Thompson had stayed to repair the ship while I explored this uncharted world...although why it was uncharted was a mystery to me....
It was just off one of the main spaceways...not more than a quarter light year from a well established colony and well within scanner range of over a dozen others....
It was a rocky world with little vegetation....but it had a breathable atmosphere and at the moment a pleasant temperature....there were signs of water erosion on the rocky plains so there was...or had been water here at one time.....but so far there was no sign of sentient life...
I moved off quite a distance and the ship was no longer in view.....this world intrigued me...all the conditions were there for intelligent life to arise but so far I'd seen nothing to indicate there had ever been life here....no relics or ruins or signs of any kind of civilization!!!
In the distance I saw an opening....a cavern....perhaps I'd find life...or underground water....it would be days before the ship could fly....so I would use the rover and return tomorrow to check it out....maybe make some discovery that would get me onto the newsfeeds...
I returned to the ship.....exhausted from my explorations....I checked with Thompson who was hammering away on a piece of delicate electronic equipment....
"Should you be hammering that? Isn't that built with nanoelectrics?"
"Really ....which one of us is the techgineer on this crate....you stick to your science Jacobs and let me do what I do best!!!"
"You hungry?"
"Nah....just in a hurry to get off this rock....it gives me a bad feeling...."
"I didn't see anything scary while I was out...."
"I can't explain it....it just gives me the creeps!!!"
"I found a cavern....I'm going back tomorrow to check it out....I may end up camping there overnight...."
"You do what you have to do and I'll get this goddamned bucket of bolts ready to fly...."
He returned to hammering on the instruments and I prepared a nice meal of synths and went to sack out....
I woke the next morning to the sounds of hammering and profanity.....I didn't know if Thompson had slept or not....but he was a big boy....I'm not his nursemaid....I whipped up some synth bacon and eggs and started packing the gear I was taking onto the rover...
I set off early....well early judging by the sunrise on this world....my body was still used to galactic standard time and it took me a couple of stim shots to really get me focused...
It took me almost no time to cover the distance that had taken me hours yesterday....and soon I was at the yawning mouth of the cavern....it was really odd....there was nothing else here except this large rock mound and the cavern....but I loved a mystery....I unpacked my gear and prepared to explore the interior....
It was as beautiful inside as it was bleak outside....the sun seemed to enter and reflect off of....well off of everything....creating effects not unlike stained glass....multiple colors in bright vibrant hues all around me....I was dazzled....perhaps that's why I didn't realize at once that I was not alone....
After my initial start....I stared at the alien being that stood so close to me....large and greenish in hue....with what looked like pretty fearsome claws on the end of long fingers....it's face was vaguely humanoid....two eyes....a mouth and what might have been a nose....placed disconcertingly above the eyes....
Looking at the claws my hand dropped to my holstered blaster.....
"No need for the weapon....you are a human?"
"Yes....how is it you speak my language?"
"We have had many visitors here....we learn from all....but none have come for so long..."
"How do you live on this barren world?"
"Come....follow me....have no fear....we mean you no harm...."
I followed him....her....it....deeper into the cavern and we passed through a shimmering energy curtain and I found myself in a city the likes of which I had never seen in all my years of traveling the spaceways!!!
To say it was beautiful would be insulting.....it was beyond beautiful....it was literally indescribable!!!!
"Come with me human....our leader is waiting to meet you!"
"I was led into a palace of light....it was like a living kaleidoscope...it's walls pulsed with color in ever changing patterns....I found the effect soothing....almost hypnotic!!!!
Soon I was led to another chamber where an alien sat on an ornate throne which also pulsed with colors....it made it hard for me to think....
"Welcome human....what name do you go by...."
"Jacobs....they call me Jacobs....and what may I call you...."
"We don't have names like the humans and many other species that we've met....we know each other and names are meaningless to us...."
"Your world isn't on any of our star charts....how is it that you've had so many visitors when we don't even know you're here?"
"Ah....that explains why we've received so few visitors over these past years....very few of our visitors decide to leave after they've been here....after we've given them our hospitality!!!"
"I can see that you live in a world of wonder....maybe if more people knew....we could learn from each other...."
"I think we've learned all that we need to know of humans....Jacobs....it has been decided that you will stay here with us...."
"What do you mean....I'm not staying here....I'm shipping out as soon as our ship is repaired!!!"
Again my hand dropped down to my blaster....
Then the lights began to move in a way that I couldn't ignore....and as they moved I was being told a story....a story of a once great starfaring civilization....that traveled before the spaceways were even imagined....that traveled further and learned more than all the colonized worlds would ever know!!!
But the civilization traveled too far and they were brought down by some unknown virus that had been undetectable....even to them with all their great knowledge....and the virus only attacked the females of the species....eventually leaving them as a dying civilization....unable to reproduce....
After they withdrew to their home world to die they discovered that they could mate with other species......and they could stay alive....but they stopped traveling to other worlds for fear that they might spread the virus and doom another species....
While I was learning their history I felt my body being reshaped....and I felt a growing pleasure the likes of which I had never felt before....it was beyond pleasure....it was ecstasy!!!!
"You see Jacobs....we need you....human females are particularly suited for us....and it seems that when they arrive here the pleasure they feel from mating with us is unlike anything else of their experience....."
I almost hadn't noticed till the alien spoke that I had been "mating" with a line of aliens...my pleasure was almost more than I could bear and in a giant wave of absolute happiness....I passed out...
When I woke there was an alien sitting next to me....
"Good news Jacobs....we were successful....you are carrying one of our young....we are all very pleased"
And then the lights began to dazzle me again....and despite it all...the changes they had made to my body....the changes they had made to my mind....I was happy too!!!
We traveled back to the ship....
When we arrived Thompson had been watching the rover approach through the binoculars....
"What the hell is that and who the hell are you lady?"
"Relax my friend....he is a native of this world....and they have changed me....and now I am also a native of this world!!!!"
"Holy crap!!! Jacobs...is that you?"
"Yes my friend....and I have found a new home here....you could join me....and be a new mother to a civilization...."
"Be a new....mother....you mean you've..."
"Yes my friend....I will give birth in a few months....and the species will continue as it must..."
"Oh....hell no....they're not gonna turn me into some kind of breeder for them....I'm lifting off in five minutes and I'm putting out the warning to quarantine this planet!!!!"
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that...."
"How are you going to stop me Jacobs....you going to shoot me?"
"Yes...I'm afraid so...."
The sound of the stun rifle wasn't loud but it still echoed across the empty world....we loaded him onto the rover and drove back toward the rainbow cavern....
As a new mother it would be nice to have company....
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