FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Salvaging a Slaveship for DrakeHavok by Draconicon

Mico wasn't new to the salvaging business. He knew what he was doing, as well he should after dealing with a few dozen Hive ships transporting goods across the galaxies. The human had dealt with any number of customers, from other humans to the cat-like Fesae, from the Hive insects to the goo-men from Antoren 3. The salvager knew what he was doing, and even had his own ship rather than being one of those that rented vessels for short runs and had to split the profits.

So if I know what I'm doing, why in the seven suns am I breaking into a Geranden slave-ship? he thought to himself. His torch had already cut most of the way through the hull, the special flame still barely visible in the vacuum and darkness of space. I swear, if it wasn't for Sandar riding my ass, I wouldn't even be here.

The last bit of metal melted away, and the salvager pulled the door free, throwing it out into space. He watched it spin further and further away before slipping inside the hull. Pulling out a small panel from his satchel attached to his spacesuit, he tapped a few buttons and held it to the hull. It rapidly expanded, forming a seal to cover the hole. It was temporary, just a couple of hour's worth of holding time at best, but it would be enough.

After the hold was stable, he stepped to the side and opened the airlock. A couple of loose items went flying through from the brief stabilization effect, but nothing big. After everything had settled down, Mico pressed a button on his suit and slowly pulled off his helmet.

"Mmph. Little stale...definitely not the freshest air, but definitely breathable."

Stepping inside the ship and closing the airlock again, Mico took off his spacesuit, stripping down to a set of boots and his green jumpsuit. It wasn't much, but it would keep the cold of the ship off of him, and make sure that nothing contaminating got onto his skin. He didn't need that experience again.

"Alright...let's see what this baby's got left in her."

The answer was, not much. The Gerands weren't known for having great wealth, but their slaveships - or so reputation had it - were generally well stocked with either slaves or the payments for them. That reputation, as Mico was finding, was disappointingly wrong. There were no slaves, and whatever goods that the slavers had gotten must have been taken with them when they'd abandoned ship.

The only things left were the re-education chairs and several unmarked crates, the latter of which seemed to be all Mico could salvage.

"And here I thought I might get a decent score. Well, at least the ship's computer is dead; nobody's gonna report this."

That had been his biggest worry, really. If the ship's AI was still functioning, he would have been in deep shit, to say the utter least. The Gerands took great pride in their slave ships, and in their slave empire. If someone were to loot from it, or take anything that didn't belong to them...well, an armada wasn't the biggest thing that a thief had to worry about.

The salvager had several crates in his arms when he stubbed his toe on a thick cable. He stumbled forward, almost cracking his head on the metal deck, but that wasn't the worst thing.

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

"Oh, shit...what did I do? What did I do?"

Getting up, he saw that he'd managed to plug something back in. He followed the cord back towards its source -

"Oh, shit shit shit shit shit!"

He leaped for it, but mechanical arms suddenly descended from the ceiling, grabbing hold of his shoulders. They pulled him back, holding him up in the air as the monitor for the big computer on the far side of the room turned on.

"Systems re-rebooting. Security online. Intruder detected."

"What? What, me? Nah, I'm just, uh, looking for survivors."

"Systems detect no Geranden lords in the ship. Intruder class: Potential Slave."

"What?! I know you guys are -"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as he was shoved back into the nearest re-education machine. Metal bands pushed out from underneath the arm-rests, circling his wrists and holding them down. Similar things constricted his chest, ankles, and neck, keeping him completely still. To his embarrassment, a wash of some sort of liquid sprayed over his jumpsuit, removing it from his body by melting it away.

"Come on, I was using that! Do you know how expensive those are?"

"Slaves are not allowed clothing. Slave will be silent as re-education begins."

"Like hell."

He muttered to himself as he tugged at his bonds, even though some sort of hard-light was restricting his head. It glowed blue, then red as it got tighter, until his head was forced to stare straight ahead. Mico glared at the computer screen on the far end of the room, even though there was nothing he could do.

"Slave will be re-educated, and fitted with a new model of slave control and enhancement. Bio-Collar #241 assigned to Slave #332."

He had no idea what the computer was talking about, and still didn't as one of the boxes on the floor was opened. His head restrained, all he could do was strain his eyes to look down. At first, it seemed like they were pulling some sort of collar out of the box. Darker than most of them, but still something that looked reasonably normal.

