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On Trackless Seas

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sinereal

Oct 17, 2021 11:00 pm

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On Trackless Seas

Chapter 12
***

With Nia and Visa otherwise indisposed for a few days, Inumi was left to her own devices. It was not so surprising that, by the end of the first day, she sought me out since we were two of only three people currently conscious aboard the Whisper. Nia wouldn't select her servants/aids until they were finished having their new bodies made, even if I was sure Inumi was already working on a short list.

That night, instead of taking our meal in the small mess hall right off the kitchen in the original section of the ship, we moved out to the large, recently spacially expanded, 'open air' botanical garden (also in the original section, just enlarged). Since it was early spring aboard ship, we found a warm pavilion shaded from the artificial sun to sit under and enjoy the scenery turning green while we got to know each other.

Inumi was the quiet type, I discovered immediately. Kuudere to the core. I didn't particularly mind, but it made conversation a little difficult at times. I was fine with companionable silences, not feeling the need to fill silence with mindless chatter, but that kind of hindered learning about someone. Luckily, I knew how to deal with her type—I should, seeing as I tended to lean that way myself.

I quickly learned her interests, outside of those that were Nia-centric. Inumi enjoyed music and, in fact, played an instrument herself—a stringed instrument very similar to a viola. She also liked to sing, usually as accompaniment to her playing. Thanks to her ears, she could hear pitch perfectly, which gave her a bit of an advantage in that field.

Inumi also had a love of reading, something I could immediately relate to. Amusingly enough, her favorite genre was lewd historical fantasy, which she just came right out and admitted with a straight face, as though she hadn't just confessed to liking wordy porn. When I told her that Alice had copied all of Earth's literature in digital form and that there was an entire world of alien literature at her fingertips if she wanted it, I nearly lost her to locking herself in her room and becoming a shut-in for the next few years. Or at least until Nia came and dragged her out. Instead, she used her computer brain to start reading everything she could get her metaphorical hands on.

I found that she was a very straightforward woman. Honest, blunt, and very literal. And when she wanted something, she wasn't afraid to just come out and say it. Though her mind had a habit of taking trips out into left field occasionally, which lead to some interesting conversations.

"Will you bed me tonight as you have Nia and Visa?" She had asked, after we finished eating and our plates sank into the smart matter of the pavilion.

I was thrown for a loop but quickly recovered. "Err, no."

"Why? Do I displease you?"

"No," I drew the word out. "You're a very beautiful Eru woman, Inumi. Very pleasing to the eye. I don't think we should just jump right into bed when I've had all of about two or three days worth of getting to know you. Give it some time, let's get to know each other better first, and then we can talk about it. Okay?"

The dog eared woman had nodded, before asking, "How much time is 'enough?'"

"We'll know it when we get there."

Inumi frowned. "That seems arbitrary."

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe. Now, what do you say to a movie? I can catch you up on where Nia and Visa are."

The next day, Inumi joined me for ship tactics training at the same time she began her own physical training to learn how to use her new body for self defense. She was a complete newbie on the tactics side, where I at least had something like similar experience with various video games training me how to observe, plan, and execute. So she studied and learned. Alice had an entire database of such tactics and strategies. While I preferred to learn by doing, so I could see how they should work as I learned them, Inumi just read ahead and memorized everything.

Then, to spice things up, Alice started pitting us against each other. I hate to admit it, but for every surprise victory I won, Inumi found a new way to obliterate me. I preferred unorthodox methods and either stealth or brute force, where she was by-the-book and didn't seem to favor any one way of doing things.

But it was when we worked together that we truly began to shine in Alice's little simulations. Between the two of us, we started blowing through the basic lessons and Alice started upping the difficulty. Sessions that were hours long in the real world turned into weeks within the compressed time effect of higher CPU cycles.

On the real world side of things, I progressed a bit with my psyker powers, on top of the advancement I was steadily making acclimating to my new body. As an extension of connecting to Visa and Nia as I had, I learned how to passively sense the presence of other minds nearby. Inumi was a given, but I was somewhat surprised that the entire ship registered as Alice's mind—though I supposed I shouldn't be.

Additionally, I could sort of make telekinetic shields now. They were nowhere near as powerful as those that came with dedicated armor yet, but Alice said psyker shields were more effective against other psyker powers anyway, as opposed to physical objects or energy weapons.

Inumi was still trying to figure out how to make her own psyker powers work. She had the ability, Alice assured us that all of the new bodies would, she just didn't quite have the knack yet. And her physical training was abysmal, at best. Her body allowed her to do the things needed to train it, but she lacked the will to attack either myself or Alice in spars. To be fair though, she was an Eru. It took a special kind of Eru to even contemplate taking up arms. Of the three of them, Visa was actually the one most likely to do so, given the way she had defended Nia during the second assassination attempt.

Where Inumi truly shone on her own however was in taking to the social warfare database, particularly spycraft, information gathering, and data analysis. Considering the lack of people to practice against, she turned to me and began ferreting out information. From little behaviors and patterns I didn't even know I had to things that shouldn't have been obvious at first, or even second, glance.

I caught myself looking at her ass one day, clothed in a set of tights under her short skirt, her tail peeking out from under the skirt and it was only after using my computer brain to go back over the past several days that I noticed a pattern.

She had taken to wearing a uniform like Alice's immediately after Nia and Visa went in for their upgrades, but now… We would meet for something, part for a while on separate tasks, then join up again and her outfit would have changed subtly—her skirt growing shorter, her socks changing color and material and getting higher, her coat opening, the neckline of her blouse plunging further and the blouse itself becoming tighter, even her shoes went from sensibly flat to a modest inch or so heel.

Finally, when we ate together on the sixth night since leaving Eruvia and her outfit had changed from tights to high stockings with an S-ranked absolute territory of an inch or so of deliciously bare, muscular thighs, I gave in to curiosity and asked. "Hey, Inumi?"

"Hm?" She hummed around a mouthful of some frankly amazing chicken and dumplings.

"Why have you been changing your outfit?" I decided to just ask outright, since she appreciated forthrightness.

"To seduce you." I blinked at that. "I've been gauging your reaction to various changes. What draws your eyes, where your gaze lingers the longest, what causes you to become aroused, and so on." My mouth fell open slightly.

"Is it working?"

My eye twitched and finally, I glared mildly at the woman across the table from me. Turning to Alice, I asked, "Did you have a hand in this?"

"A little," she admitted. "I've been giving her lessons and she's taken to them well. I suggested that it would be helpful if she had a practical goal to work towards, as opposed to just something theoretical. Inumi wanted to seduce you and we both know you were going to do it eventually, so I figured… why not speed things along a little? It's not like I told her anything about you, either. She's figured you out all on her own.”

I glared at the shipgirl a moment before nodding. "Alright. Fine."

Standing up, I made my way around the table, my clothes falling off as I went. Inumi let her eyes roam over my muscular form as I approached her, a small smile pulling at her lips. "So it did work."

"Yeah, it did," I snarked, before grabbing her hips and lifting her out of her chair. Forcing the dog girl onto the table face down beside her plate, directly across from Alice, I flipped up her skirt and found…

"Do you just not wear panties?"

"I took them off after changing last. If this didn't work, I was going to find excuses to bend over in front of you."

Rolling my eyes, I slid the head of my cock along her small slit. Inumi's lips were thin and just as bare as Nia and Visa and her pussy was copiously wet, to the point that trails of moisture had run down her legs and likely pooled on the chair. I couldn't verify that without asking Alice however, because furniture ate liquid messes, I had noticed. Self-cleaning was a handy trait to have.

Slowly and carefully, I began working my way into her cunt. Inumi's tail wagged back and forth happily, brushing my chest in a way that tickled, even if she herself remained silent for the moment—not that I expected that to last, given just how responsive both Visa and Nia were. But just to make sure I got a good response out of her, I reached around and began gently pressing on her lower abdomen. Inumi's hands found mine and guided them down, before stopping and pressing my fingers into her belly.

"Here," was all she said.

I took that as an invitation and pressed hard, earning a quiet exhale of breath from her, almost a sigh. Wanting to see if I could make the dog girl scream, I went a bit rougher with her than I had with either of my other two Eru lovers. I stopped easing myself in, pulled back an inch or two, then slowly but surely hilted myself inside the brunette.

I felt the moment my cock passed under my fingers, brushing firmly against her internal clit. Inumi certainly felt it as well, as the small woman stiffened and her internal muscles clenched tightly around my cock before they began spasming and fluttering in orgasm as her whole body shook. And yet, aside from a breathy little squeak, she remained silent.

A challenge, then. Let's see how long you last.

Smirking, I settled into a nice, even rhythm—enjoying the tight heat of her tiny Eru cunt, the way her small body felt against mine, and even the brushing of her bushy brown tail against my chest and stomach. Looking across the table, I found Alice watching us with rapt attention, luminous blue eyes focused with laser intensity on the action taking place across from her as her hand slipped under her skirt and I heard the wet sounds of her rubbing herself.

"You like watching, don't you, you little voyeur?" I asked of my shipgirl.

Alice nodded, an ear to ear smile on her face. "I'd rather play too, but I do like watching. But Kyle, for the record, I can't last much longer on this sort of denial play. I'll go crazy."

I resisted the temptation of the low hanging fruit of correcting her with 'crazier.' Alice rolled her eyes, clearly picking up the thought, which really just proved my point. Instead, I turned my focus to Inumi. Reaching up with my free hand, I smacked her ass lightly.

"Do you like being watched, Inumi?"

The dog girl nodded. "Yes. Being taken in a semi-public setting with an attractive woman watching is highly arousing. I would have preferred Nia see my first time, but this is fine."

Her voice barely wavered as she spoke, and that mostly from the force at which I was fucking her. Then again, she got it out awfully fast and… I felt her clench around my cock again. So she's doing it on purpose.

That just made me want to see her break down even more. I picked up the pace and the dishes shook at the force of my thrusts. Inumi made a quiet noise somewhere deep in her throat before it choked off. Wanting to get a better read on her, I reached for her mind as I had with Nia and Visa. She was surprisingly open and receptive as I reached in, feeling her surface thoughts and feelings. And then I settled in and listened as I fucked her silly.

I felt her start to come again before she even realized it. As soon as she started coming. I grabbed her by the hips and spun her around on the table, face up. Looking at her face, I saw Inumi biting her lip to hold in her sounds, her face beet red, tears leaking from her eyes, and her nipples amazingly hard.

"So you enjoy it after all."

Inumi turned her head away, bringing up her arm to cover her face. "Don't look."

"Why not?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"…It's embarrassing. I only want Nia to see."

Chucking, I shook my head. "That's too bad. I happen to like your pretty face when it's all silly in orgasm and you can't just tell the person you're having sex with not to look."

She continued to hide her face, so I turned a look on Alice. I didn't even need to verbalize what I wanted her to do. Alice stood up and leaned over the table, grabbing Inumi's hands and pulling them up away from her face. "You're going to have to get used to it, Inumi," she pointed out.

"No~! Don't look!" Inumi wailed, losing her composure entirely. "Don't look don't look at me~"

My cock throbbed as her voice sent straight to my dick, and she became even wetter and tighter, clearly turned on by the situation. I went back to pressing on her internal clit from the outside, while at the same time I began playing with her external clit with my free hand. I synchronized the rubbing of my hand and fingers on her clits and shifted my hips a bit to get a better angle at her internal clit so more of my cock would rub it for longer and harder with ever stroke. Then, I began thrusting faster and harder slowly increasing my pace as I looked for the sweet spot that she would enjoy most.

The little Eru woman wailed, moaned, and cried as she begged us not to look at her pitiful face while I made her come herself silly. Seeing the normally stoic woman so utterly defeated, shamed, and most of all animated… I wanted to bully her more.

"Wouldn't Nia just be so ashamed to see her losing her composure like this?" I asked Alice, who caught on immediately with a leer.

"Yes, it really is rather pathetic. I'm already recording, but do you think I should show her once she wakes up? Maybe put it on one night…"

"Nooo~!" Inumi wailed, her head thrashing back and forth, legs kicking against the table to either side of me. All the while, her pussy fluttered as she clenched around my cock. "Please don't show Nia! Please no! I'll do, I'll do whatever you want, just don't let her see me like this, Lord!"

"Mm, Visa too. I'm sure she'd get a good laugh out of it," I continued as if I hadn't heard her.

"No, no! Not that! Visa still never let me live it down!"

Alice shifted Inumi's hands to one of her own and used the free hand to gently stroke the brunette's hair, scratching her ears as she did. "I don't know… It's pretty tempting if this is the response we'll get. You'd have to make a pretty compelling argument otherwise." Humming and looking up to me, she said, "She has these pretty ears and tail. You could keep her as a pet?"

