Chapter 5: Behave!

So the next years were spent discovering how to have bone material gradually reabsorbed and replaced with new bone genetically programmed to be a different shape. Then after bone came muscle, ligaments and other soft tissue. Sequences were researched for the various parts of the body, and step by step they began the enormous task of building the genomic definitions of body shapes, and the means of editing them to something of their own choosing.

It was several orders of magnitude more difficult than renewing their cells from their original DNA, or even tweaking breast tissue, but fortunately the computer had been expanding steadily and now had 256,000 cores and 512 petabytes of memory, and Isobel had become expert at programming. She even had programs that did coding.

As they developed the technology they looked at the old internet for beautiful body features, and helped each other with their choices. There was a lot of discussion and changing of minds as they developed their bodies this way and that. It was an interesting and pleasant way of passing the time, and a task that need never be called finished.

“We could build a boy, I reckon,” mused Melissa one morning, about 180 years after the diamonds event. “Or a man. He’d look about what eighteen was, with new cells.”

“I reckon we could,” Susan agreed, “if we had the material.”

“What kind?” asked Leila. “What would we make, that’s different from us? In a way that’s better I mean?”

“Boys were stronger,” offered Isobel.

“We don’t need any more strength though,” Leila objected with a smile. She was more than strong enough for anything in the ship. She hoped nobody was going to mention height. According to the old internet she was taller than three-quarters of men had been anyway.

“There used to be lots of discussion about it,” said Melissa. “The differences. Girls had more empathy and intuition, and were more caring, they smiled and laughed more and were more sociable and they were smaller and weaker especially in the upper body. Boys were bigger and faster and more aggressive and had more sense of purpose and were better at spatial awareness.”

“Sounds like you’ve looked into it,” Isobel teased.

“It’s quite amazing what Earth was like,” said Susan, “once you start reading it’s hard to stop sometimes. Anyway yes I reckon we all know what you’d like a boy for Liss!”

“Hahaha,” Melissa laughed, “yes okay, so they had a cock that went up inside us and supposedly felt even better than what we can do on our own. So it’s hard not to wonder, don’t you think?”

“I thought you were after us,” grinned Isobel, “now we’re all beautiful?”

“Well you’re not interested,” Melissa explained. “It’s just not there in you, is it? The instinct. So it’s not worth trying. The instinct was always there for boys though apparently, apart from a few of them. They used to go mad for girls, all the time.

“Pictures, videos, stories ... it was every day, all day. They wanted to see things like a girl’s legs or anything, clothes that didn’t cover her shoulders or stomach or whatever. Ankles even, if that was all they could see. They were insane for girls.

“And now we look like this it’s pretty obvious if we had a boy I wouldn’t have to go on wondering any more!” She grinned round the faces that were now stunning like her own. Their bodies as well. Their simple shift dresses were so thin, with the rayon husbanded from the farm, that their new shapes were quite obvious, with their long legs, small waists, firm tits, pert asses and fine, glowing skin.

“Yeah sorry,” Isobel smiled an apology for not feeling sexy. “Though I suppose it’s just a matter of a gene. Us, I mean.”

“Well we don’t have the resources for another person,” Susan had to point out, “we couldn’t cycle the extra CO2 and food and all the rest of it, so...”

“Don’t tell me,” Leila rolled the big dark-blue eyes she’d chosen, “Liss thinks someone should get converted to be sex-mad like her.”

“I don’t think I’m sex-mad,” Melissa defended herself with a smile, “I reckon I’m more like normal used to be. We were selected for the mission partly for being less sexy than normal, after all. I probably just felt less sexy than normal then, and now I’m slim and look like this. It’s part of evolution anyway, to like sex.”

“I suppose I know what you mean,” grinned Isobel. “I might’ve had to try a boy as well, to be honest, if we’d had one. Now I’m young and pretty. We just can’t though, so that’s that.”

“You could try a female-loving gene allele though,” Melissa couldn’t quite stop herself saying.

“Liss really!” Isobel tried a little laugh, with a theatrical gasp and wave of her hands. She saw Susan and Leila weren’t really reacting one way or the other ... well... “Okay, well ... I don’t mind trying,” she smiled helpfully. It was new, after all.

“It might be a bit of a disruptive influence,” said Susan primly. She wished she’d said that a couple of seconds earlier. Not that she wanted Melissa for herself, obviously...

“There is a no-sex policy, technically,” Leila similarly was finding, after a moment’s reflection, that she wasn’t too keen on the idea of Isobel being more intimate with someone else.

“Okay well it was just an idea, I don’t mind,” Melissa backed off. She didn’t want to make anyone jealous.

“Anyway what shall we work on next?” Isobel changed the subject. The answer to the impasse was obvious, and the other two would come round to it on their own, given a bit of time. Everyone was bored, after all, and you didn’t go on a space expedition without being curious and bold.

“I was wondering about our destination,” Leila was glad to talk about something else, “now so much has changed with the mission? And anyway, everyone who planned the mission is dead ... whether we ought to take a look at the prediction and see what we think? Now Izzy has the computer all sussed with so much more power?”

“Good idea,” said Susan.

“I suppose I have noticed we look and smile at each other more, these days.” Over dinner a couple of days later, Susan reintroduced the subject that had been flitting in and out of her mind.

“It does make a difference, being beautiful,” agreed Leila. “Not that I didn’t love you all, anyway, obviously, but...”

“I think it’s worked a treat,” Melissa smiled. “We’re all so gorgeous now.”

Isobel smiled back, then shifted her gaze to Leila. Leila who looked different but was still recognisably Leila even with those eyes and lashes and eyebrows and cheekbones, and that mouth. It was funny how quite small changes to the shape of her face had made such a difference. The fine, perfect skin made a difference too.

“It is a weird feeling, to see you looking, at my tits even,” Susan admitted to Melissa, “knowing that you like them now, even though it doesn’t matter, in that way you know...”

“It’s nice not needing underwear and not needing to bother about it - no periods or saggy boobs, and pretty is pretty,” Melissa smiled in return, understanding it meant something to Susan to be admired physically for her nice new tits, that were bigger than they had been and closer together and buoyant with no crease under, and were topped with those perfect nipples.

“And being able to save some fabric with not needing to hide our legs,” Isobel teased, intercepting Melissa’s gaze which had drifted sideways and down onto her thighs.

“Well, it’s resources, resources, resources,” Melissa grinned.

“You’d have us all naked if it was left up to you,” Susan accused her cheerfully.

“Clothes could be sexier than naked, apparently,” replied Melissa.

“It’s like a whole secret world you inhabit, with sex,” Isobel introduced a little nudge into the situation.

“It’s just my genes,” with a hint of a shrug Melissa offered the line Izzy had set up for her.