Caelus Aurum (1 of 3)
#1 of Anomalies on the Caelus Aurum
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The science vessel Caelus Aurum drifted motionless in space, lesss than a hundred miles from the rift. Her prow, normally alight with the buzz and whir of sensors and detection arrays, lay silent and still, not a stone's throw from the greatest discovery of the crew's lives. No one had ever seen anything like the riftt, and there was no better equipped science ship in all the Terran fleet than the Caelus Aurum. They were so close and yet completely unable to study it at all.
Crevan stood on the observation deck, staring out at the rift. The warm golden glow eminating from the rift bathed the room in a blanket of color, turning the fox's normally bright orange coat a soft blonde color. His ears flicked idly as he contemplated the thing, shifting his weight from foot to foot uneasliy. It had been less than an hour since their arrival, and the immediate destruction of all external equipment on the ship. The engines ground to a crawl before stopping completely, and their electronic view of the outside world reduced to nothing. The ship seemed to be keeping them safe, but they weren't going anywhere.
"It looks like a quazar to me," Kat's voice slipped up next to him, little more than a soft awed purr. He glanced at her, smiling. In the gold light, he couldn't even see the young tigress' stripes, but the look of rough, scientific thought was scientific thought was plastered on her face, "Except that we're still in our own galaxy ... and it's way too small."
"Well," Crevan sighed. He didn't really care what the damn thing was, just as long as he wasn't stuck here for the rest of his life. He was beginning to regret being reassigned to a science vessel already, "You've got a good chance to look at it. We're not going anywhere. I can't send men out to fix the engines until I know it won't kill them, and I can't tell if we can send men out there because we don't have external sensors. We're more or less waiting for someone to notice that we're missing and come into comms range so we can explain what happened."
"It's a shame alright. I just want to reach out and touch it." Kat's gaze never left the anomaly out the viewing window. Crevan's eyes stayed fixed on Kat. He'd never noticed it before, but there was something alluring about the tigress ... that attractive young form ... lithe and limber and -
Crevan's reverie was cut just short of indecency by a buzz of static from the intercom. A tinny, distorted voice came over the speaker, "Captain? You there?"
Crevan tore his eyes away from Kat and made his way to the comm pad, "Yeah. I'm here."
"You're needed in the infirmary."
"On my way." Crevan flicked his tail in frustration. What could Lethys want? Surely this problem was purely a problem for the aspiring engineers ... doctors couldn't fix broken engines, could they? He shook his head, clearing the last of the pleasant reveries about Kat from his mind. Only on this ship ...
Crevan didn't notice the door frame untill he'd already slammed his head into it. He cursed aloud and ducked before stepping into the medical, his ears gently brushing the low celing as he stepped through the door. Even the damn doors were small ... not like the warship he'd been captain of before this 'blessed' peace had set in. When the war effort no longer needed all its more inexperienced captains, it was either early retirment or babysitting scientists , and Crevan was beginning to wish he'd chosen retirement.
His mood only worsened when he saw the doctor step up to greet him. The slim, scrawny snow leopard had the look on his face scientists adopted when they were about to say something incredibly complicated. He'd learned to recognize that look on the faces of his new comrades and shipmates, and was already learning to avoid anyone with that look on their face. Unfortunately, Lethys had asked for him by name, "What's the problem, doc?"
"I'm not exactly sure it is a problem yet," Lethys walked over to one of the complex computer arrays that was set up in the lab, gesturing for Crevan to come join him. Crevan stifled a groan and leaned in to look at the screen. The leopard stared at the screen for a moment, tail flicking in idle thought, before tapping on an icon with an extended claw. A collection of graphs and figures flicked to life on the screen, not a one of which Crevan recognized, "Internal sensors have been picking up a number of high energy particles on the inside of the ship, very similar to radiation, but scans for all known types of radiation come up negative. It's ... it's like it's a whole new particle."
