Deadly Cargo - Nika's Transformation

Story by Jinx Curi on SoFurry

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"...is the HSS Sozdaniye...I

repeat, this is the HSS Sozdaniye...We require urgent assistance..."The plea for help had

triggered the sensor tell-tales of Nika Sharkeh's small vessel as it cruised

through the outer regions of the Damocles system, and immediately relayed by

the scout ship's 'dumb' AI directly to her neural net. The implants immediately woke her from the

dream that her unconscious mind had quite pleasantly been lost in. The cybernetically enhanced shark

anthropoid's eyes flickered open as the dull chiming in her head intensified,

and it replayed the message for the third time. Okay, okay, I hear ya!

I'm awake!The chiming immediately ceased in

response to her irritated thoughts, otherwise unaffected by the flare of

negative emotion directed its way. With

practiced ease, the shark rolled out of her bunk, stood and stretched, rolling

her head to work out the kinks in her neck and shoulders. Her downtime attire, a matching pale blue

spandex sports bra and hot pants set, did little to constrict her movements,

and only complimented her lithely fit form.

Visible muscles stood out on her abs - the product of several years of

military service before she had mustered out, and a continuing and rigorous

exercise routine. This martial discipline also displayed itself

in her cramped stateroom; there was little wasted space, or given to personal

effects. Only the black floral tattoo

that curled around her hip and lower torso over her neon-blue striped black and

white hide, hinted that there might be a softer side to the shark's

personality.Nika hurried through her cabin

door and along the connecting corridor that lead off to the cockpit, the boots

she had donned thudding dully off the floor plating, her swift passage

scattering the miniature servo-droids scanning for cracks in the hull integrity. The cockpit of Nika's nimble vessel was even

more cramped than her quarters, consisting of little more than a curved space

just large enough for a pilot's chair and surrounding control panels. It would also serve as a detachable escape

pod, if dire circumstances called for separation. She slid down into the pseudo-leather seat, polished

cerasteel cybernetic hands already flying across the control services in front

of her. She dropped the ship's speed

down to .5, and ran a long-range scan, using the AI's estimate from

extrapolating the signal as to where it had originated. A satisfied grin flashed across her maw, as a

soft tone sounded and a fuzzy blip flashed upon her system sweep display. There! Gotcha!Caught in a slow, declining orbit

around Damocles IV, the system's largest planetoid was a vessel; one of

considerable size and bulk, if the mass spectrometer readings were

correct. Nika pursed her lips in silent

thought as she stared at the readout displays.

Damocles lay well off the established trade lades, and she instinctively

shook her head as her implant quickly fed her information about recorded

colonies for this sector. The nearest

lay 7.4 parsecs coreward - none for the Damocles system. The mystery deepened as her telescoping

visual sensor brought her images of the vessel.

It was a commercial bulk cargo carrier, the kind used by mining

corporations to haul raw or processed materials between colony worlds. Without exterior running lights, the cargo

ship's squat, un-streamlined hull was almost invisible against the black of

space, and Nika detected only a trickle of power in use aboard the ship - which

at least accounted for the repeated beacon.

Nika frowned as she gazed at the vessel through her display, questions

forming inside her mind. Was there anyone alive aboard the ship? How long had it been out

here? More importantly, what was it even

DOING out here? Unable to answer any of them at

that moment, she reclined in her chair and instead, linked to the AI's

data-registry, and scanned for reports of a 'HSS Sozdaniye' in the list of missing ships for the past two standard

years. She scowled as a desultory tone chimed

in her mind, signalling failure. It

seemed, she mused sourly, that the ship refused to give up its mystery quite so

easily. She snapped out of her reverie as

the AI's soft, pleasant voice spoke within her mind. "We are now within visual range of the target vessel. Shall I withdraw shielding?"Nika mentally nodded, and leaned

forward as the armoured shielding that enveloped the curved viewport silently

withdrew back into its housing. Space,

pinpricked by uncounted stars lay ahead of her. The slate-grey crater pockmarked sphere of

Damocles IV floated to the right of her and almost directly ahead, floated the

HSS Sozdaniye. She estimated it to be 300-400 metres in

length and easily half as much in width.

