A Strange New World - Chapter 1
[I'd like to mention this is my first, 1st person story - in the comments be sure to tell me if you like first person or not (or if I did well doing first person). If the majority does not like first person I'll switch to third person next chapter, if the majority does like first person I'll keep it the same. Sorry, no yiff in this chapter, just creating the setting - but I promise there will be yiff in chapter 2! Likewise, this installment is actually safe for most audiences, but the next one won't be.](/?page=I%27d_like_to_mention_this_is_my_first%2C_1st_person_story_in_the_comments_be_sure_to_tell_me_if_you_like_first_person_or_not_%28or_if_I_did_well_doing_first_person%29._If_the_majority_does_not_like_first_person_I%27ll_switch_to_third_person_next_chapter%2C_if_the_majority_does_like_first_person_I%27ll_keep_it_the_same._Sorry%2C_no_yiff_in_this_chapter%2C_just_creating_the_setting_but_I_promise_there_will_be_yiff_in_chapter_2_Likewise%2C_this_installment_is_actually_safe_for_most_audiences%2C_but_the_next_one_won%27t_be.)
Chapter One
It's 2010, the dawn of a new decade, and the date of a major discovery. A strange alien spacecraft crashed into Earth, bringing with it thousands of unknown devices and machines. There purpose was unclear, and the government was unwilling to risk there own men's lives on attempting to use the equipment. Instead, they randomly selected people in the population, people who were considered expendable, to test the equipment. Some of their fears were realized. People would die trying to use some technology or another. After all, nothing in the vessel came with English manuals.
I was one of those randomly selected people. No choice was given in the matter, or any forewarning really. I went to sleep one night, and when I woke up I was in a strange world of metal and light. In the room there was a mix of scientists, military, and government men - along with a few other people like me, who seemed just as confused as I was.
The people all seemed to be arguing about what to do, as if we weren't even there. The military people wanted to just force us do do things with no explanation. The scientists pressed that if they could get us to do this willingly they might get better feedback. The government people just wanted to get it over with. Eventually they decided to compromise - we(the randomly selected individuals) would be split up between each branch. Each branch would be testing things that seemed suiting, such as military with weapons and scientists with more peaceful technology.
I was paired up with a couple scientists, and they lead me towards a different room. Maybe I was just scared shitless, but I was willing to do whatever they said - I really didn't feel like dieing.
We arrived to what seemed to be their destination. The room had a round shape to it, and in the center there was a round hole in the metal floor. It appeared to be a tank of some kind, it was filled with a black fluid. I came to the conclusion it would be my task to test it - whatever it was. One of the scientists spoke:
She was female with curly black hair, dressed in stereotypical scientist fashion with a white lab coat and glasses. "Answer honestly. Are you intelligent or not?"
I was assuming it was to see if they needed to talk to me as if I were a child or not. Recently turning 17 I could see why they would be concerned as whether or not I could comprehend big language. "Y-yes ma'am." I managed to studder out. Obviously it was all very unnerving for me - to be kidnapped in the middle of the night and taken to who-knows-where. Fortunately, I never was a very emotional person - I wasn't about to break down as many would in this situation.
"Good." She said simply, before continuing. "In all honestly we have no idea what this is or what it will do. There's a few displays here, but they aren't showing anything we can understand." She points to a computer terminal near the tank of black fluid, "We assume it's awaiting some kind of input... Don't worry, we don't think this thing is dangerous, if it were there should be some kind of warning colors around the tank - there is none. All the same, none of us are willing to try it - you've been randomly selected to be the guinea pig, congratulations."
Her attempt at humor helped cut down some of the tension, I at least knew that she wasn't going to be mean, or want to get me killed. The other scientist was just standing at what must be some alien computer terminal, trying to figure it out. That was alright though, I felt much better in the presence of the woman. "W- What do you want me to do?"
She seemed pleased I was willing to cooperate, and not bothering her with the questions 'where am I' and 'when can I go home', I knew those questions would be futile - I had probably seen too much already. "Undress and climb into the tank. It's deep enough it'll cover your whole body. I want you to try to even breath it - now listen, I know how that sounds, but trust me if you don't do what I say they'll probably kill out, or have you test something that is obviously dangerous. If the tank somehow responds to your being in it, don't panic, we'll want to let it fully 'load' and software while you're in it if it has something like that."
It did sound like suicide, telling me to breath in the liquid? But I trusted her, and I knew she was correct that I would most definitely be killed if I had to try something else. At least with this device there was the small chance I wouldn't die. I nodded, "Alright..." I got undressed and went to the tank. It seemed wide enough to fit me with my arms outstretched, as for how deep it was I would only be able to find out be going in - the dark fluid was too black to see very deep.
