Checking in with Aaron and C2

In the dark chamber they’d departed, Aaron was dealing with the whiplash of finding himself nearly alone after one of the most stressful moments of his life. The sudden disappearance of the six women was a relief, as it left him without their intense focus. However, it was still shocking to see the newly transformed women disappear as suddenly as they’d appeared, leaving him alone with the robot. C2 took a moment to collect Delia’s toothbrush from where she’d dropped it after her transformation, muttering lightly under his breath before turning back to Aaron.

“Well, Master Aaron, we’ll get you set up so that you can view the challenge in a moment, but while the contestants get started, why don’t the two of us have a little chat?” C2 said, his eye turning blue as a pair of sofas appeared. They were the same reflective black as the rest of the room, with straight, rigid lines, but as Aaron pressed down on one suspiciously, he found it soft and plush, covered in a fine, velvet-like material. He gave C2, who had taken a position floating over the other sofa as though he’d taken a seat with some invisible body, a suspicious look and sat down.

“Seems like, if it’s so important, maybe you should wait until after the challenge so you can tell everybody,” Aaron said.

“Oh, there are a great many things that we will need to discuss tomorrow. For now, however, we shall discuss how you will be earning BP,” C2 said.

“Alright, I’m listening. Though, I still don’t understand what I’d use BP for.”

“Like the others, you can use BP to purchase transformations, both for yourself and others. You can also purchase upgrades for your ship’s facilities,” C2 said.

“Why would I ever buy transformations for them?” Aaron asked, incredulous.

“I notice you didn’t rule out transforming yourself.”

“I’m not blind. I know I could use some upgrades. I wasn't JUST trying to avoid the sexual options when I said I wanted the Olympian change. That sounded cool. I've always been fascinated by the idea of people transforming, but I’d never intentionally force it on anyone else,” Aaron said.

“You are not currently compelled to do so. However, I would suggest you look at them closely. Currently, you are non-compatible with the sexualities of at least two of your contestants. Several options from the BP store could easily correct…” Aaron interrupted the robot.

“No! You’ve already messed with their physical and mental identities. Don’t you dare start messing with their orientations as well,” Aaron said.

The robot’s eye turned red, and it moved to loom over Aaron, staring down at Aaron with a look that, even lacking any recognizable face, came off as distinctly threatening. His voice never stopped being the genial announcer's voice, but it somehow became filled with what sounded like barely restrained rage just beneath the surface.

“Please allow me to clarify, Master. I will do whatever I believe will improve this show within the confines of its rules. If I thought remaking you all into sentient paramecia would improve the ratings, then I would gladly do so, and nothing you could say or do would stop me. The only reason I have not is that humanoids play much better with our audience. So, before you try and tell me what I can and cannot do, consider the breadth of my abilities and the precarious position you currently find yourself in. This new galaxy is far more dangerous than you know and, at the moment, I am your only real ally. Consider how you speak to me.”

“However, in this case you may be right. I will tell you what. Let’s make a bargain. I will agree never to include a transformation that will directly alter one of the contestants’ sexualities in the transformation round and prevent anyone from buying one for another contestant on two conditions. The first condition is that you will receive an extra round of transformations this round that aims to correct the issue. The second condition is that you will not make any moves to prevent anyone from purchasing those transformations for themselves. I will make the transformations that alter sexuality available in the BP shop for the contestants to select themselves at a significant markdown, with a VP bonus attached. How does that sound?” The robot said, holding out its disembodied hand, even as its eye continued glowing red.

Aaron was terrified at the robot’s glare, but he forced himself to focus on the offer long enough to think it through. He was surprised he hadn't pissed himself under the robot's intense glare and barely hidden rage.

“Any chance you’ll tell me what you’ll be doing to ‘correct the issue’?” He managed to ask, his voice higher than he expected.

“No. Just as the contestants are unaware of their impending transformations, so you will be as well,” C2 said.

“Fine!” Aaron said, cautiously grabbing C2’s hand and shaking it.

“You see,” C2 said, his glowing eye returning to its usual golden-yellow and his voice regaining the warmth that had been drained out of it before, “isn’t it so much easier when we discuss these things? I’m willing to make all sorts of bargains if you come to me with a reasonable perspective on where you fit in this whole situation. But if you try this posturing act with me again, I will gladly take the opportunity to remind you of your place,” C2 said.

“Now, about how you can earn BP. Simply put, you will earn BP by betting on the outcome of the challenge. I’ll give you a number of tokens equal to the number of contestants. You’ll be given the opportunity to stake each of those tokens on one of the contestants, and your reward will be multiplied by a value based on their final placing in the challenge. For this challenge, you’ll be given 100 BP, 75 BP, 50 BP, 25 BP, 10 BP, and 5 BP tokens. Your bet will be multiplied by the following values, based on their final places:

1st Place: x20

2nd Place: x15

3rd Place: x10

4th Place: x5

5th Place: x2

6th Place: x1

“For this first round, that means you’ll be receiving between 1000 and 4000 BP. Time to place your bets.” His eye turned blue, and a small black table appeared in front of Aaron, with six marked tokens and small trays bearing each of the six contestants’ photos.

