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_ Chapter 6- Down the Rabbit Hole _

<UEF-A 'Tiamat' - Grav-Lift en route to E-Deck> May 25, 2085

As the walked across the deck to the grav lifts, they were joined by Aris, the engineering lead. "Afternoon you two. What's going on?" With Canith's new knowledge of the general attitude of the crew now, he noticed she was fidgeting slightly, something he most likely would not have noticed earlier.

"Heya Aris," Will replied to her. "Where you headed?" Will placed themselves between Aris and Canith as they walked toward the lift.

"Just down to E-Deck to take care of some things . . . wait a second." She replied, then started sniffing a bit. "Are you taking the new guy for his first swim? No, don't answer that- I can smell you from here. That's proof enough." She chuckled as Will blushed at this, then swatted his rear with a well placed flick of her tail.

Canith was a bit taken aback by the sudden turn around. Overnight it seemed, the crew went from pseudo-professional to playfully intimate. "It was the Captain's orders, you know." Will supplied after a quick glance at Canith's expression. "E-deck was to be completely under wraps until, and I quote, 'He is determined to be acceptable as an addition to the crew' end quote." He laughed a bit at this. "Now that you ARE in the loop, however, it's no holds barred. All the sexual jokes, innuendos, and come-hither looks shall be out in force, probably more so for a few days at least. After all, the urges don't go away when stifled, and more and more of the crew end up making supplementary trips to E-Deck to relieve those pent up desires. "

By this point they had made it to the lift. Aris stepped forward once they were all boarded, placing her taloned hand on the modified scanner. After it quickly made a scan, she hit the button for E-Deck and the lift was off with it's typical speed. The trip down, while only a little longer then usual (after all, E was below the engineering deck), didn't leave too much time for talking. Aris and Will chatted a bit, while Canith was left to his own thoughts- not a normal occurrence these days with Aura always at hand if he needed anything- from information on a subject to just a friendly conversation. He figured he was soon to be changed- which he wasn't against at this point, as it would be yet another layer of defense against anyone looking for him. Whatever new form he chose, or was chosen for him (as he still had no clue to the actual process), would have some rather unique perks to it. Add in the addition of some of the rather . . . unique technology available that he as a pure human either couldn't use or was prohibited from using, he was in for a rather exciting trip down the rabbit hole.

His musings came to an abrupt end as the lift descended past the floor of D-deck, and quickly stopped at what could only be E-Deck. Aris waved farewell and headed down a nearby hallway and around the corner, her tail trailing behind her and disappearing around a corner after her. "Here we are, E-deck." Will stated, looking over at Canith with a lazy grin on his muzzle. "What do you think?"

Canith felt the urge to punch Will in the shoulder for the lame joke. "It's a hallway you jerk. Tell me a bit about it." Will shrugged and pointed opposite to where Aris had went, and Canith noticed 2 doors down that hallway, which when he thought about the ship layout, let him to the conclusion that those two rooms were roughly the size of a small house. Each.

"Those rooms are for additional skill training in the abilities most Anthos have after undergoing the Change. They are divided into physical manifestations in one room, and para-psychic manifestations in the other. Obviously, if you don't have a particular skill that needs training, you won't receive unnecessary training, but as some can be quite dangerous if left unchecked, it's nice to have dedicated training rooms for them." Turning all the way around, he motioned to the hall that Aris had went down. That is our destination today, the Pod room. To the left and right are the lockers and shower rooms respectively. Shall we?" Will asked, gesturing for Canith to follow him down the hallway.

Canith glanced through the door to the showers and locker room on their way past out of curiosity, but aside from the open bays and benches in the showers, and the bins of fresh jumpsuits that looked to be the standard ship attire, nothing looked all that strange in there. There wasn't even anyone in there. Continuing on, they came to a wall with hallways leading to either side. On a whim, Canith walked up to the wall and placed a hand upon it. He discovered several things from that. The first was that it wasn't a wall, it was a massive bank of computers and servers housed in a single massive unit. He could tell this by a combination of vibrations and the faint tingle of electricity that it gave off. Working around computers all his life, he had grown extremely sensitive to these phenomenon almost as a precaution when dealing with electronics. He 'hmm'ed to his self at this, but made no comment. In his mind, he had finally found the elusive Sylph.

