Absorption

"Your 14th birthday," said Pris.

"Now I remember, I said. "That's Tomas's mother." Tomas had been my best friend at high school. His mother had been one of those kind, bubbly types. She'd been popular with all of us, not just because she always had the best snacks when we visited but because she had some outrageously big boobs. The best way of winding up Tomas had been to mention them to him. The fact that she'd enjoyed wearing low-cut dresses to show them off had made the whole situation worse for the poor guy.

Other photos appeared. Pris had to remind me of the context of the majority of them. My aunt Janis, the trophy wife of my dad's younger brother, the wanna-be musician who actually ended up a musician to my father's fuming resentment; my second-grade teacher, Miss Shortland. A girl from university whose name was lost to history: Ellie, Ella or maybe even Eliza, a few years older than me. We'd dated. She'd been an artist.

I noticed a theme. They were all older women with kind, open faces and a ready smile. Curvy, too, with wide hips and big boobs and butt. Just my type, I guess.

I sat back and scratched the back of my neck. "An amalgam of women from my memories. But how is that possible?"

"Telepathy," said Pris. "I told you about the sample's electrical activity whenever it mimics you. Weren't you listening?"

I guess I hadn't been. "So Lula's been accessing my memories."

"Don't you think it's becoming too dangerous?" said Pris.

I laughed. "She's harmless, Pris. She's exhibited no hostile behaviour whatsoever. What's she going to do to me, anyway? It took her hours to digest a peanut. No." I drummed my fingers against my lips. It was a habit I knew drove Pris mad, but I was annoyed at her for refusing to call Lula anything other than 'the sample'. "No, this just makes Lula more precious. Imagine the uses she could be put to."

Uses. The word tasted bad on my tongue for some reason.

"No," I said. "She's our ticket out of this job. Aren't you sick of wandering along the rim?"

"No," said Pris. "Not as long as you're here with me."

"That's very sweet of you, Pris," I said. "But I know you're just as bored as I am." I got up.

"Where are you going?"

"To train Lula some more," I said. "And I think we need to move her to a larger containment area. She's getting too big for the specimen dome."

"Very well," said Pris. "But please, promise me you'll be careful. If it's telepathic, there's no telling what other abilities it might have."

"I'll be fine," I said.

-----------

Pris moved Lula to her new room. Behind a force-field, the room doubled as a brig but since I was the ship's only crew, we'd never needed it. I mostly used it to store old cleaning supplies, but once I moved them out it looked comfortable enough.

Well, comfortable enough for a blob of slime, anyway.

It was a joke. I didn't really think of Lula that way any more. She was rapidly taking on a personality. I guess that's why I'd given her a name.

Once in her new digs, Lula got bigger. I guess every girl lets herself go when they're feeling comfortable. Despite Pris's protestations, I kept feeding her. She ate anything, but preferred mineral-based things like rocks and sand. Luckily we had a hold full of samples I'd taken from other planets we'd visited. Every space jockey has the bad habit of taking a bit of the planet with him after he's stepped foot on it. Armstrong started the whole thing when he took back that bit of the moon.

I promised Pris that I'd stop feeding her when she reached the size of a human. For one thing, we didn't have anywhere bigger than the brig to put her and she was still manageable at that size.

"I don't want her to be big enough to swallow you up," said Pris.

I agreed with her.

But the whole thing proved a moot point. As soon as Lula got to just under my own body-size, she stopped growing. She was still hungry, but ate far less.

"Your growth spurts are over, then," I said. I was offering her some delicious feldspar I'd taken from the Himiko system, the white rocks sitting on my hand. The field permitted your hand to extrude through it, like a person thrusting their hand into a balloon, so for all intents and purposes I was hand-feeding her, even if there was still a layer of force between us.

Today, though, she didn't want any more food. She'd grown tall and had started to move around upright. She wore her face all the time now and the features had become more and more detailed. She was actually really pretty if you got past the idea that she was essentially made of jello.

Her face had become more expressive, too. She didn't just mimic me, but had learned all sorts of expressions. I guess I'd taught her a lot of them by grimacing at her like you would a baby, but others... well. I suspected she'd harvested them from my memories. For one thing, she'd started to look at me in a coquettish way. There was no mistaking the slight hooding of the eyes, the sideways glancing, the soft, teasing smile...

