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[Commission] Exploration
Commission for faraththedragon
Got to whip out the sci-fi for this one, so always a thumbs up in my books! A little longer than my usual ones but just gives me more space to properly flesh things out, which is very welcome.
The picture for this story is courtesy of magpiehyena, make sure to go check them out! I'll link to the actual picture once it's up in their gallery
Exploration
Farath loved the smell of Gateway ports. It was a heady mixture of exotic spices and faraway galaxies, of alien musk and engine grease, all swirled together into an aroma that socked you around the nose when it first hit you. Despite this it was a homely smell - for many gateway ports were safe havens after a long trip, and so it was a smell associated with safety, with completing your journey and finally reaping the rewards. He couldn’t get enough of it. He drew a few strange looks just standing there, sniffing deeply and grinning, although he couldn’t tell if the stares were due to his actions or his appearance. He was a stocky white dragon, blue and white fins poking out of his spacesuit here and there and giving him an impressive looking mohawk where it curled over the top of his head. Paired with the frills around his face it gave him quite an aggressive look, but he was anything but mean. Quiet maybe, even a little taciturn at times, but with a resentment for taking orders. It was something that had landed him in trouble more often than not, but after being fired from several ships he had finally managed to secure another position on a vessel bound for an unknown system, one that was supposedly docked here somewhere. Trouble was he had nothing besides a picture and a name to go by, and was currently wandering around the port looking for his new employers.
It took a while, but eventually he found the ship docked by a fuel pump in the corner of the port, cleaner bots quietly scrubbing the exterior while a raven that was presumably the pilot negotiated with the nearby attendant. As Farath approached the raven saw him, quickly shoved a handful of credits into the guy’s hand and walked up.
“Ah, you must be Farath!” Her voice was light, but with a touch of steel hidden in there, one that hinted of more than just pretty feathers. “Name’s Psy, I’m the captain and owner of this most magnificent ship you see before you.”
Farath looked as she gestured. It was a very strange ship, a pretty standard design but made out of a material that seemed to shimmer in the light. It was also painted black with green highlights, including a few tasteful light strips here and there. The dragon raised an eyebrow at the sight of it.
“The hell is that thing made of?”
“Tungsten Disulfide nanotube composite. Little bit old now but she still holds together like a charm. The shimmer is just a couple of thermal coatings I’ve slapped on there over the years, had to test a few to see which worked best.”
“Right.” Truth be told Farath had doubts about getting into this ship, but he was here and he didn’t have any better ideas. Besides, in a way he quite liked Psy - the captain might have been a little bit slapdash but she was charming in her own way. Her outfit was interesting too - it looked similar to a normal suit, but she was wearing a cape of holographic feathers, wrapped around her shoulders. Farath could see the gleam of a blade at her waist, just strapped around the back and out of sight. “Well, lead the way then.”
Psy led him onto the ship, which was roomy and warm. As he walked through he saw a few other crew members here and there, milling about doing their various activities. Farath let himself be led into a large chamber, which was presumably the cockpit.
“Hey! New guy’s here!” Psy shouted, and the rest of the crew quickly joined them in the cockpit, forming a rough circle. “Normally I would introduce you to everyone, but I find it’s better you introduce yourself first. Gives a better impression.” Psy folded her arms, and though Farath looked at her for a few seconds he eventually nodded his head and turned to the others. The first was a komodo dragon named Kremlin, the mechanic aboard the ship. He shook Farath’s hand with a claw covered in engine oil, though he looked apologetic as the dragon retrieved his hand and looked at it in disapproval. There was another dragon on board, a bulky red called Gyro in charge of security on the ship. He looked Farath up and down, sizing him up before grinning and offering a handshake that was nothing short of crushing. Next to him was a black and white wolf that introduced herself as Silious, giving him a polite nod. She was apparently the Oxygenic technician on the ship, a job that basically boiled down to keeping the synthetic forest in the heart of the ship functioning properly. She had various tools around her waist, ranging from a small pair of shears to what looked like a soldering iron. Finally there was Ophiuchus, the onboard medic, who was a gruff looking deer with glasses that didn’t quite fit on his face. He came across as quite scatterbrained, almost seeming to not notice Farath until the last minute, but was seemingly enthusiastic about having the dragon on board. He was muttering under his breath when Farath turned back to Psy.
“Your quarters are next to Gyro’s, third on the left. I’ve got a couple of things to sort out first, but we should be leaving pretty soon, so make yourself comfortable. The job itself is supposed to be salvage, but since we’re basically exploring as we go along it’ll be easier to explain when we do it.”
“Are we really exploring a new system?”
In response Psy fiddled with the computer behind her and brought up a small hologram of a solar system, floating in the middle of the room. It was a strange looking system, mostly because instead of one major star there were six, three pairs orbiting each other in twin dances, all following the same path. There were planets dotted here and there, and somehow despite the proximity to so many stars they were marked as habitable by the computer.
“You’re looking at Castel prime. Or as my bosses call it, the salvage of a lifetime. Lots of pressure and heat means plenty of valuable metals n shit to bring back, and on our side we get a change of scenery for once.”
“Six stars in one system?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. That’s part of the reason we’ve got you along, we’ll need to do some research on the local fauna. They’re as valuable as the minerals, depending on what we can get from them.” Psy pulled the hologram down, looking at Farath with a curious stare. “I read through your CV, plenty of experience but not much in the way of exploring. Any reason for that?”
Farath shrugged. “I’m good at what I do, and that’s never needed me to travel anywhere. People usually bring the samples to me, not the other way around.”
“Well that’s about to change. Welcome to the crew, Fauna Specialist Farath.” She held out a hand, and Farath shook it firmly. It felt like marking the start of a new chapter in his life, a momentous occasion of sorts.
In a way he was right.
*
Gateways were known for many things, but comfort was not one of them. Most ships had plenty of gyroscopes and rad shields to stop anything nasty getting in, but even they couldn’t prevent the sickening lurch that almost made Farath retch as they reached the entrance. The ship was catapulted through, but once inside it was almost calm, as if they weren’t moving at all.
“You excited?” Farath looked up to see Gyro walking in, a grin across his smug face.
“Something like that.”
“First time huh.” Gyro chuckled as he sat on the bed next to him. Farath’s quarters were pretty spacious, consisting of a bed, a workbench with a lamp and a comfy chair that was magnetised to the floor. There was a small cupboard with room enough for a spare pair of clothes and a spacesuit to hang in there, presumably with an ioniser in there somewhere to keep them clean.
“If you mean first time to a new system, then yeah. Been around, but never to anywhere like this.” Farath ran a hand through the webbing on his head, letting it spring back against his claws.
“I’ve been to a couple multi-star systems before. Two things you wanna watch out for: one is the gravity, It’ll be heavier than you’re used to. And two is anything that lives in that gravity, cause you bet your ass it’ll be ten times stronger than normal to compensate.”
“I’m guessing that’s why you’re on board. To keep us out of trouble?”
“Pretty much.” Gyro tilted to the side to reveal a firearm strapped to his waist. “Got this of course, but I like to rely on the old-fashioned guns, if you know what I mean.” He flexed his arms, eliciting a good-natured sigh from Farath as the red dragon proceeded to show off. He was impressively big, it had to be said.
Just then the ship lurched again, almost knocking Gyro off the bed. It was in fact two seperate lurches, one of them coming out of the Gateway, and a second from them landing. The pair of them turned green as the inertia caught up with them and what felt like organ soup slushed around their insides. For a moment they were united against the common enemy of nausea, holding on to each other for stability, but eventually Gyro shook his head and stood up.
“Looks like we’re here. Suit up, we’ve got work to do.” The red dragon gave him a grin and one last flex before leaving, and Farath grabbed his suit. It was standard-issue, solar powered with an oxygen field instead of a helmet around his head - the atmosphere on these planets was quite thick, and a full pressure suit wasn’t really necessary.
As he made his way to the airlock, it turned out the team going outside consisted of himself, Gyro, Psy and Ophiuchus, the deer looking particularly disgruntled that he was being included. He was already arguing with Psy as Farath approached.
“I told you, I have no idea!”
“If something happens i’d rather have you close by than on here, even if that means giving up most of your medical equipment. Besides, we’ll need a spare pair of hands and I have to keep Silious on board just in case. You’re coming, end of story.” Psy looked up to see Farath walking up and immediately brightened. “Ah perfect, you’re here. Gyro, you take the rear, i’ll take the front. We scanned for significant metal deposits, nearest one is half a mile north. Stick close and we might just make this work.” Psy looked at them all and grinned for a second before pulling a big lever on the wall and opening the airlock.
The first view is the one that takes your breath away. Farath gasped as he gazed onto a planet the colour of burnt mustard, under a sky of deep crimson and orange, a perpetual sunset. Well not quite a sunset, because even through the thick atmosphere all 6 suns were visible, searing orbs hanging in the sky. It was sandy under his boot, and he thought he could smell something almost like cinnamon, spicy to the nose and slightly pungent. His enjoyment of the new world was slightly tempered by the gravity - he felt the extra weight immediately, but was so enamoured that he didn’t really notice it as much as he should have. Ophiuchus immediately grumbled the moment he stepped outside, hanging his arms and refusing to move until Gyro poked him in the back and forced him further out.
Walking proved to be a short but punishing task, as each step was heavier than the last, and they all burned through their stamina much faster than they should have. Nevertheless they had parked pretty close to their salvage, which turned out to be an old crashed freighter, almost melted in places under the harsh starlight. Psy put them to work carrying out old, rusted fusion cores, the precious fission material still somehow intact, and after a few hours of moving heavy rods back and forth, only Farath and Gyro were still standing. Farath simply didn’t feel tired - perhaps it was the adrenaline coursing through his system, but he felt just as strong as ever, not an ounce of fatigue in his body. Gyro wasn’t showing any signs of fatigue either, though he did pause a few times to wipe the sweat from his forehead. It figured that he was in good physical condition, so Farath shouldn’t have been too surprised, but it was still a little unexpected that he was this fit. After a bit longer he surprised everyone by upping the load, carrying two fusion rods at a time, one under each arm. Even Gyro raised an eyebrow at that one, but Farath merely shrugged and commented that he wasn’t feeling too tired.
They did have a couple of situations arise, one of which was almost directly Farath’s fault. He had hoped to grab a bug from a nearby surface as a sample, without realising that taking one would trigger a swarm to come after them. Farath had been forced to abandon his test tube, chucking it behind him, and was then treated to the sight of these unknown bugs chewing through glass to reunite their lost ally, then chew through a metal wall to escape. They didn’t touch any bugs after that one.
The other situation more or less cut their time short. It was nothing but a sound, but an intimidating one - the click clack of claws scraping against metal, accompanied by the heavy thud of something big patrolling around. Whatever it was none of them had any intention of finding out, so they beat a hasty retreat, Farath carrying Ophiuchus in his arms as the deer was too tired to run. Once aboard the ship they stopped for a while, breathing heavily, before Gyro began laughing.
“You were scared as shit! Ahaha!”
“Yeah, well you were too.” Farath tried to be angry but the dragon’s laughter was infectious, and soon they were all laughing along with him as the airlock depressurised. Only Ophiuchus kept a scowl on his face, glaring at them as they all laughed.
“It might be funny for you, but you’re not the ones picking up the body parts if you get mauled to death by god knows what!”
“Oh relax Ophy, I’ve got it covered.” Gyro punched him lightly on the shoulder, something the deer clearly did not appreciate. The moment the door opened he stormed off to his room, and the two dragons looked at each other and shrugged before following him. Or rather Farath followed him only so far as the corridor. There was an on-board gym nearby, and since he was feeling so energetic he thought he might as well burn off some energy lifting weights. The machines were set to some obscene amounts, far more than he could handle, and he’d only just finished resetting them when he saw Gyro in the doorway.
“I dunno how you can still be on your feet after all that.” He grinned as he walked in and sat on a nearby bench, hands clasped between his knees.
“Guess I just adapted to the gravity faster.” Farath said as he grabbed the handles of the first machine and started pumping up and down. It was only a small weight but Gyro still watched him with an incredulous look on his face, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Each to their own I guess. I gotta get some rest, catch you in the morning. Don’t pull a muscle hotshot.” Gyro winked as he stood up and walked out, leaving Farath to his workout.
*
Farath didn’t exactly know why, but he woke up from one of the deepest sleeps he could remember. It felt like he was coming out of a coma, completely refreshed and feeling amazing. Normally he would have slept for much longer, but this feeling was enough to get him out of bed, all the while revelling in how fresh he felt. That sensation was quickly curbed when he swung his legs out of bed and proceeded to ram his toes into the nearby cupboard with appalling force. The ensuing vulgar outburst was loud enough to grab the attention of Kremlin, who stopped just long enough to look inside and grin knowingly before carrying on his way with a chuckle. Farath spent a couple of minutes hopping on one foot before finally hissing through his teeth and going over to the cupboard to grab his spacesuit.