Turning the corner, he was greeted to an odd sight. The room was lined with silvery cylinders, with one twice as large in the middle. Each cylinder looked easily large enough for an anthro, even a larger one such as a bear or a western dragon, to fit comfortably. The front panel of these 'pods' were clear, unless (as Canith noticed as he looked around) they were occupied. In this case, the front was closed and there was no apparent seam, and the holographic terminal that was displayed showed the occupant's name, as well as a timer. He noticed that one fairly near him listed 'Aris: 2 Hours' as well as underneath that 'Supplementary.'

In front of the large pod stood 2 desks within easy reach, and two individuals he had not seen before. The first, a snow white rabbit. Unlike anyone else on the ship Canith had seen so far, he didn't have a jumpsuit on. In fact, the only thing he did have on was several piercings in his right ear, of what appeared to be precious and semiprecious gemstones. That ear was straight up in the air as he heard footsteps, swiveled in their direction, then laid itself along his back. Nothing else indicated they had noticed the wolf and human come in.

The second was a different story all together. Like the captain, he was an eastern dragon. Same style mane, horns, and tail floof. However, where the captain had golden scales, this one had gunmetal gray scales, that seemed almost to blend in with the ship walls. He also didn't have a jumpsuit on, and motioned the pair over. To Will he simple made a shooing motion, and Will responded with a shrug and a whisper "If you take too long, look for me in the locker room. I'll get the staff down here to get me an ETA so I can be down here for your big reveal." He then walked over to an empty pod., stripping his jumpsuit as he did, and tossed it into a chute that opened on the wall. Placing his paw against it, the front opened up to allow him to pull himself in. Once in place, the pod sealed itself, began filling with fluid, and then the front turned the same silver color as the rest, displaying 'Will: 2 Hours' and 'Routine'.

"As for you, young human," The dragon, who had been at the desk one moment, was suddenly behind Canith. He jumped a literal foot in the air, for the dragon had not made a single sound in the transition. "What shall we make of you."

He began pacing around Canith, not a stalk, but more an intellectual lost in though. "First thing first, introductions. My name is Sky, and my esteemed colleague is Sun. We are the B shift operators here on E deck. Also, the reason you never saw me move is a combination of knowing both where your peripheral blind spot was at the moment you looked away and judicious use of phasing, which you have noticed Will doing quite often. No, he won't be reprimanded for it, as there was no harm, but he will need to settle down a bit."

Canith was mentally on the back foot. Both answers were to questions he had been about to ask, but Sky was seemingly two steps ahead of him. "Actually, it's more a single step ahead, and a bit of practice. Although, your mind is very clear, so if you had any broadcasting potential you would be considered telepathic." Sun supplied from the desk, never actually looking over. "We are both telepathic, as most of the E deck operators are. Not that it is strictly needed, but it helps with communication through the pods when you cannot talk."

Canith's was once more caught off guard; but instead of reacting, he simply took a deep breath and stopped thinking. That had the additional effect of both getting the rabbit to turn around and to have the dragon start in with a laugh. "That's one way, I will give you, to stop an over reliance on telepathy, but that only works on passive surface scans. A deep scan would still reveal much, but not your current thoughts. Anyways, on to the real reason you are here."

Sky gently placed a taloned hand on Canith's back and led him to the center pod. "This will be where you are the first time. Unlike the others, this one is set up for large scale changes instead of what we call down here 'maintenance' visits. If you would be so kind, I need you to strip, and while you are at it try to recall the conversation you had with Will. This way, we can fill in any blanks that he will undoubtedly missed. Blushing a bit, as Canith was slightly body shy, Sky added, "Modesty is fine, even a bit cute. But remember, Anthro's were originally test subjects, without any privacy of their own. That and casual relationships tend to crush any modesty fairly quickly. Also, Will has already requested he be your first- this isn't always the case. Normally, I would be your first, as that's part of my specific designation as the 'Species Selection and Gender Re/Balancing'." If anything, Canith blushed harder, then did as he was asked.

"Not bad, not bad at all. No signs of excessive fat, so we will need to adjust nutrient output to compinsate. This is good though, as it will be less of a shock to the body. Good muscle tone, so there shouldn't be any athrophy from an extended session. Ah, yes, I figured Will would stumble over that. Let me clarify a bit about the mission and what we do here." Again he started the pacing, still eyeing Canith and calling out changes to Sun, who apparently was calibrating the capsule they were in front of.

