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Story / Macro / Micro
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I was alone on an alien planet.
Nothing but bare stone waves emanated from my glassy landing site, out to a distant smooth horizon. This was no foreign culture like the Cretans or ancient extinct ruins like the Cerulean Enclave, no weird technology like my favorite vidzines. This world had never known life, until now, with smoke and dust settling down in the hazy orange atmosphere.
I was alone on a barren rock in space.
But, well, I wasn’t really alone either. Even as my eyes took in the blasted desert, even as my mind churned, I could hear people. Buzzing comm calls flickered at the edges of my awareness.
“APPLY THE DAMPENERS- WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS THI-!?”
“-successful landing, get the crew, then security team out of cryo-stasis-”
“Stabilisation readings are fluctuating, mainframe appears to be-”
My hands were flapping. My tail was lashing. My chest felt hot. I wanted to cry but my face was dry.
Wait, my tail? My chest?!
I stared down for a long moment. A clavicle of something like metal and rubber greeted me, many flexible panels and tubes connecting and arching from my neck and shoulders, down towards two jutting spheres. I blinked, one hand rubbing my eyes as I considered the metallic domes, positioned suggestively on my ribs like breasts. But I was a guy. But my hand felt them, felt a solid heft push back, systems registering the weight and touch of me against myself.
“Oh my gosh oh my fucking god,” I growled. I felt hot. Some steam, or smoke was billowing from my clavicle, some small vents. I could see my belly, round and rubbery, down through the gap between what were definitely big tits, and then wide hips and massive thighs. And a whirring, lashing segmented cable, its tip a plug that scored gashes in the glassy terrain.
I flinched and pulled my hand away, nearly reached to check my groin, then hesitated. What if something was there? What if something wasn’t there?!
I had a tail.
Somehow that drew my mind. It was new. But it felt fitting. In all my sketches, all my musings of what sort of modification I’d apply for, a tail was a total certainty. It was nice, it flicked around obediently to my grasp, my fingers closing to feel it in turn. It fit me. A perfect extension of my nervous system.
Which reported a great deal of pain. I squeaked, a deep growl rumbling in my throat.
—
Semtos System
Terran Conglomeracy Ship- GTS Gaia
Primary Command Bridge
Local Time: 3074-3-27-19:07
“Reporting damage to Dorsal Cable sections D-37 to D-51.” Lieutenant Dresh reported groggily.
“Add it to the list. Low priority, but send an Engineer to put an override stop on the winch. If she tries to retract it, the damage could jam up the whole dorsal region.” Morrow commanded, watching the vast screen as a teal metal hand recoiled from the crushed and bent metal. At least they had managed a successful landing before Garcia, now Gaia, realised anything and had a complete meltdown. Potentially literally, judging from the reports of instability from the nuclear core.
It was fine, he tried to assure himself. They had landed. If the worst came to it, they could eject the eco-domes to a safe distance and work on preserving the colonists until aid came through the Wormhole. Each dome was capable of 99.9% efficiency at self-sustaining. They could get through this mess without losing any other lives. Just a septillion credit Galactic Terraforming Ship, and one stupid cadet.
“Lieutenant Onor, status report on stabilising comms?” He growled, steel prosthetic bending the railing on which he leaned.
“In progress- it’s like she’s scraaambling us, she keeps connecting to other chaaannels,” The horned, caprine modified woman bleated.
“Commander Vana, confine other chatter to three channels and expand our bandwidth to all other crew channels.” He commanded, and the white haired ace set to it with quick urgency, tapping away even as her purple eyes settled on him.
“Sir, do you have a… plan? Are we going to… remove her- him? Them?” Vana asked quietly.
“Would it roll back the mainframe to our original settings?” Morrow muttered, earning a thorough refusal. “Well, then it doesn’t benefit us. But if we have to, then we have to.”
“They managed to land, they might be able to function as the ship for… for the moment.”
“Whether they can function is secondary to whether or not they can handle commands.” He groaned as sensors reported a surge in the teleportation gates power supply.
“Sir?”