The rest of the crew were already at breakfast by the time he arrived and sat down, pulling up a chair. Even these seemed to be against him today, as he was just slightly too big to fit his legs underneath the table, meaning he was forced to sit at an awkward angle just to reach his food. He munched it grumpily, his tail slapping the floor behind him hard enough that Silious looked at it in concern.
“Bad morning?”
“I suppose you could call it that.” Farath grumbled under his breath. From across the table Psy smiled.
“Well you’ve got a chance to redeem it. Turns out the fusion generator in that ship is an old model, an antique almost. Obviously we can’t take the whole thing back with us but all we really need are the Mk 1 coils and a couple of cooling chambers from it. Once we’ve dismantled it you’ve got the rest of the day off, so I’d recommend you get any exploring done now - we’ll be moving to the next planet tomorrow.” Psy took a bite of her toast, crunching it thoughtfully. “There’s actually a weird structure not too far east from here, kinda like a big cluster of holes in the ground. Might be something living in them.”
“Spiders probably.” Kremlin piped up with a chuckle, ignoring the sour looks he got from around the table.
Psy crunched the last of her toast. “Kremlin, Gyro, airlock in ten minutes. You too Farath, an extra pair of hands is always good.” The captain turned and walked off with a swish of her cape.
“Drama queen!” Gyro shouted after her, and she turned and waved a couple of middle fingers at him as she walked backwards down the hallway, a grin on her face. The red dragon laughed and almost choked on his porridge doing so. Farath had to admit that he liked the dynamic between them all. It felt like a family more than a business relationship, or like a close-knit group of friends. He’d had good feelings about this trip, and so far they weren’t proving him wrong.
*
The trek to the crashed aircraft was easier than yesterday. Farath could see that he had far more spring in his step than the others, and compared to the others he seemed very energetic. Even Gyro was just plodding along, feeling the strain of the extra gravity, keeping an eye out and a hand on his gun just in case. Once there Kremlin pulled his backpack off and immediately set to work with a laser cutter, carefully slicing out parts of the reactor while the rest of them watched and occasionally passed him tools. Gyro meanwhile was giving Farath an odd look, staring intently as if he was looking for something. The white dragon quickly noticed this.
“What?”
“You know, I swear you were smaller before. I must be going crazy.” Gyro shook his head, but he couldn’t stop staring at Farath. Somewhere in his brain a little trigger was going off, telling him that something was different. He just couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. His brain was telling him that Farath was bigger than before, but that didn’t make sense. Was it the colour? Did he tan differently in the six-sunned heat?
“Well I did adjust to the gravity pretty fast. Maybe that’s what’s doing it.”
“Mmh.” Gyro handed Kremlin a spanner before resuming his staring. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was, but he just knew there was something.
It didn’t take too long for Kremlin to slice out the fusion coils, each one a 6 foot tall hunk of metal that took two people to carry. Except that Farath decided they weren’t that heavy, and proceeded to grab one and toss it over his shoulder like it was nothing, walking back towards the ship. Psy looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Hey Gyro, looks like the new guy’s showing you up.” the raven said as she struggled to manoeuvre one of the coils. Gyro took the other end, the pair of them hoisting it between them and starting to carry it back. They could see Farath ahead of them, not even struggling with what should have been an immense weight judging by the identical one they were lugging right now.
“Captain, this is gonna sound weird but does he look bigger to you?”
Psy cocked her head. “You know, I thought that was just me being weird, but yeah. I swear he was eye level with me when he joined us, and this morning I was eye level with his chin. You think something’s up?”
“New planet, new air, new plants. New things to mess up your body.” Gyro shrugged. “Maybe something is affecting him?”
“I’ll get Ophiuchus to check him out in the morning. Better safe than sorry.” She suddenly broke out into a grin. “You should challenge him to an arm wrestle. I bet he’d give you a run for your money.”
“Nahhh. Champion three years running, remember? Kid’s got nothing on me.”
“Scared?”
“No.” Gyro said it with certainty, but he heard Psy making chicken noises from behind the coil. “Alright then, I’ll prove it. Once we’re done here, I'll show him who’s the boss.”
“10 credits says he beats you.” Psy almost laughed at the look Gyro gave her, a strange mix of disapproval at betting on his loss and eagerness to earn money.
“Hey, if you’re gonna offer me free money then who am I to argue?” They couldn’t shake hands, since that would mean dropping the coil, but they did the equivalent gesture of a simple nod.
The rest of the coils didn’t prove too challenging, although it took Kremlin a little while to get the last one out. Surprisingly they didn’t catch sight of any wildlife nearby, though according to Kremlin that was because of the radiation that was now spilling out of the ship. Not enough to get through their spacesuits, but enough to keep anything predatory well away. Both of them looked on as Farath took most of them himself, whistling as he carried almost 100kg of heavy machinery on his shoulders. For the first time they noticed how snug his spacesuit was, the smooth curve of muscle underneath it, hard to make out behind the fins jutting from his body but definitely there. Something was up with their newest recruit.
*
In typical Psy fashion, the afternoon had an entire slot dedicated to the upcoming arm wrestle between Gyro and Farath. The main table had been designated as the arena, and all lights except for the one shining on the table had been dimmed. It was ridiculously over the top, but in a way Farath quite enjoyed it. He walked to the table like a boxer entering the ring, throwing a few shadow punches and laughing as the crew roared approval. He noticed a few more bets had been placed, Ophiuchus notably betting quite heavily against him. Silious however had bet on him to win, and the wolf gave him a coy little smile as he caught her eye. He made a mental note to talk to her afterwards as he sat down.
Gyro hammed it up even more than Farath did, having folded a towel around himself so it looked like a ringside robe and throwing it off when he reached the table. Farath took a little breath in when he saw how jacked the dragon was, thick slabs of muscle rippling across his frame. Plenty of scars too, some of them slight white lines, others great knotted ropes curling down his body. He settled in and held his hand up, and Farath took it, noting how firm his grip was. The difference in their arms was significant - Farath had something of a swimmer’s build, lean but athletic, whereas Gyro’s arm was all mass and power, the bicep and tricep far thicker and well-developed. It seemed like this would be a quick victory for the red.
“GO!”
The pair of them immediately went silent, straining against each other. Despite what he had first thought, it seemed as though Gyro was all bark and not much bite, because the pair of them were evenly matched. One bicep might have been twice the size of the other, but both were hung in the middle. For a while they strained against each other, a forced smile twisting their faces as they fought in the purest way possible, strength against strength, will against will. But after a few seconds Farath faltered, and seizing the opportunity Gyro ramped up the pressure and slammed his hand down onto the table. It was over in a second, and Gyro stood up to celebrate, acknowledging the cheering. The only one not cheering was Kremlin, who made a particularly sour face as he handed over a credit note to a smug Ophiuchus. None of them noticed that Farath had been gripping the table, and when he opened his hand the metal was bent under the shape of his fingers.
“Man that was close, thought you had me for a few seconds there!” Gyro held his hand out to shake, and Farath took it without even thinking. He knew there was no way he should have been able to even make that a close fight, and yet he had held his own for a while. He must have gained some strength somehow, but he had no idea how. He didn’t feel any different, but the results were right in front of him - his arm was definitely bigger than before, because while he stayed reasonably in shape he’d never had the muscle he had currently on his arm. It wasn’t possible. He was still thinking about it as the crew dispersed, as he went to his room, brushed his teeth, sat in his bed staring at the ceiling. Eventually he was forced to surrender his thoughts to the warm embrace of sleep, trusting that it would bring some answers in the morning.
*
The morning definitely brought some answers, but they weren’t the ones he was hoping for. From the moment he opened his eyes he realised that he was bigger. Much bigger. His bed had fit him the night before, but now he was forced to bend his knees to fit his legs in, and his arms were draped over either side of the mattress. In addition he could see that he was significantly more muscular, aggressive curves defining his body in all the right places. He looked like a regular gym rat, a workaholic with the results to show for it. For maybe a second he found himself admiring the juicy pecs, the thick biceps and chunky abs, but then he snapped out of it. This was his body, and it definitely wasn’t normal. Stepping out the bed only made the problem even more apparent, as his feet hit the floor much sooner than he was used to and he damn near fell flat on his face. Lifting his body up was easier than normal, despite the extra weight it seemed he had the extra strength to go along with it. It wasn’t too surprising considering how buff he looked, but it was still a strange experience for him.
Unbeknownst to him Gyro had been waiting for an opportunity to check whether his suspicions were true. He’d thought sneaking a look at a topless Farath would confirm his theory, but when he opened the door then any need for subtlety was instantly gone. He was looking directly at Farath and the two of them were no longer eye to eye - Farath was ever so slightly taller, significantly so if you counted the fin on his head. What was more the two of them were similar in build now: Gyro distinctly remembered checking out Farath’s arm the night before, noting how it was big but much smaller than his own. Now the two of them were basically equal, although Gyro was perhaps a little bit thicker around the middle, his body heftier overall. The difference from before was clear though - the white dragon was bigger, and it wasn’t because he was eating well and working out.
“You think Ophiuchus is up?” Farath asked, noting with a surprised blink that his voice was slightly deeper. Not too much, but there was a pleasing baritone rumble through it that had not been there before.
“Well if he’s not he’s about to be.” Gyro grabbed Farath’s arm and practically pulled him out of the room.
Ophiuchus was not awake, but when he saw Farath he instantly sprang out of bed, grabbed his glasses and led them to his lab, not even bothering to change out of his pyjamas. For once there was no grumbling, none of the usual complaining that they had come to expect from him. Now he was businesslike, razor sharp and focused. The first thing he did was to strap Farath to a gurney and wheel him into what looked like a large metal donut, before sitting at a nearby computer and tapping away for a little while. Gyro stood nearby, tapping his foot impatiently, and he was soon joined by Silious, who happened to be walking by and noticed the commotion. Ophiuchus didn’t even acknowledge them, he just kept typing for a few more moments before sighing and leaning back in his chair.
“Well doc? What’s wrong with him?” Gyro asked nervously.
“Nothing.” The deer removed his glasses and wheeled back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. “In fact he’s the opposite, he’s never been better. His body is showing signs of accelerated function all over, up to capacity in most places. He’s literally bursting with energy.” He went over and pulled Farath out, undoing the straps.
“So that’s good, right?” Silious said from the corner.
“Yes and no. The good news is that he’s not in any danger for the time being. The bad news is that this growth is basically an energy overflow. His body is receiving too much power, so instead of dispersing he’s growing to accommodate it. We don’t know what’s causing it, so he might get even bigger.
“How big?”
“I don’t know. There isn’t really a limit.” There was a crash, and Ophiuchus looked round to see the mangled remains of his gurney underneath Farath, the dragon looking at him apologetically. “It might be native to this planet, in which case it’ll solve itself. It might be something else. I don’t know.”
Psy nodded. “All the more reason to haul ass off this rock.” she said before turning and heading towards the cockpit. Farath got up and walked towards the others, noticing that Silious was definitely ogling his body a bit. She didn’t seem like the shy type, but when she saw that Farath had noticed she giggled a bit and looked away. He pretended not to notice, walking past them both and going back to his room to change into some real clothes. He was just outside when the ship lurched violently, Psy apparently gunning the throttle with some vigor. Unlike normal though he found it was easy to stay upright, his body naturally heavyset now and with enough muscle to support itself with ease. That didn’t stop the contents of his stomach moving though, and he turned green as the now familiar nausea hit him like a truck. It went to show, he managed to think as he rushed to the toilet, muscles don’t make you invincible. Any further thought was driven out of his head as he puked.
The second planet was only a short jaunt away, but it was quite literally a world of difference. Farath was still feeling a little green as the ship jolted underneath him, the thrusters whining as they powered down. He hadn’t thought himself so prone to nausea like that, but it seemed his bigger body wasn’t all advantages. One of those disadvantages was that his spacesuit was becoming very tight, and while they had a few spare ones none of them were designed for someone 2 feet higher than anyone else on board. There was a unisize one, a costly contraption of rubberised fabric that would supposedly stretch to accommodate any size needed, but even that had its limits. As it stood he was forced to borrow one of Gyro’s spare suits, which was still tight on him.
Crowding into the airlock just emphasised his size. In the brief interval between planets it seemed like he’d grown even larger, as he was now a full head above Gyro and even thicker than before. It was almost ridiculous, the amount of muscle and strength packed into his frame, but he wasn’t complaining.
The gravity on this planet was even stronger than before, and they immediately groaned as what felt like 50 kilos of weight was added to all of them. Everyone except Farath to be precise - the white dragon just blinked and looked at them all like they were crazy. It wasn’t as if the weight didn't affect him - in fact he probably weighed more than all of them by now, so it would have affected him the most - but it felt like nothing but a simple pull on his body, a light touch at best. He couldn’t understand why the others were groaning and complaining. Walking was a similar experience, where the others trudged like they were climbing a mountain, Farath simply strolled out like it was a sunday walk. He realised he must be a lot stronger than before, even stronger than Gyro considering the red dragon was definitely feeling the strain.
