DoD - Ayala's Fresh Start - Pt.1 (Patreon)

*** note: this short story is based on a (silly) premise: what if Dr Kelsonian survived, escaped the Demeter, and ended up on the Indigo Star instead, with Anya Cheryl & Tabby?
note: this story features Mind Control and NSFW situations as a significant part of the plot. if either of those topics bother you then Do Not Read! ***

*** content warning: mind control, injury, violence, death, dubious consent, physical transformation, age regression ***

=::= Ayala Kelsonian's PoV =::=

As I lay crumpled and bleeding on the deck of that decrepit antique freighter I couldn't help asking myself where it all went wrong. 

Two obvious and foolish mistakes stood out immediately.

The first was assuming Becky didn't have any real backup with her in the ship's hold. I should have known she'd have another crew member ready to help out. Although I couldn't blame myself for not anticipating that her crew would be loyal enough to literally sacrifice themselves for her.

My second mistake was assuming the damned sexbot was harmless. To be fair on myself I had to admit it was pretty unlikely. Those things had several redundant layers of security and were designed specifically to be harmless. Whoever was responsible for modifying it deserved some praise, I knew that couldn't have been an easy task. I'd actually like to shake their hand if I ever got the chance to -

"No!" I grunted in pain. "Damn it Ayala, focus!"

The hypospray dart lay empty on the deck a few inches away from me. At least ninety percent of its payload would be in that meddling catgirl, but it was possible as much as ten percent ended up in me. Even that minuscule dose would be enough, the only difference was how long it'd take to do the job. Which meant I had time, there was a chance.

I forced myself to fight the pain from that bullet in my gut, and the gnawing fear at what my own creation might be doing to my mind. I still had options. One thing I'd learned over the years was always have a back-up plan. Have several. And I did.

My first task was to get myself off this flying antique, and considering the airlock was sealed and it felt like she was preparing to depart I was left with just one hope for escape. It was another one of my projects, one I'd yet to actually experience myself. The last test subject survived the process though, so at this point I was willing to risk it. Especially considering my only other option was finish bleeding to death while aspects of my mind and personality were slowly rewritten by my own creation.

After a deep breath I closed my eyes and grit my teeth as I reached my right hand up to my personal comm-link. My fingers slid over the smooth surface until I located the small button at the back, and I tapped it five times in rapid succession.

Somewhere deep in my private lab a powerful experimental machine came to life. A massive charge of stored energy surged through highly customized artificial gravity plates that had been reshaped into a complicated coil pattern and combined with the heart of a small jump drive. Fundamental physical laws were broken, and a hole opened up in the fabric of reality. Matter transference was thought to be impossible, but I'd cracked it. Sort of.

The biggest drawback was one-way transportation still eluded me. In order to move mass from one place to another, I had to simultaneously move an equal amount of mass in the other direction. It prevented me from using the system for routine transportation, but as a last-gasp emergency solution... Well hopefully it would work just fine. As a side bonus, it meant my failed cloning project had some use after all.

My back arched and I choked back a scream of pain as my body was pulled through an unstable hole in reality, while at the same moment a deceased clone was shoved through that same hole to take my place in the tugboat's hold. If all went well nobody on that ship would even notice the swap. The clone would replace me, it would appear inside my blood-stained clothes and with my commlink in its ear. 

Meanwhile I was back in my lab, laying naked in a refrigerated storage compartment. My hands shook as I tapped my code into the security panel and freed myself from the sealed tube. Unfortunately the words that greeted me as soon as the door swung open were the last thing I wanted to hear.

"All hands to escape pods, this is not a drill!" the robotic voice announced. An alarm sounded, then the automated voice continued, "Reactor failure imminent. All hands to escape pods, this is not a drill!"

"Fuck!" I swore. I'd just escaped the frying pan and landed myself directly into the fire. Fortunately this new crisis provided the adrenaline I needed to keep moving. 

I stumbled as fast as I could into my office where I grabbed my bug-out bag from its hidden location behind the desk. There were clothes in there, along with enough ecks to see me through for some time. I didn't bother trying to dress myself yet, I just slung the bag over my shoulder for now. Then I yanked open the top drawer and grabbed a hypospray loaded with the shutdown dose for my nano-tech. I also grabbed a pistol, then dashed out the door.

And that was my next big mistake. I thought I'd have time to apply the hypospray once I was in the escape pod. Getting out of the facility before the reactor failed seemed like the higher priority. 

My own personal escape pod was at the end of the corridor, it was ten meters away, and once I was inside I'd have all the time in the world to inject the nano shutdown dose. Then I'd get dressed, and by the time I was picked up and delivered to Fuminja Beta I'd be my old self, I'd look presentable, and I'd have money to arrange a first-class flight back to Port Ecclestone.

I was only two steps away from salvation when one of my staff came around the corner and collided with me, just outside the escape pod's open door. I let out a cry of pain as I was knocked sideways. I lost my balance and fell backwards into the pod, while Kevin stumbled back a few steps outside the door. And that's when I lost my grip on the hypospray, and my cure. 

