[Earth, 2334 AD]
Circa 2040 AD, corruption, greed, pollution, conflict, short-sightedness, denial, apathy, and overconsumption tipped the world into nearly two centuries of chaos and destruction. Hunger, war, storms fueled by global warming, and several deadly pandemics swept the globe. All of this resulted in a near zero birth rate. The remnants of humanity have fragmented into small clusters of life, struggling to survive, and competing fiercely for food and resources against other humans as well as against apex predators like wolves, big cats, and large reptiles. The roughly 20,000 humans who remain have migrated largely underground, into subterranean colonies where women and children are kept as safe as is possible from the hell that exists on the surface. Earth is now a tropical jungle world with the exception of a few desert regions and at its poles.
My name is John Goodson, Sergeant. I'm 26 years old, and I'm the leader of patrol squad Alpha out of New Arizona Refuge. The United States of America no longer exists, but a lot of the old names still persist. My squad, ten of us, are foraging and hunting on the surface roughly two kilometers from our underground home.
"What the hell is that?" RJ shouts. He's looking up through a break in the foliage, shielding his eyes against bright sunlight with one hand, while cradling his assault rifle close to his chest with the other.
I see a gleam of silver as a strange arrowhead shaped aircraft fills the space above the treetops. There is an odd vibration all around us, and then, a flash of light so bright it blinds me momentarily.
"Fuck," I growl, as I feel a sharp jabbing pain in the side of my neck, and then, everything fades to nothing.
...
[Alien reptilian (saurian) species JeXzi]
[Aboard multigenerational interstellar spaceship in near earth orbit]
The JeXzi have journeyed 530 years(EM, Earth Measure) at 10% light speed, to reach their goal, a blue world rich with water, with an Oxygen/Nitrogen atmosphere, and orbiting a stable yellow star in its Goldilocks zone. Of the 3,000 JeXzi who departed their world, only roughly 400 males remain, descendants of those who began their galactic trek so long ago. Their home world has been engulfed by an expanding red giant star by now. These 400 saurian males are all that remain of their species. They are powerful, predatory, and highly intelligent. Average height for JeXzi males is 2.2 meters(EM). Average height for JeXzi females was 1.8 meters(EM).
JeXzi females had always been a minority sex among their species, typically in a ratio of approximately 10:1 - ten males for each female. This ratio was never a problem because JeXzi females are highly sexed, driven to breed almost constantly, accepting several males without discrimination, even in rapid succession, and producing three or four eggs every 10 days(EM). JeXzi males prize their females but there is no monogamy, no jealousy, no concern for parentage. Once hatched, juveniles are nurtured collectively by all females until they reach a certain age. JeXzi lifespan is roughly 90 years(EM). One Queen typically rises to dominance over the other females, enhancing her colorations and feminine drive and attributes.
At the outset of their interstellar voyage, one JeXzi female had carried an undetected nascent pathogen within her ovaries. Despite JeXzi technological and medical prowess, efforts to contain and isolate the infection failed, and, one by one, over time, every female succumbed to the disease. Top JeXzi scientists had the foresight to collect and preserve DNA: chromosomes and hormones, from the dying females, and then found ways to replicate these sophisticated organics. Experiments were done, attempting to alter a few JeXzi males by infusing them with large amounts of synthesized female hormone, but each attempt was met with failure. The JeXzi male physiology was simply too dominant versus any effort to alter it.
"We need a weaker species. It is imperative we create a new Queen," was the consensus.
... Three weeks(EM) later...
(One who once was, John)
I regain consciousness gradually at first. Disorientation is severe, but once sufficiently aware, I'm hit simultaneously with an overwhelming feeling of nausea, claustrophobia, and a sensation of drowning. Instinctively, I begin to thrash and try to find breath and space, only to realize that I am tethered with restraints as well as by multiple tubes connected to my body. I'm fully submerged, yet suspended within some kind of tank or chamber filled with a viscous fluid. It's dark, yet not so dark as to prevent me from seeing some large shadowy figures moving around outside of my liquid prison. My thoughts are confused. I try to remember who and what I am.
"Increase the sedation," one JeXzi trills to another. JeXzi verbal communication is based on 31 musical notes, like letters of the human alphabet. JeXzi trill in a rapid succession of notes which they process in the same manner that humans process speech.
"The transformation is progressing well - better than hoped in truth, but we are not yet ready for subject awareness. Primus will be pleased. He has not sheathed his cock since our last female died, more than 10 years(EM) ago," one JeXzi trills.
The JeXzi medical scientists peer more closely into the chamber which holds a human once named John, but who is rapidly becoming something different altogether. They begin to discuss their observations, recording and cataloging the changes.
"See how the gonads have retracted? The penis has all but disappeared. Soon it will be a clitoral nerve bundle just above her vaginal slit. Her cloaca will be a separate opening, just behind the vaginal slit. I recommend that we maintain current infusion rate of JeXzi female DNA, but that we increase the level of JeXzi female hormone being infused - we may yield a Queen from this subject."
"Yes, this species seems ideal for our need. We may even gain a new advantage. The mammalian capacity to feed their young from their own body via breasts will integrate with our modifications. She will have breasts which will produce a protein capable of nourishing our young. Once she is bred, and begins her lifelong function of producing eggs, the protein production should become a permanent condition. Calculations suggest that her breasts will form with a protrusion from the thorax of approximately 12 centimeters, but this could well increase over time, with constant use."
