[The Drafts Folder] Preview - "Space Source" (Patreon)

Wanted to share where I am with this, enjoy! (I added this to the Drafts Folder!)

 [Initiating hyperdrive... Arrival at Blue Eden in seven hours.]

Andrei released the controls and sat back. They stretched out of habit, raising their arms and pointing their toes to relieve tension their artificial muscles would never feel but that their once-organic mind still expected. Even now, twenty years after the fact, it was hard to get over not feeling things anymore.

Sure, their frame's sensors collected readings about pressure and temperature, but it paled in comparison to the depth of sensation they had experienced through their skin. Outside of the shifting weight on their feet, there was no sense of movement when they walked. When they held or touched something, it always felt smooth. Hell, they might as well have been naked for the utter lack of sensation from their clothes.

"So, what now?" asked the brown-skinned fox-girl sniffling in co-pilot's seat. Her pointed ears were down and back. Her fluffy black tail was wrapped around her. It was obvious that she was stressed out--anyone would be after a day like the one she had been through.

"Oh, right," Andrei replied, not sure how to reassure the otherwise human-looking alien. They wanted to smile, but the cyborg knew the polished nanopolymer of their shield-shaped face would not move. "This is only your second hyperspace flight, isn't it, Omouye?"

The cyborg knew from the briefing that the little foxling's parents were both accomplished spacefarers who had arrived in the first wave of people fleeing their home system. Omouye, however, had never left the colony before. Not that she had any choice in the matter.

"Yeah," she replied, fixing Andrei with tear-filled eyes. "I never thought I'd leave, but..."

"Life's full of unexpected twists like that." The words seemed like the best Andrei could offer someone who had been kidnapped and rescued. "Just, relax and we'll get you home soon enough."

"Um, Andrei..." Omouei asked after a moment. "Was becoming a cyborg a twist for you?" Her voice was earnest, but even so, Andrei flinched away from the question.

"Something like that."

Omouei sat forward, her fear evaporating in the face of her innocent curiosity. "What happened?"