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Jake's eyes opened almost immediately after he'd closed them and Xelzix's face was still there in front of him.

"What's wrong? I started to fade out and began to feel like I was exploding but you brought me right back. Will you not be doing the procedure?" Jake asked.

As he spoke he immediately noticed his voice sounded a bit more resonant and clear than he was used to. It came more effortlessly too. He noticed his vision was sharp and clearer than he could ever remember it being. He felt fantastic.

Xelzix smiled and said, "As I'm sure you are already becoming aware, the procedure is complete. Welcome to the cosmic collective, Jake Smith."

Jake noticed that although Xelzix's mouth was clearly moving and likely making the same murmuring type sounds of his natural speech, Jake could not hear it. Instead he heard English, in a voice who's character somehow seemed to match Xelzix well, and it appeared to be coming right from Xelzix's mouth instead of from an external device. The effect was a bit odd because the lip movement did not match the speech that was emanating from Xelzix's mouth in any way.

"It almost seems to me as though you're speaking my language. The sound is coming from your mouth. Is that the built in translator at work?" Jake asked.

"Indeed it is. The device is tied into your auditory nervous system and it is quite sophisticated. It will cancel my own voice out completely and replace it with the translation. It encodes direction and amplitude into the waveform so that you will always hear it coming from the direction of my mouth to help you differentiate between different translations from different people standing in different places around you. You will hear the correct direction and volume to match each person's position in relation to you. It will also attempt to match the speech's characteristics to the speaker's physiological makeup, as well as their personality, as best it can, and it will modulate the intensity of the speech to match the speaker's current level. This results in unique voices for everyone you encounter that clearly reflect their intended mood. It makes the translated speech feel completely natural to you and allows you to listen to the speech of multiple individuals at once and differentiate them all as you would in a room full of your own people."

"That's amazing! It would be hard if everyone sounded like the same translated voice and they all sounded as though they were emanating from inside my head. I would quickly get lost trying to follow multiple people in a room. The level of sophistication is astonishing," Jake said.

He looked around and realized he wasn't in the same room as he had been when he went unconscious. This one had less machinery and was brighter and simpler. He was lying on an examination table. He sat up and swung his legs over the side.

"How long have I been out, Xelzix? If felt like just a moment."

"The procedure took approximately ninety-seven of your days," Xelzix replied.

"That's over three months! Somehow I expected it to take hours!"

"The process of installing your personality into a new synthetic brain and fitting it into your new body takes only a few hours. However, the brain is semi-biological and the pathways that interface to your new nervous system are essentially a type of memory. Your original brain learned to control your muscles as they grew in concert from when you were first conceived and stored the knowledge in a type of memory structure. We cannot read memories or modify them and as such we cannot correctly reconnect the new nervous system to what is essentially your old brain. If we were simply removing your old brain and installing a new one into the same old body it wouldn't be a problem but due to the fact that we are installing a new brain into a body that is subtly different from your old one, the new brain must completely relearn how to control it. The connections must finish forming on their own. The process of growing them can only be rushed so much as it involves cell division and synaptic formation. Once the millions of connections are successfully made we then must send a great deal of sensory input to the various parts of your body while the brain sorts out the signals and relearns how to control the muscles and functions of your body. This is the longest part of the process as we are bound by the limit of your brain's ability to learn to control the new body. It is a painstaking process that with some races takes even longer than yours did. The process is quite unpleasant so you are kept unconscious until you are fully ready to get up and walk again.

"The length of time it takes to bring you back is one of many reasons why you will learn to avoid death almost as though it were permanent. Imagine if other lives were relying on your protection or support. Your death will remove you from them immediately even while you were fighting to protect them and it will keep you away from them for a significant amount of time. There will also be a great deal of time consumed after your resurrection as you will need to physically travel from your resurrection site back to wherever you might have been when you died. We have only so many active sites in each galaxy so that travel back to where you need to be may actually take many more months. You have been assigned to this site and we may be at the opposite end of the galaxy or even in another one when you expire and are resurrected aboard this ship, so it could be a long trip back to where you need to go. Not only will your death often be exceedingly painful to the point of causing you to have nightmares about it for a great while afterward, but it can also easily result in your removal from the proximity of those who care about you for well over a year of your time. It is an event best avoided."

Jake nodded his understanding. He looked down at his new body for the first time and saw that he was naked except for a tan colored pair of snug fitting shorts. To his surprise he saw that he was extremely heavily muscled. Far more than he'd ever been in his life or could even have imagined himself being. He felt incredibly powerful and healthy. He felt more alive than he'd ever been. Gone were the grayish sagging skin and the age spots. His skin looked supple and healthy. His hands were strong and his fingernails perfectly manicured. His feet looked pedicured and extremely well cared for. His body looked like a much younger version of himself that had been lifting weights in a gym for ten hours a day for years.

He hadn't given any thought to what his new body might be like when they'd talked of reinstalling him. It hadn't occurred to him to ask what age the new body would be. He'd just assumed that it would be a much healthier sixty-eight.

"How old is this body? I look and feel like I'm just a young man," said Jake.

"We set the age of your body to be roughly twenty years old. It is the most appropriate for the young male you have been matched to. I hope that you are pleased with it," said Xelzix.

"How could I not be? There was an old saying back on Earth, 'Youth is wasted on the young'. Well it certainly won't be wasted on me! You have no idea how many times I've wished I could go back into my young body and live my life again with all of my knowledge and experience and lessons learned and do things right! Thank you, Xelzix! I'm overjoyed!"

