The Excorp Exhaust Incident

	Andrew walked the sleek yet cramped hallways of fluorescent lights in a sluggish way. Time was difficult to tell in the void of space like this, but he knew it had been long enough he should get some sleep soon. Still, he did sign a contract for a year of asteroid mining, and he was stuck here until Excorp sent someone to pick him up. He had made it through ten months already, he could make it a couple more… It wasn’t all that bad however, he had some company on the floating station.

	He had several mechanical coworkers who did a lot of the real mining operations on board with him. They were technically just machines, the manuals only ever referred to them as such, yet he spent a lot of time with them. They were all quite unique, with the two things they all had in common were oddly feminine designs, and biological reactors the company had installed as a cost-saving method. Even with those two things in common, some were massive and spent all day grinding ore, others were more around his size and did the finer detailed work… and then there was one that was a little different.

	Eagerly hopping up the hallway to meet him was that particularly ill-suited robot aboard with him. She was a metallic pink bunny, and half Andrew’s size. Normally she wouldn’t be used on an operation like this, but Excorp got her at a bargain, and employed her in odd jobs like cleaning and helping the one human stationed there. Hell, Andrew sympathized with how out of place she was, because he was mostly only there for legal reasons, work like this needed at least a shred of human supervision. Even if she was half his size (not including her tall pink ears), she nearly bowled him over as she jumped into him.

	“Andrew! Where have you been?” Her dark screen-like face displayed a ludicrously happy emoticon as the human staggered back onto his feet. “It’s fine X33-…. Er, Tiff.” She bobbed her ears excitedly. She loved the fact he treated them like people, even doling out nicknames when he felt like it. “Well, do you need any help now?” Her face flashed into a look of curiosity, unsure what he might need help with next.

	He couldn’t help but smile at her concern. “No, no, it’s fine. I’ve put in enough hours today to get to sleep soon. I just need to head to make sure the fuel stock is ready to go.” She followed along closely behind him as the door to the main mining entrance opened. The space was noticeably larger than the cramped hallways, but still not that spacious. The high-tech plating gave way a rocky circular room where a handful of bots moved to and fro, hauling heavy containers of ore, climbing in and out of the gates that sealed off tunnels, and generally going about their work.

	Andrew spotted one of the largest bots stationed with him, resembling a large gator over twice his size, primarily deep black with lines of orange construction colors. He yelled jokingly in passing, “Hey Big Bertha! Excorp isn’t paying you to sit on your ass all day!” She glowered at the human passing by, “Hey, did you forget I’ve got a blast furnace inside of my gut!” She paused to empty more unprocessed ore into her large reptile-like maw. “Now how about you stop taking your little hot-pink girlfriend on walks and make yourself useful!”

	Andrew simply laughed as he neared the door he was looking for. “Well you’ll be thanking me later, I’ll be making your next meal in a few minutes!” He was too distracted to notice the brief addition of red dots underneath Tiff’s electronic eyes from the mining woman’s joke. She knew Bertha didn’t mean anything by it though, she just enjoyed teasing, and one of her few duties was to look after Andrew… That meant an awful lot of time with him… She forcibly cut off her musings to a different subprocessor as they walked into the next slim hallway.

	Andrew was ponderning about how interesting all of these robots were. They were mostly made this intelligent to avoid fucking up and wasting the company money, it was a real shame they were rarely treated as more than appliances. He was too tired to think about matters of ethical philosophy at the moment, he had a job to do. Turning the corner he approached the vast container he normally processed his tireless coworkers’ fuel in. Tiff helped by opening drawers and pulling out some of the usual components. She stopped however when something seemed to be missing.

	She turned to Andrew with a comically worried face, complete with an animated drop of sweat, “Uh, did we get any ‘Supplement B’ in the last resupply?” Andrew walked over to inspect the shelf beside her. “Shit…” he cursed under his breath. The entire drawer was empty. Tiff quickly started opening other drawers, “Maybe it was misplaced…” Andrew used his increased height over the little robot to search the upper shelves, “No, those cheap bastards at Excorp probably shorthanded us again. Last month they didn’t even bring new filters for the ventilation system.”

	Amid his perturbed rambles, he spotted an unusual blue jug that had clearly fallen into a forgotten nook long ago. Pulling it upwards he inspected the label “Supplement B-E2”. Maybe if he wasn’t ready to plunge into his bed he would have been more curious, but he made the decision that it looked close enough. “Never mind, I found some!” Unscrewing the cap and upending the container in the vat he held his nose. Robot food always smelled odd to him though, so it was probably nothing.

	About half an hour later of pouring in other supplements and stirring the container, he had enough of the concoction made to last them a couple more days. The thick liquid looked the way it always did to him, but by that point he had already forgotten about his unusual substitution. His mind was preoccupied with the calculations and liquid ratios the standard mixture was supposed to have. After a brief overlook, he declared it done. With a press of a button, the bioreactor fuel moved through the clear vat and down a series of tubes, off to be distributed in various dispensers across the small complex.

	Tiff followed him back to his room with another expression of concern. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay? You look ready to shut off… or uh, pass out.” He nonchalantly hand waved her concern with a drowsy gesture, “It’s just been a long day, I’ll sleep it off fine…” She pressed the button to slide open his room’s door before switching to an expression with a wide grin. “I hope I can make tomorrow an even better day!” He thanked her while rubbing his eyes, “You too, it’s nice to have someone around.”

	The door slid behind him as she halted outside the metal barrier. She remained in place however, and waited a moment before glancing around the hallway cautiously. With deft robotic movements she plugged a finger into an otherwise inconspicuous socket in the wall. She was just going to make sure he made it to his bed safely through the security cameras. It wasn’t that strange, right? It was her job to make sure the only human aboard was doing okay. The recorded footage of him sleeping was just another way she looked out for his health, right? A medical study. Her secret observation was quickly interrupted by a flashing light on her display. She needed to get some of that biofuel soon… but it could wait a little while…

. . .

	Andrew found himself lost in another dream about being back on Earth. His job really wasn’t that bad, but little things like sunlight and trees were something he wish he could see again. However, as he drifted into his old apartment before he got this job… he recalled how lonely it was… barren. He lost contact with a lot of friends when he moved for work. Hell, focusing his mind the word “friend” evoked images of many of the mechanical women he had been working with. How strange it was, that stranded in space without a single living thing for immeasurable miles, he probably had more social connections than ever…

	The space of his terrestrial apartment started to close in on him, the sound of clanking metal ringing in his ears. He closed his eyes as the sound of a bursting steam pipe… several breaking at once actually, rang out. Unsure what was happening to him, he opened his eyes and realized he was still in his bed. Taking a second to recover from his cold sweats, he threw off the blanket and stumbled up to get some water from the sink. He didn’t bother to get one of those over-designed space age cups, he gulped the cold water straight from the tap. He was the only one even using this sink anyway.

	Wiping the water from his chin, he realized the sounds he heard in his dream were real. Although muffled by the thick walls, there was something creating a ruckus out there. He paused to sniff the air, a fain but strange smell was there, just enough to make him wonder what was going on out there. Still draped in corporate pajamas that read “EXCORP: WE REALLY DIG SPACE,” he shuffled over to the control panel to his door. Worst case scenario he figured something was wrong with the ventilation system, something that might be fixable with some help from a maintenance bot.

	He wasn’t prepared when his door slid open. A wave of heated, humid air flooded his compact room, and the sound of intermittent strange noises only got louder. His first breath in shock was choked with a familiar chemical rancidness, one that he couldn’t quite place. Him mind was still trying to process something he could compare the foul odor to when a pair of recognizable shiny pink ears came bouncing down the hallway. She had both arms wrapped around her core as she instead waved her ears frantically at him, “I th-think somethings wrong!”

	Andrew covered his face with his sleeve as he crouched down to get eye-level with the distressed robot. She had a cartoony expression of distress as her chosen face while she tried to explain it to him. “I’m n-not sure what’s causing it b-b-but…” She was interrupted by a mechanical clunking from deep insider her, before something else happened with her own metal butt. Her entire frame shook as a resounding burst of gaseous steam erupted out of her, vibrating her body in place as the five seconds of visible steam dispersed in a cloud around her. With it came a far more intense version of that same cloying funk that seemed to have overtaken the hallway.

	Confused, his mind first though she was simply malfunctioning, but as an equine ore-hauler stampeded past him, he noticed she was leaking loud poots of exhaust with every hurried step. Instead his thoughts turned to some kind of malicious computer virus attack. He had heard of cases where other corporations tried to sabotage each other. He managed to cough out to Tiff, “Do you think it’s a virus or something?” She groaned as her internal clanking failed to cease. “I’m not s-sure, can we use the computer?”

