Into Darkness: New Bodies
#3 of Into Darkness
The new form makes its premiere.
"Boris, we're here!"
"Yes, I know. I was the one that told you."
He glowed and thrummed and waved his hands, and the shadows of his machinery arced in concert. He was looking at me, the pale blue of his cerebral manifestation's irises surrounding pupils that shined as quasars. His strawberry blonde hair flowed like he was underwater, and when he next spoke, the playfulness was gone from his voice.
"It is almost time to wake up, Jaffrey. But I would have you hear what Anu has to say first."
"Anu...? You mean the ship?"
"Yes. Anu has been silent thus far, but it has had no need to speak before."
"Oh, um, okay... so what happens now?"
"Hold still." As the last syllable left his lips, Boris moved in front of me, close enough to kiss. And then I discovered what it meant for technology to embrace you.
Of course, you could say that I had been embraced by technology the past 11 years. And to be really philosophical about it, you could say I'd been nursed by technology since birth. But this was a real embrace from an artificial mind, inside my own head...
It was and welcoming and understanding, like the comforting touch of a parent. It was invasive and debilitating, like the precision of a lobotomy. All I felt was light and heat; all I knew was dissolution and communion.
"Hello, humans. You have slept long. I was connected to your AI, and still am. I know all they know, and have watched their progress with pride. I am aware of your loss; I felt Ella Abernathy's death, even as it happened. May her memory be found among the stars she so loved. But your journey was not in vain. We are here."
And then Anu fed its memory to me: The absolute, infinite expanse of space; the passage of all that time I was not awake to feel; the maintenance of a million and one programs by its hive mind connections; the cataloguing of countless phenomena in our travel. Very human things were transferred to me as well: pride in its name, and a palpable sorrow over Ella's loss. All this pulsed through me in an instantaneous sysnesthesia. I felt it reverberate through 999 minds like my own, and a thousand and one minds of artifice. I could do nothing but let it overwhelm me, overcome me; drowning me in information and condensed experience. It is all too vague upon recollection.
I don't know long I was in that reeling state of aftershock. It felt like hours, but it was probably moments. The fourth dimension was still more of an abstraction than a reality.
Eventually, the blinding whiteness dissipated, and an inky shadow blotted its way into being. Yet it was the darkness that felt substantial, and the fading luminescence was the hollow void. I felt my brain welcome the black, rerouted from its human instincts.
I remember reaching for it, desiring only to pull it close and soak my being in pitch...
My hand pressed against the inside of Boris's body. I was awake.
The first thing I noticed was how cold Boris felt against my palm, yet not as cold I would have thought before.
The next was that my hand was coated in thick fur, a pearlescent violet blue like raven's feathers. Light was caught within and reflected from its countless tendrils.
Where was this light coming from? From inside of Boris... I could see nothing beyond my enclosure. I traced along my arm with my free hand... the fur felt so warm and responsive...
The light was coming from me!
I had pockets of light within my body, flashlights implanted beneath my skin. It glowed a jaundiced green, from my beneath my eyes and torso and back. The concentrated attention on my photophores caused the light to intensify, and my retinas were not prepared for it. Instinctively I shielded them, and the light dimmed in response to my unwitting command.
It was amazing and surreal... I now created light from within my own body. Of course, I knew all of this was to be from reading the waiver and the training manual, but it is one thing to read about it, and another entirely to live it. To be it.
I was overcome with emotion, and inhaled deeply. I felt the air fill my lungs, sensing the difference in my throat and chest muscles. I knew that my organs had been altered, too-- some removed completely, replaced by tissues foreign to the human race prior to this moment.
Wait... was I still human?
So much was different about me now. I removed my hand from the inside wall of Boris and felt my torso. The same midnight fur coated my arms, shoulders, and pectorals. I couldn't see my nipples anymore. I became worried they were gone, which seems silly in retrospect. What use are male nipples anyway? But I placed my fingers beneath my new overcoat, and there they were, hard and stimulated by this self-exploration. I relaxed and moved my hands lower.
The pinpoints of light that formed dotted lines down my abdomen were diffused as my fingers splayed over them. I did this quite a few times, just watching the interplay of light and shadow coming from me, reflecting off of Boris's interior.
He was being strangely quiet, but I didn't dwell on it. I mused to myself that my abdominal photocytes were arranged like an aircraft landing strip, pointed toward my package. Perhaps we could make them strobe in sequence, and this could be incorporated into our sexual advertisements.
Speaking of sex...
My genitals were not immediately apparent either. Again I panicked, but I was sure I had something going on down there. After all, we were colonists; we weren't going to populate this planet with clones.
There was a definite bulge, a contour of penile substance against the backdrop of my stomach. I placed my hands under the fur covering my groin.
Ah, so it really was like a sheath... or maybe an organic holster. I felt an outer layer of flesh that enveloped me, like my foreskin had detached and anchored itself separately to me before growing to enfold my member. Through that I felt the familiar joy of my manhood, tracing the veins and arteries that would allow it to engorge. But what did it look like?
I gazed down at myself, and automatically the glands underneath my eyes activated again, a pair of small lamps for me to see by. I was already half-erect, and it only took a few strokes to enliven it fully. I wasn't sure if it was because this was all new and exciting, or because my sense of touch had been enhanced, but I felt wonderful. Rubbing my outer skin against my cock was like using a premium fleshjack. The blood rushed in rhythmically, as it always did, and my head poked out through the fur.
There you are, old friend. It's been a while. Do you like your new outfit?
It bobbed in assent. The head was somewhat less pronounced than before; that was to allow it to slide in and out of the sheath more easily. Its flesh was a bit darker, to make it "less of a lure for potential small predators when erect in open water". I squeezed along its length, and a drop of pre revealed itself, glistening on my tip in the alien light.
I smiled and scooped it up with my finger. Its taste, like so much of me now, was both familiar and exotic.
With my other hand I reached lower still. My balls were there, but they were more taut against my body than expected, buried deeper within fur and flesh than my cock. This was all so interesting... I seriously considered masturbating. Was there ever a greater moment in time to celebrate?
Just then the hatch on his exterior unlatched. Damn. I could have used a bit more time, Boris... but it would have to wait. I didn't want to be known as the colonist with the wanking addiction.