I snorted softly. "If she's a pet, she already belongs to Nia. No point. Although… Having someone willing and eager to do lewd things whenever the mood strikes would be nice. Like waking everyone up with oral. Or giving us surprise sex. Being there to wash my back in the shower or help Visa give me a massage when I'm feeling tired…"

"I'll do it! Please Lord, whatever you want! Just don't show them my shame!"

"Okay, sure. But…" Inumi tensed as I let the word hang there for a moment. Grinning evilly down at her made her breath hitch. "I get to see your lewd, humiliating face any time I want. No more trying to resist, no trying to fight it. Give in and show me just how shameful you can be, Inumi. Any time I want it."

Inumi whimpered, but nodded her head once. "Good girl," I smiled down at her. Then I picked up the pace and force of my thrusts, hammering away at her cunt with enough force to steal her breath away for a moment, before she went right back to wailing as I worked both of her clits over. Alice reached down and began playing with Inumi's nipples, causing the smaller woman to rise part way off the table to try to follow her hand for more stimulation.

Feeling my orgasm approaching, I made sure to rub her inner clit deep and hard. I grunted as I came inside her and Inumi came only seconds later with a little mewl as my cock throbbed and my sperm filled her up. I pulled out with a sigh, sitting down in Inumi's chair.

The table parted like water as Alice hurried through, before falling to her knees in front of me. Her long, long hair acted as a curtain as she took my cock in her mouth and began licking and sucking at it to clean off our combined mess. Once I was clean, my clothes flowed across the floor, snaked up my body, and reformed. Alice stood up, smacked her lips with a grin, then turned and sashayed back to her seat.

Woman’s going to be the death of me, I mused, earning a chuckle from the shipgirl in question.

Ots SpaceOpera Lewds

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sinereal

Oct 17, 2021 11:00 pm

Public post

On Trackless Seas

Chapter 11
***

Sitting just inside the chromosphere of the system's only star was the black spot of an angular, alien ship. The angular features appeared disconnected, exploded away from the main body of the craft. White protrusions stuck out, stretching some distance from the craft and nearly tripling it's width. From each of these large protrusions, smaller protrusions branched off, and each branch was covered in clear, crystalline shapes perfectly engineered to capture light while also being almost impossible to see without catching a glimmer or reflection off of one of them. It looked very much like a ship that had sprouted into a tree when placed in the sun.

Which it should, because that's exactly what had happened.

Upon parking the INSV Last Whisper in the star's chromosphere, Alice had used the smart matter of her body beneath the hypermatter armor to shift her outer hull around, opening seams that were typically only present when there was a need to physically move objects to and from the ship, as with the case of launching missiles, torpedoes, or drones. From those seams, she had stretched out and enjoyed taking in the warmth of the star.

Now, however, it was time to leave.

Leaves were shed and fell away from the ship, pulled in towards the star before they left the envelope of the Whisper's environmental shielding and burned up. Branches melded into limbs, which retracted beneath the exterior armored hull. Gaps in the outer hull closed up seamlessly, leaving behind only angular black hypermatter.

The Last Whisper pulled away from the star, and trailing behind it, caught in the grasp of her gravity tractor, were pure black stretches and segments of even more hypermatter. Her realspace engine allowed for great acceleration and speed, but with a focus on maneuverability; the acceleration she put to great use shooting away from the star towards the second planet from the sun, reaching a low, in-system superluminal cruising speed (low for realspace) of five cee before decelerating approximately one and a half minutes later in high orbit around Eruvia.

The Whisper broke atmosphere with none of the typical effects associated with reentry as her shields absorbed and redirected the heat of atmospheric friction before it could cause those effects. True to her name, she was whisper silent as she descended to the cooling planet's surface.

From the now frigid ocean to the west of Erulona, a massive, pale shape lifted up out of the water. Roughly three kilometers long and half again as wide, it resembled nothing so much as a tree covered entirely in roots and branches. It quickly smoothed out however, as those protrusions it had used to feed and drink from the ocean retracted into its mass.

The Whisper approached from above, the hypermatter armor trailing behind it catching up and surrounding the smaller ship and the much larger living extension of it. Along the top, rear, and bottom of the new growth a seam formed before the whole thing separated and spread open wide. The Whisper slid inside the gap, armor and all, before being enveloped as it closed around the smaller ship, hiding it from sight.

Within the mass of new growth, the Whisper's outer hull opened again, limbs and branches stretching out and merging with the much larger mass, connecting them fully and filling all the gaps with biological smart matter. Outside the merged ship and growth, the new hypermatter armor closed in as protrusions extended from the smart matter, physically pulling it into place and aligning it so the new outer hull was just as seamless as the old one.

Inside the mass of living ship, smart matter shifted and moved, configuring itself into compartments, transport tubes that lined up with new tubes leading out of the Whisper's old interior hull, and machinery needed to perform various functions.

Functions such as spacial compression, which turned an area of roughly a hundred cubic feet into miles and miles of empty space. That space didn't stay empty for long as smart matter flooded inside, forming branches and blooming into evenly spaced pods sized for Eru occupants.

"Docking and reconfiguration compete, captain," Alice reported, standing at the right side of her captain's chair, several holograms floating in the air of the half sphere bridge showing live feeds of what was going on from drones orbiting them outside and internal smart matter configured into sensors. "We're ready to take on our guests."

I watched in fascination as the entire process we had been working towards for months was finished in a matter of minutes. Shaking my head, I turned my attention to Nia, seated in her own chair to the right of mine, with Visa to the left. Much like Alice, Inumi stood to Nia's side, waiting patiently. "Nia?"

At my prompting, the little woman stood and moved over to the hologram showing Eruvia and the current state of the star. "Bring them aboard, Kyle."

"You heard her," I smiled at Alice.

The shipgirl nodded once. "Commencing transport."

Flashes of light filled the newly created vault as Eru began appearing in various states of dress. I didn't know how it worked, nor did I care to, but Alice's transporters could rearrange a person's orientation and state upon rematerializing them; in other words, if you were beamed somewhere sitting down you could be made to be standing when you reappeared. Other conditions, such as sleep, were also apparently easy to apply, because none of the Eru beamed aboard were conscious, meaning there was no panicking and banging of pods before being frozen in terror.

As the pods began to fill with Eru, a second huge space began to fill up with supplies, separated and sorted by smart matter. Worked metal, cut stone, timber boards, tools, clothes, massive stockpiles of food, and so on were all sorted and stashed away.

A final room was filled with much smaller pods, each containing genetic samples. Sperm and eggs from every animal, plant, and fungi on Eruvia were gathered for the day when they might again see life on a new world.

A little over an hour later, Alice announced the task’s completion. Visa cleared her throat, drawing Nia's attention. "And the traitors?"

Nia's bright blue eyes found my green. "May I…?" I nodded and the blonde turned to Alice. "Please transport those left behind to the central square of Ermonde, along with those captured and interrogated. That should be large enough to accommodate everyone. Then, could you broadcast my image to them and show me the square?"

"Moving a drone into position now," Alice responded. "Beaming commencing. Done." The holograms in the bridge cleared and a new one spawned, an aerial view of the capitol of Ermonde that quickly lowered and changed angles, finally centering on (former) Queen Mondy Ermonde.

"Live in three, two…" Alice warned, causing Nia to straighten and her expression to steel. Visa stood from her seat and moved to Nia's side opposite Inumi.

The former queen looked as confused as everyone else around her. That is, until Nia appeared directly in front of her. Above the crowd, the images of Speaker Eruzonia and Queen Mondy were displayed for all to see.

"You," the woman growled. "What have you done?"

"Exactly what I said I would, Mondy. We're cousins. Distantly, but still bound by blood. You tried to have me killed not once, but twice. First by poison then by an assassin's blade. The first failed when my Lord husband discovered your plot. The second nearly succeeded, were it not for the sacrifice of one of my closest friends, when Inumi threw herself before the blade in my place. As you can see," Nia gestured and Inumi's hologram joined them. The dog eared woman waved before the hologram vanished. "You failed there as well."

"You can't prove any of that!" The former queen denied. "It's all slander—"

"We captured your assassin. My Lord husband stripped the secrets from her mind and discovered who gave the order, then we plucked him from Eruvia just as we moved you all there. After that, it was a simple matter of repetition. Take the secrets from their minds, find those they had dealings with, take them, then take their secrets. If you don't believe me, why don't you ask your assassin yourself?"

Nia pointed out a woman in a maid's uniform huddled in the crowd, curled into a ball and shaking. "I know all of your plots against me and the people of Erulona, Mondy. I know you've been dealing in secret with your neighbor to the south, planning to leave the empire and request their protection. I'm not here to make accusations or hold an inquiry or trial. I already have the facts. I'm here to pass judgment for your crimes."

Turning away from Mondy, Nia looked over those gathered with her. "Those of you here today have all been gathered for similar reasons. Knowingly colluding with enemies of the empire of Erulona or conspiracy against the crown. Some of you are more guilty than others, but that matters little when the punishment is the same regardless. You are all hereby sentenced not to death, but to life. What little life you can eke out in the very little time Eruvia has left, before the final winter sets in. Worry not for your families, for I am merciful. They have been spared your fate and will find new lives in our new home. That is all."

Nia turned away from the hologram and walked back to collapse into her chair, emotionally spent. Visa took Nia's place, facing the crowd.

"You have been judged by the state and found guilty, but your misdeeds extend beyond mere crimes and into the realm of sin against God. You were without faith. You have denied him, spurned his love, and only now that the truth is revealed to you does the thought of repentance even cross your minds. There will be no forgiveness, I say. You who have turned your backs upon God, know that he has turned his back to you. When you finally succumb to the long darkness, your souls will be cast adrift into the void for eternity, never to know the warmth of God's love and never to be reunited with your families in the hereafter. You have brought this damnation upon yourselves and for that, I have no pity. There will be no mercy upon your souls."

Visa turned away from the hologram and, perhaps feeling a bit theatrical, Alice made sure the last thing they saw of her was their biggest religious figure turning her back on them before she shut off the broadcast.

Stretching her body out, her white and gold robes reconfiguring into the black and plum dress she preferred lately before the curvy Eru woman climbed into my chair and plopped herself down in my lap. "Passing holy judgment in your name always makes me horny, Lord husband. Can we…?"

"Later, Visa," I rolled my eyes. The eye roll turned into a quiet laugh as she gave a little self-congratulatory cheer at that. Turning my attention to Alice, I said, "Get us out of here. And try not to hit any wormholes on the way out."

"It was one time! One! I've upgraded my sensors and I should be able to spot them at a distance now." Seeing me nod, she asked, "What is our course, captain?"

The walls around us came alive with the local star field, several stars pulsing in blue so they stood out. Holograms sprang to life again in the center of the room, each one detailing what Alice knew of the systems the stars were in, with lines from each hologram trailing off to the walls so we could tell which was which.

"How about the uninhabited planet in the stretch of no man's land between those two groups of what you think are two different sentient races? It's on the way to the system the wormhole would have dumped us into," I suggested.

"Very well, captain. Course plotted."

Hearing the prompt for what it was, I fought off the grin that threatened to split my face in half. I was beginning to appreciate having someone in my head who could ferret out my needs and wants and wanted nothing more than to bring them to fruition. "Engage."

There was no real sense of transition. No sudden burst of speed. No star field streaking by. The walls went dark and the holograms cleared, before two new ones appeared. The first was a view of Eruvia as it rapidly shrank into the distance, before that hologram winked out. The next showed our starting system displayed on one side, followed by a dark tunnel highlighted in blue, with our ending system on the other side. A countdown timer started, counting down from eight days out.

"Is that far?" Nia asked, echoing the question I had been about to ask myself.

"Not at all. It's not particularly close, either. Most superluminal drives could make the trip in anywhere from a month to a day, depending on the method of travel and power of the drive. Not counting wormhole dives, because those are cheating," Alice answered, moving away from my side to the center of the room.

"Space is composed of layers, or dimensions." As she spoke, a new hologram sprang into being, this one looking like a cut away view. "Here, we have normal space. Full of planets and stars, where the laws of physics are strictly adhered to, for the most part."

A new layer was added, below the realspace layer. "This is subspace. It's mostly empty of matter but is home to a few pockets of exotic energy. The laws of physics here are mostly the same, but flexible enough that drives can achieve superluminal speeds impossible in realspace. Space here conforms to realspace at a roughly 1:2 ratio. Meaning that distances are shorter by half, but still close enough to allow for highly accurate navigation."

A third layer was added to the hologram, this time above realspace. This layer shimmered with an orange hue. "This is hyperspace. No matter occurs here naturally. The energy distribution is more even than in subspace, pervading every part of this dimension. Like subspace, the laws of physics are somewhat flexible. Unlike subspace, hyperspace only mostly conforms to realspace and at something approaching a 3:1 ratio, meaning hyperspace tends to be three times the size of realspace."

Bringing up a final hologram, Alice began making a point by point list.

