Spoiler Tags: Science Fiction, Short Story, M/F, Transformation, Heterosexual, Celestial, Space,
"This is transport log four-three-seven-one, nothing of note to report, currently passing by the balmy blue giant Zeta-seven-four, who's looking lovely as usual. Fuel levels are nominal and I'm scheduled to reach my destination, the port town Sevenski in three days. It'll be good to get a home cooked meal and see my little sisters again. This concludes the daily operations log of transporter Logan Germinson, ID seven six three six eight two two." Sighing, I pressed the button to stop the recording on the central computer. Looking out through the shielded port view, I listened to the quiet hum of electronics The entrancingly blue star Zeta-seven-four shone and danced, solar prominences seemingly waving at me even through the vast distances of space.
Starting up a holovid, I tried to find a way to pass the time.
That's the worst part about this job. The solitude.
Protocols dictated that every transport have a human on board, even if the vast majority of operation of the spacecraft was automated. This meant that the vast majority of my time was spent trying to entertain myself.
This isn't doing it for me.
I flipped the display from stored videos to the most recent data burst, which contained news from my home in the space station Sevenski.
Damn. Another terrorist attack on a nearby outpost. They commandeered a ship and filled it with explosives. The ship was able to get past their long range defenses because of the familiarity of the vessel and lax security.
I shivered in horror, patting the dashboard affectionately. "You'd never betray me like that would you girl?"
She remained silent but for the odd clicks and steady thrum of the engines. Sitting at two hundred feet from bow to stern, she'd been my steadfast companion through my entire career with the company. Built for long range transport, she wasn't much to look at but she was steady, never once failing me or giving me trouble outside of a snapping noise that popped up in the fusion drive from time to time.
Still, the unease sat uncomfortably in my stomach while I milled about my cabin, cleaning up the remains of my lunch. After my mandated calisthenics, I took an unsatisfying shower in hydro-gel lather that always left me feeling grainy, before climbing into my bunk set into the wall. I held up my omni-tool and, after a few clicks and swipes, managed to pull up an old family album my mother had put together for some holiday long forgotten. I smiled at my oldest sister's usual antics, she liked to make silly faces in the back of the photos. Seeing their faces finally did what my puttering around could not, I settled into my bed and flipped the screen to a soap opera stored on the ships database.
A sharp jolt woke me from sleep, the television show still playing on mute from the ceiling.
Rubbing the forgotten dream from my eyes, I tried to figure out what'd roused me. Wrinkling my nose, the faint scent of smoke drifted in their air. All of a sudden I was wide awake. I knew exactly what fire could do in space. Not to mention that fire almost certainly meant some sort of catastrophic disaster that could lead to my death if I didn't act swiftly. Clad only in my boxers I hastily examined my small living space, not seeing anything I ventured back into the cargo hold. Particulate swirled through the air and the scent of smoke was certainly stronger.
None of my cargo was flammable... was it?
Uncertainty and fear had me racking my brain as I examined the relatively empty space of the bridge. It wasn't until I looked up that I noticed the problem. A small point of the ceiling was slowly turning a cherry read.
Electrical fault.
I raced to the cockpit, tripping over my feet on the way. My dashboard flashed with a message...
Ongoing transmission. What the fuck?
Confusion held me in its grasp for a moment before a chilling realization stole the breath from my chest and replaced it with ice water.
The terrorists...
Horror was quickly replaced with denial.
This can't be happening to me.
Leaning forward, I put my head in my hands.
Maybe they'll let me go. Hold me for ransom. Wait no...
Pulling out my omni device, I displayed a hologram of my sister's face, eyes crossed with her tongue sticking out.
I can't take that chance. If they mean to bypass the security systems...
Setting my resolve and trying to ignore my rapidly pumping heart and sweaty palms, I went to work.
Smashing the safety glass, I pulled the lever that placed the ship into total lockdown, only leaving the life support working.
I'm a sitting duck in here. Or a cooking turtle as it is. I need to find a way to get them off before they break through.
Twenty minutes later the smoke in the cabin was much more pronounced and I'd exhausted all the options I could think of to pry them free or keep them out. I kept thinking of my family and what would happen to them if I failed here.
There's only one option.
Shaky hands pulled on the legs of my spacesuit and worked the ratcheting clamps to secure it tight. I approached the cargo hold door with trepidation, just a single reinforced door between me and the deadly vacuum of space. I knew this route like the back of my hand and it was very precise, all it would take was a little nudge- I cranked the lever up and the side entrance was pried open with a groan. Only my magnetic boots kept me from going the way of the rest of the atmosphere as my ship was pushed off course. - and I would fall into the gravity well of the blue star.
It's only a matter of time now Zeta-seven-four, before we'll have a chance to meet face to face.
A strange sort of calm enveloped me and I unhurriedly trailed my hand along the bulkhead as I worked back towards the hold. My ship shuddered as the terrorists vessel pushed off. I could see them hovering, just out of sight as my course curved toward the inevitable. All that was left was to contemplate my own mortality while I drifted towards my death.
I'm not courageous enough to endure the suffering I know is coming.
I popped the seal on the emergency medical supplies. Following the directions I set up the IV, wincing as the needle slid into the vein of my upper arm.
If any god exists and is listening. Please take care of my family, let them know that I love them and want nothing but their happiness.
I closed my eyes and turned the dial, allowing the medicine to trickle into my body. The drug worked fast, robbing me of strength as I lay back on my deathbed, a holo-cube of my sisters smiling face falling from my unfeeling fingers to clatter to the floor of my ship. Darkness everlasting enfolded me in a opium-derived haze.
Only, it wasn't, the void somehow gnawed deeper into my mind, gaining texture and complexity.
Emptiness. An eternity of it, that paradoxically filled me to the brim while also removing each of my senses in turn. This continued until there was a nothingness so complete that it stretched a sliver of time into forever.
No thought.
No awareness.
Just...
Floating.
Then, like the genesis of the universe, I regained existence as a lone spark. A single dancing light, seemingly alone in the universe. Then there were two, the spark dividing to create a partner to dance with in the night. Then it happened again. Over and over the shining particles multiplied, splitting time and again until...
Bang.
I collapsed into a single point, atomic forces gripping the playful ball tight in their immutable hands. Energy sparking between the disparate parts of the roiling ball of exotice particles, approaching critical mass.
Awareness returned softly, like a sunrise, doled out piece by piece without a discernible pattern, beginning with the sense of heat. Like suntanning on a beach, rays of thermal energy danced around me from every direction.
Following heat was a smell, it was a warm sweetness, a chilli powder seasoned strawberry. These sensations were my only companions, comforting and nurturing me while the particles continued to reproduce, taking nutrients from the ambient cosmic solar rays to grow larger.
Then, like a god kickstarting the universe in a musty religious tome, there was light. A blinding blue brilliance surrounded me like a shell.
And with that light came thought. Memories and self-identity drowned me in a kaleidoscopic waterfall, if every drop of water was instead a brick, each one bruising in its own way as the wall of my mind was painstakingly built. Panic ripped at me with the remembrance of what had happened.
Shit! The terrorists got my ship. There gonna use it to kill my family.
I tried to thrash around, only to realize that I couldn't feel
any
of my body. Not toes or fingers or anything in between. I couldn't even open my eyes. I couldn't tell if I still
had
eyes. Blind with dread, I couldn't organize my thoughts. Cognition shattered and devolved into a series of fears.
Paralysis.
Death.
Torture.
Over and over they cycled.
Death.
Coma.
