Mutationem

by Phoenix Jericho

  Kriss opened her eyes and looked into Connie’s; they were filled with fear and gratitude.

  “I want the captain strapped on a space stretcher and taken to Med Bay for twenty-four-hour observation,” said Connie. The near-death of the colony’s leader had sobered Connie up completely from the high she had had twenty minutes ago. “Smitty, while the captain is incapacitated, you are in command, so take over the bridge.” Saluting in a clumsy manner, Connie walked out, followed by Kriss on a space stretcher carted by two crew women, Pickle bringing up the rear.

  “What just happened?” asked Pickle. The steady beep of Kriss’s pulse could be heard on the monitor.

  “She had an anaphylactic reaction. My guess is it was an allergen from the melting inner hull paint or Dozer’s bite,” said Connie. “Both could cause her body to produce histamine, which normally washes the invader away, but in this case, her body produced too much. If we hadn’t put the trach tube in, Kriss would have died.”

  “Yes, I know,” said Pickle. “We would have lost her if it weren’t for you.” Wrapping her arms around Connie, Pickle cried softly.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  The rivet gun exploded to life. It sounded like a woodpecker beating on a steel drum. Rata tat tat tat, a pause, and then it started all over again. Merc had a hollow piece of pipe suspended vertically in Engineering, with a welded circular base to hold it upright. It was a tedious task, but finally the last rivet sounded and the project was complete.

  A hydraulic lift was wheeled over, connected to the structure at its base, and was moved to a canvas-lined paint booth. Two giant fans were turned on, and a crew woman standing on a suspended platform began painting the structure with short, deliberate strokes. Merc stood with her hands on her hips and nodded with approval.

  “You girls did a great job. Well done,” she said. “Now cut it up. Get Spice on the com. I need her here.”

  *

  Connie removed the cat fetus from the cooler. It was vacuum sealed in clear plastic. Taking a pair of pointed surgical scissors, she pushed one tip through the bag and slid it across the surface. Careful not to cut into the frozen cat, she removed the fetus from the Lexan covering and placed the cat onto the stainless steel counter. She passed a heated wand over the carcass three times until it was completely thawed.

  The cat had an odor to it that she hadn’t smelled since med school. It was the smell of phenol. Her pulse raced with excitement. Maybe this cat hadn’t been preserved with the radioactive isotope, which would mean the DNA wasn’t damaged. Maybe she could get the DNA sequence and clone the cat. With her hands shaking in anticipation, she inserted the extraction needle and slowly spun the handle, pushing the needle in until it was hubbed in the cat’s spine. With practiced ease, she extracted the needle and spun the knob counterclockwise, pushing the extracted material onto a slide. Walking over to the gene sequencer, she placed the slide into the machine and programmed it to run the cycle. Satisfied, Connie headed to her quarters; she had something she wanted to give to Spuds.

  *

  Spice walked into Engineering and was greeted by Merc.

  “Listen, I have an idea but it’s between us only,” Merc said. “I want to borrow one of your hives from the garden. Don’t ask me what it’s for, but I have a surprise for the crew. All I want you to do is shut all the bees up one night in a hive and then bring it to the Great Hall. Can you do that?”

  “Of course, Commander, just give me a heads-up,” said Spice. “I can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeve.”

  *

  Spuds was excited. Merc had lived up to her promise and was building a temporary wall in the Great Hall that divided the room in half. Any crew who asked what was going on was told it was a renovation. Heavy black plastic was draped from the ceiling to the floor, obstructing the view. The plastic kept all the construction dust out of the dining room and kitchen, but not the noise. For some reason, Spuds enjoyed the noise. Probably because she had a secret: she was planning a Christmas feast. She and Spice had already discussed the bounty of the garden; it was just a matter of preparing it. She purposely cycled her crew in small groups, and each group only prepared one portion of the feast. That way, no one knew the whole menu.

  Just then, Connie arrived in the kitchen. Normally Spuds would have been upset at the odor in her sterile kitchen, but right now nothing could ruin her mood.

