Trying to come up with a plan I started to
feel along the wall, trying to find any way to open it. Embarrassingly I have
to admit that my other hand was busy elsewhere, trying to feel every inch of
the skin in and on my body to make sure it was no dream and that if it truly
was I would remember every bit of it.
First Contact, or the first day of your new life
There was a clicking sound somewhere behind
me, I could not pinpoint it and suddenly the fluid I was swimming in began to
ripple.
Then a voice came through the walls, it
sounded like the voice of the reptilian woman, but this time I could understand
her perfectly.
“Greetings child, I hope your explorations
have you not caused too much distress? I would have contacted you earlier but
unfortunately we had to get to a save place first. My name Is Sissla’Kra, I am
the female you saved from certain death. My lifemate Uris’Kra was unfortunately
badly hurt and still resides in a regeneration egg, similar to yours.”
I listened to her breathlessly, my moth
halfway open. The woman! So many things went through my head that I couldn’t
form a rational though…
“I… but? What, what happened to me?”
The womans voice answered me, this time
sounding terribly sad.
“When you saved our lives I ordered our
ship to take us and you aboard. There we discovered your sever injuries,
several seemingly caused by severe freezing.
I have to tell you a bit about ourselves to
make you understand what happened. I hope you don’t mind?”
I did not answer her, but I nodded, curious
about what she had to say and still more than a little shocked.
“We, as you might have guessed by our
appearance, do not belong to your race and have only been to your planet
because a human, calling himself ‘Star Rider’ told us we might find allies in
our war against the Krykal. I will not go into details about our follies. It
seems this Star Rider was not truly interested in helping us but rather wished
to acquire our technology to further his own interstellar travel. He sent us into
an environment quite hostile to us, and the envoys we were to meet turned out
to be armed murderers.”
“Me and my lifemate are civilians ourselves
and had we been able to contact our home world much of this might not have
happened.”
She seemed quite distraught about the
events. I would probably be too, if I hadn’t been turned into a woman before
waking up. Right now you could have hit me with a boulder and I still would
have smiled.
Sissla continued after a brief pause.
“Your arrival was almost perfectly timed.
My lifemate had frozen our adversaries using certain technologies we possess.
Unfortunately they were able to shoot him with their archaic weapons the
instant it took for the effect to take hold.”
“After shielding him I took up the device
and tried to kill them, I have to admit to my shame. The device had been
damaged though and was quickly losing power. Also my own body was succumbing to
the cold and I had given up all hope.
Then you came and saved us.”
I nodded at that, staring at the white wall
but having the images of the encounter flitting before my eyes.
“For what you did I and my life mate are
deeply in your debt. We could not let you die from your wounds. But we could
not just set you down somewhere since we were pursued by the Star Riders
vehicle. He is unfortunately armed with deadly weapons. I believe the only
reason he did not display his ship, or tried to force us to do his bidding with
it, earlier was because he feared a response of your government.”
I nodded again, a UFO pursued by a manmade
spaceship of unidentified make would probably get more than its share of
attention by everyone, including the military.
“Our ship, to our luck, is far more
manoeuvrable and faster than his and we were able to escape his grasp. Now we
are residing on the dark side of your planets moon and we saw that Star Rider
fly out of the system believing we had fled.”
The voice seemed to become less melancholy
saying this, you could hear her relief through the walls. I had started
rotating again because of my head movement and wrapped my arms around my legs,
the pressure on certain parts of my body made me almost laugh out in joy and
was very comforting. My new tail swam behind me, occasionally giving a flick to
keep me turning.
Hey, if you are in none gravity you should
enjoy it!
“Our systems are in no way equipped to aid
one of your species, but your life signs were fading so fast that I could not
risk any delay. I knew my only choice was to make do with what I had, that
meant infusing your body with our DNA and using the regenerative abilities of
our reg-eggs to change your body on a cellular level. But I could not do that,
knowing how different our species look. So I used the equipment to invade your
mind.
