Everything has a story and every story is based on something (Legend Of The Shadow).
For a long time, the planet Betelgeuse VII has been a paradise for transgender people and rare sexual minorities. But now, things are changing. The star will go supernova soon. The former dictators Caligula XII and Caligula XIII terraformed a new planet in secret, but it is not habitable yet. It will be, just a few Earth years before Betelgeuse will explode.
Still, in the Old World (the stars surrounding the Sun, the first places where humans settled), people are only starting to find out this. This is why new settlers still come to Betelgeuse. They are transgender people or people from rare sexual minorities, who are discriminated and rejected in their homelands and want to start a new life.
One of these people is Bob - Adrastea. But what is his\her story?
Bob was born as a man. His parents were space merchants. They traveled the space in all directions. Most often, they transport legal cargo, like electronics, ores, food, textiles or machinery. But sometimes, they go for what is forbidden: drugs, slaves or weapons. Given the immensity of space, it is easy to transport illegal stuff. You take the cargo from somewhere, then deploy it on an unknown asteroid to another merchant and so on.
From all this, the traffic with slaves is the most profitable. Slaves are grown in body farms, which are usually located in the infamous system of UV Ceti. That system is an anarchy, ruled by mafia cartels and an endless war that has been raging for centuries. The main buyers for slaves are state governments. On planets affected by long economy recession, population is moving away. There, governments have to do something to find a steady supply of workers, to keep the economy alive. Even if this is illegal all over the galaxy, each government has found a way to make it nearly legal.
Bob strongly opposed to slave traffic. But, one day, his parents decided to do this. Slaves are sold with an average of 660 CC each on UV Ceti. Not far, in HH Andromedae, the government offers 2300 CC for 'new residents'. The ship owned by his parents could carry 500 slaves. given the transport costs, which are around 7000 CC for a one-way trip, the profit is ensured by only carrying 6 slaves. Only that, Bob's father, got a special request. The government of HH Andromedae will pay 10000 CC for each breeding female. The cost for such a slave on UV Ceti is 2500 CC. It is clear that the profit will be around 3.5 million CC!
So, Bob's parents decided to take the risk. They know very well that pirates will be lurking nearby, willing to get their hands on all this booty. From ten ships that go to UV Ceti, at least one never returns. But for all that money... it is worth the risk.
Merchants that go to UV Ceti travel in large groups. Usually, they form in the rich stellar system of Sirius, where pirates don't dare to go. They reach UV Ceti in large numbers, go together to a body farm and return in the same formation. Traveling this distance, above the speed of light, in a space bubble, takes about 15 days for each journey, plus a few more days to accelerate and decelerate. Bob is very used with this. He usually spends his time in his room, in front of a computer. He is studying at a virtual university in the 3rd year, but still has plenty of time. In his free time, he is writing comics and manga about a girl, Adrastea. His work is fan-fiction, inspired by an anime series of his childhood. He got in love with Adrastea, which is an anime character. Alone, in his room, with the door locked, he sometimes dresses as Adrastea, but his parents have no idea.
All the ships arrive to UV Ceti. This system consists of two red flare stars, which erupt very often, destroying the atmospheres of any planet close enough. No life can survive in these conditions. Inhabited planets are far away, where temperatures are as low as -250 C. There are the body farms. There will go the ships. They all land in a giant smuggler base.
His mother remains in the ship, to protect it. They know very well: anyone here can be a thread. Anyone can kill you, steal your ship or at least try to steal something from you. Bob goes with his father and many other merchants. But since Bob's father is here for a special offer, he goes, together with Bob, inside the body farm.
People on UV Ceti have no morals, no sense of humor and no mercy. They are always after money and love to torture other people. What Bob finds out very soon is that, inside the body farm, all workers are men. As he enters, he can now see what nobody could have a photograph of. Breeding or pregnant women are kept in cages, in building blocks that have over 20 levels. All women are naked and are kept each in one cage, which is a cube of two meters wide. There is a powerful smell of sweat, closed air, urine and excrements. Workers are always doing something. Everything looks so painful. They artificially inseminate women in a painful way. They feed them with a rubber pipe that goes through the mouth to the stomach. Women get birth alone and soon after workers come and collect the children. It is a nightmare. Bob watches all this, as his father choses only pregnant women.
