先月にも予告しましたが液体金属生命体TFです。 興に乗ってカット作りすぎた… ======================================================== ダイアンは自室のベッドで寝ころびながら、右手を眼前に上げひらひらと手首を回す。 見慣れた自分の右手だ。 何の問題もない。 確かに何かが刺さったはずなのに… 数時間前、ダイアンは宇宙船外で活動していて、船外に奇妙な金属の結晶が出来ているのを見つけたのだ。 サンプルを取ろうとツールを近付けると、突然その結晶が鋭く伸び、 ダイアンの右手を宇宙服越しに突き刺したのだ。 結晶は折れ、破片が彼の右手に残された。 幸い気密は漏れず、 彼は船内に戻ることができた。 だがその頃には既に破片は影も形もなくなっていた。 宇宙服に穴は空いておらず、ダイアンの右手にも傷一つなかった。 船医のトーマスは心配してカウンセリングやX線写真の撮影を 提案してきたが、彼はそれを断り自室に戻り、 なんともいえぬ疲労感とともにベッドに倒れ込み、 しばらく右手を気にしていたがやがて浅い眠りに落ちていった。 そして、右手がしびれるような妙な感覚とともにダイアンは目を覚まし……しばらく夢を見ているのかと呆然としていた。 腕がうねうねと揺れる、不定形の金属の塊と化していたのだ! 数秒遅れて悲鳴を上げ、助けを呼ぼうとするダイアン。 だが喉の奥でタンが詰まったように声が出ない。 咳をしようとするも、呼吸も上手くできない。 そしてダイアンに対応するかのように金属の侵食速度は激しくなる。 ベッドから降りて数歩踏み出すも、身体はぐずぐずと崩れはじめ、 腕が溶け、足が溶けて歩くこともままならない。 バランスを崩して倒れ込みながら、ダイアンは全身を強かに 床に打ち付けることに身構えるが、 水音ともに肉体は金属の液体となって周囲に飛び散る。 その衝撃に痛みはなく、未経験の快感が広がった液体から感じられる。 嫌だ、死にたくない、とダイアンは叫ぼうとするが、ぶくぶくと喉の奥で泡立つような音がたち、 やがてその首も溶け広がった液体に消えていく。 頭部も侵食と同時に形が崩れていき、すぐにダイアンの意識は 暗闇に落ちていった。 記を失っていた時間は数秒程度だったらしい。 意識が戻った時、ダイアンは最初に奇妙な清涼感を感じた。 かつてないほどに充実したエネルギーが体の中から溢れてくるのを感じる。 そして次に、自分が完全に液体金属になり、自室の床に広がったままで いるのを自覚した。 目も耳もなかったが、鋭敏な感覚は自分がどういう風に広がっているのかを理解することができた。 そして液体の表面が波打つと、部屋がくぼんだかのように中央に液体が滑り、集束していくと、その表面が盛り上がり、再び人のような姿を形作ろうとしていく。 ダイアンは液体金属の塊となった肉体の操作をごく自然に行っていた。 それが出来るということ自体への違和感や、自分が人間とは異なる存在になってしまったということへの困惑があったが、 それ以上に素晴らしいものになった、という高揚感がダイアンの中から湧き上がってくる。 心臓はなく、呼吸はやめていた。 にも拘わらず彼は生きていた。 棒のような両腕を生やし、それを細かく分岐させて指を伸ばす。 力を込めるようなイメージで指と肉体の一部を硬化させ、指でつるつると撫でるとぞくぞくとした快感が走る。 気が抜けて硬化した皮膚が溶けると、指が沈み込み内部をかき混ぜる。 冷たい金属の肉体はエアコンの効いた室内をいつもより暖かく感じさせていたが、 +-数百度程度の温度差は男には影響が無くなっているという本能的な自覚があった。 水たまりの中から銀色の肉体を自在にうねらせながら、ダイアンは以前と同じような形状を模倣しよう上半身を作っていくのだが、 以前とは違う筋肉の盛り上がったシルエットが出来上がっていく。 新たな肉体から湧き上がる、えも言えぬ全能感に押されるように彼の姿はかつて若かった頃の全盛期、いやそれ以上の形状を自動的に作っていた。 かたちを作りながら、ダイアンは考える。 他のクルーに見られたらどう思われるだろうか? 頭の中で他のクルーの顔を思い浮かべた途端、不定形の肉体の中心が強くうずき、全身を衝動が走り抜ける。 『繁殖したい』 かつてのヒトだった時の肉体的反射が、下半身の成型を待たず銀色の液体の塊から大きく、硬質的なペニスを突き上げる。 そうだ、この素晴らしい液体金属の肉体を仲間たちにも 与えるべきなのだ。 この肉体なら宇宙服もいらない。 船外での行動もずいぶん便利になるだろう。 ダイアンは衝動だけに突き動かされるのを恥じるように理由を付けようとするが、 繁殖したい、繁殖したいという欲望に思考が支配されていく。 繁殖の方法もなんとなく理解していた。 ああ、今まさに廊下を誰かが歩いている。 船医トーマスが船内のジムから帰る途中だろうか? ダイアンは突き動かされるようにして急いで残りの身体を作り上げようとする。 そうだ、銀色の肉体はさすがに怪しまれるかもしれない、と思うと、元のダイアンの皮膚の色を再現しようとしていく。 だがその質感は異様につるつるとして艶を放ったままで、とても人間の皮膚の再現とは言えない。 訓練が必要そうだ。 だが彼はもうなりふり構っていられなかった。 近くに誰かがいる、というだけでますます欲求は乱暴に彼を突き動かしていく。 人間はパブリックな場では服を着る、ということすら頭から抜け落ちている。 つま先までが出来るとすぐにダイアンは駆け出し、自室のドアを出て廊下に出る。 廊下を歩いていたトーマスが物音に振り向き…… 絶句する。 そしてダイアンは怪しまれないように気さくに挨拶しようとしたが、何も考えずに言葉を放ってしまった。 「やぁトーマス、繁殖させてくれ!」 ========================================================= Machine Translate. Diane was lying on bed in his room, his right hand raised in front of her, fluttering around his wrist. It was his familiar right hand. There is nothing wrong with it. Surely there must be something stuck in it... A few hours ago, Diane had been working outside the spacecraft and had found a strange metallic crystal formation outside the ship. As he approached the tool to take a sample, the crystal suddenly extended sharply and pierced Diane's right hand through his space suit. The crystal broke off, leaving a fragment in his right hand. Fortunately, the airtight seal did not leak and he was able to return to the ship. But by then, the shards were already gone. There was no hole in the spacesuit and not a scratch on Diane's right hand. Thomas, the ship's doctor, was concerned and suggested counseling and X-rays, but Diane refused and went back to his room. He fell into bed with an indescribable feeling of exhaustion, and after worrying about his right hand for a while, he fell into a shallow sleep. He woke up with a strange tingling sensation in his right hand. ...... For a while, he was stunned, wondering if he was dreaming. Her arm had turned into an undulating, amorphous lump of metal! Diane screamed a few seconds later and tried to call for help. A few seconds later, Diane screams and tries to call for help, but he can't speak, as if a tang is stuck in the back of his throat. He tried to cough, but he couldn't breathe well either. Then, as if in response to Diane, the speed of the metal erosion intensifies. He gets out of bed and takes a few steps, but his body begins to collapse limply, his arms melt, his legs melt, and he cannot walk. Diane braced herself for a full body