Coiled Cortana (Patreon)

A little something inspired by a Zarvex3 pic...

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The jungle was hot and humid, but neither of these things were any bother to an AI. That said, they were concerning factors for Cortana as she uploaded herself into the outpost's database. The environment in here was supposed to be sterile and cool - why were the life support systems not functioning correctly? Had they been shut down?

The outpost itself was on a remote planet, resource rich but cut off from most forms of interstellar travel. Humanity had only managed to set up a harvesting settlement on it with great difficulty, and the chance to do so again wasn't likely to come around for a long, long time. Thus, when communications with the team stationed there had gone dark, there had been... concerns. Concerns which led to broadcasting an AI over to figure out what had happened.

And so here she was, scanning through the complex's various systems, and frowning at what she found - a whole lot of nothing. No sign of what had happened - but no sign of the people that were supposed to live here either. Every report filed ended normally, every recording was banal. There was nothing... hm. Wait.

One of the computer terminals was still active, though it was in power saver mode. Activating it from the network, Cortana checked to see what it had been used for last, and struck gold - it was a text editor. Someone had been writing before they vanished.

Of course the contents weren't as helpful as the AI would have liked, but they were something. It looked like a standard report about a mining operation, but then near the end the writer mentioned one of the botanists on staff had found something 'extraordinary' that they wanted everyone to see...

It was a lead, at last.

Annoyingly, though, the botany labs were on a closed network - she couldn't just upload herself to their computers by WiFi. But that wasn't a problem - the outpost was equipped with hard light projectors, so she could just walk on over and work herself in directly. It would just take a bit longer, that was all.

The systems whirred to life, and she closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was in the physical realm, her blue circuitry body glowing in the darkened halls.

"Right," she muttered to herself, starting to walk. "Let's find out what we're dealing with here..."

The quiet might have bothered a human, but Cortana found it almost relaxing. There weren't bullets flying everywhere or planets exploding or... well, honestly this mission might just be the closest thing to a vacation that she was likely to get! So she was in a pretty good mood when the botany lab doors slid open, and revealed...

"Oh, hello," said the snake, blinking down at her from where it had been napping on a low hanging branch - the entire bay being filled with thick jungle-like trees. "Who might you be?"

Cortana blinked. "A talking snake?"

He chuckled. "No, I think you'll find that's me, dear.

"Ah." She laughed at her mistake. "Right, of course. I'm Cortana. I'm here to investigate where the people making this outpost have gone. Can you tell me?"

But the snake shook his head, lowering himself down to her eye level. "I'm afraid not."

Of course not. "Great. Where could they have gone..." Data, data, she needed data... "I guess it's pretty obvious you're their 'extraordinary' discovery, at least."

"Hm?" The snake tilted his head, then smiled. "Oh, no, no, I'm nothing special. Just a harmless snake. But they did say something to that affect when I showed them what I can do..."

"What you can do?" Cortana blinked. So the discovery wasn't that they'd found a snake they could teach to speak English? "What do you mean?"

"Hmm... Why don't you let me show you?" The snake asked, leaning in towards her. "It's a funny little trick. Just look into my eyes, you'll see."

"Your eyes?" Hm. Cortana had to admit, she was curious - whatever this 'trick' of his was, it was probably tied to the disappearances. It would be useful to observe it. "Alright... Like this?" She focused her gaze on his, trying to figure out what she was supposed to be seeing.

"Yes, that's it. Just look into my eyes... Deep... into my eyes..."

Deep... Huh. Cortana blinked again. She thought she could see something - a ring of slowly expanding color. Was it a visual glitch in her sensors, or...?

"Yes, that's it. Keep watching. You don't want to miss it..."

Yeah, keep watching...

The colors were getting brighter now, bigger. They were flowing out through the snakes eyes like swirling party rings. They were... fascinating...

"What a... strange ability..." Cortana breathed dizzily. A few files in her archive called for her attention, alerted to a similar phenomenon. "Is this... hypnosis?"

"Oh, do you know it? Keep watching just to be sure~" The snake sounded confident, even amused, despite her recognizing his trick.

"Mmm..." She said, a dopey smile spreading over her face. "Y-yes, it's... It's a simple act of... biological mind control...." A sleepy yawn interrupted her for a moment. "Mm, won't work on an AI..."

"Oh no? Well that's very fortunate for you." The snake still sounded amused, though Cortana couldn't work out why. For some reason she felt like that should worry her, but she just couldn't manage to work up the concern It wasn't worth the effort. She was feeling all nice and relaxed... Enjoying her vacation...

"... Fortunate...?" She managed, as colors began to spin in her eyes as well. "... How...?"

"Well, because now you can stare as deep and as long as you like, of course. Your friends here in the outpost wanted to stare a lot as well."

Yes... she could stare deep... long... as long as she liked...

Her smile widened into a silly grin, the colors starting to flow faster in her eyes. Around the outpost, the computers hosting her AI began to whir, their monitors filling with colored rings as well as they started to purge data from their systems.

"... Feels... Nice..." She muttered, as her archives were fragmented and overwritten. Distantly, her ears caught the sound of a series of Pings as each system her mind inhabited purged her intelligence away, dropping her genius into the recycle bin and emptying her brain one byte at a time.

"Yes..." The snake's tail coiled around her, wrapping around her body and coiling loosely around her neck. "It feels nice to stop thinking and just watch... Now..." He slid closer, the colors spinning faster, so fast she could feel them melting her thoughts as the flashed. "Why don't you stop thinking... Forever."

His coils pulled tight around her neck, squeezing her vocal cords hard, eliciting a "Glurk!" from her lips just as the forceful sensation drew a "PING!" from her head, smashing what little was left of her thoughts to pieces. The last thing Cortana saw was a brief message - "Cortana.exe has encountered an error and needs to be shut down~" - before that too vanished, and her mind blanked out completely.

Her smile widened into a blank, mindless grin, simulated drool leaking down onto her holographic tits, her eyes still spinning with colors even as the snake's eyes relaxed.

"There we go." The snake snorted, lifting the AI up into the air. "Not so immune after all, were you dear?"

"No, Master~" She replied cheerfully, her smile never fading. "I guess not! Wow, an AI getting hypnotized by a snake - I must have been a real digital dunce to fall for that!"

"Oh, most certainly," he chuckled. "And now you're my little software slut. Hmm, what to do with you..."

"Whatever you like, Master! I've been completely defeated by your charming coils - anything you say, I'll obey!"

"Heehee, no doubt..." The snake nodded. "Well, I said I couldn't tell you what happened to the people who were here before... But I suppose I can easily show you. You'll make a fine addition to my collection."

"Oh, thank you Master!" The spirals in Cortana's eyes spun faster - she truly couldn't think of anything she wanted more! Of course, she couldn't really think period, but that was beside the point. "I'll do whatever you desire to please you!"

"And later we'll have to discuss some... changes to your programming. I can think of a lot of uses for a holographic whore~"

The AI smiled mindlessly, nodding as the coils carried her up into the treetops, and out of sight. Truly, what could be a better end for her than this? A Mindless Malware Moron. She could already feel her Master's arousal rubbing up against her - and she couldn't wait to serve it, for the rest of eternity...