Then, all slaves enter a cryogenic chamber and are stored in liquid helium, to be delivered to each merchant. Bob watches the entire scene. Then, Bob returns with his father to the ship. With all the cargo uploaded and money paid, they go towards HH Andromedae, where they deliver all the slaves.
What brings people to a no-return path to death? Greed. Bob's parents could just take the money and stop, but they decided to go again. For Bob, this was a nightmare. He had nightmares. He could no longer learn and eat. His virtual character, Adrastea, has become a fighter for justice against slavery. She now appears attacking pirate ships and releasing slaves. Adrastea plans a huge military assault against UV Ceti, to abolish slavery in the galaxy. Only that Bob's parents have no idea what their child is writing in secret.
Then, Bob's parents try their luck again. They go back to UV Ceti to pick-up slaves. Again, a large number of ships land on planet UV Ceti XI, including the one Bob is in. He tries to stop his parents from doing this again, but in the end, they convince him this is the last time. The fight they have with Bob takes nearly an hour, enough time for all merchants to go.
By the time Bob's father opens the door, one guy enters. He shuts Bob's father in the head, killing him. He kills his mother again, with a single shot in the head. Bob manages to hide. The intruder grabs a few things and runs away. Bob locks the door and waits in silence. He cries. The death of his parents means that he lost everything. He waits a few hours, crying and thinking. But, in the end, other merchants return to their ships. He must pilot the ship out of UV Ceti. He goes with them, all the way to Sirius.
There, after days of crying and thinking, he decides to sell the ship. With all the money from the ship and what he has from his parents, he decides to start a new life. Only that he wants a new identity. He wants to forget the past and start something new. He has something in mind. He heard that on Betelgeuse, many criminals go to transform their bodies beyond recognition. Could he become Adrastea? So, he gets on board of a passenger cruiser to Betelgeuse.
There, he goes to the extreme. A complete body transformation. Adrastea is a woman, shorter then him, with a different body. But he has the money. The transformation he wants is not possible here. Doctors send him to another planet, Betelgeuse S, where this is possible.
How could he become Adrastea? He needs shorter arms and legs, a smaller body, breasts, a female facial look... Doctors adjust his DNA. Then, one by one, all his new organs are grown in vitro and replaced. Doctors first remove his pelvis and feet, replacing them with smaller ones, grown in vitro. Then, they replace his guts, with smaller ones. The hardest of all operations is replacing his backbone, with a new one, shorter, with new nerves. His chest is also replaced, including his lungs, to fit into. New breasts are added. However, the transformation does not stop here. His face must look like Adrastea. It is very hard, since anime characters don't look like real humans. They have larger mouths and huge eyes. The hardest of all is replacing the eyes. First, the skull must be modified to fit this change. Then, the new eyes are added. All neural connections, all nerves, must be perfectly connected. This step takes more then all other body modifications together.
After nearly two Earth years of intensive working, Bob is dead and Adrastea is born. A new person, but with the same soul. Adrastea opens her big eyes with huge lashes. She looks herself in the mirror.
"Wow! I never believed this is possible", she says.
Amazingly, this is not the voice Bob had. It is the voice of Adrastea from the anime. The doctors completed their work.
The next day, Adrastea orders new clothes, like the ones worn in the anime series. She has pink hair. A short black and pink dress covers her body, with a big red star on her stomach. The large breasts are covered by the dress. She also has long pink gloves and pink pantyhose, with black high-heel shoes. Everything is just like in the anime! The mouth is large, with perfect white teeth. The neck is thinner and a bit longer. The arms and legs have no hair and no moles. All the skin is soft, like that of an anime character. The years are larger, the eyes are really huge, the mouth is much larger, with wider lips, the nose is smaller, many things are different. What surprises her is that this new body has no belly at all.