Another thing I am deeply ashamed of. It
was the only course of action though I believe.”
I started to stiff when she mentioned
looking into my mind. Now that is not something I want anyone to do! I had my
share of secrets I considered too shameful to let anyone else know.
However she did it, Sissla must have
noticed my reaction because her voice instantly became soothing.
“Please forgive me. To my defence I can
only say that I ignored everything but what I needed to know. I wanted to see
how you would react to being changed like I intended. Your reactions were far
from favourable. I got the impression that you would have found death rather
acceptable compared to that.”
Now she sounded definitely hurt and I
hurried to apologize for my close-mindedness without even thinking.
”Sissla I…I am deeply sorry , really I must look like an asshole but its just…
you look so different…I “
At that point she interrupted me rather
forcefully, I had the impression, that if we had stood opposite each other, she
would have have animatedly shown me to stop talking.
“No! Please, don’t apologize, it was my
fault to begin with! Everyone is entitled to their opinion, be it in your race
or mine. And I can fully understand your reservations. Your species doesn’t
look very presentable to us either.”
She took a deep breath then, and I kept
silent, not wanting to make her angry and feeling foolish for my apologies. I
have always been quick to apologize, a habit I don’t really know how to change.
“I would have honoured your decision to
rather die than being changed into what we are if I hadn’t found one thing that
seemed to move everything into a totally different context.”
I know I blushed at that. I think it turned
me in a shade of violet!
I knew what she had discovered, what I
considered my most secret and embarrassing secret.
She ignored my blush, which I was
thankfully for and kept talking.
“When I discovered your preference to be
female and that you would accept being… how did you put it? , ‘Ugly as hell’ as
long as you were female I knew that this could work. “
I smiled, yes it would and it has. I guess
even if I had discovered a reptilian snout instead of a more or less human face
I would have accepted it after the initial shock.
“I couldn’t let you die, it would never
have covered our debt. Even now I know the debt has not been covered. Not even
partly. Changing your body by donating the DNA of mine I could not really model
its eventual outcome. In essence you, in a very short span of time, grew up
like a hatchling of my own race would. But when this process was finished,
making cosmetic changes to your body was quite easy. I used your own idea of
beauty to model your physic as well as I was able to. And I must say I am proud
of the result. It should be to your liking.”
I hoped so, but I knew, as long as I didn’t
look too freakish being a woman would be heaven for me. Then the thought came
to me that I would probably raise hell if I ever walked around in this body on
earth. Mankind ahs seen a lot of odd mutations and things but a lizard woman
still would give most people pause.
“Despite this, your DNA and body is
essentially that of a Sirdan, one of our race. And due to the process involved
in changing the complete structure of your body, another change would be
deadly. I have to tell you that you will be stuck as you are now and that some
of our advanced healing methods will not work on you, should you ever require
them…”
Should I be shocked about that? I really
wasn’t, so what, as long as I am female I will take every pain I have to, to
stay that way.
“Sissla… as long…I mean I don’t care.” I
responded with a smile in my voice. “What I mean is, you gave me what I most
longed for, and I am sure I can live the way I am now… but, I am not sure where
I can live. I honestly do not wish to live among your own species. And my… my
former species will surely not just ignore my looks and take me as I am…”
We both stayed silent after I said that, I
guess we were mulling over that problem when I suddenly remembered that I was
still trapped inside, what I now knew, the regeneration egg.
“Ah Sissla, could I get out of this… egg?
Not that it isn’t comfortable but I would like to stretch my legs and move
around a bit?”
I hear a chuckle and then a hiss.
”Oh my, I am sorry. Of course! The processes are all finished. I will open the
egg. Make sure you are at the bottom of it, when I open it the artificial none
gravity zone will collapse and you will be under ship gravity.”
I took that in then looked around,
wondering where up and down were in there.
