Daughters of Demeter

My nose twitched as I drifted awake. Something light and fuzzy was tickling my face. I felt so comfy though, hugging something warm and soft against my chest. I opened my mouth to yawn and got a mouthful of fur, and that experience jarred me fully awake.

I was curled up on my side in the spacious bunk, with my big fluffy tail wrapped around between my legs and up in front of me. I'd been hugging it to my chest, and the floofy white tip was in my face.

My tail! I was a girl! A foxgirl!

A shock of adrenaline went through me as I found myself grinning ear to ear at my floof.

I suppressed a happy giggle as I lay there hugging my tail against my breasts and basked in the euphoria for a few minutes, before I heard movement in the bunk above me.

My curtain was still drawn and it was nice and dark in my little private space, but I could hear sounds well enough. Maybe even better than before, as I twitched my fuzzy pointed fox ears.

Sarah dropped down from her bunk, then stepped into the washroom. Either the door wasn't any more sound-proof than my curtain or maybe she didn't bother to close it. I heard her use the toilet then wash her hands, and finally the sounds of her pulling on her coveralls.

"You awake in there?" she asked softly.

"Yeah," I replied quietly. "I guess it's time to get up?"

"I think so," she responded. "You probably didn't notice with your curtains closed but the ship's lighting went dark about a half hour after we came into the cabin last night? And they just came back on about five minutes ago."

With a reluctant sigh I slid my curtains open and emerged from my little private sanctuary. I still had that oversized nightshirt on, it was probably the only piece of clothing on the entire ship that would work with my tail.

I told Sarah as I moved for the washroom, "I'll catch up with you in a minute or two."

She nodded and headed out while I freshened up. When I was done in there I slipped my shoes on then made my way to the mess.

Piper was already there along with Sarah. The auto-chef could make coffee and both of them were enjoying a cup of that. I bid our captain a good morning then got myself a cup as well, but I needed four hits of cream before it was tolerable. It was probably half cream half coffee by that point.

Rather than have a seat at the table I got started on breakfast for everyone. Soon enough the three of us were enjoying imitation bacon-flavoured 'meat' strips and scrambled 'eggs'. It was nothing like real fresh food, but it actually tasted ok all things considered.

As we ate I asked Piper, "What are we doing today?"

"First thing, we're unloading the shuttle. We'll pile up the crates along the wall by the rec area for now. Then Sarah and I will suit up and head out, we'll try and pull the computer core out of the wreck. While we're doing that maybe you can get the crates down into the secondary hold? Use the lift in engineering."

She continued, "Before we set out with the shuttle there's some things I need to show you in the cockpit. If we get the core out we'll need your help getting it into the hold."

My eyebrows went up but I nodded, "Ok. I'll do my best."

A half hour later the three of us were in the shuttle, looking at the stack of crates. They were all dull grey metal with Imperium military markings. A half dozen were long rectangles, about four feet long by two feet wide by one foot deep. A dozen more were smaller, about two feet long, one foot wide, two feet deep. And they all looked heavy. Behind them was the ship's safe. It was a solid-looking metal box about four feet by four feet, and five feet high. Unlike the crates, the safe showed signs of damage. There were several dents, scratches, and some scorch marks on the otherwise smooth metal surface.

I didn't say anything yet but as I stared at the crates I had serious doubts about whether or not I'd be able to budge any of them. My original self was never very strong or athletic, as a petite foxgirl I could only assume I'd be even weaker than before.

Piper gestured towards one of the smaller crates, "Amanda you can start moving those. Me and Sarah will take the larger containers."

The two of them moved to either end of one of the long crates, then they easily picked it up and started carrying it out of the shuttle like it was empty.

I was hesitant and doubtful as I took hold of one of the smaller boxes. To my surprise it wasn't that hard to lift. I had the same reaction as I thought when watching them carry the larger crate, that maybe these boxes were all empty.

When I caught up with them out in the rec area I asked, "Do you know what's in these boxes?"

Piper nodded to the one in my hand, "That's pistol ammunition, according to the markings. Four thousand rounds."

My eyebrows crept up again as I set the crate down next to the other one. "Did you reduce the ship's gravity or something?"

Sarah added, "Or did we recover empty boxes? These feel too light."

The captain smiled as she led us back towards the shuttle. "The templates in that healing pod are all high-performance genetically modified models. Boosted strength, speed, accelerated healing, that sort of thing."

I stopped in my tracks for a moment and stared at her. I remembered thinking she was stronger than she looked. It was a shock to realize this cute little foxgirl body was stronger and probably tougher than my original. It looked like Sarah was thinking the same thing, judging by the surprised look on her face.

It took the three of us less than fifteen minutes to get all the crates out of the shuttle. The safe on the other hand was much too heavy and bulky even for the three of us, so we left it where it was for now.

After that, Piper took me up to the cockpit. She gave me a quick lesson on how to operate the airlock and pressurization for the main hold, and how to control the ship's gravity. She also made sure I knew how to use the ship-to-ship comms.

"I'll tie the comms to the intercom," she explained. "When we call, you'll hear us wherever you are in the ship. Get yourself up here, seal the cockpit, and I'll talk you through it. If we're hauling that computer back then you'll need to open the main hangar so we can bring it on board."

I nodded, "Ok. What about the lifepod, won't that be in the way?"

"Fuck," Piper sighed. After a shrug she said, "I'll worry about that when the time comes. I can use the shuttle's manipulators to get it clear."

I quickly memorized the different controls she indicated, it only took a minute or two before I was confident I could handle the process. Then we left the cockpit, and Piper and Sarah got back into their e-suits. A few minutes later they were away in the shuttle. Meanwhile I was expected to shift all those crates from the rec area on the main deck down to the secondary hold.