"Wait ... " Crevan ignored the science-geek discovery speech and tried to focus on the issue at hand, "There's radiation on the ship?"
"Yes. We're saturated with it." Lethys smiled, as if it were the greatest thing in the world. "We believe the anomaly is the source of it."
"The rift ... is generating radiation ... " Crevan stared at the doctor, trying to figure out if he was serious. The doctor was practically purring with excitement. "And it's a good thing?"
"Well, it certainly doesn't seem to be a bad thing." Lethys tapped the computer screen again, bringing an entirely new set of charts and data up that Crevan didn't understand any more than the last, I've heavily bombarded several samples of living tissue with the high energy particles with no ill effects at all." Lethys shrugged and looked up at Crevan, his tail still flicking. "Isn't it exciting!? An entirely new high-energy particle, completely unlike any ever seen before!"
"Well ... " Crevan turned, ready to leave the doctor and his cheerfulness. He wished he could - just once - go a day around here without his time being wasted, "If it's not dangerous to us, why did you call me down here?"
"I need those external sensors online so I can study it!" Lethys tried to spring to his feet, sending the lab chair flying and falling flat on his face. Feline grace, it seemed, was lost on him.
Crevan groaned aloud and stalked out the door, pausing only to swear under his breath as he slammed his head into the doorframe on the way out.
The walk back to the captain's quarter's took Crevan's mind off of his most annoying feline crewmate, and focused it on somewhere more ... aesthetically pleasing. He'd never known there were so many good looking women working on the Caelus Aurum. Oh sure, there was always Kat ... young and lithe and full of energy, with that sexy little purr thing she did when she was exited... but in his experience, most of the women working in his proximity were bookish scientist types.
Yet on the walk back, he'd locked eyes with a she-wolf that could have made lingere models jealous ... and the vixen! Her eyes had lingered on him for a while, too ... though he'd had a hard time keeping his eyes on her face - her high, firm breasts pulling her regulation size uniform up enough to show a little toned midriff posed perfectly above one grade-A ass. They'd brushed tails as as they'd passed each other by, and he'd caught just the slightest hint of feminine musk just daring him to take her for a ride ...
He laughed and shook his head, stepping into his quarters. Who knew there were scientists like that!? If the damn ship wasn't stuck dead in space, he'd have followed her to her quarters in a heartbeat ... ah well.
He sat down at his desk, and stared at his computer screen. He needed some shoreleave. Of course, if he wanted anything like that, he'd have to get them out of this damn anomaly first. He logged on to the computer, searching the crew manifest for someone who might be able to help him brainstorm a way out of their current conundrum. The engines sure as hell weren't starting themselves.
He didn't get very far. The crew was all more qualified to deal with their current crisis than he was, and most of them had so many acronyms after their name they could have hosted their own alphabet. To make matters worse, he couldn't get comfortable in his chair, as if it were riding up on him constantly ... and he was becoming increasingly frustrated with the tiny keyboard interface they'd set him up with. How was he supposed to use a damn system if had to type with his godsdamned claws?
Crevan sighed and sat back ... his mind automatically reverting to the vixen he'd met earlier. He could look up her profile - probably weren't too many vixens stationed on a ship full of scientists. He'd have to find her room and have a litte 'discussion' about proper uniform. Heh ... he'd probably have to confiscate her shirt, too - just to make the point clear.
As his mind wandered, a tightness in his uniform's pants warned him that his fantasies were getting a little ... physical. He cursed under his breath and stood, locking his door and heading for his shower, quickly sheding his pants and shirt. He tapped the panel on the wall, carefully considering before selecting the button marked 'cold'. The shower kicked on, and he cursed himself for deciding to take the professional route out.
He had just finished meticulously drying himself off, mentally resigning himself to get back to work, when the intercom crackled, and a familiar voice spoke up, "Captain?"
"Yes, Lethys?" Crevan sighed.
