First Contact: Birth of the Phoenix

This is my first venture into science fiction; 'On Becoming Eve' is more of what I consider Fantasy, so please be kind. Also please be generous with your comments. I hope I have created likable characters and the beginnings of a believable universe, perhaps we will travel it together as the story progresses. This is also my first foray into serial publication. I have big plans for our new friends and will do my best to keep the episodes coming and the story exciting and fresh. Once again, please let me know what you think, your comments are the lifeblood of a writer.

Episode 1 -- Birth of the Phoenix

Guinea Pig, that's what I was, a goddam Guinea Pig. Of course, I had been 'volunteered' by Colonel Marshall himself, he was still holding a grudge for what had happened at the war games. I actually found that I was looking forward to the break from the tedium. The job was simple, the latest version of Earth Force EV armor needed to be tested, specifically the CO2 converter, so I had been dropped two hundred clicks from base and got to walk home. There were crates and crates of them in storage just waiting for the results of my little hike.

If I made it great, the converter worked, if I didn't, well, they might get to me in time to save me. While I didn't understand the science, I wasn't overly concerned; the setup had been lab tested and field tested in various configurations for a couple of years and larger scale versions were in place at all of the Martian colonies providing breathable air for close to thirteen million colonists. Getting the reactor, accelerator, and filter system small enough to be wearable had been a real breakthrough.

If the version in my suit worked like they expected it to, it would change ground warfare on Mars forever; not that we had an enemy to fight, but you know the military. If nothing else, it was a five-day vacation from the excitement/boredom of being lucky enough to be posted on Mars. Fucking Guinea Pig, yeah that was me. I laughed to myself at the thought.

Our EV armor was a true thing of beauty, an elaborate composite of Kevlar, carbon fiber, and titanium, it could withstand just about anything short of a mining laser. As I mentioned, oxygen was provided by a CO2 converter with all nutrition being provided by the water flowing through the reactor's cooling system in my suit, which double duty by keeping me warm in the process. I replaced NC's or nutrition cartridges once a day, there was effectively no solid waste and any liquid waste was recycled back into the system with pollutants being filtered out and ejected in what looked like rabbit droppings.

Coms were built into the helmet with a heads up display for nonverbal communications and pneumatics in the exoskeleton made me stronger and faster by a large margin with only limited restrictions in agility, I could almost do gymnastics in the thing. Like I said, a true thing of beauty, the damned thing even auto sized to whoever put it on, so it was a true one-size fits all. A normal rig out would be two-weeks' worth of NC's, my weapon and all the cartridges I could carry for my railgun. With no weapon and no ammo, I should make excellent time getting back to post.

"Nav," I said softly, waiting for the logistics of my position relative to the post and suggestions for the best path between the two. It took a couple of seconds for the map and my suggested heading to appeared in front of me, I turned south and started walking.

"Systems check," my heads-up display lit up like a Christmas tree, all green.

"Base, this is Rider, all systems optimal. I am in route, see you slackers in a few days."

"Rider, this is base. Copy that. Granger says not to get lost; you still owe him a beer."

"Yeah, tell Granger to piss off. He knows I'm good for it. Besides, he's just afraid they'll send him to find me if I'm late."

"Roger that," the voice on the other end of the radio laughed," See you when we see you, base out."

"Rider out," That would be it unless complications arose and I was on fricking Mars, there was nothing between me and the base except red sand and a few hills; I could do this in my sleep. Keep the big hole, Juventea Chasm on my left and keep walking. Our base was built into the northern walls of the Candor Chasm, part of the Valles Marineris system just south of the equator; around twelve thousand soldiers, airmen and Marines, defending Earth's interests on Mars from some unknown threat by playing war games in the red sand; but hey, the pay was excellent and there was nothing to spend it on, all dorms were co-ed, and chemical birth control was mandatory for everybody; the American Puritan Ethic had died years ago about the same time inexpensive, reliable, cold fusion was discovered by a physicist at, of all places, Uruguay.

