Neural Network Training

The alarm sounded throughout the ship, 85 minutes from the trade station Andrews. Crew raced through the corridors, bringing everything an unarmed vessel could defend itself with, which was mostly figuring out where the pirates had docked, and trying to weld on plates for extra reinforcement before the airlock was breached.

It was too little and too late. When the first boarders broke through the makeshift barrier, wielding plasma guns, the crew working on the door either ran off, or just stood still with their hands up and tails down - those that had tails, anyway. It did not take long for the body of pirates to board and make their way to the bridge, securing crew members as they passed along, sending the captives back through a chain of pirates that guided them all to a cargo hold.

When the bridge had been taken over, the alarms went silent, and the captain spoke over the intercom.

“This is Captain Hardy speaking. The ship has been taken by hostile forces, and I order all crew to stand down and make their way in an orderly fashion to cargo hold Beta Two. I repeat, make your way to Beta Two, and do not cause any problems. To anyone outside the cargo hold, be aware that they plan to remove all oxygen from the rest of the ship for several hours. This is the only warning you will get. I have shut down the engines, and am turning off all other systems except life support, and join you in cargo hold Beta Two."

Through the corridors, crew and boarders alike listened to the message, and as it finished, the pirates stood back with their arms at the ready, but in relaxed positions. Simple cargo haulers practically never resisted. It was bad for business. Crewmembers, some of them used to this having happened before, kept their arms up but walked calmly towards the cargo bay, passing through two thick shielding-doors to get there.

Once everyone was rounded up, the pirate captain's right hand underling went through the ship's manifest, looking for goods valuable enough to take up space in their own vessel, and counting off all crew to ensure that everyone on the manifest was taken prisoner. The doors to the cargo hold slowly hissed shut, and then a soft hiss was heard through the entire rest of the ship as all corridors, rooms, and crawl spaces were being pumped empty of breathable air.

“It appears we have everyone here, captain, and roughly one third of the loot is worth keeping," said the gecko to his boss, “Not too bad, nothing super exciting."

The pirate captain addressed the former crew. “Now we just wait to be sure the ship is empty, or for any stragglers to come knocking when they find it hard to breathe. Not that we don't trust you, but... we need to make sure you didn't forget anyone. You are all prepared, I assume?"

Now the bear, formerly captain, replied with a deep sigh. It was true that these things happened so often, and the vast emptiness of space was very hard to police.

“Yes, everyone should be here. You have our roster. As you can see in the manifest, Titan Shipping insured us, and will pay a reasonable ransom, as long as crew and ship are not further damaged."

With so little protection, most cargo ships were better off being fully unarmed and insuring the crew and ship. Any ship that carried weapons had to be prepared to use them, and for a plain freighter the damage incurred as a pirate ship shot the weapons off along with large sections of ship around them. It was simply cheaper for the companies to have an intact ship. Especially since any armed ship captured by pirates tended to become another pirate. And if you didn't ransom your crews, it became very hard to find new ones.

“I'm glad we understand each other. Now we can talk like civilized beings. I'm Tal," said the snow leopard, “And according to the announcement we heard, you would be the Captain Hardy, mm?"

The bear nodded.

“I'll just make an announcement, and then we wait for, oh, a few hours should be plenty even if you did send out a distress signal, before we repressurize the ship and go on our way. It would be most appreciated if your crew could handle the loading of these selected bays over to our ship, to have things run smoothly."

