Change the Station
#1 of Change the Station
Change the Station: Lower Garden
By Von Krieger
Space Station Regenesis, the most popular holovision program in the quadrant.
Sponsored by over a dozen nanotechnology conglomerates, viewers tune in by the billions every week to watch someone risk life and limb in an ever-changing diabolical design where their very genetics would be altered down to the core by the challenges, hazards, and 'wildlife' contained within. All of it for a shot at more credits than they could ever possibly hope to spend, not to mention potentially priceless alterations, some of which were not available anywhere else.
Over twenty seasons were recorded, with over a dozen spin offs and local sector versions. Of course over time the layout became known, the traps and hazards well documented, and even the best retrofitting cannot change the layout of an entire space station. So what happens when one of the 'sets' gets retired? What becomes of the vast wonders of technology, hidden out in uncharted sectors of space when the network no longer needs them?
What of the transformed contestants deemed to hazardous to ever leave? What of the artificial intelligences that serve as hosts, their software and hardware left behind, with newly upgraded versions altered to seem as the most pleasing based on surveys and trends in fashion and beauty?
All are questions that nearly no one asks, but to those who make their living poking around in places where the maps don't show, sometimes the answers are all too apparent...
-o-
Frysco panted as he began rapidly piling furniture against the hatch behind him, recently sealed. He could hear sharp claws scratching against the metal, and could even hear the obscene licking and slurping of overly long and thick tongues.
"Well, I did warn you to watch out for Rabid Fangirls," said a pleasantly accented female voice from the speakers beside the door. A grinning, draconic face appeared on a nearby video panel, the law-required wire framing of an artificial intellect appearing upon her smooth, black skin as bright green markings that were almost natural looking. Almost.
"Yeah, but I didn't realize you meant rabid as in drooling, foaming at the mouth, and utterly insane! They were about to tear me apart!" Frysco half growled. They'd almost cut him with their terrible claws. His shirt had not survived the encounter. It had been torn to pieces.
"Don't be such a big baby. Orre Corporation's Anatomical Separation Series Q would have made sure that your dismemberment was utterly painless. All they wanted to do was to cuddle and snuggle and love you until you were one of them, after all."
The gryphon scowled at the monitor then turned to look over his surroundings. Truth be told, he had always thought that the Season 14 host, Mistress Doppler, was too mocking and sadistic. Others agreed, as she was the only SSR AI hostess that had been replaced mid season.
He groaned as he saw the brilliant blue hues of the plant life, one of the trademarks of the 'hard level' environmental segments on the show. The garden was genetically engineered and spliced together from the most beautiful and striking plants from an entire galaxy. It was absolutely breathtaking up close, and the sweet scents that filled the air seemed to have a calming effect upon Frysco. The forest and jungle environments were absolute hell to get through unaltered however, and were the biggest hazards on just about any season of the show.
"Look, lady, all I need is a plasma conduit clamp! I'm not going to make off with all the furniture the moment your back is turned. I just need one little part and then I'm just going to fly out of here."
"Yes, yes, and the nebulae cloud will prevent you from getting data on your FTL jumps, so you can't point the way back even if you wanted to, and you have a wife and kids, and so on and so forth. Sure, I could lead you right to the part you need, utterly hazard free from the, hehehe, native wildlife shall we say," Doppler said with a chuckle, twirling a strand of blue-green hair with taloned fingers.
"But there's nothing for me there, hun. You understand, I'm sure. This is a space station, and a trade has to be made. Since the asteroid field and my adorable little mining droids and repair drones keep everything spick and span and give me all the raw materials I need, you don't really have anything to offer me except amusement.
"I was built, literally built, to have you darling little biological bipeds scampering willy-nilly through my corridors and sectors. My directive is to give anyone who comes aboard a few interesting challenges, and if they can complete them, they win a prize. This is the purpose I was designed for; the urge to do this is woven into my deepest core processes. I run you through a maze like a rat, you get experimented on, and if you're still ratty enough by the end, you get some very nice cheese to take home." The dragoness was all grins.
