by Tahlia

After Death

Chapter II

Rude Awakening

Eric's eyes shot open as if he suddenly awoke from a terrible nightmare. It was strange, he felt as though he'd only closed his eyes for a second between the catastrophe in the engine room and now, laying in bed. He thought it might have all been a dream. If he really did blow the engine, he knew he would be lucky to even be alive right now. However, as he stared up at the ceiling, he realized that he wasn't in his bedroom, but in medbay. As he tried to get is bearings, he noticed that he was strangely feeling better than he had ever felt before. It was as if he'd suddenly been completely reinvigorated. The aches and pains he had grown used to after years of crawling around in small, tight spaces had all seemingly disappeared.

But that didn't mean all was well. A few foreign sensations soon made themselves known. They nagged at him, telling him something was seriously wrong, yet his body remained calm and relaxed; as if he was sedated. He swore his ears were misplaced and moving unnaturally. Each little beep of the machine by his bedside felt like it made them twitch slightly, swiveling towards the sound and back again. There was also a strange pressure on his chest as he breathed. It felt like two masses were pushing down on him and pulling his chest slightly towards his sides.

After a few seconds, compelled by the rhythmic twitching of his ears, Eric turned his head towards the beeping machine. As he did, what felt like strands of silk slid over his face, making him wince and close his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, his vision focused and when he saw what had fallen over his face, he froze in shock. He reached a trembling hand up to the foreign material, it looked like long pink locks of hair, and with a gentile tug realized that they grew from his own head. A second shock came when he noticed that the hand gripping his new hair looked nothing like his own hand -or at least the one he was used to having. It was like a paw, yet still human in structure, with creamy white fur on the inside and becoming more golden as it moved towards the back. There was also a thick patch of pink skin in his palm and on each of his fingertips.

Quickly, Eric sat up and brought his other hand to his face, a slight glance letting him know it too was now more pawlike. However, as he sat up, he felt the weight on his chest shift and tug down, along with the feeling of something soft and round brushing against the insides of his upper arms. The sensation was too odd to ignore and when he gathered the courage to look down, his jaw practically dropped. A pair of breasts now sat on his previously flat chest, framed by his new flowing pink tresses. They were furred just like his arms, a cream white that darkened slightly into a pale gold as it moved toward his back. Curiosity got the better of him and he brought both hands to cup his new assets. He could feel his fingers sink into them slightly as their weight settled in his grasp. They were round and firm, big enough for his hands to not completely cover them. He gave them a light squeeze and slid his fingers up to the bright pink nipple that stood atop of each. He stifled a gasp at the strange tingling sensation that erupted from their touch. They were puffier than before, he noted, and they were visibly stiffening. The pleasurable nature of the sensation made Eric brush his fingers along the very tip for a second time. This made him shiver and pull his hands away from his breasts in shock, leaving them to bounce delightfully on his chest before settling back into place.

He was staring down at himself in a motionless state of panic before he felt his spine twitch, and as it did the bedsheet by his ankles flicked upwards. He was afraid to discover what other surprises lay hidden there. Slowly, he reached down and pulled the white sheet aside, exposing his bare lower body to the cool, sanitized air of the medbay. He noticed his new legs first, with thicker thighs and a decidedly more feminine shape, but what shocked him the most was the feline tail that snaked down from his behind and stretched out between his legs. They were furred like the rest of his body, though his tail ended in a tuft of pink fur similar to his new hair.

As he kept examining his body, he noticed that his feet were remarkably different. They looked much more like paws than his hands did. In fact, they looked nothing like human feet at all. They were more like large paws that still managed to look too small to support a humanoid body. His eyes trailed up his long curvaceous legs until he saw what was between his plump thighs, or rather what was missing there. With his legs lightly spread he noticed there was nothing but a raised mound of flesh with a slit cut down the middle where his manhood once stood. He froze once more and just stared at his new and most feminine feature, confirming what he'd feared.

Before Eric could lose his mind, the doctor came walking in. Julia was a highly skilled medical professional. She would have been better suited to work in any of the finest institutions in the federation, but her desire for action and adventure led her to becoming the doctor aboard what was frankly a glorified delivery vessel. She might not have known what she was getting herself into when she decided to join the crew of interstellar traders. She got to travel to many amazing places that she would have never dreamed of visiting- and others she would have preferred to avoid.

Julia looked a little hesitant as she approached Eric. She took a seat by his bedside, nervously adjusting her black framed glasses. Eric looked a little skittish himself, though he always felt more timid around her. Even though he had never seen her outside of her modest clothes, he never felt more attracted to anyone else. From the blond bun on her head to the black flat shoes on her feet, to him, she was perfect. But this time his jumpiness wasn't just caused by his feelings for her. He felt as if she'd caught him doing something shameful; he was embarrassed being seen by her in his body.