The smaller boxes were fairly easy, but the long ones were heavy and bulky. It only took a half hour or so to get the dozen smaller ones to the lift, down to the lower deck, then into the hold. I stacked them on one of the shelves across from the healing pod, then secured them with some cargo straps that were built in to the shelves.

Rather than drag the larger boxes along the floor I went back into the cockpit. The gravity controls were pretty straightforward now that I knew where to look, and I dialled it down to a quarter G.

That was kind of wild, I had to be careful not to launch myself head-first into the ceiling with each step. And I was fascinated to discover my tail was especially helpful in keeping my balance and controlling my movements in the reduced gravity.

It was easy to move the big boxes this way, though it still took time to do it carefully. They had mass after all, even if the weight was diminished.

After they were all secured in the hold I scooted up one of the ladderways to the upper deck, then returned to the cockpit to restore gravity. With my work done so quickly I had a long boring wait while Piper and Sarah did their work over at the shipwreck.

I passed the time by cleaning up the mess area. I ran all the dishes through the washer and put everything away, I even scrubbed the table and counters. Then I gathered up the towels me and Sarah used and went down to the laundry-recycling compartment in the lower deck. With a grin I pulled off my nightshirt and tossed that in as well. I knew it'd be hours before the others were back, Sarah said it would be a full day's work to get the computer out.

In fact I ended up using the whole day to clean, even though I knew our engineer would probably tease me about being a maid or something.

Beyond the mess and doing some laundry, I scrubbed and cleaned everything in the lounge. Then I cleaned the walls and floors in all the upper deck corridors and the two storage rooms. I even carefully dusted and tidied everything in the cockpit. I was cleaning the washroom in our cabin when Piper's voice came through across the ship's intercom.

"Amanda, we're on our way back to the ship. Get to the cockpit and strap yourself in."

I got to my feet and quickly pulled on my nice clean nightshirt, then hurried to the front of the ship. That was the only part I really dreaded, sitting on my tail felt even worse once I had the safety straps holding me in place.

Once I was ready I radioed back and let them know I was in position.

Piper responded, "Like I showed you, depressurize the main cargo hold and cut the ship's gravity. When that's done, open both outer and inner doors on the cargo airlock."

The shuttle was easy to spot out the windows as it slowly approached. And it was towing a chunk of machinery that was probably as big as the shuttle itself.

The stuff Piper showed me this morning was all still fresh in my mind and it didn't take long before the gravity had ramped down to nothing. That's when I discovered the drawback of long hair in zero gravity.

Mine wasn't even that long, it only came down to around my shoulders. Without gravity to hold it down there it wanted to floof up around my head and it got in my face and eyes whenever I had to turn from side to side.

While I was trying to figure out what to do about that, the hold slowly depressurized. After about two minutes it was complete and I hit the controls to open it up.

One of the display screens showed a camera image from the hold, so I could see the large inner doors sliding open while the outer door folded downwards like a ramp. The lifepod was still taking up most of the floor-space down there, but the camera view showed the black of space outside the open doors.

"Good job," my new captain stated. "Just sit tight, this'll take us a few minutes."

Between the hold camera and looking out the window I was able to keep track of the entire operation. First the salvaged computer was left floating a few hundred meters away. Then the shuttle moved down out of sight beneath the cockpit. On the screen I saw it nose into the hold, and when it backed out the lifepod was pulled out as well.

Once it was clear of the ship, the shuttle turned and gave it a nudge as it released the lifepod. The tin can that kept me and Sarah alive for almost three days tumbled away into space.

Finally the shuttle carefully collected the salvaged computer equipment and manoeuvred it the hold. When it was in place the small craft backed out of the way again.

"Close the cargo doors Amanda," Piper ordered. "And set gravity to one-twentieth G. When the doors are sealed up you can repressurize the hold. We're docking the shuttle, see you in a few minutes."

"Yes ma'am," I responded as I carried out her orders. I realized after the fact I shouldn't have said that, but I figured Piper wouldn't mind the occasional ma'am or miss. Especially when I was focused on the job like that.

All in all the whole thing went perfectly, as far as I was concerned. The cargo hold was sealed and pressurized, the valuable salvage gently settled to the floor, and the shuttle was soon docked and my crew-mates were safely back on board.

We were still under microgravity, I wasn't sure if she wanted me to ramp it back to normal or not since she didn't mention it.

The answer came a few minutes later when Piper instructed me to leave the gravity at five percent, then asked me to accompany her and Sarah.

Down in the main hold Piper opened the secondary cargo doors, then had the three of us move the big military computer core by hand into the secondary hold. The thing probably weighed two tonnes, but at a twentieth G that was only a hundred kilos. Working together we could lift that easily. Mass was still a thing but we were all careful, and soon enough we had it where the captain wanted it. It was secured with cargo straps, and that was the end of the day's work.

We brought gravity back up to normal, and I started making dinner for the three of us.

Piper got some drinks out again, while Sarah disappeared in the direction of the shuttle. She returned a minute later and announced, "Hey Amanda! I found a little gift for you while we were getting the computer core out."

In her arms she was holding most of a chair. The base was missing but the padded seat and padded back were both intact. It was the kind of chair where the back and seat were separate, they were both bolted onto metal tubing with a gap between them. The frame also had mount-points where safety straps could be attached.

"You got me a busted chair?" I asked in confusion.

Sarah responded with a smile, "It's got this gap down here, right? When I get a chance, I'll swap it out for the copilot seat in the cockpit."

My eyes lit up and a wide grin settled on my face, "Wow! Thanks Sarah!"

For now she left it in the lounge area, then joined Piper at the table while I finished preparing dinner for the three of us.

A moment later Sarah spoke up again, and from the amused grin on her face I knew I was in for more teasing.

"Amanda? Did you spend the whole day cleaning the ship?"