Jake impulsively jumped from the table and rushed toward Xelzix to embrace him but Xelzix deftly dodged aside and laughed and held up a hand and said, "Please, my people are somewhat shy and we do not normally engage in unnecessary physical contact. Besides, you need to get a bit better acquainted with your new body before you attempt to hold someone of my stature tightly or you might injure them. You are much stronger than you were and your brain will take a bit more time before it completely forgets your old body and its limitations and learns its new abilities. You may even have some slight issues with balance for a time. You will need to be extra careful at first when you bring your muscles to bear as you do not yet know your own strength."

Jake apologized and sat back down on the table and asked, "So it took you twenty years to grow this body?"

"No, growing it from an embryo would be in some ways easier, but in the end would take far too long and be impractical and inefficient. We used a computer program to simulate the growth of your body from when it started as a fertilized egg on to twenty years of age. The simulation takes only a few hours and follows the precise plan of your DNA to produce a three dimensional rendered version of your complete body down to every single cell in it. Your body is made of a multitude of individual types of cells, each of which can start from the basic stem cell. Stem cells are easily grown and we keep vast quantities of them on hand at all times. We use the three dimensional rendering of you at twenty years as a guide to differentiate the stem cells into all of the types of cells your body needs such as skin, liver, lung, muscle, nerves, and so on in the precise quantities needed. Once we have all of the cells required we simply use the rendered model of your body at twenty years as a guide to physically assemble it in three dimensions including even the blood in the veins. The assembly is done in a vat of nutrients by billions of nano machines that can individually carry the correct cell type to its correct location and allow it to fuse to its neighboring cells. You can think of it as a type of three dimensional printing. Once the body is fully assembled the heart is started and the blood flows and all your biological processes take over naturally.

"It took only two months to differentiate the needed cells, then print the body and then allow it to fuse and settle to the point where we could install your new brain, which we did three months ago. As I mentioned, the millions of connections between the brain and nervous system must grow naturally. The entire process from the beginning to having you sit up on the table and talk to me will generally always take less than half a year. We always keep a few copies of your body grown and ready for a brain at all times as long as you have a contract so it will normally never take more than three months for you to wake up from death."

"That's incredible! Humans started toying with three dimensional printing for fabrication but only basic objects. I'd even heard of them printing some sort of scaffolding that they then used with stem cells to grow replacement heart valves and such.. I suppose this is a natural extension of that sort of technology. The complexity necessary to print an entire body and have it suddenly come to life once you start the heart is mind blowing!" Jake exclaimed.

"Well, we've had billions of years to perfect the art so it is not anything extraordinary to us. In the end it really is nothing more than putting each cell in its correct place according to the precise pattern laid out by your genes. We are even able to make subtle changes where needed. In your case for example, the simulation was tweaked to grow your muscles much larger than their normal size."

"Why did you go to such extremes with the muscles? I would have been perfectly satisfied with a healthy level of fitness."

"While your satisfaction is certainly taken into consideration it is not paramount. Our primary concern is with the satisfaction of our paying client and the success of the match. Some slight modifications to your body needed to be made to complete the best match. You are exactly the same physically as you were at twenty years for the most part but have simply been strengthened to allow for the higher gravity you will be subjected to on the planet you will be staying on should you agree to the match. Your prospective partner is also extremely powerful and in order to ensure that you would not be harmed during your play together you had to be made more durable and able to hold your own," Xelzix said.

Jake said, "I feel so much heavier, almost denser and more solid than ever."

Xelzix nodded, "Yes, your bones have also been strengthened and made much more dense and resilient."

"How will I maintain these muscles? On my world I would have to focus almost every waking moment to working them in order to keep them so large. You'll need to tell me what sort of diet I'll need to follow to maintain the physique and not just have it all go to fat."

"That will not be a concern. I should explain the basics of the new sets of nanos that now inhabit your body," Xelzix said.

"New sets? There are more than just the ones Srythryn mentioned that watch and transmit the changes of my brain's structure?"

"Yes, many more. There were only a few nanos in your body before and they tapped into your nervous system and monitored and transmitted information to the Watchers as needed. Now there are billions inside you that perform various different tasks. Anyone who is part of the cosmic collective are given the gift of these nanos to release them from the more mundane and boring responsibilities of caring for a living biological body.

"There is one set of nanos whose job it is to keep your muscles strong and large. They can be programmed with any level of muscle growth required and will maintain it. As you may know muscle growth essentially occurs from overworking your muscles to the point where they begin to become damaged at a microscopic scale. Your body reacts to the damage by not only replacing broken fibers but also growing more of them causing them to gain mass. Your muscles become stronger, larger and tougher. The microscopic nanos in your body will be constantly moving about in your muscles creating small bits of damage as though you had lifted a great deal of weight repeatedly, though they will stop short of actually tiring them out. You will not even notice it happening. Your body will react naturally by repairing the damage and adding fibers and keeping your muscles dense and large and powerful."

"Incredible! The physique of a body builder without having to lift a finger! You could have made a fortune with this technology back on Earth!" Jake exclaimed and laughed.

The alien chuckled and said, "That is not the only function the nanos perform for you. You asked about your dietary requirements as well. Your only real concern is to eat sufficient quantity of protein rich food. It is easiest to err on the side of excess. You do not need to be concerned about the level of fats or calories in the food. Should you take in excess fats or sugars another group of nanos are dedicated to the task of removing them from your body before they are fully digested. Your body will no longer have any excess energy that will need to be stored as fat. You will remain perfectly trim. It is in your best interests to, as your people put it, 'eat like a pig'."