I out my feet in and slowly slid myself in. The stuff was thick and sticky feeling, yet surprisingly it was warm and welcoming. Soon I was up to my torso, and still sinking, then to my neck. I almost started to panic as I found the stuff was actually sucking me in, I couldn't stay afloat, but the scientist reminded me. "Stay calm."
It was difficult but with all my force of will I calmed down. I took one last breach before I sank under the fluid completely. I was probably sucker about one more foot down before it stopped, yet I hadn't touched bottom it was just holding me in the center of the tank. The urge came on me to open my eyes, I knew it was a bad idea, but I couldn't stop myself. Another surprise, it didn't hurt my eyes, in fact the feeling of the thick fluid on them felt good even.
But that bit of good news faded away as my chest started it hurt, I needed to breath. I almost panicked again, but I reminded myself that struggling was pointless, I couldn't swim out of the sticky fluid anyway. I may be an atheist but I made a quick prayer to God all the same to let me live. I opened my mouth and gasped in the fluid.
It did hurt, and I found myself sucking in more fluid, and unable to expel it. My lungs and throat completely filled with the junk, I stopped breathing - yet I was fine. Minute ticked by, no pain even now, my heart was still beating and I was alive. Above me I could make out the voice of the scientist, even though it was difficult to hear through the fluid. "Holy fuck, he's alive! He breathed it in and he's still alive... Something's happening."
I wish I could see what's going on, but I could see nothing, even with my eyes open. I intently focused on hearing, my only sense I hadn't seem to have lost in the fluid. "Something is loading up." Said a male voice.
"The displays lit up, thank God a picture! At least we can understand that as opposed tto this alien language nonsense." Said the female
"It appears to be a DNA strand. I assume it's his?" said the male.
"Definitely, it looks human to me." She said
"Now what? How do we get him out?" He said.
"Not yet! We don't know if it's done loading everything. Besides his lungs are full of that fluid now, pulling him out might kill him." She said, the continued in a louder voice. "If you can hear me, I want you to try something... Try to go asleep in there."
Asleep? In this stuff? I guess it would eventually happen anyway if they couldn't get me out. I tried to close my eyes but found I couldn't, or move any part of my body really. I had to sigh in my mind, because I couldn't physically sigh with my lungs full of the fluid.
I let my mind and body relax, I seemed to be able to relax myself much better in the goo than I could even in the nicest bed. I found it actually quite easy to fall asleep, right on the brink of losing waking thought I heard a few more things, and even saw some.
The tank grew darker, something covered up the top of the tank. I heard the female scientist say, "What the- The tanks closed up!"
Then I fell asleep.
I woke back up in almost an instant. I was not in the black liquid filled tank, nor was I back home however. I was in an alleyway, laying against a wall with a newspaper over me. I heard thousands of noises, clearly I was in the city. I sat up with a groan and looked around, yes, definitely the city. Large building jutting out of the ground, mazes of streets and alleyways. Yet everything seemed wrong, as if everything was designed wrong - it was very subtle though and it was bugging me.
I didn't notice any recognizable buildings. It wasn't Saint Louis, Chicago, or New York - the only cities I had ever been too. I sighed in anger, where was I and how was I going to get home? I put my face in my hands, that's when it stuck me.
I jumped back a little as I noticed my hands were paws, pads and all. They were black furred. I rotated them around looking at them with curiosity and wonder. I quickly looked over the rest of my body, my heart almost jumped in joy.
I was clearly a red-fox furry. My fur coloring exactly matched that average red-fox. My feetpaws to my knees were covering in black fur, same as my handpaws up to my elbows. The rest of my fur was orange, except from my lower jaw down my chest to between my legs, all white fur. Upon examination of my tail I found the tip was black.
I had been in the furry fandom my whole life, too see my desires being so fulfilled was amazing. I knew this wasn't a dream however, it was most definitely real, I felt everything.
After sitting there quite a while, fully amazed by my new body. Not only was I a fox now, but the body was also much healthy than I was as a human. I had been overweight before, now I was thin, and actually lithely muscled. I recalled where I was though, I was in the alley, sleeping there covered up by a newspaper, I was obviously put in the shoes of a homeless fox.
I was trying to make sense of what the alein ship had done. There were many possibilities: A different universe? Somewhere else in our own universe? Oh well, that wasn't my job to figure out, that's what the scientists should be trying to figure out.