The bear could only nod. It was routine procedure, since the crew of each boarded ship best knew how to operate the equipment, and would not try anything stupid as that would only get them shot, either disabled or killed. They would do what they were told, and then the pirates would be on their way and the cargo ship could continue to its destination, minus the loot taken.

~~~

Tucked away in a closet was a human. He had jumped into hiding as soon as the alarms went off and he'd heard it was pirates, rather than some fault of the ship that he should get to the life boats for. Jordan heard the raspy voice, possibly feline, over the intercom.

“To anyone left on the ship, this is mercenary captain Tal. I strongly recommend you make your way to cargo bay Beta Two now, as the ship is already being drained of oxygen. If you hurry, you'll make it before you choke. The air supply will be cut off for longer than the emergency masks will last."

Since Jordan had no idea what most of the emergency protocols were, he just followed the numerous arrows at each corridor intersection marking where the nearest temporary air supply was located. Even when finding one, it was only a full head helmet with a small oxygen tank attached, clearly labeled 'Emergency air supply. Estimated duration: one (1) hour. This device will not protect your body. Calmly make your way to a protective suit and enter it.'

Jordan just stayed put to begin with and slunk back into a closet to hide. Time passed, and a soft beep inside the helmet directed his attention to the only HUD-like device, a counter up at the top of the visor, that now showed the remaining air capacity at five minutes. Shortly after, he felt the air growing harder to breathe when the mask began rationing out its limited final supply to keep a person alive for the longest duration. The human began stumbling along the helpfully programmed lights in the corridors, set to indicate the way to the cargo bay.

Making it to the outer door, wheezing and dizzy from the lack of oxygen, he banged weakly on the door. “Lh.. let.. me.. In.." the human gasped whilst he was sliding down towards the floor, close to passing out.

The boarders, always on the lookout for strays and slow crew that might not have been on the manifest, were ready with two suited up people. One with a large tail attachment and a slightly taller helmet, indicating that it might be some type of animal with big ears and wide tail. The other of the two was slimmed down, looking more like Jordan himself would in a suit.

As the outer door opened, the suits dragged the human's body inside, pulled the emergency helmet off of him. They talked in their comm units and the outer door closed again, there was a hiss of air, and the inner door opened. After having pushed Jordan in on the floor, the door was closed again, waiting for more potential latecomers.

“Well now, who do we have here?" said the pirate captain as the new person was dragged up to the rest of the crew. “Is he one of yours that that you forgot to enter into the manifest?"

The bear shook his head. “That's none of my crew. I do not know who he is. Anyone?"

The previous captain glared along his crew to see any sort of fidgeting or nervousness. “Any of you pick up a little extra for this trip, even when we're on a calculated amount of rations and air?"

Of course no one replied even if there was some shuffling of feet and paws on the floor. Several crew members had at one time or another taken on an extra passenger for a good sum of money. Someone that had missed an important flight, or someone that was withheld on a station, perhaps needing a quick way out that was not registered anywhere.

Jordan had at that time recovered enough that he could stand up with the rest of the crew. He had a similar jumpsuit outfit, on loan to him from the guy who had smuggled him aboard, so that the human wouldn't stand out too much among the rest of the crew.

The snow leopard pirate approached, not too close, and pointed at Jordan. “So none of you know why he is aboard this vessel? Not trying to pad out your paychecks or anything on the side?" Looking back at the bear, the captain asked, “Since you do not know anything about him, and your crew has fallen suddenly mute, we might as well get down to business. You and you," he indicated to another human and a hyena in their suits, sans helmets, “Take a few men and get enough of the crew here to transfer cargo for us. Rustle up some suits or masks for them to wear, since there will be no breathable air in the workplace for a while yet."

Jordan pointed at a tiger in the group of people leaving the cargo bay's airlock, as the inner door closed. “HE, HE'S THE ONE, I paid him to take me along. Come on, tell them!" he pleaded before the thick door closed. The tiger didn't even turn his head, and his face was invisible behind the reflective helmet visor There was no way he would risk his ransom, just to save the ass of a probable fugitive.

Gaping and starting towards the door, only to be shoved back against the remaining crew by a large boar pirate with a fittingly large rifle and a growl across his muzzle, Jordan instead turned to the captain. “I'm part of the deal, right? That's what Roy told me when I paid him."

The bear glared back, then turned to the pirate captain. “He is not one of ours. Most likely he snuck aboard while we were loading up back at the starbase, and stole a uniform so he would fit in." Mentally, Hardy - the former captain - made a mental note to have a serious 'talk' with Roy later on about forgetting to share any off-the-books profits with his crew mates . .

Tal looked over at the bear. “Will your company cover his fare, too?"

Hardy stared straight back, after having looked the human over. “Most definitely not. A stowaway is a liability, and as you heard myself tell my crew, we have limited supplies on board. Any extra resource demanding person is dead weight to us." He felt a little pity for the guy, but if the insurance agency found out about a stowaway, the premiums would go up by a lot, and the company would not mind cutting that out of their crew's wages. 'Gotta look out for oneself first..' he thought to placate his conscience.

The pirate.. Or mercenary as he liked to call himself, looked Jordan over. “Okay. He's of no use to you, and it would be a waste to leave anything small and profitable behind. You guys, grab him and take him back to our ship," said the feline in an almost bored manner. It was a little extra income, but not enough to really get excited over.

A couple of pirates approached Jordan, one being the large boar, the other a lean deer. Jordan noticed the deer's antlers had been cut down and trimmed to rounded edges, most likely to fit in one of the standard size space helmets. The smaller deer stood back with a rifle, while the large boar slung his weapon over his back and went to grab the human by the shoulders, gruffing as he did so.

“You move along nice, and we don't twist your arms outta place or happen to shoot a leg off, we understand each other? 'Kay, thought so," said the boar and began pushing the pleading human towards the airlock of the two interconnected ships.

~~~

It dawned slowly on Jordan that he was being hung out to dry by everyone on 'his' ship, and so his noises muted and he walked with more of a drag to his feet, occasionally getting pushed by the boar to move faster. They led him to a cargo hold with a number of crates, some labelled and sealed with a green light on, some of the crates being dead and open.

“Strip," he was ordered, and with a large guard and another big rifle pointing at him, the human simply obeyed to make whatever the procedure was as painless and quick as possible. Once he was fully naked, they brought him close to one of the open crates. As the deer kept his distance and kept watch, the boar picked up three small tanks held together in a bundle, some tubes, and a handful of dull matte grey material. He threw the rubber heap down in front of Jordan, and it spread out to vaguely resemble a suit.

“Git it on. 's for your own good so you don't turn to mush when we accelerate away," said the boar in a commanding tone.

Jordan opened his mouth as if to say anything, then shut it as the deer squinted and took better aim at the human's knee just to show he was not afraid to nail the prisoner.

The human pulled the rubber like suit on, sticking his feet in first. It was already coated with some slimy substance inside to make it easier to dress up in, but it felt far from the shiny sexy suits he had seen in certain clubs. This was more rugged rubber, intended for padding and handling rather than pretty looks. When he got to the groin, the boar took over for a short while and unceremoniously bent Jordan over the crate, then proceeded to press a short plug up the human's ass. While Jordan yelped out and recovered from the stinging pain, the boar meanwhile man-handled the human around and started working a thin rubber catheter into the flaccid penis.

“OW! Can you at least be careful?" Jordan yipped out as the plug was shoved in, but then the burning sensation of the catheter tube made him whine out loud and grab hold of the crate's edges.

“Shaddap, we done this a thousand times before, it ain't for your comfort," grumbled the boar as he connected the tubes from both the butt plug and catheter to one of the tanks, leading them through plugs in the suit itself. “Now g'won an' get the rest of that put on."

Jordan panted heavily to calm his nerves and to try making the burning pain inside his penis go away. Arms went into the suit, chest covered, and at the top was a hood with two small plugs at the front. When the hood had been pulled over his head, the boar made sure that the seal between neck and body was tightly closed, then began attaching the remaining two tanks from the bundle.

The human breathed in small gasps through the nose and mouth openings. “Can't I go somewhere else? I'm kind of claustrophobic," he tried to say, but because of the tightness of the hood it came out as mumbles. He was fully muted when the two remaining tubes were attached, one over his nose, the other pressing in slightly into Jordan's mouth.