	Of course, Andrew nearly forget they had a diagnostic computer. His job had become so routine, he rarely needed to use the thing. Taking the robot’s small mechanical hand, he started running with her down the rarely used section of the station. Being a machine, Tiff didn’t need any help getting around, even in her current condition, but of course she didn’t object to his kind gesture. Instead she held tightly onto him as she tried, and repeatedly failed, to hold back the endlessly replenishing supply of stinking vapors inside of her. The way she shook in his grip Andrew was seriously starting to fear she would eventually rise into the air.

	Scrambling into the disused diagnostics room, the human employee shifted to frantically typing at the terminal. Within seconds a clear tube opened, and he gestured her towards it. “Head in there for a second, I want to see if this thing can scan for the issue.” She hesitantly let go of his hand before walking in, and let the tube seal shut around her. Andrew yelled to her through the thick material unsure of himself, “See if you can hold your exhaust for a second, it might interfere with the results!” She groaned in response before wrapping her arms tighter around her midsection. “I uh, I’ll try!”

	While Tiff could see the progress bar slowly fill up on the screen next to him, she could also feel every inch of extra space inside of her compound with that same strange gas. Her screen face kept cranking up the intensity of the strained face it displayed, more and more animated sweat drops collecting as she desperately tried to override any emergency release protocols. She could hold on just a little longer…

	In an adrenaline fueled rush, Andrew quickly scanned the results as they came in. Currently all the negative indicators he was getting involved “EXCESSIVE EXHAUST PRODUCTION” but he knew that already. The five minutes the thorough scan took went by quickly for him, but Tiff could practically feel time dilate to slow further and further down. Nearly at her breaking point, she finally saw the color of Andrew’s screen change to indicate the analysis was complete.

	Andrew didn’t even get a chance to say anything before she released her seal and let the mounting pressure out. Frankly, her exhaust pipe was ill-suited for the sheer quantity rushing out of her, as the loud rumbling roar was sickeningly muffled much like a toilet would from within the tube. Although he caught a glimpse of her displaying a face with rolling eyes and a lolling tongue, he was quickly cut off as the high pressure release of steamy fumes near instantly fogged up the interior.

	She violently deflated for nearly half a minute, straining to push everything churning inside her out of her tight artificial cheeks. Powerless to do anything, Andrew poured over the diagnosis results while the rattling sound resonated against the walls of her container. He suppressed any… unusual… feelings her rapturous release was giving him. Once it finally stopped he called out to her, “Are you still with me in there?” He was instead answered by a loud, long sigh of contentment, and a barely visible image of a thumbs-up on her face as she cranked her screen brightness to maximum. Once again he repressed any unfamiliar feelings about that breathy moan of relief while he got back to work.

	Sifting through the huge quantity of data, he stopped when he read over something. “Supplement B-E2.” That wasn’t right, he always used Supplement B in their fuel… He grasped his face in terror as he realized what he mixed inside the entire station’s fuel supply. If every robot was emitting like poor little Tiff… He quickly did a search to scan air quality through the terminal… Temperatures and humidity levels had risen drastically across nearly every section, especially the main mining entrance. Feeling like he needed anyone else to bounce ideas off of, he motioned to release the bunny-bot before he was interrupted by a yell.

	“WAIT A SECOND!” Tiff had risen to attention inside her foggy chamber before yelling something else. “HOW TOXIC IS THIS STUFF FOR HUMANS ANYWAY?” She gestured her ears around the chamber, prompting Andrew to delay her release, as well as gallons upon gallons of concentrated stink. “Good call!” he responded while specifically looking for data on the exhaust itself. The results read, “All bioreactor emissions are fully safe to humans as in accordance to Section 1231- Article C of Galactic Operations. Warning: Submitted samples are unusually high in methane, sulfur, and several miscellaneous compounds that are known to cause severe irritation in most humans sinuses, breath with limited caution.”

	Andrew didn’t like the sound of the warning, but he hesitantly let Tiff out. In a plume of steaming vapor that consumed the room, she bounded out like she had a severe weight lifted off her shoulders. She excitedly piped up, “So it’s not going to hurt you?” He coughed in response to the overwhelmingly malodorous invasion on his senses, “Well… it’s not going to kill me at least.” The metallic rabbit did a quick search of her social database before deciding to hug him against his side. “I’m sorry if it’s that bad…” He sighed while rubbing one of her ears to ease her worry, “It’s um… not that terrible. But as far as the computer tells me, it’s only going to get a hell of a lot worse in the next few hours.

	She looked up to him with an extraordinarily worried expression. “Is there anything you can do?” She ignored a loud bubbling clamoring inside of her as she spoke up again, “Can you maybe make something to fix the reaction?” Andrew doubted it, but he started punching in data to see if the computer could solve. Frankly he was starting to get pissed the company barely taught him any of this, instead opting to put 90% of the things he needed to know in manuals or computers like this this one.

	Although he got some results, he had to stay optimistic as the search algorithm tried to select solutions that could be made with what was available in the station. After a tense few moments that Tiff used to sneak even closer against Andrew’s body, a single result popped up on screen. Good news was that most of the stuff on the list was inside the same room he made their fuel with… bad news was two different items were last reported at completely different ends of the base. One was a strong chemical used in the deepest parts of the mining operation, somewhere he hand never been as the deepest reaches were considered too hazardous for humans, and the other an obscure medical supply tucked away in deep in inventory.

	He sighed, noting how he could practically taste the bitter flavor on the air. “Okay, we might actually be able to fix this, but it’s not going to be easy…” Tiff thrust her arms in the air in celebration, “Hooray! Then maybe we can solv-” She was interrupted however by a short bass-filled rumbling underneath her. Her face became significantly more red as she sheepishly looked down. “…sorry. I’ll… leave you to it… don’t need another bot ripping exhaust in your face…”

	Andrew knew this was partially true, but frankly whatever she could crank out was a drop in the bucket at this point. Especially when the failing ventilation system couldn’t process the levels of pollution these women were pumping out. “Come on,” he said while putting a hand on her shoulder, “I’m going to need all the help I can get finding this stuff.” Surprised by his words, she squeezed him again, her deceptively strong grip nearly knocking the wind out of him. “Oh, you won’t regret this! I’ll make sure the air gets better just for you.”

The fact he had to breathe in more of her noxious aroma from the tight grip was mitigated by the overjoyed face she switched to. Once she released Andrew he got to work making a physical print-out of just what he was looking for, as well as where it was last recorded being. Tiff on the other hand was double and triple checking to make sure she saved a recording of what just happened, after all she wanted to relive moments like this once he left. She’d have the time to… before Andrew showed up she felt like deadweight around the new station…

	With names and potential locations highlighted, he figured the first one to look for was the chemical used in mining. He tightened his pajamas, this really was up to him. There was no way to get help over here faster than a month from now, and it was obvious any of the robots would be too panicked to do it for him. If the lingering scent of rotten meat and diesel exhaust in here was just a taste of what’s to come, it’d be a long day. His thoughts were interrupted by an absentminded jettison of more gasses that shook through Tiff, further replacing any clear air in the room. He needed to hurry.

	Marching down the hallways as authoritatively as one could looking like they had just jumped out of bed with a fuming rabbit leaking steam behind him, Andrew made his way towards the central hub of mining operations. The closer her got, the air became unbearably warm, and the humidity grew stronger. Closing in he could practically taste what was coming out of his coworkers. Something he never really asked to do. Most of the smooth metal surfaces were collecting beads of moisture, and any of the tiny windows showing nothing but the emptiness of space around them were badly fogged.

	With a growing sense of urgency he wiped the collecting sweat from his brow, just how bad was it up there? He’d soon get his answer as his short walk took him to the thick metal doors that partitioned the rocky entrance to the mines. Punching in his code combination, the second the doors cracked open he could feel a wave of steamy toxic miasma push itself into the hallway. Even Tiff behind him looked like she was sweating for real as droplets condensed on her sleek body. Neither were fully prepared for the havoc that awaited them.

	More attention grabbing than the oppressive atmosphere of a humid rainforest raised to sweltering degrees was the sound. A discordant symphony composed only of the brass section. A few workers were visible leaning against handrails, raising tails and moaning every time another visible plume of exhaust pushed through them with a bubbly tone. Others were frantically moving while leaving a trail of fetid gasses behind them, but with no real destination in mind. Those with more flexible bodies were holding bloated midsections, trying not to worsen the already annihilated atmosphere in spite of the rampant gurgling complaints from inside of them. Even the lights were dramatically dimmed by the rolling cloud reminiscent of rampant cigarette smoke covering the industrial lights above.

