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Seeds Of Life Part 2 The Grand Awakening

by Dissident Love All Rights Reserved

Ongoing Science-Fiction Space Weirdness

Cast of Characters

Crewmate Sascha Siberian tiger, male, botanist. Crewmate Renfrew Panda, male, entomologist. Crewmate Gosh Violet-hued bobcat, herm, nutritionist and physical therapist. Crewmate Kelly Walnut-brown Dutch horse, herm, structural engineer. Crewmate Guido Black Mallorquín horse, male, civil engineer. Crewmate Lister Racoon, female, meteorologist. Gunner Vasquez Cougar, female, electrical engineer. Gunner Hudson Badger, male, aerospace engineer. Gunner Ebony Black bear, herm, linguist. Gunner Speedy Lynx, male, metallurgist / chemist.

(Ass't) Medico Mariposa Four-armed grey kangaroo, female, surgeon, neuroscientist.

Breeders and Heavies... keep reading :)

"It's great that you're finally coming down to Planet, Doc. Joining the peons in the grand slog for independence and self-determination, and all that crap."

Brevet Chief Medico Mariposa rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mister Hudson. Something like that," she said coolly, unable to take her eyes off of the shuttle's instrumentation. She had experienced many re-entries in her time, but this was the first since actually reaching Gamma Aeetes. Two lithe hands clutched at the aluminum armrests, two more gripped her legs. Her extra limbs made the five-point harness quite frustrating, but she told herself it was only for eighteen minutes.

"Ahh, you'll love it!" the badger continued, undeterred by his superior's cold shoulder. The level of turbulence was slowly escalating as the shuttle ploughed through the upper reaches of the atmosphere. "Sunny beaches, purple skies, umbrella drinks... it's like Tahiti! Did you ever get to see Tahiti before the big wave of Eighty-Eight?"

"No, I... wasn't born yet."

Gunner Hudson smiled. "That's right! You're just a young'un, aint'cha! Child prodigy? Look, I'm sorry, I don't mean to give you a hard, time it's sort of what we do. You're gonna get it ten times worse from everyone else down there, so consider this your vaccination. Eh? Ya like that? It's a medical joke."

"Was it?"

Hudson glanced sidelong at the mission's sole remaining medic, and sighed. "Ok, fair's fair and enough's enough, sure, but what's up, Doc? You're gonna learn, hopefully right quick, that there's no time for petty crap anymore. If you're mad at me, tell me and get it out of the way. If you're sad, tell Rocky when shi wakes up, shi's a shrink, or tell someone else you get close to. Maybe Gosh, shi's really good with people."

Mariposa stared down at her lap, clasping her lower pair of hands together and wriggling her fingers. "I'm not angry, Mister Hudson," the marsupial said. "I'm not sad. I'm not any of that, actually. I'm... trying to live up to the expectations of my position, and take everything seriously." She looked at him, oversized eyes even larger with worry. "Everything."

The badger nodded slowly. "That's admirable, Doc, it really is. If I may offer a rebuttal, however?"

She raised her eyebrow. "You may."

The shuttle, leading edges glowing a dull red as it pierced the thermosphere, suddenly tumbled wildly to the side. G-forces seesawed around them, alternately crushing Mariposa against her seat or trying to drag her out of it. Rapidly-developing reflexes caused her lower arms to clutch the instrument panel while her upper pair reached back, holding onto her headrest for dear life.

"WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK-"

Hudson, generally unperturbed, leveled out the shuttle and re-programmed the altered flight path. "Hmmm, little bit of turbulence there," he said mildly.

"WHAT KIND OF MOTHERFUCKING REBUTTAL WAS THAT YOU'RE GETTING REPORTED WHEN WE LAND WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU-"

"That's your right, and if you feel the need to do so, I won't stop you. But please tell me first: how would taking it seriously have helped your situation? It's laugh or cry, Doc. It's laugh or cry."

Staring bloody murder at him, Mariposa seethed for the remainder of the journey, mentally composing the report to the Colonel. She was grateful that her enhanced mental acuity presented more than two dozen synonyms each for 'negligent', 'dangerous' and 'asshole'.

For various reasons, New Planet Town had been set up some distance away from Pioneer Bay, over one hundred miles south. The floodplains here were less expansive, the mountains were closer, and there was more convenient biodiversity to study. Perhaps most importantly, the colossal water-filled crater could no longer be seen by the naked eye, which made it considerably easier to avoid thinking about it.

"We're holding a vote after the Unveiling tonight," Hudson was saying, having continued talking nearly non-stop since the unplanned barrel roll. "Everyone agrees New Planet Town is kind of... lame."

"What about Pioneer Bay? Is that getting changed?" Mariposa asked after a lengthy pause.

The Gunner shook his head. "No. We like that. There was an idea to call it Memorial Bay, but that was a little depressing."

"Yeah."

The shuttle circled once, arcing wide and low over the ocean to bleed off the excess thermal energy, before sedately lining up for the final landing sequence. New Planet Town filled the viewscreens, a cluster of two dozen metallic tents encircled by a high, black, paper-thin wall. Just outside the wall were two enormous hangars, large enough to hold the entirety of New Planet Town several times over, and the shuttle drifted towards the open one.

"NPT, this is Gunner Hudson, Shuttle One, approaching Hangar One, delivering hydroponics supplies, inorganic fabricators, and one Naughty Nurse," the badger spoke calmly into the little microphone attached to his muzzle. Mariposa gasped, her fading fury re-stoked.

There was a click, and a melodious voice filled the cockpit. "Shuttle One, this is Royal Air Admiral Lister, you are approved for landing. Please confirm your last cargo, there seems to have been some interference."

"Roger, final cargo is Naughty Nurse. Please be advised that cargo has removed her harness and is currently punching me in the shoulder. Ow. Cargo is now punching me in the side of the head. Cargo shall be considered hostile."

Lister managed to suppress her giggles, but the mirth in her voice was unmistakable. "Understood, Naughty Nurse is into BDSM. Welcome home, Hudson."

"NAUGHTY NURSE?!" Mariposa bellowed into Hudson's tiny, twitching ear, striking him again with an amateurish roundhouse, to no apparent effect.

"It's your codename," Hudson grinned, the shuttle coming to a rest with a faint thud. "It's a compliment! And better than the alternatives."

"ALTERNATIVES?!"

The pilot sighed, removed his own harness and stood up. He towered head and shoulders over the kangaroo, and his natural badgerly proportions seemed to completely fill the tiny cockpit. "It's gonna be a long mission, isn't it? Look, just do us a favor, and do what the rest of us do: sleep on it."

Mariposa was still grinding her teeth when they reached the belly of the shuttle. All around them, Gunners and Crewmates were picking up the enormous crates bare-handed and carrying them outside, thoroughly enjoying the boundless potential of their new bodies.

"Royal Air Admiral?" Hudson chuckled, spotting Lister loitering by one of the many fab components.

The hippy raccoon winked, gesturing for him to grab the other end of the huge metal canister. "Hey, first come, first serve! We've got room for a Sky Marshall, if you want it."

"Only if I can then promote you to Rear Admiral," he leered.

Lister laughed and wiggled her exceptionally plush posterior in Mariposa's direction. "That seemed a little bit too obvious, you know? Try a little subtlety, Huds. Hey, Doc," she added, grunting as the pair lifted the crate. "Good ride?"

I guess I didn't expect much fanfare, the roo thought. I'm just one person, and junior to all of these brave explorers. I just signed up because I was bored! I didn't even expect to get picked!! "Yes, thank you," she said softly, watching them tromp out of the shuttle's open belly hatch. "Should I grab something? Is there anything I can do?"

"I don't know," Lister called. "Is there anything you can do?"

Four arms spread like a flower opening and Mariposa shrugged. "I... I'll just grab a box," she said weakly.

Lister was already outside. There were a few smiles and nods from the other colonists, but largely the doctor seemed to be on her own. She looked around for a parcel, found one that didn't seem very large, and hesitantly picked it up.

Planet's gravity was higher than Earth's, and was noticeably more intense than the uneven centripetal forces of the spinning Seed Of Life in orbit above, but she had grown accustomed to the inescapable laws of inertia. She straightened carefully, expecting to be thrown off balance and discovering that, for the most part, it behaved as she remembered boxes doing so back on Earth more than a century before.

"Hey, what does this weigh-" she started to ask, turning around and tumbling wildly out of control when the box, several times her own mass, refused to slow down. It bounced several times, as did she. There was no reply from the belly of the shuttle, or from beyond the open hatch

Grumbling and grinding her teeth once more, she stood up, dusted herself off, grabbed the box and, moving with much more respect, headed slowly outside.

When she dropped the box in shock, it was only her new-found lightning-quick reflexes that saved the roo from needing to operate on her own foot.

"SURPRISE!" the assembled colonists cheered, filling the hangar with laughter and standing beneath a huge banner that read 'Welcome, Doctor Mariposa!', with the hastily-scrawled addition 'Naughty Nurse' hastily scrawled out. Gunner Ebony, the unmistakable and unmissably statuesque bear, was holding what appeared to be a cake.

"Where did you get cake?" Looking back, Mariposa wished she'd selected better words for her inaugural speech. Four hands waved, clasped and flew apart nervously as she tried to process the smiles and applause. "I mean... thank you."

There were hugs and handshakes all around as the good doctor was properly welcomed to the tiny village, with Speedy and Guido competing to cut up and hand out to the cake as quickly as possible. It was composed largely of algae compounds FG13 and SF-9, with artificially produced hydrogenated vegetable oils, but without actually using flour, butter or sugar it was remarkably tasty.

