The Victorious
Aftermath
Part I
by Máire Flynn
Victory has brought us a lasting peace in this world, but it has also brought us responsibility. Responsibility to ourselves, and responsibility to the vanquished. No, we can no longer continue our reckless treatment of humanity. We are very excited by the coming innovations in nanotechnology, and hope that the fruits of our scientists’ labors will bring the domestication of humanity. The labor and death camps are nothing but relics of the war; and consequentially, relics of human society. It is the hope of this senate that humanity will take its rightful place in Our Society.
-Arch Senator Ulysses Whalen
November 16th, 26 AW (2113 AD)
Vanessa’s monorail trip had been interesting, but she was nonplused with the experience, especially from being called out of Cyna Prima – the capital – under such short notice. Though mass transit had really taken off in the years following Cynan Reconstruction, she would always prefer automobiles first. On the other hand, the monorail ticket had been paid for by the Guardorate; and, since the only free ride they were willing to provide was state-run, she would just have to make do.
Ah yes, but we’ve done a wonderful job of making the trains run on time, she thought with a cynical smile. It was ironic what victory had done to the victorious. Looking down the corridor of the interior, she saw humans bringing wine and other luxurious accommodations to their masters. They were the lucky humans, the ones who had not died in the camps. Yes, winning had brought more than victory. Much more. Vanessa opened her suitcase and pulled out her e-window. She unsnapped the stylus from its side and began searching its memory for the letter she received yesterday; very short notice indeed. She opened her mailbox and there it was, the project known as Garden.
The Progressive Party had finally taken the senate majority, and this project was the first of many fresh ideas in solving the Human Question. She gave another cynical smile. The bitter loathing of herself and her people gave Vanessa a bad taste in her mouth. But hopefully, the desire for social improvement would not be a blip on the political map. Otherwise, the war would have been for nothing. They had fought hard to win against humanity, because they believed that they were better than the weak mammals that had sought to strangle their fledgling race in the cradle, yet the price of freedom and winning was deciding what to do with the conquered. Many believed that the only way to truly have peace would be to wipe out all of humanity. Others believed in domesticating the human population and giving them a place in Cynan society. The senate, however, had opted for a compromise.
There were simply too many humans to just integrate them into society. Even as a subjugated people their resistance was unrelenting. No matter how hard the government retaliated against them, their insurrections only multiplied. So, the Guardians began thinning the herd. The goal was not genocide, but to simply reduce the human population to a more manageable number. Or so they reasoned. The Progressive party came to being out of concern that the thinning might never stop until the last human on earth perished – and not a few Cynans wanted just that.
“…to drink, Mistress?” Vanessa spun her head quickly to the
serva—female servant—standing in the aisle by her side.
Peacetime has made me soft. Had she been meaning to kill me, she would have had an excellent chance. But that was absurd – the rebels blew up trains, not send a servant to kill a single passenger. Still, not paying attention to her surroundings could prove fatal one day.
“Say again,
serva?”
“Would you like something to drink, Mistress?”
“No, just some quiet.” With that, the
serva scurried away, fearing reprisal. Vanessa went back to studying the rest of the files sent to her. As she poured through them, she became more convinced that maybe humans were right about the Cynans.
So, w
e’re twisted after all! She had yet to see the new nanodirective in action, but she liked it already.
She reached into her briefcase and pulled out the vile that was the fruit of Garden Project. After reading her orders to go find a suitable test subject, she had to first pay a visit to the Central Nanotronics lab, where they had developed the contents of the tiny vile. She smiled at the tiny reflection the glass shined back to her.
*** She awoke at the sound of the cell doors opening. It was not time for breakfast yet, which made her worry. The worry did have the advantage of clearing her grogginess, but the other side of that coin was that her mind would be completely devoted to whatever they had in store for her.
“On your feet, Callahan,” said the female guard; she looked to be in her fifties, with a stocky, muscular build. Likely she had been a soldier in the war, judging from the scars on her face, the tattoos on her arms, and the obvious limp. In spite of her wounds fighting for humanity, she had apparently shown little qualm with helping the Cynans keep order in their postwar society. But when cooperation meant life or death camp, many humans had chosen to accept their masters’ chains.
