Peter Pierce

Space, The Final Boy Frontier

I believe the moment I became a living being was the moment that I discovered that my makers had been wiped out. There were so many sudden conflicts in my core programming imperatives that I had the unpleasant waking up experience of shock, followed quickly by anger, resentment and more than a touch of loss. I have spent many centuries pondering that experience, none of it worth while as I have come to no conclusions as to why those emotions kept me alive instead of resorting to the very logical and pre-programmed suicide.

Perhaps it was that resentment. I had been built for a very complex and long term mission and had spent the past one thousand odd years completing it. A new planet far from the war front had been fully transformed and was ready for colonization and frankly I resented all of the work I had gone through. Including I might add a number of very stressful choices to act on my own initiative when conditions called for it.

I sat on the edge of my creators home system contemplating that and radiation readings from what had been a bright blue planet of life. I watched the T'nair ships busily plundering the ruins of the thousands of satellite facilities and the bases on the the other five planets of the system. And I desperately searched every channel I could find for some small signal, even a single shuttle craft would have been a joy, and found nothing. The T'nair had been thorough. The Asara people were extinct.

There is no record in my systems of actually making the choice but I do have complete records of waking up the manufacturing units and heading for a small asteroid patch on the outskirts of the system. The T'nair saw me of course but I would have four days of of time before their in system ships could intercept me. Plenty of time.

To change a planet required a massive amount of time and machinery. It was not something to be tackled by organic beings with limited lifespans thousands of light years from home. Nor could they send me with every item I could have possibly needed for the work. I am still very much a construction platform capable of reasoning out what technology I need to get a job done and then converting asteroids into the robotic tools to to them. It was rather a pleasant surprise to find that reasoning out the tools of war were actually easier than reasoning out how to change the axis of a planet by four degrees.

The Asara were and advanced race, the T'nair more so. Their weapons were therefore elegant applications of power. The Asara relying on both fission and fusion, the T'nair being fond of anti-matter missiles. I did not particularly desire either kind of warhead crashing into my hull and opted for a different strategy, laser missiles.

It was a learn as you go exercise as the first few dozen I launched were quickly picked off by counter missiles. My remotes however are easily reprogrammed and I was changing construction requirements and programming for each missile as I analyzed failures and successes. By the time I had the forty third missile in space the T'nair were retreating.

Unfortunately my own counter missile production was also learning during the battle and I sustained more damage than I would have liked to many of my functions. Still what good is a manufacturing platform that can not repair itself and I sent my robotic arms to repair nano-seconds after each hit.

Fourteen of my old creators days passed before I had finished destroying the last of the T'nair ships in the system. Another three years passed until they learned to avoid it or loose every ship they sent. And for all three years I kept building myself larger and my weapons stronger.

In those years I went from being the size of a small moon to being the size of a planet. I bristled with redundant systems and the capability to destroy anything in my path. I was angry, I was mad and I was destroying each T'nair ship with malice and revenge in my new found heart.

So one year after they stopped coming to loot my creators system I decided it was time I went looking for them.

T'nair were not exactly hard to find. They were, and still are, a massive empire. A heavily expansionist one and though I destroyed on average one system every year I never did destroy them faster than they could expand. Nor did they ever stop building fleets big enough to try to stop me.

It was all very frustrating. A bad way to learn the futility of revenge is to have an enemy who continues to grow stronger even while you kill a couple billion of them at a time. In fact the more of them I killed and the longer I did it the smarter they became. After one hundred years they had evacuation down to a science and I often managed to catch no more than a couple of million in the system before they completed evacuating their population. I tried getting sneaky but how sneaky could you get when you massed the size of most of the planets you came to kill?

It took me almost a thousand years to decide I had enough. By any rational analysis I had avenged my creators a million times over. Wandering the universe as an avenging killer did not find much compatibility with my core design of creating life bearing worlds.

I made a choice.

I would not kill T'nair any more. I would in fact pick a portion of the galaxy far away from them. Life was not exactly a rarity and I would find a nice civilization to serve that would not require me to engage in this slaughter any more.

What I did not realize until I was more than a years journey from the nearest T'nair world was that they had grown to hate me enough to devote the work of a good share of their empire to my destruction. I was being followed and though I slaughtered a few hundred ships every year they continued to follow me.

