FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Can't you see that this is the opportunity of a lifetime?"

Kim sighed, rubbing her eyes in a vain attempt to remove the profound and impinging fatigue of an eight hour scanner shift. Her first (and only) officer wasn't wrong. She had never seen anything like this in the decade the two had been traipsing across the nearly infinite expanse of Orion's Arm, and that proved more than enough to succeed in raising the older woman's guard. What little information the long range scans provided did little to assuage her concerns. Despite coming out of superspace less than an AU from their target's orbit, the planet was nearly on the opposite side of the primary, which made direct observation of the target site nearly impossible. All she had to go on at this point was the painfully low definition neutrino scan.

Even now the results displayed the telltale signature on her display, white hot against a dark green haze spotted by tiny blotches of other, far less impressive deposits. Gold. No natural, impure source, either. This was a perfect cube, so disturbingly immaculate in shape that it screamed its artificiality to anyone who cared to scan the right area.

God knows this was exactly what they needed. This little operation of theirs had been in the red for nearly a year now, and the ship was beginning to suffer for it. The air wasn't getting any less stale, the instruments were starting to go and what little she could understand of Rebecca's report on the gravitic manifold did _not_sound good to her. Less critical but incredibly annoying was the loss of the superspace autopilot; manually steering the ship around balls of instantaneous death for hours at a time generally put her in a less than affable mood.

This particular situation, however, was beginning to prove the exception. Dropping out here had been an error; the signature for this star had been masked almost perfectly by a larger one, and she had nearly flown straight into it trying to reassert her course. The reassuring hum of a discharging drive had come just as the equally horrifying feeling of every atom in her body coming apart started to tickle her neurons.

Another couple of seconds and superspace shear would have broken the nuclear forces of every atom on the ship, reverting it into little more than a spray of superluminal mass across the system. The sensor AI was still working, barely, set to full scan long ago, and when it sounded the two spacers mistook it for the depressurization warning. When they realized what the alarm was actually referring to, halfway into their exo-suits, their adrenaline infused hearts only beat faster.

Kim ended the long pause. "How do you know it's not a deathtrap? Look at the size of this thing! That's a hundred cubic meters of solid gold. I seriously doubt we'll be able to just walk on up and slap the QTIP on it."

Rebecca paced back and forth for a bit, wringing her hands as she was wont to do. The behavior was normally pretty cute, but right now the soft clack of the small girl's boots on the bridge floor was more annoying than anything to the tired captain.

"W-well maybe, but we're smart! Look, I think we should at least take a look at what we're dealing with. The reward is too great not to! If things look nasty we can always just leave, report this to the local confederacy. I'm sure they'd give us a finder's fee, and they'd give us even more if we could tell them what traps to expect."

Her first officer put on her best pouty look, though her logic seemed to be more than sound. Kim turned her gaze back to the white hot brick in the display center. A thick crack, almost large enough now to shatter the screen entirely ran across it, just another sign of the terrible luck they had been experiencing recently. She sighed. Maybe this would turn their luck around after all.

"Well.." Rebecca's eyes brightened instantly. If she was going to say no, she would have. The rogueish woman was not keen on beating around the bush, which made her one of the best traders Rebecca had ever seen.

"Fine. You're right, as usual. This thing could pay for almost anything we could imagine. We'd be fools not to at least take a look. How long-"

"Eight point five hours, enough for you to get some rest and suit up for the excursion!"

The ten 'critical numbers' of orbital insertion overlaid the neutrino scan results, along with a virtual representation of the final orbit. Final eccentricity and orbital plane was actually more than acceptable, considering they were coming in from over two AU away. A course this advanced would have taken her at least an hour to build and check.

"Wow, perfect as always." Kim whistled softly, impressed once again with her partner's work. The girl had a real knack for piloting, so much so that even with her advanced years of in-system maneuvers she usually let the younger girl plot and settle the courses.

"Haha, thanks! You should probably get some sleep, Kimmy. You look tired."

"You're right.." Her bed definitely was calling her name. Even now the stillness of the ship interior was a little disconcerting to her mind, fresh off a superspace scanner which almost never stopped moving.

Her display went dark with a flip of a switch.

"Just don't kill us, okay?" The joke was the last thing through the automatic airlock.

--

"DESCENT TIME!!"

The piercing scream jolted Kim more awake than she would have liked. Rebecca sat facing her at the foot of the bed, a stupid happy look on her face.

"I swear to god, next time you wake me up like that.." The harshness of her tone would have likely scared the shit out of anybody else, but Rebecca only guffawed in a manner that perfectly matched the expression on her face.

"We both know you're a deep sleeper! You only have five minutes to get strapped in, so I couldn't waste any time. You understand, I'm sure." She hopped off the bed, traipsing out of the room under Kim's dagger-like stare.

The slight reddening of an already golden hull welcomed Kim as she entered the bridge. Rebecca was already strapped in, box after translucent box guiding the ship into the atmosphere flowing around her head.

"Nice of you to join us. ETA thirty seconds until critical turbulence might develop."

Blast doors shut view of the planet as she took her seat and carefully tightened the archaic straps around her torso. The ship's inertial dampers had no trouble dealing with the expected G forces of inter-system travel, but recently had begun to fail under certain levels of instantaneous acceleration. Rather than pay what seemed an excessive amount to repair the damn thing Kim had picked up a couple of ancient spacecraft harnesses. The fix had worked well, though if inertials ever totally failed it would take more than a simple harness to keep their fragile bones from fragmenting against the triluminate hull of their cargo vessel.

"You sure left little room for error." She received no reply; Rebecca was quite busy ensuring the ship, larger than a city block, didn't burn up. Kim left the piloting to her, simply observing the almost reckless angle at which they dove into the atmosphere. In any other hands this kind of approach would have seemed incredibly dangerous, but Rebecca had proven time and again she was more than capable of executing her flight plans.

"We're alive.. Sweet!" The ship settled into a steady, albeit artificially enforced, glide, just over 500 m/s. Slowly, with the characteristic grinding noise the two had come to expect, the bridge blast shields reopened to reveal a forest, pristine and favored by the unclouded radiation of its distant red-yellow star.

"Coming into radar range now." Even a thousand kilometers out the picture came in crystal clear, as well as radar could anyway. The vessel containing that giant brick of gold looked like a flea that had been rendered in fractals, and the 3d reconstruction showed a distinct deformation in its foreward quadrant, tilted about a hundred meters into the planet surface.