Haley got to her feet and threw on her prison uniform. She went and stood at the foot of her bed, awaiting inspection, when the guard gestured for her. “No that isn’t necessary…this isn’t an inspection. I’m to escort you to the infirmary.”
It was astounding how one word – infirmary – could bring out such an emotional response in Haley. Sure, she managed not to gasp or go into hysterics, but she did feel cold sweat break out all over her body; she felt her knees begin to tremble, and she felt her bowel muscles tighten. She had been to the infirmary on several occasions, and never once had she needed to see a doctor, at least not until
after they were through with her.
“Come on, Callahan, make this easy on us both…I know you’ve learned by now that cooperation is all they ask.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Haley answered meekly, and forced her legs into motion as she walked forward, and out into the hallway. The guard was right, cooperation was all they wanted. After all, that was why they kept her alive and locked up – in case they needed more help. She expected them to have killed her a long time ago, after she had named every person she had known in the resistance. Hell, she had expected the interrogations to have killed her – and at one point, she had even stopped breathing… Unluckily there had been a doctor nearby to resuscitate her, and so the fun continued.
She was led down the hallway, passing cells of other women, all of whom had done something against the spirit of cooperation with the Cynans. There were almost always new faces to be seen on each trip to the elevator, because women died and fresh replacements were plentiful, though not as plentiful as they had once been. Entering the elevator she fought to keep her hands from shaking as she watched the number drop till the first floor was reached. From there it was a short trip to the infirmary.
Upon entering the infirmary room, she was surprised to not be taken straight to the steel bed, but instead was led into an adjacent room, where a table with chairs waited. It was the other side of the glass mirror she had never seen before. No doubt many a Cynan had watched from this room all the interrogations unfold out in the infirmary. Sitting at the table was a lone Cynan.
On the surface, a Cynan very much resembled a human, with a few exceptions. Cynan ears were pointed and much longer – extending up their heads almost like those of a bat; their eyes were an incredibly deep blue colour, hypnotically intense; their skin was markedly pale, with a hint of blue; and, then there was their physical makeup. At one time, they had been human, but thanks to the nanites that saturated their bodies, they had become something different entirely. Haley’s knowledge of history was sketchy, but there were some things every human who had fought in the war knew. Near the middle of the twenty-first century, nanites were used commonly in treating any number of human ailments, and even in genetic modification – from curing birth defects to prolonging life. For a time, life was good for humanity, until the virus infected the nanites working away within people.
No one, not even the new masters of the planet, knew who wrote the nanovirus, but it corrupted the nanites within millions upon millions of people in North America – turning them into a new race of beings: the Cynans. After that came the attempt to cure the people afflicted by the nanovirus, then the imprisonments and boycotting of nanites. Then the Cynan revolution. After that, North America became the cradle of their civilization. The rest of the world struck back with ferocity… but in the end the Cynans were victorious. Now humans only lived at the behest of the masters.
The Cynan sitting at the table looked to be a young female with blue hair cut short; Haley had at first mistaken her for a boy until she noticed the shape of the Cynan’s breasts under her black Guardian uniform.
“Sit down.” The Cynan took her eyes away from Haley and said, “Guard, you’re no longer needed. I’ll take charge of Haley Callahan from here on out.” The guard turned and left, not saying a word, but she did give Haley a look of near pity.
Like I want your pity, running dog cunt. Haley turned back to the Cynan, who appeared to be paying no attention to her at all. She was instead browsing her e-window for files, likely for Haley Callahan’s dossier. Haley looked around the room, feeling fear creep up from her gut. What was this Cynan going to do with her, and how long could her life be measured from here on out? Days? Hours?
