Future Vision: Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Nexus still wasn't sure if he made the right choice by walking out of GP's quarters, but he couldn't afford to lose his job. He found GP irresistibly hot, not just for his full formed male body, which was of course is what every male wanted including him, but there was also something about his personality. Honestly Nexus didn't even have the slightest clue on how to date; he had chosen to be single all of his life to focus on his career and himself. Plus the fact that he thought there was no one in this universe for him. Regardless he lived each day with a calm admiration even though each day he was miserable and lonely. He had learned to ignore and bury those feeling up until 7 hours ago. When he saw GP laying down sleeping so calmly, he realized he had never had a good night's sleep in over 3 years. He would go to sleep every night missing the feeling up being snuggled against or loved. Seeing GP sleeping flooded his head with all sorts of what-ifs that he knew would never come true.
Nexus pulled his COM out of his pocket and looked at the time which read 23:57. He had spend the last 7 hours under the station abandoned receiving bay stairs crying and sleeping in a curled ball with his tail covering his head. He hadn't even turned on the environmental systems so he was also freezing his ass off but he didn't care. All he could think of was GP.
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All GP could think about was Nexus, which is something he really didn't have time for. He had a job to do and so much to report, the battle, aliens, and Viper's recon mission. He had been sitting at his command chair in the orbital's control center for well over an hour and Nexus had yet to show up for his shift. He was more worried and upset than he was mad and irritated which is what he should have been feeling for someone not showing up for their shift, but he knew that Nexus was somewhere in the orbital where voices and COMs could not be heard.
He pondered on that thought for a moment and he thought back on the few times he had tried getting a signal to Nexus's COM. The system said he was simply out of range rather than his COM being off, which meant that he left the range of the last transceivers able to hold a signal with is COM while it was still on. That meant that he could narrow his search using the logs from the COM system's cache.
He stood with sudden determination and padded to the nearby Configurations Alcove and pawed a holographic button switching the screen from a dim screen reading "Standby" to a more aesthetic command panel. Selecting a series of button he knew like the back of his, he brought up the COM logs that belonged to Nexus and scrolled down to the bottom of this list.
(23:07) COM 8 0 0 9: Connection Lost - Location: Receiving Bay 03-07
"Fuck it this is more important" he whispered knowing full well that his report was well overdue as it was. Turning around he walked out of the command center not telling anyway where he was going, and once out the door made sure to turn his COM off.
He pawed the control panel of the lift with more voice than he meant went in turn broke the control system to bring the lift up completely, and he didn't know how to rewire it, or even attempt to fix it. Cursing to himself he walked to the edge of the small ringed shaped that held the station high command access areas such as the command center and computer arrays. Looking down the hollow middle he could see the next floor down protruded barely a meter more past his current one, but the real problem is that it was well over 4 meters below him.
Doing the random game of estimating in his head viper backed up all the way against the wall and dropped to all fours. Extending his claws he did a quick stretch, than, for what seemed to be an eternity, gathered up all his strength and jumped the railing just like his ancestors of Earth would. Flying through the air gave him a great connection with his primal side for a few fleeting seconds. He felt free, unburdened by the current society's standard, and alive. Although society did not frown upon what he doing, they wanted to embrace the gift of knowledge more than their feral instincts. Everyone in Vari society knew that sometimes they couldn't help their feral tendencies, but there were some action considered off limits, such as murder, stalking old prey of your species, or unwarranted speciesism.
GP few seconds came to an end as he approached the floor. Reaching out his handpaws he readied himself for a fast landing. He was damned if he was going to do a tumble roll, he was going to land like a real cat would. As he hit the floor he pushed all his strength into his arms to keep his front end up and level himself as he let momentum push his arms back to his torso. He brought his footpaws up outside of his arms and to his chest and pushed with all he could to slow himself down. The Grade "A" Officer Boots didn't allow the necessary flexing of his joints but he managed just as well with them.
When he came to a stop and stood like the proper Vari he was suppose to be, he found Vari of all sorts gawking at him. He wasn't sure if they were in shock from seeing the commander "kitty jump" or if they wondered if they could do something like that themselves. Either way he shrugged and took off sprinting as fast as he could the Nexus last location.
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Nexus awoke to the sound of what he thought was clamoring on the maintenance rail above him. He perked his ears in the direction of the noise but heard nothing. it was pitch black minus 3 dimly lit control panels so trying to look was useless. He only knew where he was because he had been down here many times before when it was both operational, and when they closed it. It was his hiding place for when things got rough, and he knew he little corner like the back of his hand.
After perking his ears for a minute and hearing nothing, he slowly got up and walked to where the docking bay door was. He put his paw against the cold metallic surface and felt the cold of space, and the subtle vibrations of the orbital. He wanted to see the space beyond the cold door, and compare it to how hollow his life was.
Walking over to the doors dimly lit control panel, he punched in a series of override codes and the door hissed and groaned as it 2 halves unlocked. It was followed by a static crackle as the field generators came to life and warmed up placing a forcefield between space and the separating door.
The large 9 meter door separated revealing not only new light into the cold dark room, but a sense of peace. The stars seemed to just float peacefully regardless of what happened around. So impervious to worry or fear. The large blue-purple color of the nebula of in the distance gave a sense of serenity as it cast its light into the receiving bay.
Nexus curled back up into a little ball on the bare metal floor and watched as the Orbital took things and brought thing into view as it rotated around the moon that was holding its orbit.
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GP was being as silent as he could while moving around the pitch black hanger of the receiving bay. He had no trouble seeing the almost invisible catwalks that covered the entire bay and was moving across them with ease. His predatory feline vision granted him the ability to see in near lightless situations. However he was much heavier than his ancestors by over 100 kilos, and although he still had the grace of one, he could only absorb so much before he faltered.
While switching from one of the catwalks hanging from the bays ceiling, he misjudged the leap he had to make and ended up missing the platform. While managing to only make a silent thud and hold on to the railing with both paws, he heard Nexus shift. Looking down in his direction he could barely see his ears perked in his direction.
As he held his breath for nexus to shift his attention he hung helplessly over a 6 meter fall. As what seemed to be an eternity went by, Nexus got up and walked lazily forward to the receiving doors. This gave GP the short amount of time he needed to pull himself up and over the railing and onto the walk.
Quietly dusting himself off he look as Nexus pawed the control panel responsible for opening the door, followed by his fur becoming instantly frizzed buy the startup of unused field generators. Quietly sighing to himself he watched as the door slid open and revealed the mistress of space, a sight which everyone could watch and forget all their worries if only for a moment.
While to doors halves were scraping apart from each other like the worn out machinery that they were, GP jumped down from the catwalk with a silent but muffled thud. Looking up from his four legged stance Nexus was still occupied by the site outside and he ears weren't perked in his direction.
GP walked silently up to Nexus, put his hand on his and commented "Nice view huh" which startled Nexus. GP merely stood unaffected by Nexus surprised and startled behavior and waiting for something intelligent to come from his muzzle. It wasn't until Nexus collapsed on the floor did GP realize why he picked this spot to hide.