  “Hey, Spuds, I have something for you,” said Connie.

  “What is it?” asked Spuds.

  “It’s a strain of whey protein that I have been working on in the lab,” said Connie. “I’m worried that since we have no meat on board, the crew will become protein deficient, and with weightlessness, I’m already worried about muscle atrophy. But I think I have made a major breakthrough. If you cook this in some form of bread or pastry, the crew won’t taste it. It will be like a blind placebo. I plan on doing a chemical analysis of each woman to see if it works. I have told no one, not even the captain. I want to prove to myself that it works first before I make it public knowledge.”

  Spuds smiled. “Don’t worry, dear, it will be our little secret. I have just the perfect thing to cook it in.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Sophi woke up screaming, her entire body covered with sweat, and her blanket twisted up at her feet. The darkness of the room didn’t comfort her, but only added to her fear. With no visual input when she opened her eyes, the terror of the dream haunted her. It always ended the same, with blood blown over her face, watching her lover’s head explode.

  The sweat on her body felt wet like blood, and she wiped it off her face. Even though it had occurred during her training in the KGB years ago, it felt like it had just happened.

  When Sophi had been forcibly recruited, she’d endured a vigorous and brutal physical and mental training routine. You either excelled or you died. There is nothing like the fear of losing your own life to make you desperate to survive.

  At first Sophi barely lived from day to day. She was in constant fear that they would kill her. All the teachers carried weapons, and it seemed they would find some reason to kill at least one recruit per week. Basic was twelve weeks. It was survival of the fittest, and soon Sophi became one of the elite. She beat every male candidate except one. His name was Pavel, and he was from Moscow. He was large and brutal and felt no pain. He was a machine, and was at the top of the class. He actually enjoyed it when a classmate was murdered; he called it culling the herd so that only the best would make it through.

  Soon mighty Pavel fell in love with Sophi. Love, friendship, intimacy, and sex were forbidden in KGB training. But love makes people reckless.

  It started in the gym. Pavel had been instructed to take Sophi down as if he were fighting a man. The KGB handlers were anticipating with sick satisfaction that Sophi would be beaten severely. They didn’t like it that their number two student was a woman. It was unheard of.

  The whole class was silent and watched in sick fascination as the victim was stalked by the predator. Every creature on Earth is fascinated with death, so even though some secretly cheered for Sophi, down deeper they wanted her to die. If she died, it spared one of them.

  But it was over in an instant. Many thought Pavel had slipped on the wet mat. But in reality, Sophi had attacked first. Who would have thought, a woman attacking a machine.

  Pavel went to swing at her, but she ducked and kneed him in the inner thigh of his right leg. The leg buckled, and Pavel fell forward. Reaching up around his neck, she added her weight to his fall. He would have fallen headfirst, but at the last minute, he tucked and rolled and ended up on his back with Sophi straddling him.

  Despite herself, Sophi had a slight grin on her face. She could feel his soft cock through their gym shorts; it wasn’t hard but she could tell it was big. Pavel was shocked that he enjoyed her sitting on him. Her legs were spread wide to straddle his girth, whic
h caused her pussy lips to stretch open. Pavel could feel her heat down there on his shaft.

  Sophi jumped up and back. At first, no one said anything, but then someone clapped loudly and with emphasis. Soon, thunderous clapping from the whole class ensued.

  That night in their separate barracks, both thought about the other. The seed had been planted: they had to have each other.

  The first time had been awkward and only lasted briefly, with them both cumming within minutes. Pavel had tried to drill his cock right through Sophi’s pussy into her backbone, but she had met his thrusts and took all he had to give. She milked his dick of its white cum, and his shaft spread her pussy. Even though some of his thrusts slammed into her, the pleasure of her pussy being stretched won out, and they both came together.

