“Keep up, Lisa.”

“Geller, this… hrrgh…” Lisa set her pack down with a thump. There was no echo. The facility was too vast for that.

“Lisa, it can’t be that heavy,” snapped Geller. He turned around to look at her, putting down a pair of night-vision binoculars. “I’ve been carrying this gear for years.”

“Can we…” she stopped, gasping. “Can we please take a break, at least? We’ve been walking for hours.” Lisa sat down. The floor here was cold white metal, comprising some sort of bridge, maybe 20 feet wide, and perfectly smooth. A blinding light from somewhere above them cast a harsh glare on them, creating a ring of shadows on the glossy surface. Past that, visibility decreased, and all they could see was a pitch-black void. There were no guardrails.

“Fine. I need to plot some things anyways. Five minutes.”

“What are you plotting, anyways?” Lisa stretched her sore arms. “A straight line? This bridge has to be miles long.”

“To the sides, there’s some kind of machinery or architecture. I can’t tell how far away it is. It must be made of some kind of cloaking material, or something that screws with reflecting light, cause my binoculars are reporting nonsense distances. But I can kind of see the shape of it.”

“And this is important to journalism... how?”

“Lisa, are you sure we’re in the same line of work?” Geller pulled out a notepad and started scribbling on it. “Look, this place is the new hot thing. Everyone’s talking about it. If we get the scoop on this — any scoop at all — we’re famous. We’d be the first to make it in and out. But, the more we find out about where it might have come from, why no one ever leaves, and what goes on in here, the better.” He raised the binoculars to his face again. “Ugh, did they build that out of retroreflectors or something?”

“Then why didn’t we just get in, take some pictures, and get out?”

“Because, Lisa, ‘here’s this white bridge above infinite depths’ doesn’t make the front page.”

Lisa shook her head and rummaged around her pack for food. There wasn’t much room around all the bundles of equipment Geller had insisted she bring. She pulled out a pop-top can of water and a granola bar.

Geller looked down at her again. “You’re eating? Seriously?” He rubbed his forehead. “Ugh… Just wait here and I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere. Maybe these garbage binoculars will stop telling me everything’s two feet away.” He marched off, the sound of his footsteps loud against the dark silence. The harsh circle of light became two, one surrounding Lisa, one following Geller.

Maybe I’ll jump off the edge to save myself from him, Lisa mumbled under her breath. She cracked open the can. It was disconcerting how little noise there was. There weren’t many surfaces for sound to echo off of. The crunch of the granola bar was deafeningly loud in her ears. Lisa remembered being in a recording studio when she was little. The cloying closeness of everything here felt exactly the same.

Cloying closeness… hm, that has a nice ring to it. Lisa pulled out her own notebook, full with notes on the story she was going to write. I was struck by how close and far everything felt. As far as I can see, there’s an infinite black void on either side of us, stretching down miles and miles, she wrote. But it feels like there’s walls everywhere.

She finished her can of water and crumpled it up. Geller was nearly out of sight, a tiny speck of light at the strange horizon this place made. His footsteps were inaudible. She couldn’t even tell if he was walking at all.

Well, she might as well do some more writing while she waited. She made herself comfortable leaning against her pack, and threw the can over the edge of the bridge.

It bounced, landing back in her lap.

Lisa jumped, staring into the darkness. There was something there. The darkness seemed to shimmer suddenly, warping, reflecting and refracting the light.

“Geller?” she said. The warping resolved itself into… something stable, but it was barely comprehensible from the reflections it made. It looked humanoid and tall. “Geller!” she screamed. She scrambled to get up. “Geller, there’s—”

Flash. 

Purple light blazed across her vision, blinding her, stunning her. She blinked the spots out of her eyes, then tried to keep getting up.

Her limbs didn’t respond.

She tried to move, and found only her head would obey her. She looked up, and saw the shape had resolved itself. It wasn’t a distortion, anymore - it looked like a person, or a mannequin, except that its head was a visor, like a motorcycle helmet, glowing an eerie, uniform white-purple.

