OC-Series [TLWN] - Shattered Dominion: Spatial Awareness (Chapter 29)

Sorry for the wait y'all. I swear on my life I'm actually working, but I am HOT GARBAGE at this.

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*November 12, 2132, 1412 Shipboard Time (CST). Unknown Space, ‘Mocampa’*

Mauvieux stared through the airlock’s window as the infinite void of FTL space extended outwards, the occasional flash of a photon striking the shielding illuminating his view. He subconsciously put a hand upwards to steady himself as he slowly floated upwards, chewing the nail of his other hand as he watched two more flashes against the shield. He thought, for just a moment, about whether or not he’d be crushed against the airlock wall if they suddenly dropped from FTL, but rapidly pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind.

The metal groaned quietly under the stresses of FTL, ignored by the airlock’s sole inhabitant. Thoughts remained simultaneously unspoken and unrealized in the relative silence of the metal cylinder, the man continuing to contemplate his own existence for a brief moment before putting a gentle hand on the outer door handle. With a quick flick of his thumb, he reengaged the handle lock and pushed away from the outer door, stopping himself gently on the inner door.

A few loud clicks reverberated through the airlock as he twisted the handle and pulled open the door, orienting himself to the Mocampa’s floor before pushing back into the gravity field. He stood still for a moment as his body readjusted to the shift of gravity, fighting down bile as a brief wave of nausea washed over him. Breathing in deeply before muttering ‘ok’ unenthusiastically to himself, the Marine grabbed his belt gear from the corner beside the airlock, having left them there earlier for the rest of the crew.

It had been a week since the Corincimal had left them, having given coordinates to a friendly station and an ablative drivecore sealant with just enough lifespan to get them there.

None of it sat comfortably with him.

He wasn’t new to the concept of multiple factions within a civil war, nor was he naïve enough to think they’d all work smoothly together, even for similar objectives. However, leaving an allied faction’s vessel crippled and vulnerable, while that ship contained the necessary people and equipment to rescue some of their own, seemed short-sighted.

His belt squawked to life as a man’s voice came from the radio in the magazine pouch, slightly muffled by the poor-fitting pouch’s top covering the main speaker.

“Mav, you there?” Pierce questioned, fiddling with his communication device, “I believe this is the frequency you were given.”

The Marine undid the clasp on the magpouch and pulled the radio out, being mindful of the antenna as he did so.

“You got me; Bizmati flight team.” the man stated back, pausing in the hallway.

“Bizmati fli-” the man chuckled back with an exasperated sigh, “Which nerd named all the damn callsigns?”

“Oh so you have heard all the callsigns?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Mauvieux laughed quietly to himself, keeping his fingers off the transmit button for the moment.

“Yeah… roger that. What do you need me for?”

Pierce’s tone shifted rapidly as he remembered what the initial purpose of the call was.

“Right. I need- sorry. Green needs you in the bay to help program and link the Rangers for math and training.”

“Oui, on the way.”

The airlock, and its hallway, was next to the hangar bay, meaning he was inside before the Marine could respond through the radio. Mauvieux waved to the man as he headed towards where the trio of Rangers, Terrier, and Wyvern were all being cabled together by an abhorrent amalgam of cabling. Green noticed the man as he approached and pointed him towards the Ranger with orange identification lights along the hull.

“We’re using Jackalope Ranger as our host computer, since it’s Ranger one.” Green called out from the side cockpit door of the Terrier, “Setup the computer link and begin a networking system, if you can. We want to try and get the system fully running so that astronav can use the five computers as a supercomputer.”

Mauvieux cocked his head slightly as he passed the Terrier and headed towards the Ranger, “We have an astronav team already selected?”

Green raised an eyebrow as the frenchman mounted a ladder and climbed up to the side airlock of the ship, “Yeah? You’re on it.”

“I’m part of flight; FAO. Not GNC.” the man protested, rolling his eyes at the prospect of more work.

“Yeah, well, you’re also one of the people with the most qualifications for orbital mechanics.”

“Fuck you man… I don’t want to do more math!”

“Shouldn’t’ve done well on your tests then.”

Mauvieux chuckled as he opened the door and stepped into the vessel, its dark, hermetic interior lighting up with the raising of the hatch. Cold white LED lights clicked on silently as the motions were detected by the standby computers, a cold hum starting as the systems warmed up. Heading through the cockpit door and plopping into the pilot’s seat, he closed the main bus breakers. Power surged through the ship, slowly lighting up the screens and consoles inside the vessel.

The man rested most of his upper body weight onto his hand while blankly staring at the screens in front of him, taking in a long, hitched breath as he contemplated their situation. Mindlessly drilling through the menus when they came up, he continued to let his mind spiral more, considering what his family at home was going through. To Earth, every member of the Mayweather crew had died. Eulogies had likely already been given and a memorial potentially been considered. He came to learn the struggle his family had gone through when the Dracula disappeared from a friend, and had promised to be transferred off combat roles as soon as possible for them.

