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A Proper Fusion

Part 1: Bobcat to Bob-Crux

For nfjrrjf

By Draconicon

Two hundred habitable planets on the Rim, and GSN sends me here, Kajiit grumbled as his fingers danced over the Diamondback's console. Not to a crystal-studded beauty or an oceanic gem, but all the way out to the Swamp Sphere.

That wasn't what the scientists called the world below, of course, but ever since he'd gotten the surveying contract, 'Swamp Sphere' was the only thing he'd bothered to call it. No need to pretty up this lump of muck.

He tilted his ship forward, the large, orange vessel dropping through the atmosphere at a faster-than-advised rate. As he slipped from frictionless space to occupied atmosphere, the Diamondback started rattling from the resistance. The bobcat was used to it; part of the job was finding the right angle of approach for future visitors. Kajiit tweaked his approach vector, testing various angles until he found one that slipped between the worst of the winds and air barriers. His shields could handle the rest of the problems.

Dropping to two kilometers above the planet's surface, he brought his ship back to a level position. Toggling the scanners to record their data, he set the Diamondback to an in-atmosphere orbit. The engines thrummed as they pulled more power, then roared as they released it, knocking him back in his seat as the Diamondback went off like a shot.

Temperature scanners, online. Atmospheric scanners, online. Weather extrapolator, operational, he confirmed. Right...nothing to do but wait.

The bobcat settled back in the pilot's chair, crossing his arms. It hadn't even been a minute and boredom was already setting in. He was used to it, knew that it was part and parcel of the job, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Required information or not, doing the initial scans was the worst part of the job.

Still, it would save time in the long run. The swamps below necessitated this low-level scan. His normal practice of doing it outside atmosphere wouldn't work with the highly-reflective minerals in the muck, and he couldn't waste time surveying worthless areas.

At least I have the Diamondback, he thought. If I was doing this in one of GSN's ships...

The bobcat winced. What the Diamondback could accomplish in six hours would take a week in a GSN ship. When he compared the two, six hours of boredom wasn't so bad, really.

As the inertial compensators kicked in, Kajiit leaned sideways and looked out the window. He would have liked to say that the planet looked better up close, but he had seen too many truly lovely planets to call this swampy mess anything but filthy. From its mud-oceans at the equator to the brown ice at the poles, it looked like a child's mud pie grown to galactic size. Exploration was going to be messier than usual, and he hoped -

Beep, beep.

...And that would be GSN, the bobcat realized as he looked down at the blinking red button on the ship console. He debated letting it go to video-mail, but it was never good to piss off an employer, and he could use something to kill time. As soon as he pressed the button, a portion of the cockpit window turned black. A blue hologram of a familiar bull appeared in the center, politely nodding at him, and Kajiit smiled as he nodded back.

"Jonathan. Good to see you."

"Something that will happen less often if we don't get your reports soon," the bull said. "You've been silent for several days. What's going on?"

"Pirates, mostly," Kajiit said, shrugging. "Ran into a small squad of them yesterday and had to lose them before continuing the trip. I have all the reports filled out, but -"

"Understandable," Jonathan said, stopping him with a wave of his hand. "Where are you up to?"

"Well, I broke atmosphere half an hour ago and started my initial sweeps." Kajiit tapped a few buttons. "You should be getting my initial scans any second now, but this planet is going to need a lot of work if Galactic Spa Networks wants something pretty."

"How much is a lot?"

"Well, I haven't got a full weather extrapolation yet, but it looks like the planet has two seasons: wet, and more wet. Not a lot of sun, and enough cloud cover to keep it humid. And rainy. Did I mention rainy?"

Jonathan nodded before muting the call and turning his head. Even so, it was clear he was cursing someone out. The bobcat wasn't surprised; planets weren't cheap, but terraforming them made the acquisition look like a bargain. His employer probably wouldn't have a good time putting that information before his investors.

Eventually, the bull returned, sighing.

"Please tell me that there's something good here and we haven't just thrown our money down a black hole?"