“D’you know why the modular pilot system was chosen for the GTS series, Commander? Simple, because you can’t trust any one individual with permanent control of this much power. It’s too far from any normal perspective. What happens if Garcia comes to think of us as insects? Bacteria? Viruses? I cannot leave one of the Conglomeracy’s most dangerous ships in the hands of an unstable child.”
Vana gasped in shock. Why? Morrow frowned, surprised at the reaction, the naivety. But then, she wasn’t that old. She’d been promoted for deeds and excellence, not hard decisions, not experience, not sacrifices. A prodigy couldn’t really understand how mediocre most people were.
“Link online. Want me to talk to them?” She offered gently.
“No.”
—
Sensation was weird. I could see the damage to my tail, the buckled plates and bent exoskeleton, and it hurt. I could feel the pain, feel the metal against metal of my gentler grip holding it in place, and feel so much more.
Even without looking, I felt more aware of my shape. My hips for days, my monstrous legs leading to petite, tip-toe feet that felt like they crunched on frost. My torso with it’s whole… two situations, dragging and bouncing slightly as I turned. Holy shit. Moving on. My hair- or maybe more cables- dragged too, and my ears twitched and twisted. Nothing like the old me.
“What happened to me…” I mumbled, a mechanical growl escaping my throat instead of the words.
“CADET GARCIA, COME IN!” Captain Morrow’s voice echoing over the comms made me flinch and squeal.
“STAND AT ATTENTION.” He ordered, gruff voice heavy with wrath. Oh crap the captain was mad at me. “DO NOT MOVE. THAT IS AN ORDER, DO YOU HEAR ME!?”
“Yes Captain!” I squeaked, tail whipping away behind me as I stood and saluted.
“Good. Now, listen. Cadet, you are on Semtos Planet 4-2. You are safe. You have been demoted. You will be serving as GTS Gaia for the foreseeable future. Your call sign shall be Gaia. You will follow the orders of the crew to the best of your ability, and act in a manner appropriate to the Terran Conglomeracy, is that understood?!”
“Uh…” Something like static hissed in my voice as my mind span. “As in… like… I’m named after the starship?”
“No.” Captain Morrow groaned, “You are the Galactic Terraformer Ship Gaia.”
“But… I’m not. I’ve got arms and legs.” My tail twitched, and I peered downwards again, fists clenching as I double checked I wasn’t imagining things, “And boobs.”
“You will be… wait… what?” A note of despairing confusion crossed his voice.
“Uh, that is, my body looks like a… female humanoid, not a starship,” I quietly reached up to poke at one of my spheres, feeling the heft and weight again. My face flushed hot.
“Those are the Port and Starboard Eco-Domes, they are not mammari- DON’T POKE THEM!” He snapped and I pulled my hands away. “The GTS Gaia was built as a space-faring mecha, the chassis flexible enough to handle a wide variety of terraforming tasks and- why don’t you know this!? Didn’t you see the statues? Study up on the ship!?”
“I… uh, studied… botany, and agriculture, I didn’t really… look into the ship, it didn’t seem relevant to my role,” I whimpered, shamefaced and trying not to tear up. “Um… and I didn’t really go into the city, it was… real busy… I don’t like crowds.”
There was a clunk sound, and Captain Morrow didn’t speak for a long moment as I marinated in fear and confusion. Oh crap, my tail was moving, I tried to hold still, eyes set on my bosom- which was unfolding!? I stared as the shuttered covers, presumably blast shields, folded away downwards to reveal glassy transparent domes, like snowglobes. Within, I could see little clouds circling above geometric shapes, tall towers and broad arenas, skyscrapers and tenements and factories and… The Eco-Domes were each a city, over two miles across. Colossal places too big for me, labyrinths of colonists, scientists and cadets, buildings that seemed to touch the sky. And they were barely bigger than my hand.
“I’m big.”
His sigh crackled in my ears, slow and heavy.
“Sorry, sir.” I murmured, brain still reeling, hands flapping idly. Holy shit I was huge. I’d been in space. I’d landed on a planet. Vana had taught me to land myself!
“Yes, Gaia. You’re big. You’re a terraformer. So you’ve got a job to do, understand?”