It was knocked from my grasp, but fortunately it didn't shatter when it hit the floor. Instead it skittered away to end up at my assistant's feet. 

He looked down at it then back up at me and gasped, "Doc what happened to you? Where's your clothes?"

A moment later his eyes bulged as he added, "Oh no you're bleeding!"

"Kevin you imbecile!" I shouted angrily. To underscore just how unhappy I was with his clumsiness I raised my pistol and shot him three times in the chest, which proved to be my last big mistake.

The gunfire set off an automatic safety feature I'd programmed into my escape pod ages ago, and unfortunately forgot all about until that moment. The shots triggered an automated routine in the pod, which erroneously believed my life to be in immediate danger. The doors snapped shut and a three second countdown began.

My heart skipped a beat as I reached for the control panel, "No wait I need to get that hypospray you stupid -" 

The pod launched before I'd even finished yelling at it, and the jolt drove my face into the door panel. And as the darkness took me I asked myself one last time where it all went wrong. 

• • • • •

I woke with a bit of a start, and immediately felt my gut clench with anxiety. I found myself standing in a strange featureless white room, about three meters square. I was still naked, and to my alarm there was no sign of my bug-out bag or my pistol. On the other hand the bullet wound in my gut was also completely absent, which confused me.

"Hi there!" a girl's voice announced, and I let out a yelp as I startled hard.

Suddenly I wasn't alone anymore, there was a strange teenage girl in the room with me. She had a cute face framed with long wavy blonde hair. She was dressed in a nondescript grey bodysuit that hugged her attractive figure like a second skin, and left practically nothing to the imagination. In fact I could easily see that was the only thing she had on. There was certainly nothing underneath it, and her feet were bare. 

The girl was probably only about eighteen years old, and I'd guess her height at about a hundred and sixty-eight centimetres which put her a good ten centimetres shorter than myself.

"Wh-who are you?" I stammered, much to my embarrassment. I actually felt my cheeks warming up as I added nervously, "And where am I?"

The girl's bright blue eyes drifted up and down over my naked body, and I self-consciously found myself covering up as best I could. My right arm was crossed above my modest chest, while my left hand moved down to cover what wasn't already hidden by my legs which were now tightly squeezed together.

My normally calm unflappable demeanour was gone, and once again my gut clenched. I knew it was the damn nano-tech. I had no idea how long I was out cold, but obviously it was long enough. The stuff had done exactly what I'd programmed into it, and until I could come up with a cure everything I'd planned for Becky would now apply to me.

"Aww aren't you cute," the teen smirked. "And so clever too! You came up with those little nano-tech things all by yourself?"

As much as I wanted to give this snotty little kid a smack and put her in her place, I found myself almost preening at her praise. 

"Y-yes ma'am," I replied uneasily. "They're my own invention."

Then I added nervously, "Could you please tell me where I am? What is this place?"

The teen nodded, "Oh yeah! So my name's Anya, and there's a whole big spiel I should be giving you right now. But let's skip the boring crap and cut to the chase. One, you were shot in the gut and you're still bleeding internally. Two, you were knocked out when your escape pod launched. Three, your pod malfunctioned when the reactor blew. Lucky you, the pod had enough shielding to save you from a lethal dose of radiation. Unlucky, your pod's computer failed and you drifted until you were almost out of oxygen. But lucky again, because my crew found you and reeled you in."

I frowned as I went through all that in my head, "So um... Ok? But -"

"Shut up a minute I'm not done yet," she interrupted. 

And as much as it infuriated me I meekly closed my mouth and nodded for her to continue.

The teen smiled, "No more questions for now, I'm still speechifying here. So as nifty as your nano-tech is, it's actually pretty primitive compared to what I've got at my disposal. I've also got a handy-dandy neural link, which is how we're talking right now. It even lets me poke around inside that head of yours, and I gotta say Ayala, I like what I see. I think you and I are going to be best friends, you know?"

"Anyways," she continued, "Here's what we're gonna do. I'll heal you up, save your life, and grant that wish you were hoping for when things went south on you. I'm going to make you young again! I'll also give you a new appearance, so you won't have to worry about anyone recognizing you. And in return, you're going to work for me, right? You'll be my eager little assistant, helping me out as you and I work on some exciting new projects. Ok?"

In fact I had about a thousand questions by that point, but I couldn't bring myself to ask any of them. Instead I found myself smiling happily as I nodded, "That sounds wonderful Anya!"

I knew it was my own damn fault, I knew this is what my own tech did to me, but I couldn't help myself. Anya was obviously in charge, and I found myself eager to work for her. I felt like she was trustworthy, I felt a growing loyalty and commitment to her, and I wanted to help her out. I wanted to do what she said, I wanted to make her happy. 

The fact that she was going to give me the gift of youth was practically a bonus at that point. I'd been expecting a few years of hard work with Becky to solve that puzzle, and instead my new best friend was practically offering it to me on a platter.

