It means you were right all along

You felt faint. You weren't entirely sure what the captain's words meant, but clearly your actions in hacking the simulation had had implications far beyond anything you'd intended.

One of them clearly noticed that you were looking a bit wobbly, since before you could collapse--and have your head, or torso, or legs, or something, vanish--a metal bar appeared in the projection area, and you gripped it to remain upright.

"What do you mean?" you asked.

"It means that, in interstellar law, there is no distinction between your consciousness and the entirety of your species, since you fully control your species," Grzoht explained. "I can detail this more fulsomely if you like, but I must again suggest that you have a physical body for it."

"How long will that take?" you asked.

"We always have a few spare reconfigurable bodies ready to go. I had the systems making one ready specifically for you as soon as we determined that you were the person we would be contacting," Izalbt said. "But as the First Captain said, adjusting to being in a physical body again may take a little time. It is disorienting even after you've done it a few times, but the Captain and the engineers tell me that you get used to it in time."

You thought for a moment, still with a white-knuckled ****-grip on the bar as your mind raced to process what you'd just been told. "What'll happen to my mind-chip?"

"You'll still be linked to it," Grzoht said. "It's not like we're making a copy of your mind or anything."

"And the station? The simulation?"

"Will be frozen until you return," the captain said. "We've taken up an orbit stationary relative to the station, about as distant from it on the other side as Earth is, and fully stealthed. Given your species' technological development, even now, there is no possibility of detection."

"All right," you said.

"Do you have any special requests for final customizations for your body?" Izalbt asked. "Duplicating a species is the hard part; altering physical appearance is quite easy in comparison. Right now the body I've prepared for you looks identical to the one you're currently projected in."

If you hadn't spent the last year of your life in what was effectively an extended pornographic scenario, you might have felt some hesitation. If your hosts had been in some sort of uniform, for that matter, you might have felt some hesitation. But as it was? "I'd like the bust I have in the simulation," you said, "and the cock and balls. You can leave the tentacles out, though."

"The tentacles would've been the only tricky part anyway," Izalbt said, smiling.

"See you on the other side, Katelyn Mills," Grzoht said.

--

When you came to, you felt yourself lying on an exquisitely soft mattress, silky sheets brushing against your body.

Your body. For the first time in over a year, you had a real body.

The sheets lightly stimulated your nipples and the tip of your dick--a rapidly-hardening dick--as they rubbed against the erogenous zones as you stretched, started to sit up. Your movements felt a little clumsy and uncoordinated, though, unused as you realized you were to controlling a proper body again, instead of having those commands interpreted by a computer into instructions about how to render new graphics and what sensory feedback to give your mind-chip.

"Take it slow," a voice said, and you winced as you processed the sound with a proper eardrum, a proper auditory canal. "Adjusting to a physical body is hard enough when you've only ever existed on a mind-chip; I can only imagine how hard it is when you've had a simulated body for as long as you have." You recognized the voice--Izalbt's. "Introductory engineering was hell at the academy."

"How long?" you managed to say, vocal cords responding.

"A few of your hours. Do you need help?"

All you did was lift your head weakly from the plush pillow beneath it.

Izalbt got up, folded the sheets back, exposing your body to her sight. She nodded as if in satisfaction at a job well done. Your dick was fully erect as you took in her own attractive form, but she paid no attention to it.

She slipped her hand in yours and supported you as you levered yourself up off the bed, swung your legs around, planted your feet on the carpeted floor. You stood up, Izalbt putting your arm around her back, and hers around yours, in order to better support you as you took a few tentative steps.

"I took the liberty of ensuring that you would not experience physiological issues from your body," she said.

You smiled, very slightly. Old jokes about people shaped as you were had already mostly faded from general memory, as the simulation's algorithms removed them to deprioritized storage due to irrelevance.

You still needed the ensign's help to get from the bed to the door of what you assumed was some sort of medical ward, and then from there down the corridor to the lift. Your virus was hard at work digging up old muscle memory, though, and copying it into your mind-chip, so by the time you reached the door of the conference room where Grzoht presumably awaited the two of you, you were at least able to walk unsupported at a moderate pace.

