Daughters of Demeter

All four of us were down in the secondary hold next to Jenny's Re/Gen pod as the last few seconds counted down to zero. It unsealed with a gentle hiss, then the door rotated back and away to reveal my tall redheaded amazonian girlfriend.

Except none of those things were true anymore, apart from the last one.

She was now a cute catgirl with amber blonde hair and fur, and amber eyes. Plus she'd shrunk down to about the same size as me. All the well-defined muscle I was used to seeing on her was gone, instead her petite body had soft gentle curves. And they were all on full display since like usual she'd emerged naked from the Re/Gen process.

She looked almost hesitant as she slowly sat up in the capsule. Her fuzzy triangular ears drooped a bit to either side while her tail flicked back and forth behind her. Everyone was quiet, as if we were all giving our captain a few moments to come to terms with her new temporary body.

"So," Sarah broke the silence after a few seconds, "I've been thinking about what we should call you, while you're in this disguise. I don't suppose you like the sound of Cambecca do you? If not, does Rebeccam work for you?"

I reached over and gave the cute blonde engineer a little smack on the arm and glared, "Don't make fun Sarah, this is serious."

"Sorry," she apologized with a grimace. "I thought I'd try and lighten the mood a bit."

Our captain was still sitting in the Re/Gen capsule with her tail twitching around. Her ears angled forwards towards our engineer as she asked, "You've been waiting the whole nine hours I was processing just to make that joke, haven't you?"

As strange as it was seeing her in that form, it was even weirder to hear her speak. She sounded exactly like Cammie, except she talked like Rebecca. And while I already knew to expect that, it was still uncanny actually witnessing it.

Meanwhile Sarah grinned, "Are you kidding? I've been hanging on to that since the moment I heard what you were planning."

Our small blonde captain rolled her eyes and shook her head, then finally hopped out of the capsule to stand in front of us. Then she decided, "We'll go with Cambecca, until I'm back to normal again."

"What?" I blinked at her in surprise. "Seriously? Sarah was only teasing you about the name."

She shook her head, "We can't afford any slip-ups when we're out there facing the bounty hunter. So let's not get into the habit of referring to me by my real name, not when I look like this. And likewise, from now until Nyssa is safe 'Rebecca' is the android we've got waiting in the shuttle."

That thought made me grimace, as far as I was concerned the newly modified android actually went way past uncanny and into positively creepy. After Sarah and Jenna finished their modifications to the hardware and Jenny uploaded the new software, the android looked and sounded close enough to our captain to be a passing replica.

It wasn't perfect, apart from being a couple inches too short there were enough minor differences that it wouldn't fool any of us here on the ship. But I had no doubt it would be enough to trick someone who'd only seen our captain in images and vids.

To help hide those imperfections Jenny's programming had the android acting like it was under the effects of a strong sedative. Its eyes remained lidded and it slurred and mumbled when it spoke, its movements were sluggish and it shuffled when it walked. Which only added to the creepiness factor, as far as I was concerned.

When the work was finished Sarah led the Beckybot into the shuttle where she had it put on the captain's e-suit. Then its wrists were bound behind its back and some makeshift restraints added to its ankles limiting its movement to small steps. And finally it was left sitting alone at the back of the shuttle to await its fate.

However uncomfortable the experience was for both me and our captain, I hadn't forgotten why we were doing it. And I was beyond grateful for everything she and Sarah and the rest of the crew had done to help save my little sister.

"Um, excuse me miss Cambecca?" Cammie said as she stepped closer and held out some clothes. "I reckon y'all probably wouldn't have anything that fit right now, so I brought you some things from my cabin."

"Thank you Cam," our newest catgirl replied as she accepted the small bundle.

It didn't take long for her to get dressed, and that was yet another mental dissonance moment. The girlfriend who's temporary name I still couldn't quite bring myself to say yet was now dressed in the clothes Cammie wore after I took our original catgirl shopping on her first visit to Rolandan-2.

