"Goddamn it Paige, where are you?!" Rowan cursed as he and thirty cyborgs made their way to the human section of the station guarded by a large detachment of security robots. The tall bronze robots shoved various aliens to the side and pushed forward. He had tried to contact Paige over his comlink, but the call went straight to her voicemail.
Off in the distance the group heard the unique sound of low velocity gunfire. They were guns designed to maim or kill but not puncture the hull of space ships. Screams erupted from the crowd and the commotion turned into a full fledged panic just as the group reached the human safety door.
A group of nictids pushed up against them trying to follow Rowan into the human section. They only backed off after the security robots cracked a few skulls with their batons. Autocannons by the door became active and started training their sights on the crowd.
Dicia called out over the intercom. "You are in violation of station security policy and will be met with deadly force if you continue to harass human persons on the station. This is your final warning."
"But there's graxlians out there with slug guns! You can't leave us here to die!"
Rowan reached out to Dicia via his neural implant. "Is this true? Are the graxlians smuggling weapons onto the station?"
Dicia responded, "I'm a little busy here Rowan. I'll talk to you after I've suppressed the riot. Now be a good boy and take your toys to your room."
The security door opened and the androids shoved Rowan and the girls inside before turning their backs on them while the door slammed shut. The human section was eerily quiet behind the thick metal door.
The girls pressed up against him. Carmen held one of his wrists firmly while Siren took the other hand. Lara and a couple of others pinched a bit of his jumpsuit and held on as he walked over the greenhouses towards home.
Siren managed to hold his hand and arm while pressing her cleavage onto the limb as well. He looked at her and asked, "How's my little dominatrix doing?"
"To be honest, I'm a little shaken." She meshed her fingers with his as they walked. "And I've never really liked being in S&M. I think some of the aliens saw me and thought I would look good in leather and a whip in my hand. I'm pretty shy actually." She leaned in and whispered. "You may not want to hear this, but my fondest memories are the ones that Carmen shared with me about you."
Carmen leaned forward and pointed, "Siren, there's a space battle going on outside. I doubt Rowan wants to hear that you actually want to be a housewife."
"It's okay Carmen. She's just a little nervous and she's trying to calm herself down. I like you whether or not you're spanking me with a paddle, Siren." He gave her a wink and Siren laughed.
They got to Rowan's apartment and then took a left to see a domed structure jutting out of the floor of the area. On the side of the dome there was a sign that said "Civil Defence Shelter 22". Indigo was sitting outside right next to the door with her knees against her chest. When the group got close enough, Indigo looked up to reveal that she had been crying. She got up and bolted towards Rowan. He had to brace himself as he saw the fox girl sprint to him.
If Carmen and Siren weren't holding onto his arms he would have fallen to the ground. Indigo slammed into him and hooked her arms and legs around him and sobbed.
"Indigo, girl, tell me what's happening?"
"He's dead Teddybear! Ollie got caught by a graxlian frigate at the border. I just heard its distress beacon."
"Maybe he survived, you don't know that yet."
"The beacon said the ship had a reactor leak. If he's not dead now he will be soon. Rowan, I did something horrible. I told him I wanted a divorce. I just sent it. His last few hours alive he was dealing with …." She buried her head in his chest and tugged her tail between her legs. Rowan freed his arms from Carmen and Siren and hugged Indigo back.
"There's no way you could have known, girl." He stroked her hair. "I've got you now. We have to get into the shelter and set up. If anyone shoots the station we could be at risk of hull breach."
Indigo nodded and let go. The group filed through the entrance and down the stairs. Down below there was a large community room and small cafeteria with monitors lining the walls. Two corridors branched left and right. Each of those had a dozen long halls lined with capsule sized hotel rooms.
Rowan pulled Carmen and Indigo off to the side. "Carmen, I'm going to need you to take control of the girls and get them settled. Indigo, do you want to come with me to the apartment and grab some essentials?"
"I'm coming too." Carmen stared at him with a Mona Lisa smile that put a chill in his bones.
Rowan sighed, "Fine." He walked to the center of the common room and called out, "Girls, I know this is going to be a little tricky but you can fit your charging cot into the capsules of the shelter. Anyone who's got a twenty percent charge or less should get some rest. The cafe has instant meals but will only dish out three thousand calories to each person per day, so pace yourself. I'm grabbing some gear from home. If there's any issues Siren is in charge."
"What? M..me?" Siren yelped.
"Yeah, you brought your whip right?"
Siren slapped him on the butt as he bounded up the stairs to the exit.
…
Carmen stood next to Indigo and looked down at Rowan who was tossing just about everything out of his closet in his bedroom. "Darling, what exactly are you looking for?"
"Defense plans. I'm sure station control, Paige, and Dicia are handling things. But in case they aren't I need to be able to get control of the stations security androids and other systems. The plans have access codes, secret schematics of the station, all the stuff we'd need in case an attack happens."
Indigo pinched her chin and asked, "And why would you have access to that?"
"I was the only human in the general section of the station. In case the command module blew up, I was given the responsibility of defending the station until relieved by the republic's fleet. Ah here we go." Rowan pulled out a black suitcase with thumb scanners set into the latches.
"Girls, if the suitcase sees anyone other than me when I pop the case, we're going to get a faceful of nerve agent. Can you give me a few minutes?"
Carmen and Indigo nodded and shut the door behind them as they left the bedroom.
Rowan unlatched the case and inside were hard copies of various classified documents, but the most important thing was the holo projector. He set the case down and stood back. The projector came to life and a full size image of Dicia popped up. Rather than speak out loud, Rowan communicated via short range neural link with the projector.
"Finally! Rowan, you were supposed to get to this encrypted projector twenty minutes earlier."
"I'm sorry, I had to get the cyborgs from the brothel to the shelter. I couldn't let them get stolen or hurt. I wouldn't be able to sleep. Tell me what's going on."
"I've quelled the riots mostly and the groups are back in their respective sections. I'm really glad you and Paige had brought the repair androids back online. I've got most of the security cameras up and running in the common section. I don't know how they did it, but the graxlians managed to smuggle weapons onto the station. The bastards are going through the station and disabling the cameras, one by one. I'm losing my eyesight. My security androids are doing their best to hold them back, but I need all the help I can get."
"Where is Paige?"
"I'm sorry Rowan. She was with a repair team in the public area disguised as a nictid, repairing an autocannon when the riots started." The projector flickered to display a short video of Paige getting dragged by her hair into the graxlian section of the station and the security door slamming shut. "She's in a blacked out part of the station. I don't know her status. Rowan, I'm going to need you to fight. The graxlians are paying for keeps."
"Dicia, they have my girl. I'll fight until I have her back. You can talk with me even when I close the case right? Let's get to the cybernetics bay. It's time to suit up."