"You better come back down here." The voice sounded just as annoying. If he never met another leopard again, it would be too soon. "We have a bit of a ... problem."
"On my way." Crevan flicked off the intercom and searched for his discarded uniform. At least there wouldn't be any talk of vixens around Lethys.
Crevan saw the doorframe coming this time, and ducked under it, avoiding the physical pain of entering the medical lab, but the good doctor himself was significantly harder to get away fomr. He greeted Crevan with an uneasy sort of smile and a weary laugh, as if he'd been at his wits end all day and was one more bad political joke away from snapping.
Hell, the little sod was even bouncing up and down on his toes like a ...
...
Crevan's gaze never made it all the way down to Lethys' toes. His eyes caught halfway there, focused just below the good doctor's waist line. Lethy's uniform pants ... were not fitting properly. This was probably due to the obtrusive bulge in the front, pressed tight against the fabric. Hells ... it looked as if the young idiot had shoved two oranges and a soda can down the front of his pants.
Crevan raised his gaze - quickly - back up to Lethys' eye level, one eyebrow cocked, "What seems to be the problem, Doctor?"
"It's the energy particles, right?" If Lethys noticed Crevan's staring, he didn't show it, "They're not quite as ... 'inert' as we thouht they were."
"You're saying that the radiation is harmful?" Crevan strode after Lethys as the leopard spun and walked towards the door leading to the examination room ... rather awkwardly.
"Not ... exactly." Lethys shook his head and opened the door, gesturing for Crevan to follow.
Crevan started to ask just what the radiation did if it wasn't 'inert' and it wasn't 'harmful', but as he entered the room, he caught his first clue at what the doctor was talking about. A male hyena and a vixen were both sitting in the room, looking incredibly awkward, trying to balance on examination tables that were clearly designed for beings of more ... common heights. They both towered over Crevan. The hyena had to be at least eight feet tall at the ears, while the significantly shorter vixen still could have easily been six and a half, or even seven feet.
The hyena had to slouch down so that his head didn't touch the celing, keeping himself propped up with chisled forarms. The ill-fitting surgical gowns the two were dressed with left little to the imagination, fitting the heyna's athlete's body like a glove, and showing off an impressive male package as it ran out of material almost two thirds of the way down his thighs.
The female's attire had been slightly ... modified, cut into a deep v-neck, that showed off the single most awe-inspiring cleavage Crevan had ever had the privalege of seeing. Her areolae were just visible under the tight pull of the cloth, and she ... well ... if the state of her nipples was any clue, she was more than slightly aroused by her current state.
The material draped over the top of her chest and slid in to hug her waist, revealing - again - a toned athlete's body, before flaring out at her hips, and ending just at the start of her thighs, as if it were a mini-skirt. The ties on the gown had been ... extended so that they would fit her curvy, feminine form, still ... it looked as if there had been some trouble tying them off.
Crevan found himself in danger of becoming aroused by the sight of the vixen and the thick smell of musk that hung in the air, tempting his senses. He coughed and focused on Lethys as best he could. "Radiaton ... caused that?"
"High energy particles," Lethys confirmed, a distracted waver in his voice, "They're causing ... mutations."
"Mutations?"
"Right," Lethys finally tore his eyes away from his patients, "Mutations that are causing rapid growth and ... ah ..." Lethys paused, as if looking for the right words, "Sexual development? ... Yes, that's the best way of putting it."
"So ... these two got that big ... from the radiation ..." Crevan thought hard about what was going on. He wouldn't believe the doctor if he weren't seeing the results right in front of him, "But isn't the radiation all over the ship? Why just these two?"
"Ah," Lethys raised a finger as if scolding a child, "We're all growing. Just relatively slower. It's a small amount, but it's enough to throw off things like size perception ... and if you happen to be a feline, a fine tuned sense of balance."
Crevan thought back to his earlier mishaps with the doorframe, and Lethys' spill off of his chair ... about how he'd been slightly uncomfortable all day, complaining that everything on the ship was too small ... gods ... it hadn't been the ship at all.