Jake laughed and said, "Again, you would have been the richest people on Earth if you would have offered that technology for sale in our culture."

"There is also the matter of your bones. As I said earlier, they needed to be made denser to handle the strength of these new muscles as well as the stresses of the higher gravity you will be experiencing and the rough play you may find yourself engaging in with your new partner. There is another set of nanos that live in your bones and they will constantly create micro fractures within them throughout your body. Again, your body reacts naturally by knitting the micro fractures with a denser growth of calcium that makes the bones heavier and stronger. The process is similar to a martial artist beating his arms against wooden blocks to strengthen the bones, but again you will not need to 'lift a finger' as you put it."

"Amazing. What other functions are the nanos doing? Are they the ones doing the translating in my head of everything you say?"

"No, the translator is a completely self contained device that simply intercepts the signals coming from your auditory nerves and modifies them before sending them on to your brain. It does not use nano technology. There are several other things that the nanos do for you though. For example, any part of your body that grows continuously and needs maintenance will also be taken care of. Your fingernails and toenails will always look as though you spend your time doing nothing but grooming yourself. Even as your nails grow, nanos will remove the old cells at the ends one by one keeping the nails forever the perfect length. Your hands and feet will always be perfectly groomed. In addition, your facial hair will be constantly cut just below the level of your skin. You will still be able to grow facial hair in whatever pattern you choose and the nanos will keep it to the correct length and keep the other areas shaved. The nanos will go out to the end of each individual hair and remove the old cells even as your body adds new ones at your hair follicles thus keeping each individual hair precisely the intended length. You will never need to cut your hair or shave any part of your body again. There are stylists who will help you to program the nanos to keep your facial and head hair in whatever style and length you prefer. For now you have been styled in the way that would be most appealing to the individual you have been matched to."

Jake put his hand to his face and then ran it up through his hair. He was clean haven with no facial hair and the hair on his head was thick and straight and nearly shoulder length..

"I never even imagined this sort of thing! It's incredible to think of how much time I wasted in my sixty-eight years grooming myself. Now I'll never have to worry about it again! What about my teeth? Please tell me those will be automatically cared for as well."

"Yes, of course. There are nanos dedicated to the task of removing any particles attached to the surfaces of your teeth and below the line of your gums and carry them to the salivary glands where they will wash into your digestive system. The process is constant and thorough and again is operating at a microscopic level that you will never be able to sense. Your teeth will never require care as they will always be kept completely clean and free of bacteria. In addition to that, nanos throughout your body will monitor your health. Should any bacterial or viral invasion threaten to overwhelm your natural immune system it will be held at bay by the nanos but not fully eradicated. The nanos will allow time for your immune system to learn to beat the invaders on its own and become stronger. Our aim is to use the nanos to enhance and strengthen our natural systems rather than replace them. To replace them completely would ultimately lead to overall weakening of our systems to the point that we would be completely reliant on the nanos for survival. That is not our intent. Should the nanos ever need to be purged from your body you will in fact be left much stronger than you were when they were first introduced."

"Wonderful! I can be a completely lazy slob and yet still be clean, strong and healthy. It's every man's dream come true! I can't believe you just give this stuff away!" Jake laughed, "So can I go through life without ever washing either? Will the nanos remove dirt and smelly old sweat from my body and toss it aside constantly so that I never need to bathe again?"

Xelzix smiled but shook his head, "No, that is something we do not do. Most species, especially the particular one you have been matched to, would find an immaculately clean individual sexually boring. An important part of physical attraction for nearly all species occurs through the olfactory system which is also tightly coupled to the sense of taste. Natural pheromones are powerful attractants. Even some that you cannot consciously detect will tug at you and draw you to someone strongly and inexplicably. As Srythryn told you when he brought you to us the first part of our matching process involves comparing DNA to determine which individual has the best chemistry to match the requester. That chemistry is realized in the way someone smells and tastes to you and the way you smell to them. Our bodies produce the scent pheromones and deliver them through our sweat glands, and also the musk glands for those that have them such as your potential match, and also Srythryn's race. The chemistry of our bodies also determines the way we will taste to others and that taste comes from the same sweat and musk mingled with whatever else may be there. We have no wish to wash any part of that away. Among most cultures there is something appealing about a sexual partner who is 'dirty' and the fact that you are engaging with them in personal ways and experiencing parts of their bodies that might be considered somewhat offensive in polite company serves to greatly enhance the experience. We have no desire to interfere with that wonderful part of sexuality. You will still be getting dirty and will need to bathe regularly to prevent yourself from becoming offensive to others."

"That makes sense. I certainly find some scents from personal areas that are normally considered offensive to be extremely sexually arousing provided they are not excessively powerful."

Xelzix nodded, "As do I and most others."

"Besides the muscles and bones, what other enhancements have been made to my body? I can see better than ever and my hearing seems more sensitive."

"The problem with the shape of your eyes that made you myopic was corrected and the shape of the lens and its muscles slightly enhanced to improve your vision and focus even further, but the effect will simply be to make your vision as good as it can be for a human. As for your hearing nothing was changed. It may be that you are simply not used to the improved functionality you had at twenty before the natural wear and tear that you experienced through the rest of your life reduced it. For the most part your body has not really been modified and you have not been given any superhuman abilities. You are the same height as you were at twenty. Your eye color and shape, facial features, hair color, skin tone, your voice, the length of your arms and legs and width of your shoulders, almost everything about you is exactly as your genes laid out to preserve the natural and beautiful uniqueness that is you. Your muscles are much larger but they are no larger than they would be if you worked them hard yourself. The same applies to your bones. Over all we strive to maintain the natural aesthetic of your body. It's what makes you human and what makes you uniquely you among humans and we have no wish to make you anything else. Your own body's natural systems are simply being kept busy maintaining a strong and healthy structure."