Psy had marked a location of interest nearby and was slowly bringing them towards it. She was at the front, with Farath in the middle and Gyro at the rear - mostly there as insurance in case anything went wrong. Three was always the safest number, and Farath was the most capable fighter on board besides Gyro at this point. This planet was giving Farath the oddest sense of vertigo - he couldn’t quite figure out why everything looked so weird, and it took him a while before he understood. With so many suns in the sky there were no shadows, all the surfaces around him were fully lit, giving the planet an unusual, flat appearance.
Suddenly Psy held a hand up, stopping them. “We’re not alone.” she said after a beat, looking around cautiously. Behind them both Gyro pulled out his gun, and after a quick gesture he pulled out his pistol and handed it to Farath too. The three of them went back to back to back, watching intently. Now Farath could hear it too, a faint growl just at the corner of his hearing, almost too quiet to notice. It was constant too, no rising and falling with breathing, just a low rumble as whatever creature was stalking them waited to strike.
And then it did.
Gyro yelled as what looked like an enormous polar bear with a long tail jumped out from seemingly nowhere at them. It was large, but instead of fur there was a strange, mirrored sheen to it, light flashing off as it charged. Gyro managed to empty a few rounds into its chest before it was on him swiping the weapon away and pinning him to the floor. It raised a paw in the air and Farath grabbed it from behind, holding on as he placed the pistol to its head and fired. Instead of the splatter of blood and flesh there was a ping as the laser charge bounced off, and the bear turned and threw a claw at him. Farath dodged backwards, settling into a stance for some reason, tossing the pistol to the ground. He didn’t even know why - this was a wild animal, not a trained fighter. He was insane. This thing was going to kill him and pick his bones clean, all while the others watched in horror, but he'd be damned if he didn’t go down fighting.
The thing took a swipe at him, and Farath quickly ducked under it and let fly with a punch right into the gut of the creature. He gave it everything he had, and was surprised when there was a loud CRACK and the creature immediately started whimpering. He pressed the attack, not caring about his own safety now, pinning the creature’s left arm and driving two more punches into the same spot, wincing as the creature wailed loud enough to hurt his ears. He cocked back his fist, roared, and gave it the hardest punch of his life right into the jaw.
CRACK
The spray of blood was unmistakable, a vivid crimson spray flying through the air as the creature’s jaw was broken. It wailed as it hit the floor, or rather tried to, as Farath quickly kicked it’s head hard enough to snap it back. He then grabbed the pistol from the floor, jammed it into the creature’s mouth and pulled the trigger until the gun clicked uselessly. The creature went limp after the first shot, the remaining ones simply cooked its brain in its skull. After that Farath collapsed backwards, huffing heavily and wiping the creature’s blood from his face. Gyro and Psy looked at him in shock for a few seconds, before Gyro suddenly burst into laughter.
“Holy fucking shit, that was incredible!” Gyro winced as he got up but it wasn’t enough to curtail his laughter, which was almost hysterical. “You beat that thing with your bare hands!”
“And now you get to lug it back to the ship.” Both Farath and Gyro looked at Psy as she shrugged. “We’re not going to get another chance to look at native megafauna, so we should take it. You think you can carry that between you?”
In response Farath grabbed the thing and grunted as he lifted it off the floor. He swung it over his shoulder, securing it with one arm as his spacesuit bulged from the rippling muscle inside it. Gyro couldn’t help but notice that he was eye-level with Farath’s pecs now, and the dragon was significantly outweighing him. For the first time in a long time, he was intimidated by a bigger dragon. It had been so long since he had even met a bigger dragon that he had almost forgotten what it felt like, but now that familiar cold sensation was returning once again.
The walk back was in high spirits, Gyro joking all the way and both Psy and Farath laughing along with him. Underneath the laughs though Psy was worried - Farath was not stopping his growth in size, and it was clear his growth in strength was equivalent too. When they reached the spaceship he barely fit through the door, and he left a noticeable dent in the outside doorframe (thankfully the decompression chamber was untouched). Walking inside Silious was waiting for them, and she let out an audible gasp as she saw Farath in all his 9 foot glory. The dragon was built like a tank now, muscle upon muscle writhing all over his frame, his body thick and hefty. He was still streaked with blood here and there, mostly from the corpse he had on his shoulder, and Silious had to admit she had never seen anything hotter in her life.
Farath laughed awkwardly. “Maybe let me clean up first before you get a proper look.” Even from those words he could tell his voice was deeper, rich in timbre but with a bass that rumbled your chest. It was a sound you felt as well as heard. “Besides, I need to analyse this thing.”
“Come and find me after. Or maybe I’ll come and find you.” She gave him a sultry wink before turning and walking off, and Farath felt an elbow nudge him in the ribs.
“You know, It’s very subtle but I think she might just be into you.” Psy grinned at Farath’s blush.
“Shut it.”
“That being said, I think it might be a better idea to get some rest first. You’ll have most of tomorrow to take a look at it, it’s not going anywhere after all. Go at it with a clear head.”
Farath didn’t feel tired, but he knew Psy was right. He’d been fighting and carrying heavy things all day, and his body was aching where the creature had skimmed him, just a scratch but nevertheless still painful. The only thing missing was the fatigue.
“I don’t think I need to right now.”
“I’ll give you a tip. If you don’t feel like doing something you always do, then it’s usually a bad sign.” Psy poked him in the bicep. “Trust me, these things aren’t gonna run unless you get some rest sooner or later.”
He sighed, but instead of arguing further he just nodded and began making his way to his quarters, the creature still slung over his shoulder.
“And make sure you drop that in the lab on your way past!”
“Well I’m not gonna sleep with it am I?” Farath yelled back in response, chuckling as he trudged to his bed. .
*
When Farath woke up the next morning he was shocked to discover that he was getting too big for the room. If it wasn’t obvious before, it was when he opened his eyes and found himself staring at the corner of the ceiling - his back had ridden so far up the wall that he was curved along one side of the room, and his legs were curled up in front of him. Needless to say this was rather uncomfortable, but as he tried to stand up he realised that he was simply too tall, and his head would smash through the roof before he stood up fully. Despite this he decided a shower was in order.
Farath had always had something of an affinity for water, but this shower was the best of his life. Perhaps it was just his size, but the water felt fantastic pounding against his skin, driving away the sweat and the grime of the previous day. Plus he looked like a porn star when he was wet, muscles glistening in the artificial light. He loved looking at the water forming new and unusual gulleys over his skin, diving down the middle of his pecs and splitting over abs like tennis balls, flattening around his thighs on the way to the steel floor. Scrubbing it felt like he was rubbing concrete, everything was firm and yet also supple at the same time, an odd organic hardness that he found oddly attractive. That was the weirdest part, there was this sense that he was in someone else’s body, that he was borrowing it or something. He just couldn’t believe that this was all him, that he was this massive, muscular hunk of a dragon standing there in the shower, admiring the size of himself.
After drying himself off he made his way to the lab and turned his attention to the creature he had slain. The first thing he noticed was the hide, which was far from the skin he had imagined. In fact it was more like the overlapping scales of a fish, but hinged. The outer surface was mirrored to reflect light, and the inner surface was a more standard dusty grey, matte in colour. He removed one to do some testing and found it extraordinarily resilient - he rated it somewhere close to titanium in overall strength, and in this layered formation they must have been much stronger too. The creature could evidently use the reflective side to distract prey, taking advantage of the bright light to dazzle and confuse. Then he came to the part of the body that he’d punched, tracing his fingers over the crater. Not only had the scales been completely caved in, but as he explored the wound he saw that the bones underneath had been shattered and shards had driven into the creatures’ lungs. It was hard to fathom the kind of power needed to do such a thing, let alone when it came from his own fists. The jaw was a similar story too, the bones not just broken but utterly destroyed, the entire area of the face a pulpy, bloody mess. If it wasn’t for the tendons then the entire jaw would probably have fallen off.
There was something else too, an odd lightness to the scales. It took him a moment of playing around with them with a pair of tweezers to realise that the entire creature was covered in what were basically photovoltaic cells. It made sense - with such an abundant energy source, every living thing on these planets would have adapted to take in as much as possible. And then he stopped. He blinked a couple of times. The cogs in his head meshed together and came up with an answer - it was the suns. The solar energy was the cause of his growth. It all clicked: Ophiuchus had said it, that very first time, he’d said that it was due to an excess of energy. The suit was solar powered, but it was designed for the solar input of just one sun. Here there were six of them, and thus six times the energy it should have taken in. The excess was what was making him grow.
“Man, that thing is even bigger up close.”
Farath jumped as he turned and saw Gyro standing behind him, the red dragon crossing his arms and smiling gently. If he’d realised that Farath was even bigger than before, he was choosing to ignore it. The white dragon sat back in his chair, putting down his tweezers and sighing.
“It’s likely top of the food chain. See those scales? This thing has more armour than our ship does.”
“Damn.” Gyro took the opportunity to run a hand over the jewelled crater in the creature’s chest, observing the dent in the body. “I meant to thank you. I’m supposed to be security on this ship, and when it counted I let everyone down. If it wasn’t for you we’d all be toast. So thanks.”
“Hey, don’t mention it. Without your gun I doubt it would have gone that way anyway, so don’t get yourself too down.” Gyro seemed to perk up a bit at this.
“Well anyway, Psy’s looking for you. I think she’s somewhere on the bridge, I wouldn’t keep her waiting if I were you.” With a wink he left, leaving Farath to sigh and pack his things away. He left the creature on the table, intending to come back to it once he was finished - it wasn’t like it was going anywhere after all. Just in case though he grabbed a nearby scalpel and jabbed it in the stomach, checking for any sort of reaction. Nothing.
“Come on Farath, you’re jumping at shadows.” He muttered under his breath, before dropping the scalpel and making his way towards the bridge.
Psy was waiting for him, tapping away at the guidance console in front of her. She looked up when he entered, closing down the system and approaching him. From the way her eyes darted up and down his body, he knew she’d noticed the growth, and he knew she was already planning what to do about it.
“Before you start, I figured out what’s causing the growth.” Psy was about to interrupt but at this she stopped, cocking her head curiously. “It’s the suns, they’re overcharging the suit and the excess is going directly to me.”
“That can’t be right, if that was the case then we would all be affected?”
Farath shrugged. “Must be something to do with my body composition, or my species maybe? I’m not sure.”
Psy tapped her foot as she thought about it. “I’m not sure that helps us either way. We don’t have non-solar spacesuits, and besides, we’re running into a bigger issue, if you’ll pardon the pun. We’ve got a weight limit on the ship, and you’re getting very close to exceeding it. In fact if we factor in the balance equations we can’t even fly with you on board currently. If you get much bigger then we won’t be able to leave with you.”
“I’ll be stuck here.”
“Well, only as long as your oxygen lasts. The atmosphere might be breathable but the sulphur will kill you in the end. If that doesn’t get you then the lack of food definitely will.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“As much as I hate to say, it I think we abort the mission now. Get you out of here while we still can. And it has to be as soon as possible, we can’t risk you getting any bigger.” Psy turned back towards the console, tapping away. “I’m gonna go talk with Kremlin, but I have a feeling he’s going to suggest the same thing I'm thinking. We modify the ship, bring the balance equations back into line, and get the hell out of this place.”
“Is that even possible?”
“If we’re quick, then yes. Fingers crossed.” For once the raven captain didn’t chuckle, she didn’t even smile - the safety of her crew was at stake, and she was taking this seriously.
A chat with Kremlin revealed that yes, it was possible, but would require extensive damage to the ship. Controlled but irreversible damage. In essence, the komodo explained, once they started this then they would be forced to finish it, whether they wanted to or not.
Kremlin’s plan was simply to remove enough bits and pieces to make a large space for Farath to fit into, positioning him near the centre of the craft so that the thrust wouldn’t be offput by his weight. It wouldn’t be comfortable by any means, but it would certainly be better than being left on this planet, so Farath took to it with gusto. A little too much gusto initially, as he ended up tossing one of the doors a little too hard and it went so far they all lost sight of it. After that he was a little more careful, placing the removed metal nearby instead of just tossing it over his shoulder. It had a strange kind of texture to it, almost like it was made of putty that had been left out for too long. To the dragon it moulded easily under his grip, and he had to remind himself that this was solid Tungsten Disulphide nanotube composite that he was casually bending and squeezing out of shape.
