"Good morning, Jack Tanner," chimed the soothing voice of the computer. "Chief Engineer Bu will be picking you up from your quarters in thirty minutes."
Jack groggily wiped the sleep from his eyes. He reached between his legs to scratch his balls, but when his hand encountered nothing but smooth insectoid plates, his eyes shot open. Dreams that were mundane and subdued faded and gave way to the fantastic and bizarre memories of the day before. He groaned and withdrew his hand from his featureless groin.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed, stood, and stepped forward, dragging his abdomen off the bed behind him, and the sheet with it. It swung forward and slapped the back of his knees, almost sending him to the floor. To his dismay, his gaster was heavier than he remembered, and noticeably bloated. He waddled to the bathroom and took a shower. The running water did a great job of soothing his nerves-
Until he noticed all the hair running down the drain.
He leapt out and toweled himself off. More body hair came off as he rubbed himself dry. Leg hair, chest hair, armpit hair, the only hair on his body that remained was the stuff on the top of his head. The face in the mirror showed no sign of morning stubble. He stroked his fingers over the skin and shuddered.
He was beyond hairless. His skin was perfectly smooth, seemingly bereft of follicles and pores and everything that gave human flesh its subtle texture.
Jack scrambled to his room's control panel, and called Cand-e. She was at his door in less than a minute, looking as sexy as ever and holding a small, white bag with a red cross on it. He thanked her for coming on such short notice.
"It's no problem at all. I do love it when my patients invite me to their quarters and show a little extra skin." She winked as she entered the room. "Take a seat on the bed. Let's have a look at you."
As he struggled to find a sitting position that didn't pinch his gaster, Cand-e opened up her bag and withdrew a device that looked like a small, featureless dildo.
"Oh, um maybe you misunderstood," he said, "I didn't call you here for that. I mean, it's not that I didn't enjoy myself yesterday. I did, but there's something wrong with my skin, and my hair is falling out-"
Cand-e giggled. "Someone's mind is in the gutter this morning. This is a medical scanner, silly."
Jack blushed. "Ah."
She twisted the base of the scanner, and it buzzed to life, just like a vibrator. She slid it up and down his body, looking focused and giving the occasional thoughtful "hmm." The touch tickled intensely, especially against his gaster, where she lingered for a few extra seconds.
"Well, well. It appears congratulations are in order. You are, indeed, pregnant."
Jack's stomach sank. "Are you sure?"
Cand-e smiled. "Absolutely. Your gaster is two and a half kilograms heavier than it was yesterday, and most of that weight comes from the eggs. You're carrying around quite a few. Would you like to know how many?"
"No!" Jack swallowed. "I mean, no. Sorry, I don't want to think about it. Besides, you're going to be able to remove it before they're. . . ready, right?"
Cand-e's smile faded. "I'm afraid that brings us back to your sudden pro-bono waxing. It appears that the Salekk organ isn't finished integrating itself into your system. It's enriching your blood with some sort of mutagenic compound that's changing you on a genetic level. The loss of your body hair, the disappearance of your pores. . . these are the first visible signs of the effect it's having on you. I can't even begin to design a separation procedure until your metamorphosis is complete."
"Metamorphosis!? I'm not turning into one of those bug things, am I?"
"No! Of course not. At least, I don't think so? The swelling of your nipples and breast tissue seem to indicate that you'll be keeping some mammalian features."
"Breast tissue?" Jack stared down at his chest. He had noticed that his nipples looked especially prominent this morning, but he'd chalked it up to not having any chest hair covering them. He tentatively pinched one and flinched at its unexpected tenderness. It throbbed and hardened in response, swelling larger than a male nipple had any business being.
He asked Cand-e a litany of questions, but she didn't have any answers. She reassured him that she would study the data she gathered during the scan and let him know as soon as she had any more information.
"Give me a call if you need my services," she said, standing. "Any of my services."
She turned and was out the door before she had a chance to see Jack blush.
Bu was due to pick him up any minute. Not wanting to answer the door naked, he opened up his luggage and pulled out one of his hoodies. None of his pants would fit, so he wrapped the bedsheet around his waist like a makeshift skirt.
When the upbeat hyena arrived, the first thing he did was ask her how to get a new outfit. She tilted her head.
"I suppose. . . We should have just enough time before our meeting with the captain."
She led Jack down a new set of corridors. A lot more people glanced at the bulge in the back of his sheet, now that there was no red alert distracting them. He steeled his nerves and soldiered on, telling himself it would only be for a few more minutes before he was properly covered. Bu noticed his discomfort and smirked.
"Someone told me humans from your era were super uncomfortable about sex. Said you guys didn't even like to show your ankles off."
"No, nothing like that. That was a couple hundred years before me. We were pretty chill."
Bu looked thoughtful. "Is that so? Why don't you lose the sheet, then? No one would stop you, and it's probably a lot more comfortable."
"Uh. . . I don't think so."
She snorted. "That's what I thought. I'll never understand humanity's obsession with modesty. My people, the Coba, are nudists. We wear armor and camouflage during war, and that's it. Covering yourself is considered rude, suspicious, or even hostile."
Jack examined the skimpy bathing suit of an outfit the hyena was wearing. "If that's true, why aren't you naked right now?"
Bu sighed. "It's an Earth Empire thing. All officers have to wear a uniform that covers their 'privates.' This is the most minimal outfit they offer."