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Seeds Of Life

Part 3

There's Something Out There

by Dissident Love

All Rights Reserved

Ongoing Science-Fiction

Space Weirdness

Cast of Characters

THE CAST AND CREW

Colonel Stacey - Wolf, Commander.

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.

Medico Mariposa - Four-armed grey kangaroo, female, surgeon, neuroscientist.

Heavy Nicole ("Boomerang") - Australian wombat herm, software engineer and accidentally cross-programmed with the Breeder protocols. Heavy Chuck - Male rhino, and chief terraformer of the mission Heavy Sammo - Male wingless anthro-dragon, also artist, linguist and poet-laureate Heavy Grimes - Male deer, virologist and molecular biologist Heavy Koko - Male bulldog, anthropologist and sociologist Heavy Polly - Female lioness, structural engineer

Breeder Tina - Skunkette hermtaur, theoretical xenobiologist. Breeder Claudette - Labrador hermtaur. Geophysicist and vulcanologist. Breeder Coenne - Minkette anthro-herm. Astrophysicist. Breeder Rocky - Herm anthro-doe. Psychologist. Breeder Vail - Female equitaur, lifelong educational specialist.

Breeder Mischa - Female anthro vixen. Geneticist.

It was night on this side of Planet. The rising moon cast a pure, faintly lavender light over the strangely off-color landscape. In accordance with biological principles that had yet to be fully deciphered, the lizard-like creatures and the insect-like creatures took turns filling the air with trilling, stuttering music. High overhead, the Seed of Life was visible as an unusually bright star, hurtling swiftly towards the horizon.

The colony slept. It had been a very long and eventful night, and would no doubt be a very busy day afterwards. The Heavies had awoken, and very soon their food requirements would become the single largest industry on Planet, matched only by the civil engineering for which they would be put to use. The colossal mound of genetically-modified flesh filled the space behind the two hangars, rising and falling as the pile of supersized colonists snored.

The more normal-sized civilians had retired to their hab modules within the flimsy city walls, more often than not in groups of twos and threes. Eventually the thin-framed living modules stopped rocking back and forth, and the land was still and serene.

At least, until the small door at the front of the storage hangar beeped once, and opened from within.

"It's night time!"

"Holy flarking schnitt, we're on the planet!"

"Don't move!"

"Don't breathe!"

"Why not?"

"We don't know if it's safe to breathe!"

"There's empty beer cans on the ground, you moron, I think it's safe."

"They had a party? Without us?"

"Look, you all just... stay here, and try not to do anything stupid."

"Hey, my IQ is over one hundred and ninety!"

"Yeah, yeah, you keep telling us. I'll be right back, ok? Someone try to find the light switch."

"Hey, why are you going?"

"Because I called shotgun!"

"Awww..."

A huge, shaggy, slightly moist four-legged figure squeezed awkwardly through the door, followed by a tail nearly again as large. Glossy black and damp fur absorbed the moonlight, save for a few telltale white stripes. A slender, delicate muzzle lifted to the stars and the taur inhaled luxuriously. "Oh, wow, it's... that's incredible," said a disarmingly high-pitched female voice.

"What is it?" came a voice from the door. "I want to smell things!"

"Me too!"

"This isn't fair!"

"That's it, I'm going out there."

"Me, too."

"Me first!"

"Hey, you're on my paw!"

"OW! That's my tail!"

"Stop shoving!"

One by one, more figures stepped out into the warm night air, though none quite so large as the first explorer. They sniffed and stretched and sighed, enjoying their first moments on a new world.

"Ok," said the enormous taur, tail swaying back and forth with authority. "This looks like the solar fabric, so we're outside the colony. The entrance is probably... over... this way, I think... Everyone stay close, ok?"

"Why? Do you think they'd wake us up and just let us wander around a hostile alien world?"

"When you put it like that? Yes, that's exactly what seems to have happened. I just wanna do this by the book."

"Where was this part of the book? I think I was missing this chapter."

"Oh, shut up."

The six slightly confused shapes, recovering from more than a century of sleep, wandered unsteadily towards the colony gate, which was little more than a gap in the solar-energy-absorbing fabric of the colony walls. There were a handful of larger buildings, which they readily identified as the primary Research And Management constructs, at the centre of the circular space. Two dozen smaller structures best described as cottages formed two neat rows to their right, many of them with picket fences and plastic ornaments out front.

"Oh, those are ADORABLE! Which one is mine?"

"There's no name tags on those ones over there, so that's probably us."

"Who's name is on the first one here?"

"Uhm... Ebony! Yay, I want to compare with hir NOW!"

"Why is there only this many hab modules? Shouldn't there be forty or fifty?"

"Maybe there's two colonies? There was conditional circumstances for that."

"Whatever. I'm knocking."

