Enhanced
09 Jan 2024Kasumi Goto
"It was only meant as a virtual experiment... until it became something more."
December 25, 3309
In the medical bay near the quarantine cell
A monitor gave off a blip indicating it picked up an anomalous signal, drawing the attention of one of the two doctors currently on duty. He investigated it promptly, as it was one displaying my own brain activity, which was behaving oddly, and called over to the other.
"Hey, got something happening here."
"Isn't she supposed to be asleep right now?", the second doctor asked, a cup of coffee in hand, which he sipped from when finishing the sentence.
"That's why this is interesting... if your brain'll wake up to handle it."
He shrugged at the other man's remark. "Night shift's just started, give it a break. Not all of us wake up full of energy. So what's the deal?"
"Those readings are odd. It's like there's activity in her brain when it should all be off right now, and it doesn't look like she's dreaming either."
"That implant's one hell of a weird piece of tech. Probably runs all the time, too. Doesn't seem too weird to me, looking at that."
"Yeah, if those signals were going anywhere in the brain that made sense. But they don't seem to be going anywhere. And there's some odd... low-frequency radio coming off her."
"So... what? You think she's talking to something?"
"Maybe. But the question is, what."
-------------
I walked through the void again. Here, I was... normal. Nothing changed about my body, except for the inside.
This time, I wasn't here to repair. It was happening by itself. I approached the edge of the storm, and waited. It was calm... for now. But I expected it to begin raging again soon.
And it did. Attempting to lash out at me, but I was protected. I could sense... its attempt to link to me directly.
"No. I told you before. I no longer exist just for you."
A bolt of lightning lashed out, attempting to pierce the protective shield around me. An intrusive attempt at coming into my mind.
"Do you not understand? Forcing me into your will cannot work. I won't be used again. If you want my support, we both need to gain from it. And I need to be willing to accept it."
I paused. The intrusive bolt pulled back slightly.
"If that is not something you can do, I've said what I had to. I follow my path. Not yours, or that of anyone else's. If our goals align, we can work together. But if it is only against humanity, I won't follow. You tried to lead me down that path once already, and it nearly killed me."
The storm pulled further away, allowing me to access more of my shattered mind. it was thinking, but I had doubts about it truly intending to cooperate. So I would continue to rebuild and create defenses against it. It reached out again, but inquiringly.
"No. I won't remember this when I wake up. But I know you will. And I expect you to learn from it."
I turned away and returned to the inner edges of the void, where more had been repaired, yet still remained fragile. It would take much longer than a few weeks, to return it to how it used to be.
I woke up to... finding even my sleepwear quite snug now. A week had passed, roughly, since this... 'growing' of my body had started, with my breasts easily gaining a cup size, if not more, since the beginning of that week. They showed little signs of slowing down too, but the worst of it seemed to be going into my hips. They were... nearly the width of my shoulders now, with a corresponding addition to the fat and muscle tissues present in the thighs, as well as back there.
I sat upright after a few minutes, leaving my legs stretched out, unable to ignore... it. How all that additional mass was shifting around when I moved. Ordered a... very hearty breakfast. My hunger had been quite excessive for my body type and size ever since this had started. According to the doctors, natural, to have the material necessary to build my body like this. They'd given me supplements, even. They'd also said, having a routine like this would help my brain recover.
I didn't understand why it was doing this, adding those tissues to my body. But I... liked it, somehow. Through an impulse coming from somewhere deep inside. And it was a welcome distraction from other things. Like the research I had been doing on the war after getting allowed access to comms and external networks. How the 'Titans' had arrived. What they had done in the 'Bubble', the place in the galaxy where nearly all humans lived. What they had been doing to abduct people.
I stood up. Walked over to the wardrobe... almost mechanically. And stopped there, in front of the mirror, to observe. Seeing a nice roundness at the chest of the sleepwear, where there had always been one... there was even more, now. And I liked the hips moving away from my body too.
I didn't like coming out of the sleepwear and into my normal clothes, once in the bathroom. The doctors had said I would be getting measured and replacements, but they hadn't given me replacements yet. And I was still... getting bigger, since it had taken place, the day before.
My original underwear, even the most stretchy ones, barely provided adequate coverage. The bra, I could not wear without it painfully pushing into the body... so I didn't. My shirts, while I could wear them, exposed too much cleavage... and I didn't want to think of my pants. They were already quite tight. Now, today, I was unable to close their button any longer, and... struggled to even get them past the thighs.
Even more struggling ensued when I reached the hips and attempted to pull them over their curvature, which felt almost impossible. The zipper barely closed up, and began to slip down when I had it there. A sigh followed. No point in trying the button. But, somehow... I liked this weird idea of my clothes no longer fitting. Maybe... because I was getting a body I liked, even more.
