The Consciousness
Aaron is a xenobiologist sent to investigate a derelict, abandoned vessel. But it quickly becomes evident that Aaron is not quite as alone on the ship as he previously thought.
It always creeped Aaron out when a shuttle docked; the silence as people waited for the clamps to lock on, followed by the screeching metallic sound of the hull being locked in place against the arms. His physical reaction was - at this point - entirely subconscious, as he held his breath and braced himself by holding onto a strap in the ceiling of the cabin. The fox was never going to get used to this.
As the predicted sound filled the cabin, Aaron closed his eyes and tried to block it out, grinding his teeth together. If there was one positive thing to derelict cruisers, it was that protocol dictated you board wearing an EVA suit, which certainly helped dampen the horrific noise. After a few seconds that felt like minutes, the pilot depressurized the cabin and joined his passenger in the loading bay.
"This is not a standard mission, as I'm sure you're aware," Grayson said as he stepped into the loading bay. "The K.S. Moonjay lost contact with its shipping controllers approximately fifty hours ago. It didn't respond to any of my hailing requests, and I didn't see any electricity on the bridge from the fly-by, so I'm afraid we're going in blind here."
Aaron cocked an eyebrow and shook his head. "Why aren't they sending in the grunts, then? I'm a xenobiologist. I specialize in plants, not derelict transports."
"You've got me there. All I know is what I was told. They wanted you specifically, and they said the vessel was transporting some unique, newly discovered fossilized plant from Mered III. At least we're alone out here," The older pilot said as he pulled the lever that unlocked and opened the airlock. "I detected no life-signs onboard, and no hyperspace trails in the past fourty-eight."
Both of them stepped out of the shuttle at the same time, finding the docking hallway in pristine condition. Unlike the bridge, it was powered and the ship's onboard computers were flickering in waiting position along the walls. Grayson stepped up to one of them and began working on it, his fingers moving faster than Aaron could fathom. The fox - meanwhile - decided to take a look into one of the storage rooms along the hall.
It was dark, but a flick of the lightswitch changed that. Crates were stacked to the ceiling, each one marked with a different symbol to indicate their contents. A number of the ones at the back were marked with a stalk, which Aaron knew indicated vegetation and other biological, green matter. Opening one of them, he watched the lid pop off and slide into a slot next to the crate. Peering over the edge, he turned his suit's helmet light on and inspected the contents. They were vials, each containing a sample of some alien plant.
He picked one up and tapped the glass. It reacted by swaying its petals, and the fox grinned. He did so enjoy working with the more intelligent plantlife, because for one it was rarer, but also often provided some fascinating challenges. Placing it back in the crate, he checked he manifest and made sure everything added up. Nothing was particularly out of the ordinary, and nothing that would cause a ship to be abandoned.
"What was that?" Grayson asked as he peeked into the room.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I thought you said something. Are those the crates we're here for?" The pilot marten approached it and checked his suit's terminal, comparing the crate's ID to the one on the holographic display. "This isn't what we're here for, it seems."
Exiting the storage room, they both moved back into the docking hallway, then made their way towards the central access hall. It was the main artery of the ship. Every section branched off from it, and that made it an excellent place to look for clues.
Heart... Home... Hearth... Seek your hearth...
Aaron cast his sights around the hall, then turned to Grayson. "Did you hear that? You're sure you didn't detect any life signs on the ship, right?"
The marten blinked in confusion and gestured at the suit terminal, which showed a local map with no life signs except the two of them. "What did you hear?"
"I'm not sure, but I don't like it. Maybe it's just the whole derelict ship thing that's getting to me."
With a shrug, the two of them decided to split up to cover more ground, though the fox wasn't all too happy about it but couldn't deny there was logically nothing to worry about as long as the map remained free of life signs.
Checking out the back end of the ship, he stepped into one of the rooms. A laboratory, he would wager, based upon the sheer amount of vials and scientific equipment scattered around the locale. Taking a walk around the edge of the room, he noticed a lot of the equipment had been scattered, chairs overturned and a few of the vials even laid shattered on the floor, with the contents spilled.
We fear... Our hearth... Beyond the chasm...
Spinning on his heels, Aaron's eyes locked onto a door in the far corner of the room. It was a radiation room, specifically for scanning objects or individuals. Something felt off about it. Very off. But he felt drawn towards it, even if every fiber of his being told him to turn around and find Grayson. But he didn't. As if acting with autonomy, his arm reached out and unlocked the door, which slid open slowly. The room was dark, but there was a soft noise coming from within.
Is it... Emissary?
Stepping inside, the fox turned his helmet's light on and gasped. A large, writhing mass had spread from the centre of the room. It was reflective, pulsating. It felt wrong, hostile. But something still kept drawing the xenobiologist closer, as the words became ever clearer in his mind. They weren't words per se - rather, ideas, thoughts. Communication without a voice. Telepathy.
It... Feels? Fear? Knowledge-seeker. From Beyond, It comes to now-hearth. Now-hearth easy break, no hearth Beyond.
A wave of emotion washed over him, and he felt compelled to remove his helmet. Something that usually would be unwise, but once again the presence seemed to exact some degree of control over the fox. "I'm... Not here to hurt... You" Aaron stammered out as he felt something in his mind. It was as if a second personality or person was in his brain, trying to communicate with him.
Sound speech, knowledge-seeker? It is not-now occurrence of finding sound speech. Our speech, commune with mind.
Slowly, he felt the second person in his mind retreat, and the speech pattern changed once again. It felt almost as if it was learning from him, learning how to speak like him. "What are you...?"
