Needs Must 2b (Patreon)

Here we have the second part of chapter 2!

The teleporter activates, but what came next, nobody expected! How will our pair deal with their new situation? 

Illustrated by me, and written by me

- - -

It was an almost startling feeling - to wake up and wonder whether or not you’ve died. To have such complete recollection of the events preceding the teleportation and then to remember nothing but pain afterwards. Such pain that for a while it seemed like nothing else could exist. To simply be, after that, must be some miracle.

Right? 

Jenny groaned. Something was wrong. Her voice sounded foreign to her, and echoed strangely. More than that, she felt... thin. Spread out across her own body. It seemed like her muscles were reacting to her presence, but only one by one. She became aware, vaguely, of each tendon, each finger and toe as they rejoined her conscious control. Even more strange was that she felt something, almost imperceptible, bundled in the back of her mind. Like the sore in your mouth you just can’t leave alone, this feeling of shared occupancy in her own body just wouldn’t go away. Mumbling quietly to herself, Jenny opened her eyes to make her second discovery of the day.

She wasn’t in her own body. 

It wasn’t even her eyes that she opened - although Jenny would come to speculate about that later. Typically when she opens her eyes in the morning, the first thing Jenny sees is her own stomach, usually covered by a blanket and rising above her like a small, blubbery boulder. Today though, she seemed almost slender. Oh, she was chubby, absolutely, her stomach forming two distinct rolls as it strained against a flightsuit that was obviously two sizes smaller, but it was not her stomach. And she was not wearing her flightsuit. As she raised two hands to evaluate the new curves of her body, she realised:

“Sweet gods... I’m Ava?”

As far as it could make sense, it did. She could feel Ava’s body - the smooth skin, the hard scales. The strangest departures from the norm were the fact that she could wiggle her new toes and that she could feel her tail extend feet away from her body, although currently it lay draped against the table she’d woken up on. Table? 

Jenny could feel it beneath her now, a hard metal affair. Her head had been propped up on what seemed to be a couch cushion. Bright lights shone down on her new body and all around various medical machines beeped their disinterest.

“Ah good, you’re awake.” 

The pangolin released for the first time the presence of another in the room, she looked perhaps like a dove although it was hard to tell behind the glasses and the labcoat. The avian was holding up a tablet with a holographic display, although whatever readouts she was reading were incomprehensible to Jenny.

“I had thought for a moment that you were going to pass out, but since you’re here, as I was saying...” The dove paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. She was pretty, Jenny realised with a pang of attraction. Long eyebrows, a slender frame. Her voice was gentle, sounding like wind chimes being caressed by a soft breeze. “Due to the contrast between the nanomachines found in your body and the porcine’s body there has been a malfunction with the teleportation unit. Thankfully you’re unharmed, although a little...” Her gaze moved to Jenny’s rounded stomach. “Altered.”

“W-what do you mean... what’s going on?” 

Taking a deep breath and looking considerably like she was talking to a child, the dove replied, “The pig’s body was riddled with high security nanites, presumably she picked them up from an illegal research facility. To avoid being reverse engineered, when their host is deconstructed via teleportation if they encounter foreign material or nanites, they are programmed to violently expel the intruding mass - in this case you and your normal vaccination nanomachines. Under ordinary circumstances this would have resulted in violent death, however apparently your own nanomachines were able to overpower the pig’s, and you were able to be reassembled. You both were.” There’s a slight, pregnant pause. “Together.” 

Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. She wasn’t just in Ava’s body, she was /sharing/ Ava’s body.

“Seventy percent of the porcine’s mass was lost upon teleportation. As you can see, you have gained what wasn’t lost, in an unprecedented case of body melding. Frankly,” She adjusted her glasses and looked at Jenny like a scientist might look at a lab rat, “This is a somewhat phenomenal scientific occurrence and in exchange for your co-operating with our analysis and diagnostic tests, we believe we will be able to restore you both to your old bodies in a timely fashion.” 

Jenny was numb. Seventy percent of her body had been obliterated? Lost? Cast out into... wherever mass went when it couldn’t be reassembled at the other end of teleportation. Her body. She was riding in somebody else’s body. A passenger. A stowaway. Her hand rose, trembling under her teary eyed inspection. “B-but it’s reversible? You said you can reassemble us?” 

“Yes. In exchange for your complete cooperation, we can return you both to your original states, more or less.” 

Her hands clenched. No, Ava’s hands clenched and the pangolin’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean... ‘More or less’? Can you restore us or not?” 

“Well...” Jenny braced herself for bad news as the dove spoke. “The percentage of both of you that was lost is... well... lost. However the teleporter has an adequate structural template to be working with and, providing your cooperation, we should be able to reverse what has happened. The pig however will be materialised in a state far smaller than she was prior to teleportation.” 

“Smaller?” The pangolin gulped. Of course, she would take what she could get. 