---

Gunner Ebony, Master Chief and Senior Linguist of the colony, twitched and rumbled in hir sleep. Shi was still waiting on hir new appropriately-sized bed, which was far down the list on the prefab production schedule due to not being 'mission-critical', so hir entire room was simply lined with rectangles of foam. Shi wrapped hir arms around the vast bulk of Crewmate Renfrew, nuzzling the nape of his neck and listening to hir well-filled lover slosh gently back and forth.

The knocking came again and shi sighed, working hir arm out from beneath the panda and flexing hir fingers to get some feeling back in them. "Don't go anywhere," shi said softly, giving him a quick smooch on his rump before getting unsteadily to hir feet. "It's probably Mariposa with... with... I dunno. Some protocol bullshit."

"St'p say'ng prt'r'col," Renfrew hiccuped.

Ebony giggled, admiring hir handiwork. Wow, these bodies are going to be so much fun, shi thought giddily, running hir hands over hir own outlandish curves. Renfrew, you better get used to this room, you're gonna be seeing a lot of it!

The door rattled loudly again, and the statuesque black bear rolled hir eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you, hold on. Jeez. I'm trying to get some SLEEP here!" Shi pulled open the door, fully expecting to see the slender, four-armed 'roo holding a clipboard. No part of hir whatsoever was expecting to be eye-level with a pair of black breasts that made the outrageously buxom bear seem flat by comparison.

The figure at the door knelt, bringing the pretty if slightly glassy-eyed skunktaur's face into view. "Uhm... hi," Breeder Tina said, wiggling hir fingers bashfully. "Uhm... so... we're awake now?"

Ebony was too shocked to react immediately. Shi leaned sideways, peering around the skunktaur's vast bulk, and sure enough there were five other figures standing on the well-worn path, all unusually-proportioned and all thoroughly naked.

"Huh," the black bear said. Hir left eye twitched. "Yes. Yes, you are."

"Should we tell someone?" Tina asked politely, wringing hir hands worriedly. "There was no-one there when our pods opened."

"Yeah. Yeah, you should. Uhm. Mariposa's cabin is down at the end."

"Oh! Is she in charge right now?"

"Ye-e-es," Ebony said slowly. "She is. You go knock on her door, I'll be... I'll be along shortly."

Tina started to ask something, but Ebony closed the door before shi could get a word in edgewise. The powerfully-built Gunner walked back to hir bedroom, knelt by Renfrew's side and shook his shoulder, or at least where shi thought his shoulder would have been. "Ren," shi said gently. "You awake?"

"Mmmffrrrrr," the bloated panda said, legs kicking feebly. "Not again... too full..."

"The Breeders are awake."

"Mmmmm, is that a euphemism?"

"The Breeders are awake," Ebony hissed, the astonishment finally registering properly. "They're outside! Right now! They're awake!!"

Renfrew tried to roll over, but in his current condition it was all the over-inflated entomologist could do to turn his head. "What? You... they can't... they're in their pods... they're not... WHAT?!"

From outside the ostensibly soundproof hab module, a scream of alarm pierced the night.

"Oh, good," Ebony said. "They found Mariposa's cottage."

---

The sun was creeping above the mountains to the east, but the whole population of Planet had been awake for hours.

The Heavies were still sitting outside the colony walls for safety reasons, watching the events unfold. The Gunners and Crewmates had surrounded the Breeders, exchanging hug after hug, and after a confused but joyous reunion with their team-mates they recounted the tragic events of the initial planetary landings: the Artifact, the Blast, the Crater. There was the expected shock and horror, and a commiserating group hug that lasted several minutes.

Eventually, though, the reality of the situation and the pressing need for answers brought everyone back to the present. Vasquez was dispatched to inspect the Breeder pods for damage or contamination, communicating with software specialist Boomerang via headset. When the food requirements were revised to account for the Breeders, Kelly and Guido were put in charge of the remaining Heavies and work began on the most pressing new facilities, namely the algae-processing tanks and the water purification systems. Gosh recruited Sascha and Speedy to help hir prepare breakfast for the recently-awakened colonists, and when people started to ask where Renfrew was, Ebony just blushed, giggled, and scampered back to hir cottage.

At the forefront of everyone's minds, though, were the Breeders themselves. After more than a hundred years in neural-D and deep sleep, the colonists were all but unrecognizable versions of their original selves: younger, taller, faster, stronger, and in nearly every case they epitomized their own personal physical ideals. Bodies that would have required staggering amounts of plastic surgery back on Earth had become the new 'normal' for the colony, with Ebony and Kelly the acknowledged queens of size.

The least impressive Breeder put them easily to shame.

With some great difficulty Medico Mariposa managed to wrangle the Breeders away from the mob and into the Life Sciences building, half of which was dedicated to the colonists' medical care. She had been operating in a state of high-octane panic ever since Tina knocked on her door, and there was no relief in sight from that. She knew she had to alert Colonel Stacey as soon as possible, but she knew the stern commandant would want more information than she had available.