	While some smiled and looked over hoping the supervisor might have an idea what was going on, most remained focused on alleviating the endlessly renewing supply of emissions growing inside them. The sole human held a loose sleeve over his mouth in an attempt to soldier through, but the chokingly thick vapors crawled into his lungs anyway. He was really starting to doubt the analysis of the computer, anything that smelled like superheated spoiled milk and diesel couldn’t be good. Looking around the hectic room, he spotted Big Bertha nursing a concerningly large gut. If anyone had an idea about where he might find what he was looking for, it’d be her.

	 Trying not to gag he waved over to the colossal woman, who seemed to be preoccupied soothing her noisy stomach. “Hey! Can you help us find something!” She snapped her attention to the source, giving Andrew a glare. “It’s about time you showed the hell up! What the fuck is happening over here!” He didn’t have much time to explain in the only exponentially decaying air inside, so he sputtered out a quick answer. “Something’s wrong with the fuel, we need uh…” Tiff finished the sentence for him by changing her face to read “DIMEXATRYETHYLINE-113”. Andrew finished by simply pointing to her, “That!”

	Bertha leaned down to scan read it, but as soon as her face flashed recognition, she winced from a loud rumbling that visibly shook her distended core. She held a clawed finger up to signal she needed a moment before grunting a response. “Hold on a moment, I had seconds of biofuel today, and this blast furnace of mine is going to burst if I don’t relieve a little pressure.” A “little” pressure wasn’t accurate as she lifted her fat mechanical gator tail before her dark rubberized rear started to roar with an earthquake of synthetic flatus.

	A jetstream of dark smog carrying small glowing embers erupted out from behind her like a volcano, blowing out behind her with impressive force. It was so powerful a nearby gassy girl pacing the floor lost her balance, and face planted into the ground. That didn’t stop the unfortunate machine from losing control and adding her own heated fumes from her behind raised high in the air. The combined flatus only mixed into the ever worsening slurry of gases congealing in the confined space. While the unfortunate robot sighed deeply in relief, Bertha was still finishing up with a deep bass sounding crescendo.

	Despite Andrew’s dawning horror at the scale of this disaster, Bertha only laughed once the release fell to a blistering hiss. “Whooooooooooo-wee! You’re lucky I was facing this way, I might’ve killed an organic like you with that!” Before he could open his tortured mouth again to speak, Andrew was blocked by the tiny rabbit standing in front of him, arms spread wide. Tiff sounded quite upset, it was probably the first time he was her use an angry expression. “Don’t joke about that! Now do you know where the dimexatryethyline-113 is or not?” Her bold statement was undercut by a short but deep poot that rippled against Andrew’s baggy clothes, but he couldn’t help but blush. It was both incredibly cute and endearing to see her act like this over him, even her rancid rippers were cute…

	Bertha only intensified her laughter seeing the half-pint act so overprotective. “Oh hush now, I might’ve made his eyes water or lose his lunch, but I’m only joking.” However Andrew was seriously considering it as lethal when the superheated toxins started to spread past him. The thought of taking of his shirt to beat the heat crossed his mind, but it was his only filter over his face right now. Tiff couldn’t notice his distress as she remained firmly planted in front of him… well at least against the bottom half of him with her size.

	The large synthetic gator relented as she kept staring her down. “Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, but we had a cave-in once readings of “unusual gasses” collecting in the mines started to set everyone off into a panic.” She scratched the back of her neck, “No one got hurt, and now we know those readings were only because of loud behinds like mine, but that didn’t prevent us from leaving in such a panic a few supports collapsed. It’d be real tough for anyone to get at some of that stuff right now.” She paused for a moment to take in the noise of multiple erupting buttocks around them, “And I doubt anyone will be able to help right now…”

	Her speech was interrupted by a clatter of small rocks tumbling before two large eyes as bright as headlights emerged from a newly formed hole in the wall. “Oh my god! Is that Andrew! I haven’t seen you in forever!” As her two antennas poked through the opening, Bertha yelled fed-up, “A8755T, for the love of Excorp, can you NOT make unauthorized tunnels! We put gates on specific entrances for a reason, this place’ll look like swiss cheese if you keep this up.” The approaching ant-like robot ignored the large woman as she made a beeline straight for Andrew. “If it wasn’t for safety regulations I’d take you right down with me so I could see you more often!”

	Andrew could only sigh as he was strangely held close in her large digging mandibles, the way she always greeted him. “Hi Angela…” He didn’t have anything against her, no he actually liked the steel-plated ant that stood slightly taller than him, but he was always surprised by her sheer ability to ignore what was going on around her. She was so focused on him, she didn’t even register the grunting groaning discord around them. Interestingly Tiff was about as single mindedly focused as Angela watching the scene unfold. Her programming failed to turn up any reasonable answers for it, but seeing Andrew grabbed like that by another bot was upsetting her more than she cared to admit.

	It took a moment for her to unhinge her jaws and notice the perturbed bunny nearby. “Oh, uh, Tiffany is what Andrew calls you, right? Nice to see you too.” Tiff looked ready to square up against Angela for messing up her beloved nickname when Andrew interrupted by clearing his throat, “Ahem, could you maybe get us through the cave-in? We need to get something important to fix what’s going on here…” Angela looked puzzled for a moment before she took in her surroundings. A whole lot of angry asses pumping exhaust into the surrounding area, with an accompanying choir of distressed groans desperate for total relief. Angela’s smile didn’t fade however, “Oh, well I guess it’s a good thing I’m not the only one doing that. I was afraid maybe it was my fault all the dangerous gas sensors were going off…”

	A loud metal clang signaled Tiff facepalming while Andrew tried to explain the reason they needed to get down. Angela only huffed in response, “You know what regulations say, it’s too risky for a human to go down there…” She stopped any protests he could have by continuing in a cheery tone, “Buuuuut, if it really is an emergency I could make an exception for you, you’ll be right with me after all.” Tiff indignantly raised her pink ears, “I’m coming too!”

Andrew looked down at her, “You know you don’t have to come along…” Her expression changed to a pout, “It’s my job to make sure you’re fine, so I can’t leave you in a dangerous mineshaft!” He couldn’t argue with that level of determination. He didn’t want to either, the longer he spent in this sauna of endless backdrafts the more an unstable tunnel sounded better. “Okay, share whatever you downloaded about the chemical with Angela and we’ll head out ASAP.” She puffed out her chest and went straight to following his orders, convening with the somewhat confused ant.

. . .

	With a plan of where to go, Angela scanned the wall with robotic precision before tearing out a section of brown rocky wall with her mandibles. It was what she was made for after all, so it was no surprise when she steadily formed a tunnel wide enough for Andrew to crawl through. Quickly turning back around she shouted out, “Okay Andrew, follow close behind me, it’s the safest place to be.” Watching some of the bots empty themselves violently of more heated vapors, he had his doubts, but ultimately falling rocks were more dangerous. Gingerly he crawled into the tunnel awkwardly behind her before yelling back to Tiff. “You coming?”

	Tiff hollered back, “In a second!” She wasn’t entirely sure why, but the thought of looking bad compared to that other machine had her furious. She was going to make sure she had an empty tank to start their confined expedition with. Her face flashed into one of determination, biting her lip in concentration. In each of her hands she pulled back a tight handful of “collision dampener” on either end of her exhaust port before bending down deeply. With a loud grunt, she evacuated her internal systems as forcefully as she could.

	Her body audibly started rattling as she forced this steam geyser out of her, but any noise the clanking of her metal was causing was drowned out by the loud but incredibly dry sounding hiss streaming out of her. Her ears wilted in relief as the release droned on, much like any flowers would have if they were in range of the forceful release of wretched smog. Lasting ten seconds, she pushed so hard she felt like a deflating balloon, prompting a long sigh of bliss. Once she finished with a soft pop, Tiff slouched back into standing posture. Bertha had noticed however and yelled out to her, “You sure you won’t be the one suffocating your little boyfriend with an exploding rump like that?” Tiff managed an elegant comeback before jumping into the hole, “S-SHUT UP!”

. . .