She wore a pair of black and purple striped tights, a black knee-length skirt, and a purple blouse with yellow highlights. A pair of cute low-heeled shoes completed the outfit. Her furry tail swished slowly back and forth behind her while her fuzzy ears stood up tall above her short amber blonde hair as she looked down at herself.

Then she shook her head, "This is definitely going to take some getting used to."

"Maybe I can give you a hand with that?" our engineer suggested, in a tone that was equally suggestive.

"Down Sarah," our captain replied as she rolled her eyes again.

At that point Jenny joined in the conversation, as her voice came through the intercom speakers. "Perhaps Cambecca can take the time to get accustomed to this body after the ship is in flight? We are on a schedule after all, and the clock is still ticking."

"Right," I nodded. Our AI's words were more than enough to get me moving again, and my thoughts and focus snapped back to my sister's situation.

"Thanks Jenny," I added, before addressing everyone else. "All right folks, let's get the Demeter prepped and ready to go."

The ramp was already up and the main airlock sealed, so we all headed aft to take the lift up to the main deck. Sarah Cammie and Jenna remained in engineering, while Rebecca... Or rather, Cambecca and I made our way forward. Jenny met us on the way and followed us into the cockpit.

I slipped into the pilot seat, while my girlfriend settled gently into the co-pilot position. I noticed she was extra careful about positioning her tail through the gap at the back of the chair, and despite my mood and all my concerns about Nyssa I still found myself smiling. I was actually almost tempted to make a joke or comment on how I never would have expected Rebecca to test-drive having a tail. Almost.

Instead I remained serious and focused on the task at hand. I contacted the shipyard and let them know we were preparing to depart, and they got us clearance through the local port controllers. We were issued a departure vector, and finally got permission to launch.

By the time we were cleared our engineering team had the engines ready to go, and I carefully got us moving. Within a few seconds the ship was climbing rapidly as I followed the assigned course.

"Landing gear retracted," Jenny reported. "Everything looks good from here, all the engineering readouts are in the green."

I kept my hands on the controls and my eyes on my own screens as I nodded, "Thank you Jenny. And thanks uh, Cambecca, for all the training and experience."

"I never expected to need it as much as I do right now," I added with a sigh.

In the seat next to me the petite blonde catgirl's tail was sticking up behind her while her ears also stood up tall above her head. Despite the 'happy cat' signals she had a sombre expression on her face as she replied, "You're welcome Amanda. I certainly never anticipated either of us being in this sort of situation, but I always knew there'd come a time when we'd need another trained pilot on board."

I nodded once as I focused on the job of flying our ship, and we continued to accelerate upwards. There were the usual creaks and groans as we passed through some turbulence in the upper atmosphere, but the ship performed well and those noises soon faded as we made the transition out into space.

We'd be following our assigned vector for another thirty to forty minutes before we were completely clear of Rolandan-2's controlled traffic area, so there wasn't much else to do but talk while I kept the ship on track.

"I'm a little worried about our arrival at Regulon-4," I commented after a few quiet minutes. "Last time we were there I got us close, but you had to take over for the actual landing."

My girlfriend shook her head, "I didn't have to. I offered to take over and you let me bring the Demeter into the landing bay, but I'm confident you can do it if you really need to."

I frowned as I glanced at her, "Maybe I could have back then, but that's when you had me flying the ship on a regular basis. This is my first time piloting the Demeter in more than two thirds of a year."

"And you're doing just fine," she pointed out. "The Regulon-4 port control will assign you a vector and a landing bay. All you have to do is follow it like any other."

I was still frowning as I reminded her, "Didn't you tell Tanya landing there was a little like stunt flying?"

The blonde catgirl shrugged, "The Persephone is a bigger ship than the Demeter, and its engine pods and tails stick out quite a bit from the main hull. I'll bet it's centre of gravity makes it a challenging ship to land and take off."