She is shorter, thinner, just like a girl should be in all aspects. All her body parts respond perfectly to her brain's commands. It is like she is inside a new body. There are no scars, nothing that can you believe so many surgeries occurred. All the skin is regenerated. She can feel all her body parts. This new body feels so different then the previous one... and in part it is. Not much of the original body remained.
However, what amazes Adrastea more then everything, is her genitals. She is a woman in all aspects. She could now have sex with a man and have children. Well, Bob was a heterosexual and homosexuality is something he is strongly against, but not Adrastea. She is a woman and former Bob is ready to do even this for her.
There is only one thing missing. The anime Adrastea was smoking pink cigarettes. So, she lights a cigarette and smokes, looking in the mirror. Perfectly! The transformation is complete.
Adrastea goes for a walk on the planet. She cannot breath the air outside, but, inside a hovering car, she can see. The new planet is meant to offer a new home for the people of Betelgeuse VII. Vegetation is growing already, but it will take some time until the air will finally be breathable.
Then, Adrastea finds out about slavery. Here? Only that these people are different. They work on terraforming, knowing that, once this is done, they will have their own villages and will live free. They are not bitten, nor tortured. They plant trees, dig valleys and build mountains, with the help of huge machinery. There are two major challenges for the new planet. First of all, there is not much water. Since a shallow ocean requires less water then a deep one, a lot of earth was removed and dropped into the sea. The second problem is that Betelgeuse S is tidal locked. On one side there will be eternal day and on one, eternal darkness. On the dark side it will be colder and ice will tend to accumulate. To avoid this, all that side must be leveled to form a shallow, endless sea, where only surface water will freeze, while deeper water will circle around the planet.
Because Betelgeuse S is not opened for settlers yet, Adrastea decides to go to Betelgeuse VII, ten light years away.
**********
Adrastea gains citizenship of Betelgeuse VII and steps foot on this planet for the first time in her life. She finds it to be an incredible place. Humans live in small towns, in harmony with nature. And about the humans, she sees the incredible. Men who dress as women, women who dress as men and a huge number of hermaphrodites. Even more, she can see people with horns, with extremely long hair, with animal outfits, even with a tail. Very soon, she finds a place to work and many friends.
Her best friend is Himalia, a hermaphrodite that looks more like a woman. Himalia also wanted to transform its body to an incredible level. She has two mouths: a larger one used for eating and a small one, just above the natural mouth, that she uses only for smoking. She has a short silvery hair. Himalia wears tight silvery clothes, that makes her breasts visible. She has three breasts, which gives her an unusual look. Also, her tight, silvery pants, let people see a small bulge between her feet, the male genitals. She wears very long fingernails and has her arms filled with bracelets. Her feet are covered with long, silvery thigh boots. Himalia is very smart, but also very unconventional. She is also an immigrant to Betelgeuse VII. She was born as a female slave on UV Ceti and managed to escape. She is strongly against slavery and wanted to make sure that once terraforming is complete, slaves from Betelgeuse S will gain their freedom.
What not much people know is that Himalia is a sfenist. She was raped when she was a slave. She started a strong campaign against forced child birth, which is encouraged by many governments all over the galaxy. Many officials wanted her imprisoned or dead for this, but she escaped to Betelgeuse to save her life. But even here, she continued to advice people to stop getting pregnant.
One day, Himalia and Adrastea go together to a park, near their town. Each town has a park close to a reservoir or a lake, surrounded by forest. There, teens go and hangout. They both sit on a tree trunk. Adrastea takes off her high-heel shoes, playing with her pantyhosed feet in water.
"When I was a man, I never imagined that walking on high heels is so painful", she says, lighting a pink cigarette.
Himalia doesn't take off her long boots. She just touches the water with them. She puts a cigarette in her second mouth, lights it and lets a cloud of smoke exit her first mouth, saying:
"Yes, it is sometimes painful to be a woman".
"Now, I know", answers Adrastea, taking a second inhale from her cigarette.
"But on the other hand, it is far better then being a man. Guys certainly don't deserve this".
"I guess you are right".
"When I became a herm, I was amazed how fast this thing gets stimulated", says Himalia, massaging the bulge between her feet. "You see? An erection comes so fast. Sometimes, it happens without a reason. Oh, you know, since you were a man".