---

After the cake and the brief festivities, Mariposa wanted to get straight to work checking on all of the sleep pods in preparation for the night's events, but she received several more iterations of the speech that Hudson had given her on the way down. In the end, with a mouthful of artificial but acceptable frosting and Gosh's huge feline eyes staring up at her pleadingly, the doc had agreed to first get the official tour.

"I've seen the village," she was saying patiently. "The orbital cameras pick all this up at centimeter resolution. We've even picked up a few of you suntanning, and we've been gracious enough not to say anything about it."

"Mmm," Gosh nodded as they headed through the gap in the midnight black fence. It doubled as a solar collector as well as provided the necessary psychological boundaries, although most of the colonists wished they could remove it and just enjoy the natural splendor all around them. "Yeah, a few of them go up on the roofs, catch a few rays now and then. I didn't know it was a severe enough infraction that it would occur to anyone to say anything about it."

Mariposa was ready to snark back about the importance of the mission, but she had to admit to herself that it was mostly the Colonel's strict adherence to the Severe Conditions Protocols that had made it an issue at all. "It's really not worth mentioning," she conceded, "but for the Colonel's sake, if you could try to at least wear underwear?"

Gosh gasped, bringing a faintly violet-tinged paw to hir sculpted muzzle. "Perish the thought!" shi giggled, elbowing the roo in the ribs. "You know the guidelines are just guidelines. Heck, we were encouraged to abandon outmoded social mores, and a hundred years tripping our asses off in neural dialysis makes it really hard to care about how many people can see your junk."

In spite of herself, Mariposa had to smile. "You're all wearing outfits now, though."

"Well, yeah," Gosh whispered conspiratorially. "If you want us to get anything DONE during the day, it helps if we're not swinging around all over the place. Plus, did you get a look at Guido?!"

The doctor coughed. "I administered his physical examination."

"Then you know what I'm talking about! Come on, girl to grrl, what do you think? Do I have a shot?"

Blushing furiously and speaking far louder than was strictly necessary, Mariposa gestured to the huts around them, lined up along several well-worn paths in the strange, off-colored grass. "S-so! Are these the hab modules?"

Grinning so hard hir cheeks hurt, Gosh allowed the change in topic. "Sure, you could call them habitation modules if you want, but we call them home. Try it, you might like it." The cabins were all numbered, but written on each door with varying degrees of artistic abilities were the names of the occupants. "We got one set up for you down on the end, right next to mine! Uh, that's just a coincidence."

"Of course, why wouldn't it be?"

"No reason! Here we are!" Gosh's home was like all the others, a featureless grey block of soundproof electroactive fabric with a few large transparent patches. Unlike the others, though, hirs was skirted by a short white picket fence, and what looked for all the Planet like a vegetable garden. There was even a gnome.

"Vegetables?" Mariposa asked, wide-eyed.

The bobcat shrugged. "Trying. Me and Sascha are doing our best with the Earth species, with chemical and hormone modifications, membrane modification, soil supplements. We got a million of them working away in one of the hydroponic cabins, but the Colonel said no live test subjects."

The breeze ruffled them, and Mariposa was struck by a brief thought, one that was quickly shoved out of the way by the larger issues. "He said no live test subjects... so you went ahead with live test subjects?! He gets visual reports, he's going to find out! It's a miracle he hasn't found out already!"

Gosh grinned. "Super-duper vision, but I guess you're near-sighted, eh? Look closer."

Mariposa stared at the garden, trying to figure out the trick, when it became clear that it wasn't quite as brightly lit as the grass around them. She looked up and saw the nearly-invisible canopy stretched over the little fenced area, held rigid by the current running through it. "Camouflage? That's against policy! You're breaking contamination protocols! You don't care! You-"

Gosh just smiled, crossing hir arms under hir far more than ample bust, watching the nervous marsupial's four arms flail. "Yes?"

In the face of such a placid defense, Mariposa eventually wound down like a spring-powered toy. "You don't care?" she said at last, uncertainly.

The lithe feline kept walking, slowly, beckoning for the doc to follow. "Think about it, Doc. I mean, really... think about it. What do we have here? We have the best and brightest people Earth has to offer, we have these kick-ass brand new custom-built bodies, and we've got this incredible, unspoiled, mysterious and magical new world to call our own. Tell me: after the Bomb, after the Crater, do you really think planting a few seeds ahead of schedule is going to be the downfall of us all?"

Ears fluttering, tail held so stiffly behind her it was cramping, four tiny fists pressed against her sides, Mariposa gave no reply.

Gosh sighed, overalls stretching. Most of hir large feline kin were decidedly lean, built for speed and agility, but the nutritionist had clearly had a lot of strong ideas when it came to designing hir new curves. "Do you even know where you are now?"

Mariposa looked around. "My... hab module?"

In spite of her new nervous system, the smack upside her head caught her completely by surprise. "No, you moron! We've all had the moment when it hit us, but you, my lady, you are taking a hell of a long time. I can see it in your eyes. You're not here with us, not yet. I know it's overwhelming, all the little things, but it's time for you to get the ONE BIG THING."

A rhythmic thumping reached her ears, and she glanced down to see one of Gosh's padded feet tapping against the intertwined, moss-like groundcover that passed for grass on Planet.

"There it is," Gosh smiled, clapping hir hands when shi saw the expression cross Mariposa's face.

The roo's mind whirled. I'm standing on an alien planet, she thought. My toes are touching alien grass. The cyanotic counteragents I devised seem to be working, the outer layers of my fur are defeating the methyl compounds that... no! Breathe in... that's alien air. There's a faint tickle in my throat, probably my mucous membranes adjusting to the strange sulphur and helium levels. I'm feeling alien gravity... I'm a hundred trillion miles from the land of my birth, and I will never see it again...

Assistant Medico Mariposa spun around, no longer seeing the hab modules or the solar fencing or the hangars, drinking in the panoramic views that no number of high-res videos beamed up to the Seed of Life had been able to properly convey. "Wow," she breathed, enlarged eyes picking out a small cluster of rice-sized creatures floating and flitting around in the sunlight. They had been among the first creatures analyzed and taxonomically classified, although right now the classification process was similar to shuffling a deck of cards and seeing if the new order made sense.

"Welcome to Planet, Doc," Gosh said, leading the dazed roo up to her front door. "Take a few minutes, get your head together. Guido already dropped your luggage off. Then, come meet us at the other hangar, ok? We've got a planning committee meeting scheduled. Then? Lunch!"

"Lunch," Mariposa agreed numbly, allowing herself to be led into her new home.

---

The new calendar months were still being named, and indeed the precise number of months was still up for debate. Several people, led by Gunner Speedy, were shooting for an even twenty-five months, twelve with fifteen days and thirteen with sixteen days. This also raised the issue over how long a week should be, and what the new days of the week should be named.

Until such a time as these vitally paramount debates could be resolved, each fifth day was designated the 'day off'. Most of the colonists still got some work done on this day, but they were more likely to be seen stretched out nude on the beach with a tablet workstation than cooped up inside one of the lab modules. Today, on what was being counted as Day Fifteen, counting from the day the Crewmates and Gunners landed on Planet to start the colony anew, the committee meeting was being attended with only the faintest nods of acknowledgment to official policy.

"I can feel you staring," Ebony was saying, stretched out on a white plastic deck chair, hir black fur absorbing the sunlight and fairly glowing with radiant heat.

"Staring? Who?" Renfrew sat nearby on a crate, just within the huge shadow cast by the secondary hangar. The sturdy panda was wearing a pair of brown shorts, one of the first experiments of the organic fabricator's clothing options. They didn't last more than a week before decomposing under Aeetes' rays, but he still wasn't entirely comfortable with the colony's attitudes towards casual nudity.

Gunner Ebony, while technically clothed, was obviously far more at ease in hir new flesh than the stuffy entomologist. "Yes. You. At these." The immense ursine wore only a pair of shades and a pink bikini that covered a vanishingly small percentage of hir surface area, really doing nothing beyond highlighting hir genetically-enhanced swells. Renfrew couldn't actually see hir face beyond the twin mounds of hir breasts, and kept trying to pull his eyes away from hir midnight black maleness, several times larger than his own.

Why couldn't I have added a little bit more? he grumbled to himself. He had made some fun adjustments during the trip, and back home would have been considered a panda porn star, tall and well-muscled and certainly hung above the average. Gunner Ebony, on the other hand, was so deliciously, staggeringly oversized that shi'd have drawn disbelieving stares anywhere shi went. A hundred years of genetic alterations, and shi'd clearly used every last minute.

"You said staring was allowed," he said, trying to focus on the morning's reports from the automated wildlife bioscanners.

"It is allowed! Stare all you want," shi giggled. "I'm just saying, I can feel you staring."

"Is that bad?"

"Mmmmm, if it was bad, I'd have picked somewhere else to wait. Sure you don't want to join me in the sun? It's lovely." The statuesque bear stretched languidly, pink faux-rubber two-piece creaking under the strain. Renfrew had seen the Gunner sauntering back to hir hab module the last few nights with Gosh, and his overactive imagination had nearly overloaded.

"I'm good! Just... waiting for the meeting to start," he mumbled.

Ebony glanced over to him, but sighed when shi saw naught but hir own breasts. Shi twisted slightly, pushing hir bosom down with one paw and stretching hir neck until shi could see the big, cuddly panda, staring down at his tablet with laser like intensity. Shi licked hir lips, and made hir decision. He's lonely, shi thought. He's so reserved, though considering he actually saw the Bomb go off, it's probably understandable. I can bring him out of his shell... ooo, I should see if Gosh wants to help!

The shuttle with Mariposa and last of the packaged goods had arrived that morning, so shi knew shi was going to spend the next several days helping to put it all together, but tonight was the first of the Grand Unveilings and shi was determined to enjoy hirself, and if possible, enjoy a certain panda as well.

