Escape from the Nursery Planet (Commission) - Chapter 3

The scene in the ship’s hallways was not much different from what Stephen and Vicky had witnessed in the classroom. Some crew members seemed perfectly normal, hurrying around the ship to deal with the new damage caused by the most recent waves. Then, there was the occasional child that hurried by, some of whom seemed focused on an important task. Others wandered around looking lost, confused. A few even giggled and played with each other, racing around in a game of tag, as the beleaguered ship rumbled in pain around them.

At last, Stephen and Vicky made it to the lab where science officers were supposed to be working. Once inside, Stephen scanned the room, nervously searching for Richardson, and let out a sigh of relief when he found him working at a console, looking just the same as he had done earlier that day.

“Richardson,” Stephen said, running over to him. “It happened again.”

Richardson looked at Stephen and Vicky and replied, “You changed again?’

“It was just our clothes this time,” Stephen explained. “This is Vicky. She was with me when it happened. Her clothes changed as well, but no one seemed to notice it except us.”

“That’s not all,” Vicky said. “Some people got younger as well. Our teacher looked like she was barely old enough to walk.”

“Did either of you get younger?” Richardson asked.

“No,” Stephen said.

“You say your clothes changed, though.”

“Of course they did,” Vicky said. “You don’t think our outfits are a little strange?”

He sighed. “It seems that I still am unable to recognize when things have changed,” he admitted.

“Why did we notice?” Stephen asked, but he was mainly trying to figure it out himself.

“Where were you when it happened,” Richardson asked.

“In the supply room of the classroom.”

“Oh!” Vicky cried. “I think I know why!”

“Why?” Stephen asked.

“The supply room has extra shielding in it. It must have protected us from the mental effects of the waves.”

“Of course,” Richardson said. “Stephen, didn’t you say you were in the reactor for a while when the waves hit the first time?”

“I was,” Stephen said. “That’s shielded as well.”

“Well,” Richardson said, “That’s some progress. At least we know a way to avoid it affecting our minds, even if it still changes other things.”

“Has your investigation found anything new?”

“I was just about to check some results,” Richardson said. “Look at this.” He pointed to his monitor.

“What is it?” Stephen asked, seeing what looked like tiny bugs crawling around some circular object.

“This is an electron microscope video looking at one of your red blood cells.”

“What!?” Stephen said. “What’s crawling on it? Is that some kind of disease.”

“Well,” Richardson said. “That’s what I was thinking, but then I did another check of some other samples I collected earlier.” He opened a new video, showing more of the small bugs crawling around, no sign of a disc this time. “This is looking at a dust sample from the transporter room.”

“There too?” Vicky asked.

“And,” Richardson said. “Here’s the view of a sample I took from just outside in the hall.” He showed a third video with the same crawling creatures.

“They’re… everywhere?” Stephen said.

Richardson nodded and said, “And, that’s not all. They’re not living creatures, or not what we would define as living, some kind of nanobots. They have a metallic structure, some alloy I’ve never seen before. What’s more, they are simply glowing with tachyon particles. In fact, based on my most recent scan, the whole ship is filled with tachyon particles.”

“What does this mean?” Vicky asked. “Where did these nanobots come from?”

“I have a theory,” Richardson said. “I believe they were the gold dust in the hourglass artifact that Stephen dropped earlier, a hive mind of microscopic machines. Once they were freed, they spread out all over the ship, covering every surface, entering every living thing, interfacing with all the electronics on the ship. They may even have taken control of our replicators, which could explain how your clothes have changed.”

“Are they the reason people are getting younger too?” Stephen asked.

“I think so,” Richardson said. “I can’t say why, exactly. It may be that they are programmed for childcare and are somehow attempting to fit us to their programming. They may be reading our computer records or even our own memories and attempting to alter our environment and our bodies to some childhood state. It may be that they feed off the power from the black hole’s waves.”

“That’s… incredible,” Vicky said, sounding more in awe than afraid.

“What do we do?” Stephen asked.