'Teasing smile'? I shook my head. Maybe Pris was right about the whole thing. I really needed to get laid.

Lula came to the field. She'd started to maintain two pseudopods on either side of her blobby body, like a human's arms. She'd gotten very good at it. The hands she was still working on. I guess maintaining a shape was mentally tiring for her.

"So you are hungry?" I asked.

She stood there and blinked at me. I closed my eyes and thought at her, thoughts of delicious rocks, of her absorbing them. It had occurred to me that you might be able to communicate back to her if she could read your mind. I'd tried before, but it hadn't really worked. My visualisations had been pretty amateurish.

This time though, Lula shook her head.

"You understand?" This was a harder concept to visualise.

But it got through. She nodded. A grin broke out on her face, if you could call it a face. She placed a hand against the field and glanced at it before turning her gaze back to me.

I knew what she wanted. I put my hand against the field. We were like two lovers trying to hold hands through a barrier.

Lula pouted and arched her eyebrows.

"You want more than that?" The barrier between us wasn't glass, after all. Where was the harm? I pushed my hand through, drawing a membrane of the field around my hand.

Lula grabbed my hand and I bit back a shout. She couldn't pull me in or anything like that, but the swiftness of the movement had alarmed me. Lula seemed to understand and lowered her eyes, remorseful.

"Hey, don't worry about it," I said.

Lula's smile returned. She held onto my hand for a while, the pseudopods that were her fingers entwining in mine. Then she leaned down, closed her eyes and pressed her lips against my fingers.

Shocked, I took my hand out from the field.

Lula looked up. Her eyebrows and lips dropped.

"You just startled me," I said, thinking the same to her.

I decided she'd understood.

"I have to go now," I said. "I have some piloting to do. We're moving through a debris field at the moment."

I tried to visualise that, but it was too much. She just looked confused. Maybe she was wondering why I was so worried about encountering a bunch of huge, delicious rocks.

I sighed. "Well, see you." I waved and she raised a hand as well.

I turned to leave but stopped. Lula's body had changed while I'd been focussed on her face. Gone was the blobby formless mound, replaced with a far more human shape. Her torso curved inwards now, producing a waist that gave her an ample chest and flared hips. Tomas's mom's sexy curves popped into my mind.

I felt a stirring between my legs.

Great, a blob of goo was making me horny. I definitely needed to duck away for a moment and jerk one off before I started humping the bulkheads.

Suddenly, alarms. Pris' voice, calling my name.

"You're needed at the helm," she said. "We've just entering the debris field."

I punched the door button and ran.

-------

Rivulets of sweat were pouring down my face when I finally let go of the manual controls.

"Well," I said. "That wasn't such a chore after all."

"You did very well," said Pris. "The ship has only sustained minor damage." Her voice was warm. I realised I hadn't heard that warmth for a while.

"Only with your help," I said. "Without your sensor sweeping I'd be sucking vacuum right now." I lay back. "But I still don't know why we couldn't just go around it. It wouldn't have been too much of a detour, surely."

Pris was silent for a moment, then she said, "You're in a rush, aren't you? To get back to Laredo station and deliver the... Lula?"

I confessed that I was. But was I really?

"I'm going to have a shower," I said. I was dirty and my pants felt tight.

Maybe I did need to get back to civilisation. Get myself a whore. That'd put an end to all these weird thoughts.

---------

The sonic shower, while nowhere near as good as a water one, felt great, but better still was my crafty bit of masturbation. Pris traditionally left me some privacy in the bathroom, although she did have sensors all throughout the ship.

I had a great fantasy going. It was about Tomas's mom. One time I'd been staying over at their place and she'd almost walked in on me, half-dressed, while Tomas had been having a shower.

"Oh," she said, poking her head around the door. "I thought you were having a shower."

Dressed in my boxers, I jumped into bed and threw the covers over myself. "Uh, that's Tomas, Mrs. Jensen."

She grinned at my bashfulness. "I'm a mom," she said. "You don't have to be embarrassed. I've seen it all before."

She glanced out along the corridor. The sound of the shower continued.

She looked back at me, a strange half-smile on her lips. "Do you mind if I come in and grab a few things? I'm just about to do the laundry."

I shook my head. "No, ma'am."

