Rougneck

"Yes. I think this is safe. I spotted several small creatures on the mountain. I'm not sure if they're lizard or bird or something else, but if they're up here, that means it's safe from those insects. At least the ones that destroyed the Roughneck."

Sythia looked around and then turned so she could look over the cliff's edge at the distant ground. "How far are we?"

Alexis stepped beside her and pointed. The jagged scar from the Roughneck was so faint in the ground Synthia wasn't sure if she was imagining it. "Almost seventeen kilometers from the crash site, plus we hiked and climbed almost a full kilometer to get here."

"In one day?" Alexis gasped.

"The days are longer here. A day here is thirty two hours. The sun is setting now, but we'll have light for another seventy five minutes or so. At our longitude in the northern hemisphere it will take about eight hours before dawn."

"Holy shit," Synthia breathed.

"Let's get some water, then we can find shelter for the night. Tomorrow we will begin making a proper one."

Synthia stared up at the woman that had once terrified her. She wasn't imposing anymore. Maybe a little intimidating, but she was seeing past that now too. "Proper what, shelter?"

"Yes," Alexis said. "Do you need help?"

Synthia shook her head. "No... just... I feel disgusting. My clothes are sticking to me and I'm it's gross!"

"Water and shelter first... but I believe it will get cold tonight. Right now the temperature has dropped from today's high of twenty nine degrees to twenty two. Most of that happened as we climbed and the sun dropped lower. I'm not an expert at predicting weather but I wouldn't be surprised if it was less than fifteen degrees overnight. You're going to want dry clothes."

"Shit."

Alexis studied her.

Synthia nodded. "All right, water first, you said. Let's go."

Alexis followed the woman through the grasses to the pond. She took note as the grass moved a few times as small indigenous creatures watched them come and then eventually darted away when instinct overcame curiosity. There was nothing larger than a rat, but there were several and Synthia seemed to be oblivious to them.

Synthia stepped into the mud at the pond's edge and studied it for a moment. A small stream ran out of it on the far side from where Alexis and Synthia were standing. It wiggled back and forth through the grass like a snake until it disappeared over the edge of another cliff a little more than a hundred meters away.

"Be careful," Alexis warned.

Synthia sighed. "What now? You said it should be safe?"

"There are aquatic creatures in the water."

"Aquatic creatures? You mean fish?"

"I don't know if we can call them fish... they appear to be swimming," Alexis said. She stretched out her arm and pointed a metal finger at one of them. "Can you see them?"

Synthia squinted and tried to see past the ripples from the waterfall into the water. After a few moments she nodded. There was a dark shape moving... slowly. It was maybe a half meter long... maybe less.

"Yeah, they're fish," Synthia said. She squatted down. "Cover me."

"From the fish?"

"Maybe," she said and dipped her fingers into the water. She jerked them back and sucked in a quick breath. "Fucking cold!"

"It's melted snow. We're south of the forty second longitudinal line. Even in the summer, at this elevation, the mountain peaks are covered in snow," Alexis explained.

"Yeah, okay. I just didn't expect it to be so cold. I'm ready now," she said and dipped her hands into the water again. She rubbed them against each other, cleaning the dirt off her skin and under her nails until the chill set in and she had to pull them out. She shook her hands and rubbed them some more to warm them back up.

"The fish are moving. Coming closer to us. They must have your scent." Her armor opened on her left arm and a weapon barrel popped out and slid into position.

"Hey, I don't stink! Everybody on board had basic genedoc therapy to wipe out body odor," Synthia said. "And be careful with that thing, that's a really big gun to try and shoot into water. That large a round won't even retain enough velocity to do any damage for more than twenty or thirty centimeters."

Alexis looked at her and smiled. "I didn't mean you stink, I meant they have your scent. I hadn't thought of how the water would affect my shot, thank you."

Synthia nodded and then did a double take. "Wait, in water? Fish can smell?"

"Very well."

"How do you know that?"

"Survival training for all environments," Alexis said and retracted her close quarters weapon. Another panel opened on the inside of her left arm and a long blade jutted out six centimeters beyond her fingers.

Synthia grunted. "Okay, that makes sense. All right, don't let them eat me, I'm going to try to drink some."

"Don't stick your face in the water," Alexis cautioned.

"I was going to use my hands?"