The young kangaroo doctor stood by her terminal, two hands clutching a clipboard to her modest bosom, two other hands typing frantically. "Ok. Ok... ok," she said, mostly to herself, fingers a blur. "We're going to get this figured out. Right? Right. Ok. So... which of you was the first to wake up?"

The Breeders, sprawled around the room and taking advantage of the furniture as best they could, exchanged glances. "Uh... me, I think," said Coenne, the mission astrophysicist. The sleek, silvery mink-herm was leaning against an examination table, hands resting comfortably on a sheath that was bigger around than hir thigh. It was made all the more prominent by the fact that the sheath itself was resting atop six vast balls, stretching out a velvety white sac that obscured everything between hir hips and ankles. "I fell out of the sleep pod, and then I heard a beep, and the beep was-"

"My pod," Vail said, raising her arm helpfully. The tawny equitaur had very quickly been voted the now-and-forever Cleavage Champion of the World by Speedy, her improbably-full breasts counterbalanced by an incredibly plump rear end and wide hips designed for birthing. She scuffed a hoof on the floor, trying to keep her other hand from caressing herself. "I tried to help Coenne up, but I just ended up knocking hir over again, because... well, you know," she smirked, gesturing to her breasts.

"Yes," Mariposa said dryly, trying to keep a straight face. "And then?"

"Me!" Claudette said happily, bouncing up and down. Starting out the mission as Claude, shi was the only member of the crew that had elected to change genders, and clearly had put a lot of effort into hir new form. The Labrador-hound herm-taur was perhaps the most realistically- proportioned out of the Breeders, except for hir eight enormous chocolate-colored testicles, considerably larger than even Coenne's, which were doing their best to force hir hind legs apart. "After me was-"

"That would be me," said Mischa, the tall and curvaceous vixen. Her exaggerated hourglass figure was plainly cartoonish, but she carried herself with such grace that it was hard to imagine her looking any other way. "The only one here who can still go jogging, I would like to point out," she tittered, covering her muzzle with one delicate paw.

"Then me," said Roquette, known to everyone on the mission as Rocky. The doe was the tallest non-Heavy in the colony now, and although shi only had the normal number of seed-filled orbs, they were each so spectacularly large that the undersides touched the ground if shi slouched whatsoever, with a sheath built to match. Shi was just able to touch hir hands in front of hir breasts, and shi spent an inordinate amount of time hugging hirself. Shi and Vail kept eyeing eachother up, and Mariposa made a mental note to keep emergency sedatives on hand, just in case.

"And... I guess that leaves me," said Tina, the monumental skunktaur. Hir barrel took up an entire examination bay, hir tail taking up the one neighboring it. Hir ears brushed the ten-foot ceiling, and were it not for Vail shi would be the most buxom grrl present. Many curious glances were aimed hir way, specifically at the just plain disturbingly large outline of hir sheath and the equally-remarkable lack of testes. "Does any of that help at all?"

"I don't know," Mariposa said, still typing. "None of you remember anything... odd happening before you woke up? The Crew were all groggy for hours, but I suppose the Gunners did recover much faster, and your metabolisms are even more accelerated."

"Why, Doc, I didn't know you even noticed," Coenne grinned, fingertips tickling hir hips.

Ok, arousal tenacity is definitely present, Mariposa thought, half a dozen biochemical analysis programs already running in the background, coming up with hormonal counter-agents. All six of the Breeders were prone to prolonged physical contact, and it was evident that their reproductive programming was influencing their behavior. "That's my job, Coenne, but please stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Touching yourself."

"Can I touch hir there?" Rocky asked hopefully.

"No," the doctor said coldly. "I... don't make me explain all this again, all right? The colony cannot sustain you as it is right now, and we would be absolutely unable to sustain if any of you got pregnant. There is going to be NO unauthorized sexual conduct until we can get the algae production up to speed."

"It's not sex, it's just cuddling," Tina pouted.

"Cuddling leads to... other stuff," Mariposa grumbled. "I will have some countermeasures available shortly, but in the meantime we need to get you isolated from the general population."

A chorus of disappointed awwwws filled the medical bay. Claudette tried to sit down, but hir hindquarters were fully supported by hir tremendous orbs so shi only succeeded in tipping hirself over onto hir breasts. Coenne eyed that elevated rump with an appraising eye, hir sheath swelling noticeably.

"No... other stuff!" Mariposa snapped. "This is serious!"

The minkette sighed. "We KNOW, Mariposa, we KNOW. We're just... it's been kind of a weird century for us! We go to bed, we wake up, BAM, we've got these INCREDIBLE bodies and enough hormones to kill a herd of dinosaurs, and you're berating us like children!"

"I don't mean to, it's just... Tina, put that down!"

The towering skunktaur smiled innocently and put Mischa down. "Sorry! I was just looking!"

