Meet Christina. A beautiful 33 year-old. She’s tall, about 5 feet, 9 inches; has a curvy figure with large breasts, a narrow waist, full hips, and a teardrop-shaped butt that’s maybe just slightly too big, but awfully nice all the same. Her silky black hair has a natural wave to it as it falls to her shoulders. She has full lips, a small nose, and deep brown eyes. Look deeply into those eyes, while you can; if you’re perceptive, you can sense some of the pain she’s had to endure in her third of a century on this earth.
The quick catalogue:
Now, her life is about to undergo a startling change. For the better., or the worse?
It might depend on your point of view.
Christina was walking along her town’s almost deserted main street, on her way to the early shift at a convenience store. It had been two months since her latest husband had taken off, leaving her without a car. A lack of public transit at off-hours in their town left her walking two miles to work and back each day.
It was a pleasant early summer morning. At 4:30, she was already able to go without a jacket. On days like this, she didn’t mind the walk a bit. She had been pretty depressed about Adam leaving her, but she was feeling better this morning, actually humming a happy tune to herself.
She stopped when she heard the strange noise above her. It was a hum and a high pitched whine, all at once. She turned toward it, listening to it get louder as it got closer. When she turned , she was temporarily blinded by a beam of intense light. When her vision cleared, she could see the outline of a large circular form hovering above her. The beam of light seemed to be fixed directly on her.
How strange, she thought to herself. This must be a bad dream. Or a bad trip.
Soon, she felt herself being absorbed into the beam of light, for lack of a better way to describe it. For an instant, it was as if she wasn’t there at all; then there was a sudden sensation of being again, only now her surroundings had changed.
She was aboard the spaceship.
“Greet.ings. Earthling,” she heard a flat, metallic voice. Christina looked straight ahead and saw a being in the shape of a human. However, his skin was metallic. His face mimicked a human’s; it had two eyes, a nose and mouth. His skin's metal though, so he must be a robot, right? Yet he didn’t look like any robot she remembered seeing in the movies; there were no visible joints at his shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, ankles; only a smooth expanse of polished metal. He was truly a man made of metal.
“You must be. wondering about. me,” the metal man said. “I come from a galaxy many light years from your own. The people of our world were once carbon-based humanoids very similar to yourselves. However, several thousand years ago, we discovered how to convert ourselves into beings of metal. This had many obvious advantages. It made us impervious to disease or most injury. And of course, it gave us immortality. Still, most of our race were reluctant to alter the flesh and blood vessels they had known for millennia.”
Christina gasped. It had all finally started to sink in. The fact he was talking common English was the least strange thing about this encounter to her.
The metal man went on. “So at first, the process was voluntary; I was the among the earliest to be changed, because of my interest in long-range space exploration. But when a biological disaster struck our world, a genetically mutated disease that began wiping out people by the millions, we saw no alternative but to convert everyone to beings of metal, or perish as a race.”
“And so it was accomplished. In the 50,000 lunar cycles since, we have made great progress as a race; abolishing almost all of our ills. For this reason, we travel to similar worlds as our own, to begin the conversion procedure there. We have chosen you to be the first earthling to undergo the process.”
Christina looked incredulous. “Me? Out of five billion people in the world, you picked me out? This wasn’t random? Why me? I’m no one special!”
The metal man smiled. “Oh, but you are special, my dear. We scanned every humanoid on this planet for metal content. Yours was the highest.”
Christina was speechless, not sure whether to be angry or afraid.
Soon, a metal man and woman had grabbed hold of her and were escorting
her to what appeared to be a plastic tube. As upset as she was, Christina
took time to survey the metal woman’s form. The mechanoid was about her
height, with graceful, well-proportioned curves. The robotic people wore
no clothes, dressing seemed to be superfluous to them; there was no visible
sign of a vagina and while she had ample breasts there were no nipples
visible.
Her facial features were distinctly feminine. She even had what
seemed to be flowing metal hair that was shoulder-length. Christina briefly
wondered what she would look like in this form.
By now, she was able to speak. “But, I, I’m just one person. How can converting me accomplish anything?” Her voice echoed hollowly in the tube, sounding weak and small.
The metal woman looked at her with an expression that seemed to convey compassion. “You will have a very important role, dear. In a way, you will be the mother of the reborn human race. We will be placing the technology at your disposal to convert the entire planet, as well as the other resources you will need to accomplish it. The whole process should be completed in a manner of what you call weeks.”
Christina shook her head. “I still don’t understand. How is--”
The metal woman said, “Easy dear. You will understand it all, very soon.” With that, the door of the tube slid shut. Christina started to ask what was happening, but she was instantly frozen in place by a powerful beam. She felt powerful energy waves coursing through her body, transforming her. For some reason, she had assumed that it would hurt, but it did not; in fact, Christina had never felt better in her life. She saw the metal woman smile at her from the outside of the cylinder.
No more than 30 seconds had seemed to have passed before the coruscating beams stopped and the door of the tube slid open. The metal woman extended a hand to help Christina out; as Christina looked down, she noticed with surprise that her own arm and hand were now metal too.
“How do you feel, Christina?”
“I feel -- I feel wonderful!” the new metal woman said with conviction. “Better than I ever have before! The pain in my shoulder from where it was broken...it’s gone.....the shortness of breath from my heart problem...gone! And my senses....everything seems so much more intense, clear, and so vivid!”
The metal man said, “You’re discovering things that we first discovered many eons ago. As I indicated, your new body is impervious to injury, disease, aging and fatigue. Take a look at your new self,” he said, gesturing to a full-length mirror.
Christina did so, and was astonished at the sight. Had she not known better, she would have thought she had just been coated with silver paint; but she knew that something far more profound had happened. She was truly a being of metal, from head to toe. She didn’t know whether to be profoundly angry with the aliens or thank them. She thought about what she had lost, but also about what she had gained.
“Amazing,” she finally said. “What do you want me to do now?”
“We have to return to our home planet for supplies and personnel that will help you oversee the transformation process world-wide! We should be back in about 2.3 of your days.”
“What do I do until then?” Christina asked.
The metal woman smiled. “Keep out of sight until then,” she advised. “Otherwise, you’ll have a lot of explaining to do!”
Christina, feeling jaunty, put on her best mock Cuban accent and said, “You mean as in ‘Lucy you got a lotta ‘splainin’ to do?” she chuckled.
Metal man and woman looked at each other, puzzled.
“Aw, come on!” Christina said, “I thought you knew this planet? Never mind!”
As Christina disembarked from the ship, they waved goodbye; the metal woman said, “We’ll see you soon, mother of the new human race!”
The light above her blinked out and with an odd sound the spaceship was gone. She looked around and saw that no time seemed to have passed; the morning light still brightened the east and the same cars were at the crossing street. Christina wondered what time it was, looked down at her metallic wrist and noticed her watch was gone at the same time she knew it was 04:32:55.862 in the morning. Then she realized that she had lost her clothes, too, and that she wasn't going to get to work that day. She had different plans.
Hmm, Christina thought, quite an amazing fate for a woman whose life didn’t seem to be going anywhere just a few hours before. Now, she would be remembered forever.
Not bad, just because of a few body piercings!
The End?
[we think not. . .
Ed.]