CHAPTER 1 - Natalie
Shifting out of stardrive, I dropped into normal space and approached the station. It was one of the pre-Federation ones, a clunky old beast of plexglass and hard steel corners. The kind of ugly, functional things the Human Empire was designing back at the beginning of the space age. I let my ship drift closer, scanners playing over the exterior. Most of these old derelicts had been picked clean decades ago, but I had a knack for finding what others missed. I didn't think there would be anything special aboard this one, but it had been a while since my last payday, and I was feeling desperate.
The station didn't have a name on record, only a registration number. Back in the day, it would have housed a few thousand people, but something had gone wrong and it was now completely abandoned. That was the way of things out here — less than one in a hundred of the independent societies managed to make a go of things. Sad, but good for scavengers like me.
"All internals nominal", my ship's AI chirped, the voice pleasant and female. "You are clear to go aboard."
"Thanks honey," I said, slipping out of the piloting couch and making my way back down the corridor. My ship wasn't the biggest in the world, nor was it the fastest, but it was the only home I had. I'd been wandering out here in the black for years now, doing one odd job after another to keep myself afloat. I was hoping that today would be the payday that set me up for a while, but I always hoped that, and it was so very rarely true.
Less than an hour later, I was suited up and drifting across the gap to the station. I had the universal access code for the side entrance — won it in a game of cards back on Rigel — and it wasn't long before I was inside. The interior was dark, my suit's headlamps playing over broken machinery and empty crash couches. The artificial gravity was down, bit and pieces of machinery and detritus floating through the air. A mug that said World's Greatest Second Officer drifted past, and I snorted to myself.
I moved through the corridors hand over hand, alternately pushing off furniture bolted to the ground or pulling myself along the railings. I gave the rooms a cursory check, but there wasn't anything of value. Honestly, I didn't really expect to find much. My interest was in the computer core.
Stations like these were pretty autonomous back in the day, and most of them ended up building their own computer systems. They had a tendency to create weird, strange new systems, stuff nobody else ever thought of. Half of them didn't work, or were only useful in specific circumstances, but they were still worth checking out. There were strange digital treasures to be found in places like this, and more than a few spacers like myself had made their fortune with a bizarre new piece of tech.
Moving through the derelict station was slow going, and it took me a few hours to find the computer core. It was a huge bank of machinery deep in the station's guts, screens and readouts totally dead. Nothing unique so far, but it was hard to tell with only my headlamps to go by. As an essential system, the core usually had a backup generator of its own. This one was no exception. I found it built into the wall behind the computer, and miracle of miracles, it still had some juice. I'd been expecting to have to recharge it myself. It wouldn't power the station itself, but I could probably get a few hours of life out of the computer.
The first strange thing happened soon after the core came to life. The screens flickered and glowed in an encouraging way. I waited for the interface to come up, wondering if it would be tactile or text based, when a warm voice spoke in my ear. It was soft, breathy and unmistakably female. "Welcome aboard, captain. Please select the nature of your interface."
I wasn't quite sure what it was asking. The nature of the interface? That could mean anything. The best way to test a system was to do something odd and see how it reacted, so I said the first thing that came into my head. It might have been dumb, but I'd been out here on my own for a little too long, and the isolation was getting to me. "Blonde."
There was a pause, then the voice spoke again. "Blonde. Comparing to social and historical references. Female. Youthful. Sexually compliant. Blonde." I felt my eyes widen as I listened. This was unlike any computer I'd ever encountered.
Suddenly a holo image flickered to life in front of me. It displayed the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. Her body was tight and athletic, her round tits prominently displayed. They looked like implants, but damn good ones. Her smile was dazzling, her eyes blue, and her body was completely bare. Her hair, as expected, was long, luscious and blonde. "Will this interface be acceptable, Captain?" the voice said again.
I don't know what else I could have said. I nodded, and when the system didn't respond, spoke aloud. "Yes. Um. The interface is acceptable."