Then he saw the dripping stuff inside the band.

Mico had heard of them, but hadn't thought the Gerands had managed to come up with a way to use them. Black Drippers, most spacers called them, due to the way that they dripped all over the place. They oozed a strange, but tough, material almost like latex, but able to stand up to things from blades to blaster bolts. Some people liked to use it for armor, but there was something...off about it. Disturbing.

He couldn't even move as the shaped creature was placed over his neck, oozing already as it drooled its strange ooze over his neck. Mico grimaced, closing his eyes for a moment before the hard-light around his head forced them open again. It was like it couldn't let him ignore the strange feeling, the sense of it creeping down his body and covering him bit by bit.

"Slave will now be re-educated."

Flashing lights surrounded him, a series of sound and color that he was unable to escape from. Mico grimaced, gritting his teeth as much as he could, but it was overwhelming. His eyes were held open, his ears couldn't shut, and as the ooze spread up his face, he could no longer make a sound. He was completely sealed up, unable to do a thing without being released.

His mind was overwhelmed by the color and the dancing lights, something so powerful and strange that he couldn't even think of anything else, let alone focus on it. The ooze crawled along him at the same speed that the strange lights overwhelmed his mind, feeling both get smothered bit by bit.

It was strangely warm underneath the ooze, as if he was being covered in a blanket. Mico would have smiled, if his face wasn't paralyzed; without his jumpsuit, he'd started feeling a bit cold, but now -

No, no, can't think like that. Can't think like...like...

He groaned as the thought disappeared again, and groaned again at a sudden, disturbing feeling at the base of his spine. The ooze running down his body was starting to get thicker, and where it had been longer, it felt...tight. Like it was sinking into him, tightening over the top layer of his skin. He swore that it was...it was...

It's changing me.

He realized it when he finally could look past the colors and see the snout that was growing in on his face. It wasn't much yet, but it was getting bigger, getting longer as more of the ooze covered him. Mico squirmed in the bindings again, but to no avail, as the creature continued covering him, and began reflecting the colors of the re-education machine, flowing over him and somehow, strangely, sending a strange sense of relaxation to the rest of his body. It soon left him unable to even move, like his nerves had been numbed everywhere.

"Slave #332."

He felt himself looking up and paying more attention, despite himself.

"You are assigned to guard and conversion duty. On the next planet, you will depart the ship, and begin conversion on locals by any means necessary, up to and including breeding with them."

Mico wanted to deny it, but his head nodded, allowed by the hard-light as his ooze covered body did what the voice demanded. He groaned, knowing that his life was changing, but the lights were getting faster, implanting things in his head that he didn't want to know about, didn't want to have. The knowledge of sex, between all sorts of genders and species, was put in his mind, and those weren't the only changes happening.

His body had already changed from human to something else, but now he was seeing it more clearly. The snout had fully formed, and his tongue - newly covered in the strange latex material - was dripping with some strange sort of slime, almost like the ooze that covered him. It was long and thin, and dexterous as all hell.

His back ached, and he swore he felt something growing back there, something that didn't belong on a human. Both from his back and the base of his spine lumps grew, and then pushed out. Mico couldn't turn to look, but he could imagine so many things that they might be.

"Free will is a hindrance to some slaves, but not to a converter. We will allow you freedom...after your transformation. For now, sleep."

The lights blared hotter, and Mico felt his consciousness blasted away, just before he fell into darkness.

The small spaceport on the moon of Demun didn't know what to make of the creature that they found outside the Geranden ship. It was like one of those things out of the earth legends, a dragon, but one that walked on two legs. Nobody knew what it was, or where it came from, or even what it wanted.

Several people took it home. Later that day, they opened their home as a brothel. The lack of action at the spaceport brought them a great deal of business, and towards evening, they had piles on piles of credits waiting to be spent.

Business continued in that vein for nearly a week before the spaceport turned into a ghost town. The next visitors had no idea where the old inhabitants had gone, nor did they know why the place was now populated by strange draconian statues. They were eerie, but the latest wave of traders needed a place for food and supplies, and the place was safe enough for the night, they hoped.

They were wrong, and the converters soon had a new wave of ships to take to the stars.

The End