"Anyways," she added, "Just remember two things, ok Amanda? One, I'll be sitting right here next to you. I'll take over if I have to, but only if it looks like you're actually going to cash the ship. And I really don't think that'll happen, because of point two."

"And what's point two?" I asked.

She replied in a sombre voice, "Your sister's depending on you to get it right."

"This guy's obviously going to have eyes on the mining colony," she elaborated. "His terms were for the Demeter to land there, he's going to want to know you've followed his instructions. If we want to sell the idea that the captain's been restrained and you're flying the ship, the best way to do that is for you to actually fly the ship. So just do your best, and remember you're doing this for Nyssa."

I glanced at her again then sighed, "If that was meant to be a pep-talk, it had very mixed results. But thanks Re- er, Cambecca."

Rather than respond she just flashed me a wry smile as her tail twitched behind her.

When we finally cleared the departure track and were free to navigate I left the ship on a steady course into the void then began plotting our level one jump to the mining colony. And even though we were pretending the real captain was tied up in the shuttle I still got my girlfriend to take a look at the plot first.

"Looks good," she stated after a minute or so. "Let's do it."

I nodded grimly as I flipped up the little safety cover then turned the control. A shudder passed through the ship as the jump drive engaged, and the stars blurred together into a swirling mess of blue and violet as we surged forward.

"That's a hundred and twenty-five minutes in jump," I said as I checked over the flight controls once more. Then as I got up from the pilot's seat I asked, "Jenny can you please let me know when we're down to the last ten minutes?"

The AI nodded, "Of course."

The three of us met our other three shipmates in the mess, and to keep myself busy I set about preparing a nice lunch for everyone. Between the cooking and the eating that took up a good chunk of our transit time, then both my girlfriends pulled me into the ship's lounge so the three of us could cuddle on the sofa together.

I had a feeling the idea was to try and help me relax, or maybe to distract me from worrying or overthinking things too much. And while it did help me relax a bit, it unfortunately wasn't enough to get my mind off my sister's situation or the coming confrontation.

Jenny let us all know when it was time, and soon enough we were back at our posts and ready for when the ship came out of jump. I immediately verified our location while our AI watched the sensors to ensure there weren't any hazards nearby, then I contacted the local port control on the com as we began our approach to the mining planet.

And even though I'd only done it once more than half a year earlier, the descent went pretty much as I remembered it. It was actually almost routine, right up until the last two minutes when I found myself in control of a heavy lumbering space bug hovering over a kilometres-deep chasm while I tried to line the bow up as delicately and precisely as I could to a landing bay that felt barely bigger than the ship itself.

My knuckles were white as I clutched the flight controls, while my eyes flicked repeatedly up and down between my displays and the small opening in front of us. Cambecca watched quietly, but she kept her hands away from the copilot controls as she quietly monitored my progress.

I slowly nudged the Demeter forward into the waiting bay, and almost breathed a sigh of relief as the cockpit cleared the entrance without any trouble. Then the main bulk of the ship moved past the threshold and I had to decelerate again to keep us from going straight into the opposite wall.

The sound of metal scraping against stone directly over our heads sent a jolt straight down my spine and my tail tucked itself under the chair between my legs while my ears drooped down low enough the tips could almost touch under my chin. I somehow managed not to over-react too much as I adjusted our altitude, and the ship came down a little harder than normal on its six landing gear.

That gave everyone a stiff jolt, but there weren't any alarms and I didn't hear anybody screaming at me. I did give my copilot a frightened glance though.

The catgirl's ears were both folded back and her tail was puffed up into a big amber floof, but she tried to act calm. She gave me a confident smile and shrugged, "I'm sure that'll just buff out later."

"The ship's damage control sensors are still in the green," our AI shipmate added. "Nothing appears to have been broken, either by the impact or the landing."

I finally let out the breath I felt like I'd been holding for the previous two minutes, "Thanks Jenny. Let's get the engines shut down, then Cambecca and I will go power up the shuttle."