Everyone went quiet. Brain and Karen's mouth slacked open slightly. A few quiet seconds passed before Gryphon's laughter broke through the calm. Heather glanced over at him as tears began to fill her eyes. The crystal blue irises blurred behind the building drops. Gryphon stood up, the towel he had was wrapped around his waist as a crude loin cloth.
"Well that won't be too bad will it Captain!?!"
Krista stood up to defend her commanding officer, the clear size difference between them not stopping her. Gryphon towered over her 5' 10" body by over a foot and a half and his improved physique sported a thin frame with toned muscle. He didn't bother looking at her as he pointed a long finger at the Captain.
"I hope your proud of yourself, it's your fault that this is happening to us!"
"Stand down crewman." Krista stared at him through cold eyes.
"You were too much of a pussy to check out that ship yourself; you just had to send someone else into the line of fire!" Gryphon flipped a vacant chair backwards and it flew into the wall with a piercing metallic clang. Krista stepped forward and put a hand on his smooth chest. Her eyes were about level with the top of his stomach and she had too reach up slightly to do it. He finally looked down at her and sneered.
"I said, stand down crewman. That's enough."
"Oh? And what will you do to me if I don't?"
Robert laughed and looked up at Gryphon.
"Because she'll introduce you to thirty-one flavors of pain and you know it."
Gryphon's sneer melted slowly and he swallowed as he felt that stare begin to way down upon him. He took a step back.
"Yeah, but this ain't over ... Captain. Payback's are coming and they're going to be a bitch." Gryphon took one last and methodical look around the room; he laughed again and padded out of Operations. He had to duck slightly to fit through the sliding doors and the fact weighed heavily on those left behind. Vanessa cleared her throat.
"I don't know if that will make what I have to say any easier, but...," she paused, trying to gather her thoughts. She noticed that Heather, in languor over Gryphon's heated departure, had let the coat slip a little further. The round contours of her breasts peeked over the lowering hemline. Vanessa thought she could just barely make out the light pink tops of her pert aureoles.
"Are you trying to say we have to get them off the ship before they start growing through the bulkheads?"
She looked up to the Captain's question.
"Hmm? Oh, yes ... but that's not the main problem. We can house them in the cargo bays when they outgrow their quarters, but I'm afraid we have bigger worries before that's an issue."
"And that is?"
"Power, Captain. As you know it takes a huge amount of energy to run the replicator and life support systems. While our atmosphere will hold, I'm afraid it's not cost efficient to keep feeding them."
Krista turned to Heather.
"You guys eat that much?"
Heather looked down in slight embarrassment and Vanessa laughed as she continued.
"You know that proverbial horse you'd eat if you became hungry enough?"
"Yeah."
"Well, they've each had three of them. It wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that they don't produce any waste that we can dump into the plasma generators to fuel the fusion reactors."
"They take but they don't give back."
"Precisely, with all three on board we would eventually be stripping parts from the ship to generate power."
Robert patted Ramirez's arm once more; Heather found herself hurting for the same comfort. Karen looked up from the notes she was writing.
"What's your solution?"
"That we send two of them planetside. We can keep them in our underwater headquarters off of the east coast of the United States. There's enough room there for them stretch out and I can have techs down there continue our research." Vanessa fidgeted, "I suggest we send Ramirez and Gryphon away and keep Heather here on board the Necronomicon so I can continue my own experiments until she's too big to stay on board. We can stay docked at Tokyo Airstation until such a time occurs."
The Captain shook his weary head and sighed.
"How long before their size becomes a danger to the ship?"
"With just Heather on board I'd say we have about two days before we reach risk levels. By that time she would be roughly over sixty feet tall but still fairly comfortable in the cargo bay."
Heather felt the blood rush away from her face. She would be absolutely enormous in barely any time at all, the prospect was frightening and Vanessa was talking about it in such a seemingly trivial tone. She began to cry.
Vanessa, seeing her despair, silently cursed herself for being callous and rushed to her side.
"Sweetie, I'm sorry." The Medical Officer pet her patient on the shoulder, having to reach up high to do so. "I'm doing everything I can to help you out. To help all three of you out."
"I know; it's just ... it's just ..."
"It's okay, everything will be all right." Vanessa tried to wrap her arms around the giant woman. Heather quickly responded and bent down to reciprocate. The tattered remains of the labcoat fell away and Vanessa felt the warm and pillowy flesh of her bare front press against her. She felt herself turning red.
"Are you sure about that time estimate Vanessa? Two days?"
Vanessa quickly pushed herself away from Heather.
"Yes Captain, if all factors remain constant we have a window of forty-six hours with which we can keep one of them on board."
"Than we have another little problem." The senior officers looked over at him for an explanation, Heather picked the lab coat off the floor and draped it in front of her once again. "About two hours ago I received a communication from President Lourdes requesting our further assistance in protecting medical vessels on route to Australia to aid in their efforts against invading armies from Paupa New Guinea. We have to stay spaceborne for the time being."
"Then what about Ramirez and Gryphon? We can't have them all on board."
"I know that Commander. The good Mining Colony Executor has granted us the use of the late Mr. Fleetwood's shuttle. We can send them down in his cargo hold."
Robert stood up, Ramirez watched him with her soft brown eyes as he crossed the room towards the conference table.
"Who's going to pilot it? As much as I want to stay by Ramirez's side, you're going to need both Karen and I at the helm if we go into combat."
The Captain was about to answer when the AI panel began to glow on the side of the wall.
"If I may intrude sir." Psi's face quickly sharpened out of the swirling lights. His vacant eyes seemed to glow with a light of their own and it sent a light wave of uneasiness through the room.
"What is it Psi?"
"I would be happy to pilot the ship down to the surface. All it would require is the command code of one of the senior officers to download my program into the cargo ship's systems; it's been a while since I've seen headquarters."
"All right, you got the job."
Psi faded away, Sandra could have sworn she saw a smile cross his face as he did. The Captain scanned the room with a purposeful glance.
"Karen, I want you to prep the ship for launch and give Psi what he needs. Be set for launch at 04:00 tomorrow. The rest of you, continue with your assigned duties and make sure you get a good night's rest. Understood?"
The crew nodded with accention.
"Dismissed."
The officers began to shuffle out of the room. Karen and Brian hugged before kissing briefly and separated to go to their stations. Heather quietly walked out; watching the top of the door frame of Operations pass mere inches over her head as she headed for her quarters. Sandra had Alyssa download a copy of Vanessa's data into a personal file for her to look over later.
Robert walked back over to Ramirez and offered his hand. He watched as she slowly got to her bare feet, craning his neck as she towered over his six foot frame by almost a foot. Every muscle in her body tensed and stood out in toned relief from her lean physique. Despite her stature, her expression was one of trepidation.
"Will you still love me if I'm sixty feet tall?"
She was beautiful to him, a work of sculpted art that Michelangelo couldn't have bested.
"I'll love you even if you become two, maybe two-hundred and fifty feet tall."
She smiled briefly, but her fear quickly returned.
"I just may have to hold you to that."
The Captain watched as his ship's Helm Officer walked out with his growing Security Chief. Krista turned to him and smiled.
"You know, they still make a cute couple."
He frowned and glanced downward.
"You're worried about Gryphon aren't you?"
"Worried? You could say that." His red-rimmed eyes betrayed his haggard condition. "Luckily I won't have to worry about it much longer."
She put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. They looked at each other for a moment, silently sharing their pain, and he smiled weakly.
"Thank you for not saying 'I told you so.'"
"Never sir."
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