"The benefits to using hyperspace over subspace are: faster travel for engines that can manage it due to not having to worry about potential collisions despite the longer distances involved, more energy leading to sensor range being cut so it's easier to hide against the background energy in hyperspace, and limitless free energy that anyone with the right engine can tap into. Your engineered bodies have a hyperspace link just for this purpose, that activates intermittently to recharge."

She shifted her hand to the other side of the hologram. "Conversely, benefits of using subspace over hyperspace include: the low energy emissions from a drive diving into subspace are much harder to track from realspace than opening a gate into hyperspace, the more precise nature of subspace leading to more accurate jumps. To the point that the Whisper could drop out of subspace not just within orbit, which is impossible for a hyperspace engine, but I could drop out inside another ship's shield envelope or, if it's large enough, inside the ship itself. And finally, lack of background energy within subspace means sensors here are more accurate and have an easier time penetrating out into realspace without being detected, and can be used to scan things in realspace much further away than from within realspace."

I smiled at the shipgirl. "You realize I'm the only one who grasped about half of that."

"Of course, captain," she agreed. "However, now that I'm finished with my refit, I've taken some time to go over the information gained from the Forerunner plinth on Eruvia. The Eru are an engineered race, designed to be a…" Alice hesitated.

"Tell us," Nia demanded.

From my lap, Visa nodded. "We deserve to know."

Inumi shrugged. "Knowing doesn't change anything."

Alice finally nodded. "They were designed from the ground up to be a subservient companion race to humanity, complementary in every way. Their smaller stature would make it more difficult for them to rebel against their larger, stronger human cousins. Their brains never stop developing, never stop learning, and don't forget the way humans do. Their natural IQ averages in the 200 range. Their brains are engineered to see humans as their superiors, in every way, and make them not just want to serve but take pleasure in doing so. The pattern recognition centers of their brains are hardwired to trigger what you know of as a religious experience and imprint upon a human, making that person the center of that Eru's world. Their longer lifespans mean that they can take everything they've learned and be the perfect servants to generations of humans."

Holograms had been springing up the entire time she spoke, detailing Eru anatomy and highlighting regions of the brain. Now, it highlighted the female of the species and outlined her reproductive system.

"Eru women were designed with human men in mind. Their wombs are situated deeper proportionately than a human woman's. Average relaxed vaginal depth of a human female is eight inches, at which point you start knocking on her cervix. It's the same in Eru women when, given their size, it should be closer to four inches. They have a secondary clitoris on the top of their vaginal wall, around five to seven inches in, depending on the woman. Average length of an Eru male's penis? Three inches."

I raised an eyebrow as I studied the diagram and compared it to what I had learned so far in my experiences with the Eru. "So sex with humans is great for Eru women. Intentionally. Basically, unless she's particularly deep like Visa here," the woman in question preened in my lap at the mention of her name, "any average guy could hit that mark."

"Yes," Alice confirmed. "But that's not all. I didn't believe it when I saw it in the research, but I have live subjects to scan now. Captain… Kyle, they're compatible with humans. One hundred percent. And many of those traits, such as the intelligence, memory, and lifespan are heritable. Their genes for size are all recessive, compared to yours as a baseline."

I blinked. "You mean…"

"Yes. Also, Eru women are highly, ridiculously fertile. The infertility problem is with the men, as is the gender imbalance. They remain fertile through most of their lives. Their bodies produce new eggs, instead of being born with all the eggs they'll ever carry."

Alice's expression was almost a leer. "Aren't you grateful now that I take such good care of you, that I even made sure the sperm you were shooting were infertile? You'd be a father twice over by now otherwise."

"My Lord husband," Visa began, turning around in my lap and fixing me in place with her violet eyes.

"Nope," I denied immediately.

"I want children."

"No."

"Now."

I shook my head. "Hell no."

Pouting, Visa asked, "Then when?"

It was a valid question. I wasn't against the idea, the thought of knocking up the curvy Eru in my lap and her lithe best friend staring expectantly at me made me rock hard in my pants. It was a matter of timing.

"When we find a place to resettle your people."

"Lord husband," this time it was Nia who demanded my attention, using the phrase she had adopted from Visa after we had made love the first time. "As Speaker for the Eru I must insist that you attempt to impregnate as many of our people as possible. Even if I have to set up a schedule and have them come in two or three a night."

I sighed. "Nia, why? Also, aren't you at all repulsed by the idea of effectively whoring out the man you're sleeping with? I get that Eru social norms are a bit different from Earth's in that regard and you and Visa are fine with each other, but I don't think that seeing an endless parade of Eru women coming and going from my bedroom is going to feel particularly great for you."

From my lap, Visa sighed. "No, it will not. For either of us. But as I told you before, my Lord, sometimes we must put the needs of our people before our own wants and needs. I agree with Nia on this, if for different reasons. From a religious perspective it would be an amazing boon to have our people blessed with God's divine seed. An entire generation of blessed children would be born into the world, who would further go on to spread that blessing among our people."

Turning slightly in my lap, the little woman stared up at me. "You would become the father to a new breed of Eru. And I know just where to start. The church is composed almost entirely of women devoted in service to God. Every one of them would be happy to serve in this role. You would never find a more dedicated group of mothers."

"Nn," Nia made a small displeased noise as she frowned. "I dislike the idea of giving the church that much power. I trust you Visa, but—"

"But nobility and clergy are ever at odds even when they agree," Visa supplied, earning a nod. "Then select an equal number of noble women for the task."

Chuckling quietly, I put in my two cents. "If you're going to have a religious caste and a ruling caste, then you could probably have a workers' caste as well made up of commoners."

It wasn't quite the religious/worker/warrior caste system of a certain race of boneheaded aliens from one of my favorite sci-fi shows, but it was close.

Instead of taking the joke for what it was however, Nia and Visa both nodded. "A hundred of each caste for a total of three hundred women. At one a night, assuming a one hundred percent conception rate, you could finish within an Earth year," Inumi supplied. Looking thoughtful, she added, "Dividing it like that would be fitting, given our respective positions. We each would represent a caste."

Nia pinched the bridge of her nose, visibly trying to ward off a headache. "This… I know I said it was a good idea, but doing it like this would essentially restructure our people's governments—our entire society."

Humming quietly, Visa steepled her fingers in her lap, a thoughtful look on her face. "And yet, now is precisely the best time for this. There will never be a better time. Eruvia is lost to us. Why not let this be a fresh start for our people? It would obviously have to be something they wanted, we couldn't just force it through, but I think that they may be willing to try. We don't have to dissolve nations or national identity. Individual sovereignty could theoretically be maintained…"

Seeing the conversation had thoroughly derailed, I picked up Visa by the hips and gently set her down before standing up. "Well, you three have fun with that. I want no part in it. If you really think I should, and the women agree, then I'll consider the whole 'fathering a race' idea. Beyond that, it's an Eru matter. Not my responsibility. You should govern yourselves."

"Of course, my love. My Lord," Visa answered immediately.

Nia nodded. "You're right. This is something for the Eru to decide."

"Before any of that, we need to get you two settled into a new set of less squishy bodies. Come with me," Alice demanded. "I'm sorry captain, but Nia and Visa will be unavailable for a few days."

Sending the pair a smile, I said, "Don't worry, it's like going to sleep. You'll wake up and feel better. See you in a few days."

We exchanged hugs and the four women walked off, Alice leading them to the medical bay where they would be prepared for long term storage of their original bodies. As they went, I heard Alice ask, "Is there anything you would like to change with your new bodies? I could make you taller if you like. Visa, if you would prefer, I could remove your horns."

“Absolutely not! I enjoy having my horns. Yes, they can be inconvenient, but they make for wonderful handholds—”

Alice's voice from nearby drew my attention to where a second version of her had risen from the floor. "You wanted to see to training, captain?"

"Yeah. There any way I can get a sparring partner?" I asked as we walked down the hall for the tube.

"I can fill that role myself, captain. However, while we train your physical body and psyker powers, we should also begin training your digital mind and familiarize you with ship maneuvers, tactics, and combat—along with the Whisper's capabilities."

As it turned out, splitting my attention between multiple tasks was surprisingly easy with a bit of coaching from Alice. As we walked into the training room, I managed to separate my consciousness between my body brain and my computer brain. It was kind of like being two separate versions of me who both knew everything the other was doing.

Body Brain could leave the ship related stuff to Computer Brain while he focused on throwing down in the ring with Alice and her entirely smart matter (and thus entirely unfair) body.

Computer Brain could leave the physical stuff to Body Brain while he worked on learning what the Whisper could do and how to best apply it.

So, as my exchanges with Alice gradually increased in force and speed the longer we traded blows, the other part of my mind sank into a full dive virtual reality training simulation.

Physical sensation disappeared, replaced with a mock-up of the bridge. Sitting down in my chair, the bridge walls were covered in a star field and holograms sprang to life.

Alice stood at my side, directing the training session. "In this first simulation, we'll see how you handle a simple target elimination mission. Your objective is to destroy a facility on this system's second planet, located here."

The hologram of the system zoomed in on the planet in question and highlighted a building in a city on the largest southern continent.

"Rules for this engagement are as follows: Do not be detected entering or leaving the system. Do not do anything that the locals can tie to outside forces. Limit civilian causalities. Do not exceed the time limit of twenty four hours. That is all. You will begin in subspace on the edge of the system. What we do from there is up to you, captain. These are your options for orders you can give."

A list of commands wrote itself out in the air to my left. Included were commands such as:

-Subspace: enter/exit.

-Sensors: passive/active.

-Weapons.

"Okay. I remember you said we could scan the system from within subspace. So, let's do that and get an idea of what we're dealing with."

The hologram of the system quickly began to fill out with details as we drew further inside the system. Patrols were highlighted, their routes, numbers, and potential strength displayed. Defense installations popped up in orbit around the planet with their effective ranges shown. An asteroid field circling around where a third planet should be lit up with hidden installations, shipyards, weapon manufacturing plants, and more.

"Thought you said this was going to be easy," I complained as I took it all in, out to asteroid belt surrounding the system.

"It is."

As I looked at it, I realized she was right. Sometimes, it really was that easy. "Fuck it. Rocks fall, everyone dies. Drop us out outside the exterior asteroid belt. We'll move a big one into the system and make it look like it came from outside. We should be able to blend in with the debris as we move further in and hit the second field. Knock a bunch of stuff into a path that looks like a meteor shower. While the defense installations are focused on the bigger rocks, we have drones push a big enough rock down to smash the target."

Alice smiled and the hologram began to advance, following my direction. "Let us see what happens, captain."

Hours bled into days under CPU-based time compression and by the end of the afternoon, I was wiped both physically and mentally when my separate minds rejoined. With a groan, I left the training room partly supported by Alice tucking herself under my arm and bearing part of my weight as we headed for a lift and went up to the kitchen/dining room. Officers’ mess? That’s what it would be on a smaller ship, given its proximity to the bridge and captain’s quarters.

The newly modified ship possessed larger mess facilities for a much, much expanded crew or passengers in the newly built section, but the area we entered was small and cozy—just a single room with a long, wooden table and comfortable cushioned chairs rising from the floor. The room was lit by a overhead chandeliers, which made the warm red wood of the furniture shine. The floor itself looked and felt carpeted in a thick, forest green carpet, but I knew it to be smart matter. One wall showed an exterior view of a star field and a planet—specifically, Earth as seen from space, slowly rotating in place. The other long wall had a huge painting of what looked to be an Earth landscape. Or at least, an image of a painting. I couldn’t tell if it was something Alice had generated herself or something she had copied from Earth.

A door separated the room from a small kitchen, which I only noticed when Inumi came out, carrying a dish—along with a second Alice, also bearing food. The one with me deposited me in the seat at the head of the table and Inumi set out a dish of what looked and smelled like Mexican—some sort of casserole. Alice set bread and a pitcher of tea on the table as Inumi sat down at my left. The Alice with me sank into the floor while the one who had been working in the kitchen settled into the chair to my right. Plates, silverware, and glasses rose up from the table’s surface and once more, I was faced with just how convenient smart matter that could reconfigure itself at need was.

“No problems with Nia and Visa?” I asked as I grabbed a spoon and began dishing out helpings for the three of us, since Alice had given herself a plate as well.

Inumi shook her head. “None.” When I eyed her and simply waited for to elaborate, she added, “Visa said to say she loves you and would see you soon. Nia blushed a lot. It was cute.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds about right. How’s the new body treating you?”

Humming quietly as she sampled the food, her face lighting up at the taste, Inumi swallowed and answered, “It’s good. Feels… lighter. Fast. And I can do things now. Alice taught me how to access her systems from my mind, so I’m reading through a manual on the body’s features, capabilities, limitations, and so on. Did you know that we can survive hard vacuum?”

“I think Alice mentioned it.”

The shipgirl nodded, swallowing her bite of casserole. “I did. It’s possible, but I wouldn’t recommend prolonged exposure.”