“I am going to brief the captain and the other officers of my findings. In the meantime, could I ask the two of you to quarantine in a shielded space?”

“Sure,” Stephen said.

Vicky nodded.

“Go to the room the captain set up for you next to her own quarters,” Richardson explained. “I’ll have someone set up some barriers you can rest inside. There should be space enough for a pair of cots.”

“What do we do in there?” Stephen asked.

“Wait for the next waves. We’ll need someone who can remember the way the ship is supposed to be if more changes happen. Unfortunately, we can’t shield the entire ship, but we can shield some people here and there. We’ll be looking to the two of you to help us.”

“I see,” Stephen said.

Richardson stood up and said, “Head to your new room. Wait there. I’ll have the captain check in with you two later.”

“Right,” Vicky said, standing up as well. “Let’s go to your room,” she told Stephen.

He hesitated for a nervous moment, and then followed her out into the halls.

***

The new room was more spacious than Stephen’s old quarters, which was helpful due to there having been a large metal box constructed in the middle of it. On one side was a hinged door that swung open to reveal a pair of cots inside, along with a small table with a lamp and a stack of books on it.

“Looks like Richardson worried about us getting bored,” Vicky said as she stepped inside and started scanning the titles of the books.

Stephen followed her in and shut the door behind himself. Vicky took a seat on one cot and Stephen sat on the other. As big as the cube had appeared from the outside, it felt very claustrophobic being shut inside of it with Vicky, especially seeing her dressed in that odd babydoll dress.

Noticing him looking at her dress, she appeared a bit self conscious. “I should have found a change of clothes first before we came here,” she said, crossing her arms.

“Yeah,” Stephen said, looking down at his own childish onesie. “I don’t even know where to begin finding something to wear now.”

There was an awkward moment when they both avoided looking at each other.

“I’m going to find a book to read,” Vicky said.

“Yeah,” Stephen said. “Uh… me too.”

They fumbled around with the stack of books, and Stephen grabbed the first one he could without even looking at the title. Then, they lay down on their cots and did their best to focus on reading and while trying to ignore each other.

Stephen attempted to read, but boredom quickly set in. What’s more, he was still feeling the effects of the hangover from that morning. His eyes drooped shut once, but he was woken up immediately when the book slipped from his fingers and thumped down on his chest. He tried reading again, but soon he drifted off to sleep, this time letting the book lower onto his chest, gently.

***

He opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by walls of wooden bars. He looked down to find that he was dressed only in a diaper. It seemed an appropriate thing to wear, what with him being a baby. Still, something felt wrong. He looked around the room beyond his crib, wondering where his mommy had gone.

Then, he spotted her. Kelly walked into the room, and he cooed and babbled up at her to draw her attention.

She walked to his crib and smiled down at him. “There’s my little man,” she said, giving him a little tickle under his chin, eliciting a drooling giggle from him. “I’ve been missing you.”

He tried to tell her how he had missed her as well, but his mouth would not form the words. Somehow, he sensed that she knew.

“You’re such an adorable baby,” she said, frowning. “Why did this have to happen to you?”

He was confused by her words, but he felt something strange happening as well. He felt himself shrinking.

***

Stephen woke up to the sensation of his clothing sliding along his skin, even as he lay perfectly still. He felt his hands and feet, dragged up within the length of the arms and legs of his onesie as it seemed to grow too large to fit him. But, it was not the onsie that was changing. It was his body. He was shrinking!

“Vicky?” he said, his voice cracking up an octave.

He looked over at her and saw her catch sight of him. “Stephen?” she said. “You’re getting younger!”

He lifted his arms up, trying to look at his hands but finding only the overlong sleeves of his onesie hanging from his fingertips. “No!” he said. “Not again!” His voice was whiny and high, undoubtedly childish sounding now. He sat up and swung his legs over so he could rest them on the floor. However, only his toes reached the ground now, and, like his hands, they were swallowed up by the fabric of his onesie.

Vicky stood up, and he felt even smaller looking up at her. Her clothes still fit as they had done before. She had not changed at all, and yet he felt that she was older now. More accurately, he recognized that he had become much younger than her.