Aaron, still shaken by C2's demonstration of anger, considered what he knew of the challenge and the contestants. First, he put the 5 BP token on Daisy’s tray, using the token to obscure her face so that only her horns and pink hair were visible in the image. It wasn’t just that he disliked her. She had participated in several of their game nights while she’d been working at the shop, and she’d never seemed to have much in the way of interest or skill in strategy games. Though her luck had often bordered on absurd, to the point where they’d occasionally been tempted to accuse her of cheating, she’d never seemed to care enough about the games to do so. Additionally, she had clearly been infuriated by the transformations, and Aaron had no idea if the woman would even be able to focus on the challenge with everything going on.

He hesitated, looking at Jacqueline’s image. On the one hand, Jacqueline was notoriously competitive and generally a keen strategist, especially for sports, which seemed more similar to the current challenge than a typical board game. However, she was also dealing with a completely new body. Still, he had faith in his friend, so he put the 75 BP token on Jacqueline. The 100 BP token went right onto Delia’s image. The woman was a savant at most games, and she seemed to have an instinctive grasp of strategy. She had also seemed significantly less shaken by the transformations than some of the others, so was likely to be the one thinking most clearly and moving most easily at the moment. He wasn’t sure if Jenna’s transformation was likely to be more of a help or a hindrance, but she seemed less upset about her transformation than anyone else. He decided to put the 50 BP token on her picture. He wasn’t sure what to do with the other two tokens. It had been too long since he’d spent time with Sarah, but he knew that she was intelligent and was generally a healthy person. However, she’d also seemed especially distracted by everything that was going on. He knew almost nothing about Serena, who hadn’t been much of a fixture at game nights when Aaron attended them, but he seemed like a fit and clever person. He decided that since Serena, despite having the more extreme change, seemed more emotionally secure at the moment, he would bet the 25 BP token on Serena and the 10 BP token on Sarah.

“Excellent! Locking in your bets,” C2 said, and the tokens and pictures disappeared, replaced by glowing text on the table.

100 BP: Delia

75 BP: Jacqueline

50 BP: Jenna

25 BP: Serena

10 BP: Sarah

5 BP: Daisy

“Now, let’s see how your contestants are doing,” C2 said. Seven displays appeared, floating above the table. One showed each contestant moving through the utility areas, with a small indicator apparently indicating how strongly the device they were using to navigate was signaling. A seventh was a 3-dimensional hologram showing the whole ring, with different-color symbols for each woman and a dozen glowing gold symbols that he guessed marked the key cards they were looking for.

Aaron was confused at first as he searched the images for whatever device was helping them navigate, but he saw nothing added to their suits or in their hands. Only when he saw a clearly distraught Sarah start digging around in her panties in a way she never would have in public did he guess what kind of device they might have been fitted with. When Jacqueline’s hand suddenly darted to her crotch just as the signal indicator started showing a signal, he was certain what was going on. The realization made his face flush.

As he watched the women begin to form their strategies, he realized why C2 had apparently wanted to get his bets before letting him see them. As soon as the screen came on, the first thing that he saw was Delia with her back to a railing, sobbing. The sight of her shaking body and tears filled him with an overwhelming guilt. Here he was thinking that she’d seemed less upset about everything going on, but hadn’t even considered the possibility that her behavior might have been an act for the others. He reminded himself that, in addition to the same stressors as the others, she had just learned that she would never see the shop she’d poured her blood, sweat, and tears into again. As she regained her composure, he began to wonder how many of the times she’d come to the shop with her bright and cheerful smile had been the same sort of act, putting on a brave face for her employees and customers. Ever since Sarah had left and Delia had started asking for his occasional assistance with the books and payroll, he’d gotten a better idea of how much the shop was suffering and knew that there were many months when they had been barely walking the razor’s edge. He hadn’t known how to help her then, and had even less idea now with the strangeness of their situation, but he resolved to find some way to help her.

Jacqueline, meanwhile, was being just as effective as he had expected and seemed to be taking some time to determine the limits of the patrolling drones, which, as far as Aaron could tell, seemed to work like stereotypical stealth game guards. She didn’t seem to be nearly as distracted by her changed body as he had expected, but it was clear that she was significantly more shaken by a signal from between her legs, with her stumbling slightly every time the device triggered.

