Bugging Out (9/10)
#9 of Bugging Out
Dathmoth was a planet that was ugly, scarred, and barren in all regards. There was no reason that anyone would want anything to do with such an inhospitable place... until a new sonar technique that had been developed showed the presence of Falchorite, an invaluable substance that would cause a company to spend an insurmountable amount in order to try and dig it up. The mining crew is eager to get off, but what they don't know is that there was something else that was trying to get off the planet as well.
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Captain Daniel could feel the sweat forming on his brow as the reports continued to come pouring in of breaches that were happening all over the ship. The alien contagion had spread to the point where not only was it infecting people from the radiation affected parts, of which were also starting to grow in nature, but also from other sections of the ship where human and alien alike suddenly mutated. Not only had engineering been completely compromised but also other sections of the ship such as communications, logistics, and even their food and water stores. From what he could tell the bridge was the last bastion of the uninfected, and if the spread of the creatures was any indicator he knew it wouldn't be that way for long.
"Captain," Daniel's first officer replied. "We've attempted to make contact with any of the other freighters in the area but it appears that our long-range transmission beacons are out."
"Not sure that we need to have the formalities anyone Sonya," Daniel replied as he took a drink from his cup. "The ship is lost and we're trapped here, and from tall the reports that are coming in I don't think that anyone would be able to take it back without severe casualties. That means only one thing..."
The frantic communications that were happening throughout the bridge stopped, everyone looking at one another as the first officer looked at Daniel in shock. "Sir, Daniel, you can't be serious," she said. "We're just... giving up?"
"We're protecting the galaxy," Daniel replied sternly as he looked back up at the viewscreen that showed the damaged planet below. "Even if we somehow manage to escape we can't stop others from coming here in search of the Falchorite that is below the surface, and if this infection gets to any decent sized space station or colony then the result is going to be an infestation unlike anything space has ever seen before. That's why it's not just enough to self-destruct the ship like you're thinking... luckily in the attempts to flush us out the aliens gave us our opportunity to end this once and for."
"You want to crash the ship into the planet," Sonya replied. "Even without the ordinance that we have on board if we go headfirst into the surface it's going to cause the core to go critical... which means that we're going to likely crack the entire planet itself."
"Destroying not only the infection on this ship but also the mining facility below," Daniel confirmed. "With what we know about these creatures now it's very unlikely our weapons did much to them aside from the initial impact, so we have to turn the entire place into dust." Daniel turned towards the bridge officer in charge of their engines and navigation, who promptly stood at attention. "Do you think that we can break orbit and hit the surface with enough force to give our new friends a going away party they'll never forget?"
There were a few moments as the human officer punched in a few things into his station before looking back up. "At this current position we wouldn't reach enough speed to hit critical velocity," he told them. "But... if we go around the planet once then even with only having one engine we should be able to make planetfall to the point where we will make quite the landing. The computer is calculating that there will be no survivors..."
"That's kind of the point of his entire endeavor," Daniel said, standing up and glancing over at his first officer. "First officer, do you concur?"
"Don't you think we should at least try and get help?" Sonya replied wearily. "I'm all for giving my life to the protection of the people in this federation, but I wouldn't want to do so hastily."
"If we don't do it soon then we're not going to have the opportunity," Daniel explained as he gestured towards the flickering controls of the bridge. "Even now the bugs are trying to wrestle away control of the ship from us, if they manage to succeed in that then everyone we ever knew and loved in this galaxy is in danger of falling to this. Hell, the second that we start moving I'm sure that they're going to figure out what we're attempting to do, which is why we need to do this now before they have a chance to get themselves into place."
There was a grim silence that came over the entire bridge as they realized that the captain was correct. With communications down and sensors going haywire across the ship it was clear that even if they entirety of it wasn't lost there was enough damage that they probably wouldn't be able to take it back. "Well, what are you all waiting for?" Sonya shouted, snapping everyone back to the present. "I do believe your Captain gave an order, let's get it going! I want this ship moving in the next ten minutes or I'm putting demerits in all your records!"