Still, you were grateful to collapse into the comfortable chair at which Izalbt gestured as she sat down in the other, the two of you and the captain around a small circular table.

"You must have many questions," Grzoht said.

You wanted to snort in laughter. But instead you asked, "What did you mean when you said that I am humanity?"

Grzoht frowned. "I think it might be best to fill you in on a little more about why we did what we did," he said. "It will make more sense then."

"All right." You figured there was no harm in finding out more about what was going on.

"We detected the asteroid heading on a collision course for your planet a very long time ago," he explained. "But principles of minimal interference prevented us from informing you of this until you had detected it yourselves. So we waited, and timed our initial arrival for shortly after your own technology would have allowed you to detect it."

"About a week after the news broke," you said, remembering that horrible time.

"Given how advanced--or, you will forgive me for saying, how primitive--your species was, we were only able to offer you the mind-chip storage technology as a way of preserving your society. I personally wish we could have done more, but advancing a species beyond the minimum necessary for pure survival is at best inadvisable."

"Why do it at all?" you asked. "If we were so primitive, why not just let us die?"

"Because life, intelligent life, is an extraordinarily rare and precious thing," Grzoht said. "Preservation of that life is the only thing that will lead advanced civilizations such as ours to break our credo of noninterference with natural development. Yours is not the first species to have faced utter annihilation and been saved in this way."

"So you gave us the means to prolong our existence in a simulated environment, with fake bodies and emulated minds running on a computer."

"That would be one way of putting it, yes," Grzoht agreed.

"So what does this have to do with what you said about how I am humanity now?"

"As I said, yours is not the first species to have been preserved in this way. In fact, a few species have even freely chosen this, once they were advanced enough to develop the technology for themselves, as ours did. So eventually interstellar law had to catch up to what was going on and figure out how to deal with such species."

Izalbt took up the thread as her captain gestured for her to explain further. "In some species, virtualization went smoothly, and society continued to function as it had before, though with the various benefits and drawbacks that such an existence brings." Her smile was a little smug and self-satisfied. "In others, however, there were a few who saw an opportunity to use the change as a way to get ahead, for whatever reason."

"We don't pass judgment on the internal affairs of other species," Grzoht said. "We deal with them in accordance with the reality of the situation. And the reality of humanity's situation is that because of your actions, you have complete control over every aspect of humanity's existence. That most of them are unaware of this does not change that it is the case. It would be fruitless for us to have contacted your formal government as we could not have taken them at their word on anything, not when you could change anything about them at a whim."

"So that's what you meant when you said that I am humanity."

"Exactly," Izalbt said. "As far as the interstellar community is concerned, you can do whatever you please with, well, yourself, and nobody will hold you to account for it." She frowned, but said nothing more.

"How far does that go?" you inquired.

Grzoht also frowned, but nonetheless answered the question. "As Third Ensign Izalbt said, we will not interfere with what you choose to do with yourself. No matter what we might think of it."

"You said that you consider life to be a precious thing." The implication of your statement, you hoped, was clear. If it meant that they decided to undo what you'd done, that was for them to decide. Besides, you'd had your fun, and maybe humanity would be better off if you weren't in charge, anyway.

"According to interstellar law, you are the only human still alive," Grzoht clarified. "There is nothing but you and extensions of you. Your consciousness dictates, or can dictate, every aspect of how you exist within the simulation, and therefore nothing that you do with it can possibly be judged by others. It would be like"--he paused for a moment, looking for a proper analogy--"judging someone for biting their fingernails, when all they are doing is harming themselves superficially."

You had to suppress a rueful smile.

"Can you provide proof of this?" you asked. "I have suspected for quite some time that I am in full control, as you say, and the fact that you contacted me corroborates that, but I would like to see for myself."

Izalbt tapped the table and its surface displayed a schematic. "This is the interaction of the various computers and mind-chips in the simulation." She tapped a particular spot and the image zoomed in. "This is where the current leaders of your government are situated. As you can see, there are control flows extending downstream from them that allow them to control the simulation, provided there is majority support among the group, with exceptions for very special circumstances."