The 'roo scowled. "Ok. We can figure this out. I'm going to administer some mild suppressants, and then I'm going to run a quick scan on all of you. Then you will be shown to your cottages, and then it will probably be time for breakfast. Are there any questions?"

A masculine voice from just over her shoulder drained all the color from beneath her fur. "Am having two immediate questions," came the Slavic inflection of Colonel Stacey, who always seemed to be able to tap into the colony security cameras from orbit. "One, when will Breeders be getting clothes? And two... is there any among you that have ever heard the words 'self-restraint' before?"

---

A more proper, and clothed, reunion occurred later at the dining hall, which had been unofficially dubbed The Big Messy. After Mariposa's quick run-through of all the Breeders in the full-body bioscanner, a freshly-cleaned-out Renfrew led them each back to their cabins one by one. The supplied clothing was obviously not tailored to them yet, so all they had on hand were the standard and supremely-stretchy overalls, which did very little to actually keep anything hidden from the imagination.

Coenne and Rocky were forced to eat while seated considerable distance from the long metallic tables, as their prominent sacs were too large to actually fit beneath them. Plans were hastily drawn up for larger and more modular furniture to accommodate them, as well as the tremendous taurs who needed a great deal of space in which to navigate. Vail's chief concern was her complete inability to see the tables, or the food serveries, at all over the vast landscape of her bosom.

Naturally, there were many volunteers to help her out.

Speedy was all but vibrating in his seat, having to focus just to get his reconstituted eggs to his mouth. "Look at them. Look at them," he was repeating over and over, much to Guido's consternation. "I mean... holy shit, look at them!"

"I'm looking, Speedy. We're ALL looking," the horse said tiredly. "It's kinda hard not to."

"Don't say 'hard'. I don't think I can take it."

"If you get too close to one of them, you'll be taking a lot more than that... and don't forget our bet."

"Bet's off!" Speedy said hastily. "No no no! No-one's betting! Betting is immoral! Bet's off!"

"What?" Ebony grinned, elbowing him in the side as shi sat down with hir own tray. "Backing out already, little guy? Come on, Coenne's been looking at you all morning."

"NO!" Speedy said, his puffball tail humming in terror. "No Coenne! No! I... I just... I mean, they're gorgeous, but... I'm going to go eat in my bunk."

"But what about-"

"IN MY BUNK!" he snapped, leaping to his feet and dashing out one of the side doors, careful to keep well clear of Tina's prodigious hindquarters and colossal fluffy tail. A ripple of laughter filled the dining room, particularly from the Breeders, whose senses were just as acute as anyone's and whom had heard every word.

Mariposa, sitting by Mischa's side, sighed. "So what do you think?" she bluntly asked the gifted geneticist. "Are we boned?"

The towering vixen paused shoveling food into her mouth to utter a short negative.

"Well, of course you'd think that, you're in the same boat as they are. But we've got requirements! We're a fully-functioning, if tiny, civilization. We have food and water and power requirements you wouldn't believe, just the way we are now. We're running everything off of solar, the desalinization plant won't be calibrated to Planet chemistry for weeks, and the algae tanks... we've got reconstituted supplies on the Seed Of Life, but that will only take us so far!"

Mischa grunted again, licked her empty plate, and seemed to notice Mariposa for the first time. "You worry too much," she said. "I'm working on some RNA patch models right now that should, hopefully, suppress the more aggressive Breeder tendencies, and I can have live testing ready in three days, tops. The Heavies will have the algae tanks up ahead of schedule, and Grimes is already working with Gosh to figure out how to take advantage of the local nutrient supply. Right, big guy?"

One entire wall of the mess had been filled with portal monitors, showing the Heavies eating outside the colony. On one monitor, the eighty-foot-tall anthro deer nodded, taking a bite out of an enormous pressed-food pellet. "Yeah," he boomed, his voice coming through the speakers, and a few seconds later through the walls of the building itself. "The biggest problem is these damn long-chain azines, but I want to try something with super-high-pressure oxidization-"

"See? Smart boy," Mischa grinned, leaning over and giving the Medico a side-hug that almost completely enveloped the roo's face in abundant breastflesh, only a thin layer of spandex-like material separating them. "We're going to be fine, boss lady, so you just eat your eggs and relax."

"Hundred year old eggs," Mariposa mumbled, trying to focus her eyes anywhere except on Mischa. "De-licious."

"Oh, you're just a big old stick-in-the-mud. Gosh did _amazing_things with these eggs, and you know it. Who can make an omlette from century-old leftovers?"

"GOSH!" came the chorused reply from several hungry throats.

"DAMN STRAIGHT!" came Gosh's reply from the kitchen.

There were queues forming to sit with the Breeders, though as per Mariposa's orders they were keeping a respectful distance. Within the very small population of the colony, novelty and amusement had to be found wherever possible, and outside of pranks and sexual recreation there was a distinct need for new faces, new opinions. The new bodies weren't an unwelcome bonus.

