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The Exodus - Part 2

A tone chimed overhead, waited a few moments, then chimed once again. It was morning once more, at least that's what the clocks said. The lights slowly turned themselves on, illuminating a small windowless room covered with metal and plastics. A lone figure was slowly dragging itself up from the bunk, scratching randomly here and there and yawning widely. Gleaming fangs shone in the light cast from overhead lights, built into the ceiling of the cabin.

The Horoshi male swung his legs off the bunk, and turned around to grasp its underside. It was the folding kind, used to save space in the smaller cabins. He hit the switch that released the locking bolts, and folded it up into the little recess provided along one wall. There were no blankets to get in the way, as his cabin did not require them. Most of the rooms were kept warm enough that one didn't need to bother with blankets anyways, and that was a good thing. After all, space was at a premium. The last thing they wanted was for every deck to require a giant laundry room.

The space formerly occupied by his bunk quickly filled up again, namely by a padded chair that folded out of one wall. It faced a small screen along the opposite corner of the booth, which provided entertainment, news, and a view of outside the ship if one were interested. As he sat down on the chair to stifle a yawn, the chimes went off again, and his little screen lit up with the morning announcements.

"Good morning Crewman Rajax, the time is 09:45 Day 367 Year 42. Your duty shift begins at the 10thhour excactly. Morning reports and news will follow immediately."

He yawned anew and shut the screen off, not really concerned with the usual morning news. It was never anything special, just progress reports on the farms, or how one of their sports teams did the night before. He glanced at the time again, and decided he had more than enough for a leasurely soak in the refresher, followed by a good breakfast at his assigned mess hall.

He crossed his cabin in just a few steps, and slipped through a sliding door into his personal chambers. All it contained was a pot, a small sink and mirror, and a cramped but funtional refresher. And he was lucky to have that as well. Back when he was just a youth, he had to stay in group lodgings, and share facilities with 5 other Horoshi. It wasn't all bad, at least the company had been good.

He enjoyed a wonderful 10 minute soak and cleaning via the automatic systems, and stretched the kinks out of his neck as the drying cycle did its thing. He meant to speak to his local representative for quarters assignment again today. The bunks had been designed for the average Horoshi, and Rajax was not average. If he had to sleep in the cramped thing one more night, he'd have to resort to sleeping on the floor again. And that always did a number on his back. With luck, there would be a larger bunk available somewhere.

He had been told by his teachers that he took after his father, and it showed. As he reached maturity he sprouted up to a full 3.6m in height, and was rather large compared to the 3m average. He had asked about his father at one point during his youth, but apparently the creche masters were not entirely certain of his lineage. He had been conceived in a test tube, mixed together with genetic material taken from the greatest minds back before the race took to the stars. It was possible that his parents were any number of scientists and engineers. He had tried to do a little digging himself, but had met with many dead ends.

Though he did narrow the list. His genetic mother was still an unknown, but his father was either an Engineer named Scarl, or a Chemist by the name of Bothar. When he had mentioned his discovery to the creche masters and scientists that worked on combining frozen genetic material, they agreed it must be Scarl. After all, his height certainly showed. And Bothar was short for the race. One thing that always stuck him as odd however was his coloring. His father was Orange, and his mother was an unknown, yet he was purple. Who knows what had happened to create that color mixture. But it suited him, so all was well.

Rajax always thought it a shame that his father had never known he had a son. But then again, his father was likely long dead before he was even planted in his host mother, let alone hatched. He at least knew his host parent well, an older multi-gender fellow by the name of Gryfflor. Shi was known as Gryff to hir friends, and to her adopted children as well. Shi acted as mother and father both, seeing as shi posessed both genders in one handy package.

The creche workers valued having the herms around on staff, as they proved to be quite strong in many regards. Able to hold and birth many eggs at a time, and provide enough milk for many hungry Horoshi young. Rajax had even had a relationship with one outside the creche at one point, and they certainly lived up to their legendary tales of stamina. He still saw that Horoshi from time to time, but shi had rotated onto another ship to take on a unique job opportunity. So they ended the relationship on happy terms, and went on their respective ways.

As he exited the refresher and came back into his main cabin, he decided against wearing his utility vest today. It really wasn't needed for his current job, and it just got in the way of his belly. Or at least, it would. He looked down at his middle, which was quite flat and well toned. It was like this for most Horoshi these days. Short rations and a lack of space had made for various changes, and it was quite rare indeed to see anyone with more than the slightest bit of fat on their bodies. At first this had made quite a few Horoshi rather ill, and prone to being cold all the time. But they had adapted, at least as far as their health was concerned.

But socially, they all missed being nice and well padded. Some missed it so much that they began looking at other ways to fill their need for being large. Stories were mixed on who came up with the idea first, or even what ship the craze started on. But as the stories go, one Horoshi or another had fallen onto the hose from a compressor line, and gotten it stuck in one orofice or another. The location changes depending on who's telling the story.