"If we all kept growing without any outside interference," Lethys continued his explanation, heedless of Crevan's epiphany, "We might reach their size in a day or two. However, there are a few other factors."
"Such as?"
"Sexual interaction greatly excelerates the growth rate for a short period," Lethys gestured at the couple, still seated awkwardly on the examination tables, "As with these two. They've only been together once, sexually since we've entered range of the rift."
"Gods ..." Crevan muttered under his breath.
"And, they're not the only ones." Lethy's sighed, "They're just the ones who can still fit through my door. There are others on the ship actually trapped because they were too ... ah ... occupied to notice how big they were getting. If this keeps up, I'm worried about starvation."
"Why?" Crevan felt the need to interject, if just to hear his own voice to make sure he was still sane, "How much more are the crew eating?"
"What?" Lethys shook his head, as if the question had upset some delicate mental balance, "Well ... yes, while there is significant increase in appetite, for obvious reasons, but we're stocked for two years ... it'll be a while before we have to deal with that. It's much more plausible for all of the crew to simply get stuck, unable to fit through the doors. Starvation from not being able to reach a food source."
"Great. So we outlaw forming couples. If it takes us another week to get out of here, we might be larger, but certainly not stuck. No one'll be happy, but we can tough it out."
"We'll have to, without a doubt." Lethys nodded, turning and heading towards another door as he did so, this one marked 'operation room', "Which brings me to the other accelerating factor."
"Another one?" Crevan sighed ... as if the first one wasn't bad enough, he was already going to have to work out most of his current tension alone ... what else could go wrong?
A female lynx sat on the operating table under the harsh, flourescent light, looking embarassed. She was no giant like the two outside. In fact, could have only been about five foot four, a tad shorter than average. It was almost a dissapointment.
However, unlike the two outside, she wasn't wearing a surgical gown. It would have been a pointless gesture, anyway. There was no way Lethys could have gotten the strings tied. She had a thin, scrawny body, and that bookish look about her face, no doubt once one of the scientist crew Crevan had been complaining about not an hour earlier ... but now ... she had different assets.
Her breasts were easily larger than the vixen sitting on the examination table in the other room, and on her small figure, they looked enormous, each one bigger than the poor young creature's head. her bountiful feminine proportions seemed to be matched only by her perfect hourglass figure. Her ass could have won awards that would have put a porn star to shame.
"Just as sexual interaction accelerated the growth rate of the couple outside," Lethys began his explanation, while Crevan stared, "Self ... ah ... 'pleasuring' causes a rapid increase in the rate of sexual development."
"And just how many times," Crevan shot another look at the good doctor's absurd bulge, coming to new conclusions about what was and was not a soda can, "Has this young lady ... pleasured herself? For ... investigative reasons, obviously."
"Marie here has admitted to twice before she came here, and a third while ... under observation." Lethys smiled, shyly, "The effect seems equally as pronounced with ... ah ... male subjects as well."
There was no doubt in Crevan's mind who the 'male subject' had been.
"Great. So we can't have any sexual interaction, and we can't get ourselves off," Crevan looked at Lethys with a wary stare, "I'm letting you make the announcement to the crew on that one. Any other limitations I should know about?"
"You'll be the first to find out once I know," Lethys shrugged, "Other than that, the ship's hull seems to be blocking most of the particle activity. It would be best if we stayed in the heavier sheilded parts of the ship to minimize unwanted growth. Keep people away from windows, that sort of thing."
"Away from windows?" A thought snarled in the back of Crevan's mind, slowly making it's way to the surface. Kat was probably still in the observation room ... if what Lethys was saying was true ... he had to check on her. "Good work Lethys, I'll make sure to bar off the observation deck as soon as I can, and shuttle everyone who can still fit into the cargo bays."
Crevan sprinted out of the medical lab. If he was too late ...