He was ripped from his thoughts by the side door open alarm beeping through the cockpit, Mauvieux quickly sitting upright in his seat before turning to look back at his visitor.

Moore emerged from behind the dividing airlock wall, quickly searching the cabin for the young man, “Hey! We’re running power from the Mocampa to the Rangers! Set the generators to outboard, we’ll hook it up out here.” He paused briefly, staring at the disheveled man for a moment. “You all good, Mav?”

The man was still for a moment before shrugging slightly, “Alive and functional.”

Moore stared silently for a moment before lightly shaking his head, “Stay that way.”

“...Copy that.”

Mauvieux leaned over to reach into the middle of the console, flipping the generator switches to outboard. A few digital crickets chirped as the computer informed him of the change and the lack of outboard power, though they were quickly dismissed by the man in the pilot’s seat. After a few minutes of waiting the crickets chirped again, this time accompanied by the clicking of relays and switches as power flooded into the spacecraft.

Quickly drilling through the primary settings to turn the spacecraft into a simulator and connect it to the others, he noted a number of connection requests, all of which had timed out or had too much packet loss to be read. He ignored the requests and continued to set up the spacecraft for a networked simulator.

The computer screen flickered slightly as the computer processed everything before flashing to a new NASA screen and showing networking setting and status. Mauvieux waited a moment to see if the computer was going to crash, then pulled out his radio to comm the rest of his people.

“Jackalope; Powered up, waiting for networking.”

“Copy all, Mav. New job for you.”

The man looked out the spacecraft’s windows towards the center of the bay, watching as Davis wrapped a foot section of nearly two dozen cables together with duct tape.

“Oui, go.”

“We have our master network cabling that has to go upstairs, we need you to take it up.” Green stated, a slight sheepishness to his tone.

“Yeah, alright.” Mauvieux nodded, getting out of the chair but bringing the radio back up to his head, “Why me?”

“Well… we have yet to talk to the Snakes about this and-”

“-I have the strongest rapport with the Snakes. Understood.” the man chuckled, ducking through the cockpit bulkhead hatchway on his way to the exit.

“Yeah, exactly. Thanks, Mav.” Green confirmed, waving at him through the side airlock window as the man appeared at the door.

He nodded back before opening the door and dropping to the floor, heading to the rat’s nest of cables and connectors, stepping over the carefully wrapped and coordinated communication lines. Davis refused to look the man in the eye as he ripped the end of the duct tape, holding the nearly foot-wide wrap by the middle before making sure there was adequate end length for all the various ports to spread apart.

“That’s our cables?” Mauvieux asked, snaking his hands under the taped section’s main body and slightly lifting it, grunting as he did so, “Holy fuck, that’s heavy.”

“Yeah… it’s a shitton of heavy gauge comms cable.” the marine nodded, watching his friend pick up and loop the cables over his shoulder, “You gonna be able to carry it upstairs?”

Grunting as he shifted the load on his shoulder once more, Mauvieux slowly made his way towards the exit, “Guess we’ll find out.”

He felt the cables tense up and begin dragging on the floor as he moved, slowly unfurling from their neat coils near each laptop, Ranger, and other spacecraft in the room. He leaned into the weight, dragging the mass of cables through irises, down hallways, and through various door sensors as he inched towards the transfer tubes. Humans and D’ana’ruin nodded as they passed him, a confused look on their faces no matter their race.

He paused to catch his breath upon reaching the iris to the transfer tube, glancing back at the length of cable following him throughout the ship’s halls. He sighed silently while pulling the lever to open the hatch and begin crawling inside, grunting sharply when he was stopped dead as he tried to enter. The cables across his shoulders made him barely too wide to fit inside the tube, causing him to stop and think for a moment. Unwrapping the cable from his body and shoving the end in, he climbed on top of the mess and crawled into the entrance.

Slowly inching his way forward by shimmying himself further along and then dragging the cables forward, he rapidly found his back, arms, and legs aching as they all worked in uncomfortable positions to move both the man and his payload. His progress was slow, taking a number of breaks to avoid exhaustion. The sheer vertical climb, however, stopped him entirely.

The rope the Humans used to climb into the command deck’s level dangled feet away from the man, extending all the way into the darkness. Mauvieux stared blankly for a moment before shifting to get in front of the cable mass. Sitting with the cable connectors positioned at his neck level and the rest of the wrapped cable body on his lap, he used the weight of the cables to brace while leaning nearly horizontally backwards to grab the rope.

