Bulma's newest invention (private)

[Pyrogue]

Bulma was busy in her workshop building a new machine. This machine would allow for the transversal of dimensions. She was too caught up in her daydreaming about the awards and acclaim she would gain for her dimensional transporter to properly pay attention to what she was doing. She tightened a bolt much too hard without realizing it. She turned to grab another tool and while her back was turned the bolt blasted off due to the pressure, hitting Bulma square in the back of the head. She turned around expecting to see her son Trunks up to his usual hijinx. As she turned around her elbow hit the switch to activate the machine. The machine shot a blast of energy at her and she blacked out

[R682]

Num was bored. Of course she was. There was nothing new in that. She'd long given up on keeping track of the empty days, one after another. There was no sense of time in a place without natural light and dark, for a being which didn't sleep, or even eat meals to break the monotony. Sometimes, just for something to do, Num would trigger the synthesiser to make a bottle of milk or bowl of mushed carrots, and sit down to eat like a human just to remember what it had been like to have charges to care for. Even that, however, was utterly unnecessary, and without someone to feed her, not even an accurate simulation of how humans ate. Sometimes she synthesised a diaper, too, so she could simulate the food and liquid passing all the way through her system to its natural conclusion, but that was unrealistic too, as it only meant she had to clean up after herself, when she could simply have deatomised the food and liquid while it was still inside her. What was the point of that. What she missed was having actual living beings who genuinely depended on her for such things, and in the absence of that, what she did most days was simply brood.



No end in sight, either. Her power source was infinite, or so she thought she remembered having been told, so there was every sign this situation could continue forever. There was no escape from this subspace pocket; she'd already spent the first decade or two in research, yet she retained no knowledge of the kind of electronic engineering that would be required to manufacture any kind of subspace gateway, and the only resource she had available was 'Aunt Mable's infant childcare primer', which wasn't known for it's content on advanced electronic circuitry. Otherwise, Num was having to learn such things from scratch, by trial and error, which had got her so far as restoring power and life support, but only because she'd had the relevant machinery in place to study and experiment with. Building a gateway from scratch, she'd decided, without the necessary expertise, was effectively impossible.



Mind you, if a million monkeys with a million typewriters could eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare, maybe one android with unlimited time could eventually make a gateway, simply by randomly soldering circuits together. She certainly had nothing better to do, ever since her babies had left her. With a sigh, Num went back to work, effectively doing nothing more than keeping her hands busy, without any possible sign of success.



Then there was a bang, a crackle of electricity in the air and a sudden surge of pressure that might have knocked Num off her feet had she been human. She looked at the tangle of circuitry in her hands in alarm; had something somehow worked?


No. The circuitry was dead and lifeless, not even powered. Yet something had changed. Laying very still in the centre of the transport locus circle on the floor was a girl. A human girl: Num could immediately see the nature of the infrared warmth in her skin, pulsing in a way that was very different to if it had been simulated, in tune with the pulse in her neck and the rhythm of her breathing. Which meant, too, that she was alive. Num gasped. Was it one of her babies? Had they come back to her? Or perhaps a new charge for her care and attention. Either way, Num found herself filled with joy.


"Oh my goodness," she cooed to the unconscious girl. "Don't worry little one. I'll look after you. You'll be safe here." A veritable gift from the gods. For now, Num's mind didn't have time to think about how this had possibly come to be. For now, it was enough that it had, and Num suddenly had a purpose again. She rushed over to the girl, scooping her up with the effortlessness of superhuman strength. She was bigger than her previous charges; so big in fact that she barely fit on the changing table where Num laid her down. And dressed so very strangely for a human, with green hair and clothes of a kind Num had never seen before. At first, Num thought there was something wrong with her feet, which were more like hooves, but Num quickly established, on worried examination, that this was just outer coverings like everything else, and underneath were normal toes and skin.



After that, she worked from feet to head. The girl's rear coverings had to go as well. The shock of the event had clearly triggered her to wet herself, and the shorts she wore seemed to have no absorbent properties whatsoever. What kind of diapers were these, that humans wore wherever this girl originated from? Num could easily synthesise ones that were far more effective. As the girl began to stir and wake, Num already set to work stripping her wet underwear and cleaning her up in a joyful way she hadn't had to do for decades now, confirming in the process that she was indeed a girl, and preparing to change her into some far more appropriate clothing. No doubt the girl would be very appreciative, once she was fully back to consciousness.