There had been air in the line at the time, and the individual had gotten a good puff of it blown inside his or her body. Or hir, nobody was quite certain. Seeing as the Horoshi were naturally quite full figured, their hides had remained fairly stretchy. The individual puffed up nice and round, sporting a gut that would have put most to shame several decades earlier back on planet. Even his backside and tail had rounded out quite a bit as well, and it felt absolutely glorious. He eagerly showed off his discovery to everyone he could find, and everyone practically fell over themselves to get a look at this marvelous bloated Horoshi.

Naturally everyone wanted to give the process a try as well, and soon the whole ship was blowing themselves up to their former large sizes. Some could handle it better than others, so there were still Horoshi quite a bit rounder than others. Still, it became customary to keep nice and full if you were out in public. After all, a rounded Horoshi was a healthy and normal Horoshi. Anyone who walked around all thin was generally looked at funny. That and mobbed by several playful fellows, and blown up as large as they could handle.

Rajax had no trouble fitting in, as his increased height let him really round out. Opening up a small door along the wall by his door to the corridors, he fetched out a hose and popped it into his snout. The compressor systems and personal hoses had been added several years ago, and it was definitely better than having to keep compressed air tanks around all the time. He tapped a few buttons on the little pannel inside the wall, and let the computer do its thing. He could manually inflate himself, or use one of his pre-sets. Today he chose a nice large size, and rumbled as the air began to flow.

His paws roamed over his belly and sides as they began to stretch outwards, followed by his rump and tailbase. Quite quickly the thin yet buff Horoshi took on a more full figured shape, and continued to grow. His tail fattened up all the way down to the tip, stretching into a much more fetching thickness. His rump gained quite a few sizes, sticking out proudly on either side of his puffy tailbase. His gut and chest continued to swell out as well, as well as his sides. The whole process only took a minute, and when it was all done it looked like he'd put on quite an impressive amount of weight. He spat out the hose and put it away for later, figuring he might try to swell up even larger later when he was off shift.

He placed both paws on either side of his hugely distended belly, and gave it a squeeze. His leathery underbelly was a darker shade of purple than his scales, which always made for quite the impressive rounded display, as far as he was concerned. It squeaked happily and groaned a bit from the attention, making him smile. This usual size for him was nicely large, making him perhaps 2m in diameter to off set his bean-pole like stature when completely deflated. He would normally go larger, but if he added even a few more centimeters he'd have trouble fitting through the door.

Tapping the controls on the other side of his entryway, the sliding door opened to reveal the corridor his cabin was built along. He squeezed through the passage as he always did, squeaking and making all sorts of amusing noses as his large stretched out bulk popped out. Tapping a button on the outside closed the door once again, and he wandered down the hall to get breakfast. Passages and corridors ran all through the ship, on many decks, all connecting with main walkways and even the odd moving sidewalk. His little section was on the port side of the ship, and the 5thsection from the front. In total there were 25 sections on every deck, comprised of port, center, and starbord sub-sections. Each sub-section usually held a few dozen cabins of varrying sizes, or whatever unit happened to be occupying the spaces. In his particular area, there was a larger mess hall in the center, which served the port and starbord cabins respectively. There were usually a hundred or more horoshi there eating their rations, and whatever else they managed to weasel out of the cook on duty.

Rajax did not know the cook on duty that day, so he merely settled for his pre-packaged meal and mug of strong tea. Sitting in silence at an empty table, he munched on a few eggs, some kind of meat, and some fruit from the hydroponics bay. It was perhaps half what his father might have had for breakfast, if not a third. It wasn't surprising at all that their species had trimmed out so drasticly. It wasn't all bad at least, getting to blow yourself up whenever you wanted certainly had its advantages. Besides, in a pinch he could belch out all that air and worm his way into very tight spaces. This had proved handy more than a few times during repair detail.

A few people he recognized from his section of the ship joined him, including a friend and bunking companion of his by the name of Teeka. She was purple like he was, though a lighter shade. Her currently ballooned belly and distended breasts were a lighter purple however, almost an off shade of pink. His friends always joked that they must be made for one another, as they both looked like a pair of swollen berries. The two had been enjoying intimate company with one another for nearly 100 days now, and they both enjoyed the loose relationship. They would sometimes meet in the quarters of one or another, have a little fun, and stay the night or go their seperate ways again.

They were both open to having fun with others as well, or even bringing more company into the evening antics. A cabin could get a little crowded with three or more puffed up Horoshi all pleasuring one another, but the rewards far outweighted the occasional discomfort. He had just been in her cabin for a few hours the night before last, and remembered it well. Well enough that his maleness came out of its pouch all on its own, and squeaked against his belly before thumping into the underside of the table. He smiled leudly to himself, not at all ashamed of his blatant arousal.