"Oh... all right."

Synthia smiled and lowered had hands back in the water. She cupped them together and squeezed her fingers tight to keep as much water in them as she could. She lifted it to her lips and sipped at it. It was cold and... wet. No taste she could tell, just cold, wet, and delicious!

She went back for more and then froze when one of the fish swam in closer. She watched the thick bodied fish move through the water more like a snake or an eel than a fish. It did have tail fins and a dorsal fin, but it was serpentine and tubular. It came to a point too, rather than a blunt face with an obvious mouth.

The point of the eelfish-- it's nose, maybe-- hovered just a few centimeters from her hand. It moved in closer and then bumped her finger. She waited, other than a quick glance up at Alexis, and then watched the creature decide she wasn't very interesting after all. It turned and slithered through the water away from her.

Synthia let out a sigh. "Okay, first contact is over. Guess I don't taste good. I wonder if I can say the same of them?"

"Tomorrow."

Synthia finished drinking her second handful of water and asked, "What about tomorrow?"

"Tonight water and a quick shelter. Tomorrow we eat."

"Oh... okay. That's probably a good idea. I could stand to lose a few anyhow," Synthia said.

"You look fine," Alexis said. "More than fine, really."

Synthia blushed and covered up her awkwardness by drinking a few more handfuls of water. She rose up, hands tingling from the cold, and said, "Okay, you're turn."

"I'm fine. I have water stores in my body."

"Oh... um, okay. So... shelter?"

"Yes. The wind is coming from behind us, we should try over there, near the cliff. We can dig into the ground and create a low wall to shelter behind."

Alexis wiped her hands on her utility overalls and said, "Fuck, that's going to be cold."

"I'm not much for cuddling, sorry."

Synthia laughed. "No, I don't suppose you would be. That's okay, we'll manage. You, uh, you can dig, right?"

Alexis nodded. She'd already retraced her blade and held out her hands. "Very well."

"Good, my nails have been through enough abuse today!"

* * * *

"You really shouldn't do that while I'm gone."

Synthia screamed, jumped, and fell over in the pond. She splashed and came up sputtering and desperately reaching for her clothes she'd dropped she caught them as they swirled and were about to be sucked into the outlet of the stream that would take them plunging to the ground hundreds of meters below.

The displaced weapons tech stood up sputtering and turned to glare at her fellow refugee. "Warn me next time!"

Alexis studied her, a smile lifting her lips. "I'm sorry, I wasn't using stealth mode. I brought back more supplies for us to use. Some logs, another redberry bush, and one of the larger rockette birds.

Synthia snorted at the stupid names they'd come up with. She nodded and waded over to the edge and stepped out before finally realizing she was naked. "Ah! Turn around!"

"I don't mind," Alexis said.

"Well... I do!" Synthia sputtered. "I do this when you're not up here so... you know."

Alexis hesitated and then admitted, "No, I don't know. I said I don't mind. I prefer you do it while I'm here, honestly. If something were to happen to you and I'm not here, I can't help you."

Clutching her cold wet clothes over her crotch and hugging her arm over her large breasts Synthia asked. "What could happen? We've been here six weeks now. Six local weeks, which is like eight or nine standard weeks. There's no threats! The few animals up here either don't care about us or they're afraid of us. The bugs are on the west side of these mountains and you haven't found anything dangerous on the east side."

"More like almost ten standard weeks. And you're right, I haven't found anything...yet. There could be more animals that we don't know about. Maybe another colony of those giant insects," Alexis said. "Or you could slip in the water, like you just did."

"I did that because you scared the piss out of me!"

Alexis smiled again. "I am sorry for scaring you. I thought you heard me."

"Yeah, well, with that waterfall I didn't," Synthia said. "So... thank you, for the supplies and for caring, but, um... I need to get dressed and spread these out. So, um, turn around, please?"

Alexis delayed a moment longer before she shrugged her mechanized shoulders and turned away. She walked back to where she'd placed the bounty of her supply run and started working on field dressing the long legged bird.

Synthia watched her for a moment and, after she was sure the woman wasn't looking back at her, she wrung as much water as she could out of the wet overalls and her underwear and bra. Satisfied with the rushed job, she laid them across the top of the tallest grasses she could find. They weighed the grasses down several centimeters but they stayed off the ground and still benefitted from the steady breeze that blew across their mountain hideout.