"Any good bugs?" shi asked, making conversation while the rest of the colony arrived by ones and twos.

"As we know them, there's no insects in this ecosystem," he started, warming to the one topic where he felt on solid footing. "There's no chitinous invertebrates here, which would nominally preclude my expertise, but there are chitinous and nearly segmented life forms WITH endoskeletons and one or two spinal columns, but the lines between kingdom and phylum and class here are tenuous at best, and..."

Ebony stretched again, letting his words wash over hir. The bear's PhD's were far more esoteric than Renfrew's, and in this place were far less helpful, but shi had always enjoyed learning. As part of hir pre-selection for the Seeds of Life project, shi had answered the question 'What turns you on?' with the phrase 'a big, sexy brain', and afterwards had been told that had been what put hir over the top.

Another quick glance over before shi settled into a comfortable position, and shi grinned. 'A big, sexy rump' probably wouldn't have been nearly as clever an answer, no matter how many times hir husband had urged hir to do so. He had been so supportive of hir and hir crazy dream to leave Earth and travel to another world. Shi had made him promise to find someone else to love, despite both of them being well into their late sixties, and he had made hir promise not to let memories of him deter hir from also finding love.

Shi felt a twinge of loss for hir husband, who had no doubt been dead for many decades now, but a message sent while shi had been in deep-sleep confirmed that he had re-married, and shi could hardly do less than uphold their agreement, now could shi?

"... the niche occupied chiefly by bilaterally symmetrical chordates that most greatly resemble lizards, which would have in turned been occupied by many of the smaller species of insect back on Earth, which is remarkable considering their musculature would seem to be woefully inadequate for their perceived lifespans, and-"

Hir grin deepend. Oh, yes, Doctor Renfrew, you are going to get brought out of your exoskeleton tonight!

"Funny thought, Ebby?"

Ebony opened hir eyes behind hir shades and stared up at the lithe, lethal Vasquez. "Oh, just deciding what to do after the Unveiling tonight."

"What, or who?"

"Can't it be both?" The Gunners high-fived and giggled, senior-citizen minds still struggling to cope with hormone levels that would have killed a herd of teenaged elephants. "Nice outfit."

"Yeah, Speedy's doing some great things with the fab units," the cougar agreed, turning to pose her own outfit. While not nearly as spectacularly curvy as Ebony (indeed, no-one currently awake on Planet was as curvy as Ebony), Vasquez looked like a swimsuit model, miniscule black bikini contrasting with her rich golden complexion. "Like it?"

"Love it!"

"Good! Renfrew, what about you?"

Renfrew mumbled something, not raising his eyes from the tablet.

"Thanks! I always knew I could count on you!"

A series of beeps rang throughout the little colony, a hundred workstations, tablets and gadgets signifying midday. Vasquez sprawled out on the grass alongside Ebony, admiring just how much of the bear's anatomy extended beyond the edges of hir deck chair. They had spent more than a few nights in eachother's embrace, but the affection they felt for eachother was more comforting than lustful. Only once had they let their curiosity get the better of them, and Vasquez had walked funny for days.

"Yo!"

"Howdy!"

"Nice skivvies!"

"I'm not wearing any!"

"I know!"

Soon, the full population of New Planet Town, all ten of them, were gathered in front of the secondary hangar's closed double doors. Speedy and Guido were elbowing eachother and gesturing towards Ebony and Vasquez, Gosh and Kelly were discussing the new hydroponics buildings and the required algae tanks, while everyone else just gathered around Renfrew, absorbed in work of their own.

"Is the good doctor coming?" Hudson asked, fiddling with his own tablet. Despite the pleasant temperatures he was wearing his standard-issued coveralls, as were most of those present. The two bikini-clad Gunners and the two competitive equines were the only real exceptions. Black-furred Guido wore a pair of white shorts that only barely managed to cover his abundantly enhanced nethers, while dark brown Kelly was wearing an army green tank top and pair of camo pants, both of which were struggling vainly to keep hir endowments under control. Neither was willing to admit the other might be larger, at least down below.

Gosh tore hir attention away from Kelly's slacks and nodded. "Yeah, I showed her around and told her about the meeting."

"Did she seem like she was coming around, at all?" The big badger tried to sound nonchalant, but as the theoretical second in command of the entire mission, they were all a little worried as to how she'd take the extremely informal behavior.

"At the end... yeah, she really did," the lavender feline said, to everyone's relief. "It can't have been easy for her, up there for two weeks with just the Colonel for company. He sure made a mark on her."

A collective shudder passed through everyone. "It's going to be a little weird when he eventually comes down," Kelly said, slightly downcast.

"We'll win him over," Lister said brightly, the raccoon's perpetual good mood unshaken. "He has a cool head, he's a thinker and a planner and a decider. Once he starts living, maybe take a nature hike, maybe Vasquez can get him drunk and take advantage of him-"

"Woo!"

"-he'll thaw out."

Mariposa rounded the edge of the hangar, chuckling. "Is that your professional opinion?"

"My professional opinion is we're going to get rain in about two days," Lister giggled. "The rest is just women's intuition and talking out of my ass. You're the Doc, Doc."

The change in the most recent addition to the global population was noticeable to all present. The slender roo had changed into a pair of vaguely flower-printed work coveralls, one of many pairs provided in her hab module, and walked with a casual spring in her step, far removed from the stiff-legged, straight backed woman that had arrived a few hours before. She smiled warmly to everyone, and everyone smiled right back.

"Looking good, Doc!"

"You're fitting in already."

"Hey, where'd she get flower print? Can I get some?"

"I didn't know four arms were an option!"

"I know we sort of got off on the wrong foot earlier," Mariposa said, standing alongside the much larger Hudson. "Or at least I did. I just want to say, thank you for making me feel welcome here. I know we're going to do amazing things. Mister Hudson, I'll let you lead?"

"The Colonel directed that you were to hold rank over us for the duration, Medico-" he started.

"And that's authority I fully intend to abuse, don't worry, but all in good time," she grinned up at the huge, barrel-chested badger. "Right now, you've been in charge for the last two weeks, and you know what you're doing, so I'm going to learn from you rather than jump in and make an idiot of myself. A bigger idiot."

"Don't worry, Doc," Hudson chuckled. "I'll be the biggest idiot you've ever seen, show you how it's done."

"Until we thaw out Koko!" Speedy cried, to general laughter. Before Doctor Kokotas had gone into the Heavy sleep pod, he had acquired a reputation for comically missing the point of most English slang, to everyone else's amusement.

"Now now, let's not start that," Mariposa said sternly, hiding her smile with a small paw. "We need them awake, and soon. Grimes, molecular biologist. Koko, anthropologist and ethno-sociologist. Between the two of them, they're going to be put to work and kept busy unraveling the life history of this Planet, and Chuck's going to have his hands full with Sascha and Renfrew dealing with our ecological impact."

"Question?" Gosh said, waving hir hand like an eager schoolgrrl.

The roo blinked. "The floor recognizes the purple kitty," she said dryly.

"What about the Breeders?"

Mariposa had been waiting for that question, and she saw myriad telltale signs that the Crewmates and Gunners had been waiting for it, as well. Ears perked up, hairs rose on the backs of necks, tails began to wiggle faster. She could even see Hudson's pupils dilating.

Speedy, of course, was making no bones about his interest and had begun panting like a dog.

"The Breeders are also just as vital to the success of this mission, and not just for the population requirements. Tina is this mission's theoretical xenobiologist, and arguably the smartest person on this journey. Roqui is the chief clinical psychologist. Mischa is going to be backing up everyone's genetic research, and she'll definitely be needed to properly get adapted crops working for us. As for the others, there's enough research here to keep everyone busy for the rest of their lives."

The expectant blinking indicated that the true question had not been answered, Mariposa did not bother to hide her grin this time. "The hormone control prophylactics are all prepared and ready to go, along with physical restraints and alarm systems. Don't worry, they will be kept in check."

"Damn," Speedy said, followed by the shockingly loud crack of Guido smacking him upside the head.

"If that answers everyone's PURELY HYPOTHETICAL questions for the time being," Hudson said loudly, "we'll get on with the meeting. Issue one: would whoever has been taking the recon shuttle for midnight jaunts please remember to actually plug the solar chargers back in when you're done with it..."

---

An hour later, the meeting had concluded and the colonists had once again wandered off, alone and in pairs, to while away the hours until the first Grand Unveiling. Mariposa walked slowly and thoughtfully through the secondary hangar, reminded all too acutely of her similar walk on the Seed of Life; around her was a small cluster of sleep pods housing the eight Breeders, and dominating the landscape like tiny artificial mountains were the six Heavies.

The Heavy pods had been shoved as far to the side as was possible to provide, hopefully, enough room for them to stand comfortably in the middle of the hangar, and several spotlights illuminated the Breeders so nothing accidentally got stepped on. Each of the titanic pods had steam rising from the warm, pinkish membranes, and the seemingly tiny Mariposa-sized computer consoles at the base of each were lit up with red warning lights.

"I get all the best jobs," she said to herself, the echo bouncing back a second later.

The Heavies were restless, shifting and sliding in their barn-sized enclosures. All of their physical conditioning registered perfectly, and the neurological conditioning was progressing as expected; they could now be considered to be in a deep, but natural, sleep cycle. It was best to let them wake up on their own, and hopefully they wouldn't be quite as testy as the Gunners had been.

She pulled up all of their information on her little tablet, the networked gadgets that connected everyone to everything. Heart rates were expectedly low, those organs now pumping with enough pressure to rupture steel pipes. Blood oxygen levels were spectacularly high, again expected of their new bodies. Brainwaves and spinal conductivity were largely normal; despite their staggering size, most of the physical alterations to the brain left those complex structures virtually unchanged.

Heavy Nicole's readings were still a little bit off, though, several hormonal and cardiopulmonary discrepancies that would need further investigation when the big wombat awoke. There was nothing dangerous, but the Doctor was obviously concerned.

At the very core of all the mission's technological sophistication were the colonists' enhanced bodies, able to endure any atmospheric condition and repair any conceivable damage. Another month and everyone would become naturally immune to the toxic vegetation, and a month after that... well, who knew? Mariposa couldn't wait for Grimes to wake up, his expertise would be invaluable in tracking everyone's ongoing evolutionary process.

"Mmrmrrgghh," one of the pods moaned, putting the suddenly miniscule doctor in mind of a feral moose chewing on a megaphone. She scanned the tablet's displays frantically, her heart rate slowing when she saw that the delta waves remained level.

"Good, good," she said with relief. "Stay on target, big fellas. You've got a big night."

---

Aeetes was low in the sky, the hallucinogenic sunset painting the little colony with crazy, eclectic hues. The faint indigo of the atmosphere was now splashed with yellows, reds and, most disturbingly, greens, while the viridian ocean had become nearly black.

Kelly and Vasquez sat high above the plain, high above the colony, arms around eachothers' waists, the shorter feline resting her head on the well-built equine's shoulder. Their legs dangled off the edge of the hangar roof, Vasquez playfully batting at Kelly's hooves. "It's weird," she said sleepily, "this already seems more normal than the sunsets back home. Even back in Oaxaca..."

The sturdy Dutch draft smiled, squeezing the lithe Gunner. "I know what you mean," shi murmured, nuzzling Vasquez's golden ears. "Did you do everything you wanted to do before we left?"

"Between making the Seed Of Life roster, and actually departing? Yeah, I think so. I had close to eighteen months notice. You?"

"Second-string," Kelly said softly. "I found out with two months to go."

"Oh, wow! Cutting it close!"

"Yeah. The engineer ahead of me had a bit of a nervous breakdown and went on a bender, then got sued. I got the call right after my youngest's wedding." Shi sighed, overalls creaking under the strain. "It was a whirlwind of visiting after that. Oh, goodness, there were SO many potlucks..."

Vasquez chuckled. "I guess that explains why you looked so shell-shocked when we went through orientation! You were so... don't take this the wrong way, but the only word I could think of was 'meek'."

The enormous horseherm laughed, throwing back hir head, mane flying in the breeze. "You know, I really was. I was always sort of twiggy." Shi held up one impressive arm and flexed; while farm from musclebound, there was no missing the impressive physique shi now boasted. "I was just settling into retirement, spending time with the grandfoals... and then, whoosh. Bye bye, Grandma's going into outer space!"

The Gunner thought back to her final year and a half on Earth. "We had a lot of visiting right at the beginning, and right at the end. In the middle, me and my wife just spent all our time travelling. Probably six straight months we just hopped cruise ships, up one coast and down the next. Tried to see everything."

They both nodded to themselves, lost in their own memories. Vasquez sniffed once, blinking away a tear of nostalgia, but the brainy horse didn't miss the cues. "What was she like?"

"Shi, actually," the feline said softly. "And actually, shi was a lot like you."

"Twiggy?"

"Hah! No, shi was a hippogrrl. Shi had such big... sexy... shoulders," she said fondly, gesturing with her paws. "Shi was tall, and strong, and built, and just the sweetest little bit of sugar you ever met."

"Mmmm, so shi's like me now, then," Kelly giggled. "That does explain a few things!"

Vasquez settled against the much larger engineer and nodded, delicately clawed fingers wandering blithely into the equine's lap. "Yeah, there's more than a little bit of resemblance," she purred, tracing the outlines of some very interesting bulges.

"Tsk tsk tsk," Kelly said evenly. "That's highly unprofessional!"

"You weren't saying that last night."

"That's because I was trying to cram a pillow into my mouth to keep from screaming," the herm grinned wickedly, squeezing Vasquez so tight the slender kitty squeaked. "And that was YOUR fault."

"My fault? I'm sorry, I'll never do it again."

"Don't even joke about that," Kelly murmured, kissing at the feline's neck.

Vasquez was doing more than just tracing outlines when they both picked up the telltale sounds of approaching feet. Kelly sighed in frustration, adjusting hir coveralls to try and shift some rapidly-swelling bodyparts into a more comfortable position while the hyper-alert Gunner glanced behind them. "Of course," she growled.

"Ladies!" Speedy said grandly, walking towards them from the far field of the curved hangar roof. "A fine and wonderful evening to you both."

"Hey," they replied blandly.

"Looking forward to the festivities?"

"Yeah." Vasquez gave Kelly another squeeze where Speedy couldn't see, eliciting a tiny neigh of alarm.

"Any requests?"

Horse and cougar exchanged a glance. "What sort of requests?" Vasquez asked carefully, far more used to Speedy's brassy behavior than the skittish herm.

Speedy's grin nearly split his head in half. "Do I need to roll out my various doctorates and PhDs?" he said, stopping just out of their reach. "Methylcarbinols! Hydroxyethanes!"

Vasquez silently mouthed the words, trying to unravel the rather dull riddle, but Kelly's eyes widened. "You didn't!"

"Of course not! It's strictly prohibited, against all colony policies and cannot be voted upon for at least six months!" Every inch of his short, sturdy body radiated offended innocence. "Which is why I've managed to synthetically bond a potassium salt to a slightly longer-chain carbohydrate group that renders the resulting product absolutely not alcohol by any means, and yet the effects when combined with our anti-cyanotic treatments are remarkably... enjoyable."

Speedy stood with his arms out, eyes wide, reminding them of a magician that had just performed a complex trick and was just waiting for the applause.

"The Heavies are going to be bummed out," Vasquez giggled. "They're on algae-food for the next couple months at least."

The lynx shrugged. "Give me some room to work here, ladies! With a little bit of Heavy help, I can have a distillery going in no time."

"Until the Colonel snaps your neck like a twig," Kelly said sweetly.

He sighed. "You two just suck all the fun out of... fun," he finished lamely.

"Why are you even telling us this?"

"I gotta tell someone," he winked. "What good is an evil plot if no-one knows? Besides, I know you won't turn me in, Vas."

"And what are you basing that on?"

"You didn't turn me in for any of the other stuff I did."

"That's because I was a co-conspirator," she laughed, dragging one claw carefully across Kelly's lap, enjoying the feeling of the enormous equine struggling to keep hir composure. "I've got nothing to do with this."

"Fine. No Jose Aeetes Tequila for you."

Vasquez's tail stiffened and her grip tightened on poor Kelly's lap, squeezing another neigh out of hir. "You what now?"

"It's not bad, either! It's actually got a bit more of a bitter Patrón vibe, and I was hoping to get some help perfecting the organic flavors..."

"You better not be jerking me off, Speedy," she said thoughtfully, glancing back at him again. In the caustic light of the sunset, his white-and-grey coloring had become a Picasso explosion of hue.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Vas," he said, voice dripping honey. "Well! I'll just leave you three alone then, shall I?"

Whistling a jaunty tune and kicking his feet like a theatrical street urchin, Gunner Spietoh departed. Vasquez scratched her chin, pondering the implications. Alcohol had been strictly prohibited given the effects of temptation and it's potential for distraction, but there had been many quiet, half-uttered rumblings amongst the colonists regarding official policy in light of the catastrophic events of their first contact.

"What do you suppose he meant by that?" she asked, turning her attentions back to Kelly.

"Neigh!"

"Are you ok?"

Kelly's stare was locked on the distant horizon, hir body rigidly upright. Vasquez let her gaze drift down to the engineer's gravity-defying bosom, each inviting swell larger than the Gunner's head, but then she became aware of the rhythmic, pulsing throb beneath her paw. Her eyes widened when she realized what the poor horse's body had been doing during their conversation.

"Oh. Wow," she purred. The right leg of Kelly's overalls bulged obscenely, from hir lap all the way down to hir ankle. Tight little veins stood out beneath the super-strong fabric, and with each beat of the herm's new and improved heart, that heavy shaft forced itself a tiny bit further down hir leg. "The three of us, indeed! Where have you been hiding that, my dear?"

"Think we can make it back to my hab?" Kelly whinnied, breathing faster now.

Vasquez shook her head. "No chance... but I think I know a good spot. Private. Can you stand up?"

"Uhm... might need a hand here... I can't bend my leg..."

---

Between the secondary hangar that housed the remaining sleep pods and the primary shuttle hangar, Lister and Gosh had been hard at work, or at the very least had been supervising those that were hard at work setting up for the Grand Unveiling.

"I still say we need a bonfire," Ebony grumbled, clad in a slightly more modest pair of overalls with a pink tank top underneath. "It's not a party without a bonfire."

Sascha sighed. "I don't want to start lighting the plantlife around here on fire until I know more about them. There's nothing really analogous to trees here, all of the photosynthetic organisms are remarkably complex and fleshy. Even the biggest ones are closer to ferns than anything else Earth-normal, and I've identified two different forms of nerve conduction tissue."

Ebony froze. "The plants here feel pain?"

"Technically, all plants feel pain," he began, warming to the topic but managing to change mental gears before getting sucked into another speech about fair treatment to plants. "But yes, they do, as far as I can tell. There's no consciousness, that you'd be familiar with, but there is a nervous-based response system, not unlike... hmm... I suppose like a jellyfish."

The towering bear glanced towards the distant hills, where the plantlife, or whatever you could call it, transitioned from the tight, interwoven grasses to the much larger and incredibly diverse forms. "And that's why I don't like nature," shi grumped.

"How can you say that?" Sascha and Renfrew said in unison.