The rest of the people at the table smelled him before they noticed anything amiss, then smirked to themselves and made appropriate comments. Teeka blushed somewhat, but threw him a wink and got up with a wiggle. She came around to his side of the table and cuddled up beside him, making his arousal all the worse. If the table was not bolted down, it was likely he would have knocked it right over. She grinned impishly, and gave him a friendly lick across his puffed up purple gut.

"Down boy. The day is still young, and you're on duty in a few minutes. Best tuck that away for now, and finish your breakfast. You wouldn't want to be late yet again."

He licked and nuzzled her right back, once again so very tempted to shuck his duties and take the lovely minx to a little hole in the wall for a good time. But he didn't want to anger his superiors, so he took her advice. He wolfed down the last of his meager ration and stood up, nearly swatting one of his compantions in the face with his swollen monster. They all laughed amongst themselves, and the closest one snuck in a last barb before leaving as well.

"Yessh man, do you have a permit for that thing?"

It only took a few minutes to get onto one of the moving walkways, which quickly accellerated him towards one of the large personel lifts. His arousal had started to calm by then, and by the time he went up two decks and across a few halls, he was safely tucked away once more. Only the lingering smell would give him away at this point, not that anyone cared. He reported to his station exactly on time, much to the satisfaction of the shift supervisor. His job was largely make work at times, but he like so many else rotated around many positions until one was found that fit him perfectly. For this cycle of work, he was doing data entry. Everything from ship reports to research notes, all cleaned up and filed away in the ship's computer banks. Occasionally he'd handle incoming requests from other ships in the fleet, for data they might be lacking, or off-site backup.

It was a steady enough job, though not overly difficult. He would type lazily for a few hours, have a snack of some sort, type some more, perhaps get up for a stretch and a drink, type, chat to co-workers, type, and go home. In another 50 days he'd be back to repair duty, unless his name was selected for something else. Who knows, he might even be assigned time off again. There was only so much work to go around, and usually half of the ship's population was on down time. They tried to alternate things so people would have half a year of work, and half a year of leasure time. Though if you elected to take further training on any particular subject, or go into teaching, that could easily use up your work time and leasure time. There was always something new to learn.

With the workday over, Rajax went back to the mess hall, and had his rationed dinner. The cook on duty was a familiar face that time, so he was treated to a sweet roll for desert instead of just fruit. Fed, and not knowing what to do with himself quite yet, he went back to his quarters. There he found Teeka sprawled out on his bunk waiting for him, reading something on an electronic data-slate. She was just as naked as he was, but somehow she managed to make it look naughty.

It wasn't long before he was clutching her massive ballooned chest, while their bellies squished up against one another during their lovemaking. It could be difficult to get two ballooned Horoshi together like this, but they were soft and stretchy enough to squish together and make it work. Occasionally one or the other might squeeze too hard and loose their air, but that was easily corrected. Usually part of the sexual fun was blowing one another up while screwing, until each was too big to continue. Then let out a little air and continue, or play around with the hapless over-inflated partner of your choosing. The options seemed endless, and everyone certainly managed to have one hell of a good time. Rajax sure did, and Teeka wasn't complaining. Even when he spent long periods squeaking her massive breasts together, generally enjoying their round and soft bulk.

The fell asleep against one another on the floor, using inflated bellies and tails as soft sleeping surfaces. It beat his cramped bunk, that much was certain. Rajax would have to talk to that official another day...

*** ***

In the time spent flying around space, the fleet had explored 4 star systems. Thusfar they had not found much of anything, other than uninhabitable planets, gas giants, asteroid belts, and dead moons. It appeared that finding a new place to live wasn't going to be such an easy thing after all. Just a few years back a few Horoshi had come up with the idea of splitting the fleet up into smaller groups, and sending each little task force off in different directions. They'd increase the amount of distance covered, plus survey more systems at a time.

The idea was shot down however, due to the race as a whole not wanting to split up their limited numbers. Also, communiation was a factor. All of their inter-ship communications systems were limited to a speed of light delay, and the ships themselves didn't travel very fast. So if one task force found something, and sent out a message, it could be decades until the rest of the fleet knew about it. And that was just too risky to really worry about increasing their search speeds.

Instead the scientists continued their research along other paths, such as improving their engine output, developing new communications systems, new scanners, and anything else they could think of. They at least were not in a dire rush. The Arcs were self sustaining, and barring long term system failure, could probably continue to support life indefinitely.

Most of a Horoshi's life was currently spent killing time. Seeing as there was not enough work to go around, they found means to entertain themselves. Some started teaching subjects not offered in the regular education programs, while others began learning to play music, or create art. Thousands of Horoshi started to write everything from novels to publications, and soon each ship had its own unofficial news source.

One could go on a tour of another ship if you wanted, though they pretty much all looked the same. The more popular tour was one of the outsides of the ship, provided you could find a spare pressure suit. Sports teams got together here and there, playing everything from anti-gravity ball, to competitive flying simulations. The various sports played in little to no gravity were always a riot to watch. In their anti-gravity ball, they used a large squared off room, and played on all six sides available. Thus six teams each had a "side" to guard, and had to stop the other teams from putting large rubber balls into assorted holes. You were only allowed to use footpaws and tails to move the balls anywhere, which added a degree of difficulty.