When the prisoner was fully dressed, the boar grunted as he lifted the whole package up to put inside the open crate, aware that the human couldn't hear any instructions any more. He pushed the grey suited body down to a fetal position in the box, and added a final connector to the suit. With a loud whirr, a pump sucked out all air from inside the suit, in effect vacuum sealing Jordan like he was a slab of meat in a supermarket. When the suit creaked and would not compress further, the air hose was removed.

Jordan wondered what was going on, after he was hooded and could not see anything. He felt himself being lifted and put down, then pushed to fit inside what he could only assume was the crate, as the walls were close all around him. As the suit got compressed, he lost a lot of mobility as well, heavy rubber sucked in form fitting to his body making it very hard to move any joints. He then felt something splash down in the crate, slowly creeping up over his body. He began to panic, he was not great with small spaces as it were, and now he was going to drown, too!

Only as the liquid had filled up enough to cover the human's body in its entirety, did he realize that he could still breathe, and was doing so in rapid gasps. The tank attached to his nose plug provided air directly for him to breathe. When he slowly calmed down, keeping his eyes shut tight so that he would not be reminded that he could not see even if he tried, Jordan tried telling himself that it would be all right in the end.

At that stage, Jordan also noticed that he had wet himself in panic, but no moisture was inside the tight suit, the catheter had drained it all into the waste tank. Experimenting with the nipple in his mouth, he squeezed down on it with his lips. Nothing happened. He sucked gently on it and was rewarded with a few drops of plain water. It was almost pure luck that he didn't get it in his lungs on that first try.

Soon he began to feel sleepy, inordinately so, considering his panic reaction to being cramped up, robbed of all his senses, and now suspended in some sort of fluid that blocked a lot of his sense of orientation even. As the sedatives in his air supply worked to make the body fully unconscious, to have it use a minimum of resources, Jordan drifted off into a deep dreamless sleep.

The two pirates closed up the box, which kept a rudimentary track of its occupant's vital signs, and for the rest of it was filled with a gel to reduce the effects of acceleration on the body inside. All of the tanks were designed to hold enough air, water, and waste receptacle to last roughly seventy-two hours. Plenty of time to get back to base, and if not, the more expensive subjects could get their tanks replaced when needed. The human was now another green-lit closed box among many in this cargo bay.

~~~

While Jordan was asleep in the box, he was carted around like any other piece of cargo. In a market place where people did not ask too many questions as long as the price was low enough for quality gear, just about everything could be had. There was no shortage of customers wanting a cheaper version of some rare material, and more specialized ones looking for the occasional extra rare item. The latter were by far the best customers, as they usually had no problem paying a high price for some item that did not take up much cargo space.

During the offloading of goods which the gecko supervised to send each type of material to lined up buyers' ships, Tal himself contacted a specialist. It was common courtesy, and showed that the client was particularly high ranking, that the captain himself did the dealings with such.

Having sent out a general list of special cargo, Tal now only had to wait for the buyers to appear. It would not take long, as everyone wanted first pick of the good stuff. The first one coming aboard the ship was a tall giraffe, looking less vulnerable as she was clad in an exoskeleton armor that extended all the way up the long neck.

“Hello again, Tal. I see you have quite a selection this time, there must be, what, twenty or so different boxes here?" she opened with, though having read the list of 'items' and seen images of the bodies before they were put in storage, already knew what she had to choose from.

“Indeed, miss. It is good to see you again, Aurora," the captain nodded with a conspiratorial grin, “We aim to please. And during this run, we have come across quite a few uninsured pleasure yachts. Some of them will be quite costly, as we expect their parents, company, or other will be offering a large ransom for them. It is all marked on the list."

She took a look around the cargo bay, scrolling through the list of occupants on her arm console meanwhile. “I think that for my zoo, I'd like to add the gorilla, one human, and two of your Kzinti. Perhaps a smaller being too, if I have the space for it. Which ones could you recommend?"

Tal turned to his own list of value and bids, to both get rid of the ones bringing in the most money at first. “The gorilla is a special value offer, just for you," he said in the charming barter banter. “Of the humans.. I think this one will do nicely," he then said, indicating Jordan's crate. “Many of the felines are priced the same, so perhaps you have some picked out already from the holograms to see what will fit your display? We have a few mustelids, some sentient and some feral. Would you be interested in a group deal, maybe to show off the difference between the two kinds?"

Aurora smiled. “Slick as ever, Tal. Yes, since they're still here, I would like these two Kzin," she noted on her display, “Especially if you throw in the mustelids at two thirds the normal rate. And add in the human you suggested. They look mostly the same to me, so I'll go with the one that would seem most stylish in its environment."

Tal nodded agreement and checked off the crates in question, and as he did so, he saw that his second in command had already sold a few crates unseen. A message blinked in and he chose to take it in text only, so he would not have to have a live conversation going with a customer present. For the particular human in question, Tal had gotten a substantial offer from a hyena that he only dealt with some times, as that person had very particular desires. This time it was the nearly ideal dimensions in size and weight matching Jordan's specifications, and Tal saw an offer that was typical for this odds and ends customer, easily half again as much as what he would get even if the ransom was paid. He tapped back that the offer was accepted. Shortly after that, the light on Jordan's crate turned from green to amber, as several other crates already had.

“Ah.." he began, smoothly political about it, “This particular item has just been ransomed by his company, I'm afraid." He had no qualms about a little white lie that could not be readily verified. “Besides the price going up severely, it would hurt business if we did not accept a ransom payment, you understand?"

She scowled briefly. “But I just chose him. Surely I should have the right to buy?"

Tal replied, “I'm sorry, but that's how things work. Someone in our custody can get their ransom paid suddenly, and at that time they'll be put on the next passenger shuttle into regulated space. If we did not have this agreement, then life would be harder for all of us. There are however another few humans left to pick from, if I may be so bold?"

The captain was just bending the truth a little, he thought to himself. Honor amongst thieves and all that. But the offer that had come in had nothing to do with ransom, it was just up-sold so much that he could not ignore it, and so had decided to instantly sell this human to the specialist and then talk his way out of losing a more volume, less picky, client like the giraffe was.

Aurora grumbled a bit, as if thinking about just leaving the whole deal and go see someone more reputable, if that word could be applied to piracy. When it became obvious that the captain would not change his mind though, she agreed to the sale. “Fine. Give me that one instead, But I want a serious discount on this second-rate choice."

Tal kept a straight face with just a hint of distressed look, as if he did not want to cause his client trouble, but negotiated the price of the other human down to just about half its going rate.

When the female had left, with some crew to haul out the vats she had bought, Tal breathed a sigh of relief. The transaction seemed to have gone as well as he could have hoped for, and for the price offered for this human in particular, he could really have given away half of her purchases for free and still come out on top.

His second in command, when returning from selling off the regular commodities, informed Tal that the crate with the human in it had been paid for instantly upon accepting the offer. The human crate would be picked up later during the day, long before takeoff.

Sure enough, after about an hour, a regular ground transport arrived. Jordan was taken out of the crate, as the g-force thick gel was not needed, and it was only the one pick up. The unconscious human was still drugged down, and the tanks read that he had ten hours to go before a refill was needed. With the help of two of the crew, Jordan's body was carried out to the vehicle and placed, carefully, in the trunk.