The technical readouts fed to her implant confirmed her guess -

respectably large for a cargo vessel.

Curiosity warred with caution and she stared at both the vessel and the data

readouts, drumming her fingers on the chair armrest as she played the distress

call again. She could report it to her headquarters and eventually a recovery ship

would make its way to the system and recover it and the remains of any crew

aboard. Or survivors...if there WERE stasis tubes aboard, though the low power

readings would rule out many of the crew surviving, if any at all. Alternatively, she could go

aboard herself and investigate. It had been a painfully tedious survey mission so far, a little excitement in

solving a mystery, would not go amiss.

She flashed a tight grin; she knew she had her answer.Thirty minutes later, Nika stood

at the docking hatch leading out of her ship, armed and armoured. The non-regulation sliver and blue

chromeplate suit she had donned, a relic of her days in the 22nd

Heavy Cavalry, would serve as both protection and provide life-support aboard

the mostly airless vessel. The somewhat

flexible tail extension would hamper her agility, but not completely. The AI's sensors had detected pockets of

stale but breathable atmosphere in bulkhead sealed areas, but had also detected

several of the aft airlocks had been opened, exposing other sections to vacuum. Nika

reasoned this went some way to explaining the distress call, but it had given

no clue as to the cause of the reason that it had been sent, or why the

airlocks had been voluntarily opened, with no evidence of external damage. It had

merely reported the name of the vessel and the request, before dissolving into

unhelpful static. There had also been no

response to her attempts to hail the ship, nor wirelessly connect to its data

network. "Connection established, stand by for depressurization...30 seconds..."Nika tapped in a confirmation to

the AI, and took several deep breaths, nostrils flaring as she took as much

oxygen into her system as she could, both as a long-practiced precaution and as

a way of slowing her excitedly beating heart.

With a satisfied nod as her heart

rate began to slow, she clipped on the angular helmet to her suit life-support connectors,

waited for the green status tell-tale to glow and then switched to internal air

supply. Her external audio pickups

relayed the low hiss as the environmental systems equalized pressure between

the two vessels, now mated together at one of the opened airlocks. "Depressurisation complete...hatch opening..."The hatch slid open. With caution born of long years of service

and a number of boarding actions, Nika instinctively raised her weapon, and

crouched down into a firing position, honed senses alert to the sign of

immediate danger. There was none. Nika engaged her helmet lamps and sharp-edged

beams of light bathed the passage within, illuminating its featureless

emptiness. She

tilted her head, carefully sweeping from side to side, eyes narrowing to catch

even the slightest hint of a threat.

Satisfied, Nika stepped forward and then braced as her stomach

lurched. The transition to microgravity,

even for an aquatic ancestry species such as Nika's, was never pleasant. With a contrary gracefulness for one so

armoured, she floated upwards, and pushed herself forward along the corridor,

using both the emergency grips along the walls, and her suit's manoeuvre jets

to slow and right herself. Restoring

artificial gravity, if possible, would be her first priority. Nika was no engineer; but she had received

training in emergency system repairs, and her implant would render needed

assistance if required. Inwardly

shrugging, she began her exploration of the ship. There had definitely been some manner

of violent struggle. Ignoring the vast

cargo holds that comprised the bulk of the vessel, she had uncovered evidence

as such, as she forced open the bulkhead doors leading to the crew lounge. In the darkness, debris comprised of smashed

monitors, furniture and personal effects free-floated, and there were ugly red

stains on several of the walls. Nika's

chem-sniffers confirmed that this was indeed humanoid and anthropoid

blood. Warily, her battle-honed senses

prickling, she had surveyed the wreckage, searching for personal logs or

data-cubes that she could access. She

scowled as she came up with nothing, hard information was as absent as the presence