"I had no idea I could look like this. I'm thrilled with it, Xelzix, really. But you said 'almost everything' is exactly as my genes intended. What was actually changed?"

Even as he began to look more closely over his body to see if he could spot it, he suddenly noticed something that had not caught his attention earlier. The bulge at his crotch was very large compared to what he used to have. He'd been so overwhelmed by the incredible mass of the muscles all over his body that he hadn't actually focused on what was between his legs. His heart beat a bit more quickly as he reached down to grab the front of his tan shorts and pulled them away from his body to look inside them. He was thrilled with what was in there.

Jake had never had much to complain about before. His penis had been a bit over seven inches and circumcised. It was thicker than average and had a nice big head. His balls were also a bit bigger than average. He'd been happy with what he was born with, but now he was overjoyed. The penis he now sported could barely be contained within his shorts even while it was still soft. It was thick and powerful looking. It was even uncircumcised! The one thing he had always wished was that he'd never had his foreskin removed when he was a baby. Now he had it back! He looked beyond the penis and saw his balls had grown to almost twice their previous size. They were huge and impressive. Jake was even more thrilled than before. He looked up at Xelzix with a wide grin.

The alien smiled and said, "I hope that you will enjoy the changes we made to your sexual organs. Even with the best match being made between two species it is often necessary to make minor alterations in order to allow for maximum sexual pleasure and to prevent injury as well. Your match's body is sufficiently different from a sexual perspective than yours that we needed to make a few minor changes to you. Other than the obvious change to the size of your penis and testicles, all other changes are internal. Your penis is now just under twelve inches in length fully erect and somewhat thicker than its former girth. Due to your prospective partner's size and anatomy he would not be sufficiently satisfied with less. His penis is longer still and as thick as your new one and would have injured you severely. In order to accommodate it your body has been slightly rearranged internally and slightly modified. Some of your organs were shifted to a slightly different location in order to allow your rectum to be extended to approximately eighteen inches in length inside of you. Your rectum has also been strengthened significantly and several rings of muscles added along its length to enhance your partner's pleasure and make it similar to the internal structure of his own natural body."

"You mean he has rings of muscle along his rectum? What purpose do they serve normally?" Jake asked.

"They serve no purpose other than sexual pleasure when males couple with males of their species. They are one of several species that have evolved sex organs that allow them to engage with the same sex with both partners experiencing equal pleasure. It is believed that this is an evolutionary adaptation in response to severe overcrowding at some point in the species' past. It encourages bonding between same sex couples that will not produce offspring thus creating a natural form of population control. Nerve endings have been added along the rings of muscle as well, to enhance your own sensation and pleasure just as naturally occurs in his body. Your anus has been strengthened and given the ability to stretch a great deal without too much discomfort though it will be right at its limit should he choose to mount you. Your windpipe has also been encased in a strong shell that will prevent it from being pinched off and your throat made slightly looser and your jaw slightly modified to allow for something extremely long and thick to be pushed forcefully down your throat without affecting your breathing through your nose."

"Good Lord! You've thought of everything haven't you? I can't wait to try out my new toys!" Jake exclaimed and laughed.

Xelzix chuckled and said, "The changes are truly minor and just an enhancement of your true shape in order to complete the match perfectly. We often make sex organs smaller than they originally were if that is the correct way to go. Not all races concern themselves with the size of their equipment. That preference is primarily found among species in which large males win out in competition for sexual partners against smaller males. In many other species it is plumage or display that wins the mate and for them garish colors or interesting patterns or are more important. For some others it is intricate dances that win the mate so smaller and more nimble males are the preference. Humans are one of those races that do care about size, as is the species that you've been matched to, and the fact that you would likely be thrilled with the change was one of the many variables taken into consideration when you were examined for the match.

"Images of yourself with massive sex organs were flashed across your visual cortex while you slept, along with visuals of your prospective partner in full arousal. Your reaction to the dreams that ensued, which were directed entirely by your own sensibilities and tastes and out of our control, were monitored. The extreme positive physiological and emotional response you showed was noted. We could not see what you were doing in those dreams but we could see that you were enjoying it immensely. Most species are more concerned with the sensation, and that the organs match the shapes of what they will be engaged with. The overall size is not as important to them. It is good that your new accoutrements are so aesthetically pleasing to you as well though. I would not wish you to be disappointed."

"I am beyond pleased. Is that the extent of the changes then?" Jake asked.

"Not quite. One powerful sexual attractant for the particular species that you have been matched to, that it happens is also normally shared with your own, is large volumes of seed. Your potential partner is able to produce ten times more semen than you could at once and can produce it again rather quickly after ejaculating. He would be disappointed if you could not do the same for him. That is one of the reasons we increased the size of your testicles so much. They would still not be sufficiently large, but making them any larger would destroy the original aesthetic of your body and start to make you look mutated. Instead, we added three more sets of testicles which are kept inside your body. They will work constantly in concert with your external set to produce the volumes of sperm required, and they will be able to produce the next batch quickly after ejaculation. They have been strategically placed against the outside of your rectum in various places along its length, and between the sensitive rings of muscles, similar to the way your prostate is. As such, if he mounts you, the movement of his penis inside you will stimulate the extra testicles in the same way as if someone caressed your external ones during sex and the affect will be to raise your enjoyment of the act even further. We also greatly increased the size and effectiveness of your prostate gland so that it could produce a vastly greater amount of fluid more quickly. The end effect will be your ability to ejaculate just as much semen as your new partner when you reach orgasm. It will be a most satisfying sensation for you."