It certainly made for impressive displays however. A large rounded Horoshi would launch themselves off one side of the cube, tumble in mid air, take a shot at a ball, and hope their aim was right. Whichever team scored the most points was the winner. It was a chaotic sport, but good fun for all involved.

The simulation events were also entertaining, and required far less space. A few pods could be placed just about anywhere on the ship and networked accordingly, so hundreds if not thousands of Horoshi could be playing against one another in anything from combat games to hide and go seek. Life was anything but boring, and that was a good thing. Thanks to the limited space available inside each Arc, a bored Horoshi would likely go stir crazy quite quickly. Unfortunately this still did happen, and the healers always had one patient or another they had to deal with.

Relationships came and went. Fun was had, work was done, things were learned, and space continued to be explored slowly but steadily. Every now and again the fleet would stop for a while at some distant rock, or perhaps a slow moving asteroid to take a closer look. If anything of interest was found, it was usually mined. As such, most of the cargo ships were filled with useful ores, which were occasionally smelted and put to good use via ship repair workers.

Sometimes the scientists got a treat or two, finding some unknown element or other rare material they never got to play with previously. It was never known what might become of one research path or another, so the vast majority of people were given a free hand to do just about whatever they wanted. The only restriction was that they tried not to blow up the ships. Truly risky work was done in mobile labs on the cargo ships, which would detach and fly along between the main fleet. The hope was that if something went horribly wrong, only a cargo ship would be lost.

Time continued to pass for crew and passengers alike, as they set course for yet another system in their charts. It was another dwarf star, red in color and posessing several planets in a potentially acceptable zone. But as usual, they'd never know for sure until they got there and had a look. It would be another 8 years before they got there, so they definitely had time to get ready.

Time marches on.

*** ***

Rajax awoke to the chimes yet again, blinking sleep out of his eyes. He was sleeping much better these days, ever since a few changes had been made. Years earlier he had been moved to a larger cabin with a bed built for two, and that finally provided enough room for him to sleep with comfort. He had lost it again however, when the powers that be decided that a single Horoshi did not need quarters for two.

Thus he had learned to sleep on the floor, usually with whatever company he could find to make the evening more tollerable. Fortunately for him his duties had been rotated enough times that he found something he really enjoyed doing, namely engineering duties. He liked making sure the ship stayed together, and got the opportunity from time to time to work on newly developed systems, or various test programs. It also let him move to a different part of the ship, closer to the center of mass. A few of the more industrious engineers had expanded their quarters themselves, using up empty bulkhead space or long abandoned store rooms.

Rajax did much the same, and built himself a longer cabin with more room for a proper bed. He had to build the bed himself, and had to sweet talk a few quartermasters for the materials to do so. But over the months he pulled it off, and now had an extra long bunk that could hold both his bulk and company should he have any over for the night. It even folded up against the wall somewhat, giving him space for a proper table and chairs, which also folded out of the walls and floor.

He had rigged up a better entertainment screen and even expanded his refresher system a bit, making it more roomy for his large size. The place suited him, moreso because he had built it himself. He even had a little fruit tree sitting in a pot of dirt near the door, which was currently doing its best to produce a few elongated citrus fruits that went well with anything. He had been given the little tree as a gift by one of the hydroponics bay staff, after pulling some extra shifts there to help them install a new watering system.

It added a little color to the room, and one of these days might even give him a little snack in the way of extra fruit. That suited him just fine, as one could never get enough to eat. As a last touch, Rajax had installed a higher pressure air line going into his unit, and even had multiple hoses hidden here and there all over the room. It was great for when he had company, or just wanted to endage in a little swelling fun with himself during his off hours.

Yawning again, he dragged his hide out of bed and made use of his custom refresher, taking his time and enjoying himself. He had just started a vacation period the day before, and had the next few hundred days to himself. Which was a good thing, because they would likely need him for much longer shifts when his vacation was over. They were perhaps half a year away from the next star system now, and the continued readings on their sensing equipment were looking promising. There was definitely many planets worth looking at, perhaps even a few worth settling on.

He would be needed for repairs, updating equipment, running tests, processing data, and anything else thrown his way. It was good work however, and would likely be very rewarding in the long run. For now however, he was on some well earned down time. Freshly dried and hungry, he figured some breakfast was in order. Before leaving his cabin as always, he paused at the door to make sure he was nice and filled up. He patted at his belly, which was still pretty stretched out from the night before. He had engaged in a little late-night fun, and apparently hadn't belched it all out in his sleep. Grinning to himself, he popped a hose into his jaws and rubbed at his dark purple paunch, letting the air flow on manual control for a while.