You nodded. Those provisions were well-known.

"However, as you can see, this is merely a secondary layer." Izalbt tapped the schematic again and those control flows vanished, replaced by a different web. "This is you." A single mind-chip began to blink. "Immediately downstream are the various surplus mind-chips your virus has taken for itself, and every other mind-chip and computer processor in the simulation is further downstream of those." The two diagrams were overlaid and you could see how your web of control directly affected every other aspect of humanity, how it allowed you complete and direct control over it.

"So that's what it did," you said. "It built its own overriding network and made itself the primary controller."

"All the while remaining subservient to you," Grzoht said.

"You can also see what other--hackers?--have done," Izalbt added. "However, even at their best--or because of your early efforts--their networks at most are on a level with the governmental network. Yours is the only one which supersedes it."

"And that's why I was able to delete a network like that," you said, shuddering as you remembered that terrible day.

"Exactly," Grzoht said.

You thought it was a little interesting that the government allowed some hackers to operate despite being able to shut them down, but since they'd been doing nothing outrageously egregious you supposed they simply weren't enough of a concern.

"So what now?" you asked.

"You can stay here for a while, if you like," Grzoht said. "Our mission is both observational and diplomatic."

"So you are authorized to negotiate on behalf of the T'nin?" you clarified.

"To an extent, yes. All of my decisions will have to be reviewed by the Diplomatic Council, but that will take some time as the process cannot begin until we have returned home," Grzoht said.

"We have faster-than-light travel, but not faster-than-light communication," Izalbt added.

"And will they uphold your decisions?" you went on.

"Provided I follow their guidelines, and do nothing especially egregious like advance you beyond your current technological development, I do not know of a case where the Council has overridden the decision of the commander on the scene."

You nodded slowly. You could already think of a few things you'd very much like to attempt to negotiate for, but you couldn't see anything that you had to offer and even if you had something, most of what you wanted was technology anyway.

"What about cultural exchanges?" you said, taking a different tack.

"We are fully authorized to participate in those," Izalbt said. "I am especially interested in experiencing human culture."

"Human culture--well, a good chunk of it--isn't the same as it was when you last visited. We've basically been living in a fantastical pornographic story for a year, complete with plenty of things that were impossible back on Earth." You didn't particularly hide that your eyes were flitting to Grzoht's erect dick, Izalbt's stiff nipples and glistening lower lips. "You may find such a cultural exchange extremely pleasurable."

"By all means, then," Grzoht said. "If you will follow us to the guest quarters?"

--

You relaxed in a post-orgasmic haze, sandwiched loosely and pleasantly between your hosts, Grzoht's cock in your ass, your own in Izalbt's pussy and your breasts squishing against her back. The captain stirred behind you.

"That was certainly quite a pleasurable exchange," he said. "What did you call this activity?"

"Chilling."

"Your language's euphemisms are fascinating," Izalbt said, flexing her back muscles against your nipples.

Your hands lightly toyed with the ensign's own nubs. "The more amusing ones have survived despite the relative sexual openness of human society now."

"I would very much like to learn more of it," the junior officer murmured, lightly moaning.

"I think our next exchange should be of a more mundane nature," Grzoht suggested, pulling his dick out of your butt and getting off the spacious bed. You similarly extricated yourself from Izalbt, but the two of you remained lying next to each other. Izalbt was clearly forcing herself not to reach her hand down to stroke your cock.

"That does bring me to a concern I've had," you said. "I know you've said that you can't advance our--my, I guess--technological level, but you said you make an exception in the case of sheer survival."

"Go on," Grzoht said, a slight frown forming.

"We're pretty **** out here. The station can maneuver a little, so we can probably avoid anything we see coming for a while, but there are plenty of dangers out there that we can't avoid--at least, we'd have to get pretty lucky to detect them quickly enough--that could basically wipe us out."

"We only intervene in the case of immediate threats," Grzoht said. "Our projections are that there are no such threats with a statistically significant probability of impacting your station for hundreds of thousands of your years."