"Yeah, look! The damn thing crashed. This is our lucky day, Kim! Can you believe it?!" Already Rebecca was out of her harness, dancing around the bridge like some kind of adolescent. Kim tried to ignore her, but her optimism was pretty infectious. What if this actually was their lucky day?

"Alright, yeah, its looking promising.. Just don't let your guard down. Can you see anywhere we can land this fat bitch?"

A brief look at the relief map revealed this area was nicely sloped for landing. One of the flatter ones, just beyond a lake, caught her eye. It was well within range of the quantum teleporter, with a little less forest than average. It would do.

--

An enormous letter T framed the captain, clad in at least ten different hues of four different excursion suits bought from three different orbital markets, all coated in the orange-red hue of a sun just cresting the horzion. It wasn't stylish, but the damn thing held a good seal, with reasonably wide sensor availability and even a projectile weapon that worked well enough to not quite be obsolete.

The rest of the rust bucket's name hugged tight it's deceptively clean golden frame, thinning out into the distance, gracefully highlighted by the morning sun's gentle sheen. The Renascentia was a classically shaped cargo vessel, essentially a giant cargo cube with bridge, crew quarters and engine stapled on. This particular design had plated the ship so that it presented itself as a giant golden ovoid, spotted dorsally with trapezoidal deformations marking phasic sensors and ambient particle deflection module.

Renascentia. So many years ago the name had called to her, tucked away in one of the hundreds of used ship hangars her and Rebecca had spent weeks prowling after the fusion drive on the Water Nymph had failed. Luckily the manifold had blown as they were leaving dry-dock. Had they needed to get a superspace tow from some distant backwater there was no way they'd have had enough credit to afford her.

Rebirth. That's what the ship's name meant. It was almost five years now since the day she first saw this golden behemoth, and though the name had promised a change of luck in her profession, it certainly hadn't delivered. Contracts taken by larger entities, robberies by space pirates, contractors who skimped on payment.. Kim certainly hadn't expected this when she decided to take to the stars. Centuries upon centuries of science fiction and space operas turned out to be just that; fiction. Without a massive amount of capital, even in this time of fragmented humanity being a spacer was a difficult and often dangerous life.

Still, it was a life she loved. Even the worst aspects of being an independent trader were more than assuaged by the simple comfort of personal space. She was born a Weller, lived in a cramped superstructure in the middle of one of the ubiquitous megacities in the middle of a class one world. Devoid of ambition, clotted with great seas of mankind.. it was a terribly unfeeling, horribly overpopulated place.

Needless to say, as soon as she came of age she joined the Confederate navy. Luck had favored her then, assigning her on Rebecca's ship. The two became fast friends, and after a few years they pooled their savings and went independent. There were good times, bad times, but the important thing was always that they were free. Until recently, anyway. Credit tended to become more attractive when you had less of it, after all.

Attractive enough to venture exploration of an uncharted, potentially dangerous world.

The foreign palette of bright gold glossed red yawned a morning greeting to her, coating plant and ship alike in color uniquely filtered by the planet's thick, sulfurous atmosphere. The sky took on a tint nearly the same as her ship, so much so it seemed as if Kim was standing on a great blob of sky. The colors were a little off, but the view was undeniably beautiful nonetheless.

"Ready to go?" Rebecca's voice took on hollowness distinct of electronic communication though piped directly into her ear.

"Yeah, yeah. It's just.. sort of nice out here.." She never wanted to like planets, given her past with them, but this world was way different from the vast, artificial jungles that had spread across the class one worlds like a plague. Free space was abundant here, occupied in a lazy manner by the silent forest. Little more than the purring of wind across the hull and the occasional creak of crushed tree giving way under the ship's weight sounded around her. It was a peace the worlds of man had lost ages ago.

"Come on, Kim! Being on the surface of an unexplored planet isn't exactly what I'd call safe.."

"Yeah? Well I don't see you out here about to fly into an unknown vessel filled with gold."

Several seconds of faint white noise was her only response. "That's what I thought."

The atmosphere was soupy, heavy with dew common to the mornings of most habitable worlds. A hemisphere within a hemisphere, tinged dark purple, rose out from the sprawling foreign foliage in the distance; her goal, container of wealth a hundred lifetimes as a trader would not guarantee.

Kim's feet left the safety of her ship's golden hull as she was pulled firmly, and only slightly awkwardly, by her back into the air. The suit didn't have the most comfortable personal flight unit, but it hadn't yet failed on her, and was pretty easy to maintain. She quickly gained speed, and although it had a respectable top speed she was in no mood for an unwanted collision with some unfortunate native life. A hundred kilometers an hour was more than fast enough for her tastes. Kim's eyes roved the briskly moving canopy she passed over, seeing little of interest..

That is, until she passed over the lake. A large black shape stood out among the grass and sand. It moved, raising itself in the characteristic manner of a quadruped, though with a longer neck and.. wings? They stretched gently, outward, betraying their feathered coating. She wasn't too high above the forest top, maybe ten meters, but she didn't expect to make out it's pupils. It was staring.. staring at her!

"Rebecca.. are you seeing this?"

"Hell yeah! Its so cute!!" Kim winced, pivoting her head to the side under duress of Rebecca's screaming. "Hey, stop moving!"

"Ugh.. stop screaming. Anyway, what do you make of it?"

"Well, it's got white bordered pupils, so you should be fine."

"Huh? What does that have to do with anything?"

Rebecca's twittering laughter resounded in her head. "Don't you know anything about biology? Pupils like that were designed so that the species could tell where each other were looking!"

A biology lesson was the last thing she needed right now, but she let her partner rattle on. "Which means these creatures are social animals, and therefore, not dangerous."

The two watched each other as Kim resumed her trajectory over the lake. It's gaze was unsettling to say the least; the creature never moved, seemingly focused on her with an intensity that almost made it seem.. intelligent. When she finally lost direct sight of the creature she half expected it to chase after her, but it never did. Even so, she faced lakeward, projectile weapon raised from its confines of her right arm. A few minutes passed before she actually believed what her partner was saying.

"I guess you're right."

"I'm always right!" Even at ten kilometers away she could see the smug look on Rebecca's face.