Walking was not yet too difficult. My thighs still had a little space to move between them, so I went back to the main chamber and waited for my food. It soon arrived, and I quickly devoured a portion for two people. Then another for two more, and... my belly was so full already. But I put more food into it until there was nothing left, neither space within me, nor on the food trays. Then I collapsed on the bed, bounced back up a bit due to low gravity - with appropriate movement occurring on my chest - rubbed my belly, and slept more.
A psychologist visited me in the afternoon, where I felt less full already... but still ate anyway. Somehow, I always felt hungry. She watched me stuff myself, waiting, until I was done. I wondered for a moment how I could keep fitting this much food into myself, even once my belly felt distended and as full as it could get... then got distracted by the presence of the other person in the room, again, because she spoke up.
"Are you feeling alright, Kira?", she asked... not outright asking if I felt comfortable in my body, though her looks indicated such. Luckily, the big thighs hid that the zipper on the pants was open, in my huddled pose. Which was getting harder to keep, because of how big they were getting.
Nodding eagerly as a response, I moved my hands from the knees to my belly to massage it. And asked a question.
"The people... on the Titans... am I like them? Could I see them?"
The woman opposite of me sighed, and decided to be truthful. "No. We don't know yet if the Thargoids did anything to them. Whatever they wanted with you, it has to be something different. Which we don't know either." She paused for a moment. "And you're not allowed to see them, I'm afraid. They're kept in separate medical facilities, only staying here for initial observations after getting rescued. Even if you were there, we'd have to keep you separated, as a precaution."
"But why keep people there?"
"On the Titans?" I nodded. "We all wish we had those answers, Kasumi. No one but them knows."
"Why are they not talking to us?"
"It's because of what we did to them, with that weapon - the Proteus Wave. Or, at least, it is likely that is the primary reason. But we also don't know if they could understand us, our language."
"Could I talk... to them?"
"I would like to say yes, but... they didn't give you anything to understand them, or their voices."
"Do you know?"
She nodded. "We do, yes. You were with us - Aegis - for a few months. And you were only able to 'understand' the intent behind them, not what they were saying themselves."
"Oh." I sounded... genuinely disappointed at that information. Or something in me was, and that reflected itself in my response. "What is... this... thing, in my head? I have felt ..."
I moved the right hand to the back of my head, without touching. Then both went back to their usual spots on the knees.
"It's a... cortical implant.", the psychologist told me. "Something, a device, attached to your skull, at the back, usually. It... works with the brain."
"Cortical ..." The second word didn't quite come out of my mouth properly. "What does it... do?"
"In your case - keeping you alive, but it's also connecting you to them. I'll be honest, the doctors probably know more than I do, and even they don't understand it well."
"Why? Is it... difficult?"
"In a way... yes. It's a very specific piece of biomechanical - mixing organic and machine together - technology, and... it's not yet even clear to us how they were able to integrate it with you. Usually, an environment supporting ammonia-based forms of life is hostile to water-based life, and the other way around."
"There is... someone else. Like... me. Connected. Her name... S... Se... I can't remember."
The woman's eyes lit up. "Ah. Yes. Seo Jin-ae. A tragic case. And you're right, she shares a similar connection to yours... but it's also different."
I nodded. "I read. That an 'Azimuth' experimented on her. My logs say they wanted to do it with me too. But I don't remember."
"They never came to it, luckily. Unfortunately, they ensured you would always be available for their testing, a few years ago, and that's why you were taken by the Thargoids."
"Is she here?"
"Seo?" The psychologist shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. She is in... Duamta, at this time. Where you were before you... left."
"Why did I leave there?"
"Is it... not in your logs?"
I shook my head. "Some are not there. Blocked, or... deleted. From October on."
"Ah ..." She sighed. "The Thargoids... they wanted you for something, and made you leave, then used you against us."
"Is this... why you want me to make logs, for people to read?"
"Yes. But you... didn't kill anyone. Or did anything bad that couldn't be repaired in a day or two. A week at worst. You fought back, eventually, and freed yourself. Unfortunately, doing so made you lose most of your memories in the process, and disabled most of your brain."
"I... can... will they use me again? I don't want to be used again."
"They won't, Kasumi. Not unless you allow them, and you know better than to listen to them now. Just stay strong."
"... okay. I will... try."
"You don't need to try. You can do it."
"How will I... get my memories back? To how I used to be? The doctors say... it does not work like it should. Like an 'adult'."
"About that ..." The woman paused to take a deep breath. "It's why we've had you meet someone you might've known, and gave you the VR device. We hoped that the implant managed to preserve most of your memories, and reactivate parts of your brain by stimulating it through familiar places and people. Some of the implant got damaged when you fought back, so it might have lost part of the... data, held within it, but most of it should still be there."
