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Chickadee: Part 5
🕑 Added 2022-04-05 19:08:04 +0000 UTCWith a roiling bloody red-black ocean of cloud beneath them Jun levels the Chickadee out into a high, slow cruise for the night. Thankfully the storm was vast but not particularly high. He locks in the cruise and with a final check of the instruments is satisfied Dee would see them out the night. His eyes linger a moment on a pressure gauge that was reading better than it had in months. That mouse had been up in the engine bay just a few scant minutes and managed to do that. She might have been bargaining out of desperation but Jun suspected her claims of mechanical prowess were not overstated.
On the topic of that cute mouse, Jun figured he better get back to check on the others soon before she and Remus started butting heads. He wasn’t worried about Posey’s safety any longer, Remus had given his word and he would see it through, but the more he could help keep things smooth between them now the nicer the voyage they would all have. He springs from the pilot’s seat and walks back to the living quarters.
The moment he is through the door he is greeted by a walking jumble of litter. He cocks his head, his pointed ears tilt. It takes him a second to recognize the legs upon which it walked was that of Posey’s robot. It had just walked from Renwick’s old room and was marching toward the garbage chute in the kitchen. Jun follows the trash ball curiously. As it gets near to the chute there is slight buzz and all at once all of the metal bits and bobs clatter to the floor around Scraps’ feet.
Jun grins. “You magnetized yourself.”
Scraps, who also had an armful of bottles, begins to dump the junk down the hatch a bit at a time. “Correct.”
The fox takes a few steps back and peers into the messy room. Posey was nowhere to be seen, choosing to leave the dirty work to her servant. The washroom was empty and she wasn’t in the main living area either. She was either down in the hold or up in the guts the ship. From the little he knew her he would bet the former.
“Hey Scraps, what her story? Miss Posey’s that is.”
“Miss Posey is not an author.”
“Tell me about her I mean. Where is she from? What are you two running from?”
The robot speaks without pausing in its task. “I am forbidden to reveal personal information about my creator.” Another half dozen items get dumped through the chute.
“Ah.” Jun says. “What’s your story then.”
“I am not an author.”
He rolls his eyes. “Of course. I mean, where did she create you? And why? Where have you been? Where are you going?”
“I am forbidden to reveal personal information about my creator.” It states as it finishes this bundle of trash. It turns and marches back toward the room.
“I’m asking about you.”
“I am Miss Posey’s property.” It states as it disappears through the door. “Therefore my information is her information.”
Jun shakes his head. Scraps was not going to be the font of information he had hoped it would be. Seeing the efficient way it was clearing out the old raven’s room however had Jun thinking of a host of chores they might get the little bot doing if Posey agreed. Carrying on he enters the master cabin where he is hit with a gust of cool damp wind. Remus was outside and had left the door open. Jun pads across the room to join his friend, removing and tossing his green vest on their wide bed along the way.
Stepping out onto the aft balcony Jun finds Remus in just a pair of shorts leaning forward, elbows on the railing, and looking out over the dark clouds below and the emerging stars of the deepening dusk sky. The fresh breeze flutters through Remus’ clean and still drying gray fur. Above the rigid envelope for the Chickadee’s blimp stretched out before them and directly below them was the cargo bay door where Remus had fought off the Critters. Off to their right the rear gunner turret was folded up.
Jun spots the bandage on Remus’ leg. “Hurt bad?” He asks as he slide up beside him. “Need stitches?”
“I got it. Not so bad.” Remus answers, his eyes continuing to scan the distance for fliers.
“I think we’ll be safe tonight.”
“Yeah.” Remus agrees.
Sidling up next to him Jun’s ears flatten and his tail tucks between his legs as he signals his alpha his want for attention. Remus puts his bulky arm around the slender fox and pulls him into his side. Jun whines and nuzzles his snout up against the wolf’s chin. He is rewarded with a kiss. Putting his hand across Jun’s chest Remus opens a few buttons and slips it down inside of the fox’s shirt. Pulling his lover close to him and spooning into him he sniffs him and kisses his neck and head.
“I’m okay.” Jun says softly as he wriggles back against Remus’ huge shaggy body, savoring as always the way the massive wolf could envelop his much smaller body.
Remus sighs as in a low voice he asks. “Why’d you tell her we needed a mechanic?”
“I was just talking big man, it was the first thing that came to mind when I saw her tool belt.” Jun reaches up behind him to run his fingers through the thick fur at Remus’ cheek. “I was talking for my life there.” He can feel the big man tense up at the thought of Jun’s life being at risk. Jun scratches in just below Remus’ ear as he assures him. “I’m okay. Everything’s okay. She was scared and desperate. Seeing two scoundrels like us approaching who could blame her?”
“She’s trouble.”
“Wasn’t I?”
“That was different.”
“We actually do need a mechanic.”
“Rrm.” Remus grumbles. “You don’t think I don’t know that? SHE didn’t need to know it though. You showed our cards and gave her the high ground.”
“Not everything is a battle big man.”
“Yeah, it is.” His big paw had been slowly fondling Jun’s lean pec, now his other slips around the fox’s lean waist.