The gently curving hull of her target sharpened frighteningly fast as Kim closed the final kilometer, revealing an intricate, curving fractal pattern meticulously etched in the time dulled metal. The ship appeared as if it had been here for a huge amount of time, perhaps in the thousands of years.

Such a large amount of dirt had encroached upon the hull that dense foliage flowed seamlessly from actual ground onto the ancient ship, rendering it nigh indistinguishable from a hill to the distant eye. A slight rectangular jut gave indication to what might ages ago have been an airlock equivalent, though now a long, unnatural scar graced what once might have been a well-shaped entrance.

Her navy training took over as she turned her back to the structure, spending several minutes scanning the thankfully sparsely forested canopy for any signs of other large quadrupeds before declaring the foreign planet below benign, though she kept her weapon raised as she descended at a controlled velocity. The shadow cast by the ship's hull took on an imposing, slightly disconcerting manner as it seemed to rise up around her, consuming the shine of a bright morning sun in hues of dull orange and brown. The soft hum of her suit engine and even the whisper of wind currents faded once her feet retook her weight on the loamy ground, leaving an unnerving, curiously reverent silence.

She surveyed the area for a few seconds longer before turning to face the violent gash that yawned before her, a shadow of some untellable violence that likely occurred before humanity had even thought to reach the stars. Pure darkness barred her gaze entry; no signs of power made themselves obvious. This was far from unexpected; no power source known to her could possibly have lasted the span of time this craft had lain in its shallow grave. This in itself was more than a little reassuring; any defense systems that might have survive the crash would surely have been destroyed by the ravages of time by now.

Step by gentle step, the only sound that seemed to resound in the space around the entrance, drew her closer to the gap. The subtle click of current echoed in her right ear as ten thousand lumens of luminosity revealed a plain, similarly etched and decayed set of walls, scurrying straight ahead before twisting sharply to the left, blocking a direct view of her one hundred thousand liter prize inside.

Continuity of age and wear comforted her even further. There was little chance anything in this scrap heap could still be functioning. The miniature display on her wrist confirmed the assessment; no bright glows made themselves apparent within the ship, though a slight brightening seemed to indicate the gold actually had some kind of energy output. A few experimental taps made certain the reading was not, in fact, an error.

She paused just outside the ragged lip that would lead her to the goal.

"Hey Rebecca, the gold.. it has an energy signature. What do you make of that?"

"Uhh.." Kim waited a moment while she perused the data. "It looks like a pretty healthy neutrino emitter.. Nothing out of the ordinary though, probably residual radiation from the attack or whatever brought it down."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't the rest of the ship be irradiated as well?"

"We can't know that. The material may well be similar to our own hull, after all. Anyway, it's nothing. You'd probably have more to fear from those creatures."

Kim groaned. "Saying that doesn't make me feel very good.."

Again Rebecca's laughter resonated in her suit, though this time it was of a more respectful volume. "I meant neither should give you any trouble Kim! Honestly, you worry too much."

"Better worried than dead. Anyway, I'm going in. If anything happens or we lose contact for an hour I want you to leave, okay?"

"Don't jinx it. You'll be fine."

In this case she hoped Rebecca was always right..

Kim rounded the first corner without incident. An even more profound silence punctuated by metal on metal steps was the only distinct change from being outside, well, aside from the reassuringly cool artificial blue-white illumination echoing in ninety degree angles from her suit. The corridor was significantly larger than found on human ships, a square perhaps twice the side length of her ship's own. At her first intersection she found the pathways split straight, right, left and.. up.

Now this, this was confusing. Intersections splitting in more than four directions indicated that they did not maintain artificial gravity. This was a common thing on human war vessels, lowering power drain and maintenance while improving crew flow through the ship. Though this civilization was significantly older and, from the size of the passages, reasonably larger than humans, they still employed the same techniques in their ships. It was true what they say; physics makes conformists of us all.

Luckily she was on the 'bottom' of the ship, and encountered no hallways which went down. A good thing; she was in no mood for acrobatics. The pathways were laid out very simply, likely on purpose; almost immediately she could make out a faint golden glow, tiny at the end of the encroaching blackness. Harshly illuminated walls bordered the yet untrodden part of the ship, growing from the dull, smooth brown of corrosion to what she assumed was its natural state; a dark green, ensconced with golden lines that shone bright, indecipherable patterns under the steady light of her suit.

A reflex wave of unease undulated in Kim's abdomen as the gentle glow grew larger, larger, quickly consuming her field of view as the length of hallway between her and her prize grew short, suddenly parting into an enormous hemispherical chamber. A hundred cubic meters was one thing on paper, completely another when it stood, high and wide before her, soft glow yielding to the intrusion of her own luminance.

She opened her mouth to speak, but found her voice quite swept away by the enormous chunk of element. She allowed herself a moment of speechlessness, and for a moment she simply basked in its sheer glory.

This was it. Before her stood the object that would change her life forever. No longer would she be forced to live on the borderline of prosperity! It surprised her how difficult it was to keep from imagining what she would do with this vast wealth once she got it sold.

"Okay Rebecca, attaching the QTIP now."

She didn't hear any response. Maybe the hull was radio impenetrable? It didn't matter, the sooner she could get out of here the better. Resisting the urge to caress the giant block of precious metal Kim enabled the magnetic adhesion on the small metal cylinder, topped by two metal ovoids and gently pressed it onto the subtly glowing wall. Though the QT couldn't do anything to surrounding objects not in contact with the one to be transported, it was only human nature to stand back when a block the size of a small building was about to simply disappear.

Only, it didn't. The damn thing just stood there, glowing and mocking her.

"What the fuck?" She went to grasp it again, only to watch it fall from where she had placed it.

"Impossible." She had magnetized the device; there was no way it could simply fall off! She bent down, hesitating to pick it up when she noticed the QTIP had been scarred.. and that the scars were growing! She immediately drew back, watching in amazement as it appeared to vanish in mere seconds.

"Oh m-" A low, immensely loud warbling series of tones drowned out her exclaimation, deafening her even through her suit's soundproofing. Reflexively hands drew to where her ears would be anyway, though it did no good. It was hard to even think under the aural suppression, though she retained enough sense to retreat from whence she came. Only, whence she came was no longer there.

Even her vision was shaking from the sheer oscillatory force of the noise, but Kim could still see that the spherical wall surrounding the gold was now completely smooth. She ran up to where the hallway once ended anyway, beating on it without any success. It wasn't a forcefield, nor illusion. The opening was simply gone!

