Kiwa, Dr. Arie (World Guide, Biographical) (Patreon)

Arie, Dr. Kiwa

Born 18.3.4361, Karo, Tesella II, Marian Drift Prefecture, Feyli Empire. Born Female Lynx Feli. Nanitch.

Dr. Kiwa Arie was a gynecologist and sexuality focused anthropological researcher living in the frontier town of Tia, on Devrian IX at the time of the discovery of large numbers of dormant nanitch in the depths of the Bia Parataddi archaeological site. Little is known about the shy, bookish lynx's early life and career, save that she never entered medical practice. Her only recorded contributions to her chosen area of study prior to her arrival on Devrian IX are a handful of rather dryly written, and very forgettable papers detailing the complex male pre-copulatory rituals prevalent among various yambarri tribal groups living in the wilderness regions of Anakki VI. Considering that the only women permitted to view such rites were the ones with whom the males were to mate, it is almost certain that this knowledge was acquired in a very intimate, first-hand manner.

At Bia Parataddi, Dr. Arie was researching the collected ancient texts in an effort to discover the true nature of the bia's purported fertility enhancing rituals. Allegedly, when done properly, 'a whole village might be populated from the fertility of another in a single cycle of the sun'. That the bia were a thousand years extinct owing to expansive inbreeding induced genetic disease didn't seem to favor the idea on one hand, and yet it was subtly suggestive on the other. Dr. Arie was determined to discover the truth.

The discovery of the nanitch was an untimely inconvenience to Dr. Arie's work. At the time, the long dead artificial microorganisms were considered a nuisance contaminant to the site, and were filtered out and stored in large vats. At some point, several of these vats came into Dr. Arie's possession, and she began to wonder if their presence and the bia fall to inbreeding were somehow related.

Almost all of the nanitch in Dr. Arie's possession were physically damaged to the point of being useless for study. In among the mass of broken bits, however, she was able to isolate a few thousand that seemed intact. More significantly, they didn't seem to be quite so dead as they should have been. The moved of their own accord when exposed to heat. To keep them active for study, Dr. Arie placed them into a tank of nutrient rich, synthetic 'natural' lubricant that she had acquired for certain other studies that had never come to fruition.

To her considerable surprise, and not just a little consternation, all of the nanitch seemed to cluster on the side of the steel tank closest to wherever she might be in the room. If they were attracted to her, then surely they must have been attracted to the bia. Suddenly, bia artwork depicting  'living lumps' inserted into the female body, or onto the male phallus, began made a bit of sense. But were these living lumps really made of nanitch? And what were nantich, actually? She didn't know. No one seemed to know. They'd never been found alive before.

Rather than enlist help, or alert the proper authorities, Dr. Arie kept her secret, and pored through depictions of the rituals, the living lumps, and the bizarre, alien looking costumes that both sexes seemed to wear once their ritual was complete, and apparently for the rest of their lives. The more she studied, the more she became convinced that these nanitch were the key, and that the costumes might actually not so much be costumes, but coverings of these nanitch, who would somehow make their hosts more fertile, albeit at a severe genetic price, one which a more modern society would know to avoid.

As she worked, Dr. Arie somehow managed to slowly talk herself into exposing herself to her collected live nanitch, just to find out what they would really do to her body. Her method was to transfer the nanitch into a smaller quantity of lubricant, and inject the resulting slurry into her genitalia. This she did, and she soon discovered that the nanitch had not only insinuated themselves into her flesh, but were somehow transforming it in a very tingly, pleasant feeling way. At the same time, there was no mistaking what she was becoming, and that revealed the apparently horrific truth of the bia extinction.

Clearly, the bia had gone extinct because so many people were slathering their genitals in nanitch and being transformed into... whatever it was she was becoming. Such a sharp decline in population would have led to inbreeding in very short order. And with a portion of those also becoming... whatever. That would just make it worse, to the point that genetic disease would overwhelm the remainder in shockingly few generations.

What Dr. Arie didn't know was that she was actually being turned into countless new nanitch, all bound together in a single form of convenience. Nor did she know that was was effectively becoming the mother to a reestablished sapient race of microscopic machines. Within fifteen minutes, her transfiguration was complete, and all worries about bia, mating, or even the mundane needs of life vanished. She was never seen again, though her progeny can be found throughout the modern Feyli Empire.

Thanks to modern science, it's known that Dr. Arie lives on, somewhere, her entire mind contained within the confines of a single microscopic nanitch. It is only one mind in a hive-mind, however, and the chances of encountering her as herself seems quite improbable, though still entirely possible.