“Uh, how do I know where the bottom of the
egg is?”
Now this egg wasn’t egg shaped like a
chicken egg but seemingly perfectly round.
“Look for the point where the veins in the
walls all come together. That is the bottom.”
I could practically feel her mirth, she
seemed to find my situation with the egg very funny.
But I easily saw the described spot; it was
to my left side, which meant I was hovering horizontally my right side pointing
up.
After a lot of arms waving and tail
swishing I aligned myself with the bottom and touched it with my feet, my not
very human looking feet.
My toes seemed a bit longer than normal
with toenails as pointy and sharp as my fingernails. They of course were as
green as the rest of me and thankfully I did not acquire extra joint like Sissa
and her lifemate had.
When I was in position and stable the
hissing became louder and suddenly the top of the egg seemed to vanish. The
fluid around me seemed to drain away and I gently settled on my feet, swaying a
bit with the new force pulling at me.
It felt like normal earth gravity and I
stood up, stretching my legs languidly. The Egg seemed to melt down around me
and I could see the room I stood in for the first time.
Circular but not as high as it was wide,
coloured in a warm and almost pulsating mix of greens and similar colours the
walls looked almost like a two dimensional jungle but without the definition of
leaves and trees.
On one side, at what seemed like a computer
station but without any resemblance to earth computers stood Sissla, smiling,
as I easily recognized with my new eyes, at me.
“I am sure you would like a more in depth
view of your new body?” She asks while tilting her head to one side. When I
nodded she pressed a button and directly next to me a mirror shimmered into the
air and hovered there.
I curiously touched it but it felt just
like any mirror I had touched on earth.
Then my eyes focussed onto the image in the
mirror and I gasped, in delight far more than in horror.
Before me stood a young woman, or maybe
more a girl, a teenager possibly. The most exotic teenager I had ever seen. Turquoise
skin covered in intricate patterns of shades of green. Delicate scales covered
her hands, feet, thicker, bigger and almost plate like ones the upper and lower
parts of my arms and legs merging into the skin at the joints and the parts
pointing toward my body.
My eyes focussed on those first, afraid to
look on the source of most of my delight.
Then I shifted them to my face, studying it
and my head.
It looked perfect, at least for me, dark
green lips, big black eyes, small nose that could almost be lizard like but
also looked very human. Smiled wickedly to myself and then went on with my
examination.
It seemed that my face was ringed by scales
too, covering what on a human is covered by hair. I had no ears but a…I would
call it a small ridge on each side of my head and a small hole before them,
both on a slightly elevated and tilted ear like part of my head. Scales were
covering the underside of my chin, throat and encircling my neck and covering
the shoulders before moving down to merge with the scales on my upper arm. On
top of my head was a larger ridge of scales who seemed to move backwards and
when I turned slightly I could see them developing into my tail. The ridge
seemed rather sharp on both my head and where it was moving down my body and I
was sure my slender tail could be quite dangerous. Scales covered my back an
the outsides of my buttocks fully, merging onto my legs scales on my upper
legs.
All the skin that showed towards my body
seemed to be either free of them or only covered by almost paper thin ones.
Satisfied so far I closed my eyes then
opened them again and looked at my front. My breasts and sex were not covered,
leaving smooth skin that slowly evolved into the scales the farther you got
away from these zones.
The space above my vulva and up to under my
breasts was also covered in scales, which got thicker towards the breasts
before tapering off again.
It seemed that my back and the front over
my lungs and stomach and the front of my upper and lower legs were the best
covered while my ...delicates and the inside skin were the least covered.
I felt like a knight in armour and couldn’t
believe how flexible and light I was at the same time. I flexed my arms and
legs and made every contortion I could think of with my body but could not feel
any impairment. When I moved my upper body I could very very faintly hear a
swishing made by the scales of my back moving against each other though.
It was very creepy but also very elating.