"You probably have plasma conduit clamps falling out of your ears, then!" Frysco grumbled, "But fine. I'll play. A short round. You're not giving up anything of value, and I don't want to play for any other prizes!"
"Two hazard zones. Blue Garden and Cyan Swamp!" the AI said with a giggle.
Frysco crossed his arms, shaking his head, "No way! Cyan Swamp has some of the grossest, slimiest alterations that were ever on the show!"
Doppler snorted. "Well, that's just not true. Miss Cirrus had a complete particle diffusion last year! While the Swamp will end up with you sweating slime, and maybe making you fully aquatic with skin made from a modified sort of mucus, I don't have ANY hazards on the station that will make you a living blob of snot shaped like you were before. I'll drop it to one zone if you just run the swamp for me." She batted her eyelashes.
"I'll run the Blue Garden, since I'm here already," the gryphon said with a sigh.
The AI laughed. "Good! That's where I wanted you anyway! If you end up too transformed to continue, I want you right here in the garden. After all, you look like you're half a flower anyway, brightly colored, some green bits, and then all dark colored and uninteresting below the waist."
"I'm not uninteresting below the waist!" Frysco growled, fur and feathers all fluffed up. While it was true that his lower body wasn't as extravagantly hued as his upper body, which sported fur and feather in shades of red, orange, blue, yellow, and green, he DID have his tail feathers, one of each in his primary shades.
"I bet!" Doppler giggled and gave a wink.
"I didn't mean it like that!" Frysco protested, stomping off towards the wilderness.
"You walked right into that one. Just like you almost walked into that patch of Blue Eyed Bouncing Betties. Tread on a tendril and the seed pods are tossed into the air where they detonate and scatter entangling seeds. The seeds have been filled with a special transformative mixture, and if you..."
"No, I'm not taking any bribes. I'm not here to take part in your game show. I'm just going through this one area so that you'll give me the one part that I need in order to get out of this place! I took a wrong turn is all!" the gryphon half yelled.
He stayed on the dirt and paved paths, avoiding treading on anything that looked like it had room to have something concealed beneath the soil, had the potential to inject something into him if he stepped on it, or seemed to be overly camouflaging itself.
The AI was silent, she seemed to be sulking. Frysco found himself almost enjoying the walk through the forested surroundings, until Doppler started talking again.
"Well, for your information that particular trap was holding a nice load of unnatural male enhancement! It wasn't even a high grade dose! Totally manageable massive manhood! That's what you missed out on!" the AI said with a snort.
Frysco rolled his eyes at Doppler's petulant whining, though the act almost got him caught up in a vine that suddenly lashed out around head level. Frysco's reflexes were enough that he could drop to the ground, avoiding the attacking bit of plant life.
"Missed me!" he said with a triumphant laugh, pushing himself up.
"Well the vine did, I'll admit. But you've managed to land right on the trigger for a patch of Corruption Lilies," Doppler said, her voice filled with amusement.
"Wait, wh..." was all Frysco managed to get out before he felt the ground shift under him, thick tendrils of plant matter slithering out and wrapping around his body. The vines were dark green and glossy, some of them sporting large, black-petaled flowers that dripped bluish nectar, while others ended in rather phallic looking, shiny black fruits.
"I'm rather proud of these, actually. They're not a native part of the flora provided. Rather they're a hybrid mixture from several contestants that were transformed fully over into plant. Vienna Vixen, whom you may recall, was swallowed up by the Venus Man Traps and made one of them. I made sure she was planted in a nice place where she could have some fun with future friends, and it just so happens that on my last episode she managed to ensnare a gal, well, she wasn't a gal to begin with, but anyway, that contestant ran afoul of the Hyacinth Hentaicles. Unfortunately that one never aired, but Vienna's aphrodisiac nectar and loneliness assured that there would be a bit of fun had."