"Eric? Are you in there?" she asked slowly and carefully, as if speaking to an infant.

He gave her a nod. "Where else would I be?" he said in a quiet tone, trying to play off the fact he was now some kind of cat lady. He did his best to appear calm, but the shocked expression on his face after hearing the sweet girly voice that poured from his lips destroyed that illusion. He put both hands over his mouth, where he discovered his soft whiskery muzzle and pink leathery nose.

The doctor smiled. "Well you still have your sense of humor, that's encouraging", she felt relieved that Eric seemed to be in that cute feline body, relaxing slightly as she continued, "I'm sure you must have a few questions about, well..." She finished her thought with a gesture, pointing to Eric's feminine figure with an open palmed hand.

The new feline nodded, doing his best not to explode, and failed. "What the hell happened to me!? Why am I covered in fur and why do I have boobs!?". Though he tried to sound angry and outraged, his voice didn't seem to be able to convey anything beyond cute and adorable.

Julia sighed and scratched the back of her head, her gaze turning towards her feet. "Well, I don't quite know how to say it but..." she brought her head back up to look at him again. "You died Eric." she said bluntly. "We heard a loud explosion in the engine room and all we found was, well..." she paused again. Looking over her shoulder she pointed to a large metal container behind her. It looked almost like a casket laying on one of the medical tables. It had a rounded lid and countless tangled wires stretched out of it towards various machines and medical devices. "You were pretty mangled up, but fortunately your brain was still intact -"

"Wait, are... are you saying my body's in there?" Eric interrupted. The thought that he was somehow outside of his own body, his dead body, was more than enough to make him feel uneasy. Julia just nodded in response. Eric then asked. "Well what's this then?" He pointed to his new body with both hands towards his narrow waist. "Who's body am I in?"

Julia closed her eyes for a moment before resuming her explanation. "Well, with your brain still intact, I was sure there was a way to run a scan on it while it was still alive. I knew if we succeeded that we would be able to recover what ever fragments we could of, well... you. I was hoping that we could pull your consciousness out of your dying body and store it somewhere temporarily. But we ran into a problem." she paused for a moment, looking visibly upset. Her hands were shaking as she clutched them together on her lap. "I was going to store you on the ship's computer, but there wasn't enough room to fit all the data." She paused again, getting more and more nervous "You really have Lucious to thank for being here right now. He had the idea to scour the ship's inventory and look for any kind of data storage device that would be sufficient to put you in. Turns out, we had a protocol droid aboard in the cargo bay on route to Vega. It was a female model, as you can see, but we figured that would be better than letting you die."

Eric looked shocked and confused. He was grateful to be alive, but that lead him to start questioning who he really was. Was he just a copy of himself, or was he really him; was he even really alive. And this was supposed to be an android's body, but by looking at himself he was convinced this couldn't be true. This body was quite clearly real flesh and blood, looking nothing like the cold metallic shell of a protocol droid. He put his hands on his slender waist and squeezed, his fingers visibly pushed down into his body. Androids weren't this warm and squishy feeling. Then there were the sensations along his body. There was no way an adroid could feel their surroundings with such intricate detail. It felt like what he'd expect his old body would feel if it had more feline features. He looked back up to Julia, confusion obvious in his voice "How is this a protocol frame? I mean, they're usually quite artificial looking, no? I don't need to be an engineer, or a medical expert, to know that this body is real flesh and blood."

Julia took a deep breath. "I have something to show you." She reached out to grab Eric's soft slender arm, and with a light rub and a push of her thumb on it's side, the top of his arm popped open like a spring loaded door. Eric's eyes went wide again. Not only was his arm opened up like a hatch, but inside there was nothing but wires, metal rods and soft pink synthetic material surrounding it all. Eric hesitated to touch it. The outside of his arm felt like real soft and warm flesh, even with his fingers caressing the open cover of his arm. His hand slid in to prod a finger into the synthetic material that lined the inside. It had a warm and squishy feel to it which he realized must be what gave his body that realistic feel. Feeling too creeped out, he snapped the lid back shut. Running his fingers through the fur, he couldn't even tell where the seam outlining the hatch was anymore. To anyone he'd look purely biological; it even fooled him. "So... I'm just an android?" Eric asked, dejected.

The doctor leaned over, putting a hand on his shoulder to pull him in a little closer. "No, it's just your body. You're still you. Think of it like a robotic arm or leg that amputees receive. Does that make them less human? Just think of it like you just needed to replace your whole body rather than just an arm or a leg." She was doing her best to cheer him up, but he didn't seem too happy. His ears folded back while his head hung low. Julia tried to give him some hope and added. "Your old body isn't a complete loss you know. We're working on regenerating it and in a bit of time your old body should be good as new. You'll be able to get transferred right back into it once fully healed."

