Nightjar

Printer-friendly version

Author: 

Caution: 

Audience Rating: 

Publication: 

Genre: 

Character Age: 

TG Themes: 

Permission: 

Captain Jake Johnson sits at his controls and watches the readouts scrolling across his navigation. He had decided to try a new jump point that had been discover by the scout ship Blue Jay. According to the jump gate records of the local jump gate. No one has been in this system for the past ten thousand years. When the gate survey team came across the unplotted gate they were surprised to find that it was still operational. Since he didn’t have a load right now, he thought he would do some scouting of his own and see what artifacts he could find.

“So far nothing of importance.” The scanners of the Nightjar weren’t picking up anything of importance.

Jake sits back in his chair and relaxes as he travels to another planet in the system. He hopes he can find something that will bring him some money or something. Maybe he could find some new form of space travel. That would help him make his deliveries or even maybe finding an alien ship that could replace his current one.

He adjusts his scanners, correct his course and head towards one of the planets his scanners had picked up a settlement on. He flies through a couple of nebula clouds and avoid a few meteorite showers. He comes to a world that reminds him of Earth, but has more landmass than Earth does. His scanners gave him the approach coordinates.

Jake needed to fight to keep control of his ship as he went through the atmosphere. The Nightjar wasn’t meant for atmospheric flight. It was built mostly for space flight traveling from a larger cargo ship to another ship or a space station. Jake manages to land without doing any damage to his ship. He puts his systems in standby and check the atmosphere to see if he needed his space suit or not. The reading comes within safe limits. He grabs his pack and a few tools and head out of his ship to start exploring. The place he had landed look like it used to be a spaceport. He travels on foot into the city and finds a land vehicle that stilled work. Its fusion pack was still charged. Throughout the day he finds all sorts of things that he knows will bring him money at certain space stations and spaceports. Those items he loads on the transport he found and takes them back to the Nightjar.

He makes several trips back and forth to his ship till the cargo bays are full of items. He did find a strange softball size item. It had been found in something that resembles a medical research facility. What it does he has no idea, but it looked like it would bring him some money. He stops for the night and locks up his ship for the night. As he gets ready for bed he looks over at a picture of his little girl he had lost in a custody battle with his ex-wife.

“Night sweetheart. Sweet dreams.” Jake lays down in bed and falls into a deep peaceful sleep.

During the night, the device Jake found earlier today comes to life and flies over and scans his body. It scans his memories and picks up an image of him playing with a little girl and how much he misses that little girl.

It takes a snap shot of the little girl from his memories and starts analyzing his body and DNA. Once the analysis is done the device puts him into a deep sleep as his body is lifted off the bed by a greenish glowing field that surrounds his entire body. Whatever clothes he has own are broken down to their base elements and stored inside the device itself. All his memories, emotions and basically his soul is stored while his body is broken down and rebuilt to look just like the little girl he had been dreaming about.

All his cells are renewed and genetically rebuilt so his life expectancy is tripled of what it original was for a human being and that he’ll only experiences ageing one year for every four years. Once the strange device is done with him, it floats back over where it had been when he brought it in and shuts down.

Jake had no idea what happened to his body overnight, but when he wakes-up, something didn’t feel right to him. Everything around him looked bigger and he had no clothes on. He looks down towards his feet and they were tiny compare to his size 11 he uses to wear. His legs were hairless, skinny and small. He had long brown hair falling into his face and when Jake touched his face. He felt a small nose, small mouth and notice his hand was childlike.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” his voice even sounded childish to him. It reminded him of his daughter’s voice.

He falls out of his bed and runs to the cockpit “computer, do a medical scan of my body.”

“Voice pattern not recognized.”

Jake goes up to the console and press a few buttons “input new voice pattern.”

“Computer, record new voice pattern. Mary had a little lamb.”

“Voice pattern accepted.”

“Good” Jake gives a sigh of relief.

“Now computer, do medical scan of my body.”

“Performing scan.” Jake watches as the information is relayed to his console.

“Medical scan completed. Some odd abnormalities detected in scan.”

“Show, strange abnormalities.” Jake watches as they appear on his display screen.

“Computer, are abnormalities dangerous?”

“Negative, abnormalities display unusual cell renewal. Subject cells appears to be renewing themselves.”

“What does that mean computer?”

“Means subject doesn’t suffer from cell degradation. Subject will have extended life span.”

“What did this to me?”

“Unknown.”

Jake sits down on the seat and realizes he is going to have a hard time controlling the ship with his new size. Jake moves the seat up as close as he could to the console. Before he straps himself in, he goes back into his cargo area and finds the device that replicate anything the wearer wanted to wear. He finds it and replicates himself a new space suit with a helmet that will fit his new body. He also replicates a few articles of clothing to wear.

His stomach starts growling so he grabs himself some food to eat. He licks his fingers and walks back up to the cockpit and strap himself in as he lifts off from the planet surface. It was a little touch and go, but he manages to finally get into space.

“Computer, set course for Delarosa station.”

“Course set.”

“Engage.” Jake sits back in his seat and brings up his legs like he has seen his daughter do when she uses to travel with him.

He couldn’t believe he has been turned into his little girl. How it happened he doesn’t know, but now he has to live with being her twin. He just sits there and hopes things will be okay in the long run.

up
240 users have voted.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos! Click the "Thumbs Up!" button above to leave a Kudos

Comments

Alien transformation device

laika's picture

Don't you just hate it when alien artifacts decide they know what's best for you and act without your consent? I hope Jake can adapt, or even come to appreciate her extended lifespan and new life. Getting home might be a problem, since it might be harder to get anyone out there in space take her seriously, as a kid. It might even be dangerous, if there's space slavers or something around. At the same time it might them underestimate her. All kinds of possibilities. I noticed your present tense narrative slipping into past tense in a few places but other than that a good start to what could be a very interesting adventure...
~~hugs, veronica

.
The closest approximation to what it's like in my brain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u08E7c-FRbU&t=4s

A fun quick short

WillowD's picture

That's a fun short story. And it certainly makes me wonder what comes next. Will the authorities at the next planet or space station try to take his ship and turn him over to child services? What will his daughter think of him the next time they meet? Thanks for writing this.

Jake is probably thinking

Jake is probably thinking right about now, "Well, here is another fine mess I have gotten myself into, now how do I get out of it?"

OMG

What is going to say to his little girl? Can I play with your Barbie? Looks like he's retained his mind up to now? Is that going to regress too? Can't be called Jake anymore, how about Jasmine or Jackie?

Santacruzman

Moral to the Story

BarbieLee's picture

Don't go touching or messing with things one has no idea what it is or does.
Hugs LadyDragon623
Barb
Life is a gift, don't waste it.

Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl