It was a big meeting room, intended to hold dozens around a single table. There was a spot for representatives from every department and sub-department, instead of just a spot for the head of each department. Engineering had a seat, but there was also a seat for Life Support, Power, Ship Systems, and Extravehicular Maintenance, to give just one example.
 
Dozens would assemble here, normally, representing the thousands more vixens that lived and worked aboard the Silver Dream. And yet, today, there were only four.
 
"I'm calling this meeting of the leadership of the Silver Dream to order," said one. "Imelia, Chief of Medical and acting XO, speaking and recording this meeting into the ship's log. We've had a very eventful few days, and have a lot to discuss."
 
"Very eventful - yeah, that's putting it mildly," said another. "Is there really a point to all of this?"
 
"You have to state your name and title, for the record," reminded Imelia.
 
"Fine... Keira, Chief of Navigation, speaking. Is there a *point*?" Her tail swayed behind her, annoyed.
 
"It's procedure and custom," said Imelia patiently. "Right now, procedure is one of the only things we have left."
 
"Procedure among four people, three of us being kids," said Keira, putting her feet up on the table.
 
"Hey! I'm an adult next week, that practically counts," said another. "Oh, right, Westena, Chief of Security, speaking."
 
"Whether we have four or four thousand, procedure is important," repeated Imelia. "It'll be the glue that binds us together in trying times."
 
"I think the trying times are passed, aren't they? The 'trying times' that killed nearly all of the crew?" said Keira.
 
"Well, we're alone," said Westena. "The food's going to be really good for a while, sure, but - there's just the four of us left. That's barely enough for a game of chalices."
 
"It's not... entirely hopeless," said the fourth, who was also the youngest, her ears folded back.
 
"Need to introduce yourself into the log, Captain," reminded Imelia, gently.
 
"Right, sorry. Vera, and I'm the Captain now..." said Captain Vera. "I can - I mean, I guess we should... start by going over everything that's happened? For the log?"
 
"If that's your order, Captain Vera," said Imelia.
 
"Um - I mean, that's what Captain Henra does - used to do. Right."
 
Captain Vera took a deep breath.
 
"One week ago... actually nine days ago, to be more exact... the Silver Dream had an equipment failure that resulted in catastrophic hull damage. The resulting depressurization event was lethal, but it also caused further cascading failures in other equipment, and the resulting casualty count was... three thousand, seven hundred, and eighty-six deaths, before the automated systems could isolate the damage."
 
"More like isolate the undamaged parts..." commented Keira.
 
"That's... not untrue, I guess. Um. Of the Silver Dream's crew, there's only... the four of us that survived. Four, out of the three thousand seven hundred and ninety vixen on board. Myself, an intern in the leadership program... Kiera, a surveyor analyst trainee. Westena, part of Captain Henra's personal guard. And Imelia, who was and remains Chief of Medical."
 
"For the first five days, we were - I mean, the survivors were holed up in the undamaged sections of the ship, while we waited for the automated systems to reseal and repressurize the hull. After that, we've been surveying the damage, gathering the casualties, and... figuring out what to do next."
 
"Today, Chief of Medical Imelia decided it'd be a good idea to meet up and go over what we've found so far, and to do this as a formal meeting. Um. And - per the rules of the chain of command I have taken the post of Captain, Westena has taken Chief of Security, and Keira has taken Chief of Navigation."
 
"I would be glad to take Captain, by the way," said Keira.
 
"Captain Vera was being trained by the previous captain," said Imelia. "She's the most suited for the position, per procedure."
 
"Um - how about we go over what we've found?" suggested Vera. "Starting with... food and life support? Which would be Engineering, but... we don't have anyone in Engineering left..."
 
"Life support is fine," said Imelia. "That's the first thing I checked. Morbid as it is to say, it's doing better than ever, since it's only supporting four crew instead of four thousand."
 
"And we're more than good on food," said Westena. "Eating like kings the rest of our lives. Especially since we've got Rites of the Flesh to do for like, the thousand crew whose bodies we've managed to recover so far."
 
"... Oh, I hadn't even been thinking of the Rites," said Vera, sitting up straight.
 
"I have," said Westena, happily. "In fact, I've got the Rites ready for the old Captain, if we'd like to break and hold those."
 
"Yeah," said Vera. "I mean - yes, make it so."
 
In short order, Westena had pushed a cart into the meeting room, bearing the body of the former captain... who had been carefully defurred, coated with seasonings and oil, and roasted till pleasantly golden brown. The other three vixen clustered around the cart, admiring their former captain.
 