It took them the better part of a day to get everything out of the ship, mostly because Kremlin had to make sure that none of the sensitive electronics running through the floors and ceilings were damaged. He didn’t have the equipment to fix a full systems failure, so while the occasional damaged wire was fine, if they hit something big it was game over. Needless to say they all waited for Kremlin’s instructions before touching anything, and even then the dragon was ginger in his movements, making extra sure he damaged nothing but the designated part. Finally though there was a large enough space for him to get into, and the entire crew sighed and sat back, looking at their handiwork. It was hideous, like someone had gouged out the inside of their ship, scooped it with a spoon, but it would work.
“Is that gonna be enough?” Farath asked, and Kremlin gave him a Look.
“You see this big pile of stuff that should be in there? I’d say yeah, this is enough.” The komodo dragon shook his head muttering under his breath. “Honestly, the things you’re making me do to this ship. I need a drink.” He walked back inside, kicking aside the remains of a door as he did and cursing as his toe bounced off the hard metal.
“What’s his deal?” Farath asked Psy, who chuckled.
“Oh, he’s just a little attached to this ship that’s all. There’s probably not a single bolt in there that he hasn’t gone over at least once. And now we’ve forced him to tear him apart.” She looked over at the pile of broken walls and torn metal. “Nothing a drink can’t fix though.”
“Yeah, well if we’re all done here then I’ve got an analysis to finish off.” Farath walked back inside, or rather he squeezed himself through the doorway, his fingers leaving dents in the metal where he gripped it. Psy watched him go with a curious stare.
*
Farath once again traced the lines of that impact thoughtfully, the markings he had inflicted on the creature. He hated to admit it, but something in him had a sharp thrill upon doing this, upon feeling that surge of power course through his limbs and wreak havoc upon whatever he saw fit. Power was addictive, but he was reluctant to fall into it. Not when he was on a very fragile ship with even more fragile crewmates.
“Hey.” His reverie was interrupted by Gyro, who had popped his head in the doorway. “We’re all getting some drinks down in the lunch hall, you wanna join us?” At Farath’s reluctant expression he sighed. “Oh come on, you really want to sit on your own with this thing?”
“I’m going to get this done first, I need a stomach acid sample while there are still live cultures in there.”
“Silious is down there waiting for you. And believe me, as much as you want to spend your time with this thing, it ain’t gonna get you laid. You might not care now, but in the morning you’ll have missed your opportunity and you’ll be kicking yourself that you didn’t listen. So are you in?”
Farath was about to argue it, but instead he cocked his head as he realised that yes, he did want to go. He wanted to show himself off, he wanted to enjoy his new, mighty form. And in a way he didn’t want to be reminded of the damage he was capable of doing, a reminder imprinted in the dead beast on the table.
“Fine. FINE. There better be some cider.”
“Pretty sure Psy has a batch of apple whiskey that’ll go down a treat.” Gyro grinned as he tried to wrap an arm around Farath’s broad shoulders, finding himself unable to due to the height difference and the sheer broadness of the dragon’s shoulders. He still did his best to guide Farath down the hallway though.
As promised everyone was there, and as promised Psy had indeed whipped up a rather strong batch of what was effectively cider with a kick. It was so good that Farath had already gotten through several mugs before he knew what was what, and the night began to melt into a pleasant blur of warm conversation and raucous laughter, the kind you got in bars after a certain time. Even Ophiuchus was looking a lot more carefree than normal, playing some kind of drinking game with Kremlin and losing repeatedly - the komodo could hold his drink like nobody else on the ship, and in his drunken stupor Ophiuchus had forgotten this.
“Okay okay okay, but iss like. I could..uh...I could take you. Yyyyyes.” Gyro grinned goofily as he collapsed at the table and held his hand up for an arm wrestle. Farath couldn’t resist it, and he sat at the same table, not noticing how the chair buckled underneath his weight. His hand almost completely engulfed Gyro’s and the difference between their arms was obscene - Farath’s titanic bicep made Gyro’s arm look like a straw in comparison. It was unnatural muscle, doubled up in a way that wasn’t achievable without copious amounts of performance enhancers, and yet it was all him. Needless to say the arm wrestle was no challenge whatsoever, and Farath indulged in some teasing as he yawned and relaxed back in his chair, laughing as Gyro strained as hard as he could. Eventually the red dragon fell back, admitting defeat in a good-natured way, and just before he could pull his arm back he felt a pair of hands caress the bicep. It was Silious, who was looking a little out of it herself, tracing the contours of muscle on his arm with delicate fingers. She ran her hands around the bicep, round the tricep, then up to the shoulder where she cupped the cannonball that was his shoulder muscle. Then she grinned and slid her hands under his shirt, gently pressing against his pecs and licking her lips ever so slightly, her eyes widening as she felt Farath tense up and those same muscles blow up with size and power.
“You know, I bet you could lift me up.” No sooner were the words out of Silious’s mouth than Farath reached down and hoisted her into the air with one arm, not even straining to do so. She made a point of feeling the bicep underneath her while it flexed, subconsciously licking her lips as she felt the bulging flesh pressing against her palm.
“Easy.”
One person quickly turned into several though as both Psy and Gyro jumped on his arms, then Ophiuchus grabbed his back, until after a few moments the entire crew was being hoisted into the air by Farath. He was laughing at how easy it was, his body a machine that made the task simple, easy almost. But it was more than that - he loved the thrill of strength surging through his body, the blood rushing around all that muscle and powering him up like electricity, the way his limbs were simultaneously insanely heavy and impossibly light due to his strength. He especially loved the looks that Silious was giving him, the wolf not even bothering to hide her ogling anymore.
“Alright. You got..you lift...you pick sssup. BUT.” Gyro waved a finger aimlessly. “I betcha….can’t...uh...The SHip! Betcha can’t do that!”
5 minutes later they were outside, too drunk to even bother with the oxygen fields. The atmosphere was thick enough that the air was breathable, but the sulphur would give them some nasty headaches in the morning. Farath set himself, wedged his fingers underneath the ship and tried to haul the whole thing up. It was too big and unwieldy to get a proper leverage underneath it, but he did manage to begin shifting the entire mass of the thing, tilting it slightly. The others were treated to a full view of his monolithic back, the great chasms and gulleys of muscle all writhing and bulging as he put his back into the lift, trying his hardest to get it off the floor. Even though he didn’t lift it fully, just him managing to move it elicited cheers from the others, and he accepted them graciously. The last thing he remembered was accepting another bottle from Kremlin, and instead of drinking it normally he held it above his head and crushed the glass in his hand, letting the liquid spray all over his face and into his mouth. Then he roared, a booming, bestial sound that echoed out onto the alien planet, and probably scared off any wildlife within a few miles of the ship. He was the king here now, and he had the body to prove it.
*
When Farath woke up it was still dark. He didn’t remember how he got back to his room, but presumably he’d had enough mental acuity to stagger back here and collapse on his bed, even managing to strip most of his clothes off. They were lying in a pile on the floor, a remnant of the night before. The ship was silent, save for the faint humming of machinery here and there, but the darkness was like a silent cloak wrapped around his shoulders, muffling even his gargantuan movements. He made to sit up, and realised with a moment of dread that he was bigger.
“Ah crap.” He muttered under his breath, already knowing what he was about to see. Sure enough, when he tried to stand up he saw that he was bigger, only this time the difference was enormous. He had almost doubled in size overnight, and he was at least 25 feet tall now. Once again his muscle mass had grown in proportion, so that in addition to being hugely tall he was thickly built, sinking into the floor just by standing there. It was hard to shake the sense of vertigo he felt just from looking around - his viewpoint was so drastically different that it threw him off looking around, and he wasn’t quite sure how to react. His brain was telling him to get down from there, but he couldn’t. He looked up, specifically at the window in his room that was innocuously letting in sunlight, and sighed the sigh of someone who knew this was going to be a pain in the ass to sort out. Even just moving was awkward now, the room was so tight. He didn’t even bother getting dressed, content with nothing but the pair of boxers he slept in, and after a brief stint of quiet movement and slightly less quiet cursing, he managed to extricate himself from the metal box and start walking towards the mess hall. One inside he was able to straighten up, this being one of the largest places in the ship, and he took the opportunity to grab himself a glass of water and sit at a nearby table. He’d never imagined plain old water to taste so sweet, but it did, and he closed his eyes as he gulped.
“You look a bit down.” Farath opened his eyes to see Silious walking up, a damp cloth pressed to her head.
In response the dragon simply stood up, sighing at the way Silious’ eyes widened when she saw the sheer size of him. In his boxers every muscle was on display, and his body was a tapestry of muscular perfection, a paradigm of strength, so defined that she was almost salivating just looking at it. That wasn’t even mentioning the size - he was towering over her now, and she was forced to take a step back just to see all of him.
“Yeah. Not only is this still a thing, but now I've also got a wicked headache to go with it.” He noticed Psy wincing at the sound of his voice and made a mental note to talk quietly, although that deprived the world of a voice that benefitted from impossible acoustics, reverberating through his chest before arriving in his throat as a wonderfully rounded bass pitch, one that you felt in your teeth and behind your eyes. It was a voice of pure, awesome power, one that matched the body it belonged to. He sighed and clutched his head. “I don’t know how you’re managing it so well.”
She chuckled. “It’s far from my first hangover, and i doubt it’ll be my last. Look, I wanted to apologise for last night, I was drunk and I went too far.” She cocked her head as she waited for some kind of acknowledgement from the dragon, but instead he simply sat back down and looked at her, waiting. The silence between them was heavy, pregnant with expectation.
“You want to know a secret? You’re a very unconvincing liar.” Farath watched with curiosity as Silious’ face went from normal to beet red in just a few seconds before she covered them under the guise of surprised coughing, trying to hide her embarrassment. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Why are you afraid?”
“Because I’m pretty sure that whatever is in there would make me look like a pig on a spit roast.” She gestured at the dragon’s crotch, where his package was visible even through the space suit. He chuckled.
“Yeah, maybe not the best idea. Still though, I can tell you’re a fan of all this.” He flexed an arm that might as well have been chiselled out of rock. “Well this is a formal invitation to feel as much as you want.”
Silious laughed out loud, but she didn’t need to be told twice. She started by just feeling his arm, trying to fit both hands around it and failing to do so due to the sheer mass of it. Farath obliged by flexing ever so slightly, watching her hands be pushed outwards by the bulging muscle underneath. It was so thick that just one bicep was almost bigger than her torso, so heavy with muscle that when he rested it in her arms she struggled to keep it aloft. Instead of going along the arm she instead placed both hands on his thighs, slowly rubbing around the girth while he sat there and watched, waited. Eventually she climbed onto his lap, sat on his knees and reached down to his abs, poking her fingers in between each ball of muscle, cupping them in her hands. It tickled slightly, and in response he reached down and moved a curl of her hair with a finger, the lightest of touches enough to make her shiver.
Farath had never really been attracted to anyone in the past - sure he’d had girlfriends, and plenty of them at that, but never anyone serious. Silious though was something else entirely, scarily beautiful but with something more to her. Intelligence perhaps, that vivid spark in her mind, ideas frothing in her head like bubbles in a bath. Silious was more direct in what she found attractive - for her it was all about size. It irked her that her tastes were so simple-minded, but it was what it was. Nothing turned her on more than a guy that was built like a brick shithouse, and Farath was that and then some. This was muscle on another level entirely, this was a being not just in a different league but an entirely different ball game from everyone else. The power, the strength coiled in that frame, just resting now but able at the slightest moment to explode forth with devastating power, that was what she found hot. Not the use of strength per se, but simply the possession of it, the possibility of using it, the way it shaped the body into something streamlined and powerful. She loved that power, searched for it, and now she had finally found it.
Silious reached up, trying to pull her hands around Farath’s head but only succeeding in tickling his head fin. His neck was thicker than both her arms put together, but nevertheless he leaned down, putting his face close to hers. Then she got a good grip and pulled him into a kiss. It wasn’t the awkward kiss of a first date, nor the tired smooch of someone who has known love more than most and has sickened of it’s sweetness by now. No, this was the kiss of a young woman, hungry for it but restrained, controlled. It was breathtaking. So breathtaking in fact that he leaned into it more, pushing her back onto the table so that he was leaning over her with his arms behind her back. He didn’t notice how he pressed her into the table, how the metal buckled and splintered as he drove her into it in the throes of passion, not caring how his toe claws dug into the floor as he clenched them.
“Ahem.”
The pair of them broke off in shock and turned to see Kremlin leaning against the doorway, a big mug of coffee in his hand. The komodo dragon grinned.
“You might want to get a room for that. Anyway the captain wants to see you, says she needs your help with something” With that Kremlin calmly walked away, leaving the two of them to chuckle nervously.
As it turned out Psy wanted a hand cleaning up outside the ship, and though she was hung over she wasn’t stupid enough to have forgotten the bear from before. Hence why Farath was forced to lean against the side of the ship as Psy went around picking up bottles.
“Remind me why we need...
Got to whip out the sci-fi for this one, so always a thumbs up in my books! A little longer than my usual ones but just gives me more space to properly flesh things out, which is very welcome.