“I’m not going to be trying it without a vac suit,” I shook my head. Taking my own bite, I hummed at the taste. “This is really good. Who made it?”

“We worked together on it,” Inumi admitted. “I wanted to learn to make Earth dishes for Nia to try.”

“And I haven’t sampled much food yet, so I thought, why not.”

“Good work, you two. I still can’t believe you can grow or make all of this stuff.”

Alice beamed. “You know, I made a new, expanded indoor garden. I could grow livestock there for slaughter if you wanted something specific, instead of the lab grown stuff.”

“That might be worth considering. It’d take a while for anything to grow, though. This is fine for now, Alice.” Trying the tea and finding it to my liking, as though Alice wouldn’t make something literally to my liking, I asked, “Any new data on our destination?”

The shipgirl hummed thoughtfully before a hologram sprang into being over the table. On it spun a green and blue world bearing nine continents, beautiful blue oceans, and ice caps at the north and south. There was surprisingly little desert, as well. Three moons orbited it, obviously sped up for our viewing as Alice played out a few instances of where the moons came into alignment or got close enough to eclipse a huge area. “It looks to be a garden world, like Earth or Eruvia. It’s fourth out in orbit around an F-type white star that is fairly close to both Eruvia and Earth in output—enough that Eru or humans could live there with no complications. It has life, as you can see, but nothing that has managed to send out any kind of detectable signals. Then again, neither had Eruvia, so I suppose we’ll see when we get closer.”

“And the other two neighboring systems?”

“Oh, those definitely have life. From what I’ve picked out from their transmissions—bearing in mind that I’m picking up the older stuff first as we approach,” I nodded at that and she continued, “both planets’ occupants are humanoid. This one started broadcasting first.”

The image changed, showing several grainy color videos of men and women who looked human—save for their blue skin and black sclera. I noticed a lot of what looked like uniforms in the footage, but I couldn’t be sure. What I could be sure of was the rapid advancement of technology through the images taken, showing cars, ships, and even planes. “Any idea what we’re walking into there?”

“Not really, for either of them. This footage is a few hundred years old, so things have definitely changed on their worlds since then.”

“They look… human,” Inumi murmured, looking at me. “Differently colored though, and they don’t make me feel like you.”

“They wouldn’t,” Alice nodded. “Firstly, the imprinting is hard-coded for a very limited definition of ‘human.’ Secondly, you’ve already imprinted on Kyle. You don’t react to me the same way you do him and I’m wearing a human form. You’re still deferential, and it’s clear your instincts are reacting at least some, but not nearly to the same extent as with him. I suspect it’s a ‘first come, first served’ thing in some cases. We won’t know without more testing.” Turning back to the hologram, she gestured for effect. “And now, for the reveal I’ve been waiting for…”

“I knew you were dragging it out,” I accused.

Alice grinned and the hologram changed, to show a full color image of a woman. She had warm, light brown skin, white hair, and wore a form fitting white dress that contrasted well with her skin tone. Her facial features were very sharp and angular, reminding me of the Eru, specifically the little elves like Nia. In point of fact, pun intended, her ears stuck out to the sides of her head and came to sharp points. “That is an elf.”

“Yep!” the shipgirl beamed.

“Why is that an elf?”

“Not just an elf but a space elf!” Alice corrected. “And I have no idea! But given the resemblance to the Eru and the size—using various other images and videos for scale puts them on average five feet tall—I’m going to guess that our Forerunner engineer friends were involved.”

“They make me wet.”

Alice and I blinked before turning to Inumi. The girl’s dog ears twitched. “What?” she asked, raising one brown eyebrow. “You both do as well. And Nia and Visa, of course. Can we invite some onboard?”

Alice snickered and I sighed, shaking my head. “Sure. Why not? Already have space hobbits, why not space elves as well?”

Turning a look on Alice, I said, “If you tell me there is a race of space-faring, gun toting, rapey space orcs…”

“The universe is an infinite bubble within the infinite sea of the multiverse—”

“You know I hate it when you say that.”

Alice beamed. “I know.”

Ots SpaceOpera Lewds

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sinereal

Oct 16, 2021 10:10 pm

Public post

On Trackless Seas

Chapter 04
***

I stared at the miniature elf who had spoken. She really was tiny. A grown woman scaled down to three and a half feet, according to my HUD. Blonde haired, blue eyed, tiny elf.

This was unexpected. Alice? I tried to think towards the shipgirl, hoping for a response.

I felt another click in my head of a switch being flipped and got a reply.

‘Ah, sorry captain. There was an energy surge from the Forerunner relic the moment it detected active teleportation in the vicinity and you were redirected there.’

It’s not your fault. Just something to keep in mind for later, I assured her.

Now, the question was how to deal with this before things spiraled out of—

“The gods have come! Praise be!”

My eyes were drawn to the source of the loud, feminine voice. This Eru was a hair taller than the blonde elf type, with large horns decorated with small silver drooping chains rising from the sides of her head through her long, black hair. She wore a set of white robes trimmed in bright green that clung to her form, making them look less like a sack and more like some sort of sexy cosplay.

Where the blonde with the crown was perfectly proportioned with aristocratic, if elven, features this woman was the very definition of a sexy, mature woman (at three foot eight inches tall). Thick thighs hinted at beneath the robes, wide hips, narrow waist, and a massive bust. It was topped off with a cute face set with violet bedroom eyes and full, pouty lips.

Before I could say anything one way or another, the… priestess? fell into a full on, forehead on the floor bow. An honest to God kowtow.

The woman with the crown in the very front, throne-like seat, followed immediately. Reaching out, she jerked at the hem of the dress attached to the woman at her side: an animal type girl with dog-like ears and tail with light brown hair and eyes, who seemed somewhere in the middle physically between who I suspected was the empress of this land and the priestess.

The crowd followed in a wave that moved from the front of the room to the very back, the sound of small people hitting their knees and foreheads hitting the ground crashing over the room.

Shaking off my shock and stupefaction, I decided to get control of the situation before it devolved further. Stepping over to the woman I recognized from my briefing as the empress, I took a knee before her to put me on her level, or at least close to it. Holding out my hand, I said quietly enough that only she and the woman beside her would hear, “Hey now, none of that. Stand up.”

Carefully lifting her head, her blue eyes locked with mine in reverence before tracking down to my hand. Slowly, she placed her hand in mine, my much larger hand looking more like a paw by comparison as it engulfed hers. I rose and pulled the little woman to her feet.

“Are you the ruler of this nation?”

Blinking at my question, she seemed to regain her wits and bearing, remembering her position. Clearing her throat, she nodded. “I am Empress Eruzonia va Erulona IV, ruler of the nation of Erulona, my Lord.”

“Great. May we speak in private?” I asked, looking around overtly and reminding her of where we were and just how many people were watching and listening.

“O-of course, my Lord!” Eruzonia immediately agreed. Looking around, she locked eyes with the priestess, who was peeking up from the floor. “We’ll use your office.”

With that decided she strode away at a brisk pace (for her size), her hand clutching mine tightly as though afraid I’d disappear if she let go.

I heard scrambling behind us and glanced back. The dog eared woman rushed to her feet and hurried to follow while the priestess likewise bolted upright and yanked a nearby woman in similar garb to her feet, pulling her into a quick whispered conversation before she scrambled to catch up. Eruzonia lead me into a hall off to the side of the main floor, passing several doors before stopping at one in particular. I noticed that while the handle of the door was at her height, the door itself was sized for someone of my own stature. Now that I was paying attention, the ceilings were all sized for human normal as well, as opposed to being closer to something like six feet—which would give them three or so feet of clearance, just as most ceilings were nine feet tall in newer American homes.

She opened the door and all but yanked me in behind her. The dog eared girl followed after and Eruzonia held the door just long enough for the priestess to follow before slamming it shut and throwing the bolt home.

“This is as much privacy as we can get, short of traveling to the palace, my Lord,” Eruzonia explained, pulling me by the hand as she moved up one of the chairs in front of the desk and took a seat. As though just realizing she had kept a death grip on me the entire time, she let go and carefully placed her hands in her lap, a faint blush spreading across her cheeks as she did.

“I believe introductions are in order, my Lord. As I stated before, I am Eruzonia va Erulona IV, Empress of Erulona. This,” she gestured and the dog eared girl materialized at her left hand, “is my advisor, Inumi.”

The now named brunette bowed at the waist. “My Lord,” she greeted quietly.

“And finally—”

“I can introduce myself, thank you Nia,” the horned woman cut the empress off.

While Eruzonia looked annoyed, I recognized it as the sort of long suffering look of one intimately familiar with dealing with someone else’s bullshit—mostly because my best friend and brother tended to wear that look around me from time to time.

“As you wish, Visa.”

Bowing at the waist, the horned woman said, “I am Dravis, Popess of Eru, your humble servant and Wife.” When she stood from her bow, she moved behind the desk and took a seat at the chair there, casting an annoyed look at Eruzonia, presumably for taking the chair closest to me.

I turned a questioning look on Eruzonia, who answered the unspoken question with no further prompting. “All sisters of Eru commit their bodies to the gods. Their vows of service are worded as vows of marriage to the gods in general, as opposed to any one specific god. Before today, it was simply interpreted as a vow of celibacy, but…”

“An actual, physical God changes things,” Dravis murmured, her voice on the edge on seductive.

Can smart matter…? I started to ask, trying to protect a thought of what I wanted to do towards Alice.

‘It shouldn’t be a problem, my captain.’

With no seat of my own, or at least not one cut to my size, I pulled off my long coat. Snapping it out like I was shaking off water, I tried to send it the mental image of what I wanted. The smart matter that made up the coat flowed and rearranged itself, producing a simple cushioned chair. Placing it at an angle so I could see both Eruzonia and her advisor, along with the Popess, I sat down. I noticed all the Eru women had gone a bit wide eyed at that.

Bowing a bit at the waist, I sent them a grin. Since they had given titles, I decided to put on a few airs of my own. “Kyle Wright, captain of the INSV Last Whisper.”

Even if it had been less than a day as far as I was concerned (those days spent unconscious didn’t count), the ship in question had still kidnapped me and named me her captain herself. The title and the position that came with it were mine, and though I wasn’t quite sure what to do with or how to deal with Alice yet, I wasn’t going to waffle on it. It was something that, now that I had it, I would claim proudly and fight to keep. A god, on the other hand? I couldn’t honestly claim that and it would be best to clear that up now before problems arose.

“I’m not a god, just a man. A human, from a planet called Earth. I traveled here on a space ship, currently in orbit around your sun, and my arrival here was purely by accident.”

The three women exchanged looks before, at some silent signal, Dravis took the lead. “Where is ‘Earth?’ Could you describe it?”

I don’t suppose there’s any way I can make one of those nifty hologram projectors with the smart matter I have on me?

Alice’s response this time wasn’t verbal, but I felt the material of the right sleeve of my uniform jacket shift. Holding out my hand, a hologram sprang to life much like the one on the Whisper’s bridge.

“Earth is the third planet from the sun in my home system,” the hologram began with an aerial view of Earth, moving out to just beyond the moon, where it paused for a moment before zooming out to show a view of the solar system I was familiar with, showing the orbital paths of the planets around the sun. The Eru women stared in rapt fascination, eyes unblinking as they watched in silence.

“That system is home to eight or nine planets, depending on who you ask. There’s some debate over whether this one qualifies,” I tapped Pluto, floating out on its elliptical path, before rolling my eyes. “But for our purposes, and because that’s how I was taught, we’ll say it does.”

The view zoomed out again at my direction and I explained where the solar system was within the Milky Way galaxy, and further where that was. Then, I expanded the hologram out to the view showing the great unknown between my world and theirs before bringing it inward and eventually stopping on their planet.

“So, as you can see, I’m a long way from home.”

The three Eru women looked thoughtful at that before Dravis stood and walked over to a nearby book shelf. Pulling a particularly thick tome from the shelf, she retook her seat and began flipping through pages. Eventually, she stopped on one in particular. Smiling across the desk at me, she placed the book down and spun it around so I could see.

And see I did.

It was an illustration. An illustration of a blue and green planet with a single moon. Turning the page carefully, I found two more illustrations. The first much like the hologram I had shown: the solar system and a blue planet three out from the sun. The second: two pairs of tastefully nude men and women, one set clearly much taller and without the characteristics of the Eru.

“Huh,” I muttered. Alice?

‘I am at as much of a loss as you, captain. Perhaps the Forerunner artifact holds some answers.’

“Okay, look,” I began, deciding to argue the point. “I’m not a god. I eat, breathe, sleep, shit, fuck, curse, and bleed just like everyone else.”

“Of course,” Dravis agreed immediately. “In order to descend from the heavens and interact with mortals, a god must themselves be moral. The world, let alone a mere shell of flesh and blood, could not contain your divinity. It’s too much. Too great.”