Once more there was a flurry of activity as the crew got set to proceed with what would be its final mission. Even without the support of the engineering section they managed to get the engine that was running at full capacity to start to push them along, their navigator plotting in a course that would take them once around the small planet before taking a nosedive. With the size of the ship they were definitely going to make a big splash, the captain thought to himself as he sipped his drink, it was just unfortunate that no one was going to see it. As they started to move he thought of something that he could do to make sure that no one else would go near this planet again and instructed his first officer to put out a danger buoy that warned of intense neutron radiation.
The first officer attempted to joke that soon that would be true, but at the moment that didn't seem to settle anyone's nerves as they began to watch the surface of the planet shift around them. The navigation officer announced they would be at their final destination in fifteen minutes and break through the atmosphere in ten. Ten minutes... the entire crew looked grimly at one another as they realized their lives had such a short clock on it. As they began to accelerate their position through orbit however the captain got a call that wasn't inside of the ship.
"How the hell..." he said as he looked at the first officer, who merely shrugged before he decided to take it. "Hello? This is the Polaris!"
"Captain Daniels, what in the darkest depths of space do you think you're doing?!" a familiar face said as Daniel put a hand against his and sighed loudly. "We just got reports from your navigation hub that your ship is about to enter into a collision course with the planet!"
"This is one person I could have never seen again in my entire remaining life," the captain grumbled before composing himself, looking up at the viewscreen that had turned on and smiled. "Well shoot, is that what we're doing? I thought that planet looked so pretty we might all go down there and have a look at it ourselves."
"Captain, what are you doing?" Sonya whispered as they saw the man's face get flustered.
"If he somehow finds out that there are creatures made of Falchorite on our ship then they might be dumb enough to try and salvage something from our wreck," Daniel whispered back as they largely ignored the tirade that was happening from the other man. "I don't know how he managed to get through but if we don't eradicate every last one trace of this infection then who knows what might happen if they get their hands on it. We just need to stall for about... eight and a half more minutes."
"Are you even listening to me!?" Councilor Abborus shouted. "You need to tell me right now what you're about to do with my property Daniel!"
Daniel tried not to audibly sigh as he attempted to think of something clever that he could say in order to make sure that they wouldn't come looking after the crash but also sounded plausible. "First of all, what did I tell you about calling me Captain Voltaire or Sir when you address me?" Daniel replied. "Second of all it appears that the sterilization measures failed and the Polaris has been completely infected with an alien virus. Now the last thing I wanted was a plague barge floating through space and up until a minute ago we hadn't been able to make contact with anyone, so we decided to take the best course of action and make sure this thing dies with us."
Seven minutes... even though Daniel had to say a half-truth in order to try and sell the rest of his lie it was clear that the Lead Councilor wasn't having any of it. It didn't matter much in the long run, he thought to himself as he watched the seconds tick down, soon this problem would be over and the old man could yell at his corpse all he wanted. He quickly paused when he heard the security officer announce that the bugs had started to go through the corridor that led to the bridge, also attempting to stop them from carrying out the plan that they had started on. Six minutes now... soon this whole thing will be nothing more than a crater in the ground of a shattered planet that they might put in a footnote of history books about.
"Well now that you've contacted me I think it's best that you abort your sequence right now and head back to one of the stations!" Councilor Abborus dictated. "Even if you all die on the journey we can still retrieve the ship and study the contagion that you brought aboard. Maybe we could even cure some of you along the way if you act quick enough."
"That's what I love about you," Daniel replied with a smirk. "Always got your priorities straight. As I seem to have to remind you however I am the captain of this ship, and as the captain I am going to have to tell you that we will not be risking the spread of this plague. If you don't like it then I strongly urge you to make sure that you don't send anything else around here just in case our little escapade doesn't work as well as we think."
Even though it looked like Abborus was about to blow a blood vessel the only thing that the Captain could find himself concentrating on was the timer as the three at the end of it turned to two. "You will stand down this instant!" the Councilor shouted. "If you continue on this course of action then I'll-"
"You'll what?!" Daniel replied, finally snapping as he watched the seconds tick away. "Reprimand me? Court martial me? In two minutes we're going to be nothing more than vaporized metal and ash, and there is nothing you can do to stop me!"
Much to the Captain's surprise, as well as everyone else on the bridge watching the exchange, Lead Council Abborus went from being in a complete rage to a murderous calm complete with a smirk on his face. They watched as he looked away from the camera for a few seconds to nod at someone off screen, and a few seconds later there were started gasps and sounds of shock as the bridge was plunged into darkness. "Wha-what..." Daniel said as he looked around, everyone attempting to get some response from their panels only to report them dead as he spun back around. "What the hell did you just do?!"