	Progress through the tunnel was slow and tedious, but Angela assured going any faster risked everyone’s safety. While she steadily cleaved the rock in front of them away, Andrew was left with nothing other than the view of her thick polymer abdomen illuminated in the faint reflected glow of her shining eyes. Oddly enough the occasional pocket of stale air they hit was much better than the normal air quality where they started. To keep himself busy while crawling through the rough stone in nothing but his pajamas, his mind wandered. For some reason his mind lingered on that diagnosis he did on the robotic rabbit… Something about the sheer force she erupted with that expression of relief… He had to shake the thoughts out of his head and keep moving, there wasn’t time for that.

	Tiff on the other hand was dealing with other thoughts. This was probably the first time Andrew was in any real danger since he got on the station, and she had an opportunity to help him out. She couldn’t fail! She had to prove how highly she valued him. Of course, what did it matter if he was just going to leave her life soon? With her robotic ability she recalled a small clip show of moments she had recorded of him, mostly smiles when she bounded over to him mixed with times he treated her like more than a bundle of wires, like coming up with her human sounding name “Tiff.” Wanting to stay focused on the task ahead of her, she recalled her attention to the sight in front of her… Her expression changed to a particularly mischievous one after a couple seconds, complete with a comedic bleeding nose. Maybe she could get a little footage of his loose pants moving inches from her face… you know… to remember him by? When was she going to get a chance like this again anyway?

	Unaware of the lecherous gaze of the robot behind him, his thoughts turned to a more present issue. They had been moving for some time now, yet he hadn’t heard any… exhaust from either of them. Only the odd sigh from Angela… As if on cue she did it again, a deep moan under her breath, although this time he was listening closely enough to detect something else. A muffled rattling seemingly coming from her abdomen, followed by a slight swell in her rubbery posterior. Andrew stopped in though for a second, causing the distracted robot behind him to bump right into him.

	While both let out a little eep of surprise, Angela realized she’d been caught. She turned her head around before letting her antennas hang in shame. “Sorry, I uh, normally keep important ore in that expandable abdomen of mine, but for your sake it’s more of an emission repository right now…” Recovering as best he could, the human supervisor forced a chuckle, “No, that’s all good. I’d rather have you doing that.” Angela turned back around to resume digging, but not before grunting, “Well if you say you don’t mind…” The upsettingly loud and wet sounding fart was heavily muffled by her abdomen as it swelled a bit further to contain the pressurized gasses. Andrew restrained any disgust from having a condensed container of rotten wind that close to his face. Tiff could only cross her arms in jealousy, of course this bot could rip ass without consequences, while she had to bottle it up.

	As they continued to crawl forward, a new sound was regularly added to the tunnel. Between digging motions Angela would let out a groaning moan before pushing more bubbling gasses into her tightly packed abdomen. Andrew had to reassure himself that even when her swaying rear compartment vibrated and bloated further, that he wasn’t really in any danger. Tiff on the other hand was making an animated roll of her eyes every time the busy ant blurted a “Scuse me,” or a “Sorry,” or the odd, “Ooooh, that one was warm…” Even if the pink robot thought she had emptied herself before climbing in, the teasing sight of Angela unabashedly relieving herself had made her acutely aware of every growing gas pocket inside of her.

	As Andrew tried to ignore the radiating heat from the sealed exhaust pipe before him, the unaware ant made an announcement. “This is where we have to be real careful. We’re starting to hit the unstable section that collapsed before. Soooo, you should stick closer behind Andrew…” Using one of her wiry robotic legs the ant tugged at his now very dusty sleepwear. His face was warmed by the heated rubber she pulled him into, prompting a cry of surprise lost in her rear. Instinctually he tried to jerk back, but she fought to keep him in her well-meaning grasp.

	Angela spoke as if he was just a fussy child, “Oh, you need to stay still, it’s for your own safety with the…” Her statement was finished instead by the shaking of the hard-packed rubble around them. Tiff flashed a face of fear before jumping on top of the confused man’s back. Any falling meteorite chunks were going to have to go through her before they could get to him. In a tight dogpile the three swayed with the moving ground all around them as a swirl of blinding dust kicked up and the sound shifting gravel and small tumbling rocks filled the air. The human shut his eyes tightly, his foremost thought being, “What a bizarre way to die.”

	However the sound of the quaking boulders eventually faded, and the ground once again held steady. Andrew opened his eyes to find out he was actually still alive, but a quick look around him showed they were practically entombed in a tiny untouched pocket. He could feel his legs shake from what just happened, but if anything he wasn’t shaking as bad as the robot on top of him.

 	Tiff had switched every available component into overdrive for a crisis scenario, seeing that not only her entire job, but what she valued had been abruptly endangered. Although the extra power allowed her to shrug off any rocks that clanged against her, and even coordinate her long ears precisely enough to swipe any small rocks that veered towards Andrew’s head, it kicked her bioreactor into overdrive. Rampant chemical reactions left her quivering in place and noticeably overheated.

	As everyone recovered Andrew croaked out, “Is everyone okay?” Tiff was split between praising him for worrying about metal robots when he only had baggy clothes to protect him, and uncharacteristically blowing a fuse screaming at the robotic ant for getting them into this mess. However, the opening just beneath her puff of a tail spoke first. Starting off as a high-pitch steam whistle, it gradually morphed into a lower bellow that reverberated against Andrew’s back. He could practically feel the humid heat easily permeate his clothes and stimulate his skin. It was almost pleasant, like a highly counterproductive shower.

	All the while the emission puttered out of her it polluted the enclosed space with a smell like digested onions and exhaust. The human found himself distracted by the new sensation and her adorably cartoony expression of relief. Sniffing delicately, he even internally noted how cute she was while doing something so crude. Andrew’s thoughts were lost as Angela retained her astounding ability to focus on the most puzzling aspects of a situation. She simply let out a low whistle as the bunny continued to orthodoxically cool her overclocked reactor. “Ha, and I thought I was bad!”

	Still clutching onto the human like an oversized backpack, her now bassy release faded as her trembling body went limp against his. The screen of her face displayed a cloudy exhale as she felt the pressure drop, only to just as abruptly change her face to one of shame. Andrew nearly died, DIED, doing a job that shouldn’t warrant even a bruise, and she responded by farting all over him! Quickly she mumbled out an apology, “You’re o-o-okay, right? I re-really didn’t mean to do that, I ac-actuall-” With the joy of being alive and now the adorable sight of his little helper trying to apologize, he couldn’t let her sulk like that.

	His smile reflected the dim light her face gave off, “No, it okay… I mean really, maybe it’s a good thing…” Her ears shot up and nearly smacked into the ceiling inches above them. “Good thing!?” He chuckled, not even needing to hold his nose despite the fact her exhaust easily comprised the vast majority of air around them. “Hey, I need to breathe and that might actually be all I’ve got in here.” She froze for a moment to scan over her data. He was right, although low, this B-E2 exhaust had enough tainted oxygen to remain breathable.

	A pixelated blush spread across her face as well as the image of a bucktoothed smile. “…Well, as long as I’m helping you…” Her little moment was interrupted as the ant’s antennas picked up on the conversation. “Oh, we wouldn’t want Andrew suffocating. Maybe I should release what I’ve got?” Even though the other two pressed behind her raised their hands for her to stop nearly in sync, she let out a grunt of effort before unlocking any seals on her high-pressure gas bomb.

	If what came out of Tiff could be generously considered “cute” by Andrew, then the pent up explosion from her was simply horrifying. Her rubber end violently deflated to let out what had been swirling inside of since before their trip even started. Spraying torturously condensed fumes like a firehose, she swiftly contaminated every corner of their tiny space with an unbearable odor like battery acid and rotting meat. The human narrowly avoided taking a direct blast to the mouth, instead feeling the brunt of the forceful jetstream whip his hair. Her release took only a fraction of the time Tiff’s did, but it devastatingly saturated their tiny space, transforming an otherwise dry and cold pocket of rock into a sweltering sauna.

	The intermingling of both their synthetic scents produced a devastating combination, something Andrew was having trouble choking down. While Angela let out a deep sigh she got back to digging, unaware of the havoc her gallons of gaseous hell unleashed. As their space slowly expanded while the tunneler got to work, Tiff stayed awkwardly perched on top of Andrew. She was glad he wouldn’t suffocate any time soon, but this was overkill. He coughed into his sleeve with a reddened face from the sheer temperature increase.

	Waving her hands in the thick steamy air, she dismounted the man to move in front of his face. She put on her best excessively enthusiastic tone to try and raise his morale. “Come on, we’re getting really close! Just a little further!” He managed another challenging breath. It often felt forced to hear that sweet tone come from a robot, but with her it felt genuine. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll make it.” The mechanical rabbit wanted to believe him, but his statement didn’t exactly sound very confident. Taking his hand in her own, she helped pull him forward to catch up with the gradual progress of the ant ahead of them.