Jenna was handling the change in her personal gravity far better than he had expected and moving through the tunnels like an experienced gymnast, but she seemed to be forgetting about the risk posed by the drones. When a drone suddenly appeared in front of her, she barely managed to avoid detection by making a sudden stop that placed her in an odd position. Aaron, who had been holding his breath as he watched the encounter, let out a sigh of relief when its sweeping patrol moved past her, only to sputter and cough when, instead of waiting for the drone to pass and getting herself in a better position, she launched herself at the drone just as it was about to move on. Once it began to move on from the intersection, Jenna realized her mistake. She managed to snag one of the handrails before she crashed head-first into the corner of the intersection, but ended up slamming into the same handrail she’d used to save herself. The drone flipped around, and she disappeared.

“Is she okay?!” Aaron asked C2.

“She is wounded, but not critically. I will ensure she receives proper medical care after the challenge and will intervene if she puts herself in a position where her life is at risk. That will, however, constitute a forfeit. I will not be allowing any members of the crew to die or permanently maim themselves on my watch. Modification of contestants is only allowed through transformations for the duration of the season.”

“That’s… Reassuring… I guess.” Aaron said, concerned about C2’s usage of the word ‘modification’.

On the other screens, Aaron watched as Serena and Daisy both moved through the maze of passages like women on a mission. However, neither seemed to be doing much planning of their route. Serena seemed to be taking turns at random, and Serena seemed to have briefly caught herself in a loop. For Serena, the long winding path had made significant progress in bringing her closer to a nearby keycard. Still, after she encountered a drone that sent her back to her starting location, she apparently lost her original course. She started heading in a completely different direction, this time at a slower pace. Daisy had suddenly stopped in the middle of her looping exploration and bent over a handrail. At first, Aaron thought it looked like she was going to be sick, but after C2 noticed his attention and turned on the display’s audio, and he heard her deep breathing interspersed with quiet moans, he blushed again and asked C2 to turn it off.

“Have you considered what your plan is to seduce your crew members?” C2 asked suddenly. Aaron coughed in surprise.

“Why’re you asking that so suddenly?”

“Perhaps you’ve forgotten, with the challenge and all, but that’s kind of the point of the whole show. Your crew members are all doing their parts so far; the least you can do is put in the same effort.”

“Seducing women has never really been my thing, and I’m not about to start with a bunch of women bound to me against their will. If that’s what you wanted, you should have picked someone else.”

“Interesting. So you’ll just wait for them to throw themselves at you. It’s not a strategy I would recommend. And I doubt they’ll thank you for it in the long run, especially when it starts to have consequences.”

“I’m not going to let anyone get eliminated, but I’m not going to try pressuring them into anything. Plus, they have the challenges. Maybe it’ll take a while, but we’ll figure out how to get everyone over the mark eventually. If Daisy can get 8 in the hole in a few words and Serena can earn points from a wardrobe malfunction, then getting 600 can’t be too difficult.”

“I thought you thought of yourself as a fairly tactical person, but you’re clearly not thinking this all the way through. Do you really think we’d make it that easy to subvert the whole concept? First of all, the longer it takes, the more transformations that your crew will be forced to endure, which I doubt they’ll enjoy. Second, the challenges will only become more punishing for those who don’t come out on top. Third, you’ll find that the more points a contestant earns, the more difficult it is to earn more. And, finally, I think you’ll find time is more pressing than you believe.”

“And why is that?”

“Because that beautiful ship of yours? I might have failed to mention that its speed ultimately depends on your contestants’ VP totals. If you were to turn the engines to full right now, it would go backward.”

“What? What kind of design feature is that? I guess we’re not getting anywhere fast. Hope you didn’t have places that you were expecting us to be.” Aaron asked, his shock at the sudden questioning overcoming the fear he'd felt since C2's earlier threats. He caught himself after a moment and tried to rein in his sarcasm. But, thankfully, C2 seemed unperturbed by the outburst. In fact, he seemed amused.

“Oh, there are very much places you need to be. In fact, I have a whole grand mission for you. We’ll discuss that more tomorrow, but there is one detail you should know. Your crew was never supposed to be JUST six members.” And, with that, the host bot disappeared in his own flash of light before Aaron could ask any more questions.

Oh, god! He thought to himself. He’s going to take more people?! Or, maybe he already took them?! What is he saying? What if they’re already out there, trapped somewhere with no idea what’s going on? And the only way to save them is, what? For me to seduce six women, two of whom were men less than an hour ago, and all of whom probably hate me for dragging them into this mess? A darker part of his mind was starting to regret forbidding C2 from changing their sexualities, but he quickly suppressed the thought.

This wasn’t going to be as simple as he had hoped. He had planned to make clear that he was open to anything they wanted to do and then try his hardest not to make it any worse for them than it had to be. But as he imagined that situation in his mind’s eye, he saw himself essentially volunteering himself as a human sex toy for them to use. He found himself cringing at the image.

He definitely needed a different plan. He definitely didn’t have one.