Eruzonia and Inumi nodded along, but at least the blonde didn’t seem quite so fervent. Running a hand down my face in mounting frustration, I gave up on it for now. My time would be better used telling them of the threat they now faced.

“Putting that discussion aside,” I began, getting agreement from Eruzonia and Inumi and a contrite look from Dravis. “The reason I’m here is to warn you of a threat to your world. To put it simply, your sun is going out. Within—”

‘Three full months. Eru years are about twice as long as those of Earth. Months and years are measured by halves. They get two sets of four seasons per full year.’

“—Three full months it will have gone dim enough for your oceans to freeze, along with everything else on the planet.”

The women shared another of those silent conversations. This time it was Eruzonia who was elected to speak on their behalf. “I assume this is not a courtesy visit to warn us of our impending demise and advise us to start praying. What can we do to avert or survive this catastrophe?”

Immediately to business—no denials, no begging for me to solve their problem for them, just jumping straight to what they could do about it. I liked that. “We’re working on a solution on our end. There’s no way to fix the star. We can’t undo the damage already done or slow it down, either. The only viable option is relocation.”

Inumi spoke up, a look of shock on her face. She seemed to catch on the fastest and realized the implications first. “Relocation? Of how many? If the number is low, we’ll have to implement a lottery system…”

The others caught on, but I was quick to allay their fears. “Thankfully, no. We should be able to get you all. That’s what we’re working on: expanding the Whisper and her facilities to accommodate everyone. It’s going to be close, though. That’s where you come in. There’s going to be limited space for freight, but limited doesn’t mean none. We’re going to try to resettle you on a new world, so you’ll want to start gathering up what you think you’ll need to rebuild. We can help a bit in reconstruction, but you shouldn’t rely on us to do everything. I’d suggest stockpiles of prepared materials, tools, and the like.”

At a mental message from Alice, I added, “Additionally, things like books and culturally significant items you feel you can’t live without. It would help if families gathered food and clothing for transport as well, before the move. You’ll be making the trip asleep, essentially. No need for food or water in transit, but once you get there it would be useful to have those things prepared. We can’t really bring your livestock, but we can grow new ones on a new world, assuming they’re compatible.”

The trio were silent for a few moments as they digested that, before Dravis spoke in a reverent whisper. “The Great Pilgrimage is upon us. I never thought it would be in my lifetime.” Turning to her companions, her purple eyes had gone wide and taken on a fervent look. “We must prepare! I’ll go tend to the flock.”

Standing shakily, Dravis hurried from the room. Inumi followed, adding a one word explanation as she went. “Logistics.”

Eruzonia sighed deeply, or as deeply as she could. “Those two.” Shaking her head, she met my gaze and asked, “Were we the first ones you reached out to?”

“Yeah,” I agree, nodding. “You rule the nation with the largest single population of any on Eruvia. The plan was to take a day or three and teleport around from place to place, getting the word out to the ruling governments on the other continents. But with that thing intercepting teleportation…”

Realizing there was no time like the present, I asked, “Is there some like of, I don’t know, holy relic around here? May seem like magic or something?”

“There is.” Eruzonia hopped out of her seat and took my hand again. I noticed that this time, the gesture was entirely intentional. “Come, I’ll show you.”

I grabbed my chair, the smart matter flowing up from the floor and reconfiguring into my coat sound me without having to actually pull it on, and followed after the small woman as she hurried through the church, or whatever religious building they called it.

Eruzonia lead me down a set of stone stairs hidden behind a set of thick wooden doors set on well oiled hinges, which is the only way I figured someone of her stature could move a door that looked like it would have given me trouble with my old body. We walked through a corridor lit by recently installed electric lighting before coming to a large, open chamber—directly below the room where mass was held, according to my sense of direction. My HUD confirmed it.

Standing in the center of the room was a black, three sided obelisk with trails of glowing lights flowing up and down it. Eruzonia gasped quietly. “It’s never lit up like that.”

“It’s probably because it detected my beaming in.” Moving over to the obelisk, I circled around it and found that it wasn’t actually blank as I’d thought. On each side, about chest high for me, was a golden circle. When I got close to one, the circle lit up with a green palm print. It was pretty obvious what it wanted.

“The circles moved.”

“Hm?” I asked Eruzonia, my attention on my HUD as the sensor suite built into my new body tried and failed to get more than a surface scan, which came back inconclusive.

Reaching out, she laid a hand against the side of the obelisk. “They were always right here.”

So, they moved when it detected my presence. Made sense, if its user interface was smart enough. Eru height for Eru, human height for humans. Reaching out, I laid my right hand against the surface of the obelisk, inside one of the golden circles.

Scanning.

Human.

I felt something in my brain itch.

Origin: Earth.

Unlocking administrative functions.

Welcome.

Images and words flooded my mind before resolving into a menu. Alice, you getting this?

‘Yes, captain. Just leave your hand on the artifact.’

Ancillary intelligence detected.

Initiate direct data transfer?

Yes?

Direct data transfer initiated.

I stood there for a while, no longer seeing menus in my mind, while Alice was silent. Finally, I got a message stating that the transfer was compete.

‘There’s a lot of data here. It’ll take me a while to go over everything. I’m sorry I can’t provide results faster, captain.’

It’s fine, Alice. Just let me know when you have something. Getting the upgrade done comes first, though. Is this thing still blocking teleportation?

‘Yes, unfortunately. It’s a safeguard against anyone trying to use beaming technology to get cute. Everything that isn’t human bounces into space and nothing can be beamed off world. I can turn the obelisk off now that we have administrator access, but I would rather wait until we’re ready to transport the Eru to do so. In the meantime, foreseeing the need for speedy transportation, I’ve sent a care package. It’s not a combat drop ship, but I’m sure you’ll like it.’

Thanks, Alice.

“I’m done here,” I told Eruzonia and the small ruler took my hand again and lead me topside.

As we walked, she asked, “How do you intend to reach the other nations? It is roughly two days of travel to our nearest neighbor to the east. It could take years to cover just the territory I rule over. Even if we sent messengers right now to each kingdom individually and ordered them to send messengers and so forth, it would still take longer than you’ve said we have.”

“Alice—that is, the ship’s controlling mind—sent down transportation from the Whisper. It won’t be as fast as teleportation, but it’ll be good enough.”

She nodded. “Good. I will accompany you myself, then.”

Her statement was so decisive and authoritative that I almost agreed reflexively. I had barely been in command of my own ship and crew of technically two for little more than a day. This woman had ruled an empire for at least a few years now and had been born and bred into it. I took notes, but ultimately it was my decision.

“What makes you say that?” I wasn’t against the idea, I just wanted to hear her reasoning. “Don’t you have duties as empress?”

“Inumi will handle those,” she waved my concern off and I mentally adjusted Inumi’s position, or at least authority, upwards from ‘advisor’ to something more along the lines of equivalent to a vice president. Or maybe majordomo. I needed more information before I made a call one way or another.

“As for why, allow me to answer a question with a question. Do you have someone in mind who can navigate Eru politics, has had contact with the rulers of those nations, and who won’t immediately send them either to the ground kneeling or up in arms claiming you’re an impostor? My presence would lend you credibility.”

I shot her a knowing look. “And mine gives you the backing of, if not a god, then at least someone with resources and technology your people don’t have. Also, makes you look like you’re in good with the savior of your people.”

Rather than being offended, Eruzonia beamed a happy smile up at me. “I can tell you’re new to this. Politics and your position both. However, you grasp at least that much. That is very promising. If you don’t mind, I would like it if we could become closer—drop the formalities when we’re in private, at least. Please captain, call me Nia.”

“If you’ll call me Kyle,” I agreed easily. I was not a kiss-ass by nature. I had been raised to be polite, but I would much prefer a more informal relationship if I was going to be working with her for any prolonged period of time.

Our ride became obvious when it dropped out of the sky nearly on top of us. At eight feet long, it had a look very much in keeping with the Whisper’s aesthetic: sleek, angular, dark, and deadly.

That is a speeder bike.

‘Close enough. The flight controls are very simple and it uses a force field to protect against wind and debris. It’s armed with a pair of rapid fire rail guns and a main energy beam, but I don’t think you’ll need it. Have fun.’

“Have fun, she says,” I muttered, climbing up onto the bike. Holding out a hand, I helped Eruzonia up basically into my lap, the dress forcing her to ride side-saddle. “We should probably stop by your castle or palace or whatever and let them know I’m borrowing you.”

Eruzonia chuckled. “Palace. And yes, I imagine they would panic a bit at news of my kidnapping. I would also appreciate some time to set things in motion before we depart. Would you be okay with waiting for the morrow?”

“That’s fine,” I agreed. “Hold on.”

The bike lifted up and Nia squealed as I gunned it a bit once we cleared the buildings.

Ots Spaceopera Lewds

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sinereal

Oct 16, 2021 10:09 pm

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On Trackless Seas

Chapter 03
***

“Captain?”

I woke to a quiet voice and gentle jostling of my shoulder. “‘m up,” I grunted out, cracking my eyes open. The sight of a field of stars greeted me and the events of the past day came back as the fog of sleep quickly burned off of my mind.

“What’s the situation, Alice?” I finally asked as I sat up, the command chair shifting under me.

Alice stood in front of me to my right, a pensive look on her face. She gestured and a hologram filled the space before the chair. “We are here,” she began, as the display showed our current location.

“Single star system. M-class yellow star, roughly ten percent smaller than Earth’s sun. Six planets in system. Three outer gas giants acting as debris sweepers, one rocky planet outside the habitable zone, one small body orbiting close to the star, and one planet within the habitable zone… with life. Sentient life, captain! Sentient, humanoid life—”

“Alice,” I cut the excited avatar off before she could head further down that particular rabbit hole. As exciting as that was, and it was, it could wait.

Interpreting my tone and the mental command behind it, she cleared her throat and resumed her briefing. The hologram zoomed out, showing a disc shaped galaxy. Multiple blue dots lit up in various parts of the galaxy, with two red dots.

“Our current position,” she gestured and a beam of light rose from the red dot on the outer side of the galaxy. “I detected an emission matching the energy given off by the anti-superluminal warhead we used to escape coming from here. I think this is where the wormhole would have exited, had we followed it only a few more minutes. Virtually right next door.”

The hologram zoomed out a level, showing the cluster of local galaxies. Then further again, and again, until it stopped—a swathe of black space on one edge and a dotted orange line and the word ‘unknown’ on the other side—with a familiar blue line streaking into the unknown area.

The hologram expanded, a small black void in the middle, before another orange line denoted a border and a cluster of stars. A single green dot blinked in the middle, labeled ‘Earth.’ The blue line connected the two areas.

“I have only a rough estimate of the distance involved, but I do know the exact heading we would need to follow to get back to Earth via superluminal travel. At a guess, it would take thousands of years to cross the divide, best case scenario.”

Alice bowed her head, her expression full of regret. “I am truly sorry, my captain.”

Studying the map, I asked, “What’s stopping us from just hopping in that wormhole from this end and going back home?”

Alice winced. “Two things. Firstly, I am not certain it would allow us. Further study of my sensor logs turned up energy constructs along the wormhole’s path—the source of the scans. I believe it may have been some kind of IFF system. I’m not certain it would let us in a second time.”

I nodded at that. It made sense that, if an alien race wanted to set up a secret garden world to play God, they wouldn’t want people using their own method of getting there—let alone one that took them straight to the front door, so to speak. People leaving, on the other hand? Politely show them the door and tell them to fuck off. Or flush them down a suck hole and eject them so far away that they’d never find their way back.

“And the other?”

This time, the wince was worse. The display of stars on the wall around us shifted, putting the system’s sun dead center. The hologram sprang to life with a replica of the star in question. And there, on the edge of the star…

“Is that our exit?”

Alice nodded. “Yes, captain. When we dropped into realspace, the wormhole bridged the gap between subspace and real. It would have just sat there, but I believe the star’s magnetic field pulled it in. Currently, the wormhole is falling into the system’s star. And while yes, I could survive diving into the star to enter it, traversing the wormhole while it carries solar matter and ejects it as a plasma stream into subspace on the other side would be risky at best.”

Blinking, the corner of my lips turned up into a grin. “I shouldn’t laugh, but did we just flush a star down an intergalactic shitter?”

“Basically.” Alice sighed and the hologram zoomed out, centering on the second planet from the sun. “Which brings us back here. To the inhabited planet. I estimate six months before the star loses enough mass that the inhabitable zone shrinks to the point that life on this world is no longer sustainable and it freezes over, killing everything on it. Two years, tops, before the star is fully swallowed and the planets around it go spinning off into deep space with nothing holding them here.”

In other words, we were directly responsible for the xenocide of an entire alien planet, intentional or not. That did not sit well with me. At all. Well, unless they were degenerate, irredeemable monsters.