The power structure of the entire world had changed overnight as fossil fuels had become irrelevant, South America had unified as a constitutional republic and become the world power as Uruguay shared its new wealth. Buenos Ares in the now province of Argentina had become the capitol of the new world government. The cost in sharing in the new world was an immediate cessation of all hostilities. Certain factions in the Middle East had been the last to give in but the fear of being left behind as the world flourished around them was too much; it took less than fifty years for peace to finally take over.

Two hundred years later, poverty was effectively gone, opportunity abounded at every turn, if you had the resources to take advantage of it, and travel throughout the solar system was commonplace, taking mere hours to reach the asteroid belt; there were research facilities and resorts on the moon, colonies on Mars, research facilities, space stations, mining operations and private estates dotted the asteroid belt, even Jupiter's moons had outposts.

Advances in science and astronomy had identified the reality of other technologically advanced worlds in the galaxy and the world military complex had taken the task of preparing for threats from outside the solar system, researching new weapons systems and defensive technologies, establishing bases on the moon and Mars, and manning listening stations in the asteroid belt and on Titan.

Of course, people being what they are, we found ways to segregate ourselves and create tension; the most common was the gap between spacers, people that had the resources, and therefore the chance to go to space, grounders, those that didn't, and ringers, those that lived and worked in the asteroid belt. Ringers were mostly conscripted workers who had amassed some type of debt, either to society as criminals, to a corporation through some transaction like failing to meet the required return on the training expenses for a new employee, or those that worked for the super-rich that had estates and personal retreats on some of the asteroids.

While poverty was gone; nobody wanted for basic necessities and even those at the bottom of the ladder could save and make a trip of a life time to Disney World Luna, that didn't mean that all opportunities were open to all people; having money and connections would always get you the choice options and the truth was, for most grounders, that 'trip of a lifetime' was more of a dream than a reality.

For me, that dream had become nonexistent the minute my father died. I had been an above average student but when my grades dropped, admission to any university that offered a chance at a degree that would get me off world was not in the cards. I could either effectively sell myself into corporate slavery by signing on with a mining consortium and become a ringer or join Earth Force. Against my mom's wishes I had joined Earth Force Marines. When I fulfilled my ten-year commitment, I would be set.

My propensity for martial arts and skill with weapons of all kinds got me assigned to a Special Operations unit. It took two years to get there, but the orders I had been waiting for finally came through. My mom cried her eyes out but understood what it meant to me to get into space, two weeks later Corporal Case Rider reported to duty at Camp Candor, Mars.

Eight years later, only six weeks short of the end of my tour, I was a day and a half into my trek back to base, seriously second guessing that choice as I trudged through the Martian wilderness carefully eyeing the huge sandstorm to the west, wondering where I was going to find shelter until it passed. On a normal mission, I would be with my squad and we would have tents and supplies for such an occurrence.

The weather forecast had been completely clear, and this was such a walk in the park, that we had all agreed none of that was necessary, well I guess we were wrong, shit! Other than completely obscuring my sight, the sand and wind weren't the real issue, it was the static electricity that filled the storm that would mess with my electronics, making navigation problematic and any communication impossible. Then there was the chance that the dust could clog my filters; in other words, if I didn't find shelter, I was thoroughly screwed," Base, Rider, do you see that?"

"Copy, Rider, we're on it, came out of nowhere, your best bet is Juve, see if you can find some shelter in the canyon, and hurry, it's coming fast and it's nasty. You've got about ten minutes. We'll send S and R as soon as it passes."

"Got it, Rider out," I turned east and started running as fast as I could, Juventae Chasm wasn't far and with the pneumatic assist in my suit, I just might be able to make it in time to find a nook or cranny that would shelter me from the blowing dust.

The storm caught me a few hundred meters from the edge of the chasm. My CO2 converter indicator was flashing yellow by the time I reached the edge of the canyon indicating that my intake filters were clogging, and I was getting less and less oxygen from the system. As I stood on the precipice considering my options for decent, a huge gust of wind and dust caught me by surprise and launched me over the edge, all I could do was hope that the fall didn't kill me, or maybe I'd be better off if it did. I landed hard, I could tell that my suit had done its best to protect me but it had not been enough, pain racked my body and the status indicators in my heads up flashed red and yellow; I could have sworn I saw a shadow pass over me but wasn't conscious long enough to be sure.

