Ryan yawned as he walked home through a light snowstorm. He wanted to sleep as soon as possible as he’d just finished his shift at his job at a ski resort gift shop. It wasn’t a terrible job, even if it didn't pay much, but winter was his favorite season and being able to see the slopes covered in snow was worth the time working here. Unfortunately, it was now too dark to take in the scenery, but the gentle falling of snowflakes made up for it as they glittered in the light given off from the streetlights.

He reached an intersection and yawned again before crossing. The streets weren’t busy this late at night, so he wasn’t paying attention as he crossed and failed to notice the headlight of a vehicle appear in the haze created by the falling snow. By the time Ryan noticed, he looked up to see a large white delivery truck coming down the road from up the mountain.

The driver noticed Ryan and slammed on his breaks, but the truck’s tires slid in the slush covering the road and did little to slow it down.

Ryan felt his bones break as the truck hit him before he got flung over the hood.

The last thing he saw was the ground rushing towards him. Sparks flew in his vision as he slammed headfirst into the pavement before he heard a snap come from his neck.

***

Ryan had died, he was sure of it, and he cursed at the truck driver as he was driving much too fast downhill on a slushy road. He cursed at himself for not checking the street before crossing.

It didn’t matter anymore. He was surely in the afterlife now as he floated through a black void. No… he could see points of light in the distance, but his vision was blurry, and it was hard to tell what they were. Some lights reminded him of stars, others blobs of different sizes, and a large blob that seemed far away but close at the same time.

Before he could look more a sense of urgency came to him. Like he needed to breathe..

He felt like the surrounding blackness would swallow him if he didn’t go. But how? Where?

The lights. He needed to get to the lights. If he stayed here, he would suffocate.

How? He couldn’t move.

“Help!” he shouted at the void.

Silence.

Somehow he knew no one would hear him.

He needed to think, but first he needed to calm himself down.

He cleared his mind.

New senses overtook him, almost as if he’d noticed extra body parts he didn’t know he had.

He was so preoccupied with the void he hadn’t noticed them, but now he realized they’d been there the whole time.

He focused on what he felt were another set of eyes, weirded out by the fact he had another set of eyes.

No sooner had he focused on these eyes, then several scenes appeared in his mind and immediately became overwhelmed by the surge of information.

He pushed them away, his mind spinning.

Mercifully, that was all it took to stop the assault on his mind as the images disappeared as fast as they’d come.

What had happened? He only had a vague sense of what he’d seen, but he was sure about one thing. They were all images of rooms and hallways. It was almost as if he’d had several security cameras plugged directly into his brain and turned on all at once, and his mind wasn’t able to handle it.

Ryan wanted to try again, but this time using only one camera at a time. He could worry about how and why he could do this later.

He found empty rooms and hallways filled with floating debris before stopping at the image of a room containing five cylinders appeared.

There wasn’t much to say about this room, but the first thing he noticed about the room he was looking at, aside from the cylinders, was that it was a rectangular and lit by a single light that barely illuminated its bare metallic walls.

Next he studied the cylinders and saw that three of the five cylinders lined the longer wall to his left and the other two cylinders on the wall to the right. The cylinder in the middle of the three to the left stood out the most as it was larger and sat upright unlike the other four that lay on their sides. The last thing he noticed were the two doors. One between the two cylinders to the right, and the other near the edge of his vision of the corner he was looking from.

Ryan wanted to move on to the next camera, but something about the cylinders intrigued him. Those cylinders seemed just the right size to hold people inside. Maybe if he opened them, he’d find someone or four that could help? Maybe he was in one of them and as he seemed to have control of the cameras maybe he could control them and let himself out?

With just a thought, the four smaller cylinders opened, but a sense of danger stopped him before he tried to open the big one.

All he had to do was think about them and picture them opening, huh? Well, except for the big one. He was curious why he’d felt danger, but for now he felt he should listen to that feeling and leave it alone.

The small cylinders finished opening in only a few seconds and revealed there wasn’t anything inside.

Ryan closed them and thought about what he could do next. He wasn’t sure what he could do with empty cylinders, but maybe there was something more to them?

He focused his attention to the cylinder just under his camera.

A window appeared in his mind next to the camera feed.

One with the blank 3D form of a human.

The interesting thing that happened as he looked at the 3D form was that he somehow knew what he could do, as if the cylinder was communicating it to him. It wanted him to design someone.

Ryan wasn’t sure what would happen if he did. Could it really make a body?. What would happen if it could? Would it be an empty husk? Or maybe it made something he would control himself?

