I could hear the thrum of the great engines that powered us through the vast emptiness of space....I could almost feel the massive power vibrating throughout the entire ship!!!
I was the last one.....that thought ran through my mind over and over....the last one!!!
I thought I had hidden myself so well....I thought I was safe....I actually took a moment to catch my breath...to stop running....to think...
The crew was leery of taking on a passenger....after all we weren't a passenger ship....we were an exploratory vessel....all of us had full days worth of duties and a passenger would be an extra burden we could ill afford!!!
Our concerns were put aside when we learned that the passenger was to be loaded in stasis...requiring minimal care....she could be handled almost like any cargo....except we'd have to connect her to the ships AI to be constantly monitored....not as much of a problem as a walking talking passenger would have been.
In a short layover she was quickly loaded and all the connections made....in no time at all we were on our way...
We all took a moment to go and see her....and she was worth seeing....a real beauty!!!
We wondered why she was being handled like this...we couldn't find any information about her identity....not in any of the archives or on the galactic net....she was a complete mystery that we speculated on endlessly....
Curiosity being what it is....the less information we had, the more we wanted to know...
I mean....we were six men alone in an remote sector of the galaxy...and here was this beautiful, mystery woman just blankly staring through the stasis field....she was desirable in a way it would be hard to describe.....
The first time the stasis was breached it was Maxwell...he said he just had to feel her skin to see if she was real!!! Luckily the ships AI repaired the stasis field before any harm was done....
We berated him for his behavior while he sat there smiling....
Over the next couple of cycles we noticed some differences about Maxwell....he seemed different....his voice was softer...the scrubby little beard was gone....he stayed in his cabin a lot more on his downtime....
The second stasis breach was shortly after that...Alexander claimed it was an accident...he said he tripped and his hand went into the field for just a moment....but the AI log showed it was for far more than a moment....when confronted he just smiled and offered no defense...
Over the next several weeks the stasis was breached, at least once, by all of the remaining crew except me....
Now I'm no saint....and the lure of that woman just being there was hard to ignore....
Harder to ignore was the changes to the rest of the crew....they had all become....somehow less manly than they had been....I tried to ignore it but it was becoming impossible not to see that they were all becoming decidedly feminine....
It had started in subtle ways....hair combed differently...voices softer....the ships AI fabricating new clothing that was not at all what they had worn before....
Then one late cycle as we met for our meal they all appeared in dresses....pretty dresses...and I knew that somehow...breaching that stasis had made them all into something different.....that's when I began to fear the woman down in the cargo bay...
They pretty much ignored me and made small talk among themselves....there were some questioning glances at me but I just ate my meal and left to go to my cabin....
I was there when the AI alerted me that the stasis field had been de-activated!
That's when I heard them calling me on the ships comms to come to the cargo bay....now I knew that I was in real danger....whatever that woman had done to them while in stasis hibernation could only be worse if she was awake and among the rest of the crew!!!
I knew I had to hide....this is a big ship but there were my five crew mates and her....I wouldn't be able to hide in any one place for long!!!!
I tried to send a subspace SOS but the AI informed me that my comms privileges were limited to internal communications!!!
I sometimes had access to the internal cams and I could see that the crew had all changed completely to females....I mean completely....and their changes were accelerating....I never thought I'd see Alexander, Maxwell, Damien and the others and think about how beautiful...how desirable...they'd become!!!
But I continued to move through the ship....sleeping when I could and eating whatever I could get....I knew we would be putting in at an outpost soon....it was where we were supposed to drop the woman....maybe there was still hope....maybe I could get away...
The door to the compartment slid open silently and she stood there....it was only terror that kept me from going to her and taking her in my arms....
We stared at each other for a moment as I desperately tried to think of a way to escape...
There was only one door to this compartment....I was trapped!!!
Slowly she stepped into the room with me.....as the door slid shut behind her...
A thin smile played across her lips....
"This could have been so easy...all it would have taken was a touch of the stasis field and you would have changed....it was the field that changed your crew....I was merely the bait in the trap...."
"But why....why are you doing this!!!"
"Why indeed...why was it done to me....you'll understand once you've been exposed....."
"You can't do it....you can't force me...."
"Like I said...this could have been easy....but you've forced me to do it the hard way....lucky for you....I like it the hard way!!!"
The old adage is true...
In space, no one can hear you scream!!!