The picture for this story is courtesy of magpiehyena, make sure to go check them out! I'll link to the actual picture once it's up in their gallery
Exploration
Farath loved the smell of Gateway ports. It was a heady mixture of exotic spices and faraway galaxies, of alien musk and engine grease, all swirled together into an aroma that socked you around the nose when it first hit you. Despite this it was a homely smell - for many gateway ports were safe havens after a long trip, and so it was a smell associated with safety, with completing your journey and finally reaping the rewards. He couldn’t get enough of it. He drew a few strange looks just standing there, sniffing deeply and grinning, although he couldn’t tell if the stares were due to his actions or his appearance. He was a stocky white dragon, blue and white fins poking out of his spacesuit here and there and giving him an impressive looking mohawk where it curled over the top of his head. Paired with the frills around his face it gave him quite an aggressive look, but he was anything but mean. Quiet maybe, even a little taciturn at times, but with a resentment for taking orders. It was something that had landed him in trouble more often than not, but after being fired from several ships he had finally managed to secure another position on a vessel bound for an unknown system, one that was supposedly docked here somewhere. Trouble was he had nothing besides a picture and a name to go by, and was currently wandering around the port looking for his new employers.
It took a while, but eventually he found the ship docked by a fuel pump in the corner of the port, cleaner bots quietly scrubbing the exterior while a raven that was presumably the pilot negotiated with the nearby attendant. As Farath approached the raven saw him, quickly shoved a handful of credits into the guy’s hand and walked up.
“Ah, you must be Farath!” Her voice was light, but with a touch of steel hidden in there, one that hinted of more than just pretty feathers. “Name’s Psy, I’m the captain and owner of this most magnificent ship you see before you.”
Farath looked as she gestured. It was a very strange ship, a pretty standard design but made out of a material that seemed to shimmer in the light. It was also painted black with green highlights, including a few tasteful light strips here and there. The dragon raised an eyebrow at the sight of it.
“The hell is that thing made of?”
“Tungsten Disulfide nanotube composite. Little bit old now but she still holds together like a charm. The shimmer is just a couple of thermal coatings I’ve slapped on there over the years, had to test a few to see which worked best.”
“Right.” Truth be told Farath had doubts about getting into this ship, but he was here and he didn’t have any better ideas. Besides, in a way he quite liked Psy - the captain might have been a little bit slapdash but she was charming in her own way. Her outfit was interesting too - it looked similar to a normal suit, but she was wearing a cape of holographic feathers, wrapped around her shoulders. Farath could see the gleam of a blade at her waist, just strapped around the back and out of sight. “Well, lead the way then.”
Psy led him onto the ship, which was roomy and warm. As he walked through he saw a few other crew members here and there, milling about doing their various activities. Farath let himself be led into a large chamber, which was presumably the cockpit.
“Hey! New guy’s here!” Psy shouted, and the rest of the crew quickly joined them in the cockpit, forming a rough circle. “Normally I would introduce you to everyone, but I find it’s better you introduce yourself first. Gives a better impression.” Psy folded her arms, and though Farath looked at her for a few seconds he eventually nodded his head and turned to the others. The first was a komodo dragon named Kremlin, the mechanic aboard the ship. He shook Farath’s hand with a claw covered in engine oil, though he looked apologetic as the dragon retrieved his hand and looked at it in disapproval. There was another dragon on board, a bulky red called Gyro in charge of security on the ship. He looked Farath up and down, sizing him up before grinning and offering a handshake that was nothing short of crushing. Next to him was a black and white wolf that introduced herself as Silious, giving him a polite nod. She was apparently the Oxygenic technician on the ship, a job that basically boiled down to keeping the synthetic forest in the heart of the ship functioning properly. She had various tools around her waist, ranging from a small pair of shears to what looked like a soldering iron. Finally there was Ophiuchus, the onboard medic, who was a gruff looking deer with glasses that didn’t quite fit on his face. He came across as quite scatterbrained, almost seeming to not notice Farath until the last minute, but was seemingly enthusiastic about having the dragon on board. He was muttering under his breath when Farath turned back to Psy.
“Your quarters are next to Gyro’s, third on the left. I’ve got a couple of things to sort out first, but we should be leaving pretty soon, so make yourself comfortable. The job itself is supposed to be salvage, but since we’re basically exploring as we go along it’ll be easier to explain when we do it.”
“Are we really exploring a new system?”
In response Psy fiddled with the computer behind her and brought up a small hologram of a solar system, floating in the middle of the room. It was a strange looking system, mostly because instead of one major star there were six, three pairs orbiting each other in twin dances, all following the same path. There were planets dotted here and there, and somehow despite the proximity to so many stars they were marked as habitable by the computer.
“You’re looking at Castel prime. Or as my bosses call it, the salvage of a lifetime. Lots of pressure and heat means plenty of valuable metals n shit to bring back, and on our side we get a change of scenery for once.”
“Six stars in one system?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. That’s part of the reason we’ve got you along, we’ll need to do some research on the local fauna. They’re as valuable as the minerals, depending on what we can get from them.” Psy pulled the hologram down, looking at Farath with a curious stare. “I read through your CV, plenty of experience but not much in the way of exploring. Any reason for that?”
Farath shrugged. “I’m good at what I do, and that’s never needed me to travel anywhere. People usually bring the samples to me, not the other way around.”
“Well that’s about to change. Welcome to the crew, Fauna Specialist Farath.” She held out a hand, and Farath shook it firmly. It felt like marking the start of a new chapter in his life, a momentous occasion of sorts.
In a way he was right.
*
Gateways were known for many things, but comfort was not one of them. Most ships had plenty of gyroscopes and rad shields to stop anything nasty getting in, but even they couldn’t prevent the sickening lurch that almost made Farath retch as they reached the entrance. The ship was catapulted through, but once inside it was almost calm, as if they weren’t moving at all.
“You excited?” Farath looked up to see Gyro walking in, a grin across his smug face.
“Something like that.”
“First time huh.” Gyro chuckled as he sat on the bed next to him. Farath’s quarters were pretty spacious, consisting of a bed, a workbench with a lamp and a comfy chair that was magnetised to the floor. There was a small cupboard with room enough for a spare pair of clothes and a spacesuit to hang in there, presumably with an ioniser in there somewhere to keep them clean.
“If you mean first time to a new system, then yeah. Been around, but never to anywhere like this.” Farath ran a hand through the webbing on his head, letting it spring back against his claws.
“I’ve been to a couple multi-star systems before. Two things you wanna watch out for: one is the gravity, It’ll be heavier than you’re used to. And two is anything that lives in that gravity, cause you bet your ass it’ll be ten times stronger than normal to compensate.”
“I’m guessing that’s why you’re on board. To keep us out of trouble?”
“Pretty much.” Gyro tilted to the side to reveal a firearm strapped to his waist. “Got this of course, but I like to rely on the old-fashioned guns, if you know what I mean.” He flexed his arms, eliciting a good-natured sigh from Farath as the red dragon proceeded to show off. He was impressively big, it had to be said.
Just then the ship lurched again, almost knocking Gyro off the bed. It was in fact two seperate lurches, one of them coming out of the Gateway, and a second from them landing. The pair of them turned green as the inertia caught up with them and what felt like organ soup slushed around their insides. For a moment they were united against the common enemy of nausea, holding on to each other for stability, but eventually Gyro shook his head and stood up.
“Looks like we’re here. Suit up, we’ve got work to do.” The red dragon gave him a grin and one last flex before leaving, and Farath grabbed his suit. It was standard-issue, solar powered with an oxygen field instead of a helmet around his head - the atmosphere on these planets was quite thick, and a full pressure suit wasn’t really necessary.
As he made his way to the airlock, it turned out the team going outside consisted of himself, Gyro, Psy and Ophiuchus, the deer looking particularly disgruntled that he was being included. He was already arguing with Psy as Farath approached.
“I told you, I have no idea!”
“If something happens i’d rather have you close by than on here, even if that means giving up most of your medical equipment. Besides, we’ll need a spare pair of hands and I have to keep Silious on board just in case. You’re coming, end of story.” Psy looked up to see Farath walking up and immediately brightened. “Ah perfect, you’re here. Gyro, you take the rear, i’ll take the front. We scanned for significant metal deposits, nearest one is half a mile north. Stick close and we might just make this work.” Psy looked at them all and grinned for a second before pulling a big lever on the wall and opening the airlock.
The first view is the one that takes your breath away. Farath gasped as he gazed onto a planet the colour of burnt mustard, under a sky of deep crimson and orange, a perpetual sunset. Well not quite a sunset, because even through the thick atmosphere all 6 suns were visible, searing orbs hanging in the sky. It was sandy under his boot, and he thought he could smell something almost like cinnamon, spicy to the nose and slightly pungent. His enjoyment of the new world was slightly tempered by the gravity - he felt the extra weight immediately, but was so enamoured that he didn’t really notice it as much as he should have. Ophiuchus immediately grumbled the moment he stepped outside, hanging his arms and refusing to move until Gyro poked him in the back and forced him further out.
Walking proved to be a short but punishing task, as each step was heavier than the last, and they all burned through their stamina much faster than they should have. Nevertheless they had parked pretty close to their salvage, which turned out to be an old crashed freighter, almost melted in places under the harsh starlight. Psy put them to work carrying out old, rusted fusion cores, the precious fission material still somehow intact, and after a few hours of moving heavy rods back and forth, only Farath and Gyro were still standing. Farath simply didn’t feel tired - perhaps it was the adrenaline coursing through his system, but he felt just as strong as ever, not an ounce of fatigue in his body. Gyro wasn’t showing any signs of fatigue either, though he did pause a few times to wipe the sweat from his forehead. It figured that he was in good physical condition, so Farath shouldn’t have been too surprised, but it was still a little unexpected that he was this fit. After a bit longer he surprised everyone by upping the load, carrying two fusion rods at a time, one under each arm. Even Gyro raised an eyebrow at that one, but Farath merely shrugged and commented that he wasn’t feeling too tired.
They did have a couple of situations arise, one of which was almost directly Farath’s fault. He had hoped to grab a bug from a nearby surface as a sample, without realising that taking one would trigger a swarm to come after them. Farath had been forced to abandon his test tube, chucking it behind him, and was then treated to the sight of these unknown bugs chewing through glass to reunite their lost ally, then chew through a metal wall to escape. They didn’t touch any bugs after that one.
The other situation more or less cut their time short. It was nothing but a sound, but an intimidating one - the click clack of claws scraping against metal, accompanied by the heavy thud of something big patrolling around. Whatever it was none of them had any intention of finding out, so they beat a hasty retreat, Farath carrying Ophiuchus in his arms as the deer was too tired to run. Once aboard the ship they stopped for a while, breathing heavily, before Gyro began laughing.
“You were scared as shit! Ahaha!”
“Yeah, well you were too.” Farath tried to be angry but the dragon’s laughter was infectious, and soon they were all laughing along with him as the airlock depressurised. Only Ophiuchus kept a scowl on his face, glaring at them as they all laughed.
“It might be funny for you, but you’re not the ones picking up the body parts if you get mauled to death by god knows what!”
“Oh relax Ophy, I’ve got it covered.” Gyro punched him lightly on the shoulder, something the deer clearly did not appreciate. The moment the door opened he stormed off to his room, and the two dragons looked at each other and shrugged before following him. Or rather Farath followed him only so far as the corridor. There was an on-board gym nearby, and since he was feeling so energetic he thought he might as well burn off some energy lifting weights. The machines were set to some obscene amounts, far more than he could handle, and he’d only just finished resetting them when he saw Gyro in the doorway.
“I dunno how you can still be on your feet after all that.” He grinned as he walked in and sat on a nearby bench, hands clasped between his knees.
“Guess I just adapted to the gravity faster.” Farath said as he grabbed the handles of the first machine and started pumping up and down. It was only a small weight but Gyro still watched him with an incredulous look on his face, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“Each to their own I guess. I gotta get some rest, catch you in the morning. Don’t pull a muscle hotshot.” Gyro winked as he stood up and walked out, leaving Farath to his workout.
*
Farath didn’t exactly know why, but he woke up from one of the deepest sleeps he could remember. It felt like he was coming out of a coma, completely refreshed and feeling amazing. Normally he would have slept for much longer, but this feeling was enough to get him out of bed, all the while revelling in how fresh he felt. That sensation was quickly curbed when he swung his legs out of bed and proceeded to ram his toes into the nearby cupboard with appalling force. The ensuing vulgar outburst was loud enough to grab the attention of Kremlin, who stopped just long enough to look inside and grin knowingly before carrying on his way with a chuckle. Farath spent a couple of minutes hopping on one foot before finally hissing through his teeth and going over to the cupboard to grab his spacesuit.