. . .

	After about ten minutes of soaking in the gradually dispersing stink, the trio burst out into the un-collapsed corner of the mines. Normally stale air at the bottom of a mine isn’t appealing, but the man shimmied his way past the ant to get a sweet lungful. Angela walked out in the larger chamber, paying no heed to the visibly steaming hole they had just emerged from. While she scanned the room with her powerful flashlight eyes, Tiff stood over the man lying on his back to ineffectively attempt to circulate the air around his face with her hands and ears alike.

	Once she had done a bit of rummaging through the room, the insectoid robot found a stack of crates originally meant for future efforts to expand the mine shafts. The sound of rustling objects rang out before she marched right up to the prone man with a single box in her hands. “I think this is the stuff you were looking for, right?” While the human bent his head to see the blissfully unaware smile on her mandibles, Tiff answered for him. “Yeah, it says dimexatryethyline-113 on the side.” The other robot twirled it in her hands to read the side, “You’re right!”

	Angela put the box down to observe the sweaty man just enjoying the cool rock beneath him. She lowered her head and bobbing antennas towards Tiff to hoarsely whisper, “Does he need to shut down or whatever humans do?” Tiff stood proudly, even if it wouldn’t stand anywhere else, she was practically the resident human expert in this corner of empty space. “No, Andrew sleeps, and he already did that earlier, so he’s good!” She turned to face him with an expectant face, “Right?” He sighed, feeling a little lightheaded but appreciating the concern. “Right.” Tiff bounced slightly to celebrate her admittedly trivial victory over the other automaton.

	With one of the two ingredients in hand, Angela climbed back into the still warm portion of their tunnel. Seeing Andrew starting to get up she called back, “What are you waiting for? We have to carve a way out of here.” He spoke in exasperation, “Are you sure you can’t make some progress and let me sit out her a bit?” She turned back to give him another one of her mandible hugs before he could react. “What if it collapses again? The safest place for you is right behind me!” As she walked back to their passage she lifted a leg and pushed out a quick but frighteningly loud shotgun blast of gas, making him doubt her previous statement. “Look, more air!” She commented gleefully.

. . .

	Mercifully, the way back went without major incident and any squeakers either Tiff or Angela leaked out paled in comparison to the previous bombs still drifting around the tunnel. The previously collapsed section wasn’t as thick as it looked, so the return trip was much quicker. Although Andrew was more prepared than anyone to leave the polluted passage, Tiff practically pulled him through the exit like a bunny-eared rocket. With the ill-dressed man’s arm in one hand, she swiped the sought-after chemical with the other. “Gee, it sure was great seeing you, but I think we’ll be leaving now!” The ant-based robot was set to object to their rapid departure, but something about the atmosphere caught all of them off guard.

	It was… weirdly quiet. Even if the air was still thick with lingering synthesized flatulence, the activity was gone. Only Bertha, preoccupied rubbing her swollen midsection, remained in the large rocky room. Unaware of the returning group, she leaned to one side and eased out another smoky wind from her rear. As it boomed out of her with a deep bass, the human supervisor noted with concern she had worked a sooty and lightly scorched blast pattern in the rock underneath her. Just how many noxious plumes of exhaust she had to release to make that concerned him deeply. Possibly even worse was the fact he was adapting to tolerate such a tarnished atmosphere, something emphasized by the wave of revolting heat that quickly reached them.  Once her fiery fart ended at around ten seconds, the motorized reptile gave a short and stifled sigh, a sign her outbursts were failing to provide relief anymore.

	Andrew spoke up once the large deep black bottom quieted enough for him to be heard over the residual clapping of her visible fuming behind. “Hey! Big Bertha! We got what we needed, but what happened to everyone?” Stirred from idly fanning the dark haze behind her, Bertha answered in a low groan. “Guhh, ooh boy… They all set up a makeshift infirmary in the inventory storage area whatever… or uh, is it an infirmary when it’s for robots? Either way I’m too damn bloated to go through the door right now, and I could barely fit to begin with.” Noticing her reduced speech his next question came off more worried, “Are you okay?” She returned a weak laugh, “Better than you boy, but my blast furnace is running wild with gas, so I’m running my processors low with all the damn heat…” Her statement was emphasized as her personal cloud dispersed, revealing her exhaust port glowing lightly red. Both bots winced slightly in sympathy.

	Andrew was instead mulling over what she just said. Apparently, every gas gushing girl had evacuated to exactly where the second component was. The thought of such an emission-filled space scared him, but that would eventually be every space on the station if he didn’t hurry. This time yanking Tiff forward instead of the other way around, the rabbit hid a tiny heart on her display seeing him carry her forward, unaware why exactly he was in such a rush. Even more unaware what was happening, Angela let her antennas bob as she surveyed the room for a moment. “Hey, where is everyone?” Bertha could only moan at how far behind she was, “You’re lucky the supervisor is here, otherwise I’d blast you with this ass of mine so hard it’d reset that slow head of yours!”

	Leaving the two to squabble, Andrew pushed through the sliding doors with his little electronic companion. Remembering they were on a mission, she straightened herself out and flashed her screen to a concerned expression. “Are you sure you need to be in such a rush? I can get you some water or uh… human food?” His throat had seen better days, but he refused her offer. “No, I’ll make it. But we’ve got to find the last compound to fix this whole bioreactor catastrophe.” He breathed out the last part under his breath, “…it’s all my fault.” Tiff pulled against him for a second, causing him to slow down and watch her LED face nervously match his gaze. “It’s not your fault… there wasn’t any supplement B left, no one can blame you for using what we had.”

	She shifted her hands nervously, much like her ears were fidgeting as she continued. “We’d all have to shut down until the next supply shipment came in otherwise… and… well that would mean I’d get even less time to spend with you…” At this point the two had completely stopped in the sleek metal hallway. Her long pink ears fell limp as her volume lowered and her hands now anxiously played with her fallen ears, “I know you have to leave… eventually, and uh go back to Earth or whatever and all that…” The nervous face on her screen flickered as a part of her considered shutting down rather than continuing her statement. “But…” Her gaze shifted to a small window to the starry abyss outside. “I just picture looking out there one day and thinking… he’s just a tiny dot out there, and I’ll never see him again. Leaving me useless and stranded here.”

	The man was shocked watching her slowly fold in on herself. He may have always treated his computerized coworkers no differently from his fellow humans, but he never expected this level of emotion. Even more so from Tiff, who may have acted happy, or concerned, or even rarely mad, but never so heartbreakingly sad. Of course he cared for her, yet the thought of what she’d do without him hadn’t crossed his mind. Unsure how to console someone who was seemingly built to help him instead, he crouched down and pulled her into a tight hug. Even if she felt like she weighed a metric ton for her size, Andrew hoisted her up slowly.

	He spoke in a low voice, just starting to realize how much he took her normally cheery demeanor for granted. “Hey, hey, it’s alright. I’ve still got a couple more months here…” He took a deep breath, considering he couldn’t even guarantee the next part. “…and you know I like working here. If they offer to extend my contract I’m sure I’ll stay another year.” Tiff’s face shifted between too many emotions to stay constant, becoming more of a glitched jumble. “BUT THAT’S THE PROBLEM! You’ll always have to leave… and I’d be even worse than your stupid boss to force you to stay here on my behalf… leaving other real people just to stay with a glorified roomba like me.”

	She was right he couldn’t stay here on this little mining station forever, but he knew she wasn’t right about everything. “Please, you’re a lot more to me than just some machine. Who else talks with me all day? Who worries more about my safety here? Who’s happier to see me when I walk through the door?” Tiff crossed her arms indignantly, calming down just enough that her monitor displayed her pouting expression clearly. “You better not say some other robot…” She huffed quietly under her breath. He laughed that she would even say that. “Of course it’s you! You’re my favorite person to be with out here… and by person I mean REAL person, I’ve never seen you as less.”

	Feeling her emotions subside for a moment, Tiff started to take in the fact she was being held aloft in his arms. The feeling of his biological limbs wrapped around her, the subtle heat of his body, even the faint feeling of his heartbeat, these were memories she’d have to save forever, and keep two, no three back ups of at all times. As she tilted her head to look Andrew in the eyes, her newfound proximity allowed her to see all the complexity in his blue irises and she stumbled to find a response. Rapidly searching through what little bits of human media she scrounged up on an isolated place like this, she rapidly compiled a new custom expression for her screen. Featuring closed eyes and large pursed lips, she eschewed speaking and instead leaned her face towards his.