"Oh by the way Ayala," Anya added with an innocent smile. "When I set up your new younger looks, do you mind if I throw in a couple extras and bonuses? I've got some fun ideas I'd love to try out, and you seem like the ideal candidate. Do you mind helping me out with that?"

I shook my head, "Of course I don't mind! Whatever you want Anya, I'm sure it'll be fine and I'm happy to help."

"Awesome!" she grinned. "Then here we go!"

The room suddenly faded to black and I couldn't help letting out a little yelp of fear. Then some numbers appeared floating in the darkness, and I watched in curious fascination as they began counting down. I quickly realized it was a timer, that started at eight hours, fifty-five minutes.

Or was it eight minutes and fifty-five seconds? The numbers were moving much too fast, and it left me feeling confused and anxious again. In the end though I decided it didn't matter. In spite of my misgivings I trusted Anya, and she said this would heal me and make me young again.

After what felt like only three or four minutes the timer ran down to zero, and the darkness was replaced by that featureless white room again. I found myself standing naked before my new best friend, only things were slightly different this time. 

It was strange, but somehow I was looking up at her. Instead of being ten centimetres taller than Anya, now she appeared to be more than thirty centimetres taller than me. As I frowned in confusion I started to notice a number of strange new sensations from my body.

"Well aren't you the cutest little thing!" Anya exclaimed as she smiled down at me. "Oh we are going to have lots of fun with you!"

I found myself preening at her compliments, while at the same time my mind raced to try and understand what she was talking about. I finally gulped, "Anya what -"

My eyes bulged as I realized how different my voice sounded. My own nano-tech robbed me of the calm confidence I normally spoke with, but now my voice was pitched much higher. In fact I almost sounded like a child. 

Then it hit me. She said I'd be younger, but she didn't say how young. I finally looked down at myself, and let out a squeak of surprise. 

I was no child, that much was certain. And I suddenly understood most of the strange things I'd been feeling since the timer ran out. My mind was racing though, and my gut clenched one more time as I took in my new figure.

"Like I said," Anya said as she stepped closer and smiled down at me again, "You really are the cutest little thing. Here, have a look at yourself!"

A full-length reflective surface appeared to my left. I turned to face it as I gulped, "Y-yes ma'am."

The girl staring back at me was no older than Anya. Literally. I couldn't have been a day older than eighteen, and with the right outfit I might even pass for a year or two younger. And that wasn't even the most significant change.

The biggest difference was my height. I'd gone from a hundred and seventy-eight centimetres down to maybe one-thirty-eight. If I was lucky. Although if I could count my new ears then they'd add at least fifteen centimetres to my new stature.

The ears and the tail were the next significant changes. The ears were big and rounded and the tail was long and skinny, both were coated in fine white fur, and I recognized them immediately. I'd seen more than enough white lab mice in my day, but I'd never once imagined I'd become one myself. 

My new hair matched, it was soft and pure white in colour, and ended just above my shoulders in a cute pixie-cut. My eyes were a deep dark hazel, although they looked almost black against my very fair skin. My arms and legs were shapely but without any of the lithe muscle I'd worked so hard to maintain. I'd become small, soft, and probably rather weak. 

And if that was the extent of the changes then there'd certainly be a chance of people mistaking me for a child, based on my new tiny stature and cute innocent-looking face.

That brought me to the next most significant changes. My new body was much, much more amply endowed than the original had ever been. There was zero chance of anyone ever mistaking me for a child, not with boobs that were practically as big as my head. The two huge milky white orbs were capped with a pair of large thick pink nipples almost as big as the tips of my thumbs. 

After staring at my massive chest for a few more seconds my eyes drifted downwards to take in the rest of my curves. My waist was narrow, while my hips were decently wide. My behind was sufficiently padded, but neither my tush or my hips were anywhere near as big as my boobs. Finally, down between my slender thighs and below a tiny little triangle of white fur, I found my puffy pink labia already slick and ready for action.

With my eyes still wide in shock I looked up at Anya again. Despite all the thousands of questions I wanted to ask, the best I could manage was "What?... Why?"

My new best friend just grinned happily at me, "I told you I had some fun ideas to try out, remember Ayala? You're a tiny eighteen-year-old mousegirl with huge boobs! Oh and we haven't even got to the best part yet. I dialled up the sensitivity on all your sexy bits! Like I said, we're going to have so much fun."

"Look at yourself again Ayala," she added, "And tell me how much you love this."

I gulped and turned towards the mirror once more. As my dark hazel eyes tracked up and down over my tiny sexy new figure I saw my big pink nipples stiffen and I felt a flutter deep between my legs. My breath hitched for a moment then I nodded, as an excited smile settled on my face.

"You're right Anya," I nodded happily. "I love it. Thank you so much!"

My new best friend grinned back at me, "I knew you would! Now it's time for you to wake up and meet the rest of the crew, cutie!"