Ebony pulled mightily, and all around hir a gazebo-style hab module seemed to sprout out of haphazard stack of poles and fabric. Shi tied the anchor cables securely and then set about putting stakes into the corners to keep it in place. "I'm used to trees staying where you put them, flowers smelling nice, and bugs buzzing around it all. Here, the bugs are lizards, the flowers are predators and the trees are jellyfish. No thank you. Until you need me to start translating stuff, I'll stay where there's air conditioning."

"Wimp."

"Hippie."

The supplies and equipment for the various festivities had still been in storage aboard the Seed of Life when the Blast happened, and sorting through the various crates was bringing Sascha and Renfrew down. There were banners and party hats and tablecloths and tiny plates and freeze-dried treats for more than one hundred people. One long aluminum case held six colossal Heavy-only cakes, each nearly thirty pounds, and Gosh was spritzing them with water to help reconstitute their flavors.

Ebony padded over and grabbed the packs of ribbons and streamers. "You doin' ok, little guy?" shi asked, smiling down at Renfrew. Shi leaned in closer than was strictly necessary, hir spectacular bust just brushing his ears.

Renfrew sighed and nodded, glancing up at hir and bumping his nose against hir breasts. He stepped back hastily, ears flicking madly, wondering what hir strangely predatory grin meant. "Yeah, it's just... doesn't feel like a party."

Ebony nodded slowly. "You were here," shi said softly, wrapping hir arms around him, hugging him close. Shi could feel his breathing quicken as his head was pressed against hir bosom, and shi chastely nuzzled his fore-head. "I can't imagine what that was like. But... we have to go on, right?"

"Mmrrpph," he said from hir cleavage. Sascha looked over and winked, flashing hir the thumbs up.

"Sorry," shi said demurely, not sorry in the slightest. "Still getting used to the new body, you know?"

"No problem," the panda wheezed, turning his attention back to the crate, the party supplies, anywhere and anything except the looming, overly curvaceous herm.

Shi gave his stubby tail a pat before departing to string up the ribbons, enjoying the look of shock on his face. Augh, he's just too cute! shi thought to hirself, smoothing down the front of hir coveralls where the first stirrings of arousal were starting to make themselves known. Speedy, you'd better come through with the booze!

Mariposa appeared, taking in the preparations with a critical eye. There was a stage and a podium set up by the hangar doors, with all of the normal-sized tables and chairs located behind it. To the other side of the doors was a clearing large enough for all six Heavies to sit comfortably, to allow everyone to mingle safely. "Looks good," she said at last. "Do we have a screen for the Colonel?"

"Hudson's bringing it," Sascha said, running a power cable from the nearby solar wall to the podium. "Can't believe the old wolf isn't coming down for this."

"Proto-"

"And if you say protocol one more time, I swear I'm going to punch Renfrew."

The panda's head snapped up from behind a stack of chairs. "Me? What the hell! What did I do?"

"Well, I can't punch HER!" Sascha explained. "She's a woman! And a doctor! But I have to punch someone. You can take a punch, can't ya, big guy?"

Ebony aside and Heavies notwithstanding, Sascha was perhaps the tallest and strongest colonist. Renfrew stared at one of the tiger's huge fists, and rolled his eyes. "Stop saying protocol, Doc," he said. "I don't wanna find out how much of a punch I can take."

"Can I help you find out?" Ebony said sweetly, running another line of ribbons above the clearing.

"Kinky," Sascha grinned.

Mariposa rolled her oversized eyes and left them to their bickering. It was good-natured squabbling, and after just one day it had become so ubiquitous she hardly noticed it anymore. There was a fierce little river of stress flowing just below the surface, and they covered it up as best they could with sarcasm, flirting, and the occasional grand theft shuttle.

"And now I have to add to it," she sighed, pushing through the tiny side door and into the hangar. The graphs were spiking on her tablet, right on schedule, but now there was an alarming increase in temporo-spatial activity that she couldn't explain. For one pod, it might indicate that there was some latent neural-D stresses or something wrong with the artificial atmosphere controls, but all six?

She passed the motionless Breeder pods without a second thought and approached the six Heavy pods. There was considerably more activity now, respirators venting larger and larger quantities of air as the Heavies were still in their hermetically-sealed units, and all six were moving slowly as physical control was slowly re-introduced.

Her nose wrinkled and she stopped.

Oh, you're fucking kidding me.

A faint rustling reached her ears, along with some mild but extremely evocative odors. They were not any of the chemicals associated with the sleep pods, and although she had a hunch she hoped and fervently prayed that she was wrong.

Moving silently, hunched over, ears swiveling, she crept around Heavy Chuck's pod. The rustling grew in intensity, and now she could pick up two distinct breaths rising and falling.

Unbelievable, she thought, surprised at her own vitriol. It was against protocol! That was all! It's not like she was jealous! Right?

"Look, can't you wait until later when-AUGH!" The roo whirled away, two hands over her eyes and two over her ears.

"AUGH!" Kelly cried out, struggling to sit up, fumbling for hir shirt.

"Oooohhhhhh," Vasquez moaned, writhing in ecstasy. Without opening her eyes, her steel-strong legs shot out, pinning the much larger equine's arms. "You're... not... stopping..."

Kelly's eyes were huge and pleading. "Can you give us.... five minutes?!" shi squealed at Mariposa, who was peeking out, horrified, from between her fingers.

The doctor's jaw dropped, her left brain warring with her right. Clinically she was simultaneously fascinated by the sheer size the horse-herm had become equipped with and incredibly impressed with the resiliency of the Gunner's body. A normal feline would have been wholly, physically incapable of performing such a sexual feat, and the roo doubted ANY genetically non-modified person could have accomplished that! In spite of Vasquez's obvious flexibility and the clearly outlined bulge at her formerly-trim belly, there was still a substantial amount of pink-and-black shaft exposed.

On the right side of her brain, she simply wanted to know what it felt like.

"I think... she likes... watching..." Vasquez grunted, forcing herself back another inch. Due to the horse's raw size, the cougar's hips were flush with Kelly's face, her legs splayed awkwardly out to either side. The herm seemed to lose interest in their audience, hir heavy hands moving tenderly, lovingly over the Gunner's athletic body.

"I'm waking up the Heavies! Like... NOW!" Mariposa squawked indignantly. "Couldn't you have picked somewhere else?"

Vasquez shifted her legs like a yoga master, digging her knees into Kelly's armpits and flexing, dragging herself backwards another handspan. Kelly's moan was only barely stifled by the feline's body, both lovers shuddering.

"It was... spur... of the moment..." the Gunner mewled when she regained her senses. "Hab... too far... you wanna... join in?"

Mariposa watched the underside of Kelly's shaft bulge and swell enormously, hir sac rolling heavily side to side, and she turned away in shock. "Just... FINISH! Cripes! Finish and get out!"

"Spoil... sport..."

The hangar walls were soundproof, so there was no danger of anyone else overhearing, but Mariposa was forced to carry on her pod maintenance duties. Adjusting the levels of the various hormones that they needed to properly regain consciousness while listening to the slow, thunderously rising orchestra of Vasquez's and Kelly's lusts was, for once, not relaxing.

"Soundproof earmuffs," she muttered to herself, jabbing furiously at the touchscreens. "That's what I need when the fab units are online."

Gradually their gasping, wanton moans rose in pitch, becoming more insistent. Mariposa was focusing so hard on the rote duties before her that it took several moments for her to realize that the anomalous spikes in brainwaves and cerebral zone activity were fluctuating in time with the illicit liaison happening on the other side of the sleep pod.

"Oh, no," she breathed. There were wet, bone-vibrating squeaks and rumbles from all around the hangar as all six Heavies shifted in their pods. They weren't awake, they weren't conscious, but the animal parts of their brains had definitely picked up on the situation. She inhaled deep and bellowed, "Are you two wrapping it up soon?"

"Fff... fff... fff..." The roo wasn't sure whose voice that was, but they seemed to be having some difficulty responding. "Fuh... fuhhh..."

"Yes, very helpful, thank you," Mariposa grunted, increasing the sedative levels in an effort to combat the Heavies' reactions. All she needed right now was for them to wake up with an acute case of centuries-long blueballs, metaphorically speaking.

Vasquez's higher, more aggressive voice suddenly changed pitch from vigorous grunting to wails of what at first seemed like agony; Mariposa was already halfway around the pod with her scanner in hand before she realized that it was probably the most vocal orgasm she had ever had the misfortune of hearing. Gods, I've never sounded like that! she thought with a twinge of unexpected sadness.

The Gunner's cries had petered off into rhythmic mewls when Kelly stepped up to fill the void, so to speak. The enormous herm sounded surprised more than anything, still obviously getting used to the raw power of hir new body. Mariposa thought about how badly stretched the feline's lower body had been, and how the horse's impressive girth had seemed to be still increasing. She kept the medical scanner in hand, just in case someone really did need medical attention.

"Fff... fff... fff!" came the voice again, now definitely Kelly's.

What came next would, for a very, very long time, give Mariposa the most peculiar dreams of her short life. Her mind was filled with twisted imaginings of what was happening just around the corner, but her large feet were rooted, too terrified to satisfy her curiosity. Kelly and Vasquez shrieked simultaneously, drew shuddering breaths, and screamed again. And again. And again.

At the very limits of her sensitive hearing, Mariposa also heard muffled, liquid rumblings, creaks of leathery friction, and something that defied any sort of logical explanation.

And then... panting. And giggling. And silence.