With tears welling up in his eyes, he whimpered, “Help me.”

***

Not much later, the doctor had been summoned along with Richardson. Stephen stripped out of his oversized onesie, revealing his skinny young body to the doctor.

“How old did you say you were supposed to be?” the doctor asked, sounding as incredulous as ever.

“Eighteen?” Stephen said, trying hard to believe it was true. He sat with his hands crossed over his crotch, hiding his hairless shame.

“Your chart says 12, and my current observations would agree with it.”

Vicky stepped back inside the isolation cube holding a garment in her hands, causing Stephen to grip his crotch a little more tightly. “I tried to find something that would fit you now,” she said. “Try these on, maybe.”

Vicky handed him the underwear and turned her back to him, giving him a little shred of privacy. Stephen stood up and stepped into the underwear. Only after he had pulled them up did he notice how unusually padded they were.

“Wait,” he said. “Is this a diaper?”

Vicky turned to look at him and said, “I think it might be a pair of training pants. It was the only thing I found in the drawers here that looked like underwear.”

Stephen poked the soft fabric, realizing that it was full of absorbent material used for potty training toddlers. However, these were much too large for an actual toddler. They seemed to have been specifically tailored to fit his 12-year-old body.

The door to the room opened and in walked the captain. Mitrani looked concerned in a way that was unbecoming of a Vulcan, especially one in a leadership position. If Stephen did not know better, he would have thought she was worried.

Feeling terribly underdressed, Stephen crossed his arms, trying to hide his bare bony chest at least.

“Stephen!” the captain cried when she noticed him. Hurrying to be near him, she said, “When I got word that something had happened to you, I came as soon as I could.” She looked him over with genuine concern in her eyes. “What’s the matter?”

“He’s fine,” the doctor said. “Not injured or ill. Apparently, he’s suffering from sudden youthfulness.”

“I got younger again,” Stephen explained.

The captain squinted at him, confused. “You’re younger now?”

“I was 14 earlier today. Now, I’m 12.”

“You were always 12,” the captain stated.

“No,” Vicky said, joining in the conversation. “I was in isolation with him, and I saw it happen. He just became younger right before my eyes.”

“‘Isolation?’” the captain inquired and turned to her science officer for an explanation.

“Yes,” Richardson said. “We had a hypothesis that radiation shielding was blocking the mental effects of his changes, so I put the two of them inside of the box over there. When he changed this time, Vicky saw it happen and remembered it. None of us remember him having been older, though, since we weren’t shielded.”

“Oh, Stephen,” the captain said. “You must be terribly worried.”

“I’m handling it,” Stephen said.

Then, the captain surprised him by stepping close to him and wrapping her arms around him, drawing him into an awkward hug. There was no warmth to it, though. It was a hug performed by someone who had read about the behavior without ever wanting to do it out of any actual affection. Stephen was so shocked that he did not even consider returning the hug. It did not comfort him that her close proximity only emphasized how much smaller than her he had become. “I’m here,” she said, clutching him to her. “Do not be afraid. Your mother is here for you.”

“My what?” Stephen asked.

“‘Your mother?’” Vicky repeated, sounding as confused as he felt.

The captain released him and gave him a concerned look. “What’s the matter, my boy?” she asked.

Before he could respond, the door to the room opened again. Stephen's already shocked expression turned to pure horror when in walked Kelly, looking the same as ever in her starfleet uniform. Seeing his 18-year-old girlfriend now from the perspective of a 12 year old was deeply intimidating, and that was before he remembered he was wearing only training pants.

Kelly approached them all with an uncertain look on her face when she noticed Stephen standing there beside the captain. Stephen wondered how she would react to seeing him like this, but it was hard to read her expression.

“Oh, good,” Richardson said. “You made it.”

“Explain,” the captain said.

“The cadet here was with Stephen before when he became younger the first time. I wanted to check her reaction to Stephen after his new changes.”