of injured crew...or their corpses. She stopped. A flicker of movement, at the corner of her peripheral

vision, instantly drew the attention of her keen senses. Nika swung around, carbine raised and ready

to fire, lips drawn back in a snarl, pulse quickening, mind racing. There had been no proximity alerts on her

motion-tracker, or via her thermo-graphic sensors, so how could it be possible

for something to slip through? Seconds

crept by, as she scanned the area in which she had...thought...she had seen something. She checked her sensors again, and still

nothing. A minute, then two passed, as

she bobbed up in down in the centre of the room. Nika scowled as she brought her

weapon to rest, tensed shoulders easing as she relaxed again, mentally chastising

herself for her jumpiness. She had work

to do - which did not involve jumping at shadows. Nonetheless, she felt ill at ease; a feeling

that she could not shake as she resumed her exploration.Main Operations was just as much

a disaster zone as the crew lounge had been.

The air had been vented, and the navigation systems lay smashed beyond

repair - an act Nika suspected had been intentional. There was evidence of energy scorching and

several heavy industrial tools free-floated in the flight decks; likely

accomplices for the sabotage. Her

expression turned quizzical as she considered the evidence so far. It all pointed to the crew willingly

disabling their ship, so it would remain stranded within the Damocles system,

eventually spiralling down to crash upon the surface of the fourth world. The whereabouts of the crew remained a

mystery, though the bloodstains gave some clue to their possible fate. Her eyebrows furrowed as she

considered the evidence so far, and then shrugged, and then set to work in

restoring environmental controls and accessing the ship's database.The cybershark let out a

delighted gasp as her efforts of the past two hours had paid off. The ship's reactor systems been locked in

standby mode, which explained the low trickle of energy her own vessel's

sensors had detected. With the

assistance of her implant, she managed to break through the hastily established

firewalls and data-locks on the engineering systems and re-engage main power and

environmental to 50% normal. She braced

herself as the gravity plates engaged and she dropped to the decking, spreading

her booted feet and landing with minimal jarring impact. One by one, the few remaining terminals

flickered to life, as did the lighting panels above, bathing her in a red-tinted

emergency glow. A low hiss sounded in

her audio pickups, as oxygen flooded back into Operations. With a soft chime, her suit chem-sniffers

declared that the atmosphere was now safe to breath. Gratefully, Nika unclipped her helmet,

pulling it off and shook out her mass of white-blue hair, and breathed

deep. It was good to be free of the constricting helmet. Placing it down within easy reach, she sat

heavily down in one of the seats in front of the main data-panel and began to

interrogate the main database. Fifteen minutes later, she wished

she hadn't, as her blood ran ice-cold. She

had uncovered a backup of one of the logs belonging to the ship's Second

Officer. It had been audio-only, with

evidence of attempted tampering before whatever disaster had happened. She replayed it again, chewing her lip

anxiously as she listened. "....discovered contraband cargo within Cargo Hold 4B. Seemed to be biological in nature, with

protected triple-cipher seals.

Confronted the Captain, who was well aware of its presence - seems he

was part of the deal. Offered to bring

me in... quite a sizable sum, really.

Assured me that it was merely biological matter from Agropharm Inc to be

passed onto a third party and sold on the black market on one of the biotech prohibiting

worlds. I suspected otherwise, and

managed to crack one of the data seals, and determined that its point of origin

was in fact our own parent company, Hyperion Biogenic...Investigating further."It was this information that had

chilled Nika to the core. Hyperion

Biogenic had been a corporation infamous for its quasi-legal research into the

benefits of nanotechnology. Darker

rumours had persisted that it was deeply involved in the design and production

of illegal biological weapons, supplying them to the fractious frontier world

governments. Conclusive evidence of this

had been produced during a six-year convert investigation, and Hyperion

forcibly dissolved after a three-month bloody and vicious corporate war. That had been three years ago. The Sozdaniye