"But we're effectively immortal now," you reminded him. "Our long-term planning has to take that into account. A threat a hundred thousand years into the future is as immediate to us now as the asteroid was to us two years ago."

"That's a matter of your own internal dynamics. Surely you have some defensive capability?"

"We do, but it's hardly perfect. Certainly it can't be up to the standard of a spacefaring species such as yours."

Grzoht shook his head. "If we detect further threats in the future, certainly we will send aid. But it will be aid on our terms, not yours."

"And if you don't detect something?"

"Then I am sorry, but that is the risk you are running in preserving yourself as you did."

Izalbt stirred. "Not if I stay behind," she said.

"Third Ensign?" the captain said, turning to his subordinate.

"Not if I stay behind," she repeated. "You are allowed to appoint a diplomatic envoy, are you not?"

"Third Ensign, I hardly think it proper to appoint someone so junior to such a position."

"Any officer senior to me would see it as an insult to be appointed as envoy to someone with such minimal technological development," she pointed out. "And besides, sir, you and I both know that it's highly irregular for an officer as fresh as I am to be appointed as aide to a First Captain even on a mission to a backwater such as this one." Izalbt looked at you and gave a rueful smile. "Sorry."

You shrugged. It stung a little, but you couldn't deny that what she said about humanity's level of technology was factual.

"What are you saying, Third Ensign?"

"I know where I excelled at the academy. I've picked up on more than a few things. I know I was assigned to this mission because the Diplomatic Council wishes me to gain field experience before arranging a transfer to the ambassadorial corps."

Grzoht looked a little taken aback. He clearly hadn't expected an officer so recently graduated from her training to be quite that astute.

"What better way for me to gain that experience than by being assigned to an ambassadorial position, even if it is only temporary?" Izalbt said. "The mission profile clearly states that you are permitted to leave behind one officer to serve as a temporary ambassador at your discretion."

"I think we should discuss this matter in the conference room," Grzoht said. You and Izalbt both nodded, and soon thereafter you were seated around the same small circular table that you had been a little while ago.

"You realize your authority to speak on behalf of the T'nin will be limited. You will not have plenipotentiary status, and it is unlikely that the Council will give such status to someone as junior as you. At best, you may be retained as aide to whomever the Council sees fit to appoint."

"I know," Izalbt said. "I also know that it is possible the Council will decide that Katelyn is not important enough to require a more senior appointment, and confirm me in the position."

Grzoht frowned, then turned to you. "This will come with certain obligations on your part," he said.

"Such as?" you asked.

"Firstly, Izalbt will exist alongside you in the simulation. She will have the second-highest level of access, below you but above every other mind-chip. Her control of the simulation will be nearly equal to yours, and she will not be considered a part of you. Any adverse actions you take against her can and will bring the full **** of interstellar law upon you."

You nodded. "So, in theory, I'll be able to control her, but in practice any attempt to do so would not end well for me."

"Unless she consents, yes," Grzoht said.

"That is acceptable," you said. Given how Izalbt had behaved while you were fucking, you suspected she'd pretty readily consent to a lot.

"Second, you are not to make her identity public knowledge until such time as the Diplomatic Council approves her appointment or assigns a new ambassador. You may inform a small chunk of yourself, with her approval, but she must otherwise go completely undercover for the time being."

"There's only one other person I can think of whom I'd let know about her," you said.

"Third, you will make all efforts to help Third Ensign Izalbt blend into your society. Her mission will be both observational and diplomatic, and while the latter requires only private negotiations with you, the former will require a plausible identity for her."

You looked Izalbt up and down. "Give her human eyes and she'd fit right in," you said.

"She will also require employment of some sort."

"That's easily enough done. I'm sure Tina won't mind another coworker, especially one as talented with computers as you seem to be," you said, turning to the ensign.

"My second-best subject," Izalbt said, smiling. "Your systems were extremely simple to access."

"That settles that, then. My friend and I own a small company; I am quite happy to rearrange the ownership situation to make Izalbt an equal partner."

Grzoht nodded. "That only leaves the question of a name."

"If I may?" Izalbt put in.