  The next few times they fucked were far and between because they were always being watched. But they learned to enjoy it longer. The last time they made love, it was over an hour before the KGB officer discovered them. He watched Pavel penetrate Sophi; Pavel was on his knees between Sophi’s legs. He had his hands around her waist and was holding her up off the floor so his cock had direct access to her vagina. He was going slow and deep, pausing when he was all the way in her, then he would pump the muscle under his shaft once, then slowly come all the way out, with half his cock’s head still in her. Then the ribbed head would spread her lips, and he would slide it back in.

  Sophi would moan twice per thrust, once when he flexed his dick in her, and once when the ribbed head went back in. Sophi was arched back, her shoulder blades and head resting on the floor. She rocked her hips to match his slow, deliberate thrusts. Her arms were bent over her head with her fingers wrapped in her hair, which she pulled in ecstasy. Her breasts moved to the slow motion of their hips. They weren’t fucking; they were making love.

  They both were moaning with pleasure when Pavel said, “I’m cumming.”

  “I am too,” said Sophi, and their moans became one.

  The explosion was deafening. The bullet made a small, round hole in the back of Pavel’s skull and exited his forehead, blowing out brain and bone fragments over the wall above Sophi. Pavel’s lifeless torso fell on her. She couldn’t move; she was pinned by his massive body. But she could scream and she did, an agonizing scream with piercing intensity that no sane man could resist. It was a scream of incredible pain, and a scream for help.

  But her KGB handler was not a sane man; in fact, her scream of helplessness turned him on. His one act of human kindness was that he’d let Pavel cum before pulling the trigger.

  When his evil face came into view over Pavel’s right shoulder, Sophi stopped screaming. There were things worse than dying; it was what happened to you till death that concerned her.

  “My, my, what have we here?” leered the agent. “Look at that, the mighty Pavel dead in his bitch.”

  Now, years later, Sophi rubbed the sweat from her face. It wasn’t blood . . . just her nightmare. She lay awake crying until she fell back asleep.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  The 3-D printer’s spray head rotated back and forth like a miniature car wash, and made a delicate compressed air sound that was hard to hear. Psssst, pssssst, each burst of air sounded as it released its biological ink onto the structure below. This ink consisted of stem cells that had been cultured in a petri dish, and the resulting mixture was put into the 3-D printer, which was programmed to arrange different cell types, along with other materials, into a precise, three-dimensional shape.

  The shape that had just been completed was a fallopian tube for Pickle. Connie had given her local anesthetic and had inserted a pointed needle to remove some fat; this fat was centrifuged down until the stem cells could be harvested. The whole process had taken several weeks, but now the last tube was printed.

  Connie knew how excited Pickle would be upon hearing the good news. Now Pickle would be able to have her own eggs harvested and frozen to help preserve the human race. The next step was to get both fallopian tubes implanted into Pickle’s abdomen. Connie had done many such surgeries herself on Earth, but with the advent of the Surgbot, it was easier and faster and more accurate to have the computer-guided robot do the surgery.

  The stainless steel doors opened and interrupted Connie’s train of thought. In came Leea.

  “Hello, Commander,” Leea said, flashing a beautiful smile.

  “What’s up?” asked Connie.

  “I just wondered how your DNA extraction is going.”

  “The pig fetus was a dead end, but the cat fetus is promising,” said Connie. “I haven’t started yet with the human.”

  “Do we have a male cadaver on board, or is it female?” asked Leea.

  “It’s male,” said Connie.

  “Can I see it?”

  “Probably not,” said Connie. “It’s in the freezer, and the captain has strict orders about protocol since I almost died in there.”

  “Holy shit, you almost died?” Leea blurted out.

  “Yes, but we’re not going to talk about it,” Connie said sternly.

  “Okay, I won’t, sir,” said Leea. “Listen, I heard a rumor that you have a computer with a breeding program for the new colony on A-64.”

  “Yes, I have it here in Med Bay,” said Connie. “All crew’s biological and physiological data has been programmed in, and the computer program matches the ideal genetic combinations to have the most favorable breeding for the new colony. Since we are not fully crewed, the stored data is useless.”

  “Can I see the program? I’m curious to see who I would have been mated with,” said Leea.