She was dressed in a nightdress. Back then I had no experience with women whatsoever, and the sight shocked me. The nightdress was blue and almost see-through, and I could tell from the bobbing of her breasts and the hardness of her nipples pressing against the fabric that she wasn't wearing a bra.

Mrs. Jensen busied herself about the room, picking up the little piles of worn clothes that usually accumulate in a teenage boy's room. She made sure I got a good look at her generous cleavage and white, lacy panties while she did so.

Those panties held an ample butt, a nice, shapely one. Together with her narrow waist and oversized boobs, she gave off that 'mother goddess' vibe.

Too soon she was finished. Her arms filled with clothes, she turned to me.

"Sorry to keep you up," she said, smiling.

"N-no problem," I replied, stuttering like an idiot. I rolled onto my side, like any stupid kid petrified she'd notice my erection.

Silence except for the sound of the shower. The smile slipped a little on her face. Her eyes didn't leave mine. After an eternity of looking at me, she put the laundry back on the floor. I could see right down the front of her nightie at her huge breasts hanging free. I was still staring when she looked up at me.

Her smile had turned hungry.

Three steps and she was beside the bed. She put her hand on the quilt where my hip made a ridge under the bedclothes.

"How about a goodnight kiss?" she asked.

I just stared at her like I was stupid. Her lips slightly parted, the tongue lurking inside her mouth dark and wet. I glanced up at her eyes. Her pupils were black, huge. Her chest rose and fell, as though she was having trouble breathing. Her breath felt hot against my skin. I could smell her, the spicy smell of freshly-washed skin and soap and shampooed hair.

She leaned forward and pressed her lips against mine.

I should have kissed her back. But instead I lay there like a stone as her tongue poked up against my lips. Her hand slid down over my hip through the quilt, then back over the curve of my butt.

I flinched away and sat up. She pulled her hand away and stared at me, shame-faced. Then she got up, retrieved the laundry and crept over to the doorway.

"Sorry," she said. Then, closing the door, "Goodnight."

I spent a long time beating myself up about it. I know I should have gone along with her, let her do whatever the hell it was she wanted, but I was just a dumb kid.

Of course, in my fantasy I had things play out a bit different. Instead of lying there like a dumb-ass, I kissed her back and plunged my hands down her front to cup those huge boobs of hers. With their gorgeous weight hefted in my hands, I flicked the huge nipples with my thumbs and she began to gasp my name, hot and wet, against my mouth...

My name, over and over. But not in Mrs. Jensen's breathless voice.

Pris. Pris was calling my name.

"What is it?" I gasped as I thumped the shower off and pulled on my clothes.

"There's a fire far aft," she said. "Near the fuel cells."

"Yela'an," I swore.

I grabbed an extinguisher. I found the fire easily. The smell of ozone and burning plastic was hard to miss. I sprayed it good and hard until every panel on the wall was covered in retardant foam.

"It's out," said Pris, relief in her voice.

"Inshallah," I said, wiping at the sweat on my forehead. "If the cells had caught..."

"Yes," said Pris. "But they didn't."

"What was it?"

"Debris," said Pris.

"I thought we cleared the field."

"I must have made a mistake. I'm sorry."

I shook my head. "It happens." Then a thought occurred to me. The brig wasn't far away. "Is Lula alright?"

Pris did not reply straight away. Then she said, "The brig has not been damaged."

I was about to say something, but thought better of it. From Pris's voice I could tell she was in one of her moods. I didn't want to start a fight, but I had to see if Lula was okay.

Lula was standing up against the field when I entered the room. She'd taken on her human form, and it was a far more accurate copy than before. Her arms and hands were clearly defined and she had legs now, as well. The only part of her that remained shapeless was where her body pooled into its original protoplasmic form where her feet should be.

As soon as she saw me her face lit up and she pressed herself against the field. I let out a breath of relief and did the same.

"Al-hamdu lillah, you're okay!" I checked her over. She was more than okay. She looked beautiful. She had perfected her hourglass figure, defining the flare of her hips and the curve of her shapely behind. Her round chest had developed into ample breasts which she pressed up against the field as though eager to embrace me.

I recognised that figure. I'd just been thinking about it, regretted not having touched it.

"You've been reading my thoughts again, haven't you Lula?" I said, with mock-fierceness.

