The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“Shouldn’t we wait for Tiona?” Oliver, the third in command, and sole male member of the group asked—racing, due to his relatively short stature, to keep up with the long strides of his companions. Their hard-soled boots sounded loud on the bright pavement and their standard Space League uniforms: the black leather trousers and a black overlapping leather tunic over a black crewneck felt totally out of place.

“Tiona will be along,” Sanya answered, her deep blue eyes following one of the few other people they saw on the street. The people the four had seen had avoided them and ignored their attempts at communication, which had them all on edge, since the city had always been known for its welcoming nature. “I want to get to the station so we can find out what’s going on here ...” She paused as another woman hurried past, avoiding eye contact. It wasn’t just their manner that was wrong, but they were all dressed in almost a uniform: long pants, a high turtleneck or cloth wrapping, and a dark hood, showing almost no skin in the warm, sunny afternoon.

“So,” Suilli began, “In addition to the weirdness of the people, did anybody notice how clean this city is now? Where’s the litter? ... where’s the ...” her words stopped abruptly as her eyes were among the first to catch sight of something that made all of the other oddities of the day pale by comparison.

“Where are the homeless people and the street vendors with their knock-offs?” Oliver added.

“What the Hell is up with the teleport dropping us in that warehouse?” Karan stopped, looking in the open door of a police contact kiosk.

They all stopped, staring at the sight that greeted them. There was a woman, bound with zip ties to a swivel chair, naked and straddled by a woman whose police uniform shirt was draped wide-open. She was naked below, except for her socked feet.

The bound woman screamed, and then her eyes fell on the four who stood staring in shock. “Get away!” her voice rasped between ragged breaths, “Run!” Her body shook and she bit her lip while the woman on top turned her head. Her lips twisted upward in a lustful, hungry smile and she turned back to what she was doing.

“No!” the woman screamed, but her body didn’t seem to be trying to get away, instead her hips gyrated arching her back upward into the crotch of the other woman. She let out a gasp, and then her features relaxed. Opening her eyes, she looked at the shocked onlookers with a smile that could only be described as lust forming on her face.

“What the fu- ...” Oliver began, but was cut off as several uniformed police, all wearing the dark hoods they’d seen earlier appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. “Halt!” a voice that sounded metallic through a heavy face-mask commanded.

As the stunned group tried to process what was happening, there was a screech of tires and revving engines and a white van ground to a stop by the curb. The side and back doors flew open, revealing armed occupants who spilled out and took positions. The police fell instantly as stun weapons fired. “Sixty seconds, people!” one of the new arrivals, all of whom wore dark green tactical gear, barked. Three took positions outside the station doors while three more entered.

The two women inside fell to stun charges just as quickly as the police had.

“Forty-five seconds!” The woman who was apparently in command counted off, “Cuff that one, and kill that slug now!”

The policewoman was handcuffed while one of the group moved to the other woman. She was naked, and fluid dripped down from her exposed sex, but there was something else, something dark, just protruding out from her folds. “Quick, before it’s all the way in ... thirty seconds.”

There was an electrical discharge and the woman’s body bucked with the shock and then fell completely limp.

The soldier leaned in and, with a gloved hand, pulled on the dark thing. Giving off a wet, sucking squelch, it emerged—some sort of worm, almost black, and about fifteen centimeters long—and the helmeted figure tossed it away.

“Time, people!” Load them up and let’s go!” The woman turned and stared at the group of gawkers through her dark goggles. “Stupid morons!” She pointed a sub-machine gun at them, “Get in the fucking van, now!”

The two others who had remained outside moved and shoved the group toward the sliding door. With the gun on them, the newcomers complied and, once everyone was aboard, the vehicle roared away.

It had taken sixty-four seconds.

“What’s ...” Sanya began, but was cut off with a wave of the leader’s hand.

“I’ll get to you in a second,” her red pony tail flipped as she turned to the soldier tending the unconscious blonde woman. “How is she?”

“Physically ...” the woman paused, seeing the concern in her commander’s face, “she’s asleep. It’s possible that the slug didn’t have enough time to ...”

“She finished her conversion,” the police woman said. “She will serve ... all of you will serve.”

“Shut the fuck up, you, unless you fancy sunbathing and pavement-surfing.” the soldier guarding her said.

“What the fuck were you trying to do?” the commander turned to address Sanya and her companions, “Stupid! Four uninfecteds, including a male uninfected, just walking around uncovered ... unarmed in full sunlight, gawking ... were you going to serve yourself up to them?”

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Sanya answered as the van went over a bump and all eyes turned to look out the back windows. There were no other vehicles in sight. “We ... just arrived ... What was that thing?”

“Just arrived?” the commander turned back from staring out the back of the van, “Where is there a place that isn’t overrun with those ... things?” She paused, looking at their leather uniforms as if noticing them for the first time, “What, are all of you in a band?”

“Nowhere ...” the police woman interrupted, “Our controllers are everywhere ... even you white-hats will soon know the pleasure they bring.”

“Shut up, or the slug inside you dies very painfully.” the commander said coldly.

“We teleported in ...” Karan offered, but stopped as everyone in hearing perked up, listening.

“Stop ...” the commander silenced her. “We’ll talk later,” she looked at the now smiling police woman, who was listening intently.

“So now we know why we didn’t materialize in the proper teleport,” Evi said, undoing the high collar of her uniform jacket.

“Where the hell is group two?” Tiona tersed. “They aren’t answering their messages.” She put her comm-phone back into her pocket.

“And what do you think happened here?” Morales asked, looking up at the burned out building that had been the teleport center.

Tiona, the leader, met the gaze of another hooded woman who walked by, giving her a wide berth. “Let’s check it out and get off the street until we get some answers.” They’d seen several people, all dressed in heavy, hooded garments, and none willing to talk to them. What the hell? she thought.