The image flickered out, and for a moment I thought I'd done something wrong. Then a panel on the far side of the room started to glow. Faint mist drifted out from the cracks around it, and I realised it was the opening to some kind of compartment. Several seconds ticked by, and I wondered if I should intervene somehow. Then, without warning, the panel slid open and the girl I'd seen projected drifted out.
She was even more breathtaking in the flesh, Utterly naked, her tits shifting slightly as she moved, her brilliant blue eyes on me. She took a few steps toward me, bare feet drifting above the ground. She moved in zero gravity as though born to it. "Greetings Captain," she said, her voice bright and sunny. "Welcome aboard. Would you like to name me?"
My heart was thudding in my chest. It was hard to believe that this was real. I was familiar with some of the stranger technologies that had been developed out here on the rim — flash cloning, holo interfaces, operational AI — but nothing that could account for this. "Who are you?" I asked, struggling to keep my eyes off her tits, feeling confused and stupid.
"I'm the station's computer," she said, as though that were the simplest thing imaginable. "I run life support and onboard operations, though there doesn't seem to be much of that going on right now." She cocked her head, looking up at me curiously. "Are you my Captain?"
I don't know if you've ever found yourself faced by a beautiful naked woman who wants to know if you're her Captain, but if you ever are, I can assure you that you'll do the same as me. "Yes, honey. I'm your Captain."
A brilliant smile split her face. "That's wonderful news. Returning to my previous inquiry — would you like to name me?"
"Natalie." I didn't know where the name came from, but as soon as I said it, it sounded right. "Your name is Natalie."
She giggled gently and nodded. "Natalie. Thank you. I love it." She looked at me curiously, assessing the suit that I was in, the tools in my hands. "You seem tense. Would you prefer if I were to activate life support?"
"Is that possible?"
"Yes, Captain, it is." As well programmed as she was, Natalie didn't seem to understand rhetorical questions.
"Sure, please go ahead and turn on life support." I watched as she closed her eyes and furrowed her cute brow, mouthing words as though doing equations by hand. Suddenly the lights in the room went on, and I felt the movement of cycled air through my suit. A reading in the helmet popped up: EXTERIOR SAFE. Cautiously, I removed the helmet and took a deep breath. Oxygen, stale but extremely breathable. "Natalie, you're a wonder."
She smiled at that, pleased to have pleased me. "I'm optimised to attend the needs of several thousand inhabitants, Captain. My sensors are limited at present, but it appears we are the only beings aboard. This makes things simple for me."
"How about grav? Any chance of that?"
Once again Natatlie closed her eyes, and once again a system whirred to life. We drifted down, feet touching the deck under a clean single G of grav. Natalie stood on her toes for just a moment, poised like a dancer, before settling down. "Power reserves are limited at present. We'll need to perform some repairs before my systems can be stabilised."
I nodded, barely listening. I'd come looking for something unique, and I'd certainly found it. But how could I make the best of it? If she'd been code I could copy her, but that didn't seem to be an option. I'd have to play along for the moment and see if I could learn more about what was happening.
"Are there other operations to conduct, or shall I proceed to secondary function?"
I was pulling off my suit and only half listening to her, lost in my own thoughts. "What functions are those?"
"Why, sexual ones!"
It made sense, and if I'd thought about it for more than five seconds, I might have expected that. The form she'd chosen and her lack of clothing kind of gave it away. Still, her casual tone meant I almost tripped out of my boots. "I'm sorry, sexual functions?"
"Yes Captain. It's my understanding that a human male who doesn't ejacualte at least once per day is unable to perform at an optimal level. I've often been called upon to aid in this process. Would you like me to suck your dick?" I obviously stared at her for too long, because she went on. "I can assume a male form if you prefer, though your heart rate and eyeline indicate that you find this body sufficiently arousing."
"No no, you're great as you are. You're perfect."