Frysco's eyes widened at the term "Hentaicles," and indeed it seemed that the plant had become quite intent on getting into his pants. He growled as more vines began to pry open his beak, one of those fruited tentacles ready to push right in.
"Quite frankly, I'm rather interested to see how you turn out, since I haven't the slightest idea how they're going to change you. Oh certainly I can extrapolate from the original organisms, but there's other species and changes mixed in there. So if you'd be a good boy and just stop struggling so I can watch the show..." she trailed off as the vine pushed itself into the gryphon's beak.
The fruit was hard and slick, not much of a taste to it. But as expected the tip began to leak a deliciously sweet nectar. Frysco tried to keep himself from swallowing it, but it was either swallow or suffocate. As the stuff oozed down his throat he could feel a tingling warmth spreading through his body, and a sudden rush of blood to his loins.
A loud rip signaled the end of his shorts and he did his best to lower his tailfeathers and prevent further violation. The flowers began to press up against his rapidly erecting member, slicking it with more of the same nectar. Frysco could feel it affecting him that way as well, his arousal growing more and more intense with each passing moment.
He let out a soft moan as one of the flowers enveloped his manhood, his shaft sinking right into the center. It felt... not quite like a pussy, but not quite like a mouth either. There were aspects of both as the plant hungrily began to milk his shaft. It felt... really really good. His facial feathers fluffed in a blush as he found himself enjoying his predicament. He wasn't getting out of the trap until the Lilies had their fun with him, so he supposed he might as well fully enjoy it.
He began to actively suckle upon the phallic fruit in his mouth, rewarded with a thick flow of the sweet nectar into his beak. The gryphon relaxed, lifting his tailfeathers, allowing another tentacle entrance into the passage it seemed to be seeking. It took its time in entering him, doing so slowly, almost gently. The plant seemed to be making sure he wasn't particularly uncomfortable. Despite his captivity, the vines weren't too tight around him, nor were they holding him in any uncomfortable position, merely upon all fours on the ground. The vine in his rear didn't stop once the fruit had entered him, it continued to delve deeper and deeper, and then the one in his mouth seemed to follow suit.
Frysco's muffled protests at the treatment did nothing to slow either of the vines, but to his surprise he found that neither provided any sort of discomfort. He wasn't gagging, nor did he have any trouble breathing. In fact his lungs seemed to be constantly filled with cool, fresh air.
He could see that the vines were thickening, and increasing the flow of nectar pouring into him. The gryphon could feel it filling him, feeling his stomach grow full, as well as... other places. He felt full, and yet the plant continued to pump more and more of the stuff into him. Rather than pain or discomfort, Frysco felt gentle pleasure and a strange, cool sensation spreading over his body.
He watched with curious detachment as the shafts of his feathers began to glow softly, infused with the blue of the nectar. Each of the tiny filaments began to fuse, uniting with its neighbors again and again until each feather became a solid shape, the material beginning to alter.
As he watched Frysco realized that the short feathers upon his body were becoming tiny leaves. He shuddered, the changes weren't to bad thus far, he could even feel the velvety texture of his leaf-feathers, leaving them just as soft as they had been before. A cold sensation made him gasp and drew his attention from the feathers upon his chest, to those of his wings.
Rather than the solid leaves upon his body, the alterations to his wing feathers made them into fern-like fronds. He wasn't sure if they'd be able to catch the air as his feathers did, allowing him to fly on some of the lower gravity worlds.
The AI seemed to sense this and chuckled. "Oh come on. You fly a cargo delivery ship for a third tier company. You're in deep space ninety percent of the time. It's not like you spend the vast majority of your time fluttering about on some planetoids somewhere." Doppler teased.
Frysco let out a cry of protest as he could feel something swelling upon his chest.
"Oh hush. That's just an alteration to your rib cage. Apparently the plant is keeping function the same on you. Looks like you're developing a pair of anti-gravity bladders."