	Only realizing what she was doing after her flat face warmly buzzed against his cheek, he gave a silent gasp in surprise. Tiff reared back after the second of contact and immediately produced a nervous laughter. “Haha, that was a weird malfunction or something… I don’t know what that was about, uh, sorry for acci-accidentally bumping into you like that, really it wa-” Her fruitless attempts at damage control were undercut by a soft puffing hiss pushing out from underneath her and gently fluttering his loose clothes. Although more gentle than most of her previous eruptions of exhaust, this anxiety produced release was incredibly warm, reeked of chemically fermented vegetables, and worst of all went on and on.

	Every second the warm air kept streaming out of her, the blush would grow on her face. As the stream of synthesized flatus refused to stop, her screen eventually became more of an animated blush than anything else. Still, from his perspective she looked so adorable, in spite of the fact she was pushing out a fog of what smelled like turpentine and ancient cabbage. Even more so the angle of her tiny poofy-tailed end was funneling her ongoing emission mostly towards his crotch, the added sensation of warm air permeating his pants created an intensely weird mixture of emotions. He grinned and bared it at first, but as she continued to let loose in his arms he found himself blushing as well.

	As much as he tried to deny the more indecent feelings he was having about her crass steam leak, when her slow-burn bomb finally ended in a cute high pitched sigh it was difficult to deny how much he enjoyed it. Coughing lightly on the immense volume of gas she had softly released, Andrew tried to reassure her one more time half-jokingly. “Hey, maybe I can smuggle you back on the return shuttle. You are pretty small!” Pleased he didn’t acknowledge the latest batch of nastiness from her over-worked ass, she recovered enough to speak, “I couldn’t ask you to do that, you’d get in a lot of trouble…” She managed a more heartfelt giggle, but internally she was already reviewing shuttle blueprints for hiding places.

	He gently put Tiff back down to wave the air in front of him. “You’re lucky your reactor is smaller than the rest, I’m sure everyone else is doing even worse.” The little lagomorph could only describe his pose as heroic as he looked forward, and reached a hand out towards her own. “Which is why WE need to get whatever component is stored away in the inventory room and fix all this.” She eagerly took his hand with a nod that bobbed her large ears, and in a flash they were off again. The duo scrambled down the hallways towards the inventory section, noting with a slight sense of dread how the air gradually grew in temperature and humidity, as well as what occasionally sounded like a muffled wet quack or a bass-filled lion’s roar through the walls.

	Without hesitation Andrew opened the door labeled “INVENTORY AND MISC. SUPPLIES” in a determined push, but neither was prepared for the dense, actually visible, haze that rolled out. The miasma formed from countless upset exhaust pipe outbursts punched all of his organic senses at once. The heavy atmosphere went straight through his clothes and settled into his skin, causing him to sweat profusely. The air was so thick with a mixture of repugnant flavors he gagged, and his ears were filled with a cacophony of exploding behinds. His nostrils burned just trying to smell the cesspit of aromas, and his watery eyes struggled to take in the sight of the bots before him.

	A familiar equine worker laid splayed out on a large crate like a substitute cot, and gripped the edges before lifting her tail for yet another wet ripper to billow out of her. One of the miners designed more like a serpent to navigate small tunnels wrapped herself around one of the support girders in the ceiling, making the metal vibrate angrily underneath her as she unleashed her deep resounding thunder on it. A larger feline robot Andrew rarely saw before simply laid her torso on a pile of containers, and let her thin flexible tail blow like a flag in the endless winds of her flatulence. Those with the more flexible chassis shared the same bloated figure, while any unfortunate enough to be made of stiffer materials simply had to let loose at the same speed the pressure built up.

	Under normal circumstances Andrew would have tried to help them, but they were clearly busy groaning in desperation for relief, while he was busy trying to stay standing without vomiting. Tiff considered dragging him back out, but she knew this was important to him. And besides, even the horrendous concoction created between several ceaselessly erupting bums in a tight space was still technically breathable… albeit so horridly polluted his body struggled to accept it. Their progress was slowed even further as a massive mechanical bottom wobbled into view, shortly before it’s owner rubbed her stomach and blew back his hair with a rank release. The concentrated stank bordered on rendering him unconscious before Tiff pulled him back.

	As the tufted tail finally laid back down on the bubbling booty in front of them, Tiff yanked the small appendage to get her attention. Nearly jumping into the air, the large bovine woman turned around. Her generous padding and noticeably revealing nurse get-up were out of place, but popular with test markets. “HEY! Whatre’ya doin’ that for!?” Just as fast as she swiveled to see the hot pink bunny with hands angrily on her hips, she noticed the doubled over human. “Oh sorry, SORRY! This is the absolute last place I expected to see the supervisor…” Fumbling for a second she grabbed an oxygen mask attached to a hose, “I may not be a real doctor, more like a mechanic cus’ I work on the girls here, but they built me with human basics in mind…”

	Tiff watched in a mix of confusion as she strapped the mask over his face, which quickly turned to horror as she placed the corresponding tube underneath her bright white skirt. The rabbit jumped to sever the connection as the large woman closed her digital eyes and groaned, but her frantic hand waving missed. Seeing the direct pipeline bulge to accommodate the mass of gasses pushing towards Andrew, her expression rapidly switched to concern. Was she trying to kill him? However, as the gaseous payload made contact with his end, he regained some of his lost composure. Noticing how puzzled Tiff was, the woman in medical garb explained. “Sorry, I should’ve said I’ve got a little oxygen tank in here. I normally use it as an ignition element for welding, but I think he needs it more right now…”

	Tiff softly patted Andrew on the back as he gulped down the unexpectedly pure air. That didn’t stop the larger woman from grimacing. “It ain’t perfect though, now that I’m pushing clean air through there, the bioreactor exhaust h-” With almost rehearsed timing her latex lips erupted with a throat rattling belch. “Oooh, what I was saying was that the exhaust has to come out here now. He’s just lucky they built me with two exhaust ports…” Abruptly she put a hand on his shoulder, “Now I know you normally aren’t involved in robot repairs, so in case you forgot you once called me Milly, and I’ve been using it myself lately.”

	Andrew struggled to catch his breath but panted out an answer, “Yeah I, uh, remember you… from uh, when Mya broke down?” Milly laughed loudly with little snorts, “I honestly can’t remember which one of us you nicknamed Mya, so I’ll just say you’re right…” Once she calmed down again the reality of the situation abruptly returned to her. “Hey, now what are you two even doing in here?” Tiff searched her memory banks for a moment, looking for the name of the material they were looking for before yelling it out. “The computer said there was some antimicr-” However her voice was drowned out by the latest batch of rancid gasses bursting out nearby from a distressed robot. Annoyed, she opted to switch her face to display the words “ANTIMICROBIAL POLYMER GEL!” For added urgency she animated the text like an overproduced powerpoint slideshow.

	Milly watched the words bounce and stretch through a star-wipe for a moment before she processed exactly what she was looking for. “Oh! That stuff, it’s a good bit deeper in if it’s where I remember…” Gesturing for the two to follow, the “nurse” let out a thunderous belch before continuing, “…excuse me, but um, while we walk, I wanted to ask if you knew something about the Supplement B-E2 that seems to be in everyone’s systems?” Both the human and the rabbit robot shared expressions of surprise she knew that much, causing her to laugh again. “Oh? Did you forget the maintenance woman has a diagnostic computer of her own? Well, it’s good to know you’re on the same page.”

	Afraid he was caught for a moment, Andrew breathed in another silent hiss of clean air running into his mask. Something he was increasingly thankful for as the occasional foul breeze from a prone robot blew his hair back. Continuing through the cacophony of bodily noises, Milly’s loud voice still cut through, “I just find it strange, B-E2 has been banned for a real long time, I don’t even know how any of the stuff ended up here…”  Tiff’s pink ears perked up in curiousity, “Banned? What even is that stuff?” Milly sighed, catching a softer burp in her mouth that puffed her synthetic cheeks before letting it out as she explained.