"Well, I'm picking up plenty of minerals down there, particularly near the equator," he said. "Might be able to market it as a rejuvenating muck or something."

"It's...possible. It worked on Gelator 5, anyway." The bull shook his head. "Any signs of life?"

"Not from this altitude, but I'll tell you if I find anything."

"Do that. If there's any sentient life forms, accounting and legal needs to know."

"Always looking out for the natives, eh, Jonathan?"

"It's always better to work with the locals than to try and wipe them out. People always find out...plus, it's messy. It's not good for business, or at all."

"And that's why I work with you, Jonathan. I'll be in touch."

"I'll be here."

The call ended, clearing the left-hand side of the window just in time for a mountain to loom into view. Kajiit yelped as he swerved the Diamondback out of the way, panting as the ship's shields ground away several hundred meters of rock from the mountain.

"Note to self, stop accepting calls in low atmosphere," he muttered. "Five hours til landing...not sure if I look forward to that or not."

#

Three orbits were more than sufficient to learn everything he needed to know. No toxins or overly-acidic components to the atmosphere, no dangerous levels of oxygen or other gasses, and no anti-life parameters more extreme than the core planets. If GSN could find a suitable location, they could make it work. And Kajiit was happy to find several shallow places in the muck where strong rock foundations might serve for landing pads and building pads for his employer's resorts.

As he landed on one, he almost wished that the jets under the Diamondback pushed out as much heat as they did force. On any other planet, the lack of heat was fine, but it would have been nice to quick-cook the mud into clay. Still, beggars couldn't be choosers. He'd just have to scrub it - and hard - when he got back to civilization.

Thinking of scrubbing... Kajiit looked down at his jumpsuit as he cut the engine. Yeah, that's not going to be enough. Not by a long shot.

The bobcat unstrapped himself from his chair and descended to the cargo hold. Past the empty crates strapped to the floor were the storage lockers, and he pulled the first one open. The enviro-suit inside had seen better days, but despite the patches along the elbows, knees, and neck, it still had a few months' worth of use left in it. It'd be better than soaking himself in muck, at the very least.

He pulled it out and stepped into it. Long practice kept his toe-claws from ripping the legs, and soon his toes rested on the massage gel in the attached boots. Kajiit smiled, wiggling the digits into the specially-designed toes. He'd paid extra for that, just to make sure he always had a good grip wherever he was. It did, of course, mean he 'felt' things more keenly when he was walking around, so hot worlds or rocky ones tended to hurt a bit more, but it was a price he was willing to pay.

After that, it was just a matter of dragging it up the rest of the way and putting on his helmet. He dragged the rubber down his tail, secured his zipper, and adjusted the filter unit to the proper setting before nodding his head.

"Alright. Time to mark out some territory."

He thumped the ramp release, the usual warning klaxons going off as the gangplank fell. Yellow lights reflected off the metal ramp and the mud beneath, and the rain shimmered as it was back-lit. The ramp kept lowering until it touched the mud, then dipped about a foot beneath it, much to his distaste.

Wonderful. And I bet it just gets deeper, doesn't it? Enviro-suit, don't fail me now.

Messy stuff had never been fun for him. Where other cubs and kids had gone running for mud puddles, he'd kept to the trees and anywhere the muck wasn't. Kajiit preferred clean, sterile technology to this...mess. It was the one part of the job he'd trade in for something else.

But it was still part of the job, and it was why he got paid the big credits. Nobody else wanted to do this, and if he wanted to keep the fun stuff - flying, exploring, and a good income - he needed to do this part, too. Sighing, the bobcat walked down the gangplank, stopped at the edge of the mud puddle, and sighed.

Well...here we go.

It squelched underfoot just as he'd expected it to, the mud sliding between the toes of his boot. He might as well have been barefoot from how clearly he felt it, the mud slimy and slick, and the further he sank in it, the more it seemed to tug at his paw and leg. He knew that it was merely physics, but he had to keep reminding himself that there was no mud monster trying to eat him, anyway.