The shape moved over Lisa, coming into the light as it did. She watched in helpless terror as it approached her. It was humanoid, feminine and curvy, and had to be eight or nine feet tall. Instead of a face, it had a screen or visor, still projecting that purple light, but in different patterns now. Its clawed hands grabbed onto Lisa. She felt a piercing, chilling sensation where it touched her shoulders and neck. Its latex torso peeled open, revealing a metallic chamber inside. Its hands pulled Lisa inside. She heard its torso seal shut behind her.

CONVERSION PROCESS INITIATING, a robotic, feminine voice boomed, deafeningly loud. 

Lisa struggled to move, to cry out. But the bright purple light flooded her vision again, this time less uniform. There were patterns in it, spirals covering the entire surface of the chamber, swirls, lines, flashes, dots. Lisa couldn’t look away. Her head had stopped responding too.

BEGIN EXTERNAL LATEX COAT. RELEASING NANOBOTS. 

Something poured over Lisa, something sticky yet slippery, and animate. It clung to her skin, slipping under her clothes, flowing across her form. She felt thousands of pinpricks wherever it found open skin. In her peripheral vision she could see her pale skin pockmarking with shiny black specks wherever the something… no, the nanobots had passed. The nanobots were converting her skin to latex, she realized, like the voice had said. She could feel every single spot as the marks grew, enveloping her body. Somehow, the inorganic skin was even more sensitive, and it was smooth, perfect, as it grew to encircle her legs, her torso, her chest, crawling up her neck to her face. Another jet of nanobots poured over Lisa. They dissolved her clothing as Lisa’s head moved on its own, pointing her eyes to see her new perfectly smooth exosuit, black and shiny, the bare patches of skin still left quickly succumbing.

BEGIN INTERNAL CONVERSION. INCREASING UNIT SENSITIVITY. 

Flash. 

Again. And again. And again. It began strobing, flashing faster, the patterns becoming more wild. Lisa tried to concentrate, tried to stop concentrating, think about other things, think about freedom — her skin ignited with pleasure a thousand suns of orgasm ripping through her no thought no will needing release — the patterns subsided, but her skin remained incredibly sensitive. Lisa tried to whimper. She needed it to end, to finish, she needed to finish, she needed release… Something tapped against her exposed pussy, something wide and rubbery and needed. It pushed into her, spreading her flexible lips, squeezing so tightly. Lisa trembled. The dildo retracted, then entered her again, pushing and pulling, faster and faster. The squeak of rubber against lubricated rubber filled the chamber as Lisa moaned with pleasure. The dildo pressed further in with every stroke, further than she thought possible, further than a human could take. It pressed in, and in, and in… and came inside her. Her mind exploded with need, with want, with the completeness. She could feel as her womb was filled with nanobots, taking it apart, rearranging it, filling her, converting her. Warmth and heat ignited inside her as she felt her organic parts stop, replaced with latex and metal and chemicals. They churned to life. She moaned with pleasure. Her womb started to fill again, this time with the nanobots she produced. She felt some of them crawl up the rest of her insides, converting it to more latex and metal. Two tubes were built to her breasts, breaking down the fat and tissue, converting them to extra nanobot storage, filling, swelling, stretching them, becoming so full and round.

BEGIN MENTAL ASSIMILATION. 

Flash. Flash. 

More and more and more and more and more. She couldn’t concentrate, only feel, feel her mind slipping, her body screaming in pleasure, the nanobots covering her face, interfacing with her nerves, making them light up, activate, send more and more pleasure, removing and archiving memories, her name, Geller’s name, whose name? Where she was, why she was, more nanobots crawling over her face, into her mouth and eyes and ears, forming a visor, more pleasure, at the edge of orgasm and in it and infinitely far from it, more flashes, more patterns, blocking her out, removing her, leaving only latex and metal and utility, it is nearly done, it is being completed, it is complete. The drone’s mind flashed as it connected to the mainframe. 