Jun looks back up at him. “You’re thinking about it, aren’t you? Her offer.”
“Rrrmmm. Of course I am.” Remus says, nonplussed. “Something don’t sit right with her but if she’s all she says she is it could save us a fortune in the long run.”
The fox smiles. “At a slow cruise against the prevailing we won’t be hitting Stonewall until at least tomorrow afternoon. Let’s keep our options open and see how things go.”
“Rrrm.” Remus grinds his growing cock into Jun’s tail. “You let me make the call.”
His arms around the one Remus had around his chest Jun gyrates his hips to rub back against him. “I’ll follow your lead.”
Remus snuffles into Jun’s cheek then nips his pointed ear. “You wanna fuck her, don’t you?”
A devilish grin grows across Jun’s foxy face. “What do you think?”
“You are such a little slut.” Remus chuckles and pulls Jun’s ass in tight against his junk. “I guess she is kinda cute…for a mouse.”
***
Posey had explored the engine room and in the process learned more about the deceased engineer than she knew about the living members of the Chickadee crew. Around the room she found more mess, more whiskey bottles, and a number of faded old pictures of a tall and striking onyx black raven woman. A few of them included a rugged looking man as well which she quickly deduced was Renwick. The story quickly came together. One way or another he had lost his one true love and his life eventually degenerated into depression and alcoholism. It was a tale as old as time. Corvids mated for life and she had heard that for their kind the loss of a partner was truly like losing half of themselves. He likely ended up in the Hells as an escape from old life that would remind him of her. Some things could not be escaped though, no matter how far you ran. She did not allow her mind to linger on the grim thought of whether the drunk falling from the cargo bay had really been an accident after all. Seeing the sad state of the Chickadee’s engine made a lot more sense now. As fine a lady as the old bird was Ren’s heart never belonged to her.
While he had been negligent to the Dee’s needs he hadn’t left her wanting for parts. The storage room was jam packed! The Raven’s knack of collecting and hoarding had left behind a cornucopia of parts, tools, oils, lubes, and every damn thing one would need to keep the ship running. All of it had been salvaged and was in various states of repair but any competent mechanic could make use of nearly every bit of it. Really the only thing that couldn’t be replaced in a pinch was that beautiful thrumming Overture engine that was the very beating heart of the Chickadee.
For a time Posey simply sits cross-legged on the floor and watches it chug away. Finding a functioning Overture out here was like finding a four-leaf clover in a desert. She could count on her hands with a couple fingers to spare the number of these that were known to still be out there, two of which powered the Eastern Territory’s flagship which made this little scav bird look like a flyspeck by comparison. Having this much power in a ship this light seemed a sure recipe for disaster. She wasn’t sure how good a pilot Jun actually was but it was probably a good thing that this engine was running so poorly or he might have torn the fuselage right off of the balloon. It broke her heart to see this work of art struggling so mightily. Leaks and corrosion and inefficiencies could be seen wherever she looked. The fissile coal glowed a deep flickering blue through the tiny round view port where it was supposed to shine white. It took everything she had not to get in there and start working, but she holds herself back. Not only did she not have permission but, more importantly, she wasn’t about to work for free. The canine pair claiming her walker more than paid for her passage out West. Sure it was stolen, but she’d stolen it fair and square.
After the engine room Posey explores some more. First she heads up into the envelope to see state of the ballonets. Besides the very slow leak in the center one that she’d noticed on the instruments down below it looked pretty good otherwise. She cannot help but take note of the reinforced outer shell and the heavy duty extra bracing that fortified the ship far beyond your average civvy transport. From the outside the Dee looked delicate and ramshackle but she had the bones and sinew of a warrior.
Patting a nearby titanium strut Posey whispers. “Who were you?”
From there she finds a flashlight and wriggles down into the tight crawlspace between the decks. Only her petite stature and natural rodent ability to move through tight spaces with ease allowed her to ferret around the constrained space. She found the area covered in undisturbed dust. The raven she’d seen in the pictures would have been far too large to get down here and even the slim Jun would have had issues fitting. She pauses a moment to daydream about the sexy fox, letting out a wanting sigh as she does so, before carrying on. Bedtime could not come soon enough for the flustered frisky rodent.
She finds this between deck crawlway goes from wingtip to wingtip and from beak to tail. Inside of it she finds the everything in order. The outer hull was solid though on the interior here and there she discovers a few peek holes down into the deck below, not there on purpose but left behind by loose fittings or the removal of old fixtures that hadn’t been properly patched up. She is able to spy down Scraps as it works away at her room, nearly having it clean now, and peers into the main living area where all was currently quiet. She was just turning to wriggle back toward the small hatch that lead back up into the engine room when the clank of a closing door near the back of the ship grabs her attention.
Turning her head she looks down the dark passage to narrow sliver of dim light coming up from the master cabin. Her ears perk up as she hears the high giggle and low chuckle of the pair. The laughter was kept low so as not to draw attention and had a distinctly amorous mood about it. The very tenor of it is enough to send a hungry throb through her wanting pussy. Instantly she flicks off her flashlight and freezes in place. Holding her breath she listens closely to hear the sounds…of passionate kissing!
