As word of her research spread throughout the various planets aligned with the ADD and consquently to some of the seedier information brokers on these planets it wasn't long before one of the many pirates who were hungry for the power that new technology could bring them had gathered his forces and attacked her ship.

Luckily Nikki had always known to be prepared for anything and as the first signs of the pirates' ships had appeared on her modified scanners she quickly moved to her lab, copying the data from her computers onto a portable drive and storing the few finished nanoweapons she had into a reinforced suitcase. As she made her way into the ship's escape pod she triggered a program on the ship's main computer that would blow the ship's engines as soon as her pod was far enough away.

As the small pod rocketed away from her ship she used the pod's sensors to watch as the pirates closed in on her empty ship which they likely thought would be easy pickings until....the engine blew, which took her ship and the pirates too she thought hopefully. With the shockwave of the explosion growing it soon outpaced the engines of the small craft, frying her engines before it dimmed out of existence.

And so she sat, helpless as her pod drifted through the empty void of space....

In contrast to the high-energy, life-and-death crisis faced by ADD Captain Nikki Taylor, Cabbyl Diplomat Quagga was enjoying a more relaxed environment. She had just brokered a trade agreement between Cabbyl and the Huxxit in a nearby system. She stopped in this system to refuel her ship. The Etosha had recently undergone several upgrades after crashing. The main weapon, speed, and maneuverability all getting boosts in hopes of avoiding another crash. Quagga didn't like thinking of that crash. After landing unscathed, she met a rather terrible creature who treated Quagga most unkindly.

This system was an uninhabited system that the ADD often used for weapons testing. She came here to skim hydrogen from one of the system's gas giants to fuel her engines. While the skimming operation itself was hazardous, the process of refining out the impurities was low key, even relaxing. And the system should be free of any dangerous testing since the ADD had not marked it as restricted.

Quagga was enjoying a cup of ginger tea, a wonderful product of Earth, when her instruments notified her of an explosion within the system. Taking a look at those instruments told her that the explosion was perhaps 500 million kilometers away. The lack of any stations in this system likely meant that the engines a good sized ship had exploded. From this range, she wouldn't be able to detect any escape pods if they weren't using emergency beacons. A lack of such signals could mean no escape pods. Or it could mean that any escape pods weren't using beacons for some reason.

She decided to investigate the explosion. She set a course for the coordinates at high speed. Even so, it would take a few hours to reach the site. She set her scanners to continue checking the area for life as she approached. She went into stores and retrieved first aid kits, rescue blankets, food, and water for possible survivors. Remembering the last two shipwrecks she handled, one as a survivor and one as a would be rescuer, Quagga got a weapon ready too - just in case. Now all she could do was wait until she got close enough to discover what happened.

As time had passed as she drifted further and further away from the wreckage of her ship with no sign of the pirates Nikki had decided to turn on her distress beacon hoping that someone was close enough to find her. It wasn't like she could do much else in the small pod with her engines fried.

Deciding to get some rest she laid back in the pods only chair closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep. After several hours she awoke as her sensors picked up an approaching ship, it seemed to be another ADD agent but you could never be sure.

Further scans yielded very little information of the explosion. Quagga settled into the comfortable command chair and read all the information she could find on possible ships in this system. The system contained no base. No known tests were currently scheduled. When those tests were secret, access was restricted for several months around them and access was not currently restricted. The most recent, non secret, test ended several months ago, certainly long enough for an overdue ship to be on file. It was a mystery

Then she picked up the distress signal. It came from an escape pod of an ADD vessel. Quagga checked it out and saw that the ship was captained by a human ADD agent named Nikki Taylor. Quagga was suspicious of the lateness of the distress signal. True, it could be because Captain Taylor had trouble with some seedier types and was trying to escape detection until they were gone. But it also could be because someone purposely set off an explosion then a distress beacon to trap someone like Quagga, again. Quagga would move to intercept the pod. But she would do so carefully.

After a while, Quagga knew that the Etosha was within range of an escape pod's scanners, if it had them. So she decided it was time risk a call out to the pod. She nervously confirmed that her comm unit was tuned to the standard frequency and ensured it was set to transmit on a narrow beam. (No sense broadcasting her position to any pirate or slaver who might be in the system.) She took a deep breath and transmitted her message. "This is the DSSS Etosha. Any survivors please respond on this frequency." She repeated the message once, then waited for a reply, still uncertain whether this was an actual emergency or another monstrous trap.