~~~

Jordan came to slowly as the tanks were disconnected, and the rubber transport suit peeled off his body. He found himself unable to move his limbs but thought that it was the sedative wearing off. He was both right and wrong in that assumption.

He could look down far enough to see his body fixed to a table with straps going across the waist and over the chest and shoulders. A hyena was standing over him with a surgical tool, operating on the human's left leg. He had already finished half a circle, and was now continuing up as he noticed Jordan waking up. Strangely enough, the human did not feel more than a tingle coming from his leg.

The hyena looked up towards Jordan's face. “Oh. We're awake, I see. Don't worry, that paralyzing collar you're wearing blocks most of your nervous system. You may experience a little discomfort during the operation, as all nerves can't simply be shut off. That would make it pretty hard for you to breathe or keep your heart beating, huh? And don't mind the hunger you're feeling, I've washed your whole gastric system out already to remove any solids. It would complicate matters to have to deal with that, too."

Now, the hyena was grinning. It was always more fun to work with an audience. He kept cutting around the thigh, separating it cleanly from the torso with a wisp of steam and smoke that was sucked away. He pushed the severed leg off the side of the table into a waiting cooled tray. There was remarkably little blood as the amputation tool closed up all blood vessels it encountered, and did its best to keep some tension on the remaining muscle fibers and tendons. It was a standard, if a bit costly, device that most bigger ships carried, and could be found in any hospital.

“What do you think of my work so far? Not too shabby considering the circumstances, if I may say so myself." The hyena was well aware, by the reaction in Jordan's eyes, just how far the human's peripheral vision could observe what was going on. The 'doctor' went on to the right leg, pushing the tool in at the inside of Jordan's thigh and began a slow cutting motion, up over the top at the torso, down along the side, then trimming the rest of the leg off by just cutting downwards on either side of the thigh.

“Not like you're going to need those for a good while. I might, though. You'll see," continued the hyena. “Oh, but where are my manners? I'm Jeremiah, but you can think of me as Jer. And you are.. No, wait, let me guess.." he said with a chuckle as he looked at the cargo slip, “Jordan. Glad to make your acquaintance. See those mechanical limbs over there? All new and shiny? They might be yours one day if you behave well enough."

True enough, on a workbench off to the side lay arms and legs with a metallic sheen to them, half unpacked from their boxes, as Jer had only opened them up enough to verify that he got what he paid for. By now, the hyena had worked through the whole leg, and moved up to stand next to Jordan. The human could smell the morph, so close to him. His eyes were fixed on the cutting tool, though, as that was lowered down to begin one long, clean slice through the comparatively thin shoulder.

Jordan tried to protest, tried to scream in panic, but nothing came out. He barely had control over his eyes, even. Luckily for him, the nerve blocking device was also cutting out most of the pain he would have felt, so it was all tingles and most of those were psychological. The other arm dropped off, as easily as the first, and Jer proceeded to get some items from the bench with the mecha-limbs, returning with four shiny discs.

The doctor began attaching the discs to Jordan's body, scaling them to fit the arms at first, and they seemed to know what to do on their own, recognizing a human organism. A myriad of small connections were made to nerves, stronger holds burrowed into bone and muscle to hold the device firmly in place. Jordan had seen things like that on other people before, though usually only as a shiny ring while the user had a prosthetic device attached and did not care enough to cover up the seam. While it did not lessen his loss for his organic body, it at least gave him hope that he would be able to function normally, once the limbs were attached.

All four discs were applied, covering both shoulder holes and the big circles down at his torso where his legs used to be. Thinking it was over as soon as he had his new limbs, and wondering why he was picked for such a weirdly expensive upgrade for no reason at all, made him both confused and briefly distracted from the panic he should have felt.

Now however, the hyena with his big grin was leaning in over Jordan's face. “There are a few little things we will have to address about you, that will not be as easily replaced with a snap on attachment."