"Yeah, no kidding. Is there a restroom around here where I could get a bit of privacy for a few minutes?" Jake asked jokingly, "There's something I really need to try that will also test out the strength of my new hand and wrist muscles."

Xelzix laughed and said, "I enjoy your sense of humor, Jake. I must also say that I find your species extremely attractive. I would be pleased to help you test out your new equipment if you would be agreeable."

"You mean you and I engage in sex?"

"Yes, if you would like. Our bodies would most definitely not be compatible, and I am not actually capable of sex in the normal sense, but I would very much enjoy using my hands to bring you pleasure."

Jake looked him up and down briefly. Xelzix was a skinny, grey, short, stick-like figure with almost creepy, black, bug-like eyes. In just about every way Jake could think of, he was completely unappealing from a sexual perspective. Jake was into big, muscular, masculine forms. He didn't want to upset the little alien, but there was no way it would work for him.

"I'm very sorry, Xelzix, but I don't think I could. Your body type is not really what I find attractive. Arousal would be a problem for me. I hope you don't mind if I decline."

"Not at all. It is no surprise. From what I've gleaned of your tastes during the process of matching you, it is clear that they run very much in the opposite direction from me in terms of body size and strength so I did not really expect that you would want to engage in the activity with me, but I thought I would try just the same," Xelzix smiled.

"I'm glad you aren't upset. I would hate for you to take away my new toys in anger," Jake said.

Xelzix laughed again, "As I said, I enjoy your sense of humor and I hope that we may be friends. My people are generally secretive and keep to themselves but in my function I must deal with members of many different races directly quite often. I greatly enjoy meeting new people and it is the reason I was chosen for this position."

"Are you a Matchmaker then, Xelzix? I thought you were a Resurrector since it was you who reinstalled me."

"Yes, my primary function is Matchmaker. However, not all Matchmakers deal directly with clients. Most work in the background. Those of us who do work with you are also trained in the basics of the function of Resurrector. I have no skill in the art of modifying your body or printing the copies but I have been fully trained in the reinstallation process and I am also fully versed in the entire process of matching and it was I who made the final determination that you would likely be the best candidate in this case. I have been assigned to your contract. As long as your contract for the insurance of return comes through a request for match it will be me who reinstalls you any time it is needed in the future. If you live a life of adventure and danger you and I may be meeting here on this ship quite frequently in the future."

"I'm not sure if I should say that I look forward to that or not, since it would mean I would have died," Jake said.

Xelzix smiled, "I will look forward to it for the both of us then. I can tell you for certain that you will never get used to dying. It can be painful beyond imagining and it can create no end of complications for you so you will be trying to avoid it at all costs I'm sure."

"Can't your nanos somehow protect us from the pain of death? Come to think of it can't you send someone to our rescue if we get too deep in trouble since you monitor us all the time?" Jake asked.

"No and no. We will not allow the nanos to dull pain in any way. Pain is a highly important function for all species. Without it life would be quite different. There would be little sense of risk if you could not feel the pain of a broken body or a fiery death. As such there would be no thrill and no sense of reward for successfully avoiding death or injury and no need to try to improve yourself to become better at avoiding it. Life would quickly become boring and sterile without fear of pain or death. We will not in any way interfere with such a basic and important part of life. Even if you find yourself in a position where it takes you many days to come to your slow and agonizing end, the nanos will not intervene and end it for you quickly nor will they notify anyone of your distress. Should you accidentally ingest a painful poison they will not purge it from your body but will allow it to run its course. They will only send a notification the moment you expire. Life is all about experiences both good and bad and we will not step in to dull those experiences in any way."

"Wait, if I ingest poison they won't purge it from my system? Didn't you say they would fight off any infection I get in order to give my body's immune system time to adjust and deal with it on its own? Why do you treat poison differently?"

"We would not allow the nanos to assist you in the case of infection either if there was any way we could avoid it. However, as a consequence of the fact that nearly all biological life in the universe is perfectly compatible, all species are susceptible to infection from nearly all viruses and bacteria that exist on each others' worlds that they have never been exposed to. This would make it impossible for the cosmic collective to exist as each race would be a serious threat to every other race's health. If you were to go down to Srythryn's world without the nanos for example, you would be dead within days from a myriad of new viruses and bacteria that would invade your body that Srythryn's race gained immunity to over time as they evolved. The only way to overcome the vast multitude of biological threats that would affect all of the different races, we had to give the nanos the ability to take on the threat themselves. Poisons are a completely different issue. They are accidental, or perhaps nefariously intentional, but for the most part they are normally avoidable in the same way that you would avoid walking off a cliff or into a burning building. The nanos will assist your body in dealing with all forms of internal biological threats, but none that are chemical in nature."

"I see. That makes perfect sense," Jake said.

"As for monitoring you all the time, you may be confused as to what exactly happens. The nanos are tied into your nervous system and as such can read and transmit to us the signals coming through your visual and auditory systems as well as your physical sensations, but they will only do so at our request. Should we want to study a race to learn its languages for example, or occasionally check in to study their level of development, the Watchers will have the nanos send the full streams. We can learn about your people by signaling the nanos to send streams from randomly chosen individuals who are going through your various education systems and store them in our records for study by the Watchers. Most of the data sent must be manually requested. Nothing is automatically sent to us other than the pattern of your DNA when you are conceived, which is sequenced by the first nanos that hop aboard your fertilized egg, and a notification from the nanos when your life signs cease and you are dead, regardless of whether you have a contract for return or not. That is how we can maintain a database of the unique genetic sequence of every living sentient being in the known universe that we use in the matching process. For those who have a contract for return, the nanos will also constantly monitor the changes in the structure of your brain and automatically transmit them to us so that we can make the same changes to the stored map. That way you can be reinstalled with all of your new memories and knowledge in place to pick up where you left off.