The captain put a protective hand on Stephen’s shoulder as Vicky flanked him on the other side. With Kelly in front of him, Stephen felt surrounded by the three older women.

“H-hello, Stephen,” Kelly said. “What is going on here?”

“Kelly, we need your help. Please, tell us if you notice anything different about Stephen,” Richardson explained. “Anything at all?”

“Uh,” she said, squinting as she looked Stephen over. “Not really.”

“Tell us what you know about him.”

“He’s the captain’s son,” Kelly said. “I’ve met him in engineering. He’s something of a prodigy, so Bergh has allowed him to work there as part of his schooling. He managed to shut down the reactor just before it went critical, but… I’m not sure about the details of that… Strange... It was just a day ago, but I’m not entirely sure what happened. I know I took him to sick bay. Then… something happened that night. I’m not sure what. He seemed different in the morning. That’s when we went to Richardson. After that, I spent the rest of the day in engineering.”

“Fascinating,” the captain said. “Her recollections seem confused.”

“Is this how you remember the events of the past few days?” Richardson asked Stephen.

Stephen shook his head. “Kelly and I were the same age before we went on the away mission. We were… close,” he said, mourning his lost relationship with her.

“Another thing that’s changed,” Vicky said. “Stephen was definitely not the captain’s son yesterday.”

“What?” the captain said, gripping Stephen’s shoulder more tightly. “That can’t be. I have raised Stephen since just before he was old enough to walk.”

“That’s what I remember as well,” Richardson said. “It may not have been true before our reality was warped by the black hole and the nanobots.”

“I can confirm that it wasn’t true before,” Vicky said. “This is really incredible… and kind of scary.”

“You have no idea,” Stephen said.

Stephen felt intimidated, and if he was being honest, he was developing a youthful crush on the women surrounding him. In particular, the captain resting her hand on his bare shoulder was turning him on. Fortunately, his padded underwear was hiding his little stiffness below.

“Hmm,” Richardson pondered the situation with his hand on his chin. “This could be very serious. If something as major as having the captain as your mother might change, then what else might have changed on the ship without us noticing.”

Vicky said, “Seeing as Stephen and I are the only ones shielded from the changes, it would make sense to have us look around the ship to see what we notice has changed.”

“But,” Stephen said. “If we get hit by more waves, then we won’t be shielded this time.”

“Good point,” Richardson said.

“Stephen will stay here with me,” the captain said, pulling him closer to her. “Vicky, you go with Richardson. Report to me with any changes you find.”

“I can stay with him,” Kelly said, stepping closer to Stephen as she addressed the captain. “You’re needed on the bridge. It would make more sense for me to watch him.”

“Hold on,” Vicky said, putting a hand on his other shoulder. “I’d rather not be separated from him either. We have the same perspective on the situation, and we can discuss what is happening together. Can’t we create some kind of portable shielding for us to take with us?”

“Enough!” the captain said, sounding stern, bordering on angry. “I am staying with my son in this room. Report back when you have more information to share.”

The girls exchanged a look, and Richardson nodded. Then, the three of them left the room, followed by the doctor.

Alone now with the captain, Stephen turned to face her, seeing a muted affectionate look on her face.

“Now,” she said. “My boy, let us find you something more to wear.”

***

A search through some drawers produced a Stephen-sized short red onesie with starships printed on it.

“Do I have to wear this?” Stephen asked. “And, the training pants? I don’t need these.”

“Now, Stephen,” the captain, his new mother, said. “I know you want to feel more grown up, but you are a ‘late bloomer,’ as the saying goes. If you can consistently wake up dry, then we can consider graduating you to regular underwear.”

Stephen sighed and put on the short onesie over his padded undies. As embarrassingly childish as it was, he preferred it to walking around in just his underwear. Then, he slipped on a brightly colored pair of socks and a similarly colored pair of gym shoes, and the outfit was complete.

“There,” the captain said. “That is much better. How about we have some breakfast together? I believe the replicators are functioning again.” She ordered up a standard Earth breakfast for him and a simple Vulcan meal for herself. Then, she set their food on the table.