Suddenly everything grew quiet, leaving Kim with only the soft whimpering and heavy breathing it had masked, muffled by the numbness of oversaturated ears. The wall she had partially collapsed against seemed to be shining more and more brightly. Now genuinely frightened she turned around to see the gold, shining horribly golden daylight at her, now easily overwhelming her suit's luminance.

Thick, black lines began to coast across the surface facing her. Intermingling of dots, precise and smeared, coupled with flowing geometries formed rows upon rows of.. text! The pattern was unmistakable, this was some kind of language. Nothing happened after that, though she continued to hug the gentle curve of the wall as if a predator were about to devour her.

The heartbeat pounding in her throat almost settled into something resembling normalcy when the shrieking suit alarm kicked it back into overdrive. White digital lines, representative of her suit, flashed red, in tandem with textual warnings.

SUIT DEGREDATION. SUIT PRESSURE LOSS. CAUSTIC ENVIRONMENT.

ADVISEMENT: LEAVE AREA

"Easier said than done."

Seconds of rushed thinking paused as Kim suddenly noticed a slight fog start to develop in the air. It seemed to dissipate when she waved her hand in front of her, and it took her only a short time to realize the fog was not, in fact, filling the whole room, just her vicinity. Quickly she removed herself from the original cloud, only to have another develop. Only when crystalline fragmentation began to appear coating the surface, like the beginnings of glass being assailed with sand, did she realize the dust was, in fact, material from her suit.

Horrified, she held out her arms. They, too, were generating dust at an increasingly frightening rate. Already the colors of her arm plates were fading, seeping into the air at a horrifying rate. Alloy fibers revealed themselves as their overlay seemingly evaporated, flexing in shimmering rhythm as her arms continued to push the dust away from her. Soon these too began to be eaten. The first bundle of flexalloy broke, vibrating through Kim's arm as the tension was released in the rest of the bundle.

At this rate she would be devoured entirely, and there wasn't a damn thing she could think to do. Not even a minute had passed and her suit was already steaming off of her in massive clouds of fine mist that billowed out into the room before disappearing entirely. Her visor was almost entirely opaque now, and she could make out that it was growing dangerously thin. She had almost traced the entirety of the chamber; it was completely solid.

This was it. There was no escape.

She sagged to the floor, completely defeated. Hot tears began to distort an already nearly opaque field of view.

It really was too good to be true. This place was little more than a deathtrap. Rebecca had been insistent, but she was not the only one to blame. Greed had driven her to this.. greed would soon end her life, as it had who knows how many other unlucky souls unfortunate enough to find this place.

Fresh sensation came upon the skin of her arm. Through blurred eyes she saw the suit had finally yielded to whatever was destroying it, curling silvery alloyed bands and black skin interweave away from her exposed skin like some horrible flower of metal and flesh. She waited for the pain..

Pain that didn't come. Her skin began to tingle, though not unpleasantly, as she felt a strange texture began to interlay itself on the top of her skin. What little hair resided on her forearm, lit distinctively by the warm glow of her demise, disappeared in a puff of smoke. The texture deepened slightly, before she felt it harden, taking on a glossy appearance.

The unsightly transformation crawled up her arm, though not nearly as quickly as her suit was stripped from her, knitting the strange new pattern up her forearm, through her elbow and up toward her shoulder.

Kim fought to keep the instinctual desire to tear at her new flesh at bay, all too aware this was in fact replacing her skin, not simply coating it. She was simultaneously horrified and baffled. Why hadn't her arm simply turned into a fine mist, like her suit? By now most of her extremities were exposed to the corrosive atmosphere, and she felt them start to tingle with the same process.

Her left arm was completely covered; it had caught up to what remained of her suit and rounded her shoulder. Some strange feeling began to develop along the arm, more so than simply being coated in the strangely flexible membrane. It almost seemed as if..

A tiny clear spot pierced her corrosion-fogged visor, and she felt the cool rush of inhospitable air on her face. Fighting back the urge to cry out, she took a quick, deep breath just before the eye sized hole expanded in a frightening manner, completely dissolving the material in a matter of seconds.

Her lungs started to itch. She had taken the breath too late! Tears clouded her eyes as she fought the urge to exhale, but the sensation was agonizing. Resistance ended in a bout of coughing, which only increased in intensity when she took another unwanted breath.

The atmosphere felt like fire as it invaded her lungs; she did little more than crumple over at the pain, unable to think. Her insides burned, and burned, and.. stopped. The sensation receded, leaving little more than the gentle tickling of fluids dripping from her abused sinuses. She sat up, apparently totally fine, aside from the tingling rising up her neck and face like an invisible tide.

A few experimental breaths confirmed it; somehow she could now breathe this air! With a numbing surprise she removed what little remained of her helmet, watching it slowly break down into nothing as she held it in her hands.

She was completely naked now, and could see that every limb was now completely covered in the strange scales, which began to converge on her torso from every direction. Her flesh felt much harder now, but not any less flexible, still able to feel the cold metal of the chamber in which she sat.

A curious sensation, originating on the inside of her body brought her attention back to her hands. The process had completely devoured any wrinkles along her fingers, not to mention her fingernails. Inspecting them with a strange awe she soon noticed her thumbs was actually beginning to recede into her hand.

The skin was one thing, disappearing digits was quite another. Every muscle tensed in an effort to keep from screaming, though as the tip of her thumb disappeared into the side of her hand with a sickeningly audible pop she couldn't hold it anymore.

She screamed, but the voice she heard was not her own. It was simultaneously horrifying, disgusting and.. impossible, but it was happening. Pinkies on each hand followed suit of the thumb, leaving Kim with a disconcertingly insufficient number of digits.

Her scalp seemed to move, and a snow of brunette hair began to fall around her, dissolving before it was even able to reach the floor. Crying out again her three fingered hands rose to her head, now graced by little more than the same scaling that had enthralled her entire body. The slope of her head.. it was no longer round. Her face formed a permanent grimace when she felt two rows of symmetrical ridges where hair used to reside.

The changes were coming more rapidly now. An irate tickling, itching formed around her ears, toes, fingers, growing in intensity until the decidedly queasy feeling of something _bursting_out of the tip of each remaining digit topped it off.