As if I were an Amazon ready for battle, I could feel myself exuding strength,
litheness and even some exotic grace.
The markings on my body helped that image
too. My skin turned far lighter turning in colour to become more of a yellow
than turquoise on my front area, creating a distinct part from under my skin,
following the contours of my sides and over my legs. As if I wore some very
skimpy dress. Backwards, towards my tail the colour got deeper and the
intricate patterns I noticed in the egg kept to this part of my body.
I took a deep breath, the smile never
leaving me and twirled around, coming to a stop facing Sissla who was tensely
watching me. She didn’t seem half as assured about getting my looks right as
she had said.
“I am beautiful! Thanks Sissla, you did a
wonderful job!”
With that I quickly approached her and
hugged her. The relief was glowing in her face but I somehow don’t think that
hugging was a very big part of their society. She held herself rather
awkwardly.
When I let go she nodded and turned to push
another button, shutting off the mirror.
While she did that I took a good look at
her, she was at least a head taller than me and now that she didn’t lie half
frozen on the ground she looked as if she could intimidate even the most battle
hardened soldier.
Whereas I saw my new body as maybe a bit
Amazonian, hers exuded strength and you knew she could possible shred her
opponents to pieces.
“I am very happy that you think your new
looks are adequate. Any other verdict would have been devastating. There is
another thing I ahev to show you.”
With that she held out her hand which
started to glow, then a white glowing… wisp of energy emerged from it and
hovered above it.
“This is part of my species heritage. We
call them soul lights. The females of my species are far less strong and
durable than the males. Nature provided us with our own means of defence. These
lights” Sissla moved it around, it floating in a circle around her head before
resuming its position over her hand “enable us to create shields, we can use
them to move objects or discharge violent energy and see through thema s
through our own eyes.”
That she demonstrated too, moving the
sphere to my hand and, somehow, attaching it to my skin, I felt a tuck and let
my hand be moved upward before the light disengaged and moved back to Sissla.
Then she pointed towards my left and the light suddenly flared, a small laser
like white beam extended from it to dissipate into the air. The light dissolved
during this.
“You can create as many of these lights as
you wish, there more you create the stronger they are, shields will be more
durable, heavier items can be moved and the beams can become quite devastating.
You can merge these lights if you need to concentrate them at one point.
Why don’t you try it?”
She smiled encouragingly at me, I held my
hand in front of myself and concentrated but nothing happened.
“No, don’t try to force it, look inside
you, the energy is there, you just have to use it…”
I nodded and tried again, this time
relaxing and waiting for something to prick my attention. Then I suddenly felt
it, something warm in my belly… or that is what it felt. I could move it, or
make it extend. I filled my hand with it until it glowed and then, like a bird
taking flight one of those lights emerged from my hand.
I had the weird sensation of being at two
spots at the same time, on one hand I saw the light hovering close to me, on
the other I was the light looking up at myself. Totally weird!
Then everything snapped into place, I saw
through my own eyes again, but I could still feel myself hovering above my
hand. I knew it would only take a thought to use the light as my eyes.
Then suddenly the light dissipated and I
felt a bit drained. Sissla was beaming proudly at me.
“Very good! Few manage to do this much on
their first try. Don’t worry about the duration or how much it takes out of
you, it needs practice before it will become easy to you. But you will have
time to hone this ability later. For now, lets get you something to wear now,
shall we?”
I nodded, blushing again, in all the time I
studied myself not once did I think about covering my nakedness. I even half
expected to find all of Sissla’s kind to go naked while among themselves. Shows
you how much junk movies teach you.
Sissla motioned me to follow her and walked
with long and energetic steps out of the room, me hot on her heels.
We entered a round, maybe 2 and a half
meter tall corridor with equally round doors evenly spaced to either side.
Everything was coloured in either greens or browns. Seemingly the preferred
colours of my hosts.
Sissla soon stopped at one door which
smoothly opened before her and motioned for me to follow through.