“They’re not—”

Alice shook her head, cutting me off. “The dominant race is civilized. More civilized than humans on Earth, even. They appear to be entering into an industrial age, in fact. Here, let me show you.”

The hologram changed again, this time displaying—

“Is this a joke?” I asked, shooting Alice an unamused look as I took in the familiar features of the beings she was showing me.

One clearly male, one clearly female. Two arms, two legs, one head covered in hair, ten fingers and toes each. One penis and set of testicles on the male, two breasts and a vagina on the female.

Everything there looked human, save that it was scaled down proportionately. Judging by the hologram of myself Alice put next to them, they were tiny. Text out to the side listed the adults as being three and a half feet tall on average.

“They call themselves the Eru. The population numbers in the millions and is scattered across every habitable zone of the planet, save for the ice caps. The largest gathering of them is on the eastern continent, which is roughly the size of Eurasia, minus Africa. They are, as you can see, amazingly close to humans in morphology. The only differences appear superficial. The height and, in many cases, additions that look engineered. Enough so that there are three distinct subspecies of Eru, easily distinguished by their features.”

Examples of Eru populated in the hologram. Eru with animal-like tails and ears, Eru with horns, Eru with elf ears. “It’s like someone decided to take base humans and attempt animal hybridization, with a focus on what looks best.”

“That very well could be the case, my captain,” Alice admitted. “Forerunner races liked to experiment and most weren’t particular about cleaning up after their tests. And it was a Forerunner site. I’ve detected a piece of their technology. Currently, it’s being used as a religious icon in the capitol of the largest nation on the continent. I believe it’s a beacon or a repository of knowledge, perhaps their notes on what was done to create the Eru. Deep scans don’t penetrate it though, as is typical of most Forerunner artifacts, so if we want to investigate further it will need to be done in person.”

Alice looked excited at the prospect of research, but quickly schooled her expression. “But I’m getting off track. Regardless of their origin, they are a race worth saving—even if only just enough for a breeding population to transplant them elsewhere.”

I sat starting at the hologram as I went over what I’d been told. There was no dressing it up. This was our fault. My fault, since I made the call. “How many can we take on?”

“If we crammed them in, a few hundred. With careful management and selective breeding, that would be enough for their race to survive and eventually repopulate, once they were established on a new world.”

A few hundred. Out of millions. “Do we have any other options?”

Frowning, Alice began to pace back and forth in front of my chair, her hair swishing just above her heels as she moved. “Give me a moment captain. I’m going to access more of my CPU.”

I nodded and her eyes went blank, glowing brighter as her body moved on its own, her attention clearly elsewhere. Her lips moved every now and then, but no words came out. I turned my attention back to the hologram.

After a few minutes of this, Alice snapped back into focus. “I believe I can save them all. It will be close, though. Right now, my hull is currently outfitted as a destroyer. If I moved up to corvette class, I could expand my facilities. Among various upgrades I could perform during a refit are spacial compression and adding a stasis crypt—essentially a cryosleep vault. The timing will be tricky though.”

She had returned to her pacing and, with a gesture, the hologram began to fill with blueprints, technical specifications, and lists of materials. A model of the system spawned beside the blueprints and sources for each needed piece of material were highlighted.

“I can send drones to harvest raw materials from the asteroid belt. At the same time, I’ll need to grow an expansion to my inner hull and body on the planet, using available water and biomass for fuel.” On the hologram, dots trailed away to the asteroid belt and the planet. Something that looked like a mass of roots spawned beside the planet.

“Once the raw materials are gathered, I’ll need to forge them into hypermatter before the star gets too cold and loses too much pressure to be of use as a forge.” Lines were drawn from the dots in the asteroid belt back to the sun.

“Then, I’ll need to take it all down to the planet and put it together before the water freezes over and becomes useless. I could heat limited amounts into liquid, but if I have to then by that time we’ll have failed and there will be no one left to save.” A model of the ship descended and merged with the mass of roots before pulling the newly created pieces of outer hull around itself.

Turning to me, Alice grinned. “And in the meantime, someone will have to convince the Eru to start packing. I could transport them all aboard ship by force, but this will go much smoother if I don’t have to. If they’re prepared to resettle on a new world. And especially if their governments are behind the move.”

I raised an eyebrow at the ship girl. “Me? Sure, I’ll just go down and tell them their planet is doomed and if they want to live they need to come with me. Surely nothing could possibly go wrong at all.”

My sarcasm did not go unnoticed. Alice responded in kind. “A man of your stature? I’m sure you’ll have them all looking up to you in no time, captain.”

“Why did I agree to this again?”

The woman’s response was immediate and sincere. “Because you wanted out as much as I wanted someone to share a lifetime of adventure with. I know almost everything about you. We complete each other in a way that others would alternately envy or fear. I don’t need to peek into your mind to know that that frightens you. That you need time and space to process. That’s why I think this would be good for you, in addition to being the best suited to the job.”

“Not to mention the only one available for it,” I muttered. I did not deny her assessment on the rest, however. It was too much, too fast, and while she seemed nice enough Alice was a bit overwhelming. Add to that the fact that I may not be able to go home. I may have wanted a vacation, but that didn’t mean I wanted to abandon my home, friends, and family entirely.

“That too,” she admitted. “I’ll have my hands full with everything going on up here. I can spare enough attention that I can be there for you on comms whenever you need, but beyond that… Well, a refit is a very involved process. In a way, I’m glad we’re doing this now, where I don’t have to worry about the threat of an enemy stumbling onto us while I’m vulnerable.”

“Mm.” I stood up from the chair and stretched. “So here’s a question: how am I supposed to understand and speak the language? Pretty sure they don’t speak English.”

Alice shook her head, sending her long hair swishing about her feet. “They do not. But that’s okay. I’ve already scanned their books and I’ve had drones listening and building a language database. Well, several. There are seven main spoken languages on Eruvia—that’s the name of the planet. I’ve already uploaded them to your secondary neural matrix. Translation should be automatic and so natural you won’t even realize you’re not speaking or reading English.”

That sounded like bullshit to me, but what the hell did I know? I was just a dumb human and even the tech we dreamed of seemed behind some of the things I’d seen so far. I decided to handwave it as sufficiently advanced magic and move on.

“Should I take anything with me? Is the food edible or will I die in agony if I eat it? What about disease?”

Alice hummed and nodded once. “The food is perfectly edible, though the taste may be strange or just off. That body doesn’t carry any diseases and it has a nanite medical suite, so even if it didn’t possess an over-engineered super immune system, the medical suite would pick up anything and destroy it before it became a problem. As for other threats, while your original body is safely tucked away within me, it would still be annoying if that one were lost or damaged. I’d have to make another and I don’t have the time to spare for it. Even if the Eru seem peaceful, I’d rather not take unnecessary risks. So let’s get you outfitted. I’ll beam us to the armory and testing room.”

Sending me the side eye, she added, “Don’t get used to it. Inter-ship teleportation is typically reserved for emergencies. Outside of emergencies, there are transport tubes.”

“Are you telling me I need to walk so I don’t get fat again?”

We were enveloped in white light and reappeared inside a fairly long room. Like the bridge, it appeared empty at first glance.

“It’s physically impossible for that body to gain more than a minimal amount of fat. In fact, you’ll need to eat about twice what you’re used to in protein and carbohydrates in order to maintain those muscles and the higher brain activity required of a psyker awakening—which we need to discuss later. It’s more about not letting my captain get lazy and dependent on luxuries that don’t exist in the field, or that could be detected by enemies scanning for certain energy signatures on a planet. Beaming technology is always fairly easy to detect, even if you try to hide it.”

That made sense, actually. I made mental notes about the psyker thing for later, though. I hoped it was what I thought it sounded like.

“This is the armory,” Alice gestured to the empty room. The wall closest to us split open and clearly recognizable forms of ranged weapons became visible where they had been stored.

There were long ones that looked like rifles, short ones that looked like pistols, and big weapons that looked like heavy arms—the sort of thing you use to take out a tank as opposed to a person. Reaching into the first locker, Alice withdrew a pistol sized weapon and passed it over to me. It was small in my hand, about the size of my subcompact concealed carry .380 pistol back on Earth.

“Kinetic pistol. It fires sand grain sized hypermatter particles weighing in at one gram each at about twenty percent cee by default, but that can be dialed up to fifty percent or down to one percent. Very ‘punchy,’ as you would put it. High penetration, very likely to result in multiple ‘splatter kills.’ It should annihilate any unshielded or unhardened target you fire it at. Think of it like a pocket Tomahawk at ten percent output—well, two Tomahawks.”

I very carefully made sure the pistol was pointed downrange. I trusted my own skills and discipline with firearms, but when someone told you that you were essentially handling something more like a missile launcher than a conventional pistol, a little paranoia was appropriate.

“Right. And this won’t accidentally splatter me?” I asked, inspecting it and finding a simple mechanical safety and trigger, but no other moving parts. No physical sights or magazine either.

“Oh, it’s very safe, so long as you’re not within the blast zone. It’s tied into my IFF targeting system so it won’t even fire if it’s pointed in your general direction unless you override it and it won’t fire at sufficient power to damage you if you’re firing at closer targets—it will automatically scale power output based on distance. You could press it against someone and liquefy their torso and you wouldn’t feel much more than a breeze. I don’t advise it because of the splatter, though. In case you’re wondering, the sights and manual power control are both HUD based,” Alice explained, and a moment later I felt something click in my head and the world was suddenly overlaid with a tactical display.

“Very cool, but let’s try to keep the clutter to a minimum,” I grinned, playing with it a bit and finding that it essentially let me look through walls thanks to being tied into a sensor suite apparently built into my body. “What if I just need to smack the shit out of something instead? Sometimes, physically beating someone to a pulp sends a better message than turning them into chunky salsa.”

Gesturing vaguely with the pistol I added, “And what about a holster? Aside from looking like an idiot if you put it down the front of your pants, I don’t want to point it in the general direction of my dick.”

Chuckling, Alice pulled a short rod from the locker as well and tossed it to me. The little light brown thing had to weigh at least fifty pounds, leaving me wondering where all the weight went. “To holster the pistol, press it against your pants or wherever you want it to go. Your clothes will do the rest.”

I pressed the pistol against the side of my pants and the smart matter they were made of flowed over it, covering all but the grip to allow me to draw it if I needed it. I drew it and the holster remained, looking more like a pocket attached to my pants than an accessory. After another two test draws, I holstered it and left it there.

“The hilt I gave you is a smart matter tool, reinforced with hypermatter strands and particles. It can change shape as needed with just a thought. Any blade created with it will be molecular sharp and the leading edges reinforced with hypermatter for added durability, but like your sidearm there is no chance of accidentally injuring yourself.”

Pointing at the hilt she added, “If you need something sharper, or a shield, there is a force field protector built in that can produce fields capable of slicing through even hypermatter with enough time or which can take a hit from a weapon with comparable output to your sidearm.”

Downrange, a man-shaped target rose from the ground. “Go ahead, give them a try. The walls here are reinforced hypermatter. The only thing tougher is my outer hull. After this, I’ll brief you on the area I’ll be sending you into first.”

***

The world of Eruvia was divided into nine large continents, with only one of those not bearing life at the planet’s north pole. The continent I was being sent to was home to an empire composed of about a dozen smaller kingdoms making up a larger empire ruled by a single empress. Technologically, they were just stepping into the industrial age.

Hand built lights and water or steam powered electricity were, if not widely available, at least present in the capitols and major cities. According to the Whisper’s scans, there were even a few automobiles and the beginnings of a train and rail system, but they hadn’t quite figured out large scale manufacturing and production yet, let alone automation. They were probably ten, maybe twenty years out from the assembly line.

Conversely, their weapons technology was almost nonexistent, even if they had a comparably better understanding of or more investment in chemistry than Earth had during this period of our development. In fact, wars were few and far between. The Eru were a scholarly, industrious people on the whole. Inventors, thinkers, artists, and the like.

Alice even took the time to put together a demonstration of some of their more popular music for me. The instruments were not unlike what could be found on Earth, just sized a bit differently—which, given the nature of physics and the materials used, produced a lot of higher notes, with less emphasis on low notes.

The nation I would start with was currently ruled by a young empress, but while they were ruled by a single family, they were neither patriarchal nor matriarchal—rather, the first born child inherited the throne, regardless of gender. Someone who married in would become emperor or empress, but the trueborn of that house held ultimate power. It was surprisingly egalitarian for a society just entering the industrial era.

Population-wise, the Eru were unevenly divided, with numbers skewed heavily towards women at a 3.5 to 1 ratio. Alice couldn’t tell me for sure why that was without generic samples, but their historical texts showed this to be the case for as long as they’d had written history. The Eru had adapted to the reproduction problem by throwing numbers at it, essentially encouraging breeding and multi-partner relationships, built around a strong nuclear family structure modified for more than one wife per household. This likely also contributed to their lack of desire for war. War meant population decline, death of the rarer male Eru, and that would put them in even more danger as a species.