Having said that, Jer took a dental gag and slid it in between the human's slack jaws, spreading them wide, and set the collar to inhibit the human's capability to breathe, freezing his lungs, just as he finished taking a breath. The hyena first brought up a long, rubbery arrow-like device that he held up in front of Jordan's face so he got a good look at it. A long tube, with a pair of mushroom-like parts, far wider than the throat itself. He pressed it down inside Jordan's throat, blocking both stomach and airways. The wide and soft plugs, Jordan felt, had rubber flanges on their sides that would prevent them from being pulled out. There were two of those lumpy blobs that he had seen, being pressed down the throat and towards the stomach. The human gagged briefly as each passed the top of his throat, but then they were suddenly there, lodged inside his body. He could still breathe in. He found his body doing on its own, but there was a pressure building in his chest, as he could not exhale.

Being unable to exhale had Jordan panicking again. He could not even try speaking. The hyena worked quickly but carefully over the course of a minute or so, during which Jordan came close to passing out. Tubes were slid in through the nose, to plug into appropriate connectors on the plug in the human's throat. Suddenly, in a loud hiss, exhaled through the new nose tubes, and spent several seconds, as he recovered his breath.

Jer pulled out those tools, and picked back up the tool he'd used on Jordan's arms, and a suction-tube. There was a flash of light, and a pop that sent a jolt through the human's mouth, followed by the smell of burning hair, as fragments of the first tooth were suctioned out of his mouth. Jordan was completely freaking out as he could do nothing about it, and was expecting a horrible pain, too. That however, was also muted down by the restraining collar, luckily for both himself and for the doctor that did not have to put up with loud yelling as he was working.

The doctor then used suction and the surgical tool again, first removing the mass of tooth fragments from the mouth, then moving along the sides of the maw to dig in and fully remove each tooth at the base, leaving only a small bump in the gums.

Jordan could not imagine how he would manage to look natural without his teeth, All he could do was to blink rapidly, look between the hyena's face and down towards where he saw the spreader gag sticking up, trying to indicate that he definitely did not want to be part of this.

Jer did not mind it at all. He even smiled at Jordan as he vacuumed out bits of the last tooth. After that, he removed the gag to let the human feel his limp mouth close. “Isn't that much better? All smooth and comfy, and you never have to worry about saying the wrong thing at the wrong time?"

The next part was even more chilling, as the hyena now leaned down over his head with the cutting tool. “Do try to stay calm, I'd hate to miss by even the tiniest amount in this jam packed area you call a brain.." said Jer, beginning to do small incisions at several places at the side of Jordan's skull. With another device that seemed to be a multi segmented tube, capable of moving on its own, he simply stuck it into the ready made holes, and watched the progress on a monitor off to the side.

Jordan could feel a blush of pleasure go through his mind while he was being worked on, which calmed most of his panic down. It was only a brief instant, but felt like much longer, and so the next thing he could feel was the very thin pinhole surgical device already having made its way down his throat, stopping just below the neck before slowly sliding out exactly the way they came in, not disturbing any neves or other parts of the brain itself.

With all that done, the hyena closed up the tiny holes in the skull, and moved down a little along Jordan's body. The cutting tool was used again to draw long lines, from the neck all the way down to the groin, and even holding the ballsack up to give it an incision. The tech of the tool made for a mostly bloodless procedure, temporarily closing blood vessels that would soon be reconnected. While Jer was there, he picked up a metallic ball, about an inch in diameter, hanging from a wire, and slid that into Jordan's sac. This wire too, was routed up through the body towards the central point. To the human, looking down while his sac was held up in a hyena paw and on display, it now looked like he had a third testicle, squeezing against the two real ones.

“Very nice of you to be an organ donor. This along with your limbs will be very valuable to the clients who want natural replacements after some, ah, accident in their line of work. Not much use for your teeth though, hmn, which is just as well as they're ground down to a powder already." he mused, as he made two thin slices up either side of Jordan's cheeks, then moved down to do the same to the bottom sides of the torso.

Seeing a large chunk of his insides being lifted out, Jordan's eyes widened a little, as much as the nerve restraint would let him. He had no idea what was being pulled out, and wasn't reasonable enough to figure out that it would make no sense for the doctor to remove something vital. Only when Jer continued speaking, mostly to himself, did it become clear.

“You will do fine with just one kidney. It's like you come with a spare, just for situations like this! I did make sure to check that you had two, you know. I'm not.. careless.. with my subject-- ahah, that is, my patients." The hyena gave Jordan a brief flash of a grin, then put the kidney in the containment part already housing arms and legs.

The operation continued with Jer leaning in to connect hair fine strands to whatever had been pushed down Jordan's throat, along with a thicker device that was like a small lump in the neck, connected to most all of the spinal nerves. The doc didn't have to do much work manually, as the instruments he used, like a good routing package, had all details stored both about the body and the devices being put in it, and knew the optimal place where the new parts would not interfere with the body's regular functions.

Further lines were drawn down to the center of Jordan's torso and into the open space where his kidney had been. He got to see all of it, thanks to not having a muzzle in the way, so his peripheral vision was enough to give him a full overview of the operation. In his mind, the human was angry and in panic both, ?ithout any means to let it be shown.

Jer finally placed an item slightly smaller than the kidney he had removed, in the open gut of the human. He attached it to surrounding tissue with his tool so that it would stay securely put. The item was hard like a lump with only a few pinholes on one side, had rounded edges and was a nondescript grey color, clearly not made for its looks. Jer made sure to connect all the tendrils to that thing into the pinholes. He added lines going from the cheeks as he was closing the fine wounds up along the chest, and yet more lines out to the side of Jordan's rear, what was left of it, before closing up all the incisions. The hyena was very careful, making a neat a close-up job, to where only mildly pinkish scars remained. He did not feel it worth the extra time to smooth everything out for a 'good as new' look.

Once Jordan was fully sealed up with the surgical device, the hyena applied a quick spray of antiseptic, especially around the scars and the rings, then blew plain filtered air to evaporate the fumes, leaving the human sewn up and protected from infections directly related to the surgery. Jer leaned over to take the inhibitor collar off, holding it up for show. “There we go, all done! You're a new self, now." The hyena grinned as he turned to place the collar on the workbench, and took his time before turning back.