I threw my worries out the window, I wanted to enjoy my new body. I stood up and made to walk out of the alleyway, on my first step I fell straight on my mussel with a yelp of pain. I looked down at my feet, they were animal-footpaws, not human feet. I stoop back up carefully moving them around to see how they worked. I realized it was sorta like walking on tip-toe, so used it as my basis of figuring out how to walk - it seemed to work, though it was obvious I was doing it wrong.
I got to the sidewalk and looked around, I saw furs of various species walking around. I was at a loss of how to start my life. I took into account who I was, a homeless fox - a bum. It was going to be difficult to get into better conditions from being this low.
What were those places I had seen in movies before? Soup shops? Soup kitchens? Something like that. I had never been to one before, but I remember from movies and TV shows that they existed, or at least they had during the depression.
It seemed to me that's where I'd have to go first. If I could figure out where it was, or even what to do when I got there. I started to walk down sidewalks, seeing if I could figure out where one might me. I found a bus stop with a map of the city on it, but upon going to it I realized something.
The writing was not English, or French the language I was starting to learn. Nor did it appear to be any language I could guess. It was obviously some native language of the furry race, or one of them.
I was getting desperate, I turned to look on the bus stop waiting bench, there was a feline lady sitting there. I tried to be polite as possible, knowing in appearance I looked like a total deadbeat. "Excuse me ma'am can you help me read this map?" I asked.
She scowled at me, "Get away from me, you illiterate dog." She scooted down the bench away from me.
Being called a dog stung a little, I was a fox and the way she said it made it obvious it was not a good name to be called. I realized something though. She was speaking English, but the way her mouth moved did not match up with what she was saying. Perhaps the alien device could translate spoken language, but not written?
I left the cat girl be all the same, I didn't want to start on the wrong foot here. But what now? If I couldn't read I wouldn't be able to get to where help was... I had one idea, but I didn't want to bring myself to it...
I found a spot near what seemed to be a busy shopping street, and started to beg. Much like human beggars back home, I was largely ignored. The few people that did want to 'help' would be little girls who would give small bits of coins, which I knew couldn't be much more than change here.
All the same, my time I spent there begging was not wasted. By observation I learned things. Different species had different social levels. I found that scalies and avians seemed to be on the bottom of the ladder, I assumed because of how different they appeared from the furry species. They were not allowed in most stores.
I saw that my own race almost were always with someone of a different species, and the often had collars on. It made me come to the conclusion that we foxes were subservient to some races, but were highly taken care of and had more rights than some of the other slave species I saw.
But what species were in power? I wondered. It seemed to be wolves and big cats were at the top, the two races also seemed to have a deep-seeded hatred for one another. It made me wonder why they lived in the same country if they had such animosity towards one another.
The end of the day was approaching, it seemed like it had gone by so fast. Despite my condition the pure joy of finally being a furry - a fox no less more than made up for it. I couldn't wait for the morning, just to live another day like this.
I found an empty alleyway and settled in for the night. I found with my new anatomy I could curl myself in a ball basically, and so I did. My face was buried in my tail and I nodded off to sleep, despite my horrible location.
I awoke in what seemed to be an instant again. But I woke to a world of complete darkness, I was back in the tank. It got a little brighter as whatever had been covering the top of the tank slid away again. I felt the fluid suddenly become less sticky and I floated up towards the top. As I did I retracted my lungs, pushing out the liquid before I got out. When I reached the top of the tank I gasped for air again, puking up the last of the fluid.
I looked around and saw the scientists were still there, so were many other people, including people from other branches. The female scientist spoke to me, "You were locked in there a good 12 hours... What did it do to you?"
I felt very disoriented, everything seemed on a different scale again, and I could tell many of my sense weren't as acute as the were when I was a fox.
"Talk." Ordered a man in a military uniform.
Someone threw a towel over me, I had forgotten I was naked. I climbed into a chair that had been placed nearby, I assumed for me. "It was incredible..." I had completely gotten over my fear for these people, having just come out of what had been my wonderland - they were the ones who brought me to it. "It's hard to explain. It was like my consciousness was put in control of someone else's body." I explained best I could.
"Who? Where?!" Asked the general with more urgency.
I shook my head, "It wasn't Earth. And it wasn't the aliens who built this spaceship - these peoples technology is similar to where we are now." I explained
"What do you mean you were in control of a different body?" The female scientist asked.
"I was one of them. To be specific I was put into the life of a nobody there. I was some homeless fox."