She looked down, and saw.. claws. Thick, white claws were sticking out of her three fingers. They were entirely too big, but her fingers, like a tube of toothpaste being filled up, began to widen to compensate. The digits separated, breaking bone clicking in her thickening hand to form a.. paw. Sensitive pads bloomed from the underside of her fingers, in sensation she couldn't help but gasp at.

Wrists clicked and cracked as they too were deformed, thickening and changing direction. Her new forelimbs lost range of motion, pointing outwards as if made for walking. The musculature enlarged in uncomfortable, throbbing spurts, drawing new sinew and thick muscle through her shoulder and chest.

The position in which she sat started to become more uncomfortable than anything else, and she let the new weight of her forelimbs pull her forward onto all fours. It proved good timing, as simultaneously her back and neck started to stretch in inch long spurts, as vertebrae by new vertebrae her spine began to elongate and straighten. This was the most horrifying feeling yet, though there was little she could do at this point but whimper softly in a decidedly inhuman voice.

Partly losing her balance, partly completely overwhelmed by the transformation, Kim fell onto her side, staring helplessly at the now pulsing light emanating from the gold. It held precious little meaning for her now, far more concerned with the spine now snaking through her body as though an independent creature. She barely had time to contemplate the pressure in her lower back before it gave way, forcing it _out_in a nauseating spurt.

Bone continued to crawl forth from her body, taking flesh with it and thickening, spreading her pelvis to make room for its added girth. As if on cue of its emergence her calves unceremoniously caved in the most unsettling and forceful change of bone yet. Kim felt every bone crack, every extension and reduction of what was an increasingly inhuman body, too shocked to do more than think or scream, yet in no pain, unable to pass out.

Her breasts receded into her thickening torso, eliciting another whimper, deep and throaty from a mouth that was becoming increasingly heavy, a tongue threatening to fill her entire mouth. In the most unsettling experience yet sickening vibrations and cracks rang all too close to her ears, and slowly her tongue felt less and less constrained by jaws that slowly but insistently separated, elongated, tapered. The remnants of a nose melted into the front of a snout, though this was least of Kim's concern as her field of vision widened under pressure of a growing skull.

The sudden change in perception was enough to make her vomit, though the taste and sight of her nausea disappeared as quickly as her suit had. A single, final click resonated from within her too long neck, and for a deceptive moment it seemed as though the ordeal was over.

Then flesh began to pour out of her back.

A large knot thickened itself just below her reformed shoulder blades, organizing into something she could feel and separating in two spears of sensitive flesh. Awkwardly her new limbs scraped the smooth floor, blunt, new instruments that succeeded in turning her back to the air only after many aggravating seconds. Even then her legs lay sprawled uncomfortably, but there was little to be done about that, considering the strange organ growing out of her back was now taking on definition. Her elongated neck allowed her to see exactly what was happening; two stalks rose steadily into the air, eventually drooping down under coercion of their own weight. Two smaller, stubbier stalks sprouted a third of the way out, growing to nearly the same thickness.

Just seeing the bare organ, as the language engraved onto the great stone her wings silhouetted, Kim knew instinctively what this was. The first feather that sprouted, pure white on the tip of one wing, did not take her by particular surprise, though the sensation certainly did. It was.. indescribably good. They came faster, first one by one, then by two, then in a sea of sprouting, spreading through her wings and across her entire body.

Everything was numb for an unknown amount of time. The sheer amount of new feelings even the slightest movement instigated left her barely able to think. The whole experience was maddening; her body felt like it was completely shattered, stuck with a million painless needles. Kim had nearly reached her limit when she felt it.

Some kind of presence was in her mind, blissfully quiet and yet.. somehow strange. Whatever it was, all that mattered was the quiet. She managed to close her eyes, tried to focus on the sensation.

As if going deaf, everything went silent. Her face was wet. The ground was.. soft, warm. A strange, barely perceptible rhythm sounded in her chest. A new heart..

The strange kinesthesis of this form had faded, but she found it nearly instantly replaced with a severe queasiness. Still, it wasn't nearly as oppressive; slowly but surely she began to acclimate herself.

Slowly she regained her calm, finally gathering enough fortitude to open her eyes.

Kim's field of view was decidedly larger now, though thankfully she felt none of the profound discomfort it had caused her during the transformation. The room no longer flushed with the brightness of a full sun; the gold had returned to its previous, entirely insufficient level of illumination.

Entirely insufficient for her old body, that is. She found she could see as well in this brightness as she could before, with precision enough to make out her reflection on the block's mirrored surface.

One look at her feathered wings identified what she had become; the same quadruped she had seen staring at her from the lake! Though she knew something terrible had happened to her, actually seeing what she had become sent a fresh wave of disgust and helplessness through her already emotionally ravaged psyche.

A few deep breaths and stifled moans later Kim regained some semblance of calm. Freaking out wasn't going to change the facts; some strange force had turned her into this creature. Something else reflected in the cursed object before her, though it proved much less unsettling than her own; a hallway presented itself, as if it had never disappeared in the first place.

It was reassuring, though not as much as she would have liked, that she could in fact execute her plan. This was certainly not the best situation to be in, after all, but at least she was alive! Not only that, she knew what this thing was capable of now. If she could just get back to the ship, get back to Rebecca, there might still be hope!

Unwarranted realization could not help but intrude on her examination. The wide hallways, the lack of handholds.. it all made sense now. This species was responsible for the construction of this vessel! Only one question remained now. Was the creature she saw on the way in a descendent of the original crew.. or another unfortunate victim?

This was no small order. Her body was a huge, strangely shaped thing now, far differently balanced and motive than a human's. If she planned to traverse fifteen kilometers she'd better know what she was doing with it.

Kim couldn't help but get a good eyeful of her new self, testing the strange hinging action of a mouth that held an uncomfortable inertia. Parsing rows of teeth, reflecting the same golden hue as her pelt, lined her jaw. With little warning her tongue slipped from its resting position, hanging from her maw like some kind of meat pendulum. She flexed a muscle she didn't know she had, it resumed its position and she quickly shut her mouth. Hopefully breathing through her.. snout would suffice for oxygen intake.

While defined feathering protruded in a symmetrical fashion down her neck, wings and back, the rest of her seemed to be covered in a whispy sort of down. Without thinking she ran her paw across her chest, finding it breathtakingly soft.