"Do you think that we don't have safeguards for hot-headed captains like you?" Abborus said coldly. "The Polaris, like all ships in the fleet, are equipped with a kill switch that only the Council knows about. I didn't want it to come to this but you're going to be dead in the water until a sanctioned vessel comes and gets you, though such things as life support will still be on so that if that plague doesn't kill you then you can live long enough to be picked up and treated. Then we're going to have that lovely Court Marshal you were talking about a few moments ago."
"You... you fool..." Daniel said as he fell to his knees. "You doomed us, doomed us all..." the man on the other end of the line just gave him a look of scorn before the call was shut down, leaving the Captain alone on the now powerless deck. "I'm so sorry everyone."
Without power the bridge was not only able to carry out the last of its flight path but it also disabled the magnetic locks that had been keeping the creature out until this point. It wasn't long after everything had gone dark that they heard the bridge doors get pulled open and the loud hiss of the bugs filled the air. The screams of the bridge crew rang out as they tried to run away from the incoming horde, though with the bridge being the last sanctuary away from them there were few places they could go and were quickly caught. Daniel continued to pay it little mind; he knew that it was their fate the second that they had the power swept out from underneath their feet.
"That is a shame..." a voice hissed as he suddenly became aware of another next to him, looking over to see that his first mate had been put down to her knees as well. "I understand what you were doing and admittedly it would have worked quite well, had you not had the council with their own plans."
"Well at least one of you can talk it seems," Daniel replied, looking straight up into the six sets of eyes that the green of the alien bugs possessed. "At least I can tell you know that you all can go fuck yourselves and I know you'll understand it."
"Don't be a sore loser Captain," the spider-taur replied, his clawed forelimbs reaching out and stroking not only his face but that of his first officer. "You tried to destroy us and failed, now you will join us. The only question is whether you wish to be one of the many that are consumed with their instincts to protect the hive or spread our gift, or do you wish to me something... like me, a controller of beasts instead of merely one of their number."
"Quite the offer," the Captain replied, glancing around to see the fate of the rest of the bridge crew. "I don't suppose the others here get that same deal, do they?"
"They are followers Captain," the antho insect stated as he leaned down to get even more face to face with the defiant human. "If you would like you could have them serve you in their entirety, a consort for one of our assets in the hive. We did the same thing with Garthak, and though he had gotten an unexpected roommate he is much happier now in the engine room as one of us."
Daniel had to grit his teeth in order to not lash out as he heard the fate of his lead engineer. Though he knew in his mind that he probably never got out of the engine room he held out some hope that the reptilian creature had somehow managed to either escape or continue to hide out until all this was over. It was just another nail on the head as he felt the thick tips of the merged fingers of the creature reach under his chin and lift his head up in order to continue to have him make eye contact. Even though this creature played at being more intelligent then the others Daniel could see the hunger in their eyes... which meant that if he didn't come to some sort of conclusion both he and his first mate would merely be pounced upon and transformed in that manner.
"I'll do it," Daniel looked over in shock as he heard the voice of his first officer call out, Sonya looking up as well. "I'll be a willing part of the hive."
"What makes you think we want you too?" the shiny purple spider-taur hissed.
"If you wanted me to be like the others you would have done so instead of keeping me here like this," she reasoned, both her and Daniel looking around to see the half-mutated bridge crew starting to stand back up as purple plates of alien chitin grew across their bodies. "So you must want me as well as Captain Daniel."
Though it was hard to tell with the mandibles Daniel could swear the creature was smiling at him as his head turned back and forth between the two of them. "I suppose you are right," the queen replied before his gaze settled on Daniel. "What about you Captain Daniel? Do you wish to lead once more or do you resign yourself to the fate of so many others to be in service to the hive?"
After hearing his first officer so willingly join the others it was almost a little jarring, but also put everything into perspective. This alien virus had completely taken over every aspect of the ship and it was his fault that they were in it in the first place. He mentally cursed the council... it was really their fault that they were there, them and their need to catalogue every alien thing no matter how dangerous it was. Well... he was going to make sure that they would get exactly that, and if that meant that he would be the one to shove his cock or ovipositor or whatever he was about to get he would do so.