"Fox?" She asked, tone in her voice was saying she thought I was crazy.
I nodded, "Yes a fox... But with a body structure kind of like a human's... A humanoid fox... an anthropomorphic animal." I explained in as many terms as I could, it felt like I was explained to my family my being in the furry fandom again.
I was swiftly forgotten again as the adults started bickering again. IT was broken by a man who seemed to be a high ranking military official, "Shut up! I want to send another person in there right now to confirm this kid's report! Get that Peter kid or whatever!"
Another person who appeared to be a nobody, another one of the randomly selected people was pushed into the room by a guard. He looked like a real weirdo. The military guy yelled at him, "Tell us what you see!" He grabbed him and pushed him in the tank with nary a warning.
The display near the tank changed. On the left was my DNA strand I assumed, and on the right appeared another one, this Peter person's I assumed. His started to flash red. Screaming was heard from the tank. "AUGGGHGHRRRR it's burning me alliveee!!!!" I winced, the screaming continued on, by the pitch of the scream I could tell it may have been the most painful death possible.
The display blinked on and off a few times and Peter's DNA picture disappeared, leaving mine on the left side of the screen still there. The room was silent for a while, till eventually the military officer asked in a much quieter tone. "What happened?"
The female scientist shook her head and answered, "We can't know for sure. But if I would guess it seems the tank has calibrated itself only to except this kid's DNA, no-one else's... I think it dissolved him till he was completely eliminated..." A few people in the room whimpered, knowing that must have been extraordinarily painful way to go.
The military man looked at me, "Fine then. I guess this one's job is permanent. Have him keep using the machine. I want to know more about this world you've found." He leaves, soon followed by the rest of the personnel, leaving me and the female scientist alone.
I was surprised when she went to me and hugged me, "Oh thank you so much! They were going to kill me if there wasn't a reason to keep me! Now that you're permanent, I am too! We're both going to be ok!"
I wasn't sure what to say. As much as I did love my experience in the machine, I knew back home my being gone was causing a lot of issues. "Well, it wasn't like I had much say in the matter..." None of it had been my doing it was true.
She giggled a little, I guess she found what I said humorous. "True. But all the same, thank you!" She let go of me and regained her composure some.
"My name is Cassandra." She introduced herself.
I answered, "I'm Lance."
"Well. While you were having your experience you were actually asleep. You're fully rested. It must feel strange though, considering you just spent 12 hours awake on another world... To think you'll never experience sleep again, that'll be weird huh?"
I nodded. It would be strange, but fully worth it. Basically being awake 24 hours every day? "The person I was in the other world... When he goes to sleep that's then I wake up here. So I'll have to spend 8 or more hours awake here. What should I do?" I asked.
She shrugged, "I don't know honestly. The tank actually takes care of all your needs while you were in it. Disposed of waste, fed you, it even exercised you. You literally have nothing you have to do. It's all free time. Of course you can't use this vessel, or communicate with anyone but me on it. So you'll be hard pressed to find anything to do... I recommend writing down all your experiences so you don't forget them, and we can study what you learn?"
That did sound like a good idea, though it wouldn't be much fun - though I guess the other world would fill in the the fun factor. "That won't take 8 hours or more though..." I said, not looking forward to the boredom.
She turned her head away a bit in a blushed, "Well, there is something we can do... You know I can't do anything here either. I'm just as much trapped as you are. Only difference being I don't have the alien device to take care of all my needs..."
I blushed too, I hadn't do it before and I had never expected I would be the receiving the offer. "I uhhh..." I felt myself growing hard under the towel
"I can only interact with you on a personal level. I'm restricted from that social contact here, except with you..."
I squirmed a little in the chair. This seemingly horrible event was actually turning out to be the best thing that's ever happened to me. "I'd be honored." I said.
She giggled again, "So polite too! Come with me, I'll show you my quarters!" He grabbed my hand, and pulled me along after her.
[To be continued.](/?page=To_be_continued.)
[And yes, there will be yiff next chapter. So don't give up on it thinking there will be no sex! I'm just creating the setting here. Also, remember to mention if you like first person or not in the comments! I will make the next installment in third person if the majority doesn't like first person.](/?page=And_yes%2C_there_will_be_yiff_next_chapter._So_don%27t_give_up_on_it_thinking_there_will_be_no_sex_I%27m_just_creating_the_setting_here._Also%2C_remember_to_mention_if_you_like_first_person_or_not_in_the_comments_I_will_make_the_next_installment_in_third_person_if_the_majority_doesn%27t_like_first_person.)