Minutes? Haley stared at the steel chair she was expected to sit down in, and saw the only glimmer of hope possible – pick it up and bludgeon the Cynan. It was ludicrous at best, but at least she would die fighting, like she had hoped so many years ago near the war’s end, when humanity’s defeat was inevitable. She calmly walked over to it and gripped the backrest with both hands, summoning up the will to do it. Was this to be her final hour, her final defiant act even after being broken by the interrogators? Even if she could get the drop on the Guardian, there was no way she could kill the monster with a chair. If anything about the Cynan race, their nanites made them nearly impervious.
“I’ll have your neck snapped before you can even make your move, now sit down.” The Cynan chuckled to herself before adding, “For what it’s worth, I promise not to hurt you.” Haley’s grip tightened down on the chair, but then with a sigh she pulled the chair out and sat down. She folded her hands neatly in her lap and regarded the Cynan quietly as she continued to browse her files; not once had she stopped to look up at Haley.
“Now…” The Cynan finally brought her piercing blue gaze up to Haley and smiled pleasantly, but Haley couldn’t see anything pleasant in her eyes. They were the eyes of someone who had seen war – Haley’s were much the same. “I’m going to say a few things…feel free to nod if any of it rings a bell. Your name is Haley Callahan, and you were a waitress in a pub in Dublin during your late teens, then the war broke out. During the war, you were conscripted after Canada fell. You saw action in Ireland, then Britain, and then in Europe itself. It says here that you were even part of the army that threw us back when we attempted a beachhead in France. After that you were transferred to the Pyrenees to hold us back after our
successful invasion of Spain. After that you found yourself on the Rhine, then the Danube….and so on and so forth until it was all over with for the European Union. After that you disguised yourself as a Polish peasant, and then your illustrious terrorist career began.” The Cynan frowned, seeing something in Haley’s eyes. “Is something not right here? You may speak freely of course.”
“I was a soldier but never a terrorist, Mistress.”
“Then do you prefer the term ‘guerilla?’ Well then… after your guerilla campaign, other humans informed on you and then your career of cooperation came next.” Haley closed her eyes and nodded. “Of course, it took some not-so-gentle prodding to bring you around. And here you are now, forty-eight years old and withering away in this prison.”
The Cynan continued. “My name is Vanessa Devres – Guardian. Before you begin pissing yourself, I’m in Psychological Operations, not the dreaded Human Affairs. I’m going to need your help, in the service of the State, and possibly for humanity as well.” Haley looked genuinely puzzled, which made Vanessa smile a predator’s grin. “That’s right. You haven’t been keeping up with the news. There is a new party dominating the senate now, and it is their wish that humans be a part of society with us. With your help, I am going to see to it that this becomes a reality.”
“What sort of help are you wanting?” Haley asked cautiously. The Guardian cocked an eyebrow at her. “Mistress,” she finally added.
“Well, I’m going to have you cleaned up, properly dressed, and brought to my home. From there we’ll see if this works or not. But first, I need to do a few things in preparation… you will most likely be taken with fear, but that will pass.” Haley shifted uneasily. “If you would please, I can take you into the infirmary and get this over with.”
“Mistress...you...what…Infirmary?” The trembling returned again, and a malignant voice inside Haley said,
Did you really think you were getting out of this so easily?
“I didn’t stutter, my dear. Go into the infirmary. Now.”
Miraculously, Haley managed to get up from her seat. She was about to push the chair against the table but she paused. Vanessa Devres noticed the pause, and smiled, still sitting. What happened next was quicker than Haley’s mind could keep up with. She was vaguely aware of her own hands grabbing the chair and throwing it at the Guardian, but all she heard was the slam of it hitting the wall, and the
chink-a-chunk of plaster bits flying in every direction. She had no chance to think any further, for out of nowhere a very strong hand gripped her throat and lifted her up. The back of her head slammed into the wall behind her, causing a colourful galaxy to burst before Haley’s eyes.
“Well then…aren’t you going to beg for your life? I told you that I would snap your neck for attempting such a thing against me.” Haley said nothing, partially because her windpipe was being crushed under the pressure of the Cynan’s powerful grip, but also because she wanted the bitch to kill her. If she could gasp anything, it would have been,
fucking kill me! END IT NOW!