The rest of the crew were already at breakfast by the time he arrived and sat down, pulling up a chair. Even these seemed to be against him today, as he was just slightly too big to fit his legs underneath the table, meaning he was forced to sit at an awkward angle just to reach his food. He munched it grumpily, his tail slapping the floor behind him hard enough that Silious looked at it in concern.
“Bad morning?”
“I suppose you could call it that.” Farath grumbled under his breath. From across the table Psy smiled.
“Well you’ve got a chance to redeem it. Turns out the fusion generator in that ship is an old model, an antique almost. Obviously we can’t take the whole thing back with us but all we really need are the Mk 1 coils and a couple of cooling chambers from it. Once we’ve dismantled it you’ve got the rest of the day off, so I’d recommend you get any exploring done now - we’ll be moving to the next planet tomorrow.” Psy took a bite of her toast, crunching it thoughtfully. “There’s actually a weird structure not too far east from here, kinda like a big cluster of holes in the ground. Might be something living in them.”
“Spiders probably.” Kremlin piped up with a chuckle, ignoring the sour looks he got from around the table.
Psy crunched the last of her toast. “Kremlin, Gyro, airlock in ten minutes. You too Farath, an extra pair of hands is always good.” The captain turned and walked off with a swish of her cape.
“Drama queen!” Gyro shouted after her, and she turned and waved a couple of middle fingers at him as she walked backwards down the hallway, a grin on her face. The red dragon laughed and almost choked on his porridge doing so. Farath had to admit that he liked the dynamic between them all. It felt like a family more than a business relationship, or like a close-knit group of friends. He’d had good feelings about this trip, and so far they weren’t proving him wrong.
*
The trek to the crashed aircraft was easier than yesterday. Farath could see that he had far more spring in his step than the others, and compared to the others he seemed very energetic. Even Gyro was just plodding along, feeling the strain of the extra gravity, keeping an eye out and a hand on his gun just in case. Once there Kremlin pulled his backpack off and immediately set to work with a laser cutter, carefully slicing out parts of the reactor while the rest of them watched and occasionally passed him tools. Gyro meanwhile was giving Farath an odd look, staring intently as if he was looking for something. The white dragon quickly noticed this.
“What?”
“You know, I swear you were smaller before. I must be going crazy.” Gyro shook his head, but he couldn’t stop staring at Farath. Somewhere in his brain a little trigger was going off, telling him that something was different. He just couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. His brain was telling him that Farath was bigger than before, but that didn’t make sense. Was it the colour? Did he tan differently in the six-sunned heat?
“Well I did adjust to the gravity pretty fast. Maybe that’s what’s doing it.”
“Mmh.” Gyro handed Kremlin a spanner before resuming his staring. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was, but he just knew there was something.
It didn’t take too long for Kremlin to slice out the fusion coils, each one a 6 foot tall hunk of metal that took two people to carry. Except that Farath decided they weren’t that heavy, and proceeded to grab one and toss it over his shoulder like it was nothing, walking back towards the ship. Psy looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Hey Gyro, looks like the new guy’s showing you up.” the raven said as she struggled to manoeuvre one of the coils. Gyro took the other end, the pair of them hoisting it between them and starting to carry it back. They could see Farath ahead of them, not even struggling with what should have been an immense weight judging by the identical one they were lugging right now.
“Captain, this is gonna sound weird but does he look bigger to you?”
Psy cocked her head. “You know, I thought that was just me being weird, but yeah. I swear he was eye level with me when he joined us, and this morning I was eye level with his chin. You think something’s up?”
“New planet, new air, new plants. New things to mess up your body.” Gyro shrugged. “Maybe something is affecting him?”
“I’ll get Ophiuchus to check him out in the morning. Better safe than sorry.” She suddenly broke out into a grin. “You should challenge him to an arm wrestle. I bet he’d give you a run for your money.”
“Nahhh. Champion three years running, remember? Kid’s got nothing on me.”
“Scared?”
“No.” Gyro said it with certainty, but he heard Psy making chicken noises from behind the coil. “Alright then, I’ll prove it. Once we’re done here, I'll show him who’s the boss.”
“10 credits says he beats you.” Psy almost laughed at the look Gyro gave her, a strange mix of disapproval at betting on his loss and eagerness to earn money.
“Hey, if you’re gonna offer me free money then who am I to argue?” They couldn’t shake hands, since that would mean dropping the coil, but they did the equivalent gesture of a simple nod.
The rest of the coils didn’t prove too challenging, although it took Kremlin a little while to get the last one out. Surprisingly they didn’t catch sight of any wildlife nearby, though according to Kremlin that was because of the radiation that was now spilling out of the ship. Not enough to get through their spacesuits, but enough to keep anything predatory well away. Both of them looked on as Farath took most of them himself, whistling as he carried almost 100kg of heavy machinery on his shoulders. For the first time they noticed how snug his spacesuit was, the smooth curve of muscle underneath it, hard to make out behind the fins jutting from his body but definitely there. Something was up with their newest recruit.
*
In typical Psy fashion, the afternoon had an entire slot dedicated to the upcoming arm wrestle between Gyro and Farath. The main table had been designated as the arena, and all lights except for the one shining on the table had been dimmed. It was ridiculously over the top, but in a way Farath quite enjoyed it. He walked to the table like a boxer entering the ring, throwing a few shadow punches and laughing as the crew roared approval. He noticed a few more bets had been placed, Ophiuchus notably betting quite heavily against him. Silious however had bet on him to win, and the wolf gave him a coy little smile as he caught her eye. He made a mental note to talk to her afterwards as he sat down.
Gyro hammed it up even more than Farath did, having folded a towel around himself so it looked like a ringside robe and throwing it off when he reached the table. Farath took a little breath in when he saw how jacked the dragon was, thick slabs of muscle rippling across his frame. Plenty of scars too, some of them slight white lines, others great knotted ropes curling down his body. He settled in and held his hand up, and Farath took it, noting how firm his grip was. The difference in their arms was significant - Farath had something of a swimmer’s build, lean but athletic, whereas Gyro’s arm was all mass and power, the bicep and tricep far thicker and well-developed. It seemed like this would be a quick victory for the red.
“GO!”
The pair of them immediately went silent, straining against each other. Despite what he had first thought, it seemed as though Gyro was all bark and not much bite, because the pair of them were evenly matched. One bicep might have been twice the size of the other, but both were hung in the middle. For a while they strained against each other, a forced smile twisting their faces as they fought in the purest way possible, strength against strength, will against will. But after a few seconds Farath faltered, and seizing the opportunity Gyro ramped up the pressure and slammed his hand down onto the table. It was over in a second, and Gyro stood up to celebrate, acknowledging the cheering. The only one not cheering was Kremlin, who made a particularly sour face as he handed over a credit note to a smug Ophiuchus. None of them noticed that Farath had been gripping the table, and when he opened his hand the metal was bent under the shape of his fingers.
“Man that was close, thought you had me for a few seconds there!” Gyro held his hand out to shake, and Farath took it without even thinking. He knew there was no way he should have been able to even make that a close fight, and yet he had held his own for a while. He must have gained some strength somehow, but he had no idea how. He didn’t feel any different, but the results were right in front of him - his arm was definitely bigger than before, because while he stayed reasonably in shape he’d never had the muscle he had currently on his arm. It wasn’t possible. He was still thinking about it as the crew dispersed, as he went to his room, brushed his teeth, sat in his bed staring at the ceiling. Eventually he was forced to surrender his thoughts to the warm embrace of sleep, trusting that it would bring some answers in the morning.
*
The morning definitely brought some answers, but they weren’t the ones he was hoping for. From the moment he opened his eyes he realised that he was bigger. Much bigger. His bed had fit him the night before, but now he was forced to bend his knees to fit his legs in, and his arms were draped over either side of the mattress. In addition he could see that he was significantly more muscular, aggressive curves defining his body in all the right places. He looked like a regular gym rat, a workaholic with the results to show for it. For maybe a second he found himself admiring the juicy pecs, the thick biceps and chunky abs, but then he snapped out of it. This was his body, and it definitely wasn’t normal. Stepping out the bed only made the problem even more apparent, as his feet hit the floor much sooner than he was used to and he damn near fell flat on his face. Lifting his body up was easier than normal, despite the extra weight it seemed he had the extra strength to go along with it. It wasn’t too surprising considering how buff he looked, but it was still a strange experience for him.
Unbeknownst to him Gyro had been waiting for an opportunity to check whether his suspicions were true. He’d thought sneaking a look at a topless Farath would confirm his theory, but when he opened the door then any need for subtlety was instantly gone. He was looking directly at Farath and the two of them were no longer eye to eye - Farath was ever so slightly taller, significantly so if you counted the fin on his head. What was more the two of them were similar in build now: Gyro distinctly remembered checking out Farath’s arm the night before, noting how it was big but much smaller than his own. Now the two of them were basically equal, although Gyro was perhaps a little bit thicker around the middle, his body heftier overall. The difference from before was clear though - the white dragon was bigger, and it wasn’t because he was eating well and working out.
“You think Ophiuchus is up?” Farath asked, noting with a surprised blink that his voice was slightly deeper. Not too much, but there was a pleasing baritone rumble through it that had not been there before.
“Well if he’s not he’s about to be.” Gyro grabbed Farath’s arm and practically pulled him out of the room.
Ophiuchus was not awake, but when he saw Farath he instantly sprang out of bed, grabbed his glasses and led them to his lab, not even bothering to change out of his pyjamas. For once there was no grumbling, none of the usual complaining that they had come to expect from him. Now he was businesslike, razor sharp and focused. The first thing he did was to strap Farath to a gurney and wheel him into what looked like a large metal donut, before sitting at a nearby computer and tapping away for a little while. Gyro stood nearby, tapping his foot impatiently, and he was soon joined by Silious, who happened to be walking by and noticed the commotion. Ophiuchus didn’t even acknowledge them, he just kept typing for a few more moments before sighing and leaning back in his chair.
“Well doc? What’s wrong with him?” Gyro asked nervously.
“Nothing.” The deer removed his glasses and wheeled back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. “In fact he’s the opposite, he’s never been better. His body is showing signs of accelerated function all over, up to capacity in most places. He’s literally bursting with energy.” He went over and pulled Farath out, undoing the straps.
“So that’s good, right?” Silious said from the corner.
“Yes and no. The good news is that he’s not in any danger for the time being. The bad news is that this growth is basically an energy overflow. His body is receiving too much power, so instead of dispersing he’s growing to accommodate it. We don’t know what’s causing it, so he might get even bigger.
“How big?”
“I don’t know. There isn’t really a limit.” There was a crash, and Ophiuchus looked round to see the mangled remains of his gurney underneath Farath, the dragon looking at him apologetically. “It might be native to this planet, in which case it’ll solve itself. It might be something else. I don’t know.”
Psy nodded. “All the more reason to haul ass off this rock.” she said before turning and heading towards the cockpit. Farath got up and walked towards the others, noticing that Silious was definitely ogling his body a bit. She didn’t seem like the shy type, but when she saw that Farath had noticed she giggled a bit and looked away. He pretended not to notice, walking past them both and going back to his room to change into some real clothes. He was just outside when the ship lurched violently, Psy apparently gunning the throttle with some vigor. Unlike normal though he found it was easy to stay upright, his body naturally heavyset now and with enough muscle to support itself with ease. That didn’t stop the contents of his stomach moving though, and he turned green as the now familiar nausea hit him like a truck. It went to show, he managed to think as he rushed to the toilet, muscles don’t make you invincible. Any further thought was driven out of his head as he puked.
The second planet was only a short jaunt away, but it was quite literally a world of difference. Farath was still feeling a little green as the ship jolted underneath him, the thrusters whining as they powered down. He hadn’t thought himself so prone to nausea like that, but it seemed his bigger body wasn’t all advantages. One of those disadvantages was that his spacesuit was becoming very tight, and while they had a few spare ones none of them were designed for someone 2 feet higher than anyone else on board. There was a unisize one, a costly contraption of rubberised fabric that would supposedly stretch to accommodate any size needed, but even that had its limits. As it stood he was forced to borrow one of Gyro’s spare suits, which was still tight on him.
Crowding into the airlock just emphasised his size. In the brief interval between planets it seemed like he’d grown even larger, as he was now a full head above Gyro and even thicker than before. It was almost ridiculous, the amount of muscle and strength packed into his frame, but he wasn’t complaining.
The gravity on this planet was even stronger than before, and they immediately groaned as what felt like 50 kilos of weight was added to all of them. Everyone except Farath to be precise - the white dragon just blinked and looked at them all like they were crazy. It wasn’t as if the weight didn't affect him - in fact he probably weighed more than all of them by now, so it would have affected him the most - but it felt like nothing but a simple pull on his body, a light touch at best. He couldn’t understand why the others were groaning and complaining. Walking was a similar experience, where the others trudged like they were climbing a mountain, Farath simply strolled out like it was a sunday walk. He realised he must be a lot stronger than before, even stronger than Gyro considering the red dragon was definitely feeling the strain.