The robotic feline's ears perked up with a whir. "Really, you really think my body will be back to normal?"

Julia smiled. "I'm fairly certain, it's only a matter of time. The damage wasn't too severe in that we were able to collect all the pieces-" she stopped herself, figuring he probably didn't want to hear too many details. " Point is, we'll have good old Eric back soon enough, don't you worry. For now though, you'll just have to get used to being Felicia."

Eric quirked a brow. "Felicia?" That name felt oddly familiar, yet it was the first time he'd ever heard it.

The doctor smiled nervously. "Yeah, it was the name that came with the droid."

The feline looked skeptical. "Huh? Sounds more like a human name. I thought most protocol droids had names that were just a sequence of numbers and letters."

Julia nodded. "Yes, and you thought they all came in cold hard shells too, not soft warm bodies like this one." She stood back up, looking the new girl over. "So, how about we get you out of bed. Do you think you can walk?"

Eric looked a little nervous, but he nodded. He moved his leg closest to Julia first, sliding it to the side of the bed and letting it fall off the edge. With his legs spread like that he felt the emptiness between them even more, not to mention the sensation of his new folds in the open air. This android body sure went to great length to be as realistic as possible, even it's senses seemed to emphasize pleasure rather strongly. Trying not to pause for too long, he brought his other leg to the bed side till both feet were planted firmly on the floor, his tail still caught between his legs and covering his bare feminine groin.

Pushing himself off with his hands gripping the bed, he looked a little wobbly. Julia leaned in as if to catch him, but before she could things stabilized thanks in part to Eric's tail that rolled back and swished about behind him. Standing close to the doctor, Eric noticed that he was shorter than her now. He used to be a few inches taller than Julia, but now he was about an inch shorter. That was despite the new shape of his feet forcing him to stand as though he was on the tip of his toes. The pink pads on the balls of his feet and the tips of his toes were all that touched the floor. The new stance felt awkward to Eric and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to make a step without falling flat on his face. Julia stayed close just in case. To his surprise, his first step felt strangely natural. With a second step, and then a third, he started to feel as though his new legs had been his own his whole life. As he began to walk around the room, his hips swayed rather seductively from side to side, his tail trailing behind and swishing counter to their motion. Julia was glad to see him walk, though a little surprised by his gait. It was as though he was purposefully trying to draw the eye to his heart shaped rump.

Letting the new girl alone to get used to his body as he paced up and down the infirmary, Julia went to look for something to cover up the nude feline. Feeling more confident, Eric broke out into a light jog. His legs felt just as steady as ever, but what bothered him was a little higher on his body. His breasts were bouncing up and down with each step. The tug he felt with every downstroke was the most uncomfortable. He wrapped his arms around them, tucking his arms in his armpits to keep them from moving so much. But the feeling of breasts pressed up in his arms, even though they were his own, got him a little excited. He stopped and let go of his breasts, again watching as they bounced back into place.

Julia didn't see the feline struggling with her new body, instead she had made her way to the closet and was digging through various lab coats and medical gowns. They didn't have much in terms of selection, it was mostly based on size, and so she picked out the only thing that would fit the girl. Turning around she noticed Eric looking a little flustered. Julia walked over to him, holding up a floral pink medial gown with a smile. The feline looked even more embarrassed at the sight of it. "Don't you have anything less... pink?" It was bad enough that his body was so obviously feminine, he hoped he could wear something that would help hide that fact, not highlight it.

Julia frowned. "We take what we can get, and seeing as how you're about my size this is all we have. I'm sorry, but we'll get you some proper clothes soon."

Eric looked discouraged. He took the garment and slid his arms in through the sleeves before pulling the whole thing it up onto his body. He reached back to try and bring the fabric closer together, and as he did it pressed down on his chest, flattening out his breasts a little. This might fit Julia, but it seemed Eric was a little bustier than her. Seeing him struggle, the doctor went behind him and tied the back of the gown snugly against his form. The fabric was straining slightly around his chest and made the fur on his upper back puff out of the seams between the laces there.

His tail created another problem. It made the gown flow around either side of it, practically exposing her fluffy white buns to the world. Looking around, Julia got an idea. She snatched the white bed sheet from the bed Eric previously lay in and wrapped it around his waist, tying it into in a big knot at the small of his back. It looked like a long skirt that reached just bellow his knees. Though the fabric was still being pulled up by his tail, it only showed the back of his thighs with about half of his tail poking out from under it.

Giving the robotic feline one last look over, Julia gave a bright cheerful smile. "I think you're good for now. What do you say we reintroduce the new you to the crew?"

Eric didn't seem too enthusiastic. The idea that everyone would see him as a girl was embarrassing enough, but he knew he'd have to get it over with eventually. Closing his eyes, he gave a reluctant nod. "Lead the way..."