*(mood song: "Green Day - Know Your Enemy")

--- Back at the ARK, submarine ---

A bot cleaned the sweaty body of Erik, as his eyes twitched open weakly.

"ugh..." Erik groaned, the dim light in the submarine felt blinding to his eyes, as pain assaulted his senses from all over his body, even new senses overloading his brain.

Erik: "I'm gonna puke... " he was then surprised when looking at the bot, he could sense the electricity inside, like floating glowing lines around the bot "what the ugh...", the new senses just made him dizzier, there was too much feedback to his brain, making him feel like the world around him was spinning. He groaned weakly "make it stop... I can't..."

Bot: *do you require any further assistance?*

Erik: "...where is Rose?"

Bot: *Lady Rose is with miss Inky*

Erik: "...and who... are you?"

Bot: *auxiliary AI 2137 at your service*

Erik: "...whatever... can you put me to sleep? I'm going crazy..."

Bot: *accessing human needs database.... hmmm indeed, you are developing new senses, let's see...* he scanned Erik *you should ask lady Rose for confirmation but... an initial scan detected new sensing organs under your skin, as well as thermal vision organs under your eyes...* the bot scanned his eyes *your eyes also seem to have developed highly efficient irises, and new color cone receptors, all senses seem to have received changes* the lights in the room then became way dimmer *these should be acceptable light levels* and his voice became quieter *better?*

Erik: "Yeah, thanks..."

AI 2137: *well then* the bot finger turned into a needle *....According to Lady Rose's database, some "etomidate" and "morphine" should be enough* its hand flashed with speed, as he quickly grabbed two small flasks from a cabinet emerging from the wall *what amount to use... two times a normal human's dose should be enough according to lady Rose's database...*

Erik heard the bot's rambling but couldn't care less, the pain was too much, but then two needles pierced his neck as the liquids were injected, in only ten seconds his eyes felt heavy and started to close, the sweet release of sleep relieving him from the pain on his body, as the anesthesia took effect along with the morphine.

Erik: Th...ank...you..."

AI 2137: *no need for thanks, have a nice sleep*

Far away, in a solar system full of giant moving planets and billions of spaceships, on one of the planets, a humanoid creature with multiple arms was sitting on a table, hologram screens in front of it as it used its six eyes to quickly read different things at the same time.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

"come in"

A servant then came and bowed to the first creature: "chancellor, a report of an unknown spaceship has come, it was reported to use valuable energy technology"

The chancellor paused for a moment: "who sent the report?"

Servant:" just some pirates that owe money to the union"

The chancellor scoffed "Ha! what pirate doesn't owe us money nowadays..." his eyes then closed for a moment: "hmm, send some of our dogs to look into it, tell them we will cut their debts by a 30%, 50% maximum if the loot satisfies the pirate union"

The servant bowed once again: "yes chancellor" and exited the room to follow the orders.

The chancellor remained silent for a moment and murmured: "valuable technology? what could be better than what we already have... hahaha~" looking out the window of the spacious office, a bustling city unfolded outside, while enormous trees the size of skyscrapers could be seen on the horizon, billions of people living on that city.

--- Back at the ARK ---

Erik could finally walk, but the new senses still bothered him though.

Limping slightly through the submarine he reached the life support room on the third floor that luckily had a small patient room, and a scanning table. Erik calmly laid down on the cold metal surface, as with a tap in a tablet, blue lasers scanned his body, soon showing him the results.

Erik: "...what the fuck... even my DNA changed so much..., my skin has a new sense too, I feel like..." he looked at his hand, and sparks easily flew between his fingers at will "hoh.... so improved electricity organs, what else... hmmm electromagnetic and electricity vision... that would explain the weird lines... improved eye cones to get extra colors.. improved corneas, this should be the brightness reason..., and thicker waterproof hearing canals..." Erik couldn't believe his eyes, that were a ton of upgrades, but his eyes soon dilated more "improved nervous system with thick metallic bio fivers, multiple mother cell deposits all over the body, and... my stomach... huge increment in enzymes, stronger acid... and a DNA digestor like the slugs... bet I could digest even bones now.... so many cool sounding stuff but I feel like shit... it doesn't feel like a human body anymore... guess this is what the military super freak biosoldiers feel like..."

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But then, a cold sweat ran down his back though, as he remembered the taste and texture of the slugs: "yeah, no one in their right mind would eat those things... those soldiers just gotta endure some pain while floating, some injecions and that's it.... so unfair..."

--- Back at the base ---

Shana had just come back from patrolling, and was now lovingly looking at the egg pools.

Eggs of different sizes floated inside the lukewarm fluid, from the size of a tennis ball, to bigger than a basketball.

Shanna grabbed a scout egg in her palm, and could feel it pulsing between her fingers: "our new generation" she observed the hundreds of eggs "how will we raise so many little ones... hmmm should we increase the size of the farms- huh?" the egg on her hand then started pulsating faster and faster, until a tiny octopeople emerged between her fingers, cutely nibbling on the remains of her egg casing as it looked at the gigantic Shana without any fear.

Shanna's eyes dilated "this... there should still be one more month to go... did the pool make it birth earlier?"

Her sight went back to the pool and she observed as hundreds of scout eggs were birthed at the same time.

Shana: "BIRTH! GET THE NURSES!" her powerful shout startled everyone around as all the twenty available scouts and thirty hunters came and started picking the little ones onto trays made of seaweed, carefully separating them into containers with lukewarm seawater.