"I know, my friend, but at that time I didn't know how it is to be a woman".
"Now you know", answers Himalia, putting the cigarette back to her second mouth, for a new inhale.
"When I went to UV Ceti and I've seen all those women, kept in cages like pigs in a farm, I realized this. But the whole world doesn't realize this, ever. It takes to see it with your own eyes", says Adrastea with a tear in her eyes, moving the cigarette back to her mouth.
"Only people here will understand", answers Himalia, blowing a thick cloud of smoke.
"Just like people from other places will never understand people on Betelgeuse".
"But still, our state used slaves in secret", continues Himalia, keeping her cigarette inside her second mouth while speaking. "I understand that they terraformed Betelgeuse S in secret. I understand that they did all this to save us... but the use of slaves is something I will never accept. Still, if those slaves will one day be free, it is ok for me".
"They will. And Betelgeuse S will be a new paradise, just as Betelgeuse VII is right now", says Adrastea, mixing her smoke with her tears.
"But until then, our planet will no longer be a paradise".
"It must be!" answers short Adrastea. "It is a unique place in the galaxy. I look at all the people around. In other places, they will be strongly rejected. They have no place to go! I wish they will live here until Betelgeuse S is terraformed. Then, we will move all there".
"This is what people are told, but they don't completely believe".
"But things are simple, Himalia", answers Adrastea, throwing her cigarette in the water. "Betelgeuse will make it for 20 Earth years. Until then, the planet will be terraformed already".
"People have been told a lie, that the sun will survive for many millennia. Now, they no longer trust anyone. After they found out the truth, many people, with more or less science knowledge, came and said that Betelgeuse will not make it for 3 Earth years, while others said it will survive for centuries. The official data says it will survive for 17 to 20 Earth years", says Himalia, taking a deep inhale from her cigarette. "However, there is a catch. Not all stars evolve the same. Betelgeuse rotates very fast and this rotation produces a centrifugal force that reduces the pressure inside. This is why the sun has such a large inert core. If everything goes as expected, the core will slowly collapse until neon fusion will start. But if the core suddenly collapses faster, it will create a huge temperature inside. A higher temperature means a much higher part of the energy will be lost as neutrinos. Neon, oxygen, magnesium and silicon fusions, which are expected to start, will produce the same amount of energy and even faster, but all that will be lost very fast as neutrinos. The star will not survive long enough and will go supernova much faster".
"I know this very well, my friend", says Adrastea, "but still there is no good in panic. If chaos occurs, nothing will be possible to do to save the people. We have to take a gamble".
**********
Adrastea wanted to be a superhero, just like the anime character. She decided to fight for Betelgeuse, to save the paradise. One Earth year later, she decided the biggest challenge on the planet: the elections. She chosen to try to be the next elected dictator. She promised that she will fight to keep Betelgeuse VII a paradise and make pressure on Betelgeuse S to be terraformed as fast as possible.
And things got just that way. She was elected as dictator Caligula XV.
Only that, there are now only 14 to 17 Earth years left... and only if everything goes as scientists expected. If things will go this way, in 4 to 7 years from now, neon will start fusion reactions. Then, as neon will be depleted, it will come a short pause. After that, oxygen fusion will keep the star alive for about an Earth year. Then, in a desperate succession, Betelgeuse will try to fuse sodium and magnesium, without gaining much energy... and finally silicon into iron. And then, when the core will be completely made of iron, which cannot produce any more energy, the star will explode.
Now, the neutrino telescope shows a surprising silence inside the star. The large inert core is dormant, even if, given its mass, it should ignite. Outside, there is a very narrow shell fusing carbon, surrounded by a layer of carbon that might ignite at anytime. If that happens, it will create a huge pressure and will force the inner core to start fusing neon much earlier. Further away, there is a shell fusing helium, which is also decreasing its energy output, contracting. Much further away, there is the hydrogen fusion shell, which brings heat and light that people see. The clock is ticking... but it might be ticking faster or slower. Betelgeuse S will not be habitable in less then 10 Earth years.