"No one will ever actually request the transmission of a full stream from you unless they have some need, such as when your physiological responses were being examined for the match. Once you were selected for the match at the genetic level, I requested your stream be sent to me so that I could monitor what you were seeing and hearing so that I could learn more details about you including your name and precise location and then further study you for the match. That stream has now been turned off as I have no further need of it. If you get yourself in a great deal of danger and you are alone then no one will know of it but you. We do not have even the tiniest fraction of the manpower that would be needed to actively monitor everyone, nor would we ever have any interest in doing so. Also, we will not ever entertain any requests for information regarding anyone's location from an outside party as we could never be completely sure of their true intent. Even if we somehow knew their intent was good we would not comply. Again, if you knew you could be extracted from bad situations should they arise there would be no sense of risk involved and thus no thrill. Our law forbids us from interfering in your life in those ways. You are completely on your own. We cannot allow our technology to take away those fundamental requirements for life, that it be exciting and unpredictable."

"I have to say I'm impressed, Xelzix. When Srythryn told me of the power your people possess, my first thought was that it was insane to have any one race with so much power over all the others. He assured me that I would come to trust you eventually. I already feel he was right. Your race truly is wonderful in its approach to the use of these technologies. It's clear that your only interest is in ensuring that people get the most of their lives. It's amazing that you are able to control yourselves so well," Jake said.

"No other race has existed as long as mine. We have come to our current way of living through many billions of years of experience. It is natural that any race would eventually come to this same point, but first they must survive and ours is the only one to have done so for so long. I feel it is because of our nature and our ability to peel away the layers of complexity and see straight to the basics of what life is truly about and focus only on those things. As a race we have come as far as we care to as far as technological development goes. We like the way things are now. We find enjoyment in shifting our focus to all the other races and assisting them with their own development. Our interest is in teaching all other races that what truly matters is simply your own life in the here and now and how best to enjoy it and help others enjoy theirs. Life is one big adventure and that is how it should be. We truly believe that if you did not enjoy your life to the fullest, we would not enjoy ours. It is important to us to help all others experience the most exciting and interesting life they can."

Jake certainly had no problem understanding that, given the mountain of regrets he'd been contemplating at the end of his former life. He was looking forward to the chance to begin chipping away at that mountain and moving things off it and onto the other side of the scale by living as interesting a life as he could. A great way to start was with this match that had been set up for him.

"When will I be introduced to the one I've been matched too? I'm becoming somewhat excited by the prospect of it now," Jake said.

Xelzix smiled and said, "Before you can be introduced you must formally agree to the match after I have provided you with the necessary information about the request. Are you ready to see what they look like?"

"Yes, please."

"Very well. Please try to keep an open mind as what you see may be a shock at first. If you give it a moment he may start to seem somehow familiar to you. Remember that you have already seen him several times in your dreams though you may not remember him accurately, and your response was extremely positive."

Xelzix stepped to a console and tapped a few buttons and murmured some commands that did not get translated and suddenly an image appeared fully resolved in three dimensions and full sized right in the middle of the room.

Jake was utterly blown away by what he saw. It looked like a cross between a bull and a man. It stood upright on two thick and powerful legs and had massively muscled arms. It had a short and thick neck and a head that looked a great deal like a bull complete with horns, though the horns were short and stubby. It looked sort of like a huge minotaur but instead of just being a bull's head on a human body, the entire body was covered in a thick, dark hide and the shape of the arms, legs, hands, and feet were not quite human, and his muscles were much more massive than even Jake's new ones. It clearly was a bull that had evolved to walk upright and became thick and strong and muscular.

The massively thick and heavily muscled legs had what looked like an extra joint part way between the knees and the feet that flexed like a backwards knee, just like a bull would have. The feet were shorter, but much thicker and wider than a man's and they had three thick toes and one even bigger one on the inside of each foot like a man. The feet looked as though they must have evolved from a large hoof and they looked incredibly sturdy with a thick and heavy ankle joint more on top of the foot than at the back. The creature's hands had three powerful fingers and a large thumb. They were not shaped like human fingers but were extremely wide and thick and stubby. Like the feet, it looked almost as though they had once been a single hoof that evolved to split and become more dexterous. The fingernails and toenails were extremely thick and wide and stretched along the top all the way back to the first knuckle of the fingers and toes, again looking as though they'd been split during their evolution from a single hoof.

The creature was wearing nothing but shorts that appeared to be made of supple suede leather. The bulge in the front of the shorts between the creature's massive legs was truly impressive and appeared to be stretching the leather right to its limits even though the shorts had clearly been designed to take the excessively large equipment into consideration. Jake was awed by the overall masculine power of him. He could already sense his own arousal as he gaped at the incredible size of him. Xelzix was right, he could already feel a sense of familiarity about the creature and it must be coming from the dreams his mind had generated and the good times he must have already had with the creature in them. He wished he could remember those dreams in detail. He felt already that he was going to very much enjoy this match.

"He's magnificent, Xelzix! Is this a full sized image?"

