Nebulamorous

Julian blearily opened his eyes: how long had he been out? He felt like he'd just been with his cheerleader girlfriend and her hot best friend but he also felt like he'd been asleep for forever. He groaned and tried to sit up, hitting his head almost immediately, "What the hell?" He felt around in the darkness: He was in a tiny space, no bigger than a coffin. He panicked for a moment as he realized it might actually be a coffin but a cool feminine voice spoke in his ear:

Welcome Sgt. Bigstones. You are onboard the SS Intrepid in the Vega-9 Star Cluster, en route to the planet Korjax. Stand by while a link to command can be established.

Gravity realigned dizzyingly and the front of Julian's box suddenly flipped open, making him stumble out into blinding light. When he got his bearings he was looking at a blue hologram of a grizzled man in a futuristic looking uniform.

"Salute Soldier!"

Julian's hand snapped up to his forehead without his consent and he gawked at it.

"At ease Soldier!"

The hand fell back into place as if it hadn't just been possessed. Julian poked at it uncertainly.

"Now you're a little dizzy from hypersleep, trust me I know, but that's no excuse for not saluting a superior officer! Do you understand Sargent?"

Julian was still getting his bearings as the man finished barking words at him but he felt compelled to answer, "Uh... yes sir. Where the hell-"

"That's 'captain' sir to you boy!"

"Yes, captain sir, but-"

"God... Dammit, Sargent! Focus! You're on your way to Korjax to rescue your missing crew member Dr. Pimpad! Then you're gonna follow those egg heads around the sector while they take readings of the planets so we can hopefully get an upper hand on The Scourge! Rumor has it they evolved somewhere around here before spreading to other sectors."

"Sir-"

"Captain, sir!"

"Sorry, captain sir, but-?"

The hologram's manor suddenly changed and it rested a weightless hand on his shoulder, "I understand son, this isn't what you signed on for-" Julian nodded enthusiastically, "-but someone's gotta make sure these poor scrubs make it through their research unmolested! The whole sector is just teeming with unsavory aliens ready to plow their eggs into that damned fine virgin soil..." He stared off into space before Julian coughed awkwardly, "They already lost one to The Scourge agents in the sector, poor Ophelia Balz'n'Stoff, may she find peace. It's your job to get them through it all alright son?" The hologram had slowly gotten more emotional and now he seemed on the verge of tears, "You gotta do it. For all of us. You understand?"

Julian felt extremely uncomfortable but also touched on some level, "Yes si... Yes Captain, sir."

"Good man." The hologram attempted to pat him on the back but of course passed straight through him.

"Your fellows have finished their own briefings by now, you should go say hello to your crew. Godspeed son, the fate of humanity rests on your shoulders."

Feeling more important than he had in a long time, Julian exchanged a meaningful nod with the captain, holding back tears of his own, and stepped out through the indicated door.

Allison was doing her best to calm an agitated Cindi, which felt really unfair given the circumstances, when a rugged looking black man in what could only be described as 'space armor' walked out of one of the rooms they'd just come from. He gawked at the huge window before noticing them and clearing his throat, "Ahem. Um... Hello Crew. My name is Julian Castellanos, it's my job to keep you safe-"

"Julian, you doofus, it's us!"

He paused, a disappointingly familiar look of 'I don't know your name but I'm gonna try and fail to guess it' coming over his face. Allison didn't give him the chance, "Allison." she pointed at herself, "Cindi." she pointed at her friend in a fetal position, rocking as she looked out the window with wide eyes.

He smirked like it was a joke and she face-palmed, "Go. Mirror. Look." He frowned and peered into the conveniently placed mirror, "Aah!" Allison wished she hadn't predicted his reaction so perfectly, "Why am I black?! Why am I old?! When did this happen?!"

"If you hadn't chosen the one character who sort of had your proportions you'd have noticed it a lot sooner. Not sure if you've quite grasped this yet so I'm gonna help you: I'm a guy." He turned back, face puzzled, "...and I'm Allison? Your girlfriend?" It took a lot longer than she was happy with for the dawning look of comprehension on his face, followed by the horrified widening of his eyes.

Allison was indeed a man. A short, cute faced man with short brown hair who could probably pass for a girl if he wore makeup but still. Definitely a man. She'd checked. She shivered at the fresh memory.

Cindi seemed a lot more perturbed by the massive void of space beyond the window, impossibly distant stars burning brightly. Which was alarming to Allison too but she was a little more concerned with how she wasn't a girl anymore, at least Cindi didn't have that problem. Allison didn't want to say anything but if anything Cindi had gotten an upgrade: Still a brunette, still a woman, but she was taller and her skin looked like it was made of porcelain it was so perfect. Allison had a vision of her in the white underwear they had tried on a few days ago and she felt a stirring in her pants:

"T-there's nothing out there..." Cindi was having a really hard time with the whole 'vastness of space' thing.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Allison put her arm around her her shoulders, "Cin, space has always been there you're just a little closer now. And you're actually way safer, this glass is resilient up to 100 kilotons! That's like hitting a 20 meter wide asteroid at 11 kilometers per second!"

For the first time since leaving the inner room Cindi looked away from the window, "...Allison? Are you feeling alright?"

Allison did a double take on herself, "...How did I know that?" A hint of a smile crossed Cindi's face, "Tell me something else."

"Um... ok: The ship is a starskimmer 3500 class frigate powered by three warp cores interlocked in a resonating subspace field that requires only a fraction of the negative mass found in earlier designs-" She continued without pausing, eyes slowly widening the further she got. "-it was refurbished from front-line combat to serve as a research vessel for the Vega-9 research team led by Dr. Pimpad." Allison had an open-mouthed smile as she finished and Cindi mirrored the expression back to her.

"You sound so smart!"

"I totally do!"

"What was that you said about a Dr. Pimp?"

"Um... yeah. Ok, it's coming back to me. Dr. Pimpad is our expert on xenotech, which is just alien technology, and we're out here because... because.... humanity is fighting an alien entity we call The Scourge. The team is here to provide any useful information on them. Dr. Pimpad arrived before us and..." She paused, trying to decipher the memories that weren't hers, "Well... the robot said we were headed to Korjax, maybe he's stuck there."

No sooner had she spoken than a faint purplish dot began to grow in size on the window, swelling at an alarming rate until they slowed above a purple-tinged planet, a bright blue star rising over its rim.