slam against the floor as he lost his balance and fell down. With the sound of water, his body turned into a metallic liquid that splashed around her. There was no pain in the impact, but an inexperienced feeling of pleasure from the spreading liquid. Diane tried to scream, "No, I don't want to die," but there was a bubbling sound in the back of his throat, and then his neck melted and spread. Diane tried to scream, "I don't want to die. Diane's head began to lose its shape as well, and soon his consciousness plunged into darkness. Diane's consciousness fell into darkness, and it seemed that he had only lost consciousness for a few seconds. When he regained consciousness, Diane first felt a strange, refreshing sensation. he felt an unprecedented surge of energy flowing through his body. The next thing he knew, he found herself completely turned into liquid metal, spread out on the floor of his room. I had no eyes or ears, but my keen senses were able to understand how I was spread out. And as the surface of the liquid rippled, the liquid slid to the center as if the room had hollowed out, and as it converged Its surface rose and tried to form a human-like shape again. Diane's manipulation of the liquid metal mass of his body was quite natural. There was a sense of discomfort at the very fact that he could do it, and confusion at the fact that he had become something other than human, but But more than that, a feeling of elation came up from within Diane that he had become something wonderful. There was no heart, and he had stopped breathing. But he was still alive. He sprouted arms like sticks, which branched out and extended his fingers. He hardened his fingers and parts of his body with the image of force, and when he stroked them with his fingers, he felt a thrill of pleasure. As the hardened skin melts, the fingers sink in and stir the interior. The cold metal flesh made the air-conditioned room feel warmer than usual, but +- There was an instinctive awareness that the temperature difference of a few hundred degrees was no longer affecting the man. The silvery flesh undulated freely out of the puddle as Diane built his upper body to mimic the same shape as before, but The silhouette of his body was different from before, with raised muscles. The inexplicable sense of omnipotence that came from his new body made his figure automatically take on the shape of his youthful prime, or even more so. As he formed the shape, Diane thought. What would the rest of the crew think if they saw me? As soon as he pictured the faces of the other crew members in his mind, the center of his irregularly shaped body tingled strongly, and an urge ran through his entire body. I want to breed. The physical reflexes of my former human life didn't wait for my lower body to form before a large, hard penis shot up from the silvery mass of liquid. Yes, I should give this wonderful liquid metal body to my friends. With this body, I don't need a space suit. It would be much more convenient for them to move around outside the ship. Diane tried to reason with him, ashamed to be driven only by his impulses. But the desire to breed, to reproduce, was taking over his thoughts. I had a vague understanding of how to breed. Oh, there's someone walking down the corridor right now. Could it be Thomas, the ship's doctor, on his way back from the ship's gym? Diane hurriedly tried to build up the rest of his body as if he were being pushed. He tries to recreate the color of Diane's original skin, thinking, Hm, a silver body would be suspicious. However, the texture was still unusually smooth and shiny, and it was hardly a reproduction of human skin. It would take some training. But he couldn't pretend anymore. The mere fact that there was someone nearby made his desire grow even more violent. It had slipped his mind that people even wore clothes in public. As soon as he was on his toes, Diane ran out of the door of his room and into the hallway. Thomas, who was walking down the hallway, turns at the sound and ...... is mortified. Diane then tried to greet him in a friendly manner so as not to arouse his suspicion, but without thinking, he let the words go. "Hey Thomas, let's breed!"