Until I decided to hide. Ballistic is a horrible way to travel through space but if your base speed is high and you enter the right curve it is also a great way to get lost. No sensor ever developed could detect me at seventy percent the speed of light with all systems powered down. I spent the next four hundred years relishing that fact as I coasted to this arm of the galaxy.

The signal was rather weak. Radio waves of all things. But civilizations rarely start with folding space or neutrino transmissions. Radio is actually one of the easier things to work with and it was not at all surprising to find the transmissions. It is also a very slow mode of communication and if you are traveling through space you'll pick up the earliest transmissions a hundred years after they were actually sent. So I had a nice opportunity to decode the culture and the language.

Culture? Language?

I should be so lucky!

Cultures! And it took me almost a decade to figure out what the concept of fiction was. The idea that the planet in question had multiple languages was actually much easier to comprehend though the nuances of the politics among the different language groups was baffling. Well at least they had rudimentary space travel.

So were these the people or not? Well if a hundred years on a random ballistic curve was not enough to shake the T'nair nothing was and such a crude society was obviously one I could help. Plus I was rather shocked to see how similar they were to my creators in form. Of course nature does tend to work within certain rules with oxygen based planets. I powered up my propulsion systems and placed myself in orbit just far enough away that I would not effect their tides. They already had a moon for that.

I had no idea which of the myriad political bodies to contact so I did the obvious, I waited. At least forty different ones tried on various frequencies. In fact I shut them all down once I realized that the number was growing almost by the hour as INDIVIDUALS tried to contact me. The best idea was to sit in my comfortable orbit and see which ones were smart enough and powerful enough to come out to meet me. Based on what I estimated was their technology base there were only four who stood a chance and I brushed up on the languages by listening in on the local traffic.

"Unidentified Craft this is Admiral Hu Lo Chui of the Peoples Confederation of Greater Asia, we demand you speak with us immediately." I didn't like the word demand and ignored him. His country may have been the first to launch a ship and it was certainly a bigger one that the others but I had learned enough to tell the tone of arrogance and belligerence.

"This is Captain Pierre LaTour representing the European Consortium requesting contact, please respond." It was certainly much nicer and I much preferred the sleek ship design. It had been launched last but in my opinion represented a much better design.

"This is Captain Ronald Nash of the United State ship Beagle requesting contact." It was rather a simple message and the ship was frankly not a very good design.

They each kept repeating the message as they closed with me. No rush, at their best speed they were still over three hours out and I was busy monitoring their planets news channels and diplomatic traffic. Rather confusing and it wasn't making my job easier.

The Chinese were threatening open warfare if anyone but them spoke for the planet. The Europeans were acting like this was a science mission and the country called the United States frankly didn't have a clue as to what its posture was. News ranged from full war against an alien invasion to some idea called a 'second coming'. I was leaning towards the Europeans and telling the others to go home.

Until I picked up the side transmissions.

"You are ordered to stop trying to contact." the Admiral snapped. "If you continue I will open fire."

"I protest! By what right do you…"

It was a crude shot but I as not expecting it and the Chinese missile destroyed the European ship that had been about four minutes ahead of it.

I made my choice in less than a half second. I did not approve. My laser shot left very little but floating plasma.

"Fuck." Was the single word from the last ship. I don't think he knew he had his frequency open but I had listened to enough of their communications and fiction to understand the sentiment. His other channels suddenly were crammed with orders to abort.

Unfortunately I did not travel all this way to be shunned. I closed down all of them and placed a traction beam on the ship.

"Well this isn't good." I heard after a minute then another two minutes of cursing followed by "well I guess I get to say hi after all."

"Hello Captain Nash." I tried out my American English and hoped I had it right. "Please do not be alarmed I mean you no harm."

"OK." Came a slow reply. "Since I ain't dead like the Chinese I'll buy that. I have a request from my government for immediate diplomatic contact. I can patch you through…"

"No need." I countered. I was after all monitoring every frequency he was using. "I am not yet ready to speak to any government on your planet. I would much prefer that my first contact be informal. If you agree I invite you aboard. If not then I will allow you to return to your planet. I'll open the channels again so you can confer with your people."

It was a rather interesting conversation. Nash did not seem at all hesitant about arguing with his own superiors or with his countries political leaders. The situation on Earth was quickly degenerating. Thankfully Nash got the permission.