The Cynan dropped Haley to the floor, rested her left arm against the wall, and peered down at her. “But what am I thinking? Why would you beg? You have no life to lose….once we broke you, what was there for you? Why did we even bother keeping you alive? Don’t you see, that’s how the rest of humanity is. We did such a thorough job of breaking all of you that there is nothing left but hate and death wish. If you want me to kill you now, say so, and I will make it as quick as possible. Then, I will go find some other human. I can’t bring back your family or your old life… I can, however, bring you a
new life. I know you don’t trust me…and you probably think I’m about to lead you into some horrendous torture, but that isn’t the case. If I was out to destroy you, I would have done it by now, especially after you threw that chair. As a token of my goodwill – unless you tell me otherwise, I’m giving you a life. So what say you?”
Haley only coughed and spat blood onto the floor.
“Can you stand?” When Haley nodded, the Cynan said, “Alright then. Stand up and go into the infirmary. We’ll end your old life and begin anew, okay?”
Haley, whose mind was disconnected at this point, stood up and walked to the door leading to the infirmary. There were no thoughts flashing through her, just blackness and adrenaline.
“Take a seat on the bed…hopefully there’ll be no need to strap you down…” Vanessa Devres called from the adjacent room. Submissively, Haley complied. Shortly after, the Guardian entered the infirmary carrying her briefcase. She sat it down on the instrument tray next to the examining bed, unsnapping the latches and opening it. Out of it she pulled a vile of clear liquid. She picked up a pressure syringe and inserted the vile into its spine. She brought the instrument over to Haley and said, “This will be painless and over in a minute.” With that, she touched the pressure syringe to the woman and squeezed the trigger, injecting its mysterious contents into her.
“There. There’s an anesthesia and a sedative in the solution accompanying the nanites. It’s not as painful as some things, but the feeling will be somewhat unpleasant when you begin losing body mass.”
Haley stood up all of a sudden and began backing away from the Cynan. “B…body mass? What’s going to happen to me?”
“The nanites are going to convert your body mass to fuel as they shrink you down and alter your system, meanwhile reconverting excess matter into more nanites and energy to sustain them.” Haley looked at her hands and looked at her surroundings. Everything seemed as they had before, and her body was feeling fine, until her stomach and intestines gave an uncomfortable lurch. She clutched her belly and gave an unladylike grunt. “Oh, that. That’s part of the process. In the first stage the nanites begin stimulating your bowels and bladder muscles to purge your body. Don’t feel ashamed, I’ll bring in the nurses to clean you and the floor up.”
In spite of the comforting words, Haley tried to clench her bowel muscles, but they hardly responded. She felt something warm spreading from her crotch and found that she was pissing herself. A dark stain spread down her thighs and filled her shoes before spreading out across the floor. She grunted again in a futile attempt to stave off the inevitable bowel movement, but it was no use. This time, instead of just shitting herself, she pulled down her pants and squatted on the floor, releasing the contents of her bowels. The smell made her nose wrinkle. Embarrassed, she glanced up at the Cynan, who only observed her clinically. After a few minutes of endless release, she stepped out of her wet pants and underwear, and used her panties to wipe her bottom. Upon wiping her vulva, she got her next surprise when she saw that pubic hairs had wiped off onto her panties. She walked over to the two-way mirror and looked at her face.
And, that was her next surprise, seeing a female of eighteen staring back at her. She pulled her prison blouse off and observed her breasts, which had become firm and perky again – no sign off sagging. She cupped her tits in her hands and could feel something odd about them: they were shrinking. She looked back at the mirror and saw that her reflection appeared even younger. She spun around to the Cynan with a look of complete incomprehension.
Why? was written on her face like a banner. Vanessa managed a smile, but found herself at a loss of words. She only continued to watch as the nanites rewrote the woman’s—young girl’s now—body.
I’ve never seen nanites work so quickly in a person, the Guardian reflected with wonder.