“Thinner.” The dove corrected, and Jenny breathed a sigh of relief. Hell, if she ended up thinner out of this it would be a hell of a bonus. The doctors had told her she’d never lose the weight she’d gained on the Theseus, could this really turn out to be a boon?

“Alright, deal.” She said, not even thinking that she was speaking for Ava as well. Surely the pangolin would want her friend’s safe return to her own body too though, right?

“Very good. I’ve had our lawyers draw up the necessary documentation, even though we’re outside of Imperial space it doesn’t hurt to do things by the books. I’ll have the requisite forms retrieved.” With that and a professional nod of her head, the dove left Jenny alone. The pangolin watched her leave, taking note of the way the dove’s tail feathers parted her professional looking lab coat and swayed alluringly before the door shut behind them. Gods, maybe she’d even have a chance with the girl after this was all over and she had a body that could fit through single doorways. 

It was the first time Jenny had a chance to really look around since she’d woken up, so she made use of it, sliding from the stainless steel table and wincing as she forgot to take into account the weight of her tail which thumped roughly against the floor. It felt especially tender, but she couldn’t be sure whether or not that was normal. The room was small, dim, and full of medical equipment. She’d been scanned and rescanned whilst she was out cold and various displays lit up all around her with the results. They might as well have been in a different language for all Jenny could discern of their content and purpose, but seeing Ava’s body displayed on half a dozen screens around her was a strange and sobering experience. Likewise seeing it blown up with a couple of dozen more pounds than it had had this morning. Idly, Jenny picked at the various monitoring devices that were still strapped to her, plucking off heart rate monitors and something that had been tied about her wrist. The machines in the room gave angry beeps of protest but Jenny figured she’d played test subject long enough for one day and it was nice to give her muscles time to stretch. 

Holding her arms over her head, the pangolin was just stretching her back when she saw tucked into the corner of the room a small hose with a trigger mechanism, hooked into the wall. A sign above it declared it to be a ‘Nutrients Dispenser’, no doubt for when patients (or specimens) were too weak to properly feed themselves. Jenny licked her lips. It had been a while since she’d had old fashioned nutrient paste, and whilst it had never been anything to write home about, a mixture of hunger and nostalgia drove her to pad towards the hose and pluck it from its receptacle. 

Nutrient paste was often supplied by stations as a free, cheap alternative to a full meal. It wasn’t particularly filling, but a cup of paste could satisfy a class b lifeform’s (average humanoid) energy and nutrient requirements for a full day and then some. It had a distinct, unpalatable algea-like taste to it, which tended to put most people off but Jenny had lived off of the stuff for a while, so she was used to it to say the least. Not seeing any cups and figuring the dove’s return would probably take a few more minutes, she tucked the hose into her mouth and depressed the trigger. 

Instantly that cool, familiar flavour filled her mouth. She toyed with the paste, with a tongue that wasn’t hers before swallowing. Strange how it tasted different, and yet the same. It felt heavier than it used to as it slid down her throat. But there was something to be said for the feeling of having a full stomach again. Ava’s ship had nothing if not heavily rationed her food intake, gods, it’s been weeks since she’d had a good meal! 

One gulp after another, Jenny shut her eyes and let herself enjoy the moment. Enjoy the sensation of a stomach being pumped full. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew that this was wrong, that she had to have eaten over the recommended one cup of paste, but she didn’t care. It felt too right to stop. Indeed, as she caressed the growing bulge of her stomach with one hand and held the hose with the other, an indicator on the wall displayed how many servings she’d dispensed and ingested. As the number hit eight, Jenny stifled a little, queasy feeling belch, bringing her back to reality. She opened her eyes and pulled the hose away, guiltily seeing the fact she’d consumed over eight servings as she tucked the hose back where it belonged.

And it showed. Ava’s stomach had been not minutes before a chubby little thing with barely enough fat for two rolls to have formed, but now it was sticking out, straining her suit until Jenny thought if she breathed in especially hard it would simply burst. She groaned a little and placed both hands on the mound of her stomach now, trying to calm down it’s angry groans and churning. Unlike Jenny’s it wasn’t used to being stretched and tormented so. As slowly as she could, Jenny waddled back to the table where she sat down and lamented her brief loss of control. She hiccuped again and could swear she felt some of the paste trying to come up her throat. Groaning, the pangolin pulled herself up onto the table and lay down sideways, caressing the gravid bulge of her stomach and hoping that the dove wouldn’t notice. 

Her eyes began to droop and she stifled a soft little yawn. Jenny felt the familiar sensation of being sleepy, but it was mixed with something else. Something more. The other presence in her mind was stirring. Her legs fell numb, then her arms. With a surprised squeak, Jenny realised that Ava was waking up and in so doing reclaiming her body. As she fell dormant, the last thing she felt was Ava’s tail - one last vestige of control.

She clung to it.