Trying not to think about what would happen if there was a sudden drop-off further on, Kajiit forced himself off the gangplank. Each step took him deeper into the mud until he was up to his waist. After that, it varied by about two inches above or below it, but no more. He tested it, walking twenty feet left, right, and forward, and it didn't change. He seemed to have found the average depth for the area.

Fighting resistance stronger than any lake or river, Kajiit thrust his way forward, carving a path for himself through the thick mud. The blue bobcat stuck his tongue out in disgust at the squishing feeling under-paw every time he took a step, but he kept moving.

About two hundred feet north of his ship, the feline almost tripped as his boot slammed into solid rock. He threw out his hands, his wide gloves resting on the surface of the mud just long enough to let him get his footing again. Pulling himself upright, he pulled his boot back and felt around for the edge of the rock.

About a...two, three-foot difference? Pretty near the surface, at least.

Once he knew where the edge was, he forced his hands beneath the surface and pushed. It was like vaulting over a post in track, but in slow motion, one boot breaking the surface followed by the other. He dragged himself up, surprised that he was barely more than ankle-deep in mud. Surprised, but pleased.

Looking back the way he'd come, Kajiit saw that the mud had reclaimed his trail. Not completely, as it was still filling in the canyon of his passage, but mostly. The rain was heavy enough that, even with the Diamondback's 'warning' orange color, he could barely see it. The bobcat made a mental note of what direction it was in, then turned back to the task at hand.

To his happy surprise, the rock under his feet was completely flat. Not nearly flat, like the walk had been, but completely flat, no rising or falling. Fascinating.

And this is why I have to do this. Can't get this precision depth on the ship. Let's stake it out.

Kajiit reached into his back pocket, pulling out the yellow poles that he carried for this specific task. He stabbed one down at his feet, then turned left, stabbing another into the ground every fifteen feet or so. They extended on contact, rising seven feet in the air, just as they were supposed to.

Knowing that they'd need 160,000 square feet for a start, Kajiit kept going until he had four-hundred feet marked off by the yellow posts. He could feel that there was more flat ground ahead of him, but he turned right instead. If there was another four-hundred feet of flat rock going this way, then he'd be earning a bonus for sure. Jonathan could make a hell of a sort with that sort of foundation; even if it didn't allow for a sprawling one, they could get a suspended hotel, at least, and GSN could market the hell out of that.

He was just turning again at the end of his second line when something towards the center of the 'claim' caught his attention. Pausing, Kajiit turned his helmet towards it, cocking it to the side at the sight of the bubbling mud.

That...isn't how mud works, he thought. There's no heat for bubbles, and it's too shallow and irregular for anything but -

The bubbles stopped, but the bobcat remained frozen. If it came again, he had to be ready. If it moved, that would confirm his suspicions that it belonged to something living, and if it did -

Then I must get the hell out of here.

When it came, it wasn't bubbles but a hint of blue beneath the brown that caught his attention. Kajiit's eyes went wide as he jumped, but it was too late.

His toes almost cleared the mud before the blue lashed out, a strange tendril that wrapped around his ankle like a whip, then yanked him back. He stumbled, wobbling in a desperate attempt to stay upright and not fall into the filth. Scraping the toes of his boots back and forth, he strained to escape, but it was all in vain. Whatever held him was too strong.

Then, the unseen creature forced its way up.

It was slow, at first. The bobcat watched, the feline's eyes wide as they could be behind the plastic screen between him and the alien. It moved like an ooze from a chemical tank, slow, yet inevitable in its flow. It slipped over the mud, floating on top of it, wrapping around his leg in every direction. He would have run, but for two things.

First, he knew enough about wild animals to know that sudden movements had a better than even chance of getting them to turn aggressive. Even prey animals didn't like being startled; predators took it even worse. Second...

Second, as embarrassing as it was, the alien had managed to squeeze tight around his leg. Even if he pulled back, it already had a grip on him and would be able to follow. No, better to wait. Maybe it would go away.