As soon as the hyena had turned around, Jordan tried to lift his head to look down and get a full view of just how his body looked. To his horror, he found that he still could not move at all, but now he also felt a dull ache from all the incision and operation spots.

Jer turned back around, a grin on his face. “I guess you've figured out by now. That the little thing in your neck gives me just as much control as the collar did, but doesn't show on the outside. Come on now, time to get you into your new body."

Jordan wasn't happy, but reasoned that whatever he was going to do, would work better if he waited to be fitted with his limbs, and tried to relax as he was picked up from the table. Without his arms and legs, he was light enough that the hyena could carry him on his own. Where he ended up however was a surprise. It looked like a feral feline mech standing on the floor, and from what Jordan could see, its back was opened up to reveal a mostly empty chamber, padded with a blue gel. 'I.. I'm getting turned into a cat? That can't even walk upright?' he thought to himself in disbelief.

Jordan was even more surprised when he was lowered into the suit the wrong way around, and facing the ceiling. His head was now close to the feline's segmented tail, and his rear rested up close to the short neck of the robot.

Jer fixed the limb appendages of the human's body inside the suit, locking them into place so that even a wiggle was impossible. Shoulders got connected to the rear end of the feline's thighs, and leg remainders snapped close up at the robot's shoulders. Once the connections were made, Jer turned off the human's implant. Jordan was left there, staring up at the ceiling and a little bit around him, but he could not see much over the edges of the robot shell. He tried to squirm, but his own limb stubs kept him in place. He could only lift his head just enough to see through the thin drape, over the edge of the bot.

At this stage, the hyena's comm-unit beeped, and he left Jordan lying in the shell, facing the ceiling. “Sorry, but pressing matters call. You will have to wait a little bit. I'll just put you back here for now."

Jer plugged in a small remote to the side of the feline bot's side, and used it to clumsily walk 'her' over to a corner of the room, without actually activating the higher functions of the robot. He drew a curtain before the robo-human unit to keep it out of sight. The bot stayed put where he left it, and still being inactive, Jordan could not move it, as he would have expected the new prosthetic connections to do.

From his position, Jordan could see a lot of the lab, his vision extending to about waist height of the hyena and dimmed a bit by the drape. When a knock on the door announced a visitor, after being properly screened, he saw the door open and a large deer morph step in, limping and listing to the side, with a piece of steel pipe for a cane.

“Hey, doc. Been a while. Y' got time to fix up a little flesh wound?" said the deer..

The hyena snorted. “If by little flesh-wound you mean having half of one leg shot off by what seems to be police standard plasma, then I suppose I could make time for you. A'ight, hop up on the table. Seems like you're shot full of painkillers already, but just in case, slap this collar on too, okay? If you start kicking while I'm working, I might cut off something important. Before you do that, do you want your old leg fixed up, a new one put on, or a mechanical one? I have a few spare organic parts, but a real leg will cost more than.. Heh, an arm and a leg, you could say. Sorry, a little doctor's humor there. Or there's a really cheap human leg that just came in, but that would look pretty dumb, especially since he was shorter than you. Which will it be?"

Ebony didn't have to think long about it. More power, and the more intimidating look of a robotic limb, was great in itself, besides the price. “I'll go for the prosthesis. Toss away the old meat, or keep it, whichever you please."

Trusting the doc, who had been helping out people of certain professions that did not want to go to regular medical institutes, was easy since he had so much business. The deer lay down without so much as a whimper, having to pull his near useless leg up, then put the collar on and his body suddenly went totally limp.

Jer approached the deer, “Tsk tsk, Ebony, if you only could take care of yourself better this wouldn't have to be so recurring. I've seen you quite a few times now, haven't I? New shiny leg it is. You get it as-is, any skin graft or fur extensions to cover the metal will cost extra, and need someone who's a bit more of an artist than I am. But at least you'll be up and walking again. And besides, with you people it's sometimes better to look scary than to hide it."

The hyena chuckled to himself as he fetched the tool cart again, and leaned down to carve Ebony's damaged leg off. Jordan now saw in detail what had been done to himself, but the deer remained relaxed, even closed his eyes for a quick nap as he was being worked on.

Jer brought out a replacement leg from storage, and unlocked the two main "bones", adjusting them to match the deer's intact leg. "You know, if you'd just get both legs shot off, this would actually be easier," he complained. He locked the length, and with a simple click and snap, it was put into place, and the collar was removed. “Get up, see how it feels. I'll just keep it plugged in for a minute while you wander to calibrate it to your body, and tell me if it's too long or short. You know, bend down, stretch it, do what you usually do."

Ebony slid off the table with a satisfied smile, and tried walking around the table, gingerly at first, and then with more confidence. “Thanks, looks good as new. You can throw the old one out, keep it, or whatever. Payment as usual?"

The hyena nodded and went back to his work bench to clear it up and put the tools in sanitizing equipment. He looked up as the deer was about to leave. “Since I've got you here anyway.. Would you like a little extra treat, on the house? Admittedly I have some selfish motives. I've put together something new that needs testing. I can guarantee that you'll find the extra twenty minutes' wait worth it. Free for my clients, until I deliver the toy to its buyer!"

Ebony shrugged and sat back against the table with a smile. “Hey, who am I to turn down free stuff? That's the best kind. So what's this thing of yours?"

The doc stepped behind the curtain, talking from behind it. “Oh, you'll see. It's almost ready, that's why it'll take a couple of minutes to prep it."

Jordan saw the hyena come in and loom over him with a grin, leaning down to whisper, “Here's your first training exercise. Behave well now for me. You might experience a little.. shifting around." Jer then slid belts up from the sides of the bot to clamp down on Jordan's waist, torso, and under his chin. He added a pair of half gags to the human's mouth, soft-sleeved but metal-lined, like the dental gag but now as two separate units. The two halves were attached to the robot's machinery, each pushed in far enough at the upper and lower jaws to be able to open, or close Jordan's mouth.