Starting to wonder if someone would find her Nikki sat in the captain's chair of the pod, hoping that someone friendly would find her soon. After a while the scanners of the pod picked up a ship approaching, seperate from the mainframe of her computer she could only determine that it was a ship friendly to the ADD.

As it came closer to her drifting pod she finally heard the transmission she was hoping for, "This is the DSSS Etosha. Any survivors please respond on this frequency." Responding quickly, wanting to be somewhere other than the small pod, she transmitted "This is Captain Nikki Taylor of the ADD. I'm doing ok but the engines for my pod are completely fried. Can you help me out?"

The reply was what Quagga wanted to hear, the woman identified herself as Captain Taylor. It could still be a trap. But Quagga felt better about the coming encounter. Quagga keyed her mic. "Hello, Captain. I should be there in under", Quagga paused for a moment trying to recall what units humans used to measure time. Ah! She remembered. "forty-five minutes. Are you in need of medical attention?" Quagga started going through a mental checklist of what she should do when she reached the pod.

"Right." Nikki keyed through as she heard the other captain say how long she was away. Keying another message through after listening to the question, she said "I'm unhurt. It's getting kind of warm in here though. I think when the engines fried it took out the temperature controls." She wasn't kidding, as though she sat in the chair calmly, she had slipped her arms and shoulders out of her body suit leaving the material hanging precariously on her bosom.

"Understood. Hold on. I'll be there soon." Quagga set the environmental controls to cool the interior of the Etosha. She normally kept it warmer than what humans prefer. It should be able to cool the cabin to 65-70 Farenheit in the three quarters of an hour till she rendezvoused with the escape pod.

Quagga then sets about preparing for her guest. She clears her bed of the stuffed animals. She gets food, water, and blankets out and ready. She also gets out two pistol engery weapons and hides one near the hatch and one in the cockpit, just in case. Quagga looked in a mirror. While Captain Taylor was ADD, this was not an ADD mission so Quagga didn't have to wear their uniform. But Taylor was still human. So Quagga put on an informal waist chain as a compromise.

She scanned the escape pod before docking with it. The air inside seemed normal, but warm. The scanner did not detect any particals that could be used to immobilize or incapacitate Quagga. To be 100% sure, she needed an atmosphere sniffer. But this was a very good indication that Quagga could breathe the air in the pod without fear.

Docking complete, Quagga opened her hatch and walked up to the hatch of the escape pod. She looked in the eight-inch diameter window and saw Captain Taylor. She was sitting partially disrobed, obviously sweating. Quagga signaled for her to open her hatch. When she did, Quagga was hit by a wave of hot air. At the same time, Nikki was hit by a wave of cool air from the Etosha. Nikki also saw, for the first time, that her rescuer was nude.

"Captain Taylor, I presume." Quagga bowed briefly. "I am Quagga of Cabbyl. Please come aboard."

Having nothing to do but wait Nikki just sat in her chair trying not to move as the heat continued to build in the cabin. Finally she heard the engines of the Etosha roaring as it docked with her pod. Soon after she saw the face of her savior through a window at the back of the pod. Opening the hatch at her signal Nikki blinked in surprise as she saw that her savior was nude, her surprise disappated quickly however with the effects of the heated cabin leaving her sweaty and tired.

"Nice to meet you Quagga." Nikki said to her as she stood up from the chair grabbing the case with her nanoweapons inside. As she started to walk towards the cool air coming from the Etosha the material that was hanging on her breasts slipped off sliding down to her waist. Sighing gently she said "I don't even care right now." and walked towards the inviting opening of Quagga's ship.

Quagga stepped aside to let the ADD agent through. She noted that Nikki was a good foot shorter than her. <The chairs may be too big for her>, she thought. "When you get to the 'T', turn left. The lounge is right there." Quagga stayed behind and switched the emergency beacon to a nav beacon, switched off most of the pod's power, and sealed its hatch and the Etosha's hatch. She then met up with Nikki. The Etosha's "lounge" was actually a small, cramped room with with a couple couches and a table. On the table were the supplies Quagga had retrieved. "I have water and food here. The food is appropriate for humans. They tell me that it is very tasty", Quagga said. "I cooled the ship to provide you some relief from the heat. When you acclimatize, I can turn up the temperature. In the meantime, you can use those blankets. Please wait here while I get the ship moving. I'll be back in a few minutes and we can chat." By now, Nikki would have noticed the zebra woman's accent. It definitely sounded Russian.