Tina occupied an entire corner, keeping hir vast tail tucked away safely behind hir where it wouldn't knock over any furniture or people, surrounded by a rotating menagerie of friendly faces. The skunkette was one of the leading theoretical xenobiologists back on Earth, a shoe-in candidate for the mission position, and there was a great deal of interest in hir opinions on Planetlife, particularly how it related to the artifact that caused the Blast. The consummate nerd despite hir non-obvious pre-sleep age of seventy-one, shi held a portable workstation in one hand, a plate of eggs in the other and seamlessly carried on three separate conversations.

Claudette was sequestered near the wall of monitors, conversing with the Heavies with whom shi shared professional interest, absorbing information about plate tectonics, land mass formations and densities and erosive weather patterns. Lister sat with hir, happy to have someone to bounce ideas off of, and acting as a heavy-bottomed shield to protect the taur's nethers from prying eyes.

The others largely formed groups based on academic interest, but Rocky was making notes on who wandered where: keeping tabs on movements, frequencies, words exchanged, and length of meaningful glances between Crew, Gunners and Breeders. With no more Chief mission sociologist, a great deal of responsibility fell to hir shoulders, and right now that involved trying to figure out who was interested in whom, and how best to balance the group dynamics.

Vasquez and Hudson sat together, as they often did these days. There were rumors abounding as to the specifics of their relationship, which they enjoyed adding onto. Coenne sat to Vasquez's left, Vail to Hudson's right, but their heads were huddled close together, whispering as softly as they could manage.

"You know," Coenne said, resting hir tray on the broad horizontal swell of hir sheath, "if I didn't know better, I'd say they were talking about us."

The equitaur grinned, a plate of food balanced on the equally accessible upper curvature of each breast. "Should we be worried?"

"I don't know. They seem awfully chummy. What do you think? Three way?"

"Him, her, and your cock?" Vail asked innocently. "I guess you could watch, if you didn't get in the way."

Coenne frowned. "Haa haa. Look, I was shooting for the moon, I really didn't expect to be this... uhm..."

"Lumpy?"

"Bitch," Coenne glared, but there was mirth in hir eyes. Balancing on one foot, hir free paw roamed over the six pumpkin-sized bulges of hir sac. "I was going for six, but... oh, fucks, who am I kidding, I was totally going for this big."

"Then you claim victory!" Vail laughed, hugging her arms around her breasts and hardly even managing to make it halfway. "In that case, I guess it's not fair of me to say I also wasn't going for a couple extra cups runningeth over. I mean, that's the whole point of being a Breeder, right? There's going to be babies... so-o-o many babies...."

"You've got that weird look in your eye," the minkette grinned knowingly. "How long did you teach early childhood education?"

"Fifty-one years," Vail said primly. "Them little pups need all the help they can get!"

"And you'll make sure they won't starve, that's for sure." Coenne picked up a little foil pouch of juice and launched it at the equitaur's impossible chest, causing them to jiggle and slosh heavily. "Maybe you can be the dairy?"

"Haa haa," Vail said, but her gaze was elsewhere. "Hey, they just said your name."

"Which one? Vasquez?"

The cougar's head popped up. "It's rude to eavesdrop."

"It's rude to talk about people when they're standing right here," Coenne said pointedly.

Hudson mumbled something, turning back to his breakfast. Vasquez covered her stubby muzzle with a paw and elbowed him in the ribs. "Oh, now THAT'S rude," she chided.

"What? What is?"

"Oh," the cougar said airily. "Nothing. Inside joke."

Coenne's eyes narrowed and shi dragged a blunted claw meaningfully across a sheath as big as a scuba tank. "Oh, really..."

---

Outside the Colony, on the huge and gently-rounded knoll that split the nearby river in two, the Heavies were finishing off their compression pellets and preparing the day's roster. It had hastily been determined that the number of algae tanks were to be increased from six to ten, and the fab units were already working over capacity to produce the necessary panels, mechanical connections and processing tanks.

Each Heavy wore an eyepatch-like headgear, keeping them in visual and audio connection with the Seed Of Life, and the colony itself. Since direct communication with someone eight storeys taller than you was difficult at best, Boomerang had quickly patched together a system to allow all of the personal terminals to contact the Heavies at any time, and allowed the Heavies to keep an eye on their much smaller counterparts.

"It's critical," Koko was saying, wishing he were small enough to actually taste any of the delicious Gosh-prepared food. "We are a part of the society, and we need to be able to ACT like members of the society in all ways, and that means intimate personal conversation."

"It's itchy," Boomer drawled, scratching at hir headband. "And I feel like a peeper, looking in someone's window. Though that might be fun, too..."

"No peeping," Grimes said, his own paraphernalia hanging off of his stubby antlers, already starting to re-develop to their original magnificence. "We don't need you getting any ideas."