"The Tiamat's mission actually never changed. It was slotted as a deep space exploration craft, true, but the rest of the original mission was to search for planets that could support colonization. However, with the war, the Anthros actually had a rather cruel, yet effective idea. The would do the mission as normal, but all planets would be classified as requiring mild to moderate gene therapy to be hospitable to pure humans. This would effective lock 'pure' humans to Earth, and any that opted to colonize would be in a similar boat to the Anthros, locked out of Earth. Zealots would refuse the change as a matter of course, and thus the war would win itself. Needless to say, it worked, but didn't stop humans from inhabiting the stations. Therefore, the gene splicing tech needed to disappear. Thus the retrofit."

"Of course, this made any ship with this technology a target for the zealot's armada, but by use of some good dampening fields and keeping quiet, we have been able to stay under the proverbial radar. As to finding a new home, Will was correct to a point on the problems of populating a planet with only 50 or so people. However, that is assuming we don't have a system in place to fix that." Sky gestured to the bank of servers and other electronics Canith had noticed coming in. "I know, thanks to Tia, that you at least know that Sylph is down here. Their function, however, is fairly singular, and not much in demand right now- they ensure genetic comparability across species, while maintaining genetic cohesion. All the while, they also diversify the same genetics, allowing for a small selection of individuals to carry the genetic templates of hundreds more. What this means is that even if, hypothetically, one person was to impregnate themselves, instead of a rather limited selection of DNA, almost to the point of being a clone, the child would have a completely separate genetic code. Then, assuming those two breed, the subsequent child or children would have completely separate DNA as well."

"This process could be repeated for 5 generations with a success rate of 87.6%." A new voice seemed to echo from the speakers on the terminal in front of Sun."After the sixth generation and onward, they mutating genetic code would stabilize somewhat, and although there would be differences, as time went on different DNA would be required." At this point, a tiny pixy likw figure began to take shape above the terminal."Assuming a large enough selection at each generation, this could solve the reoccurring DNA degradation with a sufficient base starting size."

"As you can see," Sky commented, "Sylph has already worked out a rather elegant solution to the problem that so few would cause. The other portion that makes the system works is gender flexibility. If two individuals can be both mother and father, that essentially doubles the amount of pairing would result in children each time, and exponentially raise both birth rates and subsequent generation sizes. Thus the presence of equal amounts of herms, as well as the binary male/female. Of course, with our tech, we make sure most everyone can experience both ends of the spectrum, and those that are particularly balanced usually end up remaining hermaphrodite. Not a bad trade off, mind you. Although, in some rather extremely rare cases, the individuals in question develop a rather interesting ability. I won't say anything more then this, as the more people who know about the particulars of this ability, the more danger the possessor would find themselves in. I only mention it as a possibility, and some of the genetic and profile markers seem to indicate that you might develop it."

Canith was flat-footed, so to speak. The way the whole situation was introduced make plenty of sense, as well as the secrecy. Essentially denying pure humans the ability to leave Earth was a slow death sentence. Sure, those that got modded would be able to live elsewhere, but as long as the zealots controlled Earth, there was no going back. Setting themselves up as their own colony, of course, was only to be expected. But being able to populate a planet with around 50 or so people? That baffled the mind. All this, however, made clear in Canith's mind the relationship the crew had. They were, in every sense of the word, one large family. All would have several kids, who would inherit a planet.

"Next for you, however, is a bit of a choice- as well as clearing up some ship betting. Obviously, as Species Selection, I didn't weigh in on the betting, but it seems most think you will either go wolf, or maybe a human-morph variant. After seeing your room, and inside your mind, however, I think personally you will surprise everyone." He gestured to the pod, where the interface like the names and timers pulled up. Instead of this information, however, it displayed the various species, as well as various colors. Looking at it for a minute, he turned, not to Sky or Sun, but to Sylph.

"Sylph, what are the parameter limits for this?" Sylph blinked, then looked as if thinking for a moment.

"For reference, no one has ever asked that, before OR after a change. Why do you ask, so I can formulate the proper response." Canith grinned at this. Sky looked puzzled, and Sun looked stunned.

"As you and Sky have mentioned, the genetic instability allows for diversity for up to 5 generations. Is there anything preventing hybrids or cross species traits?"