had floated out here on the frontier, for at least that long, as all

remaining Hyperion ships had been impounded by the Corporate Court since the

conclusion of the conflict. Nika looked around, eyes

nervously darting about as the feeling of creeping anxiety deepened. Perhaps this

had been the cause of the disaster. Her

chem-sniffers and sensor sweeps had failed to detect evidence of viral infection

present aboard the ship, or in the air recyclers, but still, her felt unable to

calm her nerves. Her fingers reflexively

gripped around the stock of her carbine, and her suit sensors chimed a passive warning

as her heart raced. She jammed on her

helmet, and switched to suit air supply once more. It was time to leave. It was time to leave, now. A flicker of movement caught her

eye again, as she retraced her steps, her pace quickening as she neared the

crew lounge again. She halted, weapon

ready and jangled nerves heightened, as she slowly turned - nothing. Nika cursed, the cybershark shaking her head

as she took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to calm her

frantically beating heart.C'mon, get a grip! There is NOTHING here now!She turned, and then let out a

strangled, shocked cry as she felt something slam into her back and the shark

lurched forward, arms flailing frantically for a grip as she fell. Nika hit the ground hard, bright lights flashing in her vision as her forehead and

snout slammed against the reinforced visor of her helmet. Dazed and confused, she tried to press

herself up to scramble away, but something

had forcefully pinned her prone to the decking.

Another heavy blow swiped her across the back of the head and darkness

enveloped her, and she passed out.The cybershark drifted in and out

of consciousness. Dimly, she felt

herself being...dragged...each lurching

motion setting off waves of nausea within her, and she was in no fit state to

resist. Dull-grey ceiling decking,

peppered with dimly illuminated lights, was all she could see, as it crawled by

overheard. Something had her gripped

firmly by the arms, and was strong enough to raise and pull her 280lb armoured frame. After an indeterminate passage of time, they

stopped, and Nika was unceremoniously released to fall backwards once more She winced, tilting her head this time and

braced herself, and received only a minor impact to the back of her already

dazed head. She scrambled forward on her knees and pivoted around. What she saw, was like a bucket of ice water

poured down her spine, and a gasp escaped her lips before she could bite down

upon it, lastly turning into a silent exclamation as the fear gripped her

heart. Ahead of her, lay a dimly lit and

expansive cargo bay. Pressure and

gravity seemed to be normal. In the centre was...a shimmering form, almost

impossible to see and gauge the size of, and profoundly difficult to focus

upon. It was almost as if Nika's gaze

kept sliding off it, every time she

tried to look at it for more than a second. Chrysalis Camouflage! Her implant helpfully fed her the

information that her mind struggled to remember. So THAT was the flashes of movement she had

kept seeing in her peripheral vision! She

had precious little time to check off the solving of one mystery, before her

full attention returned to her abductor.

The shimmering had ceased, falling away to dissipate in a rain of

glowing particles, and in its place stood some manner of quadruped

creature. The shimmer-glow highlighted its

glossy black-purple hide; framing a feline head that possessed an undeniable

reptilian quality with its bone-ridged ears and flared, angular cheeks,

regarded her with gleaming, violet eyes.

It stood more than half the height of Nika and was bulky but

athletically so. What caused her breath

to catch in her throat was the mass of tentacles that curled up from its sides

to hover and wave above the beast. Each

tentacle had a glossy gel-like surface, and glowed with streaks of inner light

that pulsed along their length, and seemed to move independently of each other,

darting this way and then that, and only aiding its terrifying appearance. Terrifying...terror...A vague memory within her mind

tugged at her mental attention. There

was something horrifyingly familiar about the beast. She had never seen anything like it before, but

none-the-less, there was something about it.