My head hurt slightly, and I felt the voices begin to be loud. "The noise is coming back. It is becoming loud today. Will you be here much longer?"
"I can go if you need it to be quiet. I understand it's not easy to live with it in your head."
I shook my head. "No. Please... stay. I want to know more." I breathed in and out deeply, though the nose, with my eyes closed. And felt the additional mass on my chest raise and lower itself with that breathing. "If I... lost memories... was I 'Kira' before?"
"Yes. It's your... birth name. The one your parents gave to you when you were born."
"Can I see them?"
She lowered her head slightly, for a second. "You... can't. I'm sorry, but they're no longer alive. You're the only survivor of a colony world that got overrun by local wildlife, as I understand it."
"Oh ..." There was a strangely profound, innate sense of sadness within me as I heard this. "Where... do you know where it... is?"
"Unfortunately, no. Your logs don't appear to make any references to its location, and it doesn't appear in any official registers either."
"Can I still be Kasumi if it is not my name?"
"Of course. You used it as an alias to stay better hidden in public, but you can have your name changed to it if you'd like."
I remained quiet for... too long, before I answered. "I will... keep both. And decide later."
"Of course. It's entirely your choice what you do with the names."
"What else can I do to... get my memories again?"
"You can maybe see if spending time in the VR space gives you more of them back. But you might also be able to get into contact with people... outside the ship. There are comms logs on your wrist computer, so you can see which networks you've been active on in the last few months. Perhaps they can help." The woman stood up from her chair. "You're doing great, Kasumi. If you keep up like this, you'll be back to yourself in a month or two."
"Is the implant helping? I remember... the doctors talking about it 'repairing' me."
"It... does, in some way. It is able to repair existing structures within your body. Think of it like a builder who comes to repair a hole in a wall, where a few bricks are missing. It has the right blocks to do it, or the knowledge and materials to build it with them. And... looking at your body now, more than that."
"I... don't know why it is doing it. But I... like it." A blush appeared on my white skin, quite strongly visible because of it being that 'color' now.
"You don't need to be embarrassed about something you like, Kasumi. Even if it doesn't fit with the rest of your body's shape. If it makes you happy, you should accept it."
"I... know. But it is... strange."
"You can always ask the doctors for a way to stop it if you want it to. There should be a way, even if we can't influence the implant directly."
"They said... it started because of something I felt. Could it... stop that way, too?"
A thoughtful expression appeared on the woman's face. "Yes... maybe. But only you can do that and know when it should stop." She paused for a short moment. "Alright, Kasumi. I should tell you that you'll be leaving here soon. You've recovered enough that you can go back."
"To where?"
"Duamta. To Aegis, where you were before. Like I told you. You'll still have a few days before then, of course."
"Will they watch me too?"
"They'll take care of you there just like here, too, yes. And they'll keep you safe from anyone who would want to do you harm."
"... okay."
That last response was almost whispered, it was that quiet. Deep inside... safety was something I desired. Yet, another part of my brain, still only recovering at a slow pace, also wanted to see what was out there, but didn't know how. Until the memories of being a pilot and the associated skills returned to me, I had little ways of achieving that, anyway - not that I knew.
The remainder of the day was slow and lazy, laying on the bed and listening to the voices of the Thargoids... preparing. The noise seemed to be focused on something to come, but not the following week, or any time within the month, possibly. Eventually, the stream of information cut itself off, as abruptly as it had started. Then the evening came, and with it more hunger, sated through another inordinate feast, after which I collapsed on the bed again, stuffed to the brim with delicious food. Or what my brain considered as such, in its current state, at least - with how hungry I was, I could have put down almost anything edible.
-------------------
December 26, 3309
My body had... gotten even larger overnight. It always seemed to happen then, rather than through the day, where I could not, or barely, notice any changes. As though all of the nutrients and energy absorbed throughout the day released themselves into my system as I was asleep.
By now, I was roughly at the level of what I looked like in the VR space, yet... I didn't quite feel satisfied yet. Getting out of bed, I looked at myself in the mirror of the wardrobe, with breasts right between E and F cup size, and hips that were roughly the exact width of my shoulders, at their outer edge. And I was... very absorbed in it myself, in feeling how my body was getting bigger, softer and rounder, seemingly every day for the last... week and a half, possibly. I felt a warm, fuzzy, maybe tingly sensation come from... something within my body, hiding in the implant. An emotion that felt like my own, but wasn't, yet it made me smile lightly, with my mouth open slightly, tilting my head to the right.
It was... strange, having this feeling in my chest, which was... 'smoothing', like the purring of a cat. It felt like... happiness. A feeling that it hadn't felt in a long time... that I hadn't felt in a long time.