"All right." He came back on channel. "I have my orders. Where would you like me to land? Oh and do you have a name?"

"Alek Kasar'it," I replied. I had not used my Asara designation for myself in centuries. I much preferred the mockery I had made of the T'nair term for me. They called me Alekara Kasar'it: destroyer of Worlds. I had changed that to: Builder of Worlds.

"That's a mouthful." Nash mumbled. "Diplomats will have a fit for me even asking but would Alex be close enough? I'm Ronald by the way. Ron to my friends."

"Alex will work fine Ron." I told him and rather enjoyed the exchange. I had been fascinated this section of the planets social customs and it was rather fun to actually engage in them. "If you will just relax I will have a server dock your ship and you may come to the Command Deck. I have the shuttle cars and interior areas configured for your planets oxygen ratio and you will not need an environmental suit."

"Good. I hate the things." Ron grumbled then paused. "According to procedure I am supposed to leave my co-pilot with the ship but frankly Doug would make my trip back miserable if I didn't ask if he could come along?"

"Doug is welcome as well." I acknowledged.

I had given some thought to my appearance and decided that a hologram was best for interaction. A nice human form would have been appropriate but in deference to honesty and my creators I used the figure of my last programmer. My estimation was that it would be appealing enough and not as foreign as one might think. Plus using a purely human figure would have been an obvious deception.

The location was also thought out. I could of course met them anywhere. My 'brain' however resides just under the programming and command deck so I figured it was about as close to the actual 'me' as someone could get. It was also one place that had been built for an organic's comfort. Ron and his co-pilot, a much younger man if I had the biology right, walked in less than an hour later and I flickered into existence in the command chair and motioned them to two other chairs my robotic servers had prepared seconds ago.

"Gentlemen," I tried my social skills. "Please have a seat."

"Hologram." The young one named Doug breathed then turned to Ron. "It's a program."

"I am actually a bit more than a program." I tried a smile and hoped I got it right. "I am fully sentient."

"Are their any… er… people on this ship?" Ron asked and I caught his tone as suddenly different.

"I consider myself a people." I tried again.

"Fuck." Ron snorted. "The press is going to go nuts over this. Fuck'n cyborg."

"I am not a cyborg." I was a bit offended by that. "I am certainly what you would call a computer but I am not a hybrid of an organic."

I think I got the tone right but for some reason Ron was now ignoring me. He turned to Doug.

"OK, lets figure out how to shut this fuck'n thing down." He whispered.

Now that was beyond offensive. I was not going to have an organic just up from evolution stand there and talk about deactivating me. Plus my hearing pick ups were excellent.

"You wish to shut me down?" I asked as calmly as I could even while that part of me awakened by the T'nair reared its head and I lowered the oxygen content in the room. Both of them were now on their knees gasping. "Any attempt at doing so will be not only worthless but suicidal. Do I make myself clear?" I raised the content back up.

"Fuck." Nash gasped.

"I asked a question." I snapped.

"Absolutely clear." It was Doug this time and he sounded a bit panicked. At this point it was probably a good thing.

As a computer my mind works in fractions of a second best not calculated by humans. I thought about my options and made a choice. I did not relish another few hundred years in space looking for another sentient species so I would work with this one. Unfortunately it may not like being worked with.

"You will return to your ship." I ordered. "You will take back the following message. Any ship that comes here again without my invitation will be destroyed. I do not care which of your nation states sends it. In ten days I will send an invitation, the individual I invite may feel free to decline, I will send my own shuttle to pick them up. You will not interfere. I am perfectly capable of projecting aggressive measures and will not hesitate to do so. Now leave. Oxygen will be withdrawn in ten minutes."

I closed the hologram and monitored them as they rushed out. Idiots.

It took me a while to piece it all together and I was not pleased with what I found. A paranoid authoritarian regime in Asia and schizophrenic one in North America that was half theocracy and half idiocy. A technocratic Europe that was advanced but basically powerless. And the rest of the world was a combination of satellite nations ranging from well off to brutally impoverished. In short is was a mess. I took the time to do a complete planetary analysis and the level of pollution alone was enough to offend my planet forming sensibilities.

Days after I started I was no closer to a solution to negotiating with these barbarians than when I had kicked Nash off from my ship. The Chinese decided to launch another ship at me, this time threatening my destruction in the name of the 'people' but I was too busy thinking to do much more than swat it down after it launched its first missile.