That was only the beginning of the curious sensations this new body brought to the table. It was a strange feeling to flex her wings, though somehow she knew just how they moved, how far they extended, the perfect angle to glide..

How did she know that?

Her wing froze in place. She felt it again.. a quiet presence at the far recesses of her mind, demanding her focus. Kim was wary now; the first time she had focused on the sensation it had provided a crucial relief, teaching her how to use this strange body, but now.. what might happen if she allowed it her attention once again? She had no intention of finding out.

Luckily when she quit moving for a little bit the sensation seemed to disappear. Providing dual satisfaction to her curiosity and the seemingly constant desire to move her wings she tried beating them rapidly. The sensation returned, disorientingly strong in tandem with an inexplicable excitement as she felt her weight lighten appreciably.

It took her more than a few seconds of stillness to shake the feeling this time. That confirmed it; motion seemed to trigger the feeling. That meant flying was out of the question. Standing didn't seem to cause it.. hopefully walking or running wouldn't. She tried a few cautious steps, comforted when her mind remained silent.

Kim had inadvertently granted herself a sidelong view; found she could limit her focus to one eye. Only now did she notice her tail, outstretched behind her like a rotund, feathered carpet. It would no doubt hinder running, she would have to learn how to keep it raised without thinking.

It was nearly as long as her body proper, but responded as well as any other limb to her will. Moving it proved an even odder sensation than her wings; a limb coming out of what felt like her butt was something she never even dreamed of feeling.

Some of the muscles were linked to her hindquarters; her hips swayed and contracted as she tested out the efficacy of the limb, which turned out to be significantly more precise in action than she had expected. It could be raised completely above her body, or to the side, able to curl so delicately that it could rub her flanks, wings and even face.

Kim watched her tail in motion, running her eyes from tip to base.. and even further. Her eyes couldn't help but notice what it concealed; an unexpectedly long indentation that formed a seam between the converging sets of feathers from her tail and hindquarters. In an outburst of embarrassment she brought her tail back to its original position, so haphazardly that it slammed against the hard floor. The whole length of it stung at once; she wiggled it, hissing in pain and at her stupidity.

That was quite enough of that.

Practicing walking was the first on her list of necessary abilities to learn. For the first lap around the chamber she had to focus almost unnecessarily hard to establish a four legged gait; moving two extra limbs just to walk felt more tedious than anything else. A few laps later, however, she began to see the rhythm in it. Movement was just like a kind of music, and this body, she discovered, marched to a separate, but no less effective beat. Soon walking almost came naturally, and she discovered the slower she went the better it felt. No doubt this form was better suited to running for any significant distance.

To Kim's great relief only the slightest sensation of the strange presence tickling at the edges of her consciousness seemed to make itself known, even after five laps. If nothing else, she could walk back to the ship. Still, running would be a lot more convenient, not to mention safe.

Unfortunately, running proved significantly less straightforward than she expected. More than a few times she tripped over her own feet in a pile of feather and flesh, crying out in odd, muffled tones meant for a mouth a quarter her new one's size. Eventually, though, she figured it out. It was simply a matter of treating the fore and back legs as separate groups of two, staggering each foot to hit the ground one at a time.

Soon it was easy enough that she could even look at herself out of one eye, watching her muscled hindquarters rippling muffled movement as they propelled her forward at an impressive speed. Kim managed to round two laps before a now familiar feeling began to impose itself on her.

She took one more short break, staring down the hallway and reaffirming her plan. Keep whatever was in her head under control, get back to the ship.

She allowed herself one last glance at the golden obelisk that had done this to her.

I'll be back for you.

Kim was pleased to leave the soft golden illumination behind; it had grown tiresome and sickly after being there for so long. The click of claw on metal came with a satisfying spurt of force as each paw graced the ground in turn, granting speed unimaginable to the bipedal form. It was nearly pitch black in between light sources but her eyes still granted her vision, though the greens and browns of the walls came through heavily unsaturated.

Her pace slowed to round the corner without incident, even further to let her eyes adjust to the fullness of daylight streaming in through the ragged aperture that was her exit. The final meter before freedom was taken with utmost care; a careful scan of the now thoroughly lit forest revealed just as much as it had before she entered. Good, the last thing she needed was something trying to eat her.

Only now did Kim realize how cool the structure had been; the sun covered her in a pleasant flourish of warmth as she strode into open air. She felt, and after a moment's thought, indulged in the urge to spread her wings. It felt good, good in a way she hadn't expected.

They retook their folded position. This was no time for sunbathing! The ship was straight ahead, through the sparse spaced forest, past a lake. Claws dug unmercifully into the damp, yielding soil as she began to trot.

The growl, rich in baritone and impossibly loud, sounded behind her. The forest blurred as her head turned to see a great, black form descending, graying her white pelt with an immense shadow. Her legs responded to the voiceless cry of instinct, though not quite fast enough. Weight fell upon her, knocking her out of the middle of a panicked stride.

Kim shook the slight daze from the impact from her before opening her eyes. A second passed as her focus adjusted, fully expecting teeth ready to bore into her flesh. The sight she _was_graced with surprised her; the twitching end of a snout, black as coal furrowing into black sheened down. Bright turquoise eyes stood out under countless rows of delicately patterned, tiny feathers. Curiosity and no small measure of excitement shone through the creature's countenance, searching her own for meaning, intoning soft, low tones of varying pitch at her.

Black.. this was the dragon she had seen staring at her! Somehow it had followed her here, even waited! Did it know what would happen to her?

The dragon appeared to be greeting her, both vocally and physically, as she felt soft paws roaming the fore of her chest. If this dragon had once been another treasure seeker, it didn't seem to show any signs of it. Quite the contrary, all that seemed to interest it was.. her.

Now confident she wasn't about to be eaten, Kim began struggling in earnest, sifting through its velvety down before finding purchase and pushing. Despite her size, this black behemoth was even larger, and his weight proved too much for her forelimbs.

The dragon seemed to mistake her struggling for a return of affection, and suddenly its snout came too close to see, drawing against her with a gentle sensation she couldn't help but gasp at. She drew her head back as far as she could, but the black snout simply followed, growling playfully as if it was a game. A dark red tongue emerged from between black lips to begin licking at her face in smooth, warm strokes, tracing the line of her mouth in an attempt to coax it open.