Lula's brow furrowed, like wind skirting the surface of a pool, but when I smiled at her to reassure her, she smiled back.

I looked about then pressed my hand against the field. Fool, like anyone was going to see you! The field gave way and my hand touched Lula's. She grabbed it and brought it to her face. Closing her eyes, she rubbed my hand against her cheek. Her smile grew blissful.

Touching her through the field was like wearing thick gloves, so I felt very little other than the field itself, but my imagination went wild wondering how it would feel to touch her with my naked hand. Would it be like touching jello, or more like a water-filled balloon?

Probably something else entirely.

I stroked her cheek, let my fingers brush the space beneath her ear. She had no hair to touch, of course, but where a human girl would have hair her form flared out, making her look as though she did: wavy, shoulder length hair.

She was very pretty for a blob, I decided.

"Good girl," I murmured. "You like that don't you?"

I felt a pressing need between my legs. Touching her - well, almost touching her was getting me worked up. It was stupid. I'd obviously been out in space too long, so desperate for a woman's touch that I was pretending this alien protoplasm was a woman, pretending that her affection was more than just an instinctive reaction to my movements.

I pulled away, ashamed.

And yet, that expression she wore on her face. It was too human to ignore. Her eyes were wide and pleading, and she was biting her lip as though frustrated that the touching could go no further.

I understood that feeling. My erection gave no sign of going down and so regretfully I drew my hand out of the field. No reason to torture either of us further.

"Sorry," I said. I went to leave, but when I sensed movement I turned back.

Lula was pushing her hands against the field again, a look of pain on her face. The sight of her little pouty frown and her wide, glistening eyes beneath her downturned eyebrows broke my heart.

I placed the palms of my hands against the field opposite hers.

"I promise I'll be back soon. We can do some training and then you can have a snack."

She managed a brave smile and slid back from the field.

Wait. Had she really understood me?

Disturbed, I left. But not before waving goodbye to her.

This time she waved back.

----------

I explained what had happened to Pris, skipping over certain things I knew would upset her. The AI was silent for a long while and I became worried that she'd gone into a sulk.

But finally she said, "You know why she has taken on that form, don't you? It's a trick. A trick to get you to let her out of the brig."

The same thought had occurred to me, of course.

"I guess she finds the brig pretty boring," I said. "Maybe I should spend some more time with her."

Pris snorted. "That's not what I meant. She doesn't have a developed enough nervous system to have emotions. She's just doing these things instinctively. If you were a woman she would have taken the form of a hot guy to tempt you."

"You're probably right," I said. "But it's spooky how human she behaves."

"You're just thinking with your penis," said Pris.

"Hey," I said, annoyed that she'd homed right onto the truth of the matter with typical female perceptiveness.

"I'm sorry," said Pris. "I'm just worried about you. Maybe it would be healthier to spend less time with the sample."

There it was again. 'The sample'. "Thanks for your concern, Pris. But I'll do whatever I like since this is my ship."

Silence. I began to think I'd gone too far when Pris's voice returned. She sounded chastised.

"Of course you are, darling. Just... please be careful. She can melt rocks with that acid inside her."

"You think she wants to eat me?"

"I don't know," said Pris. "But do you think it's really a good idea to risk it?"

"I guess not." I sighed and laid back on the chair. "I think I'm going to need a beer, Pris. Just to lubricate things before dinner."

"Of course, darling."

--------

I lay in bed. I hadn't returned to the brig after dinner like I'd promised and I felt the hot sting of guilt. But Pris was right. Lula was just making herself attractive to try and get me to let her out.

But did that mean she was hostile? If I was locked up, I'd do everything I could to get out, wouldn't I? She'd be thankful, maybe. I know I would. Maybe she'd let me feel how her body felt. She seemed to enjoy my petting, after all.

My thoughts no longer made any sense. I was falling asleep.

How she would feel... like jello, like having jello poured all over you...

Even with a raging erection, exhaustion overtook me and I fell asleep.

-------

Alarms. Alarms ringing in my ears. Allah akbar, I hated the things.

Wait. An alarm?

I jerked awake and leaped out of bed. "Pris? Report."

No reply.

"Shit," I said.

The corridors were full of red lights. I didn't need to look at a readout to understand what the problem was. Smoke billowed through the ship, along with the smell of ozone and burning plastic.