Soldier: "Fourth Elder... how do we know what family they belong to?"

Shana stroked her jaw: "that's certainly a dilemma... feed them some clam meat, for now, it should be soft enough for them to eat, as for raising them... carry them to an empty classroom at school, we'll test their DNA once the expedition comes back-"

But a bot then came interrupting her.

Bot(Rose): *Yes, that's a good idea, it will reinforce the communal feeling if they are raised their first years together, and after a few years we could do a ceremony of parenting or something like that, and after a brief DNA scan give them to their parents"

Shana: "hmm the first two years are the most dangerous as they require a lot of food to quadruple in size every four months, once they can understand basic speech, it would be okay to then give them to their families. I remember some places in the empire did that, leaving their kids in nursery houses while the parents worked all day on the fruit fields..."

Bot(Rose): *only the scouts birthed though?*

Shana nodded: "yes, in general, the eggs grow in size and get bigger, hunters take at least four months more than scouts, as for warriors they can take at least six months more, and the longest time would be Timberly's descendants. They are already big once they emerge, so it's easier for them, but they take almost a year or more"

Bot(Rose): *Hmm makes sense for the worker class to have a higher birth rate, but... these scouts were birthed ahead of time right?*

Shana: "yeah... although I'm clueless as to what could be the reason, I have a theory the temperature could be the reason"

The bot approached the water pools and took a sample: *hmm the liquid is clean... the temperature it is then, I would need to put a probe inside a gestating octopeople to know more but... -I think I have an idea, wait for a moment* and the bot remained motionless.

--- Submarine, kitchen ---

Rose was currently giving Inky meat piece after meat piece as Inky devoured anything given to her, no matter what it was, her sharp teeth tore it to pieces.

Rose: "quite the appetite, do you mind if I put a probe inside you? it's to check that your kids are safe"

Inky naively believed her: "oh, okay thank you" opening her legs and showing her pussy to Rose.

Rose on her part tore one of her fingers that quickly regenerated, while the torn finger became a shiny smooth probe.

Rose quickly slid it inside.

Inky: "ugh! it's cold!"

Rose: "hmm yes yes cold... temperature levels slightly higher, incubation liquid... containing DNA chains... vitamins and nutrients present.... as I thought, I could make them develop faster... just add some nutrients and beneficial DNA..."

Inky: "huh? are they okay?"

Rose: "huh? ah, yeah two beautiful and healthy daughters"

Inky smiled widely with her jagged sharp teeth: "that's a relief, let's eat more then! I gotta make sure they are born strong!"

--- Back at the base ---

The bot moved once again: *hoh... we can add broken down DNA chains and extra nutrients to the pools...*

Shana: "what?"

Bot(Rose): *I conclude adding broken down DNA chains and nutrients to the pools would get them absorbed through the membrane of the eggs, allowing them to grow faster.... or at least stronger*

Shana: "...broken down DNA?"

Bot(Rose): *Yeah... well don't worry about that, I just need to feed the slugs, and then extract the DNA soup from their DNA absorption organs, and then inject it into the pools*

Shana: "...oh... sure... I will trust you with that then"

--- In the middle of Space ---

Mónico woke up for a routine checkup of the spaceship systems: "route correct... all systems green... everything seems fine..." he looked out the window at the emptiness of space, long gone was the solar system as they got farther and farther away from mankind territory "sigh... this is so freaking spooky..." he looked at the cryopods of the others "why only the tec guy has to go through this.... should I wake them as a joke..."

Spaceship AI: *waking up a fellow explorer out of an emergency situation would be considered a felony, and charges will be applied*

Mónico waved his hand in the air: "yeah yeah, just joking! can't even talk alone with you around jeez..."

Spaceship AI: *talking alone can be an indicator of mental health problems, shall I activate psychologists mode? I have a dozen AI psychologist protocol question programs, it could help you-"

Mónico: "Ha! I don't need any of that! I just need to sleep! waking up from cryo is just the worst!"

Spaceship AI: *Do you require medication?*

Mónico: "No- ...well maybe some dimenhydrinate, I'm feeling quite dizzy"

A small packet tied with a thin rope ejected from the ceiling.

Mónico hastily took the pill inside and gulped it down.

Mónico: "thanks"

Spaceship AI: *glad to be of assistance, anything else I can help you with?*

Mónico: "yeah, is there any response from Erik or Sarah?"

Spaceship AI: *No communications received*

Mónico frowned: "ugh... I have a bad feeling..."

Spaceship AI: *do you require further medication? perhaps a body scan would help?*

Mónico: "Nah... I just think they should have sent some kind of communication back by now... what if they landed on the planet, but were attacked by natives... it happens in movies all the time, aliens try their best to invade Earth, but we beat them with way more primitive weapons..."

Spaceship AI: *there's the orbital bombardment protocol for such occasions, movies are movies, a superior technology will always offer an advantage*

Mónico scoffed: "Ha! what would a machine know? terrain plays a huge part in warfare, a virus or unknown disease could kill them if they ain't careful!"

Spaceship AI: *their AI piloting systems won't let that happen, we are programmed to protect our crew at all costs*

Mónico: "yeah... well, I'm gonna go back to the ice cube bed, nice talking to you tin can... it does feel better than talking alone, keep an eye for any incoming signals"

Spaceship AI: *glad to help, I shall keep all radar systems on alert*