Psy had marked a location of interest nearby and was slowly bringing them towards it. She was at the front, with Farath in the middle and Gyro at the rear - mostly there as insurance in case anything went wrong. Three was always the safest number, and Farath was the most capable fighter on board besides Gyro at this point. This planet was giving Farath the oddest sense of vertigo - he couldn’t quite figure out why everything looked so weird, and it took him a while before he understood. With so many suns in the sky there were no shadows, all the surfaces around him were fully lit, giving the planet an unusual, flat appearance.
Suddenly Psy held a hand up, stopping them. “We’re not alone.” she said after a beat, looking around cautiously. Behind them both Gyro pulled out his gun, and after a quick gesture he pulled out his pistol and handed it to Farath too. The three of them went back to back to back, watching intently. Now Farath could hear it too, a faint growl just at the corner of his hearing, almost too quiet to notice. It was constant too, no rising and falling with breathing, just a low rumble as whatever creature was stalking them waited to strike.
And then it did.
Gyro yelled as what looked like an enormous polar bear with a long tail jumped out from seemingly nowhere at them. It was large, but instead of fur there was a strange, mirrored sheen to it, light flashing off as it charged. Gyro managed to empty a few rounds into its chest before it was on him swiping the weapon away and pinning him to the floor. It raised a paw in the air and Farath grabbed it from behind, holding on as he placed the pistol to its head and fired. Instead of the splatter of blood and flesh there was a ping as the laser charge bounced off, and the bear turned and threw a claw at him. Farath dodged backwards, settling into a stance for some reason, tossing the pistol to the ground. He didn’t even know why - this was a wild animal, not a trained fighter. He was insane. This thing was going to kill him and pick his bones clean, all while the others watched in horror, but he'd be damned if he didn’t go down fighting.
The thing took a swipe at him, and Farath quickly ducked under it and let fly with a punch right into the gut of the creature. He gave it everything he had, and was surprised when there was a loud CRACK and the creature immediately started whimpering. He pressed the attack, not caring about his own safety now, pinning the creature’s left arm and driving two more punches into the same spot, wincing as the creature wailed loud enough to hurt his ears. He cocked back his fist, roared, and gave it the hardest punch of his life right into the jaw.
CRACK
The spray of blood was unmistakable, a vivid crimson spray flying through the air as the creature’s jaw was broken. It wailed as it hit the floor, or rather tried to, as Farath quickly kicked it’s head hard enough to snap it back. He then grabbed the pistol from the floor, jammed it into the creature’s mouth and pulled the trigger until the gun clicked uselessly. The creature went limp after the first shot, the remaining ones simply cooked its brain in its skull. After that Farath collapsed backwards, huffing heavily and wiping the creature’s blood from his face. Gyro and Psy looked at him in shock for a few seconds, before Gyro suddenly burst into laughter.
“Holy fucking shit, that was incredible!” Gyro winced as he got up but it wasn’t enough to curtail his laughter, which was almost hysterical. “You beat that thing with your bare hands!”
“And now you get to lug it back to the ship.” Both Farath and Gyro looked at Psy as she shrugged. “We’re not going to get another chance to look at native megafauna, so we should take it. You think you can carry that between you?”
In response Farath grabbed the thing and grunted as he lifted it off the floor. He swung it over his shoulder, securing it with one arm as his spacesuit bulged from the rippling muscle inside it. Gyro couldn’t help but notice that he was eye-level with Farath’s pecs now, and the dragon was significantly outweighing him. For the first time in a long time, he was intimidated by a bigger dragon. It had been so long since he had even met a bigger dragon that he had almost forgotten what it felt like, but now that familiar cold sensation was returning once again.
The walk back was in high spirits, Gyro joking all the way and both Psy and Farath laughing along with him. Underneath the laughs though Psy was worried - Farath was not stopping his growth in size, and it was clear his growth in strength was equivalent too. When they reached the spaceship he barely fit through the door, and he left a noticeable dent in the outside doorframe (thankfully the decompression chamber was untouched). Walking inside Silious was waiting for them, and she let out an audible gasp as she saw Farath in all his 9 foot glory. The dragon was built like a tank now, muscle upon muscle writhing all over his frame, his body thick and hefty. He was still streaked with blood here and there, mostly from the corpse he had on his shoulder, and Silious had to admit she had never seen anything hotter in her life.
Farath laughed awkwardly. “Maybe let me clean up first before you get a proper look.” Even from those words he could tell his voice was deeper, rich in timbre but with a bass that rumbled your chest. It was a sound you felt as well as heard. “Besides, I need to analyse this thing.”
“Come and find me after. Or maybe I’ll come and find you.” She gave him a sultry wink before turning and walking off, and Farath felt an elbow nudge him in the ribs.
“You know, It’s very subtle but I think she might just be into you.” Psy grinned at Farath’s blush.
“Shut it.”
“That being said, I think it might be a better idea to get some rest first. You’ll have most of tomorrow to take a look at it, it’s not going anywhere after all. Go at it with a clear head.”
Farath didn’t feel tired, but he knew Psy was right. He’d been fighting and carrying heavy things all day, and his body was aching where the creature had skimmed him, just a scratch but nevertheless still painful. The only thing missing was the fatigue.
“I don’t think I need to right now.”
“I’ll give you a tip. If you don’t feel like doing something you always do, then it’s usually a bad sign.” Psy poked him in the bicep. “Trust me, these things aren’t gonna run unless you get some rest sooner or later.”
He sighed, but instead of arguing further he just nodded and began making his way to his quarters, the creature still slung over his shoulder.
“And make sure you drop that in the lab on your way past!”
“Well I’m not gonna sleep with it am I?” Farath yelled back in response, chuckling as he trudged to his bed. .
*
When Farath woke up the next morning he was shocked to discover that he was getting too big for the room. If it wasn’t obvious before, it was when he opened his eyes and found himself staring at the corner of the ceiling - his back had ridden so far up the wall that he was curved along one side of the room, and his legs were curled up in front of him. Needless to say this was rather uncomfortable, but as he tried to stand up he realised that he was simply too tall, and his head would smash through the roof before he stood up fully. Despite this he decided a shower was in order.
Farath had always had something of an affinity for water, but this shower was the best of his life. Perhaps it was just his size, but the water felt fantastic pounding against his skin, driving away the sweat and the grime of the previous day. Plus he looked like a porn star when he was wet, muscles glistening in the artificial light. He loved looking at the water forming new and unusual gulleys over his skin, diving down the middle of his pecs and splitting over abs like tennis balls, flattening around his thighs on the way to the steel floor. Scrubbing it felt like he was rubbing concrete, everything was firm and yet also supple at the same time, an odd organic hardness that he found oddly attractive. That was the weirdest part, there was this sense that he was in someone else’s body, that he was borrowing it or something. He just couldn’t believe that this was all him, that he was this massive, muscular hunk of a dragon standing there in the shower, admiring the size of himself.
After drying himself off he made his way to the lab and turned his attention to the creature he had slain. The first thing he noticed was the hide, which was far from the skin he had imagined. In fact it was more like the overlapping scales of a fish, but hinged. The outer surface was mirrored to reflect light, and the inner surface was a more standard dusty grey, matte in colour. He removed one to do some testing and found it extraordinarily resilient - he rated it somewhere close to titanium in overall strength, and in this layered formation they must have been much stronger too. The creature could evidently use the reflective side to distract prey, taking advantage of the bright light to dazzle and confuse. Then he came to the part of the body that he’d punched, tracing his fingers over the crater. Not only had the scales been completely caved in, but as he explored the wound he saw that the bones underneath had been shattered and shards had driven into the creatures’ lungs. It was hard to fathom the kind of power needed to do such a thing, let alone when it came from his own fists. The jaw was a similar story too, the bones not just broken but utterly destroyed, the entire area of the face a pulpy, bloody mess. If it wasn’t for the tendons then the entire jaw would probably have fallen off.
There was something else too, an odd lightness to the scales. It took him a moment of playing around with them with a pair of tweezers to realise that the entire creature was covered in what were basically photovoltaic cells. It made sense - with such an abundant energy source, every living thing on these planets would have adapted to take in as much as possible. And then he stopped. He blinked a couple of times. The cogs in his head meshed together and came up with an answer - it was the suns. The solar energy was the cause of his growth. It all clicked: Ophiuchus had said it, that very first time, he’d said that it was due to an excess of energy. The suit was solar powered, but it was designed for the solar input of just one sun. Here there were six of them, and thus six times the energy it should have taken in. The excess was what was making him grow.
“Man, that thing is even bigger up close.”
Farath jumped as he turned and saw Gyro standing behind him, the red dragon crossing his arms and smiling gently. If he’d realised that Farath was even bigger than before, he was choosing to ignore it. The white dragon sat back in his chair, putting down his tweezers and sighing.
“It’s likely top of the food chain. See those scales? This thing has more armour than our ship does.”
“Damn.” Gyro took the opportunity to run a hand over the jewelled crater in the creature’s chest, observing the dent in the body. “I meant to thank you. I’m supposed to be security on this ship, and when it counted I let everyone down. If it wasn’t for you we’d all be toast. So thanks.”
“Hey, don’t mention it. Without your gun I doubt it would have gone that way anyway, so don’t get yourself too down.” Gyro seemed to perk up a bit at this.
“Well anyway, Psy’s looking for you. I think she’s somewhere on the bridge, I wouldn’t keep her waiting if I were you.” With a wink he left, leaving Farath to sigh and pack his things away. He left the creature on the table, intending to come back to it once he was finished - it wasn’t like it was going anywhere after all. Just in case though he grabbed a nearby scalpel and jabbed it in the stomach, checking for any sort of reaction. Nothing.
“Come on Farath, you’re jumping at shadows.” He muttered under his breath, before dropping the scalpel and making his way towards the bridge.
Psy was waiting for him, tapping away at the guidance console in front of her. She looked up when he entered, closing down the system and approaching him. From the way her eyes darted up and down his body, he knew she’d noticed the growth, and he knew she was already planning what to do about it.
“Before you start, I figured out what’s causing the growth.” Psy was about to interrupt but at this she stopped, cocking her head curiously. “It’s the suns, they’re overcharging the suit and the excess is going directly to me.”
“That can’t be right, if that was the case then we would all be affected?”
Farath shrugged. “Must be something to do with my body composition, or my species maybe? I’m not sure.”
Psy tapped her foot as she thought about it. “I’m not sure that helps us either way. We don’t have non-solar spacesuits, and besides, we’re running into a bigger issue, if you’ll pardon the pun. We’ve got a weight limit on the ship, and you’re getting very close to exceeding it. In fact if we factor in the balance equations we can’t even fly with you on board currently. If you get much bigger then we won’t be able to leave with you.”
“I’ll be stuck here.”
“Well, only as long as your oxygen lasts. The atmosphere might be breathable but the sulphur will kill you in the end. If that doesn’t get you then the lack of food definitely will.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“As much as I hate to say, it I think we abort the mission now. Get you out of here while we still can. And it has to be as soon as possible, we can’t risk you getting any bigger.” Psy turned back towards the console, tapping away. “I’m gonna go talk with Kremlin, but I have a feeling he’s going to suggest the same thing I'm thinking. We modify the ship, bring the balance equations back into line, and get the hell out of this place.”
“Is that even possible?”
“If we’re quick, then yes. Fingers crossed.” For once the raven captain didn’t chuckle, she didn’t even smile - the safety of her crew was at stake, and she was taking this seriously.
A chat with Kremlin revealed that yes, it was possible, but would require extensive damage to the ship. Controlled but irreversible damage. In essence, the komodo explained, once they started this then they would be forced to finish it, whether they wanted to or not.
Kremlin’s plan was simply to remove enough bits and pieces to make a large space for Farath to fit into, positioning him near the centre of the craft so that the thrust wouldn’t be offput by his weight. It wouldn’t be comfortable by any means, but it would certainly be better than being left on this planet, so Farath took to it with gusto. A little too much gusto initially, as he ended up tossing one of the doors a little too hard and it went so far they all lost sight of it. After that he was a little more careful, placing the removed metal nearby instead of just tossing it over his shoulder. It had a strange kind of texture to it, almost like it was made of putty that had been left out for too long. To the dragon it moulded easily under his grip, and he had to remind himself that this was solid Tungsten Disulphide nanotube composite that he was casually bending and squeezing out of shape.
It took them the better part of a day to get everything out of the ship, mostly because Kremlin had to make sure that none of the sensitive electronics running through the floors and ceilings were damaged. He didn’t have the equipment to fix a full systems failure, so while the occasional damaged wire was fine, if they hit something big it was game over. Needless to say they all waited for Kremlin’s instructions before touching anything, and even then the dragon was ginger in his movements, making extra sure he damaged nothing but the designated part. Finally though there was a large enough space for him to get into, and the entire crew sighed and sat back, looking at their handiwork. It was hideous, like someone had gouged out the inside of their ship, scooped it with a spoon, but it would work.