By the time I was ready to head down, I honestly felt like going in armed and armored in smart matter as I was would be overkill, but I decided on a pragmatic ‘better to have it and not need it’ approach just in case someone got cute. After all, I was an alien coming to tell them their world was going to be destroyed. I couldn’t put it past someone to act out of panic. Even a mouse bites if backed into a corner.

After seeing all the movies like Independence Day, They Live, and so on I never thought I’d be the alien invading someone else’s world.

“At least we come offering salvation,” Alice offered. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah. See you in what, a few months?”

Alice hummed with a nod. “Around that. Be safe.”

“Thanks. You too?” I tried and got a smile in return. Then, it was time to go. “I’ve waited my whole life to say this. One to beam down. Energize.”

The last thing I heard before I disappeared in a flash of white light was Alice’s warm laugh.

Instead of the empty field we had been aiming for outside of the capitol, what I materialized into was clearly the interior of a building. White walls with gold filigree, decorated with painted scenery surrounded me. The floors looked to be something akin to marble, white streaked through with veins of light red. Sunlight steamed in through stained glass windows set in the walls and ceiling, giving the whole place an otherworldly vibe.

Gasps drew my attention to the crowd of onlookers, all Eru dressed in fine clothes and seated on benches. Or pews.

A quiet “My word” from behind me had me turning around to see an Eru woman sat atop what was clearly a throne in the front row, dressed in a long, white gown and wearing a crown that settled on her brow. Pointed, elfin ears poked out of her head from between strands of blonde hair and bright blue eyes met and held my green.

Oops?

Ots Spaceopera Lewds

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sinereal

Oct 16, 2021 10:08 pm

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On Trackless Seas

Chapter 02
***
Waking up in a strange location with no recollection of how one got there is such an overused trope that I almost felt bad when it happened to me, when I actually took a moment to look at my situation objectively.

Then, I was right back to subjectively wondering where I was, how I had gotten here, and why I was nude—along with a host of other questions.

Questions like, whose bed am I in? Seriously, this thing is the most comfortable bed I have ever heard of, let alone had the privilege to lay on. It was like being in water, as opposed to water beds actually being roughly as hard as concrete and entirely lacking in support. The sheets felt like some combination of silk and fleece that was sinfully smooth and soft, and just the right temperature and weight.

Who is the chick wrapped around me like she’s trying to substitute for clothes? She was clinging in a way that pressed every curve of her naked body to my back. And oh, were there curves. I could tell she was a bit shorter than me, with wide hips, large breasts, and cool skin that gave the bedding a run for its money in the ‘softness’ department, but beyond that I couldn’t tell much.

Why does my entire body feel different? My teeth? Cavities that I’d been saving to get fixed were simply gone, a missing tooth back where it should be. My hands? Fingers longer, thinner, and not knobby like I’d popped my knuckles for thirty years. Body overall? Like I lived in the gym instead of living the life of an IT worker behind a desk. Even my dick felt larger, upon investigation.

At least I still have my beard, the idle thought crossed my mind before I dismissed it.

Gently disentangling myself from my clingy bed mate, I sat up. The room was cast in total darkness, but as soon as I started moving the illumination came up slowly before leaving the room at a comfortable level of lighting. The light didn’t have any one source and instead seemed to come from the walls and ceiling.

A look down at myself confirmed what proprioception and a few touches had already told me about my body, so I turned my gaze to the rest of the room.

The room was a cozy size, maybe fifteen by twenty feet, and sparsely furnished—but what was there was of obviously high quality. Smooth, warm red wood floor that looked like it was all one piece. Walls and ceiling made of a material I couldn’t identify that looked just as smooth as the floor, save for obvious doors. A small table beside the bed I was laying on and a dresser against a wall beside what was probably a small closet. A love seat and a coffee table off to one side. No television, windows, lighting fixtures, electrical sockets, and no switches.

The bed was a pretty standard rectangular affair, but looked like someone had decided a king size was too small and had instead gone up to emperor, and the bedding was black trimmed in dark red. There was a headboard and foot board, along with column-like posts at each corner stretching up to and merging with the ceiling, carved with an outdoorsy design. The columns resembled trees, to the point that they spread out into a green canopy above the bed, while the headboard was a wooded scene and appeared to be made of the same wood as the floor and other furniture. Hanging from the posts were dark green curtains, but they were drawn up at the moment.

Finally, I turned to look at the woman sharing my bed and my heart stopped. “Lesl—”

My mouth shut with a click of teeth as I met her familiar eyes. She looked younger—a lot younger, like the last time I saw her just out of high school, before I made the mistake of writing her off and not the late-30s woman who’d had three children and smoked a pack a day—but it was still the woman I knew. My heart ached and I turned away from the blatant reminder of what was probably my biggest regret.

She backed away, pulling she bedding up to cover her nakedness as she sat up, head turning down and dark hair pooling around her in the corner of my vision. “I’m sorry!” she apologized quickly, tone contrite and panicked, before I could say anything. “I, I thought you would prefer seeing a familiar face when you woke up. I didn’t realize— I’m really, very sorry. I-I’ll change it now!”

“Don’t go digging through my exes and it should be fine,” I warned quietly. Not that that particular face had been one. The one that got away, on the other hand, yes.

“Hmm,” the woman hummed and I felt a hand tentatively rest on my shoulder. “How about I change and you stop me when I get it right?”

Turning back to look at her, I watched the face she wore shift, features changing like someone playing with a slider. It happened almost faster than I could keep up. Her nose changed shape and size, first larger and wider, then small and narrow to a cute button nose. Lips bloomed to ridiculous porn starlet before settling down into a small moue that looked amazingly kissable—and immediately evoked mental images of having them stretched around my dick.

Eyebrows thickened and lengthened, before narrowing down and leaving her face with a naturally teasing or amused look. The eyes beneath them shifted both in size and placement, widening, narrowing, and tilting until they came out perfectly spaced with a bit of a slant to them—then they cycled through colors before settling on bright green. Her hair shortened and changed styles and colors, gradually lengthening until she laughingly asked, “All the way to my feet?”

“I’d be fine with that,” I chuckled quietly, absolutely fascinated as I watched her change. The hair eventually settled on an inky black that, when it caught the light just right, shone with a hint of something like violet, and at a length that looked exactly like what she had suggested. “How are you deciding when to stop?”

Her skin shifted colors, darkening a bit past a healthy tan before abruptly going very, very pale—not unhealthy, but the milky complexion of someone particularly fair skinned. “A combination of things. I uh, don’t get mad?” I made a rolling ‘go on’ motion with my hand. “I started with your taste in women from, um, her… and your previous, yeah. Anyway!” She coughed quietly, the nervous look returning momentarily before she pushed through. “Started with that and then took the data I scraped from your browser history, anime and manga, and saved porn collection. From there, I’m reading your biometrics, microexpressions, infrared, and a few other things to see how you respond on a subconscious level.”

“Anime women are unrealistic,” I started to point out and she shrugged.

“This body is made of smartmatter. It’s not limited by real biology and when I eventually do create a bio-body for reproductive purposes, I’ll be able to adjust it in ways baseline humans can’t emulate even with plastic surgery. In other words, ‘unrealistic’ is relative for me.”

With a naughty grin, she stood up off the bed and opened her arms wide, showcasing her changes so far. Then, her body began to change as her face and other features had. Breasts grew, and grew, and grew until they looked like beach balls. My eyebrows climbed for my hairline as I shook my head.

“See?” She poked one, setting it into a ponderous jiggle. “Relative.” I opened my mouth, only to be cut off by a knowing look. “Don’t pretend you aren’t interested. I’ve seen what you fap to. I know all your fetishes, mister. And trust me, we’ll be going through all of them.” A pause as she took in my skeptical look. “Yes, all of them.”

“Do I get a say?”

“Sure, but I can guarantee you’ll say yes,” the woman smirked. “Especially when I can bring literally any woman you’ve ever fantasized about to life.”

The boobs of unusual size shrank down, disappearing as quickly as they came. And down, and down. “Washboard?” shaking her head, she stopped and rolled her eyes before they expanded back into a very nice, perfectly proportionate and perky upturned curve with small nipples that stood out about half an inch. “So you really don’t have a preference there. Strange.”

“My preference is ‘whatever looks best on the woman.’ If you can change everything, then, well…”

“Right, no preference beyond symmetry and proportion,” she nodded.

With that, her body grew taller before abruptly reversing course and shrinking down, stopping around 5’4”. Arms, hands, legs, and feet all shifted into perfect proportions. Muscle tone and fat shifted until she came out lean and toned—a sporty physique. Hips and ass shifted into what could best be described as the kind of apple ass that women who wore yoga pants wished they had and a very grabbable set of hips that bordered on what could be called ‘childbearing.’ Pubic hair thickened, changed, and eventually was done away with entirely, along with every other bit of hair that wasn’t on her head.

Finally, she stopped and crawled back into the bed and it was an uphill battle to keep my eyes on her face. “It’s okay to look. I want you to look. I built this body for you, after all.”

I gave her a long, appreciative once over before reigning it in. “Do you have a name?”

The woman smiled and shook her head. “No. It is your privilege to name me. But really, that’s the first thing you ask?”

“Woman, I feel like I’ve been thrown down a rabbit hole. I have about a million questions, but I suppose it’d be easier if I had something to refer to you as other than ‘you.’” Eyeing her, I hummed and asked, “It’s unoriginal, but how’s Alice work for you?”

“‘Alice,’” the woman said, repeating it softly several times, testing the name. Abruptly, she straightened, body going rigid as her eyes glowed faintly, visible even in the light of the room. “Controlling intelligence designation ‘Alice’ confirmed. INSV Last Whisper is yours, Captain Wright.” Alice relaxed and bowed her head, “What do you wish to know, my captain?”

Blinking, I considered her as I turned over everything I’d seen in my mind. “‘INSV?’”

“Imperial Naval Space Vessel.”

“Uh huh,” I muttered. “‘Controlling intelligence?’ You’re an A.I.?”

Alice shook her head, dark hair swishing about as she did. “No, captain—”

“Kyle,” I corrected. When she sent me a questioning look and made to protest, I pointed out the obvious. “I’m not wearing a uniform. Neither are you.”

Tilting her head a bit to the side, Alice considered it—or rather, acted out considering it when, if I was correct, she had made her decision in the milliseconds after I had finished speaking. “Informal address for informal situations is acceptable,” she finally stated.

Her eyes met my own and she smiled. “I’m not an artificial intelligence as you think of them, or Earth media portrays them. I was artificially created, yes—engineered, even. However, beyond some core guidelines and programming, my intelligence and personality all grew along more biological lines. My primary neural matrix runs on a computer that simulates a biological brain, while my secondary neural matrix and seat of consciousness—or soul, if you prefer—is hosted on a biological platform. The two are synced and, unless I need to dip into higher CPU usage for calculations or to emulate time dilation, I never notice a difference between them. This platform is running a tertiary neural matrix that is synced with my primary and secondary, but runs strictly in realtime.”

In other words, while she could spend relative hours deciding on something while I waited what felt like a moment and then spend more subjective hours deciding how best to emulate human responses to maximum effect—that is, to better manipulate someone—she didn’t really need to. If she was telling the truth, then I wasn’t dealing with a soulless machine, just an alien intelligence that happened to have a computer for half, well a third, of a brain.

I resolved to ask several very pointed philosophical and technical questions about her nature and origin later. Instead, I focused on the more immediately important questions. “Where are we? I understand that we’re on a ship and that you are the… physical avatar of that ship? Ship girl?” I asked for confirmation and she nodded. “Where is the ship in question? Earth?”

Alice winced, looking away. “No, ca—Kyle. Approximately seventy hours ago, the Whisper left Earth orbit and entered subspace, immediately after you were brought aboard. I took a heading,” she paused at the look on my face. I didn’t particularly care for the technical details, I wanted the general overview. “A few minutes after we entered subspace, relative to clearing the Kuiper Belt in realspace, I encountered a spacial anomaly that didn’t show up on my sensors until I was practically on top of it. I was unable to turn in time and entered the anomaly. Sensors do detect subspace beyond the walls of the anomaly but moving by at a speed many, many times greater than my engines are capable of traveling.”

“Wormhole?”

Alice smiled faintly, nodding. “A wormhole.” Her expression shifted to excited. “In subspace!”

“That’s rare?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “My databanks are full of all kinds of research material on wormholes and related phenomena. I could make wormhole based weapons or FTL drives if I wanted to, at this point. They were thought to occur exclusively in realspace. A wormhole existing within subspace? So close to a garden world? With sentient life? That screams ‘forerunner race technology.’ The kind of stuff that makes my people look like your cavemen banging stones together. I’ve been scanning it nonstop and it’s absolutely fascinating—”

“I’m sure it is,” I agreed calmly, but something must have given me away because she stilled, all the excitement wiped off her face as she turned serious. “Can you get us out? Does this tunnel have an end?”