The captain sat on one side, and Stephen hesitated a moment before taking a seat opposite her. As domestic and maternal as this moment was, Stephen’s more mature memories gave him the simultaneous impression that he was on a date with the captain. Not that he would have minded, she was quite pretty for a woman her age. Still, it felt awkward with how young he was and how she kept calling him “son.”

“Captain,” Stephen said. “Maybe-”

“Call me ‘mother,’” she said, correcting him, “or, ‘mommy,’ if you would prefer.”

He sighed and took a sip of orange juice to clear his head. “Mother,” he said, the word tasting sour in his mouth. “Doesn’t the ship need you commanding the crew right now?”

“Right now,” she said. “My most important duty is to my child. Children are our most precious resource, after all.”

Stephen was about to start eating his pancakes, but before he could pick up his knife, the captain took it and used it, along with his fork, to cut up his meal into bite-sized pieces. It was simultaneously insulting and endearing, having her baby him like that.

“Thanks,” Stephen said and took a bite of it. As he chewed, he decided that he needed to convince her to treat him less like a child. He said, “Can I ask you some questions?”

“Don’t speak with your mouth full,” she gently scolded him.

He finished chewing and swallowed it. “How old do you think I am?”

“You are twelve Earth years old,” she said.

“Why am I dressed like I belong in kindergarten?” he asked, trying to get her to think logically about the situation.

“As I said, you are a ‘late bloomer.’ Naturally, you would be wearing clothes befitting your level of development.”

He retreated back to his food to consider another line of questioning. After finishing another bite of his breakfast, he asked, “Do you believe me when I say that I am not supposed to be this young?”

“I…” she seemed reluctant to respond. “I am not sure what I believe. You tell a convincing story, and Richardson seems to trust you. However…”

“Is it that you don’t want to believe me? If I’m telling the truth, then-”

“Then, I am not supposed to be your mother?” she said, unable to hide the pain in her voice. “That would be the logical conclusion.”

“It is the truth,” he said. “I’m sorry, but you’re not my mother.”

She did not respond but ate in silence for another minute. Stephen had never known a Vulcan to be this stubborn about reaching a logical conclusion. Something else must be bothering her, he realized.

“Why did you say that children are ‘our most important resource?’” he asked her.

“As captain,” she said. “It is my duty to safeguard all the children being raised on this ship.”

“How many children are being raised on this ship?” he asked, suspecting what might have changed.

“At last count,” she said, “there are 132 children on our crew.”

“How can that be?” Stephen asked. “Why would Starfleet send out a ship with so many children on it? That makes no sense. Can’t you see it?”

The strained look on her face indicated that she was struggling to reason through the changes to this reality. “It is… exceptional,” she said. “That does not make it impossible.”

Feeling that any more questions would be futile, Stephen focused on finishing his meal.

***

After breakfast, the captain insisted Stephen use a tablet to work on his classwork. It seemed that there was no escaping school, even if his teacher was no longer potty trained. The classwork assigned to him was calibrated for his physical age more than his level of childhood development, which meant he was doing early secondary school math instead of basic arithmetic. It was achingly dull, but he could appreciate that it was better than the alternative.

The captain, meanwhile, spent her time reading reports and answering calls from the crew for orders. It seemed to be a much more involved process than was necessary. If she had been seeing them in person, Stephen suspected that she would have required fewer questions and less clarification.

Just before lunchtime, Richardson and Vicky returned.

Stephen stood up when Vicky approached, but he regretted it when he was again reminded how much smaller he had become since he first met her. She was taller than him, and he wondered if she might not have grown a little since he last saw her.

“Richardson?” the captain said, prompting him.

“Vicky has noticed some significant changes,” Richardson said and turned to Vicky.

Vicky took a breath and said, “I don’t know how to describe it exactly. The whole ship seems to be transforming to be more kid-friendly. The chairs are lower. The consoles are smaller, I guess, so that kids can reach the controls. The school has expanded to fill a whole deck of the ship, and it looks like a nursery has filled most of the next deck down.”

