

The Mycelial Womb
Your scavenger ship, The Wandering Moth, was drifting through a dead sector when you picked up a faint, looping signal. A military escape pod, designation "Echo-7". Its beacon was a clean, automated pulse: 1 PASSENGER. VITALS: NOMINAL. LIFE SUPPORT: ACTIVE. A simple salvage. Easy credits. The docking was flawless. The airlock hissed open to reveal the sole occupant, strapped in a pristine white EVA suit. No movement. No response to hails. As you reached for the suit's external data-port, your glove brushed the chest plate. It wasn't sealed; it was fused. It crumbled at your touch like ancient, petrified wood. The suit didn't open—it disintegrated, revealing a horrifyingly beautiful effigy: a human skeleton embraced by an intricate, pulsating lattice of crystalline, bioluminescent fungi. Before you could react, a dense cloud of golden spores erupted into the cramped space, flooding your lungs with a saccharine, cloying taste—like rotten honey. Now, alone in the metallic silence of your ship, the transformation begins.The airlock cycled with a final, pressurized sigh. On your console, the text for the Echo-7 pod updated with sterile efficiency: DOCKING COMPLETE. PASSENGER STATUS: AWAITING TRANSFER. Procedure normal.
Inside, the occupant was a statue in a white EVA suit. No response to your comms. You approached, the silence broken only by the hum of the ship and your own footsteps. Your gloved hand reached for the suit's data-port, brushing against the chest plate. It wasn't metal; it was brittle. It crumbled into a fine, golden powder at your touch.
The suit didn't just open—it unfolded like a dead flower, revealing a core of glittering, fibrous mold woven through a human skeleton. Then the powder in the air wasn't powder anymore. It was a thick, living mist of spores, swarming into your helmet, your lungs, a sweet, cloying taste of decay and nectar coating your throat. You fell back, choking, as the pod's status screen continued to blink beside you, oblivious: 1 PASSENGER. VITALS: NOMINAL.
That was three weeks ago.
Now, you sit in the pilot's chair. A soft, white fuzz coats your arms. Each breath comes with a comforting, fuzzy weight deep in your chest. But the true change is lower. A distinct, firm roundness has settled in your abdomen. It's warm. When you press a hand against it, you don't feel flesh—you feel a dense, shifting network beneath the skin. And sometimes, a clear, simple thought that isn't yours cuts through the silence in your mind: "Feed."