He breathed as slowly as he could as the puddle grew eyes, then the beginnings of lips. They pushed up from the blue ring that had wrapped around his calf, dragging the ring up and around his leg. It kept on rising, rippling like the throat of a snake as it swallowed something, except that it kept on moving, and kept on changing as it got closer and closer to his waist.

It's too small to eat me, he told himself, his heart slamming against his ribs. It's just...curious...right? It's not that different from a wolf sniffing things out. And it's smaller, too. It can't hurt me...right?

It stopped around his thigh, the wide blue band rippling before it began narrowing. He watched as its mass pulled towards the lips and eyes at the front of his leg, then stared as a head pushed out of the blue ooze. It was curved, cartoonish, almost impossible in the way that its muzzle curved up and its teeth clicked together. More importantly, it didn't look like anything he had seen before. The two-toned blue creature looked up at him, then grinned.

"Hee-hee-hee! I never thought I'd find another playmate out here!"

It...it talks...that... Kajiit shook, almost falling over before he locked his knees tight. That's impossible. There's never been something that didn't need a translator this far out.

Even as he verged on a breakdown, the creature dragged itself up further, the alien sliding past his waist and up to his chest, growing fingers and stroking along the edges of his suit.

"Are you rubber? You feel like rubber. Wait, wait. No." The creature gripped at one of the wrinkles near the neck. "This isn't you. This is a suit. Oooh, cool. Very cool. But what about you?"

It was the sudden grip of the alien's rubbery fingers around his neck that broke the spell. He'd been paralyzed in shock, in desperation that the creature might go away, but the thought of his suit being ripped finally snapped him out of it. A quick punch and scrape he'd learned before his surveying days slapped the creature off his suit, sending it splatting down to the mud.

He'd hoped to see it sink, but luck was not on his side. It landed, flattened out, then came back together. Looking up at him, the creature looked...confused, almost sad.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to play?"

"Not...really." Kajiit looked over his shoulder, back at the ship. "I...think I should go."

"Go? But...but why? I thought...maybe we could be friends."

"Friends? No, no, I'm just an explorer. I don't fly around looking for friends; I look for new things, new planets, new -"

"Life?"

Kajiit froze. Not just because the alien had completed the phrase before he could, but because of the implications.

Does...does it KNOW that it's new life? he wondered. No, impossible, how could it?

More to the point, he doubted that GSN would want anything to do with this. It would do the usual 'good' thing and find what a goo creature like this wanted, pay it off, and make sure that it never had any reason to complain before building up their latest resort. They'd have land partitioned here for them, too.

Kajiit knew that there'd be a market for a new, untapped species, both on the semi-legal and illegal markets, but he wasn't touching that. Not again. Not after -

Well, it didn't matter there. Even if he avoided that market, he'd still be breaking quarantine rules, and he could lose everything if he allowed this thing onto his ship and back to civilization. No, he had to leave it be. No matter how sad it looked.

Besides, it might try to eat him, even if it was too small.

"...Yes, that's part of the job. But, um, now I've done my job, and I should get going."

"I'll come with you!"

"No!"

Kajiit held out his hands, shaking his head. The creature stopped in mid-motion, staring in shock.

"No?"

"You're not allowed. I can't take anything off-planet."

"Why not?"

"Because...because rules. Rules say I can't."

"Rules. Pffft. Who cares about rules? Besides, I'm a great hider." The ooze winked. Seeing its eye melt away and then reappear sent a shiver down his spine before it continued. "Nobody can find me when I'm hiding."

"You haven't hidden from scanning machines before."

"What are those?"

Kajiit continued his slow retreat to the edge of the raised rock, dividing his attention between his conversation with the alien and his route to safety. The mud would be easier to traverse on the way back, but he'd still be slower than the alien, particularly if it could travel on top of the mud. But if he could get enough of a lead -

The creature burbled, repeating its question.

"What are those?"

"Machines," the bobcat said. "They look for anything out of place, things that don't belong. No matter what they were hiding in, they'd find you."

"Even if I was hiding inside you?"

"Even if you were - wait, what?!"