She grimaced as sudden remembrance dawned on her. One of the hypernet rumour sites had

published an unsubstantiated story during the investigation of Hyperion

Biogenic. It claimed to have evidence of

one of the corporations' biological weapons; a genetic creation designed as a

way of covertly spreading panic among the population of the state or world it

was to be deployed against. There had

been precious little hard information, only a codename.Nightmare. The scant descriptions, mostly

dismissed as the creation of an over-active imagination, fit exactly with the

creature that had taken her by force and now stood in front of her. She suppressed a shiver as she realised that

this was almost certainly, what had killed the crew of the Sozdaniye and what they had struggled against - even going as far

as scuttling their own ship in an effort to kill it....and now ya gone and blundered right into its lair...A note of bitter, sardonic note

twisted her thoughts, as she bent her thoughts to escape. Unlike the crew of the Sozdaniye, this...nightmare

beast...was facing a shark - a shark at the peak of her fitness and martial

prowess. White-hot anger surged through

her veins, sweeping away the fear that had gripped her, replaced with a

desperate confidence in her abilities. She might have lost her carbine, but she

still had her fists. Grinning tightly

through the faceplate of her helmet, she slammed her clenched gauntleted fists

together in a showy display - one predator to another. "C'mon you fucking monster!" she ground out through clenched teeth, keying in

the audio amplifier for her suit's speakers, as the echo of her fists colliding

died down. "Let's do this!"If anything, the beast looked

amused by her display of machismo. It tilted its head as if to curiously regard

her, and flashed it's fangs in what could only be described as a toothy grin as

it stood there, long, flexible tail swishing from side to side. Nika's blood boiled as it failed to react, and

against her better judgement, she struggled forward onto her feet, taking a

step closer, nostrils flaring angrily. "C'mon! What are you waiting for?

I'll rip ya to pieces!"A tentacle whipped forward through

the air towards her in response to her bravado, and nimbly dodged the swipe she

aimed at it with her right fist. It

quickly wrapped around and encircled her forearm, and resisted her frantic

attempts to free herself. The glowing

streaks within the purple gel-surface pulsed brighter as it tightened her grip

around it, and she let out a panicked cry as another tentacle flashed forward

and entrapped her other arm. She

struggled mightily, spitting out curses towards the Nightmare, as it padded

forward. Those bright gleaming eyes

pierced the gloom and swept over her, finally fixing on her eyes. They flashed once and then flickered rapidly,

and Nika's eyes bulged as frantic chimes sounded in her mind, as her implant screamed

out a warning of a wireless attack directed at her. Her

protective firewalls buckled under the sheer strength of the network attack and

suddenly there was a second intelligence, devious and malevolent, within her

mind, accessing both her personal implant database, and the one on-board her

ship, to which the implant kept her constantly connected. She tried to disconnect, mentally engaging

her remaining emergency safeguards, and screamed in physical agony as her

thoughts were slammed aside in her own mind, by the force of the infiltrating

intelligence. As quickly as it had wormed

its way into her mind and implant, the intelligence withdrew, leaving a feeling

of alien smug satisfaction lingering unpleasantly within her mind. Her full awareness of the physical world

returned and Nika found she was now hanging suspended, lifted up by and

dangling from the surprisingly strong limbs.

A feeling of despair and helplessness swept over the shark, as she

fitfully thrashed and struggled.

Another, more slender tentacle arced up from the mass writhing from the

finely scaled and smooth flanks, and she recoiled in revulsion as it neared her

face. The beast's eyes flashed and then

flickered again, and Nika's eyes widened and panic gripped her again, as she

heard the locks on her helmet disengage.