He rumbled and swished his thick tail around as he filled up even bigger, steadily getting up to his usual social size, and passing by it. He was feeling frisky as it was, and decided to keep the air on a little longer than usual. His gut swelled up larger by the moment, as did his rump, tail, and sides. Even his chest started to fill out, followed by his neck and even his limbs. He was starting to look quite taut, with a gut sticking out a good 3m in diameter. Purring, he erred on the side of caution and shut off the flow. After all, he didn't want to burst himself. He'd known a few Horoshi who had by mistake, and they had spent the next month with the healers being lectured about inflation safety, and getting their leathery hides stitched back together. It was apparently not the most fun of things to have to go through, and one usually had to spend quite a lot of time not blowing yourself up at all. Embarassing.

Putting the hoses away, he rumbled and squeezed at his large middle and stretched out sides, then grinned towards one other modification he'd done to his quarters. His door was about twice as wide as was standard, and a little taller too. So he could slip even his massively distended body through the opening without the slightest hitch, and did just that. As he went out into the hallway, belly first as always, he practically bowled several passing Horoshi right off their paws. They were in good spirits however, and paused only to laugh and pat his ample paunch. Likely they were envious of his larger size, but tried not to let it show.

Pleased with himself, Rajax set off down the hall to the local eatery. It was smaller than the mess hall he used to eat at, but it was meant to feed fewer Horoshi. Collecting his ration and a little something extra with a wink from a familiar face back in the kitchen, he sat down to quickly stuff his face and enjoy several mugs of tea. Teeka came out from the kitchen not long afterward, and draped herself across his ballooned front with a purr. She was about half his size in terms of bloat, but she made up for it with a very large chest.

She had given him an extra sweet roll just to be nice, and came out to make sure he had eaten it. After all, growing Horoshi need their food. She was obviously pleased with his bloat today, and had likely not seem him this big in a while. Until she had gotten rotated to cooking duty, they had been seperated by quite a good length of the ship for a while. But eventually they had crossed paths again, and they decided to rekindle the relationship. In fact, the two were due to have a little party that very evening, perhaps with guests. An old multi-gender friend from another ship was back for a visit, and shi was perhaps more frisky than Rajax and Teeka put together. He was suddenly glad that he had expanded his quarters, and had installed more air lines. It just wasn't a party without a lot of well rounded flesh to rub up against.

He spent some time there simply enjoying the company of Teeka and anyone else that happened by, but soon she had to get back to work. There were always hungry Horoshi to feed, and a cook's job was never done. They said their farewells for the time being, and both looked forwards to the evenings activities. It was actually his hatching day, something he had forgotten about until reminded by friends a few days earlier. The small part was his long-lost friend's idea, the lovely red Horoshi by the name of Chuacoatl. Or Chu, to hir friends and co-workers.

Chu was scheduled to come aboard again later that evening, and the three planned to have an evening meal together followed by whatever fun they could come up with. Until then, Rajax planned to walk around the ship a bit, visit a few friends, have his official hatchday celebration up on the observation deck, and generally relax. The official party wasn't all that much. Anyone who shared this day with him would be there, and they would all receive some token gift from some of the crew. Occasionally the ships captain or perhaps first officer would make it down to give the usual speech, and drinks were served.

It was a happy time, though usually not very long or overly special. He hadn't recognized anyone at the celebration the last year, and he doubed he'd see any familiar faces at this one either. When the time came to finally go up to the observation deck, he at least got to enjoy turning a few heads with his larger than usual bulk. Some Horoshi were more stretchy than others, and it definitely showed when his hide was concerned.

Words were said, some good tea was consumed, and somebody had even brought a little platter of baked goods to distribute. That was apparently the gift this year, and Rajax shrugged and ate one on the spot. It was tasty at least, and at least somewhat contributed to warding off hunger until suppertime. Oh how he wanted to stuff himself silly most days, and be off these infernal short rations. At least there was the hope of finding somewhere to settle down up ahead. A planet could very likely provide more for them than a few hydroponics bays aboard ships.

He spent the rest of the day in his quarters, waiting for his friends to get there so he could go get something to eat. He sniffed at his little potted fruit tree for good measure, but unfortunately the fruit on its branches was not ripe yet. Shrugging, he killed time playing with his entertainment screen, and took an extra long run through his refresher. He came out ripe with the fruity smells of the cleaning agents, but it was an odor generally preferred to stinky Horoshi.

Finally with a little more time to kill he deployed his bunk and stretched out on it, wriggling his large toes around as he settled in to have a nap. His guests would be around soon enough, and the door chime was sure to wake him up. Provided they didn't just come in and roll him onto the floor. The last time Teeka had, he'd landed belly-first and bounced, much to her amusement. Shrugging, he pillowed his head against one slightly swollen arm, curled up around his own bloat, and nodded off for a while.

