The colony had thrived at one time....so long ago they regularly received new migrants....before the wars.....
The interplanetary wars had left them cut off from the rest of humanity for centuries and eventually they were completely forgotten....a lost world!!!
It was a pure fluke that he had picked up their beacon.....Zack Hayburn was a scavenger who worked on the frontiers of the old order.....picking at the ruins of the old colonies....looking for anything of value that he could salvage from these dead worlds....sometimes he'd hit a jackpot and he would head for one of the Sinworlds and indulge in whatever debauchery he could imagine until his funds ran out and he would head back out into the "Great Empty" as it was known!!!!
It was while he was looking at the ancient star charts searching for forgotten colony worlds that the ships computer picked up the beacon!
There had been no life found out here on the fringes since the peace treaty had been signed back in '05.....so to pick up a beacon twenty seven years later was unexpected!!!
He had his nav-computer triangulate the signal and found the small planet in the Cygnus system.....he smiled and thought that their might be some really good salvage to be had if their tech was still working after all these years.....he changed course and laid in a heading for Cygnus-3.
It would be several days before he reached the planet and he spent the time looking up all he could find about the colony there....
They were religious zealots who believed that an all-powerful deity would protect them from all the corruptions to which the spread of humanity had become prone!!!
They depended heavily on drawing more migrants than most of the other colonies owing to their quaint adherence to the monogamy that so many of the other worlds had abandoned!!!
He smiled as he scanned the data....they surely must have been one of the first colonies to die out....how could they have possibly survived with a dwindling gene pool and no ships arriving for hundreds of years!!!
His ship followed the beacon and he scanned the planet surface from orbit and found no signs of life.....his instruments warned him of high levels of omega radiation....he shook his head....the poor bastards were probably killed by a form of radiation they didn't even know existed....their civilization was impressive though....even by current standards they had built an impressive world for themselves before they died out.....it was a pity....he imagined the wonders they could have built had they not been doomed by circumstances beyond their control!!!!
But he'd had enough musing and now all he was concerned with was loading his cargo hold with anything of value they might have left behind!!!
Setting down near a city....he donned a radiation suit before stepping out....he stared in awe at the wonders these people had built....the sheer beauty of it staggered him....
Crystal towers that made him crane his neck to see the top.....the glistening roads....could that be gold paving?
He slowly made his way into the city and was surprised at the way everything was in such a neat and orderly condition....there was no sign of the end of their civilization like he had found on dozens of other worlds!!!
In his experience the dying worlds had torn themselves apart before the inevitable end had come.....but there was no sign of that here!!!!
Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw movement and he immediately cursed himself for not bringing a weapon with him!!!! He was somewhat relieved to see it was an automatic public transporter moving along it's route still!!!! Empty but still operating!!! Amazing....even being bombarded by radiation hadn't stopped it!!!
He wondered what manner of propulsion these people had developed that could withstand so many years of exposure to the insanely high levels of radiation and so he watched as it approached him.....it seemed to stop at regular intervals and open it's doors to allow entry and exit for the people....long gone....who would ride to their destinations...
It stopped near him and he boarded the vehicle.....he would ride it as a way to get a good look at more of the city.....he already knew there was enough salvage here for him to make dozens of trips.....he anticipated wealth beyond his wildest imagination.....this was going to be the one that would allow him to buy his own Sinworld and indulge in whatever he wanted for the rest of his life!!!!!
Then he felt the hands grab him from behind....then he felt the infuser....then he felt nothing....
He woke....slowly....and he felt so odd....what happened....where was he....
Slowly he remembered the crystal city and the lost world that had drawn him here.....
His body ached in ways he had never felt before and when he moved to rub his aching chest he found his hands were restrained.....trying to move his legs found that they too were restrained....and still he felt so odd....They may have restrained his hands but his eyes were now wide open and as he looked down he saw the changes that had happened....he had breasts, there was no doubt about that....and squeezing his thighs together gave him the impression that somehow he was no longer a male!!!!
A screen lifted and he found himself facing several men....
"Why have you come to our world stranger?"
"I thought it was a dead world.....what have you done to me?"
"And were you coming to rob our graves stranger....was that your intent?"
"No.....I was just looking for salvage!!!! What have you done to me?"
The men consulted with each other.....
"You have a choice stranger....you may stay with us....as you are.....we need new genetic material and you will be the mother of many....creating new blood....or we will feed you to the sun that killed so many of us in the "Before" time!!!!"
"You want me to be a woman!!!! A mother!!!! How.....why???"
'"We have created many wonders here in the absence....since humanity abandoned us....but we lack for genetic diversity....many of our children are monsters that must be destroyed.....a fresh strain of genes might revitalize us.....and as much as we have been able to change genders at will we could not bring new genetic material to our world....you are the first stranger to visit us in living memory!!!"
"So you want me to be a woman....and give birth to a new generation.....that sounds hard to me.....what's in it for me?"
"In it for you?" the eldest chuckled, "Stranger, I would change places with you in a heartbeat......your life, until the end of your child-bearing years will be one of endless pleasure.....your every need will be catered to.....your every desire will be fulfilled....you would be living as a Queen,,,,is that enough for you?"
"Well....what about after my child bearing years....I suppose you "feed me to the sun" when I can no longer produce babies for you!!!!"
"Stranger, when you are no longer any use to us as a woman we will change you back to a male and your only job will be to impregnate as many young women as you possibly can for the rest of your life...."
He mused over it for a few moments.....
"Let's do it!!!!"