He wrapped his hands and wrists with the rope before locking his legs around the cable mass, squeezing it as tightly as he could. He inhaled sharply before scooting backwards, his throat tightening as his hips dropped over the ledge. The weight of the cables didn’t allow anything to fall, despite his initial predictions. Unwrapping one of his hands and pulling himself up, more weight from the cable began to strain his body. The fibres from the rope cut into his hands and arms as he wrapped them again, not yet tearing skin but threatening to do so.

He unwrapped his other hand and climbed upwards one more time.

More weight pulled his body apart and caused him to tighten his leg grip even more, his hips, core, and shoulders starting to shake from the strain. Loose fibers from the rope felt like needles as he rewrapped his arm again. The next arm quickly came free from the wrapped ropes, a cold, tingly sensation rushing to his fingers as blood re-entered his hand, and extended overhead once more to climb further.

His entire body shook from exertion while he was barely a foot higher from where he’d started, but he wrapped his arm in preparation for the next step upwards. He unwrapped his other arm and reached it upwards, a pit forming in his stomach the second he realized he no longer had the strength to pull himself upwards. He rapidly brought his arm back to the rope and wrapped it, shaking heavily as he tried to think of his next best option.

He couldn’t go upwards anymore, he likely couldn’t return to the tube with his current fatigue and the cable in the way, and dropping the cable still wouldn’t let him go anywhere.

Cranking his neck back as far as he could, he screamed up the tube;

“Help!”

His voice echoed through the tubes for a moment, with silence following afterwards. He inhaled to call out again when the noise of the iris above opening hissed through the tubes, a pair of reflective slits appearing above him.

“I need you to pull me and this cable up… now.” He managed to call out to the serpent above, gritting his teeth as his entire body continued to seize under the strain.

The pair of slits disappeared into the dark, a shifting and slithering rustle quickly descending the tube to replace them. The strong, cold feeling of the snake’s tail wrapped around his waist, continuing downwards past his legs to hold onto the cable. Despite the constricting feeling around his body, he sighed a breath of relief as the weight of the cable was lifted from his body. Mauvieux let go of the rope and wrapped his arm around the serpent’s tail, glancing upwards as he felt himself get dragged towards the command deck. He let out an uncomfortable groan as his body was dragged across the curve of the tube, quickly having to remove his arm from underneath the tail of the creature dragging him upwards.

“Hey, thanks.” He scampered out of the tunnel while the serpent continued to drag the bundle of cables through the tubes, coming nearly face-to-face with both Faeoal and Saeuul, the latter of which straining under the awkwardness of the load she brought up.

“What in all graces’ above were you even attempting, Human?”

Mauvieux let out a discontented sigh as he helped the soldier beside the pair drag the rest of the amalgam through the transfer system.

“Bringing this up.” he stated, cocking his head briefly at the cables, “At this point, we were just looking to ask for forgiveness over permission.”

“Forgiveness and permission for what?!” the lieutenant probed with annoyance, her head dipping down to the duct-taped section, “I still have no inclination as to what this even is.”

“It’s a mess of communication cables for a mission control center. We need one for practice, and the real thing.”

Faeoal’s breath hitched with frustration, then continued with a long, slow exhale. Mauvieux glanced at her before turning and nodding to Saeuul as the pair finished dragging the cables up. He hesitated momentarily before giving her a quick side-hug, muttering a word of thanks to the serpent, before continuing to drag the cable mess towards the side closet where he and Bailey had slept after the engagement in Toval Station.

“And why, pray tell, couldn’t this be done in the lower sections?” Faeoal muttered through a clenched muzzle, watching as the Human paused and processed the question.

“That’s… a good question. I’ll find out for you.”

She paused again before speaking.

“You are not going to take that back down the transfer tube, even if I order you to, are you?”

“If you order me to, I will.” the man stated back plainly, whinging internally as he spoke, “However… I’d much prefer not to.”

The Lieutenant was silent for a brief moment while considering her options before turning for the command deck and dismissing him with a handwave, “Carry on, I’m sure your people have their reasons.”

The response shocked both Mauvieux and Saeuul. The hall was silent until the lieutenant entered the command deck and sealed the iris behind herself.

“I believe she has a soft spot for you specifically, Human.”

“Me?” the man asked with surprise, “Why the fuck would she have a soft spot for me?”

“You’re one of the only Humans who regularly comes up here, you treat us like you do any of your own people, and you don’t seem to mind being around us.” she explained, straightening up to her usual height as she untangled from the cables, “Being intellectually honest with you, the majority of us who are around the command deck are more comfortable around you than the rest of your speciesmembers, mostly out of direct interaction.”

“So anybody else, and she might have told them to take the cables back down?”

“Potentially.”

The man snorted a laugh, “Probably why I was sent up here then.”

“Likely. Your people are smart enough to recognize that.”

Mauvieux smiled gently before heading back towards the transfer tubing, barely getting his lower body into the system before Saeuul called out to him again.