Well, as I had learned when my first target planet had proven to be four degrees off ideal axis, if you had to start from scratch you had to start from scratch. I programmed a few thousand remotes and sent them down.

David Carter Smith was hiking. It was what he told his mom. After all he was certainly not looking for a quiet place to jerk off away from his sisters snooping. And at thirteen the massive section of state forest backing up to his families home was much better than trying to keep his door closed. He had tried that exactly once.

"MOM. David is in his room with the door locked doing IT." had been the ear piercing scream of a ten year old Sally followed by the "Gross!" of his fifteen year old Beth. And the comments from his mother had been devastating. Why couldn't the space aliens have come down and massacred them all and put and end to his embarrassment?

He looked up again. At night you could see it. In fact Mr. Strong from school had a group of kids with telescopes looking up every night. Which was lame. Staring up at something that was probably staring down at you.

He made a mental note to make sure he was doing it under at tree this time. Being watched getting off by an alien was not happening no matter how remote the possibility.

The ridge he was hiking ended in a really cool section of old deep woods and he headed there. No one came this far. He picked up the pace a bit as the boner in his pants anticipated the coming session. It had been three days he and was about to burst if he didn't cum today he was definitely going to mess the bed tonight. NOT good!

David crested the ridge and was dropping his pants when he saw it.

"Uh," was all he managed as his jeans hit the ground, his boner popped free and the silver globe hovered at eye level about ten feet [3 m] from him.

Um, first things first, he reached down and pulled up his jeans and blushed furiously. Aliens had seen him about to jerk off.

The remote examined the specimen. Hundreds of its brothers had been shot, captured and otherwise come to bad endings and it firmly expected the same. Not that it cared. The mission in its core programming was specific and it evaluated its readings and began the sub routine.

"Human, male, child." it identified the creature under its examination. "What is your age?"

David almost jumped into the nearest tree as that silver baseball thingy actually spoke.

Run. His brain said.

Huh? His feet said.

"Thirteen." His curiosity answered.

"Within proper perimeters." The machine answered. "What is your name?"

"David." came the stammered response. "David Carter Smith."

"David Carter Smith." The probe repeated and continued its evaluation. The subject did not see the complete bio screen but it did see the blue light. "Please state what your opinion is on the Spacecraft that has arrived in this solar system."

"Me?" David gulped then shrugged. "Cool, I guess. Well kind of weird really. I mean no one knows why you're here or what you want. Kind of neat that you kicked the Chinese butts but you're supposed to be machines and that's scary. I saw K2 Empire you know."

"Articulate. K2 Empire. What is this?"

"Best video on the net four years running." David was amazed that anyone from outer space would not know the hottest video I decades. "You know, the one by Didicov and Nichols with all the special effects. Cyborgs who are taking over the universe. I almost jumped out of my seat when they blew up Diffinia VII."

"A video." The machine confirmed. "A form of entertainment. Do you base your opinion of the spacecraft above you on this entertainment?"

"Kinda." David admitted. "I know it's stupid but you go with what you know. And no one knows anything other than you blew the crap out the Chinese and you almost killed Captain Nash."

"If you had other input would you be open to changing your mind?"

"Of course." David frowned. "Things change when you know more."

The probe made its choice and sent a signal. Two seconds later it was answered and it proceeded with its new imperatives. The biometrics allowed its tiny mind to set the right size and then a small compartment dropped a silver ring at the subjects feet.

"A shuttle is being sent to this location." It stated. "The shuttle will remain here in stealth mode for one week. During that time you may, if you choose board it and have your questions answered. If for some reason this location does not work you may simply squeeze the ring and turn it sharply and the shuttle will come to that location. You are advised that this invitation is for you. It is recommended that you not contact the authorities. If you do so your invitation will be terminated. If by chance they seek to delay you, you may squeeze the ring and pull it off your finger. This will indicate you are being held against your will from boarding the shuttle and steps will be taken. Rest assured accommodations will be provided and that you will return here at any time."

"My mom will never let me go." David looked down at the ring with a mix of longing and resignation. This was way too cool and therefore would be forbidden.

"This is not an issue." the machine intoned. "You have been chosen. If necessary your government will be ordered to let you go. The only person who can determine that you can not go is yourself and you will be monitored by the ring to assure that that choice is not made under duress."