The tendril bobbed about in front of her faceplate; tip touching and

experimentally stroking the surface, before it coiled around the helmet and

lifted. With a hiss of escaping, it came

free, and exposed Nika's naked senses to the beast's domain. A richly musky smell hung in the

air and almost made her gag; such was its immediate intensity as it hit

her. The tendril released its grip upon

the helmet, carelessly tossing it aside to land with a dull clang. With frightening speed, it returned to

hover in front of her face, weaving from side to side like a menacing

cobra. A raspy, feral rumbling purr

followed this display, and despite her dire circumstances, annoyed heat flushed

across Nika's face. She was not going to be toyed with. In as disapproving a manner she could muster,

she spat at the tentacle. The purring

ceased, replaced by an angry snarl, and the cybershark cried out as the tip of

the tentacle swatted her across her snout, the little barbs that ran along its

translucent surface drawing a line of blood across her cheek, pain blossoming

in its wake. It seemed that playtime was over.Now the tentacles came quickly

for her, and in greater number. Three

more joined their brethren in assaulting the armoured shark, and Nika writhed

in silent anguish as the Nightmare assaulted her cybernetically linked mind

again, tears trickling in her cheek at the humiliation and alien connection to

her mind. It felt wet, and dark, like

black oil, slithering through her implant and into her suit systems. The beast's will and intelligence

disconnected the locking mechanisms and severed the connections between each

piece one after another, rendering them powerless and inert. Then the tendrils went to work, coiling and

around and slithering in between the gaps in her armour and for the first time,

touched her naked skin. Nika recoiled;

her thrashing increasing as the wetly slick sensation as the gel tendrils slid across

and began to ooze across her rubber shark hide.

Her skin crawled at the unpleasant sensation, and the Nightmare let out

a triumphant howl as her panicked thrashing increased. This was the purpose that the

Nightmares had been bred for - to infiltrate systems, cause fear, and panic, to

maim, and kill. It was a purpose which

been disrupted when it had been awoken and subsequently stranded aboard a

doomed ship. Now, it had a chance to

escape, but not however, before it had fulfilled its greater purpose; one that had been subsequently introduced into its

programming and only this particular model.

It was Hyperion Biogenic's last act of spiteful vengeance on a galaxy

that had turned against it, something that threatened to doom the civilised

galaxy if unleashed to its full potential, and its new prey, it had decided,

would be the harbinger. The Beast's tendrils began to

strip Nika of her protective garb. With

forceful dexterity, they slid off and wrenched free each piece, the pulsing

threads of glowing energy within flickering and increasing in tempo as they

assaulted her. The shark could do little

more than cry out her helpless fear and frustration and struggle with ever

decreasing energy, as more and more of her naked skin was exposed. Thinking was becoming more difficult too;

her thoughts started slipping away from her as she breathed in that musky

odour, seemingly heightening her ability to feel sensations in their

place. As a finger-width tentacle slid

between the straps of her chest-piece, and heaved. Iit fell away, landing on the decking below,

and robbing Nika of the final barrier to the beast's exploration and exposure

of her natural form. Within minutes, she

hung suspending in the air, naked aside from her spandex underclothes, thick,

luminous ooze trickling across her skin wherever the tentacles had touched

her. Shame at her ragged, helpless state

burned her cheeks and within her heart, warring with the paralysing terror that

hovered at the edge of her conscious mind, as dread at what terrible fate and

death was in store for her, threatened to send it retreating into

oblivion. She closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and

bowed her head, resigned to the killing blow that was sure to come next.Nika gasped and gagged as a

tentacle suddenly had her by the throat, coiling and squeezing around her neck

and forcing her maw open as she desperately attempted to breathe.So, this is how I die...The pressure on her throat

relaxed; Nika's eyes flickered open and then bulged in horror as a tentacle

forced its way into her maw. She tried

to close her maw, bite down upon the invader, but a return of the strangling

pressure convinced her otherwise and she relented. The raspy purr returned; the beast's prey was

learning. The gel smooth tendril forced

its way to the back of her throat, and it demanded all of her determination to

survive simply not to gag upon it, barely holding back the reflex action to

thrash about. She felt a bulge travel up

along the tendril, forcing her maw open wider as it passed, and the panic

returned with frantic intensity. Moments

later, a thick fluid spewed out from the porous tip of the tentacle. It possessed a cloying sweetness, and the

intensity of its taste made Nika's head swim.