Everything hit home in her head when she felt the soft pressure against her flank, hardening in slow but sure pulses. This was a male! Kim redoubled her efforts to escape the drake's courting licks, though the infusion of desperation to her struggles did little to increase her success.

Everything froze again; another piercing cry surprised the two dragons, who simultaneously turned to face its point of origin. Another dragon, again larger than herself, stood before them, red tinted wings spread in an impressive display of dominance. She could make out the same bare testicles hanging from his underside; another male!

Sheer surprise paralyzed Kim. She remained in the dirt, awestruck as the black drake removed himself to square off with his opponent. The two seemed to forget about her as their wings beat at each other, keeping their distance as they moved in tandem, sizing each other up.

Get up.

The dance of aggression she bore witness to was unexpectedly hypnotizing. Some feeling, warm and electric, ran through her body. The victor would be declared Alpha, would earn the right to breed..

Get up!

Kim blinked, remembered herself.

She ran. There was no telling how long the two would be distracted, and there was no way she was staying to find out. Wet, soft ground yielded under her fiercely trampling paws. Tree and shrub turned into blurs of green, brown and the occasional red-orange of canopy piercing sunlight. The thick, blunt sounds of body against body and piercing cries of fierce combat lent additional motivation to her movements, heart beating electric desperation as she fled in the direction of her ship.

Her body flew across the terrain long after the sounds faded. The moss and mud that floored the forest began to dwindle into soft grass, signaling the start of a reasonably graded hill. The hill took what little stamina running at breakneck speed had left her with, and she collapsed ingloriously along the sun-crested ridge that flowed down into the lake.

The body she assumed was near invincible now berated her with fatigue and soreness as she lay along the hill's back. The ship! All she needed to do was get back to the ship, and this would be over. The frantic fear of her escape began to dissipate, but when the foreign whisper at the back of her consciousness became a voice, grew into a scream, she realized, if only briefly, what a mistake she had made.

She had run too hard, too long. It was getting hard to focus..

Breed!

Her entire body shivered at the though. The instinct was strong, nearly overpowering. Heat sparked into perception between her legs, accompanied by a whimper she didn't know she could intone. Her rear raised itself into the air, almost automatically; tail flowing over itself to rest along her back. The mere sensation of cool air against her sex proved enough to make her shiver and moan again.

Kim's mouth parted in a pant before drawing breath. Her purring trill echoed across the lake, as far as she could carry it. It wavered slightly, betraying her extreme state of arousal, signaling any male in earshot that she was ready.

Her eyes roved across the landscape. The only thing of interest she could make out was a strange golden dome, sparsely covered by equally golden trees. It seemed.. familiar..

A single word, cold and foreign, reverberated in her thoughts.

Ship.

Kim blinked, shook her head. Her ship!

Even five kilometers away the Renascentia rose out of the distant forest, its delicate sensor towers and golden plating shining like a beacon in the morning sun.

She focused on the object, her salvation, fighting for control of her own mind. The sensation was strong, refusing to relinquish its new foothold. Something was definitely not right in her head, like some strange instinct had begun to fight her for control, urging her to fully embrace that she was this.. dragon now, and not human..

In some exhilaratingly horrifying way, she liked it. All her life she had been searching for freedom.. what was more freeing than this? This planet provided everything she could need; cool air, warm sun.. a loving mate.. No more risky jobs, ship maintenance..

No! What was she thinking?

This form was little better than an animal. No hands, no speech, not human. She had to reach the Renascentia, and fast!

The weakness in her legs, the arousal; it was far too much duress to even trot under. Kim began to walk as quickly as she could manage, following the hilly crest that rounded the lake. She was nearly to the tree line when she heard the growl.

She didn't look back, all too aware what was behind that sound. The tree line was her only chance; if she could make it there, perhaps her smaller size could outmaneuver and outrun him..

Tree and shrub came ever closer, deceptively close that her heart momentarily jumped in anxious delight at success, just before her vision shifted under the force of impact.

Sharp claw drew into her flank, piercing downed feather with ease to press Kim hard against the earth. The weight on her wasn't playing this time; the way she was pinned was not to disallow movement, rather to allow access. Soft, muscled hips drew up against her own, interlocking in a way she had never before experienced, forcing her tail to the side despite her best attempt to keep it in place over her arousal.

Kim knew what was coming and struggled violently, whining and roaring human expressions out of a mouth which found them completely foreign, distorting them sufficiently to be completely unintelligible to her own ears. All of her strength poured into her pinned limbs, but it proved to be no use. Her efforts only depleted what little energy she had left, and before too long her body simply went limp under the superior weight, sucking air furiously and staring up at her captor.

Far from aggressive or hungry, the male simply looked excited, almost happy, muzzle taut in the equivalent of a smile looking down at his white feathered captor. A large gash along his muzzle, clotted dark red, seemed to be the only evidence he had fought the red male.

Kim's claws dug into the loamy soil, raking them in a last futile attempt to escape. A sudden heat presented itself again her own, running between her legs.

This was it. She was going to be mounted, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Her lower body shifted slightly as the drake used it for leverage, slowly and carefully aligning his drakehood to that special spot between her legs. She screamed, tried to loose herself from the grip, but his claws only dug deeper into her supple flank to hold her in the precise position. Then she felt it.

The tip pierced her flesh, spreading instinctively tightened musculature in a rush of feeling that froze her in place. The rest of him followed, quickened by eagerness and fear of further struggle, parting her deep and wide in a way she had never felt, or even imagined before. Her weakening cries intermingled with his warbling murmur of satisfaction, eyes softening as they yielded themselves to the sexual sensation. At first he simply held his pose, getting used to the feeling of his new mate. Confident she would no longer attempt to resist, his paws slid up her body to her shoulder blades, pressing into them as he shifted his weight.

Kim could barely focus, completely, utterly impaled. Her head swam; she could feel every ridge and bump of his cock with her internal muscles, even the gentle pulses his heart thrummed into it. It felt.. incredible. It was undeniable; no sex she ever had compared to this feeling, and her partner hadn't even started moving.

Each of her wings were grasped, lightly, and pressed on. Slowly he withdrew from her, though not far; still half of him continued to pulse inside of her. An erotic mixture of huffing and grunting matched each slow thrust he undertook, probing his new mate over and over. His pace, uneven at first, soon became comfortably smooth, a steady rhythm that elicited sweet, feral moans from Kim's own panting maw.