The new room looked so much like a living
room on earth that I stood there for a moment just taking this oddity in.
Overall the room was as round as almost
everything else I had seen so far, shaped similar to the egg room but far
smaller.
On one side was a metallic shining closet
curved to accommodate the wall. In the middle was a small white table with several
big cushions around it. On the left side another two doors, one of them open.
You could see what looked like a shallow bathing tub stuffed with a wool like
substance. I thought it may be a bed, an alien version of one at least.
Sissla went to the closet and touched one
panel of it which slid back and revealed… an empty quadratic space with a panel
on the front to its left.
Pressing some buttons, it seemed you could
do anything on this ship by pressing the right button, tightly folded clothes
materialised to fill the space.
And I swear the glowing effect the thing
created almost looked like the transporters in Star Trek!
Sissla picked up the clothes, a brown suit
with what seemed like soft inflatable boots and gloves. She handed it to me
and told me to dress in this.
I placed the shoes and gloves on the table
and took a look at the suit, trying to find a zipper or something.
Highly amused Sissla pointed at a small
metallic plate and told me to press it, when I did the suit seemed to part from
there to the crotch without any sound or assistance.
I shrugged, self opening suits aren’t that
surprising in a spaceship are they?
Quickly getting in the suit I slipped into
the boots and pulled the gloves over my hands, then looked back at Sissla who
was watching me with great interest.
“Are you ready to go on? I would like to
show you the bridge and then we should decide on what to do with you.”
I nodded without saying anything, Sissla
turned and lead me out of the room.
We continued through the corridor until we
came to a door bigger than the others, this opened silently before us and gave
way to a big, with several chairs and consoles equipped room.
A big window displayed the desolate grey
lunar landscape and a sea of stars in a clear black sky. I almost forgot my
current situation seeing this, while Sissla continued into the room I was
standing in the doorway, mouth agape, watching the scenery. I was in space… on
the moon, and it was so beautiful, serene but at the same time lonely. I felt a
calm overcome me, as if everything was perfectly right in the world. I wondered
if Armstrong felt like this when he set foot on the grey satellite. I felt as f
I just had realized what most people just dream about…
Sissla drew my eyes to her by clearing her
throat and the magic moment was broken. Happiness about my new body and
unsureness about my situation returned and I stepped onto the bridge, the door
closing again behind me.
A central half egg shaped command… thing
stood in front of me, it looked like a seat put into the bottom of an egg and
merged with lots of flat control surfaces and floating, translucent immaterial
monitors. Sissla had walked left of it, standing beside the huge window as if
presenting a new car. More command chairs were arranged circular around the
walls but most of the stations seemed offline, only the center and one of the
stations close to Sissla were active. It seemed this ship was designed to hold
far more than two persons.
“This is our bridge as you surely have
noticed. Why don’t you take a seat here”” She pointed to the active station
beside her. I walked closer and studied the place before sitting down, I was
just in the motion to place myself on the seat when my tail reminded myself of
its presence. I stopped in mid motion and looked behind me where it was half
curled on the chair, I hadn’t even consciously felt or moved it, it must have
happened without my consent, a brief paranoia overcame me when I thought that
it may have its own consciousness, but I dismissed that as totally silly and
then twitched the tail just to reassure myself. It moved according to my
commands, though how exactly that worked I could not fathom, its almost like
waking up with an extra leg or something.
Behind the tail, in the back of the seat I
could see a big hole, obviously designed to place that extremity through it,
which I did carefully.
Then finally seated I looked up at Sissla
who seemed to be on the verge of having a laughing fit.
“Excuse me,” she said getting serious again
“but that was just too amusing. Now please take a look at the screen.”
I did, Earth was displayed there, slowly
rotating and with several red blinking markings all around it.