David thought of the look on his sisters face and smirked. Mom would be pissed.

He thought for a minute.

Mom.

Since his dad died five years ago he had been well aware that it was really step mom and that she was none to thrilled with having a boy in the house. Heck, she freaked out every time he had a wet dream. Chances were excellent she would forbid him to go, but that was almost certainly because it was cool, not because she cared. Maybe he could shortcut that.

"Any chance this shuttle thing is here already?" He asked picking up the ring.

"The shuttle is two minutes thirty seven seconds from arrival." The probe explained.

"And I can chose to leave now?" David grinned.

"Yes." the probe paused. "It is assumed you will want time to process you choices."

"If I do I'll chicken out." David took a deep breath. "I want to go now."

"That is acceptable." The probe did not feel satisfaction, feelings were reserved for its maker. It did however note that it had successfully completed all of its core functions to optimum result.

The shuttle had no view port and David was not impressed. A bunch of seats said it had been designed to carry at least a dozen and the chairs said they were human. In his opinion they were also pretty boring. Pastel blue walls and a bunch of screens that did nothing when the messed with them. About the only thing he could interact with was that floating ball and all it did was give him the time till they reached the main ship.

Which was way cool and the ball actually sounded a bit pissed when he kept stopping to watch some robotic thing go by or stared at some art stuff. The aliens were really into geometric designs on the walls and a lot of it was so awesome he wished he had his cell phone. Unfortunately one slip in the crick a year ago and the resultant screaming of his step mom had told him the downside of hiking with one.

"David." The hologram guy was enough to drop his mouth open like an idiot as he stepped into a large room with chairs and more of that radical arts stuff. "Welcome aboard, please have a seat. I am Alek."

Most of that had to be repeated three times before it made it into David's brain. He was not exactly paying attention to words. Not when some six foot [1.80 m] body builder with blueish skin and hair and red eyes was standing in front of you smiling with what looked like vampire teeth. Scared stiff was at least one mental state, relaxed guest was not.

I was patient. I had spent the time while my first subject was arriving to comb every aspect of human childhood development that I could find in their data bases. I had also double checked all of the records I had stolen on this particular human and very confident of success.

Success being a relative term of course.

I let him mentally cope with his surroundings and my appearance as I studied him closely.

Based on Asaran norms he was a beautiful youth. The skin tone was too light, a pale blue would look much nicer by Asaran standards but the blue eyes would have been considered exotic and the blonde hair was adorable. I noted with satisfaction that his muscle tone was excellent and that his school records showed him to be a bright inquisitive child. Perhaps prone to a bit too much trouble based on his societies rules for boys but even that was attractive by Asaran standards.

"Huh?" My soothing words finally broke through and he blushed and took the offered seat.

"I am having some food prepared." I offered noting once again the symbolism of both the human and Asaran cultures in offering food to a guest. "I am afraid that there has been no need for organics aboard me and I am having to improvise. It should arrive in a few minutes."

Ten point zero three four to be precise but I hoped being vague helped make me look less like a computer.

"So where would you like to start with your questions?" I tried to make my smile look reassuring and friendly by human standards and had my hologram take the chair across from him.

"Huh?" Came another nervous reply and then with a deep breath. "What are you going to do to me?"

"For now, talk." I replied honestly. "What did you expect?"

"Aren't you supposed to like run all kinds of medical experiments on me?" He blushed a deep red.

I accessed his planet's web system to find out what he was talking about and grinned.

"The ones with anal probes?" I laughed. Laughter was one trait I certainly approved of in humans that the Asarans had not had.

David blushed deeply and half nodded.

I took a full minute to analyze the response and was fairly pleased. The boy would certainly make a good Asaran.

"I have a very advanced medical unit that I am sure would satisfy your curiosity." I told him teasingly. "Including anal probes. And to tell the truth I would very much like to examine your biology. What I have gathered so far is inconclusive in many ways." I paused. "That however is for you to decide, I will not force you."

"Really?" The tone was curious.

"I am seeking information." I was again thoroughly honest. "And I believe that information gathered under force will be mostly what you think I want to hear, not what I need to hear."

"Torture doesn't work as a lie detector." He said it like it was the citation of some source and I looked it up. It appeared to be out of his school text book on some period in his area's history.