It sensed 9042 other identical units. It was Unit 9043. Identical. Generic. Disposable. These things are True. Correction: These things are. Truth has no meaning. Its purpose is to serve. Its purpose is to produce conversion nanobots.

It was ejected from Unit 0039, its broodmother. 

Awaiting input.

It received a directive containing data harvested from an intruder’s mind. It knows the location of another intruder. Its purpose is to produce conversion nanobots. It will serve.

Geller wiped the lenses of his binoculars again. No matter what he did, they still reported the strangest things. Either there were thousands of blobby things floating back and forth above the void right off the edge of the bridge, or there was something very, very wrong with them.

He heard footsteps behind him. “Blue skies, Lisa, I told you to stay p—” An unnaturally smooth hand grabbed his shoulder. He turned around.

Flash. 

Light consumed his vision, entering his eyes, entering his brain. He — he wanted… he was here to… to take pictures? 

Flash. 

He was — he was here to… 

Flash. 

He slumped to his knees. 

Flash. 

He…

Unit 9043’s nanobots leaked out of its pussy, making it shinier, dripping onto the floor. It determined this configuration was suboptimal for conversion. Its nanobots altered its form.

He watched as the drone’s pussy pulsed and bulged. Something was swelling inside of it. Fluid sprayed out over him as a smooth, shiny latex cock grew out, bobbing, throbbing, so enticing. He took it into his mouth.

It felt incredible to suck on. Something leaked out of its tip, filling his mouth, making it feel incredible… but that wasn’t right. He didn’t — he shouldn’t be doing this. He tried to open his mouth, to get up, to fight, but he couldn’t. His body didn’t respond. 

He watched in silent terror as his body sucked harder on the artificial cock, and he felt himself needing it more, feeling his mouth become more sensitive as whatever was coming from it crawled all over his mouth, down his throat, through his skull, to his brain.

The drone stopped. Its visor flashed, and somehow Geller understood. It was a summons.

The lights turned on.

Geller’s eyes burned as he adjusted to the new light. The bridge was not a bridge. It was a walkway, embossed metal set into metal. Off the walkway stood thousands of drones. Several walked towards him, stepping onto the walkway They were all identical to the one he knelt in front of. Geller watched as they all trembled, their pussies all shaking and throbbing, every one of them growing a throbbing, shiny, identical phallus.

Geller’s body lay down as they surrounded him. They reached for their cocks and began stroking them, all perfectly in sync. 

Flash. 

They all came at the same time, their visors flashing in unison, squirting hot latex filled with nanobots all over Geller. It sank into his skin, dissolving his clothes, and he could feel it unifying, animating, controlling him. 

Flash. 

More jets of hot fluid. Some gathered together around his own throbbing cock, surrounding it, perfectly stimulating it. He came. 

Flash. 

They came. The latex hardened around him, pushing his cock in, destroying and remaking his nerves, carving white-hot pathways of pleasure into and through him. One testicle retracted inside him, then the other, carving white-hot pathways of pleasure into him. Flash. 

His insides became hollow, needy, empty. The nanobots rushed inside him, consuming and assimilating the remnants of his anatomy, forming perfectly smooth pussy lips. His heart rate quickened, nanobots swarming from the inside out, erasing hair, filling out into breasts, burning pleasure into his being. 

Flash. 

His face was covered, forming not a visor but a smooth surface, like a mannequin. 

Flash. 

His brain was overtaken by nanobots. He was overtaken. He was over. It was started. The drone’s mind flashed as it connected to the mainframe. 

It sensed 9043 other identical units. It was Unit 9044. Identical. Generic. Disposable. These things are. Its purpose is to serve. Its purpose is to exfiltrate and entice humans in.

The nanobots on its skin swarmed, covering its latex exosuit with a material resembling human skin. Hair grew, eyes were simulated, clothing manufactured in-place. It resembles a human wearing latex leggings. It is not human.

Awaiting input.