No use worrying about it. He might as well do it. Besides, he’d always loved messing with character creators in games, and it would be fun to see what this thing could do. He had nothing better to do at the moment, anyway.

He hoped it was at least better than the potato people unmodded Skyrim made.

But what kind of person did he want? Something simple to start? He had four cylinders to try, and he could always start over, but playing it safe sounded good for a first try so he could get the hang of it.

First thing he did was give the 3D model some breasts, because of course that was most important, and immediately felt like a pervert as an average sized pair of realistic breasts appeared on the model. He’d expected something like the outline of breasts under some basic underwear, but it looked like this thing had nude mods installed.

A bra covered the breasts as soon as he thought about it, and Ryan only felt somewhat relieved. No, he didn’t. Not like there was anyone here to judge him.

He collected his thoughts and moved on, leaving the bra on so the contents underneath wouldn’t distract him, and zoomed in on the face.

The face was the next most important part, but the hardest, so this was what he wanted to get right. First, he worked on the structure of the face and went with soft, round features, a medium length nose that turned up slightly, almond-shaped eyes the color of sapphires, and shoulder-length brown hair. Everything else he left average.

He moved back down to the body and decided not to spend too much time there, so he left it the way it appeared after the rest of the model changed to human characteristics.

He scanned the complete model and saw it looked like a real woman, though with no flaws or hair other than what he’d put on her head. Even that one place below was there.

Something occurred to him as he inspected the woman he’d designed. Yes, she was cute, but he felt he should feel something else when looking at her.

Ryan remembered he didn’t have a body anymore and not having a body meant no more little buddy down “there” to stand at attention in the presence of a beautiful naked woman.

Something else to worry about later.

Ryan noticed the blank expression on her face and added a knowing smile to her lips, as if she’d heard his thoughts and they amused her.

The image zoomed out, and a thought occurred to him. If she were an actual person, what would she be like?

He looked back at the smile. Someone fun and playful. Smart, but not a genius? Maybe shared similar interests and hobbies as him so they could have fun together. Give her a somewhat high-pitched voice, yet chill voice.

A thought pulled his attention away from his creation. If this really became a person, what kind of place would he be bringing her to? He’d only gotten a vague look, so he started flipping through the other cameras one at a time, only to see nothing but rooms and hallways with debris everywhere. Some places even had large holes in the walls and floor. If he was going to live here with someone, it’d be nice if they could help him fix the place up because he couldn’t see any way to do it himself.

He turned his attention back to the model and thought back to what kind of person he’d like her to be. He liked his first idea of her being fun and playful. Smart, nerdy, and loved building and fixing things. Someone that could help him enjoy the situation. Maybe she could also be an engineer so she’d be extra good at the things she did?

Something clicked in his mind, and the image of the woman went away. In its place the cylinder proffered him a timer, but brought back the image when he desired, though he felt he couldn’t change the woman anymore.

Ryan focused back to the room with the cylinders and noticed several lights on the cylinder he’d interacted with now lit up. It seemed it was doing what he’d thought. It was making the woman he’d designed, so it made sense it wouldn’t let him change her anymore.

Ryan turned to the next closest cylinder. He knew what was going on now, so he felt he could do the last three in no time.

His next project was another woman. Ah, who was he kidding, they’d all be women. He had zero desire to design some dude’s sausage and always preferred the gamer philosophy professed by those who only played female characters in MMOs: “I’d rather watch a woman’s butt all day than a dude’s.” Besides, why would he give up the opportunity to have his own harem? Not that he had a body to take advantage of the situation…

First, he made another generic female body. He wasn’t feeling picky about that at the moment.

Next, he made a soft round face like the first, though he gave her higher cheekbones and a narrower chin, a slightly longer nose which down-turned slightly, round eyes the color of amber, and deep wavy red hair that went to her shoulder blades.

Ryan zoomed out and studied the model. As he looked at her he imagined someone upbeat, but serious when needed. Hard working maybe? He knew if everyone was too playful nothing would get done, so it would be good to have someone hardworking and willing to push everyone when needed. Yeah, it sounded like a pain, but as he thought about the first woman and how he made her playful, someone to counterbalance that would be smart. As long as she didn’t get too bad about it. Maybe give her an upbeat voice or moderate pitch.

So, someone upbeat, but responsible and hardworking, though still liked to take part in shenanigans when the time was right? Yeah, that sounded good. Still, he felt something else was missing.

Oh yeah, he’d thought about how the first woman was an engineer or someone that could help fix wherever they were. So, would this new woman be something like that too, or something else? Things would get fixed faster, but something else bothered him. The lights outside were stars and galaxies. The longer he’d looked, the more certain of this he became.