The captain looked at Vicky, blank-faced. “What is it that seems different to you about that?” she asked the girl.

Vicky looked to Richardson for help, but he just shrugged. It seemed that he was as oblivious as the captain. She sighed and said, “As I was telling Richardson, the ship did not have this many children on it before. We certainly did not have a whole deck set up as a school. Children were not working on ship systems before, so the consoles were designed only for adults.”

“But,” the captain said, “what would be our mission if not to care for the well-being of children?”

“We’re on a mission of discovery and exploration,” Vicky said, sounding exhausted from trying and failing to explain things to people who refused to understand her. “We’re out here to go where no one has gone before.”

“I see,” the captain said. “That would be an admirable mission.”

“It is our mission,” Vicky said. “Or, it was. It should be.”

“She’s right,” Stephen said. “We were here to explore, but it seems that we’ve become trapped by what we found.”

“If this is a trap,” Richardson said. “Then, that would imply that we should be finding a means of escape.”

“What is the status of the ship’s repairs?” the captain inquired.

“We’ve stalled out on our progress, last I checked. We are understaffed in some crew positions, it seems. That may be because of the changes Vicky and Stephen noticed.”

“We need to find a way to get out of here,” Stephen said. “If the black hole is fueling the nanobots, then we need to get away from it to cut off their power source. Once we stop them, then we can work on returning to normal, somehow.”

The captain listened and then thought about his words quietly for a long time.

“It makes sense,” Richardson said. “So long as we stay put, we’re sitting ducks for the waves from the black hole.”

The captain nodded. Then, she called for engineering over the intercom. “Bergh,” she said. “What do you need to make sure the ship is ready for warp in the next day or two?”

Bergh replied over the intercom, “Right now, we need every available hand to make repairs. Whoever you can spare. If I can get that, then I estimate we can be done by tomorrow.”

“Pull everyone you can. Get it done as soon as you can,” she said.

“Understood,” Bergh said and ended the call.

“Now,” Richardson said. “We’ll need to do something to try to block the waves. I might be able to alter the ship's shields to provide us some protection from the black hole.”

“Do it,” the captain said.

Richardson left.

“Now,” the captain said to Vicky and Stephen. “It might be time for the two of you to get to school.”

Before they could protest, there was an alarm and an announcement from Bergh. “More waves on the way. Brace for impact.”

Stephen and Vicky ran for cover in their shielded box. They made it inside and shut the door just before the waves hit. In the shaking and rolling that followed, Stephen fell over onto one of the cots and Vicky was pitched forward on top of him, mashing her breasts into his face. Flattened beneath the weight of her, Stephen could only wait for it to be over. When the waves subsided, she sat up, straddling him. He looked up at her and was amazed to see her chest swelling out larger, right before his eyes. Seeing him staring at her, she noticed her own expanding breasts and watched with wide eyes as they grew to fill the top of her babydoll dress nearly to the point of bursting free.

“Oh, my,” Vicky said.

“Stephen!” the captain called from outside before opening the door to the box. Stephen and Vicky turned to face her as she looked at them with a shocked expression on her face.

However, Vicky and Stephen’s attention was drawn to her chest, which was expanding larger, just as Vicky’s chest had grown moments before. Soon, her breasts grew so large that they burst free of her uniform, ripping it open at the seams to make space for her surplus flesh. Moments later, each breast was as large as her own head.

The captain seemed oblivious to her own changes, not even noticing that she had been rendered effectively topless.

Then, Stephen felt his own body begin to change as well.

“Oh, no!” he said, feeling himself shrinking away beneath Vicky. His childish clothes became too large for his already small body, as he sank further down into childhood. Above him, Vicky appeared increasingly bigger and older compared to him as his years trickled away. “Please,” he begged the nanobots. “No more.” His little voice sounded more and more babyish as he spoke.

The shrinking slowed to a halt, leaving him years younger than he had been before the waves.

“Oh, Stephen,” Vicky said, looking down at him past her enormous chest with pity in her eyes.