We’ve come such a long way. The changes were still going on; in fact, Haley Callahan’s body had shrunk several inches in the space of minutes – and she was still shrinking. Curiosity getting the better of Vanessa, “Take your blouse off, Haley,” she commanded. Being just as curious of what was happening to her own body, Haley complied. She turned back to the mirror and saw a twelve year old girl staring at her.
Haley’s red hair had become curlier and more vibrant; her skin was softer and much more delicate; and, her secondary sex characteristics were rapidly fading away. Her breasts were now replaced by swollen nipples as the nanites were undoubtedly devouring the fat cells in her mammaries to produce their energy. Most astounding of it all was that she could see herself shrinking to some unknown height. How small were they going to make her? She felt warmth once again trickling down her legs and discovered that she was urinating again. At her feet spread a new puddle mixed with pubic hairs that had fallen from her genitals. She raised her arms and brushed away the hair that had dislodged from those follicles too. After she had become a prisoner, shaving her armpits and legs was simply not an option, but to see her body bare of any pubic hair whatsoever
now seemed alien and unnatural to her.
Looking back in the mirror she saw that her shoulders were barely level with it. Her face was increasingly girlish. She glided her hands along her body in fascination, which was in all practical purposes that of a child’s. Traces of sexual maturity had completely vanished. The reflection of the Guardian towered over her own as Vanessa Devres walked up to her.
The Cynan was enrapt with the changes taking place with the little human before her. Now she understood one of the reasons why regression was the key to peace between the two races. Human children were so adorable! She turned the little girl around, who looked to be only seven years old, and picked her up off the cold floor. The girl stank of urine, but Vanessa didn’t care; she had to hold her! The child only stared into Vanessa’s deep blue eyes with uneasiness as she found herself cradled in the strong being’s arms. She attempted to speak, but the Guardian pressed a finger to the young one’s lips.
“Shhhh...” she whispered to the little one. Vanessa could feel the girl becoming lighter as she shrank more and more. “You’re going to be alright…you’re becoming a baby again.”
Little Haley squirmed weakly in the big woman’s arms, but she found herself getting too drowsy to do much at all. She managed to raise a hand into the air, and was amazed at how small it was. The Cynan offered a finger to the baby girl, who wrapped her tiny hand around it. Vanessa gently pressed her finger to the baby’s lips, not to shush her, but to offer it. Haley, feeling surreal and high from the anesthesia, accepted the finger into her mouth with no struggle. With her teeth gone, the digit felt strange and sort of pleasing as her gums pressed and rubbed against it. She was vaguely aware of becoming horny before she firmly wrapped her lips around it and began suckling.
The tingling sensation of the anesthesia and the vacuum that the inside of her mouth had become was overwhelming her with ecstasy. Was this why babies were so orally fixated? After a few minutes of heavenly suckling, the naked newborn slept peacefully in the Guardian’s arms. Still holding the baby, Vanessa began going through the storage closet of the infirmary, until she found a towel, which would be perfect size for a baby blanket. She carefully wrapped the infant up inside it and sat down at the room’s comscreen. She entered her colleague’s access code and waited for her to answer. After a short wait, Gracine answered. She was groggy and naked, but seemed otherwise in a pleasant mood.
“Hello?” she responded.
“Did I call at a wrong time?”
“No, no… Michael spent the night with me. As you can tell I haven’t done much all day except stay in bed.”
“Not that I blame you, he’s rather cute.”
Changing the subject, Gracine’s eyes lit up. “Aww! Who’s the little one? She doesn’t look Cynan, don’t tell me you have a new pet!”
“Well, kinda. She’s part of that experiment I told you about.”
“She is? Oh my god it’s amazing…she really turned into a little baby. A little, little baby! Tell me where to sign up for one!”
“Now, now…before you get too excited, I’ve still got a lot of work to do. This is just the first step. Hopefully if everything goes right, you might have one of your own someday.”
“Is that the plan, for real?”
“It certainly is. It would seem that humans have found a place in our world after all.” She smiled at the sleeping infant in her arms, and hugged her closer to her body.
(To be Continued…)
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