“Yes sir. But. Um. Why? Why’m I the ship? I’m not really a pilot- or even a geologist or anything sir, I’m a botanist- oh, are my plants okay?”
The Captain sighed again, a long dark one that sent a shiver down my spine. “Gaia. During Cryo-Sleep, do you know what you are not supposed to do?”
Oh. Shit.
“Uh… roll over. And… wake up. And… do stuff.”
“That is correct. And what did Cadet Garcia do?”
“I… set a couple of alarms to check on my plants.” I admitted, tail looping around my legs, shamefaced. “That’s why I’m demoted?”
“No. I did not choose this punishment. Your actions… your exploits were too much for your body to handle. On your third return to cryo-sleep, the strain caused organ failure during the freezing process. Biologically, your original body died. I’m sorry.” The Captain spoke grimly.
I’m not sure how I want to die. I’ve always been a big fan of the heroic last stand in vidzines, going out saving people from alien horrors or at the helm of a starship. But I wasn’t a hero. Maybe in bed, old, surrounded by family? But that didn’t sit right, I didn’t have family plans. Perhaps in a grand disaster, like a planet imploding, that’d be badass.
But dying to a glitch, to my own stupidity? That was unacceptable.
“So… why this?”
“The Gaia’s Mainframe’s primary directives while traversing the wormhole was navigation and to preserve life. In your case, it somehow pulled a ridiculous stunt and opted to shunt your consciousness and neural pathways into the ship mainframe itself. Your life was preserved, and you are alive, but our systems are jeopardized for the moment.”
I didn’t know what to say. Sorry? Thankyou? In the end, my voice sounded small, childlike.
“Can you fix me?”
Another classic Morrow sigh came. “Long term? It’s possible. But we’ve got a schedule to keep, a colony to prepare, and a planet to terraform. So meantime, gotta get to work, understand?”
My ankles clunked together as I stood to attention again hurriedly, trying to suppress a sniffle, a sense of vertigo, and a temptation to look down again. “Yes sir.”
“Then start walking.”
—
Nothing but bare stone waves emanated from my glassy landing site, out to a distant smooth horizon. This was no foreign culture like the Cretans or ancient extinct ruins like the Cerulean Enclave, no weird technology like my favorite vidzines. This world had never known life, until now, with smoke and dust settling down in the hazy orange atmosphere.
I was alone on a barren rock in space.
But, well, I wasn’t really alone either. Even as my eyes took in the blasted desert, even as my mind churned, I could hear people. Buzzing comm calls flickered at the edges of my awareness.
“APPLY THE DAMPENERS- WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS THI-!?”
“-successful landing, get the crew, then security team out of cryo-stasis-”
“Stabilisation readings are fluctuating, mainframe appears to be-”
My hands were flapping. My tail was lashing. My chest felt hot. I wanted to cry but my face was dry.
Wait, my tail? My chest?!
I stared down for a long moment. A clavicle of something like metal and rubber greeted me, many flexible panels and tubes connecting and arching from my neck and shoulders, down towards two jutting spheres. I blinked, one hand rubbing my eyes as I considered the metallic domes, positioned suggestively on my ribs like breasts. But I was a guy. But my hand felt them, felt a solid heft push back, systems registering the weight and touch of me against myself.
“Oh my gosh oh my fucking god,” I growled. I felt hot. Some steam, or smoke was billowing from my clavicle, some small vents. I could see my belly, round and rubbery, down through the gap between what were definitely big tits, and then wide hips and massive thighs. And a whirring, lashing segmented cable, its tip a plug that scored gashes in the glassy terrain.
I flinched and pulled my hand away, nearly reached to check my groin, then hesitated. What if something was there? What if something wasn’t there?!
I had a tail.
Somehow that drew my mind. It was new. But it felt fitting. In all my sketches, all my musings of what sort of modification I’d apply for, a tail was a total certainty. It was nice, it flicked around obediently to my grasp, my fingers closing to feel it in turn. It fit me. A perfect extension of my nervous system.
Which reported a great deal of pain. I squeaked, a deep growl rumbling in my throat.