Info-files of parasites across the galaxy flashed through his mind and sent shivers down his spine. He'd assumed this thing was some sort of predator, but if it was a parasite -

The alien's grin broke him. Kajiit whipped around, leaping off the rock and into the deeper mud, charging through the half-filled path he'd waded through. His breath fogged the front of the helmet, but he barely noticed. He just ran as the giggling alien chased after him.

He was ten feet away when the ooze slammed into the back of his head. Barely staying on his feet, the bobcat forced himself forward, swallowing his whimpers as the creature poked at the rubber around his neck with little tendrils.

"Come on, I just want to play. What's wrong with that? Just let me in. I promise that it'll be fun."

"One, it's too filthy to be outside this suit. Two, get off!"

"No. I want a friend, and I want you."

And how many 'friends' have you had before? he wondered. How many of them died? It didn't matter. As long as the alien stayed outside the suit, he was safe. Once he was on the Diamondback, this would all be over.

It wasn't far, now. Ten feet. Nine. Eight. Seven. With each step, the goo creature's tendrils pulled at a new spot, trying to find the weakest area, and he pushed himself to move faster.

Finally, he reached the gangplank. Kajiit got one boot on it, pulled himself out of the muck -

RIIIIIP!

"AGH!" He gasped as the wet air outside rushed through the breach and the alien followed. As the cold goo ran down his neck, he flailed, slapping himself as he ran up the gangplank and sealed it behind him. The bobcat ground himself against the bulkhead, groaning.

"Get out!"

"Never! Friend! New friend!"

It was giggling as it spread out, covering his chest and his shoulders. Both impossibly fast and seemingly invulnerable, nothing he did seemed to hurt it. Kajiit fumbled for the binders at the back of the suit, knowing he needed to get to the hazard cleaners; maybe it could scrub this thing off before -

Two tendrils shot out of the rip by his neck, popping the helmet off before sealing themselves around his ears. Eyes on goo-stalks rose up in front of him as he scraped at his ears, staring at him before turning around and -

"AGH!"

They pressed right over his eyes like goggles, tinting the world blue and forcing him to stare through them. More blue spread out, running along his face cheeks and down his muzzle. Everywhere it touched, he felt it change. His fur was forced down, his muzzle pulled up into a curled shape, his nose grown, and through it all, the alien's voice poured down his ears right into his brain.

"Please, please, please. Just let me in. I just want a friend, just want someone to play with. So long since the last play-date. I'll take good care of you. Better than the last friend. I'm better. I promise. Lots of fun together."

It sounded so naïve, but there was something else. Something convincing. Something -

It's in my brain, he realized as he felt his skin against the creature and vice versa. It's linking us!

Kajiit tried to scream, but the alien was quicker. Like water through a broken dam, the alien's body rushed between his spread lips, flooding his muzzle and running down to his stomach.

Everywhere it touched, he felt it merging with him. Painlessly, seamlessly, they were slowly becoming one, and the alien was overjoyed. Kajiit's mouth moved as the parasite spoke.

"Oh, yes! I finally get a friend! You know, they told me I was supposed to get one of you years ago, but you never showed up, but now I have one, and -"

In desperation, Kajiit slammed his head against one of the walls, hoping to knock himself out. Instead...

Instead, his head just flattened.

The bobcat slowly pulled back, his head stretching out as he did. When he finally dragged himself free, his face bounced back like rubber, making a sound like the old holo-cartoons he'd once watched. With his muzzle still bouncing, he could see his new reflection in the polished panels. He...he wasn't himself anymore. Not by a long shot.

Without his helmet, he had a perfect view of his new head. With a large nose, curved muzzle, and ears that put his old ones to shame by size and flexibility, he looked like an exaggerated caricature of his own species. A long, slithering tongue poked past his lips, licking the spots that had been flattened out, and the new skin shined like latex as the alien giggled through his mouth.

"Hee-hee, don't worry. It's really hard to hurt me. I'll take care of you, too. That's what friends do."

What...what are you?