Quagga went to the bridge and set a slow course for the nearest planet. As soon as they were moving along, she disengaged from the escape pod and set course for the gas giant. The escape pod should end up orbiting that uninhabited planet, or crash into it. And the Etosha would automatically enter orbit around the gas giant. The giant planet should help mask the Etosha from any unfriendly ships in the area. All the time she was doing this, she kept an eye on Nikki via a security camera. The agent hadn't morphed into a monster and headed to the bridge. So Quagga felt more confident that she was who she said she was.

Coming back out to the lounge, Quagga sat on one of the couches. She checked to see how the agent was doing with the supplies and said, "so tell me what happened, Captain."

"Ok." Nikki said loudly as she walked down the hallway in the cooled ship the rapid change from exceedingly hot to the comfortable temperature that the ship was causing her exposed nipples to harden. She had just sat down in the cramped lounge when Quagga came in, offering her the supplies. "Thank you." she said to Quagga, reaching for a bottle of water and taking a small sip. Thinking to herself she thought That sounds like a Russian accent. But I doubt that's what it actually is...

When the woman left she decided to get out of her sweaty body suit standing up for a moment she slipped the rest of the body suit off of her shapely thighs and dropped it on the floor next to her seat grabbing a blanket and letting it drape over her shoulders leaving her front exposed to the air. Waiting patiently in the lounge for her savior to come back she ate part of one of the packages of food and had drained a couple bottles of water before she came back from the bridge.

"Well... To make it short my ship's sensors picked up a large group of pirate ships heading towards me, and since my ship wasn't meant for quick getaways I took the escape pod and used a program in my ship's mainframe to blow the engines when I got far enough away." Nikki said to the other woman.

"That seems like an extreme response." Quagga frowned at the thought. "But I guess you know your ship best, Captain."

Quagga still had a task to perform. She had seen Nikki remove her body suit. If fact, Quagga briefly thought the Nikki was a monster about to transform. But, no, it turned out that she just wanted to get out of the suit. Not that Quagga could blame her. But she was human. So Quagga needed to broach the subject.

"Cabbyl do not wear clothing. I knew that you were human, so I put on this waist chain in hopes of alleviating some of your distress." Quagga lifted a portion of the chain to demonstrate. "Your state of dress is unimportant to me. If you wish to remain clothed, that is fine. I see that you've removed your clothing. I hope that you did not think that doing so was required. If you did so because they were all sweaty, believe me I know how you feel.

"If you would like some fresh clothes until we can clean these, you are welcome to some of mine. I'm a good foot taller than you, so it would only be temporary of course." Quagga thought for a moment. Then picked up Nikki's discarded body suit. "If my nudity disturbs you, I have several outfits that I can wear. It's just several days to the nearest station. I'll be able to wear them for that amount of time."

"Well it was the only way that I could take them out all the once, however it may have been a bit extreme." she said.

"Don't worry, you being naked doesn't bother me. Really me being naked doesn't bother me much either so I can wait till we have a chance to clean it. And Yes it was because it was really sweaty, it feels great to get some fresh air on my body."

"So, several days to the next station hmm? I guess we will be shipmates till then." Nikki said with a smile.

Quagga sighed in relief when Nikki said she didn't have a problem with the clothing issue. "Well that's settled then", she said with a smile. "I haven't had a shipmate in quite a while." She loosely folded Nikki's body suit. "I'll have to give you the tour. If you wait here, I can start this in the wash. When I get back, we can chat or, if you're ready, start the tour. It won't take long - the Etosha isn't that big."

With a smile for her guest, Quagga made her way to the laundry.

Nikki smiled faintly back at her host as the zebra woman made her way to the laundry although her eyes drifted momentarily to the zebra-like girls' shapely rear as she walked away. Blowing a frustrated sigh she turned away from the table and stood stretching and twisting her impressively beautiful body as she mused about how far back her research was going to be pushed now that she lost another ship. Sure she encrypted the data from her work and transmitted it back to ADD Headquarters but a lot of the machines and tools on her ship were one of a kind and created by her so she would have to spend weeks after she got all the way back to HQ remaking all her tools just to be back up to speed. She was so deep in her musing that she didn't register that the blanket she had been wearing had fallen to the ground around her as she reached down to touch her toes, unthinkingly presenting an enticing view of her shapely rear and a perfect angle at her slit, towards the path Quagga had left from.