The queen didn't have to ask again, seeing the confirmation on the face of the Captain. Once they had both been determined to be willing to join the hive the queen was just left to transform them. Since the ship was no longer in danger of crashing down into the planet, saving the hive on the planet surface that was recovering and burrowing down towards the Falchorite ore, he could really spend some time on these two. The only question was how they were going to change... were they going to merge, or perhaps they would become a taur, but before any of that happened they were going to have to start with the initial infection.
Daniel could only watch as the queen immediately began to take the purple webbing that he produced from his backside and wrapped up the first officer, the cock of the creature pushed into her mouth as she is wrapped up. Though he wanted to do something to spare her from such a fate he knew that this was inevitable and all he could do was kneel there. As the last of her body was covered he noticed something pushing through the giant purple member and into the cocoon. It only took a matter of minutes before there was merely a pod on the floor before the queen looked at him.
"What.. was that..." the Captain asked, causing the creature to chitter in what he assumed was laughter.
"Your first officer required extensive... alterations," the queen replied. "The virus was imprinted upon rather specific DNA. You're going to find that they will be rather different when you two wake up, but for now you are going to need to marinate yourself."
It didn't take long for the Captain to figure out what that meant, more of the purple rubber webbing coming out of the queen to completely envelop him. The second that the strands were pressed against his clothing he could feel the material dissolving. In no time he was wrapped up in the strange alien substance just like his first officer, but unlike them there was no tentacles being shoved into his face. Though the former captain didn't know what to expect when it came to being infected with an alien virus, but pleasurable was not one of them.
Soon through his head was covered as well, and with that his vision turned into nothing but darkness. The Captain could feel himself getting lifted up as easily as a pillow before being moved somewhere, and though he couldn't see where he was going or hear anything other then the sounds of the creatures hissing and chittering around him he had an idea of where this queen was taking him. However as the seconds passed and the shiny material continued to press against his naked body it started to become harder to think. His mind quickly became clouded by the potent alien virus that was assimilating and transforming him both mentally and physically.
By the time they had gotten to their destination and he felt himself get gently laid down on something soft his whole world was nothing but the gradually intensifying lust that was coursing through his system as he squirmed. Already he could start to feel his body begin to grow larger and the strands that had tightly bound his body together started to stretch from new newly developing muscles. In the back of his mind he wondered just what type of alien bug man he was about to come before his attention was brought back towards his head. Even with his cocoon already starting to strain from the increasing dimensions of his own frame something outside of it decided that it wasn't enough to wait and had begun to tear the shiny webbing away from him.
When Daniel was able to see once more the creature that had freed him from that latex-like prison caused his eyes to widen in shock. The one before him clearly had features of his former first officer, this not being the first time that he had seen her naked, but it was clear that the virus had already altered her physiology to the point where she was growing unrecognizable. Her chest and abs had been completely subsumed with powerful muscle and thick purple chitin plates that gave her a distinctive masculine appearance, and his eyes trailed down lower he quickly found that wasn't the only thing. A thick, throbbing ovipositor sat between the former female's legs, the purple organ practically reaching out towards him as Sonya's legs shifted and cracked into a new configuration.
As the alien's partially merged fingers pressed against his head he could feel the same features he saw on her face, namely that his lower lip had started to split down the middle and that he was growing a set of mandibles on his lower jaw. As they went up and pressed against the alien antennae growing out of his skull he could start to hear Sonya's thoughts... and though they were growing increasingly corrupted by the virus that was ravaging through their systems he found out that his first officer had secretly had a crush on him for some time. Though they had slept together on occasion, the rigorous boredom of space lending to such activities, he didn't know that she had thought of him that way.
In his distracted state he didn't realize that Sonya was about to take advantage and push her new cock into his mouth, stretching open his new orifice as purple goo oozed out of his mouth. As it continued to slide down into him their roles in the hive started to crystalize in his mind; they would become a mated pair with the athletic creature in front of him being the one that would carry the eggs of their new species while he would be their protector. As such her transformation was rather muted and left her mostly humanoid, albeit a male humanoid as her legs adopted a reverse-knee configuration and her feet began to massively swell with talons forming on the darkening flesh. His body, however, was not going to remain nearly as human as the strands of the cocoon started to rip and tear around him.