—
Semtos System
Terran Conglomeracy Ship- GTS Gaia
Primary Command Bridge
Local Time: 3074-3-27-19:07
“Reporting damage to Dorsal Cable sections D-37 to D-51.” Lieutenant Dresh reported groggily.
“Add it to the list. Low priority, but send an Engineer to put an override stop on the winch. If she tries to retract it, the damage could jam up the whole dorsal region.” Morrow commanded, watching the vast screen as a teal metal hand recoiled from the crushed and bent metal. At least they had managed a successful landing before Garcia, now Gaia, realised anything and had a complete meltdown. Potentially literally, judging from the reports of instability from the nuclear core.
It was fine, he tried to assure himself. They had landed. If the worst came to it, they could eject the eco-domes to a safe distance and work on preserving the colonists until aid came through the Wormhole. Each dome was capable of 99.9% efficiency at self-sustaining. They could get through this mess without losing any other lives. Just a septillion credit Galactic Terraforming Ship, and one stupid cadet.
“Lieutenant Onor, status report on stabilising comms?” He growled, steel prosthetic bending the railing on which he leaned.
“In progress- it’s like she’s scraaambling us, she keeps connecting to other chaaannels,” The horned, caprine modified woman bleated.
“Commander Vana, confine other chatter to three channels and expand our bandwidth to all other crew channels.” He commanded, and the white haired ace set to it with quick urgency, tapping away even as her purple eyes settled on him.
“Sir, do you have a… plan? Are we going to… remove her- him? Them?” Vana asked quietly.
“Would it roll back the mainframe to our original settings?” Morrow muttered, earning a thorough refusal. “Well, then it doesn’t benefit us. But if we have to, then we have to.”
“They managed to land, they might be able to function as the ship for… for the moment.”
“Whether they can function is secondary to whether or not they can handle commands.” He groaned as sensors reported a surge in the teleportation gates power supply.
“Sir?”
“D’you know why the modular pilot system was chosen for the GTS series, Commander? Simple, because you can’t trust any one individual with permanent control of this much power. It’s too far from any normal perspective. What happens if Garcia comes to think of us as insects? Bacteria? Viruses? I cannot leave one of the Conglomeracy’s most dangerous ships in the hands of an unstable child.”
Vana gasped in shock. Why? Morrow frowned, surprised at the reaction, the naivety. But then, she wasn’t that old. She’d been promoted for deeds and excellence, not hard decisions, not experience, not sacrifices. A prodigy couldn’t really understand how mediocre most people were.
“Link online. Want me to talk to them?” She offered gently.
“No.”
—
Sensation was weird. I could see the damage to my tail, the buckled plates and bent exoskeleton, and it hurt. I could feel the pain, feel the metal against metal of my gentler grip holding it in place, and feel so much more.
Even without looking, I felt more aware of my shape. My hips for days, my monstrous legs leading to petite, tip-toe feet that felt like they crunched on frost. My torso with it’s whole… two situations, dragging and bouncing slightly as I turned. Holy shit. Moving on. My hair- or maybe more cables- dragged too, and my ears twitched and twisted. Nothing like the old me.
“What happened to me…” I mumbled, a mechanical growl escaping my throat instead of the words.
“CADET GARCIA, COME IN!” Captain Morrow’s voice echoing over the comms made me flinch and squeal.
“STAND AT ATTENTION.” He ordered, gruff voice heavy with wrath. Oh crap the captain was mad at me. “DO NOT MOVE. THAT IS AN ORDER, DO YOU HEAR ME!?”
“Yes Captain!” I squeaked, tail whipping away behind me as I stood and saluted.
“Good. Now, listen. Cadet, you are on Semtos Planet 4-2. You are safe. You have been demoted. You will be serving as GTS Gaia for the foreseeable future. Your call sign shall be Gaia. You will follow the orders of the crew to the best of your ability, and act in a manner appropriate to the Terran Conglomeracy, is that understood?!”
“Uh…” Something like static hissed in my voice as my mind span. “As in… like… I’m named after the starship?”
“No.” Captain Morrow groaned, “You are the Galactic Terraformer Ship Gaia.”