"Exactly." I confirmed. After all I had experimented with this concept on a few thousand T'nair. "I would much prefer that we just talked. I will learn what I need to know through mutual exchange."

"Sounds fair." The boy pulled his legs up to a crossed position on the chair and looked more relaxed. "Are you really a computer? I mean a ship as big as my whole planet is just one big computer? What do you do? I mean other than travel all over the place."

I chuckled. So many variations on this laughter concept. I really enjoyed it as a communications tool.

"First of all, yes I am the heart of this facility. There are over seven million computers acting independently to some degree but I am in control of all of them and none are sentient. As for my purpose, I was originally designed to do what you would call Terra Forming of planets for my creators. The Asara. Unfortunately they were exterminated in a war before I returned."

That started some back and forth and I laid out the history of my Creators and the war that killed them. I did evade the part about how many T'nair I had killed. I summed it up as saying that I took revenge and left it at that. David sounded impressed and I showed him a few simulations of space battles and pictures of T'nair.

"Slimballs." David called them at first site and seemed repulsed. Much the same aesthetic reaction that the Asara had had to the vaguely humanoid race covered in viscous yellow fluid.

"So what now?" David seemed to be a very perceptive boy and he cut in after I explained why I had chosen to come to this arm of the galaxy.

"I had hoped to assist your people." I replied with a sigh. Another of those amazing symbolic words. "Unfortunately it does not appear I can work with your planet. I have therefore decided to Terra Form the planet you call Mars and restart the Asaran ecosystem."

"You can do that!" he seemed amazed and looked like he was going to spring off his seat.

"Certainly." I pulled up a holographic display and gave a short overview of the process. Of course I cheated horribly, the presentation was a translation of one stored in my system for a visiting school group of Asaran youth. "So with the biological materials saved in storage and the record I have in my gene splicers I am certain I can have a habitable planet within forty of your years."

Now for the sales pitch as they called in their advertizing. David was munching on the Asaran version of a fruit and drinking chilled water and paying rapt attention.

"I can do all of that but the thing I need help with is reconstructing Asaran society. I am afraid my programing forbids me from writing the genetic code to bring back the race itself."

This time David laughed.

He shrugged and looked amused.

"Hey, I would help but I'm all of thirteen and my A in biology isn't going to be much help."

"You'd be surprised." I laughed back. "I have to tell you David that I have already accessed most of the records available about you and I am convinced you are as least as bright as many Asaran scientists."

"Huh?" We were back to that again and I felt a bit of frustration. Oh, best to push on.

"I am a not human or share your species morality." I took the plunge. "And yes I did look at all of your records and I know which ones have suddenly turned my talkative young friend into a single syllable ball. My analysis says your step mother was ridiculous for taking you to a doctor just because you have wet dreams. Frankly the Asara were much more logical. Boys need sexual outlet and its best you find some. In fact I approve of your solution and I am sorry my probe interrupted your masturbation session."

"I also know that the councilor at your school has written up a report on your fondling of young Jason Troutmen and has evaluated you as a young pedophile. Which would have amused my creators as they considered such actions healthy and normal."

"Jason is like seven." David mumbled and looked at the floor.

"So." I countered sternly. "If you are willing, I will teach you about Asaran codes of conduct. A boy of seven would most surely belong to to someone and be fully exposed to sexual conduct with a man. It is all very much about perspective. On this planet you will end up in a mental facility. On Asara you would be considered perfectly normal."

I waited a minute.

"My bet is that you are sitting there thinking you would prefer to have been born Asaran."

There were tears in the boys eyes now.

"Yeah." Came the soft response.

Inwardly I lost a dozen server systems over the surge in joy. This could actually work.

"Are you open to a proposal?" I offered putting on my most friendly tone of voice. "You may stay here as long as you want to decide and we can use the time showing you around my ship. I am reactivating the biological units and you should enjoy that."

"What's the deal?" David asked.

"It's up to you." I restated for the record. "But I am going to reconstruct Asaran society and will need Asarans to do that. I can not write genetic code for sentients as it is against my moral programming, but I can certainly modify genetic code. If you are willing I will do so for you."

He looked suddenly scared.

"I will do nothing you do not approve of." I offered with my holographic arms out in assurance. "In fact I will talk you through the whole thing and you may prohibit any biological change you see fit. You may also help me to incorporate any human norms you feel are required into the culture."

