After we finished up our little board game, with Tokemi basically buying up every property on the board and leaving me penniless, we let the others know what we were going to do. This was a big change for her, after all, and they had a right to know. However, the most surprised reaction was undoubtedly from Tessa, who called us over a hologram as soon as I let her mom know what was happening.

“You don’t have to do this, Mimi!” Now where did that nickname come from? “We’ll always be best friends, whether you get bigger or not.” She tried to reassure Tokemi, though the baishiro girl just shook her head with a bitter smile.

“I know, Tess. But I want to do this. I don’t want to watch everyone grow up around me while I’m stuck looking like a kid. Would you, if it were your choice?”

“Well… maybe, for the free candy and cheap movie tickets… But, I get your point.” Tessa said, lowering her head. “Can I at least be there when it’s done? Not many people get to watch their friends grow up right in front of them!”

When she asked that, Tokemi glanced over to me, looking for my reaction. I nodded my head, signaling her that it was okay. “Alright, Tess. Dad thinks it’s fine. See you in ten, then?” She had a small smile on her face when she asked that, glad that her friend was being so supportive of her decision.

“See you in ten.” She agreed, and the two hung up their call.

With the call over, Tokemi took a deep breath before turning to look at me. “Okay… what do we need to do?” She asked, her eyes starting to look uncertain.

Giving it a moment of thought, I nodded my head again slightly. “First, run down to the medbay to get one of the surgical gowns.” When I said that, she looked as if I told her I was going to cut her arm off, her face a ghastly white. “Don’t worry, it’s just so that your clothes won’t be damaged when you grow. One size fits all, and what not.”

“Ohh…” Her head bobbed up and down slightly as she agreed. “I’ll go get that real quick.” After saying so, I felt a surge of time mana around her, and she sped out of the room. Guess she wants to be sure she makes it back in time to meet Tessa before this all goes down.

Sure enough, she had run all the way to the medbay and back in under thirty seconds, looking barely winded. In her hands were a large white gown, showing she had gotten what she went for. Seeing that, I smiled to her. “Okay, now go ahead and get changed.” I said as I walked out of the room, giving her her privacy.

A short while after I left the room, I heard Tokemi’s voice calling me to tell me I could go back in. When I walked in, I saw her standing beside the bed, dressed only in the white gown that went all the way down to her ankles. Her hands were down at her sides, and she smiled up to me. “Okay, what next dad?”

“Now, we wait for Tessa and them to get here. Just in case, I want to put you to sleep for the change, so that it won’t hurt. And I’m sure that you want to be able to talk to her first, right?” When I asked that, she nodded her head quickly.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait very long, because I soon heard a loud knock on the door to my room. “Tokemi, John?” I heard Tessa calling in from the hall, obviously short on breath from having run so quickly to get here. “You guys… you in there?”

Tokemi looked at me, and couldn’t stop herself from laughing as she went to the door and opened it up. Tessa was standing there, leaning forward with her hands on her knees, panting for breath. “Did I… did I make it in time?”

Tokemi grinned, shaking her head and pulling Tessa into a hug. “Thanks, Tess.”

“Anytime, Mimi.” Tessa said quietly as she returned the hug. “But really, we’d be friends even if you stay a kid. But… I get why you want to do this. I’d probably want the same thing if it were me.”

I couldn’t help but clear my throat. “Alright, you two. Ready to get this over with? It shouldn’t take too long once we get started. Just go lie down on the bed and I’ll get started.”

Tokemi gave one last look to Tessa, before nodding and going to the bed, laying down on top of it. “Okay, dad, I’m ready.” She said, closing her eyes and smiling.

“Alright, I’ll begin.” After saying that, I brushed my hand over her forehead gently, casting a sleep spell on her. Tessa nervously moved to the other side of the bed to watch me, but there was honestly not much for anyone other than myself to see. Well, myself and a certain hitch hiker.

Gazing into Tokemi’s aura, I began my work. This was not a process of aging the body, but simply making it look older. Similar to how I had once made myself more youthful, yet if anyone used magic to scan my aura, I’d probably appear a hundred years older. In the same way, I searched through her body, changing various little aspects.

First, her body began to grow slowly, discomfort appearing on her face as I worked to make the changes easier on her. I healed any damage that appeared, making sure she stayed asleep the entire time. Soon, she had gained a full ten inches, growing to roughly five feet tall. Tessa let out a gasp as she noticed the change, quickly covering her mouth so as not to wake Tokemi.

Next was her face, losing some of its roundness to become more angled. She still carried the look of a child, but not one as young as she had been before.

When I was done, I went through one more time, making sure that all of the changes had been made properly, both on the inside and out. Only after that did I apply one last healing spell to remove any residual discomfort, before waking Tokemi with another spell. Tessa held her hands together in worry as she watched her friend slowly open her eyes.

“Huaahhh.” Tokemi let out a long yawn, uncharacteristic of someone that had slept for maybe ten minutes. Slowly, she brought her arms under her and propped herself up. “I feel… Hungry.” As she said that she brought one hand to her stomach. At the same time, she seemed to notice something when she looked down at herself, then glanced over to a certain area on Tessa, then back to herself, and frowned.