He woke up with a pair of breasts over his snout, and another across his chest. There was quite a lot of pressure on his ballooned front as well, almost enough to make him belch out all his trapped air. The colors of each pair of mammaries were familiar enough, so he lept to the logical conclusion. Namely, that his guests had arrived and chosen an interesting means of getting him out of bed.

"Good evening ladies."

This got him a few playful swats, both for referring to Chu as a female, and for sleeping when he had guests to entertain. They spent some time cuddling and generally enjoying the feel of one another up against mutually bloated surfaces. Then with dinner hour approaching, they figured they might as well go get something to eat before it was thrown to the pigs. Or nicked by another hungry Horoshi, in any case.

Rajax offered the use of his wall-mounted compressor hoses should the other two need a top-up, and it was gladly accepted. Teeka rounded out even more than she already was, gaining a larger belly and very rounded breasts. Chu followed suit, puffing up into a big rounded curvy thing all over. Looking their best, the three Horoshi marched through the halls side by side, making for quite the sight. Dinner was lackluster as usual, but at least it kept them relatively fed. They were served a meat dish with some fried bread and fruit. Each could have gone for a second or third helping, but of course they could not have more.

They decided to retire right back to Rajax's bunk, and at least try to enjoy their evening in other ways. There wasn't all that much room in the modified cabin, but it was definitely more roomy than his old one. You could lay down width wise on the floor and still have a little bit of room on either side. Rajax had thought about the problem of having guests over, or just lots of company, and had come up with a solution. His fold-down bunk or the folding chairs were not nearly enough seating room to go around, nor was the rest of the empty floor space all that comfortable. He had managed to secure a large supply of soft rubbery sheeting however, one of the many synthetics they worked with for all sorts of things.

Spending time stitching it all together while bracing the insides and sealing it all tight, he'd wound up making a giant air matress of sorts. It was perfectly sized to fill the entirety of his cabin, making a soft and comfortable floor that anyone could laze upon. He kept the large balloon secured in a floor compartment, which was easy enough to get at. Teeka had seen it before, but Chu had not. He had hir move his potted plant into the refresher room, and invited her to use the facilities if shi wanted. Teeka followed suit, so they could take turns in the refresher and provide helpful cleaning suggestions.

When he heard the sprayers going at full blast, he got out his hidden little cache and plugged the big pile of rubber into one of his conveniently placed wall hoses. It took shape quickly on full blast, and soon filled the entire cabin from wall to wall. He had to stand off to one side, with the big thing resting against his bulk somewhat. With it filled up to an acceptable level, he shut off the air, put away the hose, and made himself comfortable with many the happy squeak. Chu came out of the refresher room first, and tripped over the high lip of the new floor, winding up in a heap up against Rajax. He only grinned and hugged hir tight, as Teeka bounced up onto the ballooned and squeaky surface to join the fun.

Chu was not amused with being surprised so, but definitely liked his new toy. It was considerably more comfortable than the metal floor, and provided enough space for everyone to sprawl out together. They began the evening with watching a few interesting programs on the wall-mounted entertainment screen, using one another as back rests and pillows. Eventually such activities grew boring however, so they switched to a more carnal form of amusement.

Rajax soon found himself belly-up being ridden by Teeka, who was doing her best to get him randy as can be. So far, her tactics were working just fine. She slid him home in a most wonderful place, and continued riding away while their ballooned bodies rubbed and squeaked against one another. Chu joined in on the fun, giving Rajax a big nuzzle and kiss, before tipping Teeka forwards and taking her from behind with hir maleness. Teeka was obviously loving the attention, especially when Chu's paws came around to squeeze and knead at her inflated breasts. All three were gasping with pleasure not long after, enjoying the three way and then some. Rajax went off first followed shortly by Chu, filling up Teeka almost to the bursting point with their combined seed.

She gasped at the pressure, rubbing her stretched out belly and moaning a bit, as she fell into her own orgasim. Panting, the three casual lovers stayed connected for a time, then uncorked here and there and cuddled up again. Two sets of paws rubbed over Teeka's stretched out gut, and she crooned with bliss. They let Teeka rest for a moment, while Chu stood back up again and beckoned Rajax over with a sultry grin.

Shi was still wearing a very light vest that didn't cover much of anything, and acted more as a sling over hir arms and back to carry things. Shi dug out a few little objects from a cloth wrapped bag, then tossed hir vest asside for later. The objects in question looked like replacement nozzles for the air hoses everyone used, but they were different shapes. Shi explained that they were extra little toys shi had picked up on hir current home ship, and felt shi'd bring them along to show off. A few quick twists on a nearby hose took the nozzle off, and one of the new ones was put on. It had a much narrower tip, and looked slightly rounded at the end.

"Now then, watch this."