As they started to automatically retract, the human's body got squeezed in tight and compressed a bit, moved back slightly inside the shell. His head was forced to bend backwards and down, between the hindlegs of the robot, now positioned so that his open mouth was right at the sexbot's pussy, letting him breathe in through the hole. The human found that his head was positioned in a padded enclosure, with a rubber lined visor pushing forward to make contact with his eyes, stopping when it was close enough. Likewise with the ears, small plugs were pressed in to more or less fit inside them. The tubes sticking out of his nose were forced into a canal that led down under the robot somewhere, making the human's exhale all exit through several small holes, in effect getting rid of the impression that someone was breathing in there.

Once done fastening the body down, Jer stuck a thick needle into Jordan's neck at the left side tucking the line away inside the robot's shell, then a similar thick one into the right side, hitting a vein and an artery. Human blood was sucked from both, into the machine, then started to flow back in on one side. Jordan opened his mouth wide to gasp in through the pussy hole. The throat plug kept him from making sounds on the intake, and the distributed tubes going out the nose let him exhale without his breath being felt by anyone using the maw.

Before Jer put the last of the parts, the back plate covering Jordan's torso, on the feline feral robot, he adjusted the restraints to stretch Jordan's body as far as it would go, without pulling too hard on the prosthesis rings. He shortened the length of the robot body somewhat, to make the human's rear line up very well with the feline muzzle presented on the outside. Clicking the plate in place activated the bot fully. Inside it, the restraints tugged down even harder automatically to keep its biological occupant still and in the correct position. The goggles pushed over Jordan's eyes came alive, showing him what the feline was seeing through its camera eyes.. At the opposite end of Jordan's body. He found that he could breathe through a little opening very close to his mouth, gasping to try lowering his fear and terror levels. Not that it helped much, he was in a completely unknown situation, stuck, done surgery on.. A hell of a lot more than he bargained from when running away from a series of unpaid loans, long ago.

As the robot was fully assembled and activated, the hyena tugged the sheet aside, showing this new toy to the deer. “What do you think? Does she look pretty or what? Come over here, girl," he ordered the robot.

Jordan could hear the command in his ears, and see both the hyena and deer in the room. He tried to move, and quickly found that the only motions he was allowed to make were ones that went in the right direction, walking up to stand in front of the other two. Any other motion was disregarded, so that the feline bot moved fluidly even when the human inside resisted. He kept gaping for air through the small hole at his mouth.

“Go ahead, try her out. It's a sort of special order for someone, but I still need to train the... neural net inside.. to behave properly when I deliver it. But I see no reason why we can't begin tests already," said the hyena, grinning. “Turn around, kitty, butt up high."

The feline robot did as it was told, mostly acting on its own as Jordan was still very confused about what he was supposed to do, and what his role in this was at all. Unlike many anthro species, he did not have an above-average sense of smell, so he could not even figure out what was happening in front of his face when the robot turned around, forcing the human's field of vision to look away.

“She's nice and well behaved, but I need to tune it into being a good sex bot, and that'll take a few tries until I get the 'feel' of it just right. Why not try out her pussy?" Jer offered, showing the single small hole under the feline's tail. No butthole seemed apparent, only the slightly wet lips of a vagina.

Ebony walked up to it, patting the warm, solid back and stroked along it. “Good thing I didn't get my pants on yet, heh. I don't mind at all, y'know.. if I do a good enough job training her, maybe you should pay me for this service," he said with a soft grin, positioning himself behind the robot and putting his hands on its hips, pulling to make it rise to just the right height, then began to slide his hardening shaft into the open vulva.

Jordan could not smell the musk of the deer when it was close to him. He could breathe in air, but since it never reached his nose on the way out, a bit of taste was all he had to go on. As he had heard everything, he figured out what was going to happen. Just before penetration, he tried to gasp out a 'help' noise, not heard in the slightest as the air silently vented from spaces under the feline's bulk.

Suddenly there was a long, tapered dick sliding into the robot sex, directly into the waiting mouth of the human inside. Being turned upside down in the shell made it easy to do long thrusts, into the throat. Once the humping began, Jordan had to fight for his attempts to breathe as his toothless mouth kept being filled up at every jab by that long cock.

“Seems a bit, uh.. weak to me, doc," he heard the deer say, “Not as tight as it should be.. A little bumpy.." Ebony did not stop though, he kept on thrusting in and repeatedly cutting off Jordan's only means of breathing.

“That's expected," Jer replied. “It's the first time it's being used, so a lot of tuning will be necessary to, ah, deliver the finished product. Maybe we can start right now. You can tell her if you want it tighter, she responds to most voice commands. For a temp name I just call her 'sexbot', or 'bot' for short"

Ebony pressed all the way in, the tip of his cock just down Jordan's throat to block it and cause unintentional gagging reflexes. “I'm feeling some suction and clenching, but it's really weak. Sexbot, tighten your pussy slowly. Come on. More than that."

Every time he said that, the independently trapped jaws of Jordan were forced a bit closer together, until his lips were firmly wrapped around deer dick. Then the real humping began, lots of long, sharp jabs that had the rubber-footed feline push back so that it would stay in place.

Jordan meanwhile was in panic as the deer's length was pushing in far enough that he was choking and could not inhale. His lungs emptied of air through the tubes, and gasping as a fish out of water which to Ebony felt like the hole was going through some tight sucking motion. Some useless struggling under the padded shell had his torso moving, maybe an inch side to side before he could not move any further because of his limbs being directly attached to the insides of his tiny prison. He found it disgusting to be used this way, but tried to suck the deer off quickly in the hope that he would be done then and have a free hole to gulp in air through.