Nope, not doing that. I already helped Sharon with that issue once before, but I am not doing that for my little fox-girl daughter. Looking away and pretending I didn’t notice her annoyed glare, I cleared my throat. “Well, shall we go get something to eat, then?”

Tokemi looked like she was just about to raise a complaint, when her stomach decided to raise one first. Looking down at herself again, she grimaced. “You win this time, belly. You win this time.”

Finally, Tokemi swung her legs off the side of the bed, surprised to find that her feet actually reached now without having to stretch them. Giving a small grin, she pushed herself up to a standing position, only to fall right back down. “Okay… dizzy. That normal, dad?” She asked with a slightly worried voice as she turned her head to look at me.

I nodded in response, remembering back to the disorientation I felt the first few times I shapeshifted. “You have to adjust to your new body. You just went through five years of growth in five minutes, so it will take some time to adjust. Thankfully, I was able to keep your muscles as strong as they were before, so you shouldn’t have any weakness.”

With that, not only Tokemi, but even Tessa on the other side of the bed let out a sigh of relief. The human girl walked over, taking one of Tokemi’s hands. “I’ll help, okay Mimi?” She offered with a gentle smile, to which Tokemi nodded in thanks. Like that, the two girls began walking off carefully, one leaning against the other for support.

The next few days were largely uneventful, with me spending most of my time watching Tokemi to make sure that she didn’t have any issues with her slightly larger body. Thankfully, after needing Tessa to help her around for the first day, she seemed to be fine walking on her own, though she was still a bit unsteady on her feet for a while.

After that had passed, things quieted down again. Though, it was only a couple days later when Celeste sent me a message. “John, we’ve got the data files from the various race representatives. Do you want me to summarize it for you?”

Okay, I’d just like to point out that these messages don’t always come at the best time. For instance, when I happen to be in the middle of a shower and happen to hear a female voice in my head. That would count as ‘not the best time’. After jumping slightly, I groaned inwardly. “Send the summary to my computer. I’ll read it when I can.”

There was a small, knowing laugh in the back of my head, but Celeste complied, letting me get back to my shower. When I was done, I walked out in a large robe and sat at my desk, pulling up the files that had already been transferred. She really had summarized it quite a lot, not going into many details with each file. Unsurprisingly, the Ha’vosh had nothing to offer, as their race still refused to leave beyond their own system most of the time.

Dwarves: Weapon designs, likely effective against Empire shielding.

Elves: Life Support/Internal defense against organic invaders.

Halflings: More efficient maneuvering thrusters.

Drake: Biomechanical nerve wiring for increased processing speed.

Fairy: Adaptive shields, able to leach small amounts of energy from attacks to strengthen itself.

Deus Ex: Long-distance warp core. They finally finished it!

Humans: Modified impulse thruster.

Demons: Automated defense lasers to shoot down incoming fighters and missiles.

Kleptids: Medbay upgrades, largely for disease resistance and cloning stations.

Out of all of them, a few caught my eye right away. For instance, the Deus Ex’s contribution, the device that we discovered blueprints for in our very first raid on the New Human Empire. The fact that they had finished it meant that we would be able to travel over extreme distances even faster than in subspace.

The next one that caught my attention was the one from the humans. I couldn’t help but call out. “Celeste, what’s with this one?” I asked out loud, my eyes focusing on the ‘Modified impulse thruster’ line.

“Ah, apparently that’s the best they could do. With humans not having a proper foothold yet, they weren’t able to design something too complicated. According to the footnotes, they actually exchanged a large sum of gold to the market for this blueprint. However, it’s only slightly better than what we have right now, and uses more energy. So, I didn’t want to call it an improvement.” Celeste’s voice rang out in my mind after I called for her, before returning to silence.

I wasn’t surprised that there was nothing on the list from the Qu’Lopti. After all, we already had their most advanced technology here in the form of the combining fighter squadrons. If we wanted to apply some of that technology to the Ariadne, it would be easier to just build a whole new ship.

“Have the Deus Ex tested the warp core yet?” I asked, looking forward to that one above all else.

“Up to a distance of five parsecs. The largest problem with that technology is the precise coordinates needed. The further away you’re moving, the easier it is to miscalculate. Sadly, it’s not as easy as pointing to a star and going there, because the light from that star had to travel for so long that it might not be in quite the same position anymore. So, they can do five parsec jumps at a time and land exactly where they want. Anything more than that and they have to aim for empty space.”

I nodded in understanding. “I see… Still, that would allow us to get there much faster than before. How long will it take to get the upgrades installed?”

“Once you choose which upgrades to install, I can figure it up. Also, I would like to request permission to pass the designs to the Deus Ex as well. If we go into battle with only one ship that is capable of fighting them we’ll only end up getting destroyed.”

“Alright, permission granted.” I agreed easily. “And see if any of these can be applied to the Qu’Lopti ships without compromising their other systems. Having the warp core alone will save us enough travel time to make up the modifications.”

“Okay, I’ll get on it, and I’ll let you know when I have a timeline.” Just as Celeste finished that, a window appeared in front of me. At first, I thought it might be someone using the friends list to contact me, until I saw the message.

I’m back!