	“Now, far as I was able to look up on my terminal, which may I add they gave me a cheaper version than the one they gave you…” Andrew took the hint and spoke up slightly muffled, “If you want to use the supervisor one later, you’re free to it…” Milly smiled, “Maybe later, but as I was saying, that fuel supplement was considered a cheaper alternative to B, but uh, as you can see it doesn’t mesh well with modern bioreactors…” Pausing to let some of the background noise of endless robotic exhaust sink in, she continued, “Way I hear it, after an incident that featured a whole lot of B-E2 filled guard robots on Earth fumigating a high level military base, the government decided NO ONE should ever deal with this kind of exhaust to pincha’ few pennies…”

	Rounding a less populated corner of the inventory room, she stifled another burp before continuing, “And so, far as I can tell, there’s a whole lotta fines associated with even holding that stuff anymore.” She leaned in close to Andrew after saying that, catching him by surprise. However, instead of accusing him of involvement like he feared, she gave him some advice. “This might be a big enough deal for you to send an emergency message to corporate…” That didn’t put the human to ease either. Emergency quantum entanglement broadcasts to corporate were very expensive, so much to the point if the issue wasn’t a crisis, he could be fired just for sending out one. Given that he wasn’t in danger of death from robot gas, he hadn’t even considered it.

	Now they were in the true inventory section of the area, rows and rows of neatly stacked and nearly identical crates of varying sizes lined the walls. While Milly thumbed through the QR codes to find the right box, Tiff noticed Andrew’s somewhat soured expression. Internally she though, “Oh, he’s probably thinking about how much of this is his fault…” That didn’t matter when they were this close to fixing everything, so she flashed him an expression with an especially large smile, paired with a thumbs up. He returned a much smaller smile, but it was enough for her as she made sure to archive that footage under Andy_Compilation_23.Webm.

	However, her archiving efforts were interrupted as Milly pulled an especially large container from the wall. As she strained, Andrew was hit with an intense wave smelling like dairy and ammonia inside his mask, something the bovine machine explained apologetically, “Oh, sorry about that one, just kind of slipped out…” It was foul, but Andrew internally debated if a direct pipeline to her backside might smell sweeter than the miasma currently filling the room. The decision got a whole lot more one sided when another sound like a sour trumpet note rumbled the nurse’s large padded cheeks, heavily intensifying the smell in the mask and making his eyes water.

	Tossing off the mask, he found the air in their secluded corner, slightly, just a fraction, better. Milly apologized sheepishly, “Sorry, really, I guess the weight of this thing pushed my internal components around a bit…” She offered him the mask again, but Tiff tiptoed in the way to wave it away. “At least give it a second to air out for the poor guy, alright?” Milly tucked the mask away with a bit of embarrassment her rear was worse than a room of others like her, but she continued to explain when they noticed how much larger and locked this particular box was.

	“Oh, I should add that antimicrobial polymer gel is a controlled substance, only for medical emergencies…” Watching the human man struggle to catch his breath in the ruined atmosphere, she lowered her voice, “But I guess this is close enough, so I’ll unlock it for you…” Inserting one of her fingers into an indent, she twisted a mechanism and the large metal container sprang open, releasing a puff of preserved air and a scattering of seemingly endless small bottles that only filled about half the crate. Tiff eagerly leaned over the side to spot what they came for, but to her annoyance she quickly realized every little bottle was labelled a different substance.

	Milly looked ready to aid there search, but a loud bubbling bellow sounded out before the noise of falling objects clattering into the ground rang out. Turning her softer body around quickly enough to give it a light jiggle, the mechanical caretaker called out behind her. “I gotta take care of that… but I’m sure you two can find it!” Leaving quickly, Tiff found herself slightly relieved it was just her and Andrew again. Yet as she mimed wiping an animated bead of sweat on her monitor, she got an internal warning message. “Caution: Contained Exhaust Exceeding Advisable Pressure, Vent Soon.” However, she ignored her internal churning, figuring she could wait until the two of them had solved all this.

. . .

	It had been some time sifting through the bottles, and yet none seemed to contain what they were looking for. Andrew found the air much more manageable out here, but still wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. Meanwhile Tiff was just thankful the noisy ambiance was covering up the sound of her own internal turmoil, the pressure increasing with every second. She mused about making an excuse to get out of his earshot and let er’ rip, but her thoughts were interrupted by Andrew leaning as far forward into the large box as he could. “Hey, could you reach that red bottle over there?”

	Ignoring yet another popup advising to “VENT SOON”, Tiff figured she could reach into the far back of the crate if she climbed in. Lifting herself up and over the edge, she winced slightly feeling a servo stutter from how overpacked her insides were. To her dismay however, the glitched movement pushed her off course enough to take Andrew with her, landing with a soft thud into the layer of small bottles. Before either could even react, the lid fell down, leaving them in darkness while the locking mechanisms automatically whirred to life.

	Pressed against the bunny bot inside the dark space, Andrew slowly realized what had just happened. With his eyes slowly adjusting to the only light source, Tiff’s face, he spoke up. “Are you okay?” Tiff spun around robotically, revealing an expression near tears on her screen. “Of course I am! But what about you? I just trapped us inside a tiny box…” Pushing one of his arms with a clatter against the small containers surrounding them, Andrew put a hand on her for reassurance. “No, it’s fine, Milly knows we’re in here, we just have to wait for her to come back…”

	Little pixels of blue dotted the spaces underneath her eyes as Tiff continued. “No, it’s not fine. This is probably the worst day of your life, and I’m just making it worse…” Andrew wasn’t about to give up on treating her as human as himself now, especially seeing how much genuine sadness she was expressing over his sake. “Please, today hasn’t been THAT bad…” He breathed in, noting how the preserved air inside this box was probably miles better than outside. “Today has probably been the most exciting one I’ve had on this job, it’s not all that bad…” Tiff’s electronic sensors picked up on the blush on his face before he could even feel it, “Despite everything, it’s uh, it’s really been fun spending this much time with you.”

	The sincerity in his voice, as well as the intimate contact forced by the confines of their containers shifted her expression to an electronic blush that cast the inside of the crate a crimson hue. The whole setup was starting to feel a lot like those simulations she would daydream, all usually involving an excuse for her to end up in his bed at night. Feeling her tense under his grip for a second, the human should have expected what happened as her attention faltered to previous fantasies.

	Fluttering out of her with a squeak that turned to pure bass over the short duration, her expression shifted to one of anxiety as again as she managed to ruin the moment yet again with her damn exhaust. Knowing that just that small leak would be enough to taint every corner of the small box, she turned around ready to apologize profusely. Yet as she shifted her cosmetic bunny tailed derriere away, she felt something new prod her exhaust port. She knew where his legs and arms were though…

	Swiveling her screened face like an owl, Andrew nearly thought she broke as her face flickered rapidly, screen brightness adjusting randomly… until it focused on a single cartoonishly mischievous face with a nosebleed. Before he had even noticed it himself, Tiff had completely scanned that lump poking into the confines of his pajama pants. She would never disclose the exact amount of time, but she had spent an embarrassing number of company hours while the only human on the station slept to analyze the few station databanks on this particular part of male anatomy.

	In enough disbelief to run a background diagnostic on her sensors, she spoke quietly. “You… uh… um… I’m not even organic… are you really?” As Tiff let that last word hang in the newly tainted air, Andrew wasn’t sure whether to take her animated bucktooth smile as either teasing or sincere. Shifting just as nervously he tried to explain the intruder between his legs. “Well… I’m sorry, I guess I can’t really control that particular human feature…”

	Tiff remained in her state of absolute disbelief. “B-but, I was just… venting pressure…” She raised in volume then, like she was explaining an anomaly in universal laws. “I’ve already run the calculations thousands of times, but blasting you with air pollution isn’t attractive!” Her blush was expanded by the unintentional admittance she had been testing algorithms on what humans found sexy, but she watched eagerly for his answer. He could only smile nervously, “…I guess it is when you do it…”

	While the rational part of her programming told her to cease what she was doing, Tiff decided to test his proposed hypothesis. Emitting a soft groan, she unleashed another short but highly powered bomb of robotic flatus against his crotch, rippling his clothes and rapidly worsening the air quality. To her unending delight, she felt his appendage swell underneath her odorous assault. It didn’t matter if the logic refused to add up for her, IT WAS WORKING!

	Eagerly she rubbed her rear padding up and down the expanding tent in his pants, but outwardly she tried to restrain the excitement in her voice. “It’s my job to look after you, so I think it’s best you let me handle this… expanding… issue…” Her professional act wasn’t perfect however, as her screen rapidly shifted between the totally neutral face she was trying to force, and a feverish grin.

	The man could only groan in pleasure. Even if it was against company policy, and most human standards, to fraternize with the station machinery, the little robot had easily become his best friend over the time they knew each other. He instead chose to remain silent, or as near to silent as he could while she playfully flicked his stiffening member with her ass. Her movements were enough to eventually get him rock hard, but as she added soft sputters of her heated aroma between each stroke up and down, he was absolutely diamonds. Slowly she motioned an arm back to pull down his pants, prompting his dick to immediately spring to attention and firmly lodge itself along her steaming bottom.