As the deer bottomed out in the fake pussy, Jordan's throat was filled up, and the dick reached easily past the uvula, down towards the throat plug. The human started gagging uncontrollably, the soundless coughs getting his mouth to perform what could be taken for a sucking motion, though with Jordan's mind racing frantically as he could not inhale with a blocked throat, and convulsions going through his stomach as it tried to vomit but there was nothing to cough up - even if there had been, the sealing plug would keep it from exiting the stomach.

The deer continued to jab in, grunting and slapping his balls against soft-rubber coated robot legs, after a couple of minutes reaching climax and spurting right down Jordan's throat. The human was forced to swallow or drown. Ebony held his position inside the sexbot's pussy for a short while, then pulled out slowly. Only a few drops leaked out along the robot's thighs, as Jordan's mouth was forced to close for a few seconds, to make him swallow down fully before he was allowed to gasp in air again. The human drew in quick, silent breaths, not thinking about a maw full of deer cum now, only thankful that he could breathe again and clear some dizziness from his mind.

Ebony wiped himself off with a rag, giving the bot an unsatisfied look. “You've really got some work to do on that one. It felt a bit knobbly around the edges, almost mouth-like. Took some time to get it to fit right, too. The new leg worked just fine though, that was a good test for _me_, heh heh."

After the humping, the feline bot stood firmly up on all fours again, turning its head to look up at Ebony. It said in a well modulated, but definitely synthetic voice, “How did I perform, sir?"

The deer gave a shrug.“All in all, I got off, but it needs a lot of work. Sorry kitty, but you get a no vote this time."

Just as the rejection words reached the robot's ears, Jordan instantly felt a searing pain as his implanted power pack sent a series of rough shocks directly into the conductive ovoid stuck in his ballsack, through both testicles. It caused the torso to spasm and jerk against the padding, and the human's voiceless throat did an unnoticed exhale through the tubes in his nose as he tried to scream. He could only twitch, suffer, and see spots before his eyes for all of the five eternity long seconds that the punishment went on.

On the outside, the robot stood perfectly still, not giving any hint that there was a being trapped inside. Jer waved his client off, then returned to the feline, crouching down in front of its face so that he could be seen in Jordan's VR glasses.

“Are you beginning to understand what goes on? Here, let me show you what would have happened if he had liked it," Jer said, and talked to the robot. “Sexbot test mode. Run induce pleasure function."

Suddenly Jordan's mind was flooded with pleasure, injected directly into his brain through the tiny wires, and he felt like he was climaxing over and over for the few seconds it lasted. Then he realized where he was, and felt warm dampness on his belly, trapped between body and suit. Soon after, what he had managed to spurt out went more cold and sticky, making him almost wish that he had not done it.

The hyena smiled. “No more test commands, you already know what you're supposed to do. The rest of your training will be by the suit itself. As long as you behave and do as you're told, you get little rewards. When you try to use that pesky free will, well.. more of the pain. And to tell you the truth, I could have put that directly in your brain too, but it was just such a good opportunity, and easier, to wire up packed nerve centres that would cause you, I would imagine, a fairly nasty experience. But on the bright side, if you're a quick learner.. or _when_ you manage to learn, however stubborn you are, you can be taken out and have strong, sleek legs just like Ebony got. Think about that. Behaving can get you a lot of perks. Hell, someone might even put human limbs on you and you'll look like before! Until then you won't need to eat and your body will be kept safe in there. The needles I inserted will help circulate your blood, keeping it fresh and disease free, and give you nutrients."

Jer commanded the feline over. “Sexbot: Return to base station." The robot began to walk on its own, but also directed visually with arrows where to go, and induced small pains in Jordan's limbs whenever he tried to move in a direction that was not in the path. That was confusing at first, but he did learn that if he used his new limbs to walk where he was told to, all motion went smoother and occasionally he got a brief pleasure twitch into the brain as a reward. The hardest thing was to learn that everything was backwards. He could see 'forward', but with his arms connected to the robot hindlegs, and his thigh rings to the front legs, it was a kind of inverted steering that he had to learn.

When the feline reached its station, marked 'Sexbot Charge/Clean' among several caution stickers, the robot turned around and sat down on a hose connector, snap-clicking it into place when sitting. As the robot, and then in turn Jordan, got inductively charged, the hose flushed in a soapy cleansing solution that went all across the naked human body, giving him goosebumps as it was cold water. Having the mouth close to the fake pussy, and tubes for exhaling, kept him from drowning. The solution was sloshed around, emptied, and injected a second time. After draining, none of the sticky mess was left, and Jer manually wiped off the few drops of deer cum that had ended up on Jordan-- the sexbot-- their legs.

The hyena stood regarding the robot, in clear view of Jordan's backwards vision while he could feel blood rushing to his head from the bot sitting, leaving the human's head below the rest of his body.

Jer patted the bot on its head. “Don't you worry. With a lot more training, you'll get good enough to not receive too many punishments, I'm sure, unless you're particularly stubborn. I just have to add a few somethings to the cleaning station. Depending on how much I get paid for you, it could be just a rack of wipes, or, hmm.." The hyena thought out loud about the easiest possibilities. “Maybe have the station be inside a compartment, so that the bot can be washed off just as easily as you were, in there. We'll see. Think of it as a surprise!"

With a chortle, Jer pulled the drape back to hide the sexbot from sight for other customers, and left it sitting there. Jordan could just tug a little with his prosthesis attachment points, trying to move, and each time got a small corrective jolt to discourage him.

Jordan could vaguely see through the drape, but there was nothing he could do. As he was left for hours and despite the fear in his mind, staying perfectly still, eventually the human passed out from exhaustion and fell into a fitful sleep, truly hoping that it was only a nightmare and that he would wake up back on the ship.

~~~