[Pyrogue]

Bulma awoke with a groan. "Ugh my head" she mumbled as she sat up. She looked down and found herself dressed in a very comfortable fleece sleeper with something pushing her legs apart beneath it. She considered taking off the sleeper before remembering that she had neglected to wear a bra that morning. She looked around and saw that she was inside some sort of cage with no top, and within the cage was a light blanket, a pillow, and a few stuffed animals. The infantile pattern of the sheets and blanket combined with the stuffed animals made her prison remniscent of a.. "a crib?" Bulma realized. She panicked and looked around, seeing that there was also a changing table, a highchair, a playpen, and a basin for bathing, all in her size. She finally looked towards the foot of the crib and saw a woman staring back at her with adoring eyes. She shrieked and backed away as much as possible. "Who are you? Where am I?" She yelled

[R682]

"Oh, bunny," Num smiled delightedly, coming over to stare down at her new charge with adoring eyes. "You're finally awake. I worried you might be broken worse than I thought. Don't worry, you're all taken care of here. I've synthesised everything a young human like you might need to keep you safe and happy, and I'm going to look after you here, okay?"


She looked Bulma up and down, a little disappointed that the girl's immediate reaction wasn't closer to delight or at least gratitude for everything Num had done for her. After all, the things Num had provided her with were of much higher quality, and much more functional, than what the girl had been wearing when she arrived. Wherever she'd come from, it couldn't have been nearly as nice or caring as this - so surely the girl should be pleased once she realised what was on offer for her here. All Num had to remember to do was contain that self destructive human impulse for freedom and exploration that had been her downfall once before. There was no way she was letting that happen ever again. Especially not now she had a second chance at happiness.


"Just lie back and relax," she told Bulma, scarcely listening to her demands. "If you're hungry or thirsty, I'll get you something to eat or drink, okay? Maybe then we can play a game."

[Pyrogue]

Bulma blinked as the woman talked. "Listen lady I don't know what you're talking about but you let me out of here right now!" She demanded. She tried to stand up but the diaper forcing her legs apart threw off her balance and fell back onto her bottom in an adorable fashion. She stood back up on her knees and held onto the bars of the crib to keep her balance. "And can you get me some actual clothes instead of whatever this is?" She said sassily as she gestured to her sleeper.

[R682]

"It's alright sweetie, you're staying here with me now," Num soothed, still only half listening to anything Bulma actually had to say. "You've got some much better clothes now, and that diaper is going to work a lot better for you than anything you had before." She pointed over towards the puddle Bulma had left behind on the floor, in the centre of the transport ring, which in her earnest focus, Num still hadn't got around to cleaning up as yet. "We won't need to worry about any more messes, and you'll be safe and warm and fed with me, for as long as you possibly live."


Anyway, the girl's clothes had already all gone into the recycler, right from the very beginning. The shorts had been wet, of course, and the strange foot coverings were utterly pointless as far as Num could ever see. There seemed little point keeping the girl's top, when all the rest was fed in to keep the matter-block supplied, so that had gone in too. When it came to 'actual clothes', she really wasn't getting anything better than this.

[Pyrogue]

"Excuse me! I definitely don't need diapers, now give me my panties back and let me outta here!" She said, getting increasingly angry. She blushed a little when the woman pointed to the puddle. "Listen lady, I've gotta get back to my workshop, I'm working on the invention of the century" she said, remembering what she was doing before all this crazyness started

[R682]

"Yes, yes," Num patted Bulma's head absent mindedly, not really listening to the young person's fantastical ramblings. "Don't worry, you're in good hands now, and much better dressed than you were before. Your old things were much better off in the recycler, believe me," Num reassured, cheerfully. "So, you're not hungry or thirsty, then? How about a game of pattercake?" She held up both her palms hopefully, ready to sing.

[Pyrogue]

"WHAT!?" Bulma screamed at the news that what she had entered with was reduced to atoms. Angry tears started to well in her eyes as she tried her hardest to hop out of the crib to attack her captor. "You psycho!" She yelled as she tried her hardest to climb over the railing of the crib to little avail

[R682]

"Ah, maybe you're over tired," the android calmly replied in gentle response to Bulma's outburst. If Bulma wasn't yet clear that it was an android she was dealing with here, that was left in no doubt when Num effortlessly lifted her away from the side of the crib, turned her on her side and laid her down as easily as if she had been readjusting a pillow. What was more, with a single hand rested on Bulma's shoulder, she kept her in place, prevented from getting back up, as she pulled a blanket up over her. "Perhaps a little lullaby might help you calm down," she chimed, happily, before launching into melodious song, at a volume designed to be as calm and soothing as possible, but simultaneously adjusted to drown out anything further Bulma might shout by way of abuse. The thing to do with cranky babies, as far as Num could recall, was simply to let them tire themselves out and go to sleep.



"Hush little baby, don't say a word..." Num began to sing, and that seemed all Bulma was likely to get out of her for the immediate future.