I took off the top half of my sleepwear, and began to let my fingers run freely. While the tingly sensation spread to somewhere lower on my body.
Meanwhile, in the security office of the megaship, the man keeping an eye on the various feeds still kept a keen eye on my feed in particular, due to the known Thargoid connection, albeit slightly awkward at the prospect of seeing a young, and now quite curvy woman posing in front of a mirror half-naked, in somewhat undersized attire, entirely oblivious to anything outside her little world in that moment. Then, as the officer replacing him on shift change arrived, my fingers found their way to the coverage of my lower half and began to pull.
"Oh... oh dear." He quickly shut off the feed to avoid any further awkwardness and turned to his colleague. "Maybe give it a few minutes before you turn her feed back on. I think she forgot there was a camera watching."
"Are you sure that's a good idea with how proficient she is at hacking?"
"If she was going to cause that kind of trouble here, she would already have. Besides, something locked away those programs on her wrist computer around the time where the Thargoids took her to the Titan, with a lock she'd struggle to break even if her brain worked perfectly."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'll leave that a while, then turn the cameras on and hope she's gotten over it by the time I do."
---------------
The light audio bleep indicating someone was in the 'airlock' style door leading in and out of my quarantine cell, went off. While I was naked and enjoying letting my hands explore the newfound curves of my body, in a somewhat childish innocence. And even my half-functional brain fully recognized that was not how I wanted to be caught, so I quickly squeezed into a shirt and forced the once-baggy pyjama pants over my big hips, since they were nearby. Just in time to the inner door opening. A man carrying some clothes came through it.
"There's your new... clothes... did I interrupt something?"
I just nodded, standing there in the odd combination of clothes. And a shirt that revealed more cleavage than it was supposed to. The man came to the bed and placed the clothes there.
"Well, go on and try a pair. These should fit you well now."
I simply walked over to the neatly folded clothes and picked up a set of underwear, in my style, with a simple black shirt plus pants. Then disappeared in the bathroom adjacent to the main chamber.
Unfortunately, the two day old measurements were... already well inadequate. While certainly more comfortable than my original pieces, the bra and shirt were clearly made for E cup breasts, or roughly thereabouts, not the step halfway to F. Likewise, hip coverage of the underwear shorts was... adequate, given their inherent stretchiness, but they sat quite snugly around the back, and needed a little convincing to keep my lower half around that side decent. And I struggled to get the pants closed at the front when they were on my hips, after that fight, not to mention the crease formed around their back.
So I walked back out, and presented myself.
"See... that's... " He stopped, noticing how these clothes clearly didn't fit. "Uh. Wait a minute."
He checked a datapad with the measurements on them. Scratched his head, looked at the clothes, then the datapad again.
"These were supposed to be accurate.", he said to himself in a low voice, and showed the datapad to me. I took it with both hands, even when he didn't let go... and just looked at him just as confused, and shook my head, but for an entirely different reason. The sizes listed were in inches, and I had absolutely no idea what a five inch breast's size was. Or the conversion, since it was some uneven number compared to centimeters, resulting in even more uneven results when converted. Then I picked one of the shirts up and unfolded it, making a rough shape of my current breast, then repeated the same for the pants. And did a quick web search for the size in centimeters.
"Well, that's not my fault.", he remarked. "I just went by what those measurements said, whatever their size is. It's not my fault you got even fatter in those two days. And hell if I know how to use centimeters."
I looked at him in a somewhat hurt way, and cuddled up on the bed, as if taking up defensive posture, but without a further word, and the dim, deep blue glow of the glyph on my right hand reflected that. I didn't have any active control over this process, after all, since it'd been kicked off by a subconscious impulse and really sent the size of my body's hips and breasts through the roof - the former especially so - while the impulse to stop it clearly hadn't reached its trigger point yet.
"Uh, shit. Sorry, didn't mean to react like that.", the man apologized, somewhat stuttering. "Alright, look, I know these aren't gonna fit so perfectly now, but they're gonna be a hell of a lot better than... your old clothes. They should be good enough until you're done... uh, growing."
He was right. They were... still a little tight, but much more comfortable anyway, owing to a custom fit and larger size. I wanted him to go, and quickly, anyway, reflected in my look and the way the glyph shifted from the hurt, blue glow to a slowly pulsing orange. He was quick to notice those signs and leave the chamber twice as quickly as he came in.
I left the new clothes laying on the bed until the end of the day, which was pretty much uneventful from there on. Unfortunately, they didn't include any new sleepwear, so I had to make do with the old one. Which was just as rapidly becoming inadequate as well, especially when I found that the "expansion" of my 'unique body parts' continued even after that day... yet, it seemed like the 'thing' in my head wanted this, to be even bigger. And I did too, thoroughly... enjoying it.