Forced to gulp it down, she drank deeply, the passage of time, and

outside awareness slipping away from her.

Her worldview narrowed until it consisted merely of the fluid and the

tentacle that offered it. The hazy

lassitude that had begun to seep into her mind deepened, as if her thoughts were

slippery fish she was unable to grasp. The shark dimly felt her artificial arms

droop, no longer resisting the tendrils encircling her wrists, as her eyes slid

shut. A wave of rewarding pleasure made

the shark's nerves tingle, arch her back, and stiffen within the embrace of the

tentacles, as the nanotrite fluid seeping throughout her system responded to

the beast's directions to stimulate her pleasure centres, and she responsively

gulped down the fluid, the excess seeping from the sides of her maw, and

dripping down her chin. Her belly began

to bulge and swell as it filled her to capacity. An orgasm soon followed, the first of many,

which tore breathy, muffled moans of mindless ecstasy from her lips, and left

her a quivering sliver of darkly pleasured flesh. The Nightmare let out a satisfied

growl, as it lowered the ensnared shark and pulled her towards him. The process had begun.

Time passed unevenly for Nika as she drifted in and out of

consciousness, and underwent the transformation process. Within the cocoon of tentacles in which she lay

quivering next to the beast, and filled all three of her orifices, Nika changed

forever. The shark's keen, tactical mind

collapsed into malleable putty as she became dependent upon the nanotrite fluid

the beast fed to her, and the pleasurable sensations with which it rewarded

her. One day, she would feast upon flesh

and bone, as the Nightmare had upon the crew of their domain, but for now, the

fluid would be her sustenance. Images

and memories of her former life flitted sporadically through the cybershark's

mind, but she regarded them with ever-duller curiosity, as if they were someone

else's, and not her own. All that

mattered, the sibilant and pervasive voice of her mate insisted, was becoming

one with it, and eventually bearing its offspring. To that end, it had begun to change the

shark's physical appearance and biology down to the genetic level - blending

shark, machine and Nightmare into a new hybrid. The white portions of her hide had deepened to

a deep purple, and her stripes had changed hue to a brilliant amethyst. Bulging nubs of skin ran in parallel rows

either side of her spine - the genesis of what would eventually become

tentacles of her own. Despite her

convalescence, she was fitter and more muscular than before her transformation

begin, as the beast stimulated her muscles to develop further. It was patient. It had waited for four years in the void of

space, in a state of semi-hibernation, resigned to its fate after the previous

prey, all male, had sabotaged the vessel it had been awoken on. That was until its sensors had detected the

presence of the female anthropoid, and had been granted another chance to

complete its purpose. It required the

skills and body-form she possessed to pilot her ship and navigate, and only

then, when they had landed upon a suitable prey-world, would she undergo final

transformation. The hybrid entity, once known as

Nika, writhed in pleasurable agony. The

tentacles lodged within the puffy folds of her sex and deeply in the passages

of her rump vibrated as the Nightmare fed her images of being gifted the quadruped

form of a Nightmare and bearing it's cyberorganic young, driving her into

heated orgasm. She would become the

brood-mother to a race of Nightmare hybrids, fulfilling the new purpose Nika

was now reprogrammed with.The hybrid's maw fell open in an

expression of slack, ecstatic fulfilment, as they flashed through her broken

mind, punctuated by the rewarding penetrations of her mate's tentacles.To breed...to cause terror...to kill...that was her only purpose now, one she

must impress upon the prey-worlds they would infiltrate and ravage, bending

them to their will. Each world that fell would join them in becoming one with

her, and her mate. Joining in the

blissful union in which all life would either join, or become prey to....The galaxy would never be the same again.