We are verdant. We are... You. You and Us. Our Hearth, Our Being. Togetherness. Speak, for us, knowledge-seeker. Seek knowledge Beyond. Accept?
All the feelings of hostility from before were flushed from his system, but he couldn't deny the fact that it all felt incredibly strange. This being was communicating with him, wordlessly, and seemed to know aspects of him that he didn't even speak out loud. It was in his mind. And... Part of that was scary. Before he had time to react, a dark tendril emerged from the mass. He reached out, touching it.
We know You, knowledge-seeker. We will help You. You have accepted.
Before he could react, the tendril wrapped itself around his arm. His instinct was to struggle, but any chance at that vanished when another three wrapped themselves around the rest of his limbs. He was pulled forwards, towards the dark mass, and swallowed by it.
It was oppressive. It pressed down against his body from all around; he couldn't breathe, or move, or see. He was trapped. This was it. Whatever he had done had been a horrible mistake.
Or so he thought.
We will help You.
As he thought he was suffocating, his body panicked. But after a token of a struggle, he realized he wasn't suffocating at all. He wasn't breathing, but he didn't need to. Something was keeping him alive. And with the immediate fear of suffocation gone, he noticed something else. His EVA suit was gone. Dissolved, or removed amidst his panic, he couldn't quite tell, but he was entirely naked, surrounded by strange mass that felt like a thick and endless goo.
But there was a consciousness all around him, and he could feel it. It wasn't just one, but multiple consciousnesses. A hive of them. A hivemind. It was then he realized it was still prodding at his mind, and his mind had betrayed his more intimate thoughts to this new being.
You are Emissary, knowledge-seeker. We will help You. We will protect You.
He wasn't objecting - not anymore. He felt safe here, amongst the strange mass. But his encounter was only about to truly begin, as the mass began to shift. Something moved between his legs, and curiously brushed under his tail. A similarly curious tendril pushed its way around his sheath, pulsating against it, massaging it. He wanted to moan, but there was no space for sound to move within this hivemind.
Instead, he allowed himself the pleasure; a shiver ran down his spine as one of the tendrils pushed past his anal sphincter. The tip was slim, but grew girthier the further it pushed, and it didn't seem to have any intention of stopping. Nor was the rest of him left without attention, as his emerging red vulpine shaft was quickly engulfed by something soft and warm, almost like a mouth but with more of a vacuum in it.
He instinctively threw his head back as far as he could, and the mass reacted by pressing a tendril against his lips as well. He opened his maw as wide as he could in response, feeling the dark mass gently and carefully press into his throat. Now that he was stuck between three tendrils, Aaron felt... too pleased. He wanted to react to all of them at once, but there was only so much he could do.
But the mass needed no reaction. It knew what he wanted, and it was determined to give it to him. The thick tendril in his rear began to slowly pulsate, pushing upwards against him slightly. He could feel his belly moving and bulging as the tentacle moved inside him. The little waves it made along its stem made him shiver each time one brushed against his prostate.
And the one in his maw imitated that behaviour, too. It would shiver along the stem, sending waves down its length, each one filling his throat to its max briefly before slimming again. He closed his maw around it, using his tongue to caress it, wanting to pay some sort of thanks to this consciousness that was doing so much to please him.
It felt as if he was stuck there for a long time, stuck in bliss. Along with the work being done to his throat and rear, his shaft was engulfed in a thick mass that was rippling constantly, and every drop of pre that existed his shaft disappeared into the aether, leaving plenty of space for more.
But he could only take so much. With so much pressure on his prostate, and his throat worked in the manner it was, the fox began to jerk his hips as much as he could, eager for release. And the consciousness responded in a most peculiar way - it seemed to understand, but had one last gift for him.
The tendril in his rear pushed as far up as it could possibly go, and the one in his throat went as deep as it could. At the same time, they swelled up, releasing a cum-like substance into Aaron. He felt it course through his body, into his belly, and it pushed him over the edge. His shaft twitched and fired off what felt like endless jets of cum, his body shivering as the mass milked him.
It felt incredible, but the sheer pressure and overwhelming bliss ran him dry, and the fox felt his strength draining. He was struggling to formulate a coherent thought, and soon he lost his consciousness, drifting into a dark that was more ominous than the one surrounding him.
We... Will... Protect... Aaron...
"Oi, get up," a voice called. It was Grayson, and he was sitting next to him, looking somewhat worried as he placed a blanket over the fox. "What in the world happened to you? Did you completely lose your marbles or something?"
Sitting himself up, Aaron realized he was completely naked in the scanning room. The lights were on around him, and he could hear voices talking in the distance. "What... Happened to the being?"
"What being? I found you unconscious and out of your EVA suit. I had to call for the grunts."
Aaron's eyes opened wide and he lunged at Grayson. "Did they hurt it?!"
"Hurt what?"
"The being. The mass. Them. The... Whatever it was!"
The marten blinked in confusion and pushed himself off the fox. "There was nothing here, just you and me. I found the security logs, and the ship suffered a hull breach because of a dangerous chemical mixture. The crew evacuated in an escape pod."
For a moment, Aaron wondered if he'd gotten space sickness, but... Well, there were some definite sensations that his throat, rear, and penis had been thoroughly used recently, and a very strong sense that he was full. He shook his head, realizing it was perhaps better to not let his coworkers know about the Being yet.
Though he couldn't help but wonder where it'd gone. And as he wondered, a soft voice spoke to him in the back of his mind.
We return to our hearth, knowledge-seeker. We will return. One day.