Finished with that, she stretched in the afternoon sun and checked herself out to see how dry she was. She wasn't dry yet but she was getting there. More importantly, she was losing weight. A steady diet of water, protein, and the rare fruit or starchy vegetable that Alexis brought back from her forays was tightening her waistline. Add that to the work of building their own shelter and cooking pit, then expanding the pond to make a better area for bathing and washing clothes, and she was probably down at least five kilos.

Her trimmer waist and better definition made her boobs look great, but she was the only person who seemed to appreciate them, so that wasn't doing her any good either. Then again, even if Alexis was interested... no, she wasn't. She'd just said she wasn't. Synthia had freaked and Alexis said she didn't care whether she was dressed or not. Was that because she really didn't care, or was it part of all the chemical and hormonal crap that had been done to her?

Synthia shook her head. She was wasting too much time lost in her thoughts. She needed to get dressed. She grabbed her tank top and pulled it over her head and down over her boobs. She frowned a little when she realized she didn't have to tug or stretch it over them anymore. Were they shrinking too?

After a few more adjustments to her shirt she grabbed her stretch pants she wore under her overalls that fateful day when the Roughneck was destroyed. She worked them up her still damp legs and up over her hips. They were sliding on easier too, even with her a little damp from her cold bath. Her hips could stand to lose a few centimeters, so that didn't bother her. If they started falling down though... well, they were stretchy so it would be a long time before that happened.

Dressed as best she could while her other clothes dried, Synthia walked over to where Alexis had chosen to dig a hole and plant the latest redberry bush. She stood next to her a moment and then knelt down. "Hey, sorry about freaking out there."

"I understand," Alexis said.

"You're lucky, you don't have to deal with clothes and bathing... that water's cold!"

Alexis looked up at her and smiled. "I can tell."

Synthia sucked in a breath. The attention and embarrassment caused her barely recovering nipples to poke larger dents in her shirt. She blushed and glared at her. "It's not like I can help it!"

"I never said you could," Alexis said. "It's okay, you know. I was a woman too, I understand."

"You were? Don't you mean you are?"

Alexis took a moment to choose her words. "I'm not sure. I heard that the male and female brains, for humans at least, are the same. The difference is in the rest of our bodies. The hormones and how we're raised as much as what we believe."

"Well, I believe you're a woman," Synthia said.

"Thank you. I do too... sort of. I don't have the same hormones anymore. At least not the same levels and ratios. I don't have the sexual organs either."

Synthia gasped. "What?"

Alexis finished planting the bush next to the four others she'd already planted. A few meters away she'd planted two saplings of a kind of tree that grew hard shelled fruit. The trees only grew three to four meters tall, as far as Alexis could tell from the grove she'd found them in, but the fruit was sweet and tangy when ripe. Alexis thought that made them a nut even though the seed inside was soft, juicy, and strangely delicious. They decided to name them twistnuts based on how the taste changed from sweet to tangy as they were eaten.

There were a couple of other bushes as well. One grew a curved fruit that was four to five centimeters long when ripe. The colors varied from light blue to purple. Those were sweet too and reminded Synthia of peppers. They called them bleppers.

"What did they cut off, exactly?" Synthia asked again. "I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to... I just thought... well, I'm curious."

"Most of it," Alexis admitted. "My lungs, heart, brain, head, and neck are still mine, thought they've been augmented. My circulatory system as well. I have a blood filtration system that doubles as a pump in case of cardiac emergency. It can also oxygenate my blood using limited reserves should I be unable to breathe naturally."

Synthia picked her mouth up after she realized how rude she must look. "Oh my... I'm sorry! I had no idea."

"There's nothing to be sorry about. I chose this," Alexis said. "I'm a better person now."

"Are you? Really? Or is that what you were told and the chemicals in you made you believe it?"

Alexis smiled. "No, I really am. I was... troubled."

"Okay... I'll take your word for it. I just... I know how the company uses contracts to screw people over sometimes. It's all about the bottom line, after all."

"I know. This, for me, was the right move. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable when I watched you."

"Oh, no, I'm sorry I freaked out so much and-- wait, you were watching me?"

"Yes."

"I thought you just got back and saw me?"

"I did just get back, but I let some time pass waiting for you to see me before I spoke."