Rajax leaned up against a bulkhead to watch, ducking somewhat so he didn't bump his head against the ceiling. Chu tugged the hose out of the wall as far as it would go, then carefully slid the nozzled tip into the end of hir maleness. Rajax blinked at this, but got the idea when shi turned on the air and began purring loudly with hir mouth hanging open. Hir dick swelled out longer and thicker by the moment, developing a thick knot of sorts at the base, as her testies swelled up bigger too. Shi let herself blow up down there until shi was about three times as large as before, and starting to look a little uncomfortable. But shi was obviously pleased with the sight, as was everyone else having a look.

Shi wasn't done yet however, and carefully took out the hose, and plugged it gently into one of hir big fat breast nipples. Steadily the one breast ballooned way out of proportion to the other one, until it was a huge sphere larger than hir belly and then some. Shi repeated the process with the other one, until she was absolutely massive. Sporting breasts that were nearly 3m spheres, and a 2m long dick, shi made for quite the obscene yet aluring sight. Chu gave a playful wobble to show off hir stretched out assets, then turned the hose over to Rajax.

"Care to give it a try big boy?"

Teeka was still laying in a daze on the squeaky floor, but was obviously pleased with the sight. Rajax shrugged and decided to give it a go, and plugged his once more erect and throbbing maleness up with the nozzle. He gasped then began rumbling with pleasure as he felt himself expand in such a wonderful place, stretching out longer and thicker by the moment. Like Chu, he developed a thick bloated knot of sorts at his base, and his balls stretched out several times larger than usual. He managed to turn the air off as his stretching began to feel uncomfortable, despite wanting to go even bigger. Soon he was just as engored as Chu, if not moreso. The two hyper endowed ballooned Horoshi turned to Teeka, and struck a leud pose. She blinked up at them and smiled, looking this way and that at the massive tools presented to her.

"Well this is all well and good, but how am I supposed to fit THOSE inside me?"

Everyone got a laugh out of that comment, the trio obviously looking and feeling quite randy again.

They got a very sloshy Teeka standing again, and gave her a turn with the modified nozzles. She too stretched out her breasts to amazing sizes, and fell to the floor soon after in a tangle of inflated and horny bodies. They did their best to work one another up to release again, but had to make do with lots of rubbing and sensual petting. After all, there was no way any mega-ballooned dick was going to fit in anyone or anything right then and there!

Chu and Rajax both went off again with such force that they made a sticky mess of the walls, ceiling, and most of the rubbery floor surface. But it was easy enough to rince off and deal with. All of that could wait until later. For now, the three extremely bloated and very naughty companions made themselves comfortable against one another, playfully rubbing and pinching here and there, until they fell asleep. The lights turned off automatically, and all three slept in a warm glow of friendship and sexual release.

It was good to have such close friendships.

*** ***

It was back to being a busy time on the ship, something that only happened when they were actually in a star system. More watches were kept, repair crews stood by for anything, and excitement rose steadily. Rajax was busy as ever, fresh and rested from his earlier vacation. He had just come on duty a week prior, and it was definitely a good thing he'd had all that time off. He'd been pulling 15 hour shifts, running simulations, pouring over data, and any other tasks thrown his way. It was all he could do to get all of his meals in a day.

The fleet was approaching the red dwarf star, and the first planet in its orbit. Already their sensing equipment and telescopes were sending back lots of useful data, but they still wanted to have an up close look. If nothing else it would let all the passengers actually look at something for a few days. A few ships crept up into a tight orbit around the first ball of rock there in a strange sky, and did their tests. It was a bust right off the bat, that much was certain. The first planet in the system was practically molten, so close to the star as to be not even worth considering.

They stayed for a few days anyways, just to take scans, and look for possible mining sites if need be. There seemed to be no solid surface at all on the planet, so even that idea was thrown out the window. They proceeded to the next world, and this one at least seemed to have an atmosphere. It wasn't far at all from the first one, and it too was far too warm. There was no liquid water at all on the surface, and the atmosphere was thick with toxic gasses. It checked out as a likely candidate for mining however, if any of their equipment could stand the horrible environment.

The third planet out looked far more interesting, but it still was not a match. It had a very thin atmosphere, and was still just a bit too warm. There was no visible ground water, but lots of rocky land. It was likely that this was a more habitable planet a long time ago, but the dwarf star had warmed up, or the planet's orbit had changed. Either way, now it was a lifeless rock that might serve only as a mining colony.

Finally they came to the fourth planet out, and stopped to take a good long look. It was just as large as their former home world, perhaps a bit larger. At first glance, the entire surface was that of an ocean. Several ships did loops around the world, and confirmed indeed that the entire surface was water. The temperature was about right, perhaps just a tad warmer than they were used to. But that wouldn't be a big deal, Horoshi were fairly adaptable. This was the most promising world they'd found in decades of searching, and even those born aboard ship were getting sick of being cooped up in such cramped conditions.

But how would they even get down there? Their cargo ships were not built to land in the water, and if they did they likely would have a hard time getting back out again. They would have to gather up what spare parts they had, and try to rig up something else to get down there and have a look. Three of the ships stayed in orbit around the ocean world, collecting what data they could. The rest continued on through the system, seeing what other planets were around, and if any of them would be a better match.