"Smells delicious," said Keira.
 
"Oh, Henra... here I thought I'd be on the platter first, not you," said Imelia, sighing... but then licking her muzzle. "It's a good look for you, though. I hope I turn out as well when it's time for my own Rites."
 
"Well, if the new captain would care to give the old captain her Rites, I can start serving," said Westena, picking up a carving knife.
 
"Oh - uh..." Vera took a moment to recall the right words. "From vixen you have come, and so to vixen you shall return. May your passing be not a mournful one, but a joyous occasion, as we the living partake of the mundane shell you have left behind, and may we all hope that when we pass we all too shall be enjoyed."
 
And so the four surviving vixen began eating their old captain, one bite at a time.
 
"Oh wow, she turned out really well," said Kiera, going to hold out her plate to Westena for seconds.
 
"Mmmh. I love how we taste. Shame we don't get a chance very often," said Vera, wiping her muzzle clean. "When my cousin had that diving accident, there were three hundred people at the memorial service and I barely got a single strip of meat on my plate."
 
"Three hundred people... I'd prefer a much more intimate affair for my own memorial, if I get a say," said Imelia, between bites. "Let my close friends and family have their fill."
 
"I'd have vixen all day every day if it was an option, really," said Kiera.
 
"Well, you've got plenty to look forward to, then," said Westena as she carved into the old captain's other haunch. "We need to give the rest of the crew their Rites. Starting with the senior officers and moving down the hierarchy, right?"
 
"Ah - yes, that does remind me." Imelia put her silverware down. "We ought to say a few things about the dear departed captain. Aside from how she tastes, that is." The elder vixen wiped her muzzle clean. "I'll start... by saying she absolutely wouldn't have approved of this. No food in the officer meeting room, she used to remind us."
 
"Well, the new captain approves, and I can think of no finer a meal to change that rule for," said Vera, giggling a bit. "Well - actually, I'm here because of Captain Henra. She was my great-aunt, and she got me the trainee position. I didn't know her well, and she was always so busy after I got my post here, but - I'm very grateful to her for the opportunity."
 
"Let's see - I was part of her personal guard, but - don't really have a lot to say," said Westena. "Was more like a personal assistant most of the time... though, I can say, getting to prepare her was nice. It was like I was getting some alone time with her, and I got to intimately examine and get to know every part of her while I was cooking her."
 
"Intimate - did you fuck her before you cooked her?" asked Kiera, sitting up.
 
"Come on, what kind of a question is that?" said Westena, tilting her head. "Of course I fucked her. I got her warmed up a bit, laid her out on the counter, and climbed right on up and enjoyed myself. Spread her cheeks open, shoved my cock into her, and humped her till I gave her a nice cream filling."
 
"Good," said Imelia, nodding. "Earthly shells are to be enjoyed. It is..." She raised her fork, which still had a piece of the old captain impaled on it. "In my opinion, one of the things that makes us vixen superior to the other species."
 
"Did you know," she went on. "Many of them bury or incinerate their earthly shells?"
 
The rest of the vixen at the table looked up at her, shocked.
 
"Really?" said Kiera. "All that good meat, just wasted?"
 
"Do they think it's unclean after they fuck it, maybe?" asked Westena.
 
 
"Oh, no, they barely touch the remains," said Imelia, in the same way one would dish out juicy gossip. "They say it's disrespectful."
 
"It's more disrespectful to waste them like that," said Westena. "I mean, who's going to be offended? The dead person? Their family?"
 
"Some families are, if they don't get the first shot," pointed out Vera.
 
"Well, maybe. I was raised that it's just polite to let the hospital staff go first if they want, as a thank-you for all their hard work," said Westena, shrugging.
 
"Speaking of which, could we pull the first mate out of cold storage a bit early? I always thought she had a nice butt," mentioned Imelia.
 
"I think that's fine... I'll get some space set up in the kitchen, everyone can come by and empty their balls into that night's dinner," said Westena, nodding. "Would be a nice break from everything else we're doing, and help keep morale up."
 
And morale was up. Sharing a meal together had done the trick - the four survivors were in good spirits, and moved right away into discussing their plans for getting themselves and the Silver Dream back home...
 
---
 
"... Log started. It's been one week since the last meeting. Captain Vera speaking. I'll get right into it. Navigation Chief Kiera, can you summarize what you told me an hour ago?"
 
"Yeah. So. I've been trying to get the main engine working again, and - no go. There's too much of it destroyed, and we don't have the replacement parts."
 