If this were true, then the black void he floated through was space. It also meant that all the rooms and hallways he saw on his video feeds were most likely the interior of a spacecraft or space station.

His vision outside was much too blurry to get much detail, but he was also certain they weren’t near Earth.

The second woman would be an astronomer. If they really were out in space, who knows where, then they’d need someone that could help them find out where they were and how to get to places.

Something clicked, and the lights to the second cylinder lit up.

On to the third.

This time Ryan switched things up a bit. He had paid little attention to the body before, so this time he made her tall, a nice tan, gave her large breasts, and finally a big butt to match. He didn’t know his bra sizes, but he’d guess DD. He thought about making them bigger but thought making them so big she couldn’t see her feet might take it too far.

Ryan moved to her face and switched things up here too. First, he made her face more angular and sharp, kept the nose average because he was picky about that, and finished with gold almond-shaped eyes and golden blonde hair.

Ryan paused as he realized something. He’d still been pretty generic until now. So what was something fun he could give her? He gave her a feature he’d wished he’d had himself. Odd eyes, or heterochromia if one used the fancy word. He liked the idea and went with the right eye gold and the left purple.

Ryan thought it looked cool and felt it the perfect capstone to number three.

Now he needed to decide what she would do. Number one was an engineer… two was an astronomer… What else would they need on a spaceship? Another engineer would always help, but maybe it would be smart to pick something similar but specialized in something else? Maybe someone more knowledge based than hands on?

Ah! Something every self-respecting space ship needed. A scientist!

Something clicked and the lights to cylinder three turned on.

Ryan panicked for a moment. He still needed to think of her personality... The cylinder had totally gone and ruined his harem planning! Wasn’t the thing supposed to listen to him and only turn on when he felt he’d finished?

He guessed number three would be the emotionless, stoic type? Or maybe it would be a random personality?

Ryan would have sighed if he had lungs, but focused on the last pod.

This was his last chance, so he felt he’d get fancy this time and even focus more on the body rather than focus only on the face.

First, he’d start with the body. He’d given the last one a large bust, so this time he made one more modest, though not too small. He then complimented the bust with delicate shoulders. Next he thought about how tall to make her. Number three was on the taller side and one and two were both average, so he’d make number four short. He always liked long hair, so he’d give number four long hair too. Hmm, but how long? To her ankles? No. She might trip on it? To her butt? Yeah, to her slightly larger than average butt and thighs. Big hips, though, couldn’t compromise on that.

Ryan thought about skin and hair color and wondered if he could only use natural colors or anything was fair game. But what color? Purple? Nah. Green? No. White? No, white skin looked like she was sick and white hair made her look like an old woman. Blue? Maybe? Dark blue? No, black looked better. Electric blue? No, too much like an internet meme. Ice blue? Close, but it was missing something.

A winter landscape entered Ryan’s mind. He’d always loved skiing in the winter, hence his job, and the scenery with the snow glittering in the sun was a bonus he’d always loved.

That was it! Could he make her hair a light icy blue that glittered in the light?

It worked! And judging by the avatar, it looked amazing. If he’d thought about this earlier, he’d have done something like this to all four, but it was too late so he’d have to be happy he’d found out at all and move on.

So, next he made the skin pale to go with the snow theme. The lips an icy blue. The eyes… A sky blue? Hmm, maybe he should hold back on too much blue? Besides, he wanted to make the eyes special, like the hair. Make them glitter too? Success! Though maybe something to contrast against the light of everything else. Something dark? Purple? Dark blue? Black. The black with the glitter made her eyes look like the night sky.

Honestly, up close they looked mesmerizing.

Ryan finished by softening her face, while keeping a mature look, and ended up with a round face, button nose, delicate chin, small ears, large almond-shaped eyes, and delicate lips that seemed to show a gentle smile by default.

Finally he thought about a woman that was kind, yet willing to stand up to people as she, and spoke with a gentle soprano voice. A woman that wouldn’t mind the body he made. Was a doctor.

Something clicked.

As Ryan took one last look at number four’s image and watched the last cylinder light up, he wondered if he had gone too far with her. No, she looked beautiful. Any fairy tale would love to have someone like her in it. Maybe?

Ryan took one last look at each of the women he’d designed. Part of him wondered if these pods would really make them, and if they did… how would they feel about him designing their bodies. He felt he hadn’t gone too far, it’s not like anyone ever got to choose what body they were born into anyway and he’d guaranteed these four would be attractive. Well, at least to him.

Ryan turned off the camera to the… uh… what should he call that room, anyway? Eh, he’d think of something later once he found out everything those cylinders could do.

For now. It was time to explore.