He felt like crying, but he just covered his eyes with his arm to hide the tears before they came.

“Stephen,” the captain said, stepping inside the cube. “Please, move aside,” she added, addressing Vicky.

Vicky climbed off of Stephen, and he felt the captain take a seat on the cot by his legs. He peeked at her.

“My boy,” she said, placing a comforting hand on his leg. “Don’t be afraid. The wave has passed.” It was quite a sight, seeing the stern Vulcan captain he had long respected, looking like some character out of a sex fantasy. Then, there was her maternal attitude, which was so at odds with her normal behavior. It seemed that her old self had all but vanished at that point.

“Captain,” Vicky said. “Your clothes.”

The captain turned her attention away from Stephen to check her uniform top. “Odd,” she said. “I must have torn them during the shaking.”

“No,” Vicky said. “It’s your breasts. They just grew. We both saw it happen. My own breasts grew as well.”

“I’m not sure I follow what you are saying,” the captain said. “Were our breasts smaller before?”

Vicky groaned in frustration. “What am I even doing trying to point these things out anymore?”

“Wait,” Stephen said. “Why are you growing when I’m shrinking?” His voice felt so soft and tiny now that it embarrassed him to speak.

Vicky looked down at her chest and noticed a pair of damp spots on her dress right where her nipples were. She touched one, testing if it were actually wet. “I think I’m lactating,” she said, sounding horrified. “Oh, no. All the babies on the ship... The nanobots, they’re turning some of the women into mothers… We’re like cows to them, milk producers.”

“Now, Vicky,” the captain said. “That’s no way to describe our duty to the children of this nursery vessel. We have an honorable responsibility to feed and care for the little ones.”

“Stephen,” Vicky said. “We need to get to engineering. We need to make sure the ship is repaired, so we can get away from here as soon as possible.”

“Go, then,” the captain said. “Stephen will stay with me, though,” she added.

Vicky hesitated.

“Go,” Stephen said. “I’ll catch up with you when I can.”

Vicky nodded and left his quarters.

“Come now,” the captain said. “Let’s find you some clothes that fit.”

She stood up and Stephen followed her. Standing beside her was distressing, though. He had become small enough to be eye-level with her chest, which was so enormous as to be almost frightening.

The captain left the shielded box. Stephen walked behind her, feeling his clothes hanging loosely from him as he walked. He nearly tripped on his own ill-fitting shoes, so he slipped them off and followed her to the closet and dresser in his flopping big socks.

“Let’s get you out of those clothes,” she said and began to undress him. She did not wait for him to do it himself, taking the initiative to strip him.

“Wait,” he said as she unzipped his onesie. “I can do it.”

She ignored him, and he felt too weak to resist her. She kept going until after she pulled down his large training pants, leaving him naked.

He covered his crotch with his hands, but there was very little left to hide. He felt not a trace of body hair left on him.

“Here,” she said, handing him a pull up diaper. “Do you want to try pulling it up yourself?”

“Of course,” he said. As much as he wanted to demand an actual pair of underwear, he realized that being difficult now would likely lead her to putting a real diaper on him instead. At the very least, he appreciated having something to wear that fit him again, even if it was designed for potty training.

“Good job,” she said with forced cheerfulness. “Now, it’s time for your lunch.”

The captain walked over to the bed and lay down on it sideways, facing him.

He stood up and waited to see what she would do next. After an awkward silence, he asked, “Are we not going to use the replicator to make some food?”

“What?” she said. “No, of course not. I will be feeding you myself, as I normally do.”

After a moment of confusion, he was hit by the horrifying realization of what she meant. “Wait,” he said. “You don’t mean that you want to… breastfeed me?”

“How else would I feed you?” she asked.

“But, I’m not a baby,” Stephen said. “I have to be at least 10 years old, still.”

“That is still young enough for you to benefit from your mother’s milk,” she said. “Now, hurry up and lay down here. I am feeling particularly full right now. It is getting... uncomfortable.”