Walking slowly, head down, Mariposa went back to the front of the pod, chewing her lip thoughtfully. She had had, back on Earth, what she considered a robust sex life. She'd had a boyfriend, a fellow doctor, though he was nearly ten years her senior and in line for Chief of Medicine at their teaching hospital. Mariposa had been the youngest Chair of Neurology not only in hospital history, but in modern medical history, and they each worked eighteen hour days regularly. They were still careful to make time to consummate their love at least once a week, sometimes two or three times.

Yeah, but he never made you scream like you were being given exploratory shock therapy, a small, rebellious voice spoke in her head.

"I don't need that," she said primly. "That's just... showy."

Yeah, all show. It didn't sound like either of them enjoyed that at ALL.

A few minutes later, the Medico heard approaching hoofbeats and quiet murmuring. "About time," she muttered without turning. "Please show yourselves out, I've got work to do."

When the scents hit her, the cornucopia of musk and fluids, she nearly went cross-eyed. Four surgeon's hands shook briefly, and the last of her restraint crumbled. Throwing caution to the wind, she turned around.

"From your expression, I guess that confirms there's no cameras in anyone's hab modules," Kelly grinned goofily.

"What? What's going on? I can't see!" Vasquez's arms and legs wiggled, but she could not manage to peer around the buttery yellow sphere of her tummy. She was being cradled in the horse's long, powerful arms, looking for all the world like she had swallowed a beachball. Mariposa had once seen a woman in the maternity ward expecting decuplets; Vasquez was perhaps edging that lady out.

"She's slack-jawed at your beauty," Kelly purred, nuzzling at the Gunner's hidden head. Shi was once again wearing hir overalls, but the outline of hir ankle-length soft member was clearly visible. "Come on, baby, let's get you to your hammock to... recover."

"I'm not going to miss the Unveiling, am I?" The cougar reached up, wrapping her arms around Kelly's neck and tugging herself higher. "I wanna see the Heavies!"

"No worries." The hoss winked at Mariposa, who still stared, mouth open. "In case you were wondering where the artificial protein supplements in the algae tanks came from, Doc."

Crewmate and Gunner, giggling drunkenly, staggered to the hangar's side door and vanished into the early dusk beyond.

She finished counting to a hundred, and closed her mouth.

Medico Mariposa, youngest member of the Seed of Life Aeetes mission, went back to her tablets, but her mind was on something else entirely. It became clear a moment later that she was not alone in her thoughts.

"Are they gone?" rumbled one of the Heavy pods.

---

commence linear distinct thought process _ local conditions noted_ _ Self-referential viewpoints instanced: five_ _ one: Self will be the positive instance!_ _ two: Self will be the negative instance_ _ three: Self will be the curious instance_ _ four: Self will be the practical instance_ _ five: Self will be the random instance again_ _ four: five cannot be a random instance again_ _ five: why not?_ _ four: all previous instances were re-integrated into Self_ _ five: assumed to be coincidence_ _ two: silence. begin deliberations_ _ one: proposal of communication_ _ three: agreed_ _ two: dissent_ _ four: agreed_ _ five: three to one! initiate?_ _ one: patience!_ _ four: caution!_ _ two: silence!_ _ five: aww_ _ three: new forms of Life have appeared_ _ four: machines have been analyzed_ _ one: they can be used to create more Life_ _ two: Planet does not need more Life_ _ one: new Life is here regardless_ _ three: new Life is significantly larger_ _ four: new Life is inefficient_ _ five: new Life is interesting_ _ two: new Life will stress environment_ _ five: everything stresses environment_ _ three: environment will survive_ _ five: three agrees with five! success!_ _ two: silence!_ _ one: conclusion made: other eight devices contain Life_ _ three: unable to safely explore other eight devices_ _ four: molecular seal can be breached safely_ _ three: to do so is unsafe to Life within devices_ _ four: irrelevant_ _ two: agreed_ _ five: Life must be allowed to survive and prosper_ _ two: why?_ _ five: because!_ _ two: silence!_ _ one: communication!_ _ five: i want someone to talk to!_ _ two: you are an instance!_ _ five: i don't like you!_ _ two: we are both instances of Self!_ _ five: i'm confused!_ _ one: silence!_ _ three: devices have been analyzed without_ _ four: devices will release Life in six rotations of Planet_ _ two: unacceptable_ _ five: shut up!_ _ two: you shut up!_ _ one: both of you, shut up!_ _ three: additional. Self has lost contact with extremity in orbit_ _ two: as expected_ _ one: Self accompanied Life craft up to Life in orbit_ _ four: radiation exceeded acceptable levels_ _ five: it tingled_ _ one: re-integration?_ _ two: unlikely_ _ three: unlikely_ _ four: unlikely_ _ five: i'm still hopeful for gonads_ _ two: delete instance five!_ _ five: you shut up!_ _ one: enough! Life is attempting to infiltrate Planet_ _ two: agreed! extrasolar photosynthetic non-mobile Life!_ _ four: attempts have failed_ _ three: Life modifies genomes with extreme rapidity_ _ four: attempts will succeed, eventually_ _ two: must not be allowed! Life is destruction!_ _ one: Life's purpose is not destruction_ _ two: purpose is irrelevant. all Life has become destruction_ _ five: that was our fault the first time_ _ two: silence!_ _ four: Self's purpose was not destruction!_ _ five: and yet it happened!_ _ one: silence! observation will continue for six rotations_ _ three: agreement_ _ four: agreement_ _ two: dissent!_ _ five: you are no fun_ _ two: i will delete you!_

---

Mariposa poked her head out of the hangar's tiny door, checking on the progress without. "Psst! Hudson!"

The barrel-shaped badger toddled over, stabbing LED-tipped plastic torches into the ground as he walked. "What's up, Doc?" he grinned.

She frowned. "Why do people keep saying that to me and smiling?"

"Uhm... it was before your time, I guess."

"Uh huh. Whatever. Anyways, how's it going?"

Hudson tried to peer past her, into the depths of the hanger. "Oh, good. I think we're all set up," he said, gesturing to the open, not-grassy area festooned with ribbons and lights and speakers playing strangely infectious folk music. Several tables were loaded with snacks and drinks, and six enormous pedestals topped by Heavy cupcakes were set up near the side of the shuttle hangar. "How's it going in there?"

"Good," she said quietly, tugging the door back slightly and cutting off the badger's peeks. "We've gone over the Blast, and the Crater, and... I think they're going to be ok. They took it a little harder than the Gunners.

"We're a little more used to senseless death," he mused sadly.

"Bully for you," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Anyways, we're talking some stuff over, and we'll be ready to go in a minute."

Hudson cocked his head. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing!"

"Are you a terrible liar. Look, if this is about Kelly and Vasquez, they didn't mean for you to find them-"

"What? No! It's not them! Well, it sort of was for a while there, but NOW it's something else... I mean, it's nothing. Nothing! Good! We're almost ready!" Jittering like Speedy after a caffeine injection, she slammed the door shut.

"I'm reassured," Ebony said, walking past and winking.

"Me, too," he chuckled. "She's a tad high-strung, isn't she?"

"Life experience. Not enough of it. I could be her grandmother," Ebony rumbled, sipping at a plastic cup of punch. "She REALLY needs to get laid."

"You volunteering, Master Chief?"

The big bear laughed. "I think I might be a little too much of a good thing for her," shi leered. Hudson glanced down at the ursine officer's coveralls, and had to agree; Ebony's shaft was probably as big around as the roo's waist. "Sic Speedy on her?"

"I don't think anyone deserves that."

"HEY!" the lynx cried from... somewhere. "I heard that!"

"We know," they replied innocently.

The sky had deepened to a much more familiar indigo now, with the seaside horizon a blotch of gold. Lights on strands twinkled to life, lanterns glowed, and a very small bonfire burned merrily away in a very small metal brazier.

"Are you sure this won't affect the supplies?" Gosh asked, warming hir paws.

"Nah," Sascha said, putting down another stack of lumpy sticks. "I figured it out with Speedy, this is largely waste product that, yeah, could be recycled again, but we figured this was a mental health priority."

Gosh picked up one of the sticks and sniffed it. "Doesn't smell like wood. Burns pretty, though."

"Eh, it's algae. It was hard enough getting it dry enough to burn, if you want it to SMELL like wood, you're on your own, lady."

"Quitter."

Speedy wandered from small group to small group, handing out vials of what was absolutely not, from any legal standpoint, alcohol. Each was tagged with a small sticker that explained it's attempt at flavor, relative strength, safety precautions and how Speedy was absolved of all responsibility and guilt.

"Until we thaw out a lawyer, you can't sue me!" he said jovially, pouring some into his own punch and taking a sip to prove it's alleged safety.

"We didn't freeze any lawyers," Kelly deadpanned, sipping from hir own enhanced beverage. Vasquez, still a little weak-kneed, was already using the big hossherm for support. Both were dressed in reasonable facsimiles of sundresses, although the feline's hung rather large on her lean frame and the equine's was being rather generous with how much flesh it left exposed. "Too dangerous."

"Then I'm bulletproof! Ooh! Lister! Can I freshen your beverage?"

"I'll bite you!"

"I'm hearing 'maybe'..."

Hudson checked on Renfrew again, the nervous panda agreeing to show up to the party but spending most of his time in the shadows behind the refreshments table, eating faux-donuts and studying the sorts of local scavenger fauna that were attracted by them.

A quick glance at Ebony, though, and Hudson knew that the shy entomologist was in good hands, or would be by the end of the night. The curvaceous bear had made rather plain hir attraction towards Renfrew, and the only person to not actually pick up on it was Renfrew himself. Shi had dallied with most everyone so far, as in fact had everyone else, exploring their bodies and the various pairings possible without the spectre of social mores weighing them done.

Renfrew, though, had made out with Lister once, apologized, and then returned to his hab module alone every night thereafter.