“Is that gonna be enough?” Farath asked, and Kremlin gave him a Look.
“You see this big pile of stuff that should be in there? I’d say yeah, this is enough.” The komodo dragon shook his head muttering under his breath. “Honestly, the things you’re making me do to this ship. I need a drink.” He walked back inside, kicking aside the remains of a door as he did and cursing as his toe bounced off the hard metal.
“What’s his deal?” Farath asked Psy, who chuckled.
“Oh, he’s just a little attached to this ship that’s all. There’s probably not a single bolt in there that he hasn’t gone over at least once. And now we’ve forced him to tear him apart.” She looked over at the pile of broken walls and torn metal. “Nothing a drink can’t fix though.”
“Yeah, well if we’re all done here then I’ve got an analysis to finish off.” Farath walked back inside, or rather he squeezed himself through the doorway, his fingers leaving dents in the metal where he gripped it. Psy watched him go with a curious stare.
*
Farath once again traced the lines of that impact thoughtfully, the markings he had inflicted on the creature. He hated to admit it, but something in him had a sharp thrill upon doing this, upon feeling that surge of power course through his limbs and wreak havoc upon whatever he saw fit. Power was addictive, but he was reluctant to fall into it. Not when he was on a very fragile ship with even more fragile crewmates.
“Hey.” His reverie was interrupted by Gyro, who had popped his head in the doorway. “We’re all getting some drinks down in the lunch hall, you wanna join us?” At Farath’s reluctant expression he sighed. “Oh come on, you really want to sit on your own with this thing?”
“I’m going to get this done first, I need a stomach acid sample while there are still live cultures in there.”
“Silious is down there waiting for you. And believe me, as much as you want to spend your time with this thing, it ain’t gonna get you laid. You might not care now, but in the morning you’ll have missed your opportunity and you’ll be kicking yourself that you didn’t listen. So are you in?”
Farath was about to argue it, but instead he cocked his head as he realised that yes, he did want to go. He wanted to show himself off, he wanted to enjoy his new, mighty form. And in a way he didn’t want to be reminded of the damage he was capable of doing, a reminder imprinted in the dead beast on the table.
“Fine. FINE. There better be some cider.”
“Pretty sure Psy has a batch of apple whiskey that’ll go down a treat.” Gyro grinned as he tried to wrap an arm around Farath’s broad shoulders, finding himself unable to due to the height difference and the sheer broadness of the dragon’s shoulders. He still did his best to guide Farath down the hallway though.
As promised everyone was there, and as promised Psy had indeed whipped up a rather strong batch of what was effectively cider with a kick. It was so good that Farath had already gotten through several mugs before he knew what was what, and the night began to melt into a pleasant blur of warm conversation and raucous laughter, the kind you got in bars after a certain time. Even Ophiuchus was looking a lot more carefree than normal, playing some kind of drinking game with Kremlin and losing repeatedly - the komodo could hold his drink like nobody else on the ship, and in his drunken stupor Ophiuchus had forgotten this.
“Okay okay okay, but iss like. I could..uh...I could take you. Yyyyyes.” Gyro grinned goofily as he collapsed at the table and held his hand up for an arm wrestle. Farath couldn’t resist it, and he sat at the same table, not noticing how the chair buckled underneath his weight. His hand almost completely engulfed Gyro’s and the difference between their arms was obscene - Farath’s titanic bicep made Gyro’s arm look like a straw in comparison. It was unnatural muscle, doubled up in a way that wasn’t achievable without copious amounts of performance enhancers, and yet it was all him. Needless to say the arm wrestle was no challenge whatsoever, and Farath indulged in some teasing as he yawned and relaxed back in his chair, laughing as Gyro strained as hard as he could. Eventually the red dragon fell back, admitting defeat in a good-natured way, and just before he could pull his arm back he felt a pair of hands caress the bicep. It was Silious, who was looking a little out of it herself, tracing the contours of muscle on his arm with delicate fingers. She ran her hands around the bicep, round the tricep, then up to the shoulder where she cupped the cannonball that was his shoulder muscle. Then she grinned and slid her hands under his shirt, gently pressing against his pecs and licking her lips ever so slightly, her eyes widening as she felt Farath tense up and those same muscles blow up with size and power.
“You know, I bet you could lift me up.” No sooner were the words out of Silious’s mouth than Farath reached down and hoisted her into the air with one arm, not even straining to do so. She made a point of feeling the bicep underneath her while it flexed, subconsciously licking her lips as she felt the bulging flesh pressing against her palm.
“Easy.”
One person quickly turned into several though as both Psy and Gyro jumped on his arms, then Ophiuchus grabbed his back, until after a few moments the entire crew was being hoisted into the air by Farath. He was laughing at how easy it was, his body a machine that made the task simple, easy almost. But it was more than that - he loved the thrill of strength surging through his body, the blood rushing around all that muscle and powering him up like electricity, the way his limbs were simultaneously insanely heavy and impossibly light due to his strength. He especially loved the looks that Silious was giving him, the wolf not even bothering to hide her ogling anymore.
“Alright. You got..you lift...you pick sssup. BUT.” Gyro waved a finger aimlessly. “I betcha….can’t...uh...The SHip! Betcha can’t do that!”
5 minutes later they were outside, too drunk to even bother with the oxygen fields. The atmosphere was thick enough that the air was breathable, but the sulphur would give them some nasty headaches in the morning. Farath set himself, wedged his fingers underneath the ship and tried to haul the whole thing up. It was too big and unwieldy to get a proper leverage underneath it, but he did manage to begin shifting the entire mass of the thing, tilting it slightly. The others were treated to a full view of his monolithic back, the great chasms and gulleys of muscle all writhing and bulging as he put his back into the lift, trying his hardest to get it off the floor. Even though he didn’t lift it fully, just him managing to move it elicited cheers from the others, and he accepted them graciously. The last thing he remembered was accepting another bottle from Kremlin, and instead of drinking it normally he held it above his head and crushed the glass in his hand, letting the liquid spray all over his face and into his mouth. Then he roared, a booming, bestial sound that echoed out onto the alien planet, and probably scared off any wildlife within a few miles of the ship. He was the king here now, and he had the body to prove it.
*
When Farath woke up it was still dark. He didn’t remember how he got back to his room, but presumably he’d had enough mental acuity to stagger back here and collapse on his bed, even managing to strip most of his clothes off. They were lying in a pile on the floor, a remnant of the night before. The ship was silent, save for the faint humming of machinery here and there, but the darkness was like a silent cloak wrapped around his shoulders, muffling even his gargantuan movements. He made to sit up, and realised with a moment of dread that he was bigger.
“Ah crap.” He muttered under his breath, already knowing what he was about to see. Sure enough, when he tried to stand up he saw that he was bigger, only this time the difference was enormous. He had almost doubled in size overnight, and he was at least 25 feet tall now. Once again his muscle mass had grown in proportion, so that in addition to being hugely tall he was thickly built, sinking into the floor just by standing there. It was hard to shake the sense of vertigo he felt just from looking around - his viewpoint was so drastically different that it threw him off looking around, and he wasn’t quite sure how to react. His brain was telling him to get down from there, but he couldn’t. He looked up, specifically at the window in his room that was innocuously letting in sunlight, and sighed the sigh of someone who knew this was going to be a pain in the ass to sort out. Even just moving was awkward now, the room was so tight. He didn’t even bother getting dressed, content with nothing but the pair of boxers he slept in, and after a brief stint of quiet movement and slightly less quiet cursing, he managed to extricate himself from the metal box and start walking towards the mess hall. One inside he was able to straighten up, this being one of the largest places in the ship, and he took the opportunity to grab himself a glass of water and sit at a nearby table. He’d never imagined plain old water to taste so sweet, but it did, and he closed his eyes as he gulped.
“You look a bit down.” Farath opened his eyes to see Silious walking up, a damp cloth pressed to her head.
In response the dragon simply stood up, sighing at the way Silious’ eyes widened when she saw the sheer size of him. In his boxers every muscle was on display, and his body was a tapestry of muscular perfection, a paradigm of strength, so defined that she was almost salivating just looking at it. That wasn’t even mentioning the size - he was towering over her now, and she was forced to take a step back just to see all of him.
“Yeah. Not only is this still a thing, but now I've also got a wicked headache to go with it.” He noticed Psy wincing at the sound of his voice and made a mental note to talk quietly, although that deprived the world of a voice that benefitted from impossible acoustics, reverberating through his chest before arriving in his throat as a wonderfully rounded bass pitch, one that you felt in your teeth and behind your eyes. It was a voice of pure, awesome power, one that matched the body it belonged to. He sighed and clutched his head. “I don’t know how you’re managing it so well.”
She chuckled. “It’s far from my first hangover, and i doubt it’ll be my last. Look, I wanted to apologise for last night, I was drunk and I went too far.” She cocked her head as she waited for some kind of acknowledgement from the dragon, but instead he simply sat back down and looked at her, waiting. The silence between them was heavy, pregnant with expectation.
“You want to know a secret? You’re a very unconvincing liar.” Farath watched with curiosity as Silious’ face went from normal to beet red in just a few seconds before she covered them under the guise of surprised coughing, trying to hide her embarrassment. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Why are you afraid?”
“Because I’m pretty sure that whatever is in there would make me look like a pig on a spit roast.” She gestured at the dragon’s crotch, where his package was visible even through the space suit. He chuckled.
“Yeah, maybe not the best idea. Still though, I can tell you’re a fan of all this.” He flexed an arm that might as well have been chiselled out of rock. “Well this is a formal invitation to feel as much as you want.”
Silious laughed out loud, but she didn’t need to be told twice. She started by just feeling his arm, trying to fit both hands around it and failing to do so due to the sheer mass of it. Farath obliged by flexing ever so slightly, watching her hands be pushed outwards by the bulging muscle underneath. It was so thick that just one bicep was almost bigger than her torso, so heavy with muscle that when he rested it in her arms she struggled to keep it aloft. Instead of going along the arm she instead placed both hands on his thighs, slowly rubbing around the girth while he sat there and watched, waited. Eventually she climbed onto his lap, sat on his knees and reached down to his abs, poking her fingers in between each ball of muscle, cupping them in her hands. It tickled slightly, and in response he reached down and moved a curl of her hair with a finger, the lightest of touches enough to make her shiver.
Farath had never really been attracted to anyone in the past - sure he’d had girlfriends, and plenty of them at that, but never anyone serious. Silious though was something else entirely, scarily beautiful but with something more to her. Intelligence perhaps, that vivid spark in her mind, ideas frothing in her head like bubbles in a bath. Silious was more direct in what she found attractive - for her it was all about size. It irked her that her tastes were so simple-minded, but it was what it was. Nothing turned her on more than a guy that was built like a brick shithouse, and Farath was that and then some. This was muscle on another level entirely, this was a being not just in a different league but an entirely different ball game from everyone else. The power, the strength coiled in that frame, just resting now but able at the slightest moment to explode forth with devastating power, that was what she found hot. Not the use of strength per se, but simply the possession of it, the possibility of using it, the way it shaped the body into something streamlined and powerful. She loved that power, searched for it, and now she had finally found it.
Silious reached up, trying to pull her hands around Farath’s head but only succeeding in tickling his head fin. His neck was thicker than both her arms put together, but nevertheless he leaned down, putting his face close to hers. Then she got a good grip and pulled him into a kiss. It wasn’t the awkward kiss of a first date, nor the tired smooch of someone who has known love more than most and has sickened of it’s sweetness by now. No, this was the kiss of a young woman, hungry for it but restrained, controlled. It was breathtaking. So breathtaking in fact that he leaned into it more, pushing her back onto the table so that he was leaning over her with his arms behind her back. He didn’t notice how he pressed her into the table, how the metal buckled and splintered as he drove her into it in the throes of passion, not caring how his toe claws dug into the floor as he clenched them.
“Ahem.”
The pair of them broke off in shock and turned to see Kremlin leaning against the doorway, a big mug of coffee in his hand. The komodo dragon grinned.
“You might want to get a room for that. Anyway the captain wants to see you, says she needs your help with something” With that Kremlin calmly walked away, leaving the two of them to chuckle nervously.
As it turned out Psy wanted a hand cleaning up outside the ship, and though she was hung over she wasn’t stupid enough to have forgotten the bear from before. Hence why Farath was forced to lean against the side of the ship as Psy went around picking up bottles.
“Remind me why we need...
Category Story / Muscle
Species Dragon (Other)
Gender Male
Size 120 x 90px
Listed in Folders
Ah thank you ^^
I actually prefer doing SFW growth, it's got a bit of finesse to it that NSFW doesn't. That and I love me some sci fi XD
I actually prefer doing SFW growth, it's got a bit of finesse to it that NSFW doesn't. That and I love me some sci fi XD
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