Xelzix grinned his pleasure at the obvious success of the match and said, "Yes, indeed. This is quite precisely life sized. Please feel free to move around the image and examine it more closely."

Jake stood and walked to the projection and as he did so he saw that the image was actually moving a bit. It had stunning clarity and detail as if the alien were right here in the room with them. Clearly it was a moving recording of the creature standing in one place, as occasionally he would move his arms or cross them and then uncross them or shift his weight to one side or the other impatiently and Jake could see the massive muscles rippling under his thick hide. He was truly impressive. Jake was six foot five and now about as heavily muscled as a human man could be but as he approached the image he saw that he would still seem almost like an adolescent boy next to this creature. The bull-like alien stood almost a foot taller than Jake and was wider and even more heavily muscled. As he approached closer he could see that the thick, short-haired hide was exactly the same as on cattle. The hide was a rich dark brown on the back and the outsides of the arms and legs, and was slightly mottled with a pattern of even darker brown and black, but on the front it quickly faded to a light brown on the chest and abdomen. The insides of the arms and legs were also the lighter brown color. The contrast looked wonderful.

The creature had a rippling rack of muscles on its abdomen and massive pectorals on its chest. Jake moved around to the back and saw that it had a long, slender tail protruding from a hole built in to the back of the leather shorts he was wearing. The tail was about two feet long and covered with the same hide as the rest of the creatures body. It was slightly thicker at its base than at the tip with a small tuft of dark hair at the end. The tail occasionally swished to one side or the other. The shorts conformed to the creatures body quite closely and Jake could see that his buttocks were very rounded and muscular. His back was wide and powerful looking and Jake saw that there was a sort of mane of soft looking black, wavy hair that started very narrow and short at the small of the creatures back and slowly got wider and the hair grew longer up the middle of his back and finally ended right at the top of the bull's head between the two horns in a thick head of hair that fell around the sides and back of the creature's head. Cow-like ears protruded up through the hair on either side. The creature's face looked very much like a bull but it had clearly defined and somewhat full lips at the front under its wide nose. It had big, beautiful, light brown eyes with large pupils. A shorter version of the same wavy hair that made up the creature's mane on its back started under its chin and grew shorter and narrow back toward the neck where it disappeared.

Jake was utterly blown away. He could not see anything about the creature that did not appeal to him immensely. He wondered if the bull was also examining an image of Jake somewhere out there right now. If so, did he like what he saw?

"I'm impressed beyond words, Xelzix. I'm not entirely sure I could explain why, but he's beautiful to me. Everything about him is appealing."

Xelzix grinned some more and said, "That is precisely as it should be. I can assure you he will find you quite as appealing as you find him for all his own reasons."

"Has he seen an image of me transmitted to him in the same way? The new me?"

"No, but your image was flashed to him as he slept and his reaction was extremely positive just as yours was to him. His father saw your image in great detail. We transmitted a full sized image of the body we planned to install you in some time ago and he himself found you extremely attractive and has approved the match. The one you see before you is in fact a boy who will soon be reaching the age of twenty four of their years. Their planet is closer to their sun than yours and orbits faster with shorter years and the time is equivalent to eighteen of your years. It is an important time for them in which a boy officially becomes a man. His name is Komakwa. It was his father that requested the match. The boy in fact does not know of it and the father wishes to keep it that way as he feels Komakwa will rail against his father's interference and will automatically refuse to spend time with you simply as a form of rebellion.

"It is a somewhat unusual arrangement but not the first time we've done something like this. I will warn you that it will not be straightforward for you and you will need to play a role and try to get the boy to come out of his shell naturally without letting him know the true nature of your relationship, at least at first. Komakwa has been influenced by a group of people with certain beliefs that do not align with his fathers. They are teaching the boy prejudice and intolerance in the interests of returning their race to its traditional way of isolating themselves from other races and following the laws of their old and outdated religion. His father feels the boy is not allowing himself to enjoy life quite as well as he should and he is worried for his son's future happiness should he continue down his current path. Komakwa will be going through his rite of manhood soon and the father feels he is not emotionally ready. His plan was to present you as a traveling envoy from another world. Now that your world has in fact been destroyed the father will present you as a refugee that he has chosen to protect. The father, Mogwo, has a very high rank among his people and it is not unusual for them to have important foreign guests staying under their roof. He will arrange things such that the boy will have to spend time with you and hopes that the two of you will become friends and ultimately much more."

"This isn't what I expected," Jake said, "I thought I'd be meeting someone who had already seen me and consciously decided I was what they wanted. I'm not sure that I can play with someone's emotions this way. It seems sort of duplicitous."

"I can understand your feelings and I do apologize for the circumstances of the match but they are what they are. Mogwo feels the same way that you do but right now his main concern is for his son. The people that are gaining sway over him are far more duplicitous in nature and the father realizes that any attempt to directly attack the relationship will ultimately alienate Komakwa completely and he will lose him forever. Mogwo feels that his son's life will be destroyed by these people and he is desperate to extricate him from their grasp. He prefers not to attempt to do so forcefully but simply by allowing his son to see with his own eyes the sort of life these people would be denying him. You will not be required to do anything more than be yourself and be with the boy and it is our hope that nature will take care of the rest. You need not spend any time thinking about the boy's predicament or actively try to change his mind. That is not the intent. Simply befriend him and listen to him and help him to discover how much he can enjoy his life if he does not allow himself to be stifled by these people and their intolerant ways. You do not need to manipulate him in any way but simply be there for him as a friend. I can assure you from my careful study of you and him for the match that you have much in common and you will hit it off quite quickly and very easily."