Six pairs of eyes drifted to Boomerang's wildly overstuffed stretchy shorts, the 'accidental' Breeder cross-programming very evident. Shi insisted that shi was in control of hir urges, but there was still a great deal of trepidation as to how shi would eventually be using hir gifts, with only four male and one female Heavy on the planet.

"You're all just jealous," shi drawled, squeezing hir thighs together and causing the building-sized bulges to bounce.

Polly squeaked, Chuck moved slightly further away, but Grimes and Sammo just grinned knowingly. "I wonder if I can hop back in the pods," the gargantuan deer said, nudging the draconian with his hoof. "Just for a couple years, you know. Make a few last-minute modifications."

"You're beautiful just the way you are," Sammo laughed, scaly tail swishing behind him. "You, too, Boomer. Just... aim that somewhere else for now, OK?"

"Awww. I swear, I was just a little chilly last night, that's why I was sleeping so close to you!"

"You were spooning, Boomer. And you were the big spoon."

"Ahm gonna be the big spoon for a long time, I think," shi giggled. "Ooh, hold on, the Colonel is on the monitor!"

Grimes hastily moved the little plastic lens over his eye, touching the strap to his ear to pick up the audio component. Everyone had been on edge, waiting for the Colonel's reaction to the unexpected arrival of the Breeders, an event that was casting some serious doubts on the sustainability of the Colony. His demeanor had been especially hard to read, the stern commander just as likely to tear a strip off someone's hide as to tell an unexpectedly off-color joke.

All over the Colony, from the still-busy mess hall to the medical building to the physical sciences laboratory, everyone turned at the sound of the three-tone signal. Every monitor minimized its active display and was replaced by the grim, well-groomed and slightly-greying face of the Colonel. Despite being able to quite literally change his appearance to nearly anything imaginable, he had left not only his age-silvered fur but also his numerous scars, particularly a narrow strip of pinkish skin that crossed his nose and wrapped around his muzzle all the way to his neck.

"Good morning, Breeders," he said without preamble. "Have said hello in medical bay, but wanted to make greetings official. I would have hoped your awakening would be more of a cause for joy, but with all due respect, is not."

Many throats swallowed nervously, and Mariposa looked up from Tina's bioscan to scowl at the monitor. Yeah, that's making everyone feel better, she thought bitterly.

"Have read through duty rosters, and approve of new algae tanks as well as conversion of native biomass as nutrients, upon approval of Sascha, Mariposa and Grimes. Am not wanting to turn Planet into dustbowl, start wiping out species left and right, so use restraint. Food issues are not critical yet."

"Which brings to next issue: Breeder protocol. Current plans will allow for acceptable safety margin as long as none become expectant in next fourteen weeks. Chief Medico will be administering birth control and hormone control protocols, and must be known that penalties for unauthorized impregnation will be severe."

The Colonel's expression softened, and he made an attempt to smile. "That said, am not forbidding fornication, merely fornication that may result in new population. You are best and brightest Earth has to offer. Am trusting you to find ways to enjoy yourselves that do not endanger mission."

The speech paused while the cheering died down. The Colonel flipped through the camera views available to him, observing the hugging, smooching and hastily-whispered plan-making. "No hurry," he said drily, instantly bringing the attention back to him. "Thank you. Thirdly, once algae tanks and fab facilities are in place, am insisting on Exploration Protocol for week afterwards. Cannot confine you all to Colony when there is whole world to be seen. Forwarding rosters now. Ocean exploration is inadequate, desert to south has not been paws-on-ground analyzed yet, and rainforest biome promises enormous taxonomic data."

The smiles of relief were genuine now. The running theory had been that the Colonel would forbid exploration until the Colony was properly self-sufficient, but now there was a frantic rush of tapping as two dozen interstellar pioneers checked to see who they were assigned with.

"Yay, I get to check out the archipelago!"

"Yay, I'm paired up with Tina!"

"Hey, Ebony, looks like you're paired up with Renfrew... again."

"And last but not least," the Colonel said loudly, breaking through the chatter, "remainder of food stores will be brought down from Seed Of Life this evening, in order for proper welcoming of Breeders to Planet. Had not intended on having two Unveiling parties back to back, but am not really going to punish anyone for software glitch, hmm?"

Rocky nudged Gosh, the two herms working together to prepare psych profile analysis for the fully-awakened Colony. "Hey, looks like we're going to be spending a lot of time together!"

Gosh glanced over at Rocky's overalls, the fabric-covered mounds so big the bobcat doubted shi could even get hir arms around one kitmaker. "Awesome," shi said with a straight face, trying to keep naked desire out of hir eyes. "If we've got another party tonight, do you think we should get these profiles ready for tomorrow? That's probably going to be a more accurate cross-section, when everyone's not dealing with first-day jitters."

"Makes sense. I don't think anyone's thinking straight today," the Breeder doe agreed, using hir sac as a table surface. "I heard about last night's party! Dancing and music, and someone made booze?"