As he began to feel something sliding into him from the appendage that had lodged its way down his mutated throat he began to feel something that superseded the passion of being with his new hivemate. It was power, raw power unlike anything that he had ever experienced in his entire life. While he had the accolades of a Captain and a ship that he commanded he was never truly in power, either he would have to cater to the whims of the corporations that hired him out or else be on loan to the galactic federation whenever they pleased. This however, this was a primal, deep strength that continued to multiply in his rapidly expanding body as spikes began to push their way out.
Soon the cocoon was no longer able to hold his form and it burst, revealing his heavily muscular body that quivered as his dark purple skin grew shiny and hard when exposed to the air. Like many of his new kin he had grown an extra set of arms but his lower body remained the same, save for the thick slabs of muscles that grew all the way down to his massive feet. Despite how huge they were he found that he could manipulate the new talon toes of his lower body like hands, which became very important as the purple rubbery alien flesh continued to push out over the actual appendages. With the cock of his partner still inside of him the only noises he could make were loud gurgles as the purple gained an even more unnatural glint and curved until they had become deadly blades that could slice through metal.
Even though Daniel had grown to be twice the size of the other creature in his bed Sonya continued to remain in control, pulling out of his anthropoid maw just as his entire face stretched out from human into an alien muzzle. The hulking creature blinked with two sets of eyes as he suddenly found himself on his back, his bed practically folding in on their combined wait as the smaller alien crawled on top of his body. With its thick skin and chitinous plates it had no problem maneuvering around the small spikes that continued to grow on Daniel's body as it slid down towards his groin. Even though he couldn't see it the new behemoth was sure that his cock had grown to press against the smaller alien's back, the bright purple flesh throbbing as Sonya raised up their body to mount him.
Seed them for the hive... the words rang out in both their minds as they became connected to the rest of the creatures in the ship as well as on the planet itself. He could feel them as though they were right there in their own bodies, sharing the experience that they were about to have as the tip of the nearly two foot long cock pushed against the tailhole of the other creature. Sonya's tail, which unlike the scorpion one that their queen had, swayed in the air as they began to push themselves down onto him to seal their bond. Even though Daniel's new cock was huge it appeared the altered anatomy of the one straddling him was able to take it as gossamer wings began to form on their backs.
Even though the alien virus had finished with its mutations on their body it wasn't quite done with their psyche's at that moment. With their minds connected to the hive they quickly learned their place within it, the queen granting Daniel control over the hive ship that had been created here but still making sure that the new creature knew that they were in control. The upper set of his eyes glowed slightly as the queen continued to reinforce that in his mind while the sublime pleasure of having the sensitive flesh of his cock squeezed by the internal walls of the one sliding down on it distracted him. It didn't take long for Sonya to get the entirety of his member inside of him, helping to create new eggs in their stomach that bulged slightly from the thick cock inside of them...
Meanwhile in the bridge the bug creatures had quickly gotten to work to make this place more appealing for their kind, the steel walls and consoles being covered with bright purple alien latex. With the brilliance of all those that had been assimilated by the virus it didn't take long to figure out how to integrate the consoles with their hivemind so that the ship no longer needed anything more then a thought to guide it. Ship diagnostics, communications, engines, and anything else had been seamlessly integrated to the point where the entire thing was practically a living entity in itself. Down on the fractured planet they found the hive that had survived down there doing something similar, creating a new place where they could live and thrive.
But the queen knew that merely settling for one ship and a planet wasn't going to be enough for them. Much like the alien virus that had spurred on the evolution of their new species in the first place the need to spread was practically ingrained into them, especially after taking over the Polaris and adding so many new minds to the hive. Plus there were untold number of colonies out there that had stores of precious Falchorite, which would prove to be their downfall as they would use it to explode their population across the galaxy. They knew exactly what they were about to do and what that would look like; they would likely be called a scourge, a plague that would infect the entire federation and become a potentially unstoppable, ravenous force that knew nothing more than to assimilate and convert until every alien race had been absorbed and their hives infested every planet.
It was a thought that everyone on the ship and surface was very comfortable with as they began to make their preparations...