  “Seeing as how all the men are dead, I don’t feel anyone’s private data would be jeopardized,” said Connie. Flipping down a monitor under a med cabinet on the wall, Connie typed on a hologram keyboard that looked like it was floating in space below the monitor.

  “Here are your matches,” she said, turning the screen towards Leea.

  Leea came over and read the screen. “I have five matches?”

  “Yes. Here are their names, profiles, and pictures.”

  Intrigued, Leea looked at the men’s pictures. Three of the men she was attracted to; the remaining two she had no interest in.

  “I’ll be back in a minute,” said Connie. “I have to put both fallopian tubes in their sterile growth medium to keep them alive until the Surgbot can implant them into Pickle.”

  “Take your time, Commander. I’m reading about my men,” said Leea.

  As soon as Connie was out of view, Leea searched the breeding program. Scanning the screen, Leea clicked the button “custom programs.” A box titled “heterosexual matings” popped up, but what caught Leea’s eye was the box below: “same-sex matings.” Bingo.

  A click of the keyboard and another option popped up on the monitor: “male to male.”

  “Nope,” said Leea. She clicked the box below that said “female to female,” clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth in satisfaction.

  Just then, Connie came back into the lab. Hurriedly, Leea minimized the screen and brought one of the pictures of her five men up on the monitor. “What a waste of a good man,” she said. “What I could have done with this stud.”

  Connie barely heard Leea. She was thinking about the male cadaver and weighing her options for a viable method of DNA extraction. “Just exit the program and turn off the computer when you’re done drooling,” she said. “I’m going back to my quarters.”

  “Yes, sir,” said Leea.

  Leea couldn’t believe her luck. Bringing the screen back up, she watched an hourglass symbol flipping end over end. It seemed like it was taking forever. Leea was impatient and waited with a hunger, a hunger for a new lover. She had never tried computer dating, but this system took it to a whole new level. It mated you not just physiologically but genetically.

  The hourglass stopped flipping, and the
words “three matches” popped up. The hourglass flipped three times and then the women’s names, profiles, and pictures appeared. Leea clicked on the first picture: Captain Kriss B. Hall.

  “Damn, girl, you might not be gay, but the computer says you could be,” Leea said with a smug voice.

  The next picture was Brenda Fox. “Well, honey, you ain’t no fox, but if I have a long dry spell I might have to double bag you.”

  Only one name left.

  “Please be a sexy bitch.” Crossing her fingers for luck, Leea clicked the last picture. She squealed with pleasure. “Oh baby, am I coming for you!” She stuck her finger in her mouth and sucked on it. It was the same finger she had put in Brooke’s pussy.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The crew was crowded into the Great Hall for supper. It wasn’t really crowded; it just felt like it because Engineering had sectioned half the room off for renovations. The thick plastic barrier rippled from the cooling fans in the kitchen. Normally chow time was filled with happy, relaxed voices floating around the room. But tonight the only sound came from the cooling fans.

  Everyone was in a foul mood. Outwardly, Spuds mirrored the crew’s blank looks, but inside she was ready to burst. Just a few more minutes, she thought. Several more minutes passed and the stragglers showed up for supper. Scanning the room, Spuds did a head count. Beaming inwardly, she knew everyone on board was present.

  Looking over, Connie winked at Libby, who was waiting for the signal. Libby, sitting on the floor beside Dozer, jumped up and got onto the giant cat. Merc had made the magnetic harness, and it was strapped on Dozer. When Libby got on his back, the magnetic band in her space suit snapped onto the magnet sewn into the harness. It made a sound like two heavy marbles hitting each other. Dozer jumped up onto a table and ran its length, jumping from it to another.

  Everyone looked up and just stared. Libby was dressed up in a red-and-white costume with a gray wool sock hanging from a strap from her chin. It dangled and flapped as she laughed and rode the cat. She had a red stocking cap on her head with a string sewn to it; the other end of the string was a giant white cotton ball. The cotton ball floated and danced to the movements of Dozer and Libby.