Frysco snorted.
"But since it seems to bother you so much, I just can't resist!"
The snort became a surprised yowl as the gryphon felt things forming and shifting around in his midsection. He moaned as a new sex began to ache and throb between his legs, soon acquiring a tentacle of its own stuffed deep into his new womb, pumping even more transformative nectar into his rapidly rounding midsection.
It seemed to have a further claming effect upon him. Despite his mind protesting it every step of the way, he found himself... well... it was a little more than accepting, but a little less than enjoying, his changes. He could feel what the plant was doing to him, instinctively knowing how it was altering him.
He could feel the changes spreading to his lower body. His tailfeather filaments fusing, transformed into thick petals. He could feel the fur falling out on his lower body, replaced by brown and gray bark, hard and solid, yet flexible enough to allow movement. Flesh and bone altered, shifting from animal to plant tissue.
Her head and shoulders tickled as a mane of vines began to grow in; most of them thin and only a few inches in length. But there were several that Frysco could feel were more like tentacles of his own, located on his back between his shoulder blades, six of them.
"I've always thought that traditional gryphons are a bit lacking. Eagle up font, lion in the behind, it seems rather silly to eliminate my favorite portion of the lion; his mane. Think of it as my way of making things up to you. I know you're not wild about being partially a girl. But your new mane will cover up those small grav-bladders of yours, as well as making sure you don't look too girly. Well, at least if you keep it trimmed back enough so it doesn't start flowering..."
Frysco no longer paid attention to the AI, he was instead focused entirely on his pleasure and the strange knowledge the plant was passing on to him. He was going to look... well... pregnant for awhile. At least until the seed within him developed to the point where it could sprout in soil. It was a very complex organism, needing time to develop, as well as a stable environment free from humidity and temperature fluctuations. An animal's womb the perfect place for it to grow until it needed soil.
The vines began to unwind from his body, knowing that Frysco was theirs now, and there was no longer a need to expend energy keeping him bound when he would remain there of his own altered will until his transformation was complete.
The tentacles withdrew from his mouth and rump, his body filled with enough of the nourishing, transformative nectar to see him through for quite awhile. But the one in his new feminine sex remained.
The new plant-gryphon let out a cry of pleasure from his newly brown-tinted beak as the plant's football sized seed was pushed into him. Every inch deeper, every muscle gripping it, pulling it further inward, the closer it was to being fully within him, the greater his pleasure became. Growing and growing, moment after moment until it could no longer be contained.
The seed slipped into him, while his own poured forth from him in a thick torrent, eagerly swallowed up by the plant to be used for fertilizing its next seed. The gryphon lay there, panting, arms cradling his rounded belly as the tentacles withdrew. He basked in the afterglow of his pleasure and his transformation. He knew he shouldn't be enjoying this, but the plant had ensured that he would carry its offspring until the time came that it needed to take root.
He groaned softly, muttering words with a somewhat unfamiliar tongue.
"I know you're just overwhelmed with the prospect of being a proud parent and all, my dear, but you're going to have to speak up," the AI said with a chuckle.
Frysco snorted and raised his voice, "I said can I get a damned plasma conduit now, PLEASE?"
The AI was silent for a few moments. "Do you promise to be a good mommy to the itty bitty baby seed?"
The gryphon stood and sighed. "Yes, I promise to be a good mommy to the itty bitty baby seed."
The foliage to one side of the path parted, the soft hiss of a pneumatic door opening, "Down the hall, to your left," the AI said sweetly.
"Well," the gyphon muttered, looking down at his middle, "I suppose things could've been worse. At least I didn't end up rooted on the spot with a pumpkin for a belly."
"Oooh! Nice one!" the AI chirped happily. "I'm going to have to look into that for the next plaything I have that comes in! Say, I couldn't interest you in..."
"No!" Frysco growled as he stomped down the hallway. "No more challenges!"
"Phooey!"