Rajax and several other Engineers were put to the task of prepping for a water landing, and soon came up with at least a quick data collection option. They modified an old robotic probe once used to survey in and around the Arc ships, before they switched to manned inspections just to give more people something to do. The probe was encapsulated in a break-away pod, and fitted with a longer range antenna. Once it finished entering the atmosphere, the pod would break away, and the little remote craft would fly around via its small fusion engines. To make it work better in an atmosphere, they had fitted the craft with a small pair of wings as well.

Soon they had the little remote operated vehicle zooming through clear blue skies, not too far from the blue-green waters below. Close up images and scans showed that the water was quite deep indeed, hundreds of meters at the least. As the little robot ship started to run low on fuel for its fusion engines, they brought it in for a soft landing on the water, and let it sink. Internal sensors tracked how deep it got before it was finally crushed by ocean pressure. The water was indeed deep, but that might not be a problem.

Other Engineers had looked at the problem before them, and already started drafting up plans for building floating platforms that could be lived on. For the time being they could be used as temporary lodgings, at least until something more permamant could be put together. Various solutions were being proposed for getting the cargo ships down, such as building stabalization floats into their hulls that could be deployed on landing, and retractable covers for the torches so the innards didn't get flooded. If they cut out the engines and closed the ports just before landing, they'd splash down safely and hopefully be able to get back up again.

The craft themselves were fairly water tight and had lots of open passages, so it was likely they could float with a little help. With everything planned out, they set about actually building things and making modifications.

On day 37 of year 51, ship's time, one of their cargo ships made a successful water landing. Watertight ports sealed off the engines as planned, and they were reasonably certain they could be fired up again without a hitch. Large inflatable bladders deployed themselves in a ring all along the lower axis of the spherical craft, holding it mostly out of the water and providing something to stand on as Horoshi walked out into the lovely sunlight. Some of them had never set foot on a planet in their lives, while others were very young when they lost their homeworld. None had seen this much water in a very long time, that much was certain. They resisted the urge to jump in and have a swim, mostly because they were already seeing signs of large sea creatures. And nobody wanted to be lunch for some giant fish.

The crew aboard the landing craft soon got to work, and began building all the things they had brought with them. A large floating platform was put out into the water, and from its center of mass a huge cable trailed all the way down to the sea floor. There it was anchored to a heavy weight made out of various metals and stone, hopefully good enough to keep it there for a while. To that centre platform they attached many other floating sections, ultimately building a large circular structure that sat floating just a meter off the surface of the water. Its size gave it stability as they had planned, and any rocking motion from the water was minor.

They rimmed the big circle with fences, and built a few docks that hung suspended off various access points. When they were finished they had a fenced in floating circle that was perhaps 500m in diameter, and contained one large yet light weight building in the middle. This would be a main facility for whatever needed doing on the platform, and would likely serve as a small factory for now. The next ship would bring down temporary settlers, who would deploy other light weight structures all around their new floating ring. They had to be careful not to put too much weight on the thing, as they did not want it to sink. Settlers on this platform would likely be living in canvas tents, but they were eager to be off the Arcs. Only a few hundred Horoshi were left there after the second ship disgorged its cargo, but it was all they felt could safely inhabit the structure.

Bit by bit more ships came down and deployed more floating platforms, until thousands of Horoshi were living on the surface. It was soon clear that all of them couldn't just abandon the ships and live on these crude floating structures. So for the time being, most Horoshi went back to their normal lives. They had waited this long, they could wait a few more years if need be until something better was built.

The fifth planet out could support life, but it had little ground water and was always quite cold. Any Horoshi that settled there would have to live in atmospheric domes and be very dependant on machinery to survive. But that wasn't much different than living on the Arcs, so it was looked into. The same went for the third planet in. A few pressure domes, and you could call it home. All one had to do was get used to the idea. Besides, with the race spread out a bit more they could start to repopulate. Or at least take vacations to places other than another deck of the ship you were living on.

As time went on, the Horoshi spread out around that system, either still in their ships or on planet. Small mining and research colonies were built on the 3rd and 5thsystems, while more and more Horoshi moved onto their new ocean world. It wasn't perfect, but it was at least somewhere they could get out and stretch their legs. The search would continue for a better homeworld, but that could wait for another day. For now, most of the Horoshi decided they had earned a rest.

Rajax eventually moved off ship and onto one of the ocean-platform colonies, and set up shop. He would be needed as an engineer on planet, and they had no end of tasks for him to do. Teeka and Chu eventually moved in with him, and the three joined together as a very happily married trio. Right away they discovered advantages to living on a planet again, namely no rations. They had all the fish and crustations they could eat, and they did so with relish.

Only time will tell how the Horoshi fare with their new star system, and if they'll even stay. After all, they have options at their claw tips. To Rajax, Teeka, and Chu however, they had finally found a place to call home.