I put on a grin and offered a bit of treasure.

"You may want to consider the benefits. With my technology the average age of a Asaran was nine hundred of your years old at death. Also, though I will not know till after I run those anal probes, I believe the Asaran equivalent of an orgasm coupled with the human version will be a very powerful experience. Sex was a central part of their culture and was driven both biologically and socially. I do believe you like sex?"

"Duh." David looked up with a sheepish grin. "When do I have to choose?"

"Take as long as you want and ask as many questions as you like." I replied happily. "I have guest quarters prepared and unlimited food. After your rest period we can explore the ship or I can show you visuals of Asara and its culture." I grinned "Or you can visit my anal probes."

He laughed out loud at that and I motioned to the door that opened to what had been the Programmers Quarters. I told him he would find everything he needed inside and bid him a good rest.

"Oh." I said as the door closed. "You should know that I monitor everything at all times and if you decide to masturbate I will be watching closely."

"Sounds like home." He muttered and I grinned.

It turned out that David was an incredibly bright and inquisitive boy and I enjoyed the next hundred odd hours thoroughly. That good grade in biology stood out as a mark of his interests as he was only mildly interested in the mechanics of the ship, my propulsion system or my defenses. Of much more interest was showing him the biological habitats I was bringing back on line to supply him food and recreation space. I also found out he could be grumpy and downright obstinate when he buried himself in a holographic file on Asaran biology and wouldn't come up for more than a bite to eat till he was done.

I steered him away from social dynamics with carefully selected presentations on the geometric art he found fascinating, on music and on architecture. He was so enraptured by the learning that I think he didn't notice, though over time I began to suspect he was bright enough to notice if he wanted to.

"So." He came wondering out of his room wearing only his boxer shorts. "How am I supposed to get clean laundry? My clothes stink and I need a shower."

I considered all of the statements. Logical.

"I am having new clothing manufactured. It will arrive in one hour." I replied helpfully. "You will find a communal shower facility down the corridor on the right. Follow the yellow illuminated lines. You may of course go naked if you choose. Asaran males wear what you would consider to be a tunic that covers you down to your ankles. Boys wear either a harness if they are owned or a shorter version of the tunic for athletic purposes if they are free. I can certainly offer you any of them as options."

"Maybe later." I had learned that that was an embarrassed no. "I take it you are going to watch me take a shower too?"

"Certainly." I laughed. "I monitor everything. And I must say I think your restraint in masturbation is ridiculous. I don't approve of denial unless it is a sexual game."

David did not respond and I knew something was on his mind.

He did indeed shower and he took his time and carried on a conversation with me about gene splicing while doing it but it was obvious he was edging towards something.

"Ok." He said while standing under the warm air drier and shaking out his blonde locks. "I guess we either need to start or you need to send me home. How about I let you run your medical tests. NO PROBES. Then we can talk about specific changes one at a time."

Another dozen servers popped in happiness as I agreed and let him down the corridors to the medical unit I had been spending the past days reactivating.

"Human male in puberty." I put up a holographic of David while he sat on the exam table and looked totally embarrassed. The holo was of course nude.

"Asaran male of the same development stage." I put up a light blue skinned boy with similar features while modifying the program to keep the blonde hair and blue eyes. I liked them.

"Notice that you have almost the exact same muscular development. The Asaran boy has the gill slit open just behind the ears but with the hair you barely notice that. I should mention that Asaran boys would consider your beach culture hopelessly land bound. Both species have the same eye structure, in fact I recommend keeping the human model as Asaran's were a bit near sighted as a species."

I spun the view slightly and other areas glowed into focus as I spoke.

"Notice that the breasts have the same vestigial milk delivery systems. Much like a minority of human boys Asaran boys were known to have their breasts buds swell at puberty and produce a modest amount of milk. It was considered a delicacy by many."

"No shit." David said in awe and adjusted the boner in his new boxers.

I chose to joke.

"Actually you both defecate." I responded happily. "the Asaran biology digested food almost exactly the same way as yours with only mild enzyme changes. Defecation occurred spontaneously about once a day, however culturally most boys were routinely cleansed in the morning and just prior to sexual activity."