"Holy shit... wait, why were you watching me?"

Alexis pressed her lips together for a moment before saying, "I... I'm not sure. I'm trying to figure that out, honestly."

"I don't know if I should feel violated or curious... or maybe even flattered?"

"I hope not violated, but I understand if you are. I should have said something sooner."

"But you didn't."

"No."

"Alexis..."

"You can call me Alex, you know."

"Alex?"

"My friends call me that. We're friends now, I hope?"

"Well, you've seen me taking a bath and doing my laundry, I hope so!" Synthia joked.

Alexis smiled. "I won't call you Syn though."

"Oh thank you!" Synthia gushed. "I hate that so much. Every guy I meet sees my tits and wants to make a joke about my name while he's staring at them."

"Oh... I'm sorry."

"Oh my god! You were staring at my boobs?"

"I was admiring all of you. You're a beautiful woman. But yes, I did look at your boobs too."

Synthia shook her head and tried to make sense of the situation. "I don't... I'm not sure what to feel or say, honestly. I mean... can you... are you..."

"I have no sexual organs," Alex said.

"You still have your mind. That's the biggest sexual organ in the human body!"

Alexis smiled. "Well, yes, but my urges... how I used to feel. Those are gone. I thought they were, I mean."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I was unstable as a young woman. I fucked around. A lot. I tried boys because that's what's expected in a colony. Sure, officially, you can love anyone you like and still have a child that is genetically yours inseminated and incubated in a lab, but they give higher bonuses to heterosexual couples willing to have children the old fashioned way. It's cheaper for them and keeps human beings as a renewable resource for the colony and expedition ships.

"I found I didn't really like men as lovers though. They weren't as exciting as women. I was drawn to women and fell harder for them. That was part of what tipped me over and made me do a lot of stupid things. I lost myself in my need to be needed by them."

"Oh," Synthia said. "I, um, I hope you're not saying you're worried about that with me?"

"I'm much better now," Alexis said. "But I have noticed you and even though it shouldn't be possible, I think I am attracted to you."

"You think?"

"All right, I am."

"But... you don't have..."

"A vagina?"

Synthia blushed and nodded.

"No, I do not," Alexis admitted.

"So, no sex for you guys at all? Ten years without any release? Okay, so maybe the hormones aren't there but still, is that healthy?"

"We earn merits toward a brief surge in oxytocin and a flush of dopamine that triggers a chemical orgasm in our brains," Alexis said.

"Holy shit, the company controls your orgasms?"

Alexis smirked. "It sounds that way, but it's not like that. It's more a matter of if it was left to our own devices, some people might spend their entire time in that state. They'd be useless in the field. Useless anywhere, really."

"Oh... okay, yeah, I can see that," Synthia said. "But what about you... here? I mean, how do you gain merits or points or whatever here?"

"Without a control system to interface with, I can't."

"Oh hell no," Synthia breathed.

"I'm sorry?"

"No, I'm sorry," Synthia said. "That's inhumane! We've got to fix that."

"Fix what? My ability to have an orgasm?"

"Uh huh," Synthia said.

"How do you propose to do that? I don't have the right parts."

"You're, what, seventy five or eighty percent machine? I take apart and put machines back together for a living, including updating their code."

"My systems are hardened to protect me in case of capture."

"Protect you, or protect the company?"

Alexis smirked. "Fair point. The company. It benefits me as well though."

"Don't you have any master codes or failsafes or something that will allow me in?"

Alexis stared off into the setting sun and then said, "Yes, I might."

Synthia rubbed her hands together eagerly. "Then let's get started!"

"Might I suggest we wait?" Alex said. "We have a couple hours of daylight left and we should make use of it to harvest the logs and the rockette I brought back. I've already worked the remains into the soil as fertilizer, but I have not started a fire or begun to cook it."

Synthia shook her head and smiled. "I don't know who you were before, Alex, but for what it's worth, I'm very happy with who you are now."

Alex smiled. "Thank you. I can't imagine anyone I would rather be stranded on an alien planet with."

Synthia laughed and then blushed. She glanced away and saw the logs Alex had mentioned. "Okay... yeah, we should do that, I guess."

"You blushed, did I upset or embarrass you again?"

"Nooo... I... I just had some embarrassing thoughts. Trust me, you don't want to know."