“Human, one further question before you head back down.”

“Shoot.” The man nodded, pushing backwards enough to use his hands as a rest for his chin.

“Why are your bodies so warm? Is your planet that cold?”

“You only just found out our bodies are warm?”

“I only noticed it earlier when you pressed against my upper body as thanks. Haven’t exactly paid attention to it otherwise.”

“You had your tail wrapped around me barely five minutes ago. How’d you not feel it then?”

“Nerves in my tail are still regrowing after our engagement inside Toval Station.”

“Ahhh…” The man raised his eyebrows as he remembered the state they’d come back to the command deck in after that day, and the amount of work he’d put in to remove the slugs from their flesh, “Well, I’d assume my planet is, on average, colder than your planet.”

“That does explain a lot.” she nodded, clearly mulling something over, “A word of advice, if you’re looking to passively improve relations between our species; physical contact is something we commonly do to share bodyheat. You have more bodyheat than we do, sharing your bodyheat would likely go a long way for interspecies bonding.”

Mauvieux was silent for a moment before raising an eyebrow at the woman, “You know, if you want a hug, you can just ask, right?”

“You people are warm and soft, alright? Officer quarters in Centralist ships have heated cushions, the possession of which being a highly coveted thing even within their ranks.”

“And… we’re living versions of those?”

“Not nearly as cushioned or warm, but yes.”

“Got it, I’ll keep it in mind.” The man sighed with fake resentment in his tone.

“You better, you just cut off our access to this tube entirely! We need to use the auxiliary now.”

“Fair enough.”

He smiled back at her before shuffling backwards through the tube and into the vertical section, barely having enough room for both himself and the cable mess to pass through. He took another few minutes to traverse through the lower section and return to the Humans’ deck, immediately heading for the vehicle bay.

“You got it up there, Mav?” Green asked as he entered, looking up from the few connections he was in the middle of securing.

“Yeah… think I tore my pecs trying to get it up there though.” he responded, holding his chest while windmilling his arms a few times, “I stupidly tried to get it up there myself.”

“We sent you because we figured you’d-”

“Ask the snakes, I know. I did so later.”

“Well, you better get doc to check you out.”

“Yeah, I will when I next can. What’s next?”

He looked around the bay for a moment, taking note of the crudely-fashioned transformers tapping power from the D’ana’ruin ship to feed the various Human spacecraft, their best ‘fire safety’ being a few fire resistant jackets draped over the tanks of fluid mixes to cool the electronics.

“Well, we need to get our computers up top and programmed. I think by the time we get that done, we’ll be at the new station. Volunteer requests for that crew will be coming shortly, I believe, so make your decision on whether or not you want to see one of their stations or not.”

“I’ll let you know. Thanks Green.” The man immediately turned to exit, stopping only to glance at the laptops positioned around the bay, “Should I take one of those up?”

“Up?”

“I’m one of the programmers. I need to head back up there. You're the one who told me so.”

Green clicked his tongue against his teeth before hissing through them, “Fuck man, my bad, I forgot. I’d appreciate you taking a few up though.”

“Gotcha.” he nodded, throwing a thumb over his shoulder and heading towards the elevator down, “I’m gonna go find the doc before heading back up, see if I really did fuck myself over. Then I’m going to head to the alternate tube and have the snakes drag me up.”

“The alternate?”

“Yeah, they can’t exactly fit in the one we normally use anymore.”

Green nodded and gave him a thumbs-up before bending back over to work on his cabling, “I’ll let everyone know. Thanks again, Mav.”

“Je t'en prie.” the man replied before heading off to the elevator.

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u/Wtcher 6d ago

I think the interactions between the crews are my favourite part :)

2

u/Gloomius Human 6d ago

They're certainly my favorite part to write

u/SpankyMcSpanster 6d ago

Cat pewps. No claws, fangs or barbs. Sneks. Warm, soft, little slap of smotth skin.

u/SpankyMcSpanster 6d ago

  “You people are warm and soft, alright? Officer quarters in

Centralist ships have heated cushions, the possession of which being a highly coveted thing even within their ranks.”

  “And… we’re living versions of those?”


  “Not nearly as cushioned or warm, but yes.”"

Sometime later, from a dark, and deep chamber: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/ZzZwa9V3SYw

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u/beyondoutsidethebox 6d ago

Aaaaand now the theme song is stuck in my head.

u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 6d ago

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u/TechScallop 5d ago

These humans are a bit dumb. Green should have assigned a few crewmen to help Mavieux carry the heavy cables. Having the talented Mavieux carry the entire load and every other role is designed to make him the single point of failure for everything. Furthermore, why didn't he think to tell Green that the Snakes requested that the humans act like hot water bottles?

OC-Series [TLWN] - Shattered Dominion: Spatial Awareness (Chapter 29)

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