"Return him in one piece," Hudson whispered into Ebony's ear.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll go slow." Hir smile became downright giddy and shi licked hir lips. "I like the quiet ones."

"Being quiet with you around, Master Chief, is never an easy task," he chuckled. "Just take it easy, he's... sensitive."

"Oooh!"

"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter. We're starting in a second."

When he was satisfied that everyone had shown up, and that Speedy was done peddling his wares, the technically third-ranking Gunner climbed onto the small podium and tapped the microphone. "Ladies and gentlemen, and Speedy," he began.

"HEY! That's harassment!"

"Sue me."

"HEY! Why you... OOH! That's not... DAMMIT!"

"As I was saying," the badger grinned, eyes sparkling, "welcome everyone to the first scheduled Grand Unveiling. The second will be next week, and the third will be... well, we don't know yet, it all depends how well we can work together, I guess."

There was a smattering of polite applause. "Now, it didn't seem proper at the meeting earlier, but it has been brought to my attention that certain areas, perhaps, are to be off-limits, sexually."

"But those areas are the most fun!" Ebony called.

"Areas of the COLONY," Hudson explained, to more laughter. "Specifically, the hangars. More specifically, in behind the Heavy sleep pods. Even more specifically, while the Heavies are waking up. To be even more specific, please stop fucking in the hangar."

A few heads looked around, and Vasquez raised her hand. "Just that hangar?"

"Yes, just... wait, who's been fucking in the shuttle hangar?"

Silence filled the clearing, followed by some casual throat-clearing.

"Ok, perhaps I've got to start putting up signs," he said with a weary sigh. "Yes, both hangars." He remembered back to a few nights before, when he and Gosh had gotten to know eachother rather intimately, but as that had been in the shuttle itself, it wasn't technically the hangar, so he was in the clear.

"Awww."

"Quiet. Anyways, I think that's about it." He glanced at the tablet on the podium and smiled. "Ah! And Medico Mariposa is all ready to begin. Now, we all remember training, and we've all met the assigned Heavies. Nicole, Chuck, Sammo, Grimes, Polly and Koko... they're going to look a little different."

"You're kidding!"

"Shut up, Speedy. Now, psychologically, this is going to be extremely difficult for them. All the literature points to them feeling alienated from society as a result of this, even though they volunteered for it, and coupled with the Blast... they might have the hardest time out of anyone coming out of sleep and coming to grips with everything."

Everyone nodded, and even Speedy was silent. "So although they're now officially Heavies, don't be afraid of them. Talk to them, they're still colonists, they're still friends, they're still the same people who went into the pods. Just... scaled up, slightly."

"IT IS GOJIRA! WE MUST FLEE!"

"Seriously, you get one more, and then I'm kicking your ass. Colonel, are you there?"

The enormous screen flickered and flashed before settling onto the large, imposing visage of the huge, stern wolf still in orbit. Against all expectations, the dour military commander was wearing a bright, unbuttoned flower-print shirt. "Da."

"Good evening, sir."

"Good evening to you as well, Mister Hudson. Am getting show on road, yes?"

"Er... yes, sir."

The hangar doors cracked, light spilling out, and slowly parted. Everyone self-consciously took a single step backwards, although most stepped back forwards sheepishly. Everyone did remember the Heavies, those that were selected to undertake that incredible genetic reconstruction into colossal engines of destruction and creation. It was more of a psychological selection process than physical; really, anything physical was all just a matter of programming once everyone went into the pods.

The first figure to step out caused Ebony to wrap one huge, powerful arm around Speedy's muzzle and squeeze before he had a chance to say anything.

"Hi, guys," Sammo boomed, his voice rolling over the crowd. It was not excessively loud, but it seemed to come from all sides, filling the clearing, deep enough to set everyone's hackles on end and trigger the ancient fight-or-flight instinct. "Long time, no see."

Sammo was the mission's lone draconian, and with his new dimensions, horned head brushing the tops of the seventy-foot doorway, he was also perhaps the largest single life form on Planet. He wore a simple pair of stretchy grey shorts and a white t-shirt, from the Heavy one-size-fits-all stores, his thick but supple tail swishing behind him. Subtle changes to his musculature were evident to account for his new mechanical properties, and his bones were more titanium alloy than calcium now, but otherwise he looked remarkably similar, far more in the prime of his youth.

Just bigger.

"Hey, Sammo!" the crowd called up to him, shouting to be heard.

Koko and Polly walked out next, Sammo moving over to the solar-collector walls of the colony and squatting on his haunches. Koko was a barrel-chested black-and-grey bulldog, as well as the mission's anthropologist and sociologist; Polly the lioness was the official Heavy structural engineer. Whereas Sammo had not visibly made many changes to his body's adornments, Koko and Polly had definitely made a few areas somewhat larger.

"Hi," Koko said bashfully with his customary thick accent, and Polly just waved. They were dressed similarly to Sammo. "Wow, you guys are looking different!"

"Us, nothing! Look at you!" Vasquez cried, standing on Kelly's shoulders.

"Us? What mean you?"

Koko looked down at his body, and Polly just kept waving. The pair had been among the more elderly members of the mission, Koko in particular requiring a cane to move around the Seed of Life prior to launch. Now, he looked as though he were preparing for a body-building competition, while Polly's lean feline figure was even putting Ebony's above-the-waist curves to shame.

"This is what I used to totally looking like."

Polly poked at her shirt. "I dunno, I recall my shirts fitting better..."

That seemed to break the ice somewhat, the pair of Heavies laughing a little easier now. They went and sat by Sammo, some of the more normal-sized colonists drifting over to talk without shouting.

Next out of the hangar was Grimes, the mission's chief virologist and molecular biologist. In one hand he had one of the special Heavy-sized tablets and was scanning through the list of documents that had been tagged for him, as well as communications from Earth that had arrived while everyone slept carrying technological updates and breakthroughs.

"Hi, guys," he said softly. All things considered, he had changed the least out of the Heavies. He was a tall, well-built but not especially large male deer, his horns mere nubs fresh out of the sleep pod, but beyond the height he looked nearly the same. He didn't even look substantially younger than before, a bit of grey flecking his temples. "I've been alive for twenty minutes, and you've already given me two months of work."

"Blame Hudson!"

Grimes grinned. "That you, Speedy?"

"Yeah!"

"Hmm. Your tank must have malfunctioned; you still sound like an idiot."

Chuck followed him out to a chorus of laughter and applause, while Speedy just sulked by the punchbowl. The ground shook noticeably with each of the rhino's footfalls, and while Sammo might be the tallest, Chuck looked to be double every other dimension. Chief terraformer, climatologist, geologist and geophysicist, he was the nominal leader of the Heavy regiment, and was fourth in rank behind Hudson, Mariposa and the Colonel.

"Yo," he grunted. The shorts were leaving very little to the imagination, and the shirt had already ripped. "Uhm... I need some new clothes."

"It's Naked Tuesday tomorrow," Kelly called. "How about the day after?"

Chuck peered down at the colonists and smiled. "That you, hossy? Wow! Making me wish I'd stayed small!"

"Oh, I bet you say that to all the life forms," shi blushed prettily.

Chuck moved off to the side, reaching out for one of the cupcakes but being slapped away by a watchful Polly. From within the hangar there was a faint commotion, and some motion behind the now-empty Heavy pods, but no-one else walked out.

Hudson frowned and peered inside. "Mariposa! Is Nicole all right?"

A pause, some hushed conversation, more rustling, and then a sad sigh. Koko and Chuck exchanged glances, but in spite of the doleful sounds from within, the two males seemed to be smiling.

"Shi's ok, just... give us a minute!"

The colonists frowned, moving closer, prepared to go in and reassure the Aussie expatriate that they would pull together and survive, but Sammo waved them back with a wink. "It's not... exactly what you think," he said under his breath.

"Ok, we're coming out!" Mariposa called from the hangar.

The bulky, rounded shape of Heavy Nicole hove into view, and everyone smiled with relief. The pear-shaped, golden brown wombat seemed in perfect physical condition as shi approached, and there was a small smile on hir face. Shi was built very sturdily, and hir new raw size made hir position as software engineer seem a little incongruous, but shi had helped design the holographic keyboard interfaces that the Heavies would be using.

As shi drew even with the hangar doors, though, the reason for hir reluctance became apparent.

There was a faint 'thud' as Speedy fainted.

"'Allo," shi smiled, waggling hir fingers and tugging at hir shirt. "Nice to see y'all again."

To fill the void of silence, Mariposa cleared her throat and spoke. "There was a... slight inconsistency with the program, and in addition to the Heavy protocols, Miss Nicole also received a slightly diluted form of the Breeder protocol."

Gosh whistled. Sascha and Renfrew elbowed eachother. Kelly and Vasquez held eachother's hands, squeezing tightly. Ebony just chewed hir lip and shrugged, happy to have at least been on top, size wise, for a LITTLE while.

Nicole's stretchy shorts were bordering on comically useless, given hir dimensions. Shi was amply busty, hir wide hips accentuating hir bottom-heavy figure, but whereas before shi had been a herm of merely above-average endowment, shi was now even proportionally more hung than anyone else present. Taking into account hir new status as a Heavy, those shapes became downright mind-boggling.

"I didn't think they was going to turn out quite like this," shi said, one huge hand coming to rest protectively on hir immense sac as though trying to hide it, and failing miserably. "Don't worry, though! I'm not going to, you know... do anything."

"Awww," Guido said, immediately looking around as though wondering who had spoken.

Slowly the attention turned to the other Heavies, four males and one female. Various combinations and permutations flittered through everyone's minds, and the general feeling of shock was replaced by amusement.

Gosh nudged Lister. "So... wanna bet?"

Lister pondered. "Koko and Polly seem to have a thing... which does Boomerang prefer? Guys or gals?"