“The markings are several places I could
set you down that would give you a modest degree of security. I apologize for
rushing this, and for giving so little assistance. But that pirate of a man
will soon be back and it would be best for all of us if my lifemate and I could
draw him away, if he learned of you he might try to use you to pressure us in
aiding him. “She looked very uneasily saying this “I consider you part of our
family now, since not only have you been changed using our DNA, but your
current situation is my responsibility. I will do anything to prevent harm to
come to you.”
I looked up at her, this was quite serious,
I wanted to say that I could look out for myself, but I wasn’t sure I could
given the current circumstances. I would survive somehow, I was sure, but how I
wasn’t.
She continued before I could say anything.
“All of these places have either a relative high population of none human
looking individuals or are areas dedicated to either the security or safety of
none humans or super humans. With our technological superiority I can create an
alternate identity for you with ease and we could temporarily set up a save
spot for you until My lifemate or I can make it back here to aid you.”
When she stopped talking I looked back at
the display, back to earth sounded like something good but the way I looked I
knew it would by no means be easy. Enough people were superstitious or outright
against individuals who weren’t close to the norm. I wouldn’t want to be the
target of a mob of close minded fanatics or anything like that.
And I couldn’t be sure that any of these
locations truly could give me security.
Sissla seemed to feel my unease and spoke
again “There is another problem that we have to face. Though I am able to
generate an identity for you, we can in no way be involved with any of the
human governments or institutions. Neither my lifemate nor I are authorized to
involve ourselves in the local civilizations without them making the first
step. And as the pirates truth have shown to be lies we have lost any grounds
to be in this system at all.”
So basically, after being inserted into the
system I was on my own. It didn’t really matter to me, my life has been turned
upside down, part of my dreams have been realized, I would face hell itself if
I had to, nothing could drag me down anymore.
“Sissla, I understand and I won’t lie to
you, I am a bit intimidated by what may come at me but I know I can survive
anything the world can throw at me… So don’t worry. Just set me down somewhere
I am remotely save and I will be fine…”
Sissla nodded, not entirely convinced that
it was the right thing to do. Then as if jolting out of her thoughts she
pointed at a mark on the north American continent.
“This, is in my estimates the best area to
set you down. It is called WhateleyAcademy, seemingly
an area of learning dedicated to super humans. I will not be able to enter
yourself into the facility I can provide you with technology to move around
there unhindered. It should allow you to stay below anyone’s radar for the
duration of our absence. My target estimation is that we will be back within
two of your earthen weeks.”
“What kind of technology is that? How will
I be able to move around a school looking like I do? “
She smiled and entered something into the
command station, which switched to display what looked like a high tech
bracelet.
“This is a cloaking device that also works
as a holographic projector. Its main purpose is cloaking individuals in war to
allow them a greater range of actions. The cloaking it provides can be used
continuously for almost 8 of earths hours before the energy cells need to recharge
for 6 hours. Unfortunately, since this is used in the field its holographic
functions are far more limited. In effect it will be able to give you the
appearance of any humanoid you previously scanned into its memory for two
hours. But after these two hours you will have to let it recharge for at least
4 hours before you can use any of its functions again.” She watched me while
saying that, I wasn’t showing much beside the smile that so far hadn’t left my
lips.
“I believe that will sufficient to allow
you to obtain nourishment and any other items you may need to live. Beside
this, attached to this spaceship is a smaller shuttle, which has limited
interstellar capacity and most importantly a cloaking shield that is capable of
running continuously and by that giving you a place to live at without being
seen.”
Now this sounded really interesting! My own
spaceship! Wow! And cloaking? Why did I have to think about the Star Treck
movies at that?
“Wow really? That would be great, could I
leave the solar system with it? Visit other stars?”
I was gleefully imagining myself making
first contact with other races and visiting strange planets.
“Theoretically it has the ability to reach
other star systems. But I would strongly advise you against doing that. Though
the ship itself will be easy to handle but you would gain the attention of
other space faring civilizations. Please promise me not to leave this system
without pressing need.”