up for that."

"Josiah's not going to see the truth because he's not actually looking for it," Ramda said, getting out of her chair.

"Yeah, you're right." I sighed.

Dr. Harmon stepped out of the ICU, saying, "He wants to talk to you."

Having no idea what to think, I walked in to find Daniel lying on a hospital bed, looking very tired.

The moment he saw me, the heart monitor showed an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. "Why the fuck were you waiting out there?"

"I thought you might die," I said.

"But I've done you no favors," he said. "Are you gay or something?"

I turned and left the ICU. Daniel was acting exactly like my dad, like the voice in my head that made me send that message to Ramda. The voice in my head that made it so I didn't even know what I wanted. I was done with today, and Daniel.

Dr. Harmon went back in.

Ramda was standing near me, and the moment the door closed behind Dr. Harmon, she said, "You rest tonight and don't worry about anything. Then, tomorrow afternoon, I'll come to you so we can have a talk. That sound okay?"

"I hope you're not mad at me," I said.

"No, not mad, but we definitely need to talk through some stuff." She opened her arms. "Hug?"

As I dove into her arms and pulled her six-breasted front tightly against me, the stabbing tightness in my chest finally started to wane.

END OF CHAPTER 7

I’d like to acknowledge my $20 patrons, Arkona Kothe, Navajo Demar, UBA, and Warialinth for helping make all this possible. Thank you! Thanks to all my other patrons as well. Every one of you rocks!

(Ebook) (All) (Ch. 1) (Ch. 2) (Ch. 3) (Ch. 4) (Ch. 5) (Ch. 6) (------) (Ch. 8) (Ch. 9) (Ch.10) (Ch.11) (Ch.12) (Ch.13) (Ramda Dakimakura)