There was a voice, strange words I didn't understand, and the pain. My body felt as if it were burning from the inside out, the very marrow of my bones on fire, every fiber of every muscle strained as if I were being torn apart. I tried to scream but there was no sound. Then I saw it, a pinpoint of light; if only I could reach it, I knew there would be some relief. I strained with every ounce on strength I could reach and slowly pulled myself closer and closer to the light, or was I pulling it closer to me? It didn't matter, I knew it was my only salvation from the intense pain occupying every corner of my being.

The light found me and wrapped me in a strange warmth, the pain was still there but somehow held at bay as the light filled my mind with a thousand voices, all talking at the same time, more strange words and images, none of them making any sense, I had to find something, anything familiar; something to anchor what little sanity I had left.

I tried to scream again, suddenly I was at my computer, Galactic Conquest spun up and I saw my new avatar; she was always the same, tall muscular redhead, not orange red but deep, lustrous red, rich, flowing locks down past her shoulders, her ass was a work of art and her breasts would have made the Venus De Milo jealous, it was all capped off with those blazing green eyes, I smiled every time I hit commit. My squad always gave me grief for playing a female character but I figured if I was going to have to watch my avatar run around and fight alien threats on strange worlds, I might as well enjoy the view; they laughed every time I explained it and I kicked there assess anyway.

Then there was nothing.

I woke up in a room I knew I had never seen before that was at the same time strangely familiar, the sheets on the bed were a wonderfully soft and rich fabric, the bed more comfortable than any I had ever slept in. I stretched amazed at how rested I felt and confused as hell at where I was, memories of the pain and the light came back to me; I remembered being thrown off the edge of the cliff, how the hell was I still alive? What I really needed though, was to pee.

Sliding off the bed, I walked across the room to a door I somehow knew was the toilet, reached out and watched as the door slid open as soon as my hand touched it. The facilities were the same combination of strange and familiar as everything else had been since I woke up, I sat down to take care of business and waves of long red locks fell across my shoulders, what the hell, even as a woman, I had embraced the classic Marine buzz cut since day one, and besides, my hair was pitch black. I found a mirror, looking back at me was Ta'alia, my avatar from Galactic Conquest.

Closing my eyes and shaking my head, I knew I had to be dreaming, but when I opened my eyes again, she was still there, she was me; What the fuck was going on? I tried again, this time slapping myself as hard as I could, fuck, I needed to wake up, I needed some answers, almost as much as I still needed to pee. I sat back down and took care of the immediate need before I set my mind to work figuring out where I was, what had happened to me, and what the fuck I was going to do about it.

I stood before the mirror and really examined the beautiful woman looking back at me, I was a good fifteen centimeters taller and the D cups I had been so proud of were smaller, much smaller; maybe a B. I was still in amazing physical condition, but the compact body I had had before was now long and lithe.

I had never been pretty, finding other ways to get the recognition I craved, excelling at martial arts and weapons, I fought my way through the system to the rank of Master Sergeant, I was in charge of teaching what I knew to an entire battalion of marines and was damned good at my job, at one hundred sixty five centimeters tall and weighing just over sixty kilos, I could take out a man twice my size and make it look easy. I had made it a habit with each new class to pick out the biggest guy in the class and just piss him off royally before giving him an opportunity to make the short little bitch with the buzz cut pay; they never did and absolutely nobody fucked with Sergeant Rider.

The woman looking back at me had been my fantasy, my dream ever since I was in high school. Examining her closely, I felt something stirring inside me, I started running my fingers through the luscious locks of red hair, gently caressing the perky breasts, and slowly moving my hands across my stomach to my crotch. I ran my fingers between my legs, noticing the smoothness, pressing gently with my middle finger as I pulled my hand back, parting my labia and searching for the button I knew was going to be there.

