Ancient Whale-iens

Chapter 1

Haley gasped at what she saw before her. Finally, all her theories would be proven correct. The board would stop laughing at her. She’d finally be respected in the scientific community. Deep within this abandoned cave system, she found what she’d been looking for this whole time. Proof of alien life. A crashed star cruiser.
“Come here, Dave!” she hissed, “Come get a picture of this!”
Dave was her lovable, but not-too-bright assistant. He ran up and pulled out his camera. “Do you want to be in the picture?”
“Sure,” she said, “Why not?”
Dave snapped a few pictures, and Haley dashed over to get a look. First she admired her own form. Before they’d started on the expedition, she’d cut her blonde hair boyishly short so that it wouldn’t get in the way while climbing. She’d done it herself, so it was a little choppy, but she thought it had an attractive, pixie-like quality to it. The gap between her front two teeth and smattering of freckles across her nose only added to this effect. Climbing around in the caves had really toned her body, and the tank top she wore accentuated this fact, showing off her well-muscled arms and sculpted midriff. She had modest curves, especially in her lower half, but she’d always secretly wanted bigger boobs.
Of course, the true highlight of the pictures was what was behind her. The spaceship was at least the size of a commuter jet, and was shaped like a massive fish. Its chrome exterior had tarnished and dimpled with age, and some of the antennae that had once jutted out of the top had snapped and fallen off. The only way in was through a huge airlock that had apparently become damaged in the crash. It had been forced open just enough that Haley figured she and Dave could get inside.
“Should we go in?” Dave asked.
“Hell yes!” Haley said.
Haley lit up the interior of the craft with her flashlight as she entered. The room was huge and high-tech. A bank of monitors and control panels were stationed at the bowside, all having gone dead long ago. Haley looked up and saw a giant skeleton suspended in a harness above them. It was easily the size of a whale, and sort of resembled one as well.
“Do you think that was the pilot?” Dave asked.
“I bet it was,” Haley said, her heart racing. “You get some pictures of it, I’m going to check out these panels.”
She looked over the panels, most of which were covered in long-dead lights, dusty controls, and labels in a script she didn’t recognize. One unique feature, however, was the accordion-like rubber tubing that sprouted out of the leftmost panel. She peered inside the tube and saw that it was connected to a pipe that descended into the shadowy bowels of the ship. When she held her ear up to the tube she heard some gurgling coming from deep below.
“I bet this is some sort of nutrient straw,” she muttered to herself, “to feed a creature of that size for an entire space journey, they’d need a lot of calorie dense food.” She reached inside the tube and felt the prick of a needle. “I bet the pilot would just put an appendage in here and the needle would pump in some kind of hormone that would allow the skin of the appendage to efficiently absorb calories. That way the creature’s mouth could be free for communication.” She turned to face Dave. “Dave, come check this out!” He was distracted with his camera. She walked towards him, and found the tubing stretched to come with her. It had clamped down on her arm. She felt tingling where the needle had pricked her. The tingling spread over her entire arm. “Oh shit. Oh fuck.” She tried pulling her hand out of the tube, but it seemed to be able to stretch infinitely.
Deep within the ship, she heard a clunk, as if a valve that had been closed for centuries was finally opened.
It was only then that Dave looked over at her. “Did you get stuck on something, Haley?”
“Get this thing off me!” she replied.
Dave shrugged and pulled at the tube, but he had no more luck than she had had. “I think we’ll have to cut you out.”
That was when it finally began. The tube shook and she felt something being pumped into her arm, which seemed all too ready to accept it. A warm sensation crept over her body, tickling her every nook and cranny. This was followed by a wave of pleasure that locked her knees and sent her body rigid.
“Haley!” Dave said, “Are you growing?”