Stephen shook his head. “No,” he said. “I’ve suffered a lot of indignities already, but this is too much. I’m not doing it.”

“Stephen,” she said. “This is an order. Come here and drink your meal from me, right now.”

Stephen calculated the chances that he might be able to escape her and join Vicky in engineering. While he suspected that he might be able to get away, the captain would find him eventually. Then, she may want to discipline him. All of that would just slow down the process of getting the ship moving again. No, there was only one option. He would need to comply if he wanted to help them all escape this system.

“Alright,” Stephen said, walking to the bed, his eyes focused on her enormous nipples. “I’m coming.”

The captain waited patiently for him to join her in bed as he hesitated. It would have been an awkward moment in any circumstances, laying down with the captain, but the fact that he had been reduced to a primary school child wearing only a pull up diaper made it even worse. He shut his eyes and climbed onto the bed with her.

When Stephen opened his eyes again, he was facing twin mounds of breast flesh stacked atop each other. The size of them intimidated him to the point that he nearly forgot he was still a boy and not an actual baby. The breasts certainly were of a size that would be proportional to a normal baby.

Stephen opened his mouth and leaned in, but stopped, realizing that he would need to reposition the nipple to get comfortable putting his lips on it. His fingers hesitated to touch her breast. Somehow that seemed more inappropriate than his mouth, maybe because he would be bordering on something sexual if he did involve his fingers. Still, he had to do it in order to start.

His young hands gripped the breast like a basketball, feeling the soft warmth of it as he turned the nipple to face him. That movement produced a drop of thin milk from her nipple. He leaned in and put his lips around it, finding the enormous size of the nipple to be a perfect fit for his mouth. He gave it an experimental suck, which produced a warm stream of watery milk that washed over his tongue. It was surprisingly delicious, rich and creamy, calling up forgotten memories of early childhood. He sucked again, and swallowed. Soon his mouth got into a rhythm, instinct having taken over. He noticed then just how hungry he had been and greedily proceeded to drink down his meal.

Stephen suckled on the Vulcan tit, feeling the warmth of his captain’s milk flow down his throat to gradually fill his belly. As disturbed as he was by the situation, he found the experience oddly comforting. He recognized that there were a few layers of himself all interacting in strange ways. On one level, he was his adult self, sensing that he was doing something perversely sexual with the captain of the ship. On another level, he was a young boy in bed with his “mother,” so small compared to her that his feet were only at her shins with his lips on her nipple. On an even deeper level, he was an infant, her baby, feeding on his mother’s milk, feeling the comforting warmth of her inside and out. In all that confused mix, he gave himself over to the moment and let his body lead the way.

When the milk thickened, the captain said, “Oh, my little boy is hungry. Let’s change sides.” She pulled her nipple from his lips and rolled to her other side. Stephen crawled over her and settled in to drink more, mirroring the position he had been in for her other breast. He sucked from her other breast then without hesitation, having given up on any reservations about the meal he was having. Right then, Stephen desired only to drink his fill of her milk.

The intercom signaled for the captain.

“Yes?” she asked, as Stephen continued suckling.

“Captain,” Richardson said. “We are making progress on getting the warp drives back online, but we are running into a problem with the crew.”

“What problem?”

“Even pulling in every available crew member to assist has left us a bit short-handed. If Stephen has engineering training as he says he does, then we could really use him down here now.”

Stephen listened and wondered if Richardson could hear him sucking on the captain’s tit.

“Stephen is feeding right now,” the captain said. “We will be with you when he is done.”

“Understood,” Richardson said. “Just wanted to let you know that you may want to hurry if you can.”

“Thank you. We will be down soon.”

Stephen slowed his sucking, but it was hard to stop after he had gotten into the rhythm. His body wanted to keep feeding. He finally forced himself to detach.

The captain looked down at him and asked, “All done?”

“Yeah,” Stephen said, before letting out a huge creamy burp.

“Good boy,” she said. “Mama is proud of you for drinking so much of her milk. Now, it is time for you to get dressed to help rebuild the warp drive.”