"I see. I suppose if I'm only required to spend time with him and let nature take its course, and not actively try to subvert him or convince him to leave this group then it should be acceptable."

Jake gazed some more at the image of Komakwa and tried to imagine what it might be like to engage in sex with him. He wondered if he'd truly be able to do it with a completely alien being when he'd never even done it with a human before. The stirrings he was already starting to feel in his loins while he imagined being taken by the impressive creature told him it should not be a problem though. He remembered how attractive he'd found Srythryn to be too. The crocodiles were even more alien looking in a sense and yet Jake was somehow drawn to them physically. Perhaps it was strength and size he was drawn to as Xelzix had suggested earlier. He would certainly love to get closer to Srythryn if he could.

"Xelzix, if I enter into this contract will I be bound to him monogamously? Will I be required to be exclusive with him sexually?"

"No, of course not. You are not marrying him. The intent is not even for you to fall in love though I must warn you that is generally what happens as a natural course of such powerful attraction and emotional compatibility. You are free to engage in sex with anyone you see fit even if you agree to the contract. The vast majority of races you will find are not possessive of their partners, even once they do enter into matrimony," Xelzix explained.

"What if the fireworks don't happen? What if I feel uncomfortable with the situation once I'm in it? What if he and I end up at each other's throats or something?"

"Your contract can be canceled at any time so you need not be concerned about being trapped in a situation that is untenable to you. In fact, if you choose at this moment not to agree to the match it will be considered canceled. The father may also choose to cancel the contract should he find reason to feel that it is the best course of action. Once it is canceled you will be allowed to choose where you will spend the rest of your life and we will make the arrangements to transport you there from which point you will be on your own. You will no longer be covered by the insurance of return so you will be mortal once more unless you should find the means to pay for the insurance yourself."

"I see. When we first met you said that due to the abrupt circumstances of my removal from my world without being fully informed of the implications of it that you had decided to allow me one return regardless of whether I agreed to the match or not," Jake said.

"Yes, that return has already occurred. Normally all of the information I have given you today would be shown prior to installation into a new body and you would choose whether or not to proceed. When someone who is from a race that has not yet emerged into the collective and does not know the true nature of the universe is approached by us, if they choose not to accept they would simply forget what they were told of the universe and the fact that we made the offer. We do not have the technology to selectively remove past memories from you but we do have the ability to eliminate the latest synaptic pathways you've formed so that if you chose not to proceed we would wipe your latest memories and you would have no recollection of the offer or the true state of the universe and you could return to your normal life. In your case of course the memory wipe will not be necessary as you have no home to return to and you will be staying out in the universe as a member of the collective."

Jake was struck by the thought that some of the cases of people who swore they were abducted by aliens might actually have been true. What if they'd been taken off planet and interviewed by a slim, big eyed, grey alien just as Jake had been and then asked if they wanted to proceed, but turned down the offer? Their most recent memories would be obliterated and they would be returned to their lives with a small amount of missing time. If the removal of memories were as imprecise as it sounds then they might have some fragments remaining that would cause them to remember some flashes of the event. Since the offer involved sex with another alien then it made sense that the fragmented memories of some of those people might amount to 'Aliens took me and tried to add me to their breeding program!'

Xelzix continued, "Since you had to be taken first without the informed choice, we decided to reinstall you regardless and give you the gift of the nanos to allow you a chance at a full and healthy life in return for your near abduction from your natural one, and the fact that you have no home to return to any longer. Our obligation for the one return has been fulfilled. The nanos are yours to keep regardless of your decision. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I do."

"Then the time has come for your decision," Xelzix said, "You must now choose whether you will proceed with the match or not. Will you require some time to think?"

"No, I won't. The choice isn't a difficult one for me. I'm truly grateful for what you've done for me already, Xelzix. Not only did you save me from a fiery death on Earth, but you've returned my health to me and then some, and reset my physical clock back to the age of twenty years and not only given me the second chance at life I'd only ever dreamed of before, but you've opened up a universe full of wonders that I had no idea existed. I can never thank you enough for that. One thing I learned as my life approached its end was that a life empty of risk or adventure was a life truly wasted. I was full of nothing but regrets at the end. I will not repeat that mistake. I agree to this match whole heartedly and I very much look forward to the adventure," Jake said.

"Excellent! I had faith that you would be the best candidate for this match and you have proven I was correct. From this moment forward and for as long as the contract is in place we will return you to life whenever the need may arise. You and I will meet again each time you die, Jake. For now I will take you to where Srythryn is. He has been pestering me about you these past months and he is most anxious to see you again. He will keep you company and make you comfortable for the rest of the journey to our destination."

"Thank you, Xelzix. Should I get dressed first?"

"Your current attire is the norm on this ship for anyone not engaged in work. Srythryn's race is uncomfortable in clothing for the most part and they wear only what they need to for the job at hand. When relaxing they cover their most private parts and that is all. If you are not accustomed to warm and humid climates you may find even your small shorts a bit much when you enter their living space. Their world is a hot and humid jungle and they model their living space after it. This ship is a floating city for them and they spend their entire lives in it. In order to feel more at home they make it as much like their home world as they can. Stay clothed as you are for now, but feel free to request anything else you may need from Srythryn. He will be happy to provide anything. It is the end of their work day now and they will have just finished their evening meal and will be relaxing in the common area."

The alien tapped some controls and the image of Komakwa vanished. He then led Jake through a door out into a hallway.

To Jake it felt like he'd seen Srythryn just an hour or so ago, but to Srythryn it would have been three months. He couldn't wait to see the croc again and show him his new self.