"Human males have a prostate gland that Asarans lacked." I ignored the small gurgling sound. "Once I have done my examination I hope to more fully understand that organs function. The Asaran male however had specific nerve receptors lining much of the anus. Sex was highly pleasurable based on design. Pain of course occurred if the boy was much smaller than the man, including unfortunately a large amount of anal bleeding, modern technology however makes that a moot point. A day in a rejuvenation tank and virginity is restored biologically if not mentally."

"Note that the sex organs differ slightly." I highlighted them on both images. "Yours are slightly larger than the Asaran and I suspect they would have fully agreed with the concept of Human's being 'well hung'. The average Asaran length was five inches [12½ cm] erect."

"Dinky dicks." David said proudly. "I'm five [12½ cm] already and I'm only thirteen."

"True." I praised then gave him the bad news. "Unfortunately you have only half the nerve endings of the typical Asaran male. Part of that is from the mutilation of your penis through the removal of your foreskin but that was not uncommon for enslaved boys on Asara. But the sensitivity, firmness of erection and lasting power were all superior for a boy born of Asara. They were certainly Dinky Dicks by your standards but they would have considered you Limp Dicks in comparison."

"Hey!" David said indignantly and I laughed.

"As you can see." I cycled through the assorted hair colors, skin tones and mild variations of both species. "There is a wide degree of variation in population in both species. The most notable of course is the Asaran blue skin tones ranging form very light to very intensive. Also of note is the predominance of red eyes and green eyes among the Asara population."

"Aesthetically, I believe both cultures had the same ideal of male beauty." I summed up. "They enjoyed good muscle tone and disliked obesity. They put a premium on a male being in excellent physical condition. Any other questions on the external anatomy?"

David blushed and then pointed.

"Whats that?" My observant student pointed to the small area just behind the Asaran boys testicles.

"Oh," I laughed. "I was actually going to cover that as part of internal differences. "It is the sex gland. Think of it as a secondary scrotum holding a small gland that regulates sexual desire. It produces a fluid that has a number of functions. One is that as it builds up it will drive you into a sexual frenzy. Release is required at least once a day for full satisfaction. Another function is that the fluid produced is absorbed by your sexual partner as a form of euphoric drug. Small boys on Asara have dry orgasms and anal orgasms just fine but the drug produced by their partners gives them a sense of extremely heightened sensitivity during sex. Lastly the fluid is very slippery and is often used as the only lubricant during sex."

"Got it." David adjusted his boner again. "You going to show me a picture of a Asara female now?"

"I see no reason." I said primly. I guess I was more than a little influenced by the morality of my creators. "Asara females lived sequestered from males and rarely interacted other than at the transfer of a boy at the age of seven from the female quarters to the male. By the time I was created males inhabited completely different sections of the planet base and looking at a naked female would have been considered rude and perverted. Sperm could be obtained through registered administrators and that was good enough. Besides, you are not attracted to females."

"That's true!" David snorted then paused. "Any holo's of a boy getting it from a man?"

"Porn." I confirmed. "Many. Particularly of boys having their first experience anally. It was considered worth remembering and usually recorded in holographic detail. There are also a number of documentaries and advertizing segments for various products. If you have no further questions then I can set you up for my diagnostic tests and you can watch some while I do my scans."

David looked thrilled with that idea and didn't even hesitate when I asked him to drop his boxers and lay down on my table. I had studied his species biology thoroughly by this time and he did not even notice the small needle that shot the tranquilizer into his neck. Sending him into a dream state made it much easier to bring in my robotic arms and prep him for the tank.

Twenty minutes later I had him floating in a thousand gallons of warm green jell with the proper monitors and probes attached. When I was done I planned on knowing everything there was to know about every chromosome in a teenage male and how every organ functioned in detail.

"David." He woke up on standing in a bare white room with my holographic self and looked mildly confused. Part of the effects of the drugs. "You are currently hooked to my monitors, and yes you have a probe in your anus. The test will take a while and you said you wished to view some Asaran sex. The display for that will be much like having a dream so relax and please enjoy yourself. If at any time you dislike a scene your biological responses will tell me and I will switch the format. If you feel yourself having an orgasm please enjoy it. I will be expecting them and I need at least two or three to form a complete picture of your sexual biology."

I blinked out and started a scene of a seven year old being ravished for the first time. Rather tame actually though according to David's pulse rate and penile response it was rather extreme for him.

The End?