“But… I’m not. I’ve got arms and legs.” My tail twitched, and I peered downwards again, fists clenching as I double checked I wasn’t imagining things, “And boobs.”
“You will be… wait… what?” A note of despairing confusion crossed his voice.
“Uh, that is, my body looks like a… female humanoid, not a starship,” I quietly reached up to poke at one of my spheres, feeling the heft and weight again. My face flushed hot.
“Those are the Port and Starboard Eco-Domes, they are not mammari- DON’T POKE THEM!” He snapped and I pulled my hands away. “The GTS Gaia was built as a space-faring mecha, the chassis flexible enough to handle a wide variety of terraforming tasks and- why don’t you know this!? Didn’t you see the statues? Study up on the ship!?”
“I… uh, studied… botany, and agriculture, I didn’t really… look into the ship, it didn’t seem relevant to my role,” I whimpered, shamefaced and trying not to tear up. “Um… and I didn’t really go into the city, it was… real busy… I don’t like crowds.”
There was a clunk sound, and Captain Morrow didn’t speak for a long moment as I marinated in fear and confusion. Oh crap, my tail was moving, I tried to hold still, eyes set on my bosom- which was unfolding!? I stared as the shuttered covers, presumably blast shields, folded away downwards to reveal glassy transparent domes, like snowglobes. Within, I could see little clouds circling above geometric shapes, tall towers and broad arenas, skyscrapers and tenements and factories and… The Eco-Domes were each a city, over two miles across. Colossal places too big for me, labyrinths of colonists, scientists and cadets, buildings that seemed to touch the sky. And they were barely bigger than my hand.
“I’m big.”
His sigh crackled in my ears, slow and heavy.
“Sorry, sir.” I murmured, brain still reeling, hands flapping idly. Holy shit I was huge. I’d been in space. I’d landed on a planet. Vana had taught me to land myself!
“Yes, Gaia. You’re big. You’re a terraformer. So you’ve got a job to do, understand?”
“Yes sir. But. Um. Why? Why’m I the ship? I’m not really a pilot- or even a geologist or anything sir, I’m a botanist- oh, are my plants okay?”
The Captain sighed again, a long dark one that sent a shiver down my spine. “Gaia. During Cryo-Sleep, do you know what you are not supposed to do?”
Oh. Shit.
“Uh… roll over. And… wake up. And… do stuff.”
“That is correct. And what did Cadet Garcia do?”
“I… set a couple of alarms to check on my plants.” I admitted, tail looping around my legs, shamefaced. “That’s why I’m demoted?”
“No. I did not choose this punishment. Your actions… your exploits were too much for your body to handle. On your third return to cryo-sleep, the strain caused organ failure during the freezing process. Biologically, your original body died. I’m sorry.” The Captain spoke grimly.
I’m not sure how I want to die. I’ve always been a big fan of the heroic last stand in vidzines, going out saving people from alien horrors or at the helm of a starship. But I wasn’t a hero. Maybe in bed, old, surrounded by family? But that didn’t sit right, I didn’t have family plans. Perhaps in a grand disaster, like a planet imploding, that’d be badass.
But dying to a glitch, to my own stupidity? That was unacceptable.
“So… why this?”
“The Gaia’s Mainframe’s primary directives while traversing the wormhole was navigation and to preserve life. In your case, it somehow pulled a ridiculous stunt and opted to shunt your consciousness and neural pathways into the ship mainframe itself. Your life was preserved, and you are alive, but our systems are jeopardized for the moment.”
I didn’t know what to say. Sorry? Thankyou? In the end, my voice sounded small, childlike.
“Can you fix me?”
Another classic Morrow sigh came. “Long term? It’s possible. But we’ve got a schedule to keep, a colony to prepare, and a planet to terraform. So meantime, gotta get to work, understand?”
My ankles clunked together as I stood to attention again hurriedly, trying to suppress a sniffle, a sense of vertigo, and a temptation to look down again. “Yes sir.”
“Then start walking.”
—
Category Story / Macro / Micro
Species Robot / Android / Cyborg
Size 120 x 120px
File Size 58.4 kB
Listed in Folders
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