"Yes, Ensign?"

"I think the name Isabel would be suitable," she said.

You nodded, and so did the captain. "That settles that," he said. "Third Ensign Izalbt, as of now you are the temporary ambassador to Katelyn Mills."

Izalbt stood and saluted, and Grzoht returned the salute. Then she sat back down.

"Sir, I am invoking Article 8, Section 3, Clause 5 of the Standard T'nin Military Regulations."

"Third Ensign?"

"As a serving officer in the T'nin military, and as senior officer on this station, I am entitled to the full benefits of the regulations, am I not?"

"You are," Grzoht said, a bit hesitantly.

"And the Hak'uys has the supplies to fully satisfy the requirements of Clause 5, does it not?"

"It does," he affirmed.

"And further, as my official commanding officer, you also have the obligation to ensure my safety even on detached assignment."

"I do," Grzoht said.

You looked between the two, confusion on your face.

"Third Ensign Izalbt," Grzoht said, "has just accomplished what you never could have done, Katelyn."

You still looked confused.

"Clause 5 stipulates that the senior officer on any station may demand a full upgrade of her command to modern T'nin technology," Izalbt said.

"In this case," Grzoht said, "that means that I am required by law, at the ensign's request, to upgrade your station to be the equal of any T'nin spaceship, relative to its size."

This time the look that crossed your face was one of unabashed gratitude as you looked at Izalbt and realized what she'd done. You had to hold back tears of happiness and keep yourself from embracing the alien woman.

"This will come with certain further obligations on your part, however," Grzoht said.

You nodded for him to continue, still attempting to control the giddiness you felt.

"The technology I will add to your station will be jointly under Third Ensign Izalbt's control and yours. Neither of you will be able to use it unilaterally."

You nodded. You hadn't thought it would be otherwise--in fact, you were surprised you were given a say in its use at all.

"Further, all such upgrades will immediately become inoperative should you interfere with the ensign's autonomous action or memory without her consent. This is in addition to any future consequences you will suffer as a result of such an inadvisable action."

You nodded again.

"Finally, if the Diplomatic Council sees fit to appoint a different ambassador, that ambassador may at their sole discretion remove some or all of the upgrades I will install. If the Council sees fit to make no such posting, and Third Ensign Izalbt is assigned to other service, all such upgrades will be removed. You will, however, be given a grace period to adjust to the use of your own technology, with such upgrades as you might reasonably have developed on your own in such time, to ensure your continued survival."

"So," Izalbt said, "for example, if we decide to leave this planetary system and traverse interstellar or even intergalactic space, should I be recalled, you will be given the opportunity to find a suitable star to orbit so that you can revert to your current source of energy."

"Very well," you said. "When will this begin, and how long will it take?"

"The hard part will be fully interfacing our technology with your systems," Izalbt said. "My mind-chip has already been transferred and installed even as we have been speaking." She pulled up the control flow diagram and you could see the new flows connecting Izalbt's chip to the rest of the simulation, as well as yours to hers. "That shouldn't take very long, now that I have direct access to your computers, and the actual installation should only take a week or two, despite its extensive nature. The T'nin have become extremely efficient at such procedures ever since Clause 5 was added after a few highly unfortunate incidents some millennia ago."

"We will depart upon confirmation that the upgrades are fully operational," Grzoht said. "In the meantime, you and Izalbt are free to transfer between the Hak'uys and your station."

"Can I bring anyone else?"

"Only the one consciousness--Tina, I believe you mentioned?--to whom you intend to reveal Third Ensign Izalbt's true nature."

You nodded. "I take it that if I were to bring her here, she would be given a standard human body."

Izalbt nodded. "Crafting bodies with more extensive modifications would be a very substantial drain on our resources, for little purpose."

"In that case, I think it would be best if we first meet her in the simulation." You whispered in Izalbt's ear and smiled as she perked up.

"Don't enjoy yourself too much, Third Ensign," Grzoht said, standing.

"I'll try, Sir," Izalbt said, saluting once more. Grzoht returned the salute again before you left for the bay where your body would be deactivated.