Every thrust electrocuted her entire body; invaded again and again so deep she felt it in her stomach, shivering every time one of his ridges nicked sensitive areas she didn't know she had. The tree line before her lost focus, turned dark as her eyes rolled back in her head. Claws raked the same pattern they had moments earlier, though for an entirely different reason.

The presence inside her grew once again, enveloping her vulnerable consciousness as orgasm began to tickle every nerve in her magnificent body. Every muscle wound itself tighter, tighter..

In a dizzying instant she broke, every muscle in her abdomen simultaneously constricting around the huge organ inside her. Her moan turned silent, lower body completely drowned in the pleasures of orgasm. The drake filled her one last time in response, fully parting her taut flesh before steadying himself against her, small, throaty growls echoing numbly in her pinned ears.

Delightful moments passed as the last of her body's climaxed dissipated in gentle bouts of shivering that spread from neck to tail. Her eyes surely gleamed as they took in the sight of a perturbed drake, huffing gently to keep his mind off every instinct that called to him. Warmth in her heart joined the one in her loins; this male was not only beautiful, but caring too. There was no other she would prefer bearing a clutch for.

Careful to keep herself hilted on the magnificent mound of male within her, attention turned to her sore muscles. She could hardly believe she had folded her wings so closely against her body; they spread gently, each broad feather projecting pure white brilliance as it gave purpose to stray rays cast down to the ground. The male mistook her gentle stretch for another attempt to flee, and he immediately coursed forward to place the entirety of his body against hers in such a way that both dragons purred a gentle moan.

The drake's alert look softened notably when he felt his tail entwined, and his pure white mate below mischievously stick her tongue out toward him, lifting her head to dangle tantalizingly close to his own. He closed the gap, their tongues emissaries to the embrace of their contrasting muzzles as they shared their first kiss.

Though hot breath tickled the down on opposing muzzle they found themselves breathless, though closed eye hid them from view their bodies still felt each other, connected as fully as any two individuals could possibly be. In an electric arc her rear slid and ground along his, wordlessly begging for the attention both now craved. Tongue wound tight against tongue to ensure the continuance of their oral embrace, the drake reeling slightly as, for the first time, pleasure was bestowed on him.

His grunts, heady breath flowed into her muzzle, and she drank the sensation down, returning soft affections of her own in time with her undulating hips. The drake allowed this for some time, quite enjoying the newfound intimacy and teasing from what had just before been an uncooperative female.

Soon, however, the instinct to breed persuaded him otherwise. It was Kim's turn to be startled by the sudden pop that resonated through her body as the drakehood in her began a slow retreat, withdrawing a ridge noticeably larger than what she had felt going in. A gently heavy paw found its place between her shoulder blades, cajoling her chest to the ground and her rear into a more breedable position. Kim's vocalizations took on high, breathy notes as a second ridge freed itself from her slickened confines, further relaxing her quivering form in another deep tidal wave of sensation.

The momentary shifting of hips closer to Kim's own was the only warning she had before both expanded ridges plunged back inside her. Her mate gave her little consideration now, slamming his hips freely back and forth against her own in a magnificent staccato. The sensation of climax began to build again, though thankfully, noticeably slowed by the fatigue and previous satisfaction of her body.

He jerked inside her, upwards in larger and larger movements, slowly but surely spurting his lubrication throughout her passage. His gentle trickle quickly turned into a torrent, leaking preseed throughout her passage in such an amount that every time she was hilted she heard, and felt, it squirt out onto her legs. She was being meticulously prepared, thoroughly bred in order to receive the most desirable of gifts.

Kim tried to hold on, used every ounce of her strength to muster endurance sufficient to entertain his own, but found herself summarily outmatched. Once again her body loosed itself in a great trembling, whimpering motion, only barely stymied by the full weight of her drake on her back. She clenched his enormity, involuntarily, squealing as he continued one.. two.. three thrusts into her fully constricted passage before a great groan seemed to shake what little remained of her perception. It came all at once, knocking against the deepest part of her in a hot flood of seed, so strong it seemed to enlarge his member even larger, stretching and throbbing within her slit to deposit the brunt of his fertile seed.

Neither dragon maintained control through the ordeal, shaking and growling and clawing the ground in the most ancient of dances. Black and white slumped to the ground, entwined more closely than either could have imagined before.

--

Blue stained white flowed through cool water, trailing smoothly streaming limbs and malformed bunches of bubbles that erupted to the surface in an all too telltale manner. Kim broke the surface ears first, intent on catching her mate on surprise, but he proved far too clever for her, coaxing a surprised yelp as his broad tongue caught the side of her head by surprise. Her wings erupted in retribution, spraying him with a distraction of sun slicked spray. The dragoness followed close behind, tackling the drake and taking them both underwater. Their forms flowed smoothly under the surface, marred by dual torrents of exhalation that trailed toward the grassy shore.

Dragoness trailed drake, both spreading near infinite beads of water from their feathers like so many glass beads to stain the thick grass beneath. Kim took on role of the aggressor, finally getting her chance to show her mate what she was capable of as she pounced, taking him mercilessly to the ground.

Nothing else seemed to matter as the new couple lay together, showering each other with playful licks of affection. They spoke to each other in a language without words; soft throaty growls and the occasional trill of delight was more than enough to communicate their feelings.

Kim was happy. Happier than she could ever remember being. A nuzzle flowed naturally into a kiss, and for a gloriously long moment of time little nothing else in the dragoness' world mattered.

That is, until she felt her mate's tongue go slack in her mouth. Kim's bright blue eyes snapped open in question; saw the drake staring into the sky. It was then she became aware of the sound, strange.. yet somehow familiar. It resonated from above in disturbingly even frequency, a stark contrast to the soft sounds of nature.

She raised her head to the sky, trailed the strange pink figure floating through the air. It filled her with an unexpected sense of unease, as if it had once been the source of some great discomfort. Her eyes followed it as long as they could; even after it disappeared behind a cluster of gently swaying trees her gaze persisted. Some murky, repressed memory struggled to breach the barrier of her perception..

A questioning trill brought her back to her senses. She looked down; the drake searched her eyes with a curious, slightly jealous look, wondering why such a trivial thing had held her attention for so long.

A new kiss, frenzied and suggestive, took her drake by surprise. She could already feel the heat in her loins; no doubt he could smell her arousal.

Kim would show her mate just how much he meant to her.