A subtle tingle coursed through my body when I found the treasure, slowly growing more and more intense as I worked the nub with my finger. I let out a soft moan and my knees got week, as a surge of pleasure erupted from my crotch, spreading down my legs and through my torso. I responded by taking my other hand, sliding two fingers inside myself thrusting vigorously as I collapsed to the floor, moaning louder and louder as the waves of pleasure grew more intense. I could feel it coming, building deep within me; I wanted it but was afraid it would be too much, I tried to stop but knew I couldn't, it was soon inevitable, my body spasmed uncontrollably, wave after wave of pleasure ripping through me building and building until I finally let out a muffled scream. I had masturbated hundreds, if not thousands of times, but never had I cum this hard.

"Holy fuck," I moaned as I slowly pulled my fingers from my aching wetness, inhaling the scent deeply, it was amazingly erotic. I licked my juice from my fingers with the tip of my tongue, the salty, yet full and rich flavor was comforting, I took my fingers in my mouth licking them clean, relishing every bit of the experience.

I found something to clean myself up and sat quietly on the floor for a few minutes until I felt the strength slowly return to my legs. Returning to the bedroom, I decided that I needed to re-center myself if I was going to figure this out. I started my stretches, finding that with the lack of bulk, I was unusually limber. Next were my kata; Acho Gree was based on the now ancient Krav Maga including facets of various other forms and adapted for off planet situations like low gravity, I focused on my technique, moving through the forms slowly and deliberately, starting at the most basic and slowly getting more and more advanced.

I was well into form seven when I heard the voice, "What a beautiful dance, is it spiritual," he was standing in the doorway?

"Please call me Drell."

"Yes and no," I responded. Drell was a little taller than me, broad shoulders and very distinguished, he was humanoid with a few telling differences, I would learn he was completely hairless, his hands only had three fingers, his feet three toes and were prehensile, his eyes were on the large black pools that seemed to look straight through me, and he was an absolutely stunning shade of purple with flashes of silver running across his skin. His beauty was almost overwhelming.

"You're not from around here, I'm guessing. Any chance you can explain what happened to me," I was talking to a fricking alien and it seemed like the most normal thing I could be doing; considering what had already happened since I woke up, well, I guess it couldn't get much weirder?

"First, I am happy to see you up and awake, perhaps some clothes and something to eat and then I will do my best to explain what I can. To be honest, there are some things that don't make sense, even to me, for one, it normally takes hours for the universal interpreter to synch with a new language, yet you understood me immediately. "

I understood his words, but the language was not earth standard, another puzzle I needed to solve, "Universal interpreter?"

"Yes, I had the auto surgeon implant it behind your right ear when it was trying to save your life," he motioned across the room to what I immediately knew was a replicator where I could pick out something appropriate to wear.

"Second, you seem to already know how things work on my ship, that shouldn't be possible considering your state when I dragged you aboard. You took quite a fall; one hundred of your meters, I think. It will recognize you and present suggestions based on what it knows," he pointed to the replicator again.

I touched the control screen, it filled with a variety of options. I noticed Drell watching to see just how far I could get without his assistance. The characters were Old Trellian, how I knew that I had no idea. I selected the option for, the best translation was lingerie, and selected some simple panties and a matching bra. From the selections available, the Trellians were as highly sexed as humans, if not more. Working my way through the menus, I chose pants and a t-shirt, socks, boots, and a jacket that closely resembled an old WWII pilots' jacket. Everything fit perfectly. I checked myself in the mirror, fuck, I was hot.

Turning to Drell, I extended my hand," Case, Case Rider, thanks for saving my life, now didn't you say something about some food?"

He looked at me curiously, evidently shaking hands was not a standard greeting where he came from, he took my hand anyway and smiled as I gave his hand a firm squeeze. What he offered for food was interesting to say the least, It had a wonderful mix of flavors I couldn't quite put my finger on and made the NC packs I had in my suit taste like dog food, which, to be honest, they pretty much did anyway.