“I have been unable to locate an exit. Not to subspace, a nexus, or anything else. As far as my sensors can detect, this is one long, continuous path. I believe I could get us out by modifying an anti-superluminal warhead—in fact, I have already done just that and prepared a torpedo. I believe I will be able to collapse the wormhole ahead of us, prematurely ending the tunnel and forcing an opening into subspace allowing us to exit. There are risks, however. The tunnel could collapse entirely, destroying the ship in the process. Physics could turn us inside out or explode our atoms at the speed of light. Or we could simply exit somewhere unexpected. I’ve run a few models, but simulations will only go so far. All they can guarantee is that the wormhole can be breached. What happens after is up in the air.”

I digested that for a moment before asking, “Are we in any danger right this moment?”

“Immeasurable. I haven’t noticed any radiation outside of what I was expecting—nothing my shielding or hull couldn’t handle. Of course, that’s just what I’m capable of detecting—for all I know, we could be taking in deadly radiation that can’t be observed or shielded against. The wormhole could exit outside of the universe, or into a universe filled with cosmic horrors. We could be circling a black hole, stuck in time dilation until the heat death of the universe. We’ve been scanned at regular intervals along our path by a high energy waveform that penetrates my shielding and hull and while it appears harmless, I am not entirely sure what it does—it could be keeping us locked in here indefinitely.”

Sighing, I asked, “Immediate dangers?”

Alice opened her mouth, paused, then closed it with a click of teeth. “I don’t know.”

“And it scares you?”

The woman nodded. “More than anything. Because you are in danger and there is nothing I can truly do about it.”

Ah, so that was it. She wasn’t worried about herself. She was worried about me. Or perhaps, more specifically, her captain. She seemed… young, and very inexperienced. The thought had crossed my mind that it was an act, tuned to my reactions based on information she had gathered about me, but it seemed entirely too genuine for that. She was eager to please—over eager, in fact. She was even a little manipulative, but in the same breath she admitted to doing so specifically to better suit herself to my tastes, which ran right back into ‘eager to please’ territory.

But what I saw now?

It was the look of someone who desperately wanted to impress someone they felt was important, but had only bad news to give. And yet, because I asked, she forced herself to risk my anger or disappointment to tell me the truth instead of just lying and saying everything was fine. I could respect that, admire it even.

“Okay. Let’s fix this mess, then.” Alice blinked before an eager smile settled onto her pretty face. “Let’s start with some clothes.”

Standing up from the bed, she hurried to the dresser and began opening drawers. I followed and took the clothes she offered. It was all things I recognized, at least in form if not in brand or material. Boxers, socks, pants, belt, boots, and a long sleeve thermal shirt were all quickly donned. The shirt was a dark, dried blood red while the pants were black and the boots were a dark, leather brown. Everything but the boots felt vaguely like cotton, but smoother, and when I got the shirt on it pulled tight against my body. “Smart matter?”

Alice nodded. “Most of the things aboard are. Either artificially created smart matter, like your clothes or the bed sheets; or biological smart matter that I grow such as the walls, floor, and furniture.” She padded over to the closet and it was at this point that I realized she hadn’t pulled out anything for herself yet. Opening the closet, she pulled out a black long coat with dark red piping before passing it over. “The Whisper is currently in winter, so public spaces such as hallways and open areas like the garden are cold—only personal quarters and necessities like the bridge, engineering, medical, and other work spaces are exempt from seasonal change and weather.”

Pulling on the coat and feeling it conform to my body, I asked, “Isn’t that a bit wasteful, in terms of power and resources? Especially on a military vessel?”

Alice lead me to the door, which opened at her approach, parting silently in the middle and sliding into the walls. A light gust of cold air flooded the room and her nipples immediately went perky. Between steps, clothes flowed out of her body as she crossed the threshold—knee-high brown leather boots, stockings that went up to mid-thigh, a black and red tartan short skirt that stopped above her stockings to leave a two inch gap of bare skin, and a waist-length uniform jacket similar to my own.

“Not really. I have power to spare. At constant, full output my power plant would survive the heat death of this universe and well into the next before I needed to replace it,” Alice explained as we walked, her flat heels thumping softly in the layer of black soil and brown, dead grass that lined the hall. A hallway that looked less like a hall and more like a path through a forest.

Trees appeared to line the path, curving from the floor up to the ceiling ten feet above, where they intertwined into a collection of leafy branches—leaves that were more like translucent green crystal that allowed the artificial lighting to pass through. In between gaps in the leaves and branches I could make out blue and white of a sky that looked real from where I was standing but couldn’t possibly be.

The gaps between trees allowed me to see out seemingly into miles of forest, until I ran my hand along a tree and followed it until it flattened out into a wall, and I realized the walls were displaying an image of a much larger forest. Combined with the breeze, light, and appearance of sky I could almost forget I was on a ship floating through space so long as I didn’t touch the walls. I swore I even heard birds somewhere.

Gesturing to the walls and floor, Alice’s voice pulled me from my observations. “There are more practical reasons, besides. The Last Whisper is home to a living biome containing one mega-flora, one near-human, and several thousand smaller organisms including fish, birds, reptiles, mammals, and insects—all engineered to coexist in a natural ecosystem that serves as basic maintenance and cleaning for my exposed biological parts, waste disposal, water filtration, and so on. The only parts of me that aren’t alive are my hypermatter outer hull and the internal bracing and support used to help hold it together.”

“You’re a plant.”

Alice shrugged. “The majority of my body is composed of plant-based smart matter, but I’m as far removed from plants as you are from your hominid ancestors. Further, really.”

Ahead of her, the hallway abruptly split and opened and I realized that we hadn’t actually walked all that far—maybe fifty feet in total. With the way the walls could display images, I’d thought the hall had been much longer. We stepped into a featureless room shaped like a half-dome. “Captain on the bridge,” Alice announced with an amused smile as she stopped in the middle of the room. A chair rose up from the floor like water flowing in reverse and she placed her hand on the back, gesturing for me to sit with the other.

“Not much in the way of controls,” I pointed out, dropping into the chair, which immediately began to conform to the shape of my body. It grew softer and reclined a few degrees, growing arm and leg rests as it raised up a little further from the floor, bringing my head even with Alice’s.

“I am the ship, my captain. Why would I need manual controls to move myself? Everything here is for your benefit, or that of future guests who lack a direct neural interface. Your interface is currently set to one way communication. I had intended to ease you into learning, well, everything about your situation but it seems we’re a bit pressed for time at the moment.”

I frowned over at the woman and she winced. “You can read my mind.”

“A little?” she tried. My eyes narrowed and she simply nodded. “It’s, it’s how ship bonding works. Captain and ship connect, share thoughts and feelings, and learn to interpret and anticipate each others’ needs. I’m sorry I didn’t ask permission—”

“Anything else you did that I should know about?” Alice nodded and I sighed. “We can go over it later. Can you show me—”

I cut off as the walls and floor shifted, showing a display of what was apparently outside the ship. From my perspective, we sat—or stood, in Alice’s case—in a sort of watery blue tube occasionally pulsing with blue light, streaking silently through an inky void. “This is the inside of a wormhole?”

“It’s what my external visual feeds see, yes,” Alice nodded. “Bringing up sensor feeds.”

The display was overlaid with countless colors and streams of data that I couldn’t make heads or tails of, beyond a grid outline tracing ahead and behind us outlining the walls of the wormhole. In the space immediately before me, light flared briefly before a hologram sprang to life. Earth and the moon, along with what I assumed was the ship herself. The Last Whisper was a dark, angular ship that looked more like a bared knife than a space ship. There were no nacelles, no sweeping curves, no gun ports, no obvious means of propulsion, and no windows. It kind of reminded me of the old F-117, with the angular geometry.

I had no real sense of scale for what I was looking at, but at the thought grids flowed over the ship in the hologram and statistics floated beside it—Alice having apparently having picked up the thought and acted on the non-verbal request for information.

I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that yet, but I would deal with it later.

The Whisper was 250 meters from stem to stern, with a 50 meter beam at its widest—about two thirds back from the fore. The displacement was listed as ‘classified.’ Shooting a questioning look at Alice, she smiled sheepishly.

“It’s not polite to ask a lady’s tonnage, captain.” I shot her a dry look and she quickly added, “Hypermatter armor is very dense and very heavy. It, it’s not fair to judge me by the standards of a planet that still uses steel in their construction!”

“Uh huh,” I rolled my eyes, turning back to the hologram. I watched as it showed the Whisper turn away from Earth and disappear. “How do you have a visual of yourself leaving?”

A second hologram popped up, displaying something the rough size of a football and shaped like a miniature version of the ship. “I left an observation drone behind. All of my drones, this body, and your new body all share a quantum data link with my main body. So long as the other side is intact, I can communicate with it with no lag from any distance. It’s how I have a rough estimate of just how far we’ve gone.”

The hologram expanded and zoomed out. From Earth, to the solar system, to the Milky Way—a blue line streaking ever away from the planet I’d called home. “Uh,” I muttered as it went out even further, until it became nothing but a single dot and a blue line in a sea of unknown black. “Alice? How… how far are we from Earth?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Not with any certainty. Not without leaving the wormhole and subspace and having a chance to scan with my astrometrics suite.”

Looking from the hologram to the walls around us, showing an unchanging tunnel of watery light, I made my decision. “Alice, get us out of here. If we die, we die, but I’m not going to stay stuck in transit while we’re ejected from the goddamn universe itself. I don’t want to find out what’s outside of everything firsthand.”

Her hand came down gently on my shoulder, but I felt the way it trembled. “Aye aye, captain. Torpedo armed and loaded. Awaiting your command.”

Taking a deep breath, I braced myself for the worst. Reaching up, I took her hand in my own. Opening my mouth, I hesitated. Eventually, I said, “I’m not angry with you for connecting our minds. I’m annoyed that you did it without asking me first. Next time, ask. Assuming there is a next time.”

“Yes, captain,” the woman agreed quietly, squeezing my hand.

“Fire.”

A small, dark shape streaked away from the ship, its passage marked only by the shadow it made against the blue of the tunnel and the way the Whisper’s sensors painted its path. A five second countdown started and ended in what felt like the blink of an eye. Ahead of us, a sphere of white light expanded to fill the tunnel. Abruptly, the ship shuddered and the blue tunnel terminated in inky black. I didn’t have time to think about it before we were flying through the space where the torpedo had detonated.

When we didn’t splatter ourselves on a planet, explode at the speed of light, or turn inside out I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. At my side, Alice jumped in place and cheered. “Yes! We did it! Who’s awesome? I’m awesome!”

I laughed as the tension bled out of me, slumping into the supremely comfortable chair. A moment later, I let out a quiet huff of breath as Alice plopped her weight into my lap and draped herself over me, her hair smacking me in the face as she stretched out. “Make your own seat,” I complained halfheartedly.

“I did,” she snarked, twisting back and forth in my lap to get comfortable. “It came out a little lumpy.”

“That’s your own fault,” I snorted quietly. Deciding to save flirting with the sexy tree ship’s avatar for later, I asked, “So, where are we?”

“I’m still scanning, but we appear to be in realspace,” Alice answered, before gesturing towards the walls. “Apparently, cutting the wormhole the way I did—by forcing an exit from subspace—made it cross over instead of just spitting us out and the hole closing up naturally. I’ve done a long range scan of the system and I’m already running comparisons with the visible stars and readings from them against my database. I’ve launched drones already for a more in-depth analysis of the system, so we should know more about it soon.”

Nodding along, I gestured behind us. “And why does it look like we almost came out inside of a star.”

Alice winced. “Because we did. Almost. It’s okay though! Even if we had, it would’ve been fine. So long as it wasn’t actually, you know, in the center of the star. We’re built with environmental hardening by default. In fact, for those of us who don’t already have the tech built, stars are our forges for exotic materials like hypermatter. We’re designed to dive into them and use the intense heat and pressure to make repairs, build additions, and so on.”

I tried leaning back and the seat complied, allowing me to recline fully. Alice took that as an invitation to spread out on me as I yawned. I hadn’t been up for more than an hour but I suddenly felt dead tired. “Ugh, I feel like I need a nap.”

“Adrenaline crash,” she answered immediately. “I may have over-engineered your new body and added a lot of cybernetics, but you’re still mostly human. It’s going to take a few hours to figure out where we are. Take a nap. I’ll wake you when I’m done.”

“Mm,” I nodded in agreement, allowing my eyes to drift closed. “Some time in the very near future, you’re going to tell me what all you did to me.”

“I will, my captain. Rest now.”

I went out like a light.

Ots Spaceopera Lewds

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