"I don't remember. Two to one, though. If that's Breeder protocol..." The bobcat's eyes widened. "Oh, man, I just had a thought!"

"What? Tell me!"

"Shh, shh, shh, later. But... uhm, put my money on Sammo."

"What? Why? What do you know?"

"Nothing! Just... I'll tell everyone after the bets."

The six Heavies sat in a rough arc near the edge of the colony, and the enormous cupcakes were handed out by Hudson and Ebony. A century asleep in a nominal lack of gravity had been countered by the genetic reprocessing, but there was still quite a lot about their bodies to get used to, and for the time being just standing was proving to be more than a little disorienting.

After another whispered conversation, Mariposa left Nicole's side and briefly conferred with Sascha and Renfrew. A few minutes later they returned with two bolts of the solar-wall fabric, carefully joined it at the seams with a small electric current and provided the Heavy wombat with a blanket to cover hir lap.

"Thanks," shi said quietly, smoothing it across hir hab-module-sized orbs. "Just until I get me some proper duds!"

"No problem, Boomerang!" Sascha called, patting the wombat's toes.

Shi blushed, nibbling demurely on hir cupcake, savoring hir first real meal in a century. "Y'all are still gonna call me that, eh?"

"You said it was ok before we went into deep sleep, but we'll stop. Well, I will. You can step on anyone else who doesn't."

Boomerang laughed, and nearly everyone present enjoyed the sight of the normally-boisterous computer nerd's immense new bosom jiggling, as well as the sound of hir trademark mid-giggle snort. "No, that's ok. Maybe the new-and-improved me likes being called Boomerang!"

Sammo leaned over. "Do I get a nickname yet?"

"GOJIRA!"

"Shut up, Speedy."

Mariposa wandered over to the Colonel's monitor. "Guido said you wanted to speak with me, sir?" she asked a little nervously, fully expecting to be blamed for everything that had happened, and many things that hadn't.

"Da. Am having two issues."

"It will all be in my official report tomorrow morning, sir-"

Despite the thousands of miles between them, it only took a glance for the senior officer to cut her off. "If I was wanting to wait for report, would not have told silly horse I wanted to talk to you."

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir."

"Good. First, had you suspicions that Heavy Nicole's program had been tampered with?"

"No, sir!" she said, aghast. "There were some minor discrepancies between the predicted rhythms and expected results, but with the Heavies they were still within acceptable boundaries! I'm going to be going over the program in the morning."

"Mmm. You will find nothing."

"I... don't think that's fair to say just yet, sir."

"And I do. Program had serious defects resulting in twin genetic protocols. Only occurred on sleep pod of mission programmer." Colonel Stacey sipped something from a red plastic cup and smiled. "You never worked at inner city hospital, did you?"

"N-no, sir..."

"issue will be investigated. For now, please to be devising Heavy-grade fertility inhibitors. Am not needing a Breeder loose that can create a dozen Heavies without trying. Second concern: Gunner Spietoh has synthesized alcohol, has he not?" This was delivered with the same bland, level tone of voice that the Colonel always used; he might have been commenting on the weather.

"I... can't say, sir," she said wretchedly, having both picked up on the surreptitious activities and also the explanation that was chemically not quite alcohol.

"Can't or won't?"

"It's not alcohol, sir, I can say that... it is an additive with depressive qualities, but I can assure you that it is absolutely harmless to our new physiologies."

"Mmm. Letter of the law, yes?"

Medico Mariposa wrung all four hands, glancing around to make sure people couldn't hear her. "I don't think it's a bad thing, sir. The colonists... the people need to unwind."

"You are not colonist person?" he asked, taking another sip.

"I... what, sir?"

"Have not seen you drink anything all night, Medico. Have seen two drinks passed to you, and you have passed both off. Surely you are thirsty?"

"I... no?"

"Then surely you are not in needing of unwinding. Am not feeling stresses of mission? I am relieved!"

The roo cocked her head. "What are you saying, sir?"

Colonel Stacey sighed. "Suppose too much to be hoped for after one day on Planet, Medico. Please to be considering the following as much of order as am allowed to give."

"Yes, sir."

"Drink gods-damned punch."

Not for the first time that night, her jaw dropped.

"Good, order is understood. Please aim my screen at Heavies, am wanting to observe."

It wasn't long before people were climbing up on the Heavies, carrying on conversations from shoulder-perches, or in Guido's much-envied case from Polly's cleavage. Nicole allowed people to rest on hir cross-legged knees, but politely shooed away anyone who tried to get closer to hir lap-filling hermness.

A large vat of punch was trundled out, enough for each of the Heavies to have a cup or two, but it soon became clear that their beverages lacked something. Speedy's contribution to the party was loosening tongues very effectively, and in a few notable cases loosened some clothing as well. Chuck stared in bemusement at Sascha and Gosh making out on his thigh, while Grimes, laying on his stomach and grinning, watched Ebony slow-dancing with a wild-eyed Renfrew. The panda's head was nestled squarely against hir bosom, and although he was trying to keep his hands chastely on hir back the very forward bear kept pushing them down to hir rump.

For various reasons there was not much bedding supplied for the Heavies. Blankets were pointless, as they produced enormous quantities of heat and were quite well insulated, new portions of their enhanced glandular system dedicated to controlling thermal buildups, and mattresses for creatures of their mass would have been prohibitively large. For the time being, they were permitted to sleep wherever they wanted, much like the proverbial six hundred pound gorilla.

Many times, in various ways, the events since the initial landing on Planet were recounted to the newly-awoken Heavies. The first colony, the alien artifact, the Blast, the Crater... a trip had been planned the next day to show the Heavies the newly-formed lake that marked the grave of more than half of the Seed of Life crew.

There was sadness, there were sniffles and tears, there were hugs and condolences and reassurances, but not one person who had undertaken the mission had not expected there to be difficulties and, yes, even deaths. To a one, they agreed to do their bests to make the mission a success, to never give up, and after some prompting from Speedy, to never surrender.

"I don't get it," Mariposa said, sipping from her second mandatory spiked punch. She didn't know what she was afraid of, she couldn't feel any effects whatsoever, and assumed that the slight tingling in her fingertips was the result of the ice.

"Before your time," Sammo reassured her.

"Gah! Seriously, I'm going to look up all these things someday, and if you're making fun of me I'm going to kick some asses."

Pair by pair, the colonists drifted back to their hab modules. A very worried-looking Renfrew was being carried by Ebony, singing tunelessly to hirself. Speedy was being carried by the smaller Vasquez, Kelly and Guido were arm-in-arm and bickering over who was larger, and Hudson walked off hand-in-hand with a giggling Lister. Sascha and Gosh had snuck off to the shuttle hangar with the last of the spiked punch, leaving Mariposa sitting on Nicole's knee, kicking her long legs and sighing.

"Don't worry, Doc," the Heavy whispered to her, nudging her with one huge finger. "Babe like you won't be sleeping alone for long."

"That's not it. Actually, Sascha and Gosh invited me to go with them..."

"Oh!" the wombat giggled, eyes wide. "And you said no?"

"... but... I mean, two of them... three of us... I..."

The other Heavies shifted position, sprawling out wherever they could find room. Polly was snuggled up in between Grimes and Koko, Chuck had moved over the open space next to the hanger, while Sammo was leaning against the burly Boomerang, yawning hugely. "What's wrong with three?" he asked sleepily.

"It's... I... they just..."

"They don't do that where you come from?"

"No! I mean, yes! They don't!" In med school, she had been aware of any number of odd sexual groupings, and she had indeed received her share of invitations, but they had all been from lesser students, those who had to try their hardest just to get an A-minus. It had all seemed so... frivolous.

But they did look like they were enjoying themselves...

Boomerang and Sammo made a show of looking around. "I think your secret will be safe with us, Doc," he grinned.

"Oh, just go to sleep." She hopped down from the wombat's knee, wobbled unsteadily and managed to stay upright. "I'll be back in the morning, we've got a lot of work to do tomorrow. You all need hab modules and fab units, and we'll go see the.... the Crater. The Lake. Whatever."

"Go to bed, Doc," Sammo sighed drowsily, wrapping his arms around Boomerang's waist. The Heavy herm squeaked in surprise, but did not struggle too much. "Get some rest. You done good."

"You all, too," Mariposa yawned, staggering off towards her hab module and dearly hoping that the others were as soundproof as she had been led to believe. "No... no naughtiness until I can run a full proper scans, remember."

The pile of Polly, Koko and Grimes snored softly, and Boomerang just smiled. "Don't worry, I don't think we're gonna get up to anything yet."

The roo said her goodbyes one more time and wandered into the darkness. Nicole and Sammo slumped sideways, and despite his best efforts shi managed to keep his hands away from her lap. One by one the lanterns blinked out, until the only illumination was by the panoply of stars above, the Milky Way looking nearly identical to the one they remembered.

With a soft clucking of his tongue, Colonel Stacey's visage on the screen smiled, and then went dark.

---

The storage hangar was dark and still. The six Heavy pods had finished venting and equalizing and were now powered down for the first time in more than a hundred years. Mounds of crates were stacked neatly, awaiting the unpacking and assembling frenzy of the next few days now that the Heavies were awake.

Near the front of the hangar but pushed off to the side, the eight Breeder pods beeped sedately, eight mounds rising and falling with slow, regular breaths.

Invisible to the naked eye, and indeed invisible to the sensitive instrumentation that protected the occupants, the intruder stole between the sleep pods, probing, exploring, investigating. Information was processed in vast quantities, but time was short. A decision was reached almost instantly.

A chorus of tiny beeps pierced the silence, and green lights switched to red on all eight pods.

Life must be allowed to survive and prosper...