"Medical Chief Imelia speaking. Surely we can make the replacement parts?"
 
"Not without a lot of knowledge that, frankly, none of us have. Do you know how to make a z-manifold reciprocating drive array? Hell, how do you smelt the copper wire and plates you'd need for it?"
 
"... There's a library's worth of knowledge on the ship's computers. Surely that information is contained within it?"
 
"Yeah, if you want to spend a couple years learning it. Actually, spending years learning how to make and use the specialized precision machinery that you'd need... to make the machinery that makes the machinery that makes the manifold drive array. Add a couple years of education and trial and error for each of those steps. Modern ship parts took generations of vixen to make, even when we managed to get the knowledge off of another species."
 
The three other vixen in the meeting room looked at each other.
 
"Um - are you saying... we can't get home?" said Westena.
 
"Yeah, pretty much. If we had anyone from engineering survive to give us a leg up on making the replacement parts, or if the hull breach hadn't taken out the main engine, or heck if we had more than the four of us to divide up the work, it'd be a different story, but as it is we'll all be dying of old age on this ship and neither it nor our early shells are making it back to Vixia."
 
There was silence in the room.
 
Vera slumped back, feeling defeated. She'd been captain for only a week, a position she felt entirely unqualified for even if it was just captain for a crew of four total... and she already was a failure.
 
Then... she sat back up. "What if... we had more than four vixen?"
 
"Sorry?" said Kiera.
 
"You said - if we had more vixen, we could divide up the work, make the missing parts faster, and get home faster," said Vera. "It'd still take a long while to get it going, it'd still take decades, but what if we *made* more vixen? By... getting each other pregnant?"
 
There was a moment of silence, and then Imelia and Kiera both tried to talk all at once. Imelia managed to get the floor first.
 
"I have serious ethical doubts about having children that we know are going to be in the same situation we are," said Imelia. "Everyone on this mission was a volunteer. Any new life we bring into the world isn't, by definition."
 
"What if we *can't* get home? Then there'd be more than just four vixen dying out here alone. Are we willing to wager the lives of others on that, just so we can spend our last years more comfortably?"
 
"I'm also not cool with this," said Kiera. "I'm last in the hierarchy here, I know how this is gonna go. I'm the one who's gonna end up getting pregnant the most, I'm the one who's gonna get all the childcare stuff shifted off onto me."
 
"I - can promise we'll all share both parts equally?" said Vera.
 
"Yeah, no, I don't trust you that much."
 
"Um," said Westena. "Does... it have to be vixens?"
 
All heads turned to look at her.
 
"Does what have to be vixens?" asked Imelia. "I don't follow."
 
"I mean - do we need to have the people learning how to make the engine pieces be vixen? Because... we still have the survey data that was being collected before everything went wrong, right? And I remember... the captain saying that they'd discovered some inhabited planets..."
 
The room fell silent. "... Um, like, with people?" asked Vera.
 
Westena nodded.
 
---
 
"Captain's - mmmhf. Damn that's good. Captain's log, Captain Vera speaking..."
 
"Ship's log, captain. Not captain's log. Pass me that haunch, thanks... oh, and Medical, Chief, Imelia speaking."
 
"Right, ship's log... right, we ended the last meeting with learning that there were inhabited planets... Westena, could you stop fucking Nevena so hard, I'm trying to eat her fingers."
 
"Sorry Captain. Just excited."
 
"After that we ended the meeting, went together to pore through the survey data, and... I decided that we should have a celebration. So we got the remaining officer corps out of cold storage, and we're giving them their Rites of the Flesh all at once..."
 
"YIP! Oh, damn. Imelia, you wanna try Nevena? I think she's been the best fuck yet."
 
"Why not. Step aside, let me show you youngsters how to properly cream an earthly shell... Ah, why, you're right. Really makes me wish I'd gotten a chance to top Nevena while she was still using it."
 
"Right, um, where was I. Got the officers out, we've been... just having a little orgy with them, and feasting on them, and just going to be doing that for basically a whole weekend here. Celebrating."
 
"Because... we've got a plan now. The people on that planet are primitive, strange... but they're advanced enough to make some things, and they seem capable of language, so - that's a start! We'll have our workforce, as soon as we get over there and establish ourselves. We've got - hang on... mmmh. That's good."
 
"Hey, captain, don't eat Nevena so fast, she's a good fuck."
 
"Well tough, she's too delicious to stop, so fuck her while you still can I guess. Um. So - we're celebrating. Because we have a plan."
 
"We have hope."