Sky seemed to catch on quick, and had an appraising look in his eye at this point. Sun was just looking back and forth to all three of them, lost as to what was going on. Sylph processed this statement and grinned a bit, floating a bit higher. "Although it hasn't explicitly been done before, there is nothing to stop it, as crossbreeding is definitely a point that would help the genetic lines. It was calculated in as a possibility, but only for specific cases. If it fits those criteria, I see no problems with it." Canith nodded at this.

"Thank you Sylph." He turned back to the terminal, but started talking to Sky. "A fact that wasn't on my profile, and would not show up on genetic tests is that while physically I look like I come from the western portion of Earth, that is Europe or the Americas, thinking wise I have always had an eastern mindset. As a result, most never truly understood me, least of all my parents." It was Sky's turn to be confused, but Sun caught on quick.

"I have met someone like that. Causes no end of problems. The mentality definitely would get you in trouble with the zealots at the least. And as a result, I think I know why you asked, and I can unlock some 'extra' features over here, that should allow you to achieve 'that'."

Canith nodded his thanks, and turned back to the terminal once more. This time, however, although the normal features were there, more options were available, including the option to select two or more species as the genetic target. Canith grinned once more, and quickly selected this, as well as two that showed similar images, but had a letter on each - 'E' and 'W'. He selected several colors, and other miscellaneous things, but then noticed that there was no gender option (probably due to Sylph messing with everyone's gender on a regular basis.) Finishing up, he turned back to Sky. "Now what?"

"Now," he stated rather casually, " you normally would hop in and say goodbye to your pure status. However," he said, reaching over to the desk that was his, he pulled out a small box, "You made a pretty good impression on several people with a lot of pull, so they got a gift for you." He handed the box to Canith, who took it and opened it up. Inside was what looked similar to a computer chip, only much too small to be of use to anything he could think of, and a pretty odd present to boot.

"I don't get it. What is this supposed to be?"

Sun spoke up to this question. "Sky sometimes has a habit of forgetting that not everyone has access to 'non-pure' tech as some call it. Others just consider it dark tech, or black market tech. It's only illegal for pure status humans." Canith was intrigued, but let Sun finish. "That piece, if I'm not mistaken, is the most high tech neural transmitter/receiver uplink on the market, augmented with so much tech that I don't even know what it could and could not do. Lt. Desmond sent it by the way, along with his greetings and salutations." A Neural uplink, huh? That would make work both in and out of a dive much faster, and a lot less obtrusive then his headset and external uplink.

"Here," Sky said, taking the box, pulling out the chip, and pressing it gently to Canith's right temple. All he felt was a slight pinch and sting, and it was done. "By the way, did you have any last thoughts or anything?"

Canith gave one last grin as a human, and stepped into the pod. "Not a one." Sky nodded once

"Bon Voyage my friend, and see you when you wake up."

The pod sealed itself with a hiss of pressurization, and then began filling with liquid. There was no light in the pod, so the first thing that Canith noticed was that whatever the fluid was, it was numbing him wherever it touched. He also felt something nudging at his face, and it felt like a mask.

:By the way,: a voice echoed into his head, sounding masculine with just a hint of femininity, :You will be in there until you pass a function check: As the liquid reached the top of his thighs he felt something firm touching his anus, only for that to go numb as well. The fluid kept rising, and as it reached about throat high there was a hiss from the mask as it sealed into place and started feeding him oxygen mixed with an airborne chemical cocktail that instantly knocked him unconscious.

:The changes to Canith's body are going to be extensive: Sky spoke to Sun telepathically. :Also, these settings seem a bit odd. Like right here- species alone I didn't think the would be full compatible. Either they come out looking completely unique, or the genetic instability tears them apart.:

:Actually,: Sun responded back, :I'm rather surprised that no one has asked that question before. I knew what I wanted the second I laid eyes on it, which is the same for most. He only glanced at that choice for a moment before asking. Do you find it odd?:

:In some ways I do. But at the same time, he was a rather torn individual. I sensed a bit of a duality and a warring nature within his mind, tempered with patience and wisdom far beyond his years. I honestly hope this combo works, because in reality, this would suit his mind better then any of the bets.: Sky took one last look at the panel, before blanking it out. No sense in spoiling the surprise for the rest of the ship.