	Still working the illogical magic, she started seriously venting some of her contained pressure. Each rapid fire torrent of sweltering gasses pushed his dick back slightly with the force, and much to her enjoyment his cock would slap right back into her in between her pauses to force out more. As Tiff found herself wholly preoccupied in testing little movements of her cute bottom, as well as the vile contents it was violently belching, he was lost in bliss. Even the air of artificially fermented vegetables in pungent chemicals was nothing but lovely to him in that moment.

	With his stamina whittled down by his time away from living people in space, Andrew found himself bucking his hips involuntarily soon enough. Feeling the primal need for release taking over, he angled his hips, and drove his manhood forward. Much to his fortune, Tiff’s silicon insides accepted him, even if they were torturously tight. While both groaned out in unexpected pleasure, Tiff received several warnings about a “JAMMED EXHUAST PORT”. Yet against the health and safety guidelines, she chose to force her hips back down on him, helping push his member deeper and deeper inside of her.

	It was incalculable just how many Excorp code of conduct violations the couple were making, but it didn’t matter. The length of his cock was slowly but surely driving itself deeper into her than their entire mining operation. Each artificial line and edge inside her rubbed his manhood gently with soft rubbery components, providing absurd amounts of stimulation for both of them. As Tiff felt herself almost literally filled by him, she received a popup that her exhaust was condensed enough it would be automatically venting itself.

	In soft unsteady hisses, her gas forced itself in small bubbles along his shaft and out into the air around them, the sheer amount of pleasure driving him to grind his teeth in resistance. Feeling every inch of himself crammed inside of her, he slowly pulled back, small popping farts turning to a loud flood of her personal perfume until he was nearly all the way out, letting her thundering release echo out loudly. Then, her deep rumbling outburst was muffled again as he drove his hips forward again.

	Even outside the crate, it became apparent the box was seemingly moving on it’s own. The only hints as to what was happening were poorly muffled eruptions of thick B-E2 emissions and Tiff’s moans that were pushing the limits of her volume settings. Jackhammering in and out, the human supervisor let his flood emotions guide him as he found himself ceaselessly increasing his pace. The sounds of their furious lovemaking only grew lewder as Tiff’s system administered lubricant to remove her unorthodox blockage. Still pumping out an industrial quantity of synthetic flatus like a smokestack, Tiff’s screen was totally scrambled as she felt him push against sensors she didn’t even know she had.

	Feeling any inhibitions having left him long ago, Andrew was absolutely rocking their heavy container as he plowed the robot in the small space. Jolts of pleasure running along his dick like electricity, he panted out, “I’m close…” Tiff snapped out of her trance to beg him, “Please, please, finish on my face! That’s how humans do it, and that’s how I want to!” Slightly concerned she even had this kind of knowledge, Andrew pulled himself out to her latest batch of sickeningly loud flatulence.

	Hot air rushing out around his member, it was enough to push him past the edge. Her expression complete with tongue handing out of mouth and eyes nearly rolling up in pleasure was plastered with cum as he climaxed harder in his life than ever before. Overjoyed to feel his essence wash over her, she fluctuated between other maximal pleasure expressions with every load he added to her.

	Spent from the effort, and filled with too much euphoria to consider what just happened, Andrew fell back after busting the fattest nut of his life. His vision went white from the overload of carnal pleasures… and then white again as light flooded their tiny compartment.

	With a plume of contained gasses escaping, the medically garbed bovine looked down worryingly. “Oh no, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you two locked yourselves in like that I…” Viewing the two overjoyed and heavily panting lovers sprawled out in the tight confines of the crate, she spoke up more worried. “…Did uh, did the supervisor spring a leak? I’m not sure how to fix that…” Tiff simply rose up on her wobbling servos, ears totally limp in pleasure, before raising a small bottle to the artificial cow. “I uh… found the gel stuff!” Ignoring the fresh white paintjob Andrew had lovingly added to her, or the beyond confused robot looming over, she lifted a leg to push out another cute poot of exhaust. As she moaned unabashedly from relief, the sweat-soaked human rapidly scrambled to put his pants back on.

. . .

	Vital ingredients in tow, the two had just barely managed a list of rushed excuses before sprinting off. Although neither wanted to address exactly what just happened, he found his stares lingering on the pink robot, and for the first time truly noticing how much she stared at him. It felt a little tacky, but Tiff had replaced her eyes with hearts, just thinking about what had just happened. In fact, her processors were so overwhelmed in the moment her memory was a little spotty, but she was already developing new schemes to make what just happened occur as frequently as humanly possible before he left, of course taking refractory periods into account.

	Trying to focus on the task at hand, Andrew reviewed the components needed, and set to work mixing a new batch that the diagnostic computer prescribed. Even now in the normally human only room full of fuel mixture components, he found the air unusually warm and especially scented. As Tiff helped grab cans and boxes of powders, she let any barrier over her exhaust go, teasing him with wiggles of her puffy tail before letting toots out in his direction. Something that made him blush without fail.

	Her fun ended when they finished their cure for bioreactor indigestion, and sent the thick mixture running through the transparent pipes around the facility. Breaking the awkward silence with something other than a cheekslapper from the pint-sized bot, Andrew spoke up. “Hey, could you tell the others we’ve got the solution out there? I want to make a call…” Tiff was slightly disappointed to leave his side, but she was in too good of a mood to complain. Bending an ear in a mock salute, she cheerfully followed his orders. “Yes! Of course!”

	After the pink bunny hopped out the door, crop dusting the hallways on her way, Andrew fished out the previously discarded container of B-E2. He needed some answers, and it was worth a direct message to headquarters. Hell, even if the solution they mixed worked immediately, the poor ventilation here was going to reek for a month. If they had something so dangerous here, he needed to know why.

	It was a short walk to the dusty emergency broadcast terminal. It was likely the first time since this place was built anyone had dared to use it. The screen was small, given instantaneous transmissions over light years were at best low resolution, but it sparked to life the second he hit the switch. After a moment of delay, he was greeted with the sight of a rather unamused business man leaning over his computer. “This better be important…” he scanned through a list of employee numbers trying to find his name. Andrew felt the nerve to interrupt, disappointed this company couldn’t remember the name of the one person who officially had a name on this station.

	“It’s Andrew, and I’d like you to explain this.” He held the canister of B-E2 to the camera, something the man on the other end had to lean into the fuzzy monitor and squint to recognize. “Oh, uh, sorry… it appears some… old inventory was left at your station.” The previously grumbling man’s sudden apprehension made Andrew realize this could be a big deal. After all, if it wasn’t he’d be trying to fire him rather than end the conversation. “I heard this stuff was illegal-“ fed up with his job he took the boldest approach he could, “it would be a shame if the officials at Earth heard about this…”

	The well dressed man scoffed at him while pulling up a second screen. “Don’t bullshit me, we’ve payed off worse fines th-“ He was cut off however as his search revealed a fine with a lot more zeroes than he anticipated. Straightening himself out for a moment, he spoke considerably kinder to Andrew. “Erm, well… we might be persuaded to offer compensation if you stay quiet…” His calm demeanor did little to show he was frantically sending messages to his superiors, “But uh, we definitely can’t cut a check in this kind of situation, too messy with auditors… would you be interested in a new car when you get back planetside?”

	Ignoring the care salesman smile he was getting, Andrew rapidly tried to take advantage of the situation. He hadn’t actually expected his bluff to work, hell he didn’t even know who to contact to get Excorp in trouble. Just as fast as his brow furrowed in thought, Andrew was hit with an epiphany. “How about, one of the station assets?” After sending a quick message, the man across the screen nodded. “What about, Tif- uh, X33-6TBO?”

	Even in the poor picture quality Andrew could recognize the man’s arched eyebrow of curiosity. “Well, that’s a strange request, but you underestimate how much those machines cost…” The suited man scanned over an inventory line before reaching Tiff’s number, and his eyes lit up upon noticing she was bought at a rather large discount. “Oh, well… if it’s that one you wish to acquire, I think a deal can be arranged…”

. . .

	After some rather tense negotiations, Andrew shut the monitor off. Turning around, he realized there was a pair of hot pink ears hiding around the corner. Although he wanted to break the good news to her, it looked like someone was already listening in. His suspicions were confirmed as the overjoyed rabbit bounced straight towards with hands in the air.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU JUST DID THAT!”