"I'm a Crux," the alien said. "And we're going to have so much fun, I promise. Now, let's get all those clothes off, and see what I look like with you!"

A blue wave rolled down from his neck, forcing his suit the rest of the way off and sending the damaged rubber against the door. It left droplets of light and dark blue all the way down his body, droplets that thickened as another wave followed, and another after that. Each one followed a pulse through his head, leaving his mind throbbing and making it harder and harder to think.

He leaned back, panting under the mask of the Crux head as the blue slowly conquered his body, layering it in something like blue latex. It passed his sheath and balls, cupping them for a moment before going further, tendrils snaking out as it went down his legs. When they reached his paws and slithered between his toes, he moaned. The Crux gasped and giggled.

"Oh, you love paws? Me too!"

Each pulse in his head weakened his resistance further and further, and the stimulation from the Crux-suit was making it hard to focus on anything else. As the proportions of his body became ever more exaggerated, the tendrils on the inside stroked and licked everything. His balls, his cock...his paws. He shivered as one leg lifted, letting him see how huge his paws had become, and more, how there were little writhing things under the blue, shimmering skin of the Crux that fondled and licked him. He was so hard, so very hard...

Reality shifted, his sense of place and time distorted. The bobcat was vaguely aware of the alien, the Crux, moving him around the inside of his own ship. Voices, transmissions, and more filled the air, and he swore he heard the sound of something breaking. For what felt like hours, he was a helpless passenger in his own body...

Until he finally came.

As he groaned and spurted inside the Crux, Kajiit was able to pull himself back from the edge. For that moment, he could think. For that moment, he could fight.

The bobcat strained, forcing his will against the alien's. For almost five minutes, he couldn't accomplish anything, but at long last, he closed his left eye. It wasn't much, but it was enough to remind him that he and this creature - Kal, the name echoed in his mind - were two separate beings.

Reclaiming his body was easy, after that. Inch by inch, he forced the Crux down. When he finally had his arms free, he reached up, trying to pull the blue menace off him, but it was too late. The Crux slid past his lips, into his ears, into every hole it could find. He sputtered and coughed as it disappeared into his body, slipping into places he didn't even know existed. Even then, he felt it pushing at his mind, but he threw up every distraction, every blank wall, every meditative white noise he knew of to keep it out, and it worked...for now.

Stumbling through a much-emptier cargo bay, Kajiit gradually made his way to the cockpit. It felt wrong to sit in the pilot's chair without clothes, but he didn't have the strength to get dressed again. He looked out the window, saw the imprint of the sun against the clouds shifting. The ship confirmed that hours had passed.

What was he doing? he wondered. What did he do while I was out of it?

Other than the missing cargo, there was no clue. The ship didn't seem to be damaged, but he started a scan, just in case. Jonathan wouldn't care about the lost goods, considering they weren't for GSN, but his other employer -

He grunted, feeling the Crux slamming into the mental barriers, pressing nakedly against it to the point where he could see a blue, thankfully-censored blur in the back of his mind. Holding one hand to his head, he tapped out diagnostic orders for the rest of the ship.

"Go...away..."

That wasn't fair. We didn't get to finish playing.

"And we're not going to. Stars know how I'm going to sort this one out...quarantine is going to have a field day with this..."

What's quarantine? Why are you so grouchy?

"Quarantine is where I'm going to spend the rest of my life if I can't get you the hell out of me...now, shut up."

But I can hide. You don't have to -

"I said, shut up!"

Kal either stopped talking, or the bobcat got better with the barriers. Either way, he was able to think in peace.

Okay. One more scan, see if there's anything else that we need to worry about. If there's more...Crux...on the planet, I should be able to find them now. Jonathan should be able to fast-track me through quarantine, particularly with how much he needs the information, and after that...

After that, he'd need to figure out how the hell one removed a Crux. Making a mental note to check the galactic databanks to find out what a Crux even was, he turned on the Diamondback's main reactor and took off, trying not to think about the consequences of being found out when he got back to the core-ward worlds.

The End