"It's a synthetic compound that imitates a lot of the temporary effects of alcohol, but our new bodies metabolize it in just a couple hours."

"Let me guess... Speedy?"

"You know it!"

Hudson, the dedicated mission pilot, was performing preventative maintenance on the orbital shuttle and the considerably-smaller Planet skimmers during the Colonel's address. He glanced at the rosters and frowned. "Colonel? Your name is on the roster for glacial exploration."

"Da," he announced to the Colony at large. "Am coming down with the food."

The colony-wide silence stretched out so long that the military wolf tapped the camera lens with one claw and smiled. "Is this thing on?" he asked innocently.

---

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: random instance is not required

two: agreed!

five: Self feels hurt

one: five is required

two: five is

one: issue is settled! of more importance: Life has prospered

three: new Life forms are different

four: new Life forms supremely suited to propagation of new Life

two: new Life forms pose threat to Planet

five: new Life forms are pretty

one: Superior Life is joining Planet

four: Life will be Complete

two: Life is unsustainable, chemical sustenance insufficient

four: Life can consume Planet substance

three: not efficiently

one: they can convert

three: also not efficiently

five: immobile Life is struggling

two: immobile Life will not survive

three: why?

one: Self can improve Life!

three: agreed!

five: agreed!

two: dissent!

five: two is not enjoyable!

two: dissent!

one: Self must contact Superior Life

four: reasoning?

two: dangerous!

three: unique experience!

five: interesting!

four: gain?

one: knowledge

three: the return of Life to Planet

five: Life can make more Life

one: Superior Life has ordered Life not to procreate

two: we should not interfere

four: agreed

three: dissent!

one: also agreed. cannot presume to control Life

five: not control! help!

one: Self helped before. Life ended-

*- linear distinct thought process interrupted -*

one: resume at future time

four: no interference at present time

two: agreed

five: dissent!

three: observations will continue

five: Life must be allowed t-

---

Over the next twelve hours, the area around the Colony became transformed. Roads were created, a network of more than a hundred interconnected miles leading to the foothills, the forests to the north and south, and to the beaches to the west. The vast pits that would eventually hold the algae tanks were dug out, tens of thousands of tons of soil used to create small artificial mountains that would house and protect the automated fabrication plants. The river was redirected, a third watercourse now passing within a dozen yards of the city walls and the first high-torque power plant was swiftly set up.

In behind the storage hangers, six huge domes appeared. The Heavy domiciles were little more than tents, and lacked any food preparation or furniture, but that was only temporary: once the fabrication plants were fully online, new buildings could be manufactured in hours, even for the eighty-foot-tall colonists.

With the hectic scheduling there was no group lunch, and Gosh spent the bulk of hir time prepping simple meals and bringing them to all of the hard-working clusters. Mariposa was gawking at Claudette's bioscan when shi brought them a pile of sandwiches and a gallon of soup, which the huge herm-taur downed in one gulp. Coenne was poring over more than a hundred years of telemetry and gigabytes of data pertaining to the Aeetes system, communicating with Claudette and Heavy Chuck via headset. Most of the Crewmates were working in the storage hangers, sorting and unpacking and assembling the modular components for the algae tanks and the fab plants, while the Heavies took turns scooping them up and delivering them where they needed to be.

During all of this, everyone's personal ID tags sent location and movement information back to the central network, and Rocky slowly started to put together a map of the colonist personalities. The males, particularly Guido and Hudson, made several unnecessary approaches to at least four of the Breeders under the pretenses of asking for help. The Breeders, in turn, were making unsolicited contact with eachother as well as with Vasquez and Ebony, the two Gunners capable of bearing offspring. Tina, strangely enough, was keeping to hirself as much as possible, while Lister made no less than seven approaches to the skunktaur's position.

When the sun passed its zenith, the orbital shuttle took off for perhaps the last time. The Seed Of Life could easily be operated and maintained as a communication satellite and an observatory from the ground, and bringing down the last of the food and raw materials would make future trips pointless.

At the same time, Mariposa's biggest fear was coming true. Truth be told, she had an enormous collection of fears now, and every new Breeder bioscan added to the list, but by far the number one on that list was Colonel Stacey setting foot on Planet. Once the aged soldier was Planetside, he would officially cease to be in charge of the mission and would become just another colonist, with as many governing votes as anyone else... and Mariposa, as the ranking civilian authority, would assume nominal command.

I don't want to be in charge!_she thought, sitting in the corner of the medical bay, surrounded by scrolling, beeping data terminals. Each glossy monitor displayed a different person's internal workings, and the Breeders were a jigsaw puzzle of crazy, unorthodox and downright confusing physiology. _This is ridiculous! I'm the assistant Medico! I was never supposed to be in charge! I just want to work in my lab and not deal with people! That's why they sent me into space, I was the perfect complement to Doctor Minbari! He was always meant to be the boss! Augh!

To the west of the Colony, scarcely a mile from the beach, a new landform started to take shape. Working with very rough sketches, poles driven into the ground by sheer Heavy elbow grease and super-sized hand tools, an amphitheatre slowly formed. In defense to the anticipated population of the colony, tiered and terraced seating was created to handle better than a thousand occupants, even of Tina's size, with a gap opposite the stage large enough for all six Heavies.

And all throughout the day, in the backs of everyone's minds, the hours were meticulously ticked off. The night's festivities were scheduled on the official roster to begin precisely at Sunset +00:00 with the return of the shuttle, the food supplies and the Colonel. The Seed Of Life Protocol Guide, the one concise document that all other instructions and guides referred to, was largely considered to be thrown out the airlock now. Insufficient manpower, incomplete equipment, irrelevant timelines... they were starting fresh, making up their new society as they went along.

The Unveiling that night was the beginning of that fresh start. The colonists and teammates who perished in the Blast would be remembered, and designs for a memorial were already being circulated. The data concerning the previous inhabitants of the Planet would be discussed, theories proposed, and courses of action decided. Elections would be conducted to determine who would be in charge of the various colony functions.

The sun touched the horizon, and the colonists began to drift towards the amphitheatre in ones and twos. Renfrew and Ebony were holding hands. Claudette and Sascha were likewise walking very close together, canine and feline whispering and giggling to one another. Rocky wobbled unsteadily with the assistance of Hudson and Lister, and Coenne leaned against Vasquez for support. Kelly and Vail, horses of nearly identical coloring, kept a respectful distance from one another but their meaningful glances spoke volumes.

Gosh, wearing a pair of overalls that had been quickly modified into a midriff-baring two-piece outfit, stepped out of hir cabin. Hir duties on Planet were decidedly less technical than most of the others, but no less important. Even the astrophysicists and sociologists and geneticists and other-ists would agree that a happy workforce was a well-fed workforce, and shi very quickly found hirself becoming the confidant for a dozen concerned citizens. Shi knew far more secrets than shi would have liked, but everyone seemed happier after talking to hir, so shi didn't mind.

Shi inhaled the fresh, tangy air of Planet and grinned, hearing the faint grinding howl of the orbital shuttle approaching. It was definitely going to be an interesting night, and shi knew that in the morning shi was going to be hearing a LOT of guilty confessions. Shi thought about Guido, tall and strong and rippling with muscle. Actually rippling, shi thought, licking hir lips. I always thought that was just a figure of speech! You're going to have some confessions, too, big boy...

The violet-hued bobcat walked between hir miniature gardens, genetically modified carrots and beets and kale struggling to survive in a hostile alien environment. The kale in particular had been only barely clinging to life, brown leaves spotted with an inexplicable orange, and the carrots were stunted and twisted and even more purple than the beets.

Shi was passing through hir little white gate when shi froze, glancing back at the gardens.

They no longer looked quite so sickly.

"What the hell?" shi breathed, kneeling by a flowering kale that was pressing against the underside of the protective solar shade. That morning it had been barely bigger than hir paw, but now it would have a hard time fitting through hir door intact.

Shi spun and dug at the ground, revealing a carrot the size of hir forearm. A little more digging and shi had half a dozen root vegetables that could keep hir fed for days, on a bed of kale that could be used for bedding.

The shuttle thundered overhead, and hir identification badge beeped. It was time for the Unveiling. Paws shaking, shi scooped up the vegetables, carried them to the greenhouse laboratory and quickly processed samples of each. Shi slotted the sample containers into the breakdown analyzer, queued them up as 'Urgent' and dashed back outside in time to receive a message from a worried-sounded Mariposa.

"Gosh? Are you coming? The shuttle is landing and-"

"YES! I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!" shi gasped, sprinting hard through the city gates. "Don't... don't wait for me, I just had to finish up a report!"

"Well, if you're sure," the roo said. "I hope you appreciate the irony of ME telling YOU to lighten up and try to enjoy yourself, but-"

"NO PROBLEM! GOSH OUT!"

Even with the high gravity, Gosh's new body handled the dead run marvelously. Hir heart was scarcely elevated, hir lungs pumped easily, even as hir mind spun around in circles, flaming and screaming. What happened to the veggies? Those plants weren't dying, they were DEAD! What's going on? Oh, hell, I'm not even SUPPOSED to have that garden! Stacey is going to kill me! Crap crap crap crap crap...

The shuttle landed outside the amphitheatre just as Aeetes flashed one final time and disappeared below the horizon. Gosh arrived to see Hudson and Stacey emerge from the belly hatch. All around the ring of rammed-earth seating, Planet colonists held hands and snuggled. Even Boomerang had an arm around both Sammo and Grimes. Gosh knew that shi had to tell someone; this was too important to keep to hirself.

Shi probably would have, if the grasses at hir feet hadn't shifted, twisted, and changed color in order to very clearly spell one word:

_ STOP _