Inside, the air was cooler, but filled with the overwhelming smell of burnt wood and plastic. The building seemed empty and silent, except for a sort of low buzzing sound, the source of which they hadn’t found yet.

Rounding the stairwell into a lower level they found two doorways, one closed and one partially blown off its hinges. It hung outward from its lower one. Tiona pulled at the intact door and Evi followed her through. Morales was about to follow, but a sound in the other room caught her attention. She started to call the others, but the door fell closed behind them, so she turned to follow the sound. The broken door creaked slightly as Morales brushed it going past.

Inside, the air was damp and the room itself dark. The sound was stronger to the left; it was the same low buzzing they’d heard earlier, only closer. There was a low ceiling along the left-hand wall with some burned electrical equipment and there. In the shadows she saw them. They were shiny, like flat gelatinous-looking splotches on the ceiling. They pulsed slowly, emitting the strange buzzing sound. Morales moved closer, slowly, leaning in to get a better look, when she felt something fall wetly between the high collar of her tunic and her neck.

“What was that?” Tiona turned her head. They’d been examining the equipment in the room, which seemed to be for communications. It had all been broken and smashed, rather than burned, and some circuitry and parts were conspicuously missing, which struck them both as odd.

“Morales went ...” Evi stood, as a second sound, clearly a scream came to them through the closed door.

Tiona was first outside and was already shoving the broken door aside to enter the other room when Evi came out behind her.

“It’s on me!” Morales screamed, “It’s in my head ... I feel it!”

Rounding the corner, they found Morales, who turned to face them as they approached.

“I understand,” she said, with a smile forming on her lips, and, before Tiona or Evi could wonder what she was saying or why, the room erupted in motion and sound. Vaguely bat-like shapes emerged from the shadows behind Morales, flying out toward them with a loud screeching sound. One landed on Evi and she reached for it as it tried to worm its way under her tunic collar. “What the...” she cursed as the thing pinched her hand with something sharp, “Shit!” She threw the creature—whatever it was—to the floor and stomped it with her boot heel, generating an agonized wailing sound. Evi looked at her two companions, Tiona stood motionless, her eyes unfocused, and Morales had put her hands to her head, as if feeling intense pain. Suddenly Tiona turned and looked directly at Evi.

“You should have let it take you,” she said flatly, “The control drones only want to help us understand.”

“Yes, Evi,” Morales took a step closer, holding out her hands in front of her. One of the things, Evi could see it clearly, landed in the outstretched palms. “It’s wonderful, Evi,” Tiona said, taking a step. “Let it take you.”

“Commander?” Evi’s voice nearly failed as her feet backed her toward the doorway.

“I’m a slave, Evi,” Tiona breathed like a cat being petted. “I understand now.”

“Please drop those things,” Evi said, moving a little faster.

“Come closer Evi,” Morales purred, “It’s wonderful.”

More of the things, Evi didn’t know how many, flew out from the darkened alcove and she turned, leaving the room at a run. She could hear them behind her buzzing, flapping, screeching as she bounded the stairs two at a time. Nearing the door to the outside she felt it: something wet landing on her neck and there was a pinch, just as she was outside. There was something, like a voice in her mind, telling her to obey, and then she was out in the sunlight.

The voice became a scream, a tortured wail inside of her and outside of her. Slowly she regained her senses and reached back. The thing in her hands was blackened and withering and fell away to dust as the sun hit it.

Tiona and Morales stopped in their tracks as they reached the doorway. “Evi, come to us.” Tiona said.

“Why don’t you come out to me?” Evi said, “I don’t know what’s happening, but they die in the light.”

“Come to us Evi,” Tiona and Morales said together, “You must obey, Evi ... it feels good to obey.”

Evi took a step backward, away from the shadow of the building.

“Look at the sun, Evi,” Tiona said. “Look how low it is ... in no time at all it will be dark and there will be nowhere to hide from us.”

Evi ran.

“She can’t be allowed to escape,” Morales said.

“She has nowhere to go,” Tiona said. “We must report in for implantation as soon as possible ... we carry information vital to the hive.” She pulled her comm-phone from her pocket and punched several keys. “Two subjects requiring immediate implantation ...” she spoke robotically into the device.

“All right, bag them,” the leader spoke as the van rocked from another pothole, “We aren’t being followed.”

“Wait,” Sanya blocked what looked like a potato sack with upraised hands, “Why are you kidnapping us? I’m not doing anything until you tell me who you are!”

“Kidnapping?” The leader leaned in close, “We’re the ones who saved your asses. Right now you’d be getting your free will fucked out of you if we hadn’t showed up.” She paused after partly turning away, “If it makes you feel better, my name is Keir ... Sergeant Keir Villena.” She turned to the soldier holding the bag, “if she resists tranq the shit out of her and bag her anyway.”

Sanya and her people traded looks, silently coming to agreement that with what they’d seen. They seemed to have no better option than to go along for now.

“You need to cover me more than that,” the police woman similarly protested the sack being held above her head.

“Why?” Keir shot back almost venomously, “Why shouldn’t we let that slug inside you burn?”

The policewoman visibly pulled back into the corner with real terror showing in her eyes, “No,” she barely whispered.

“She’s coming around,” the soldier tending the unconscious woman announced, and Keir turned to look—a pained, worried expression crossing her face as the woman on the gurney began to lift her head. “Okay, wrap bug-princess here up in a blanket,” she pointed to the police woman. “Make sure none of them can see where we’re going.”

Evi looked down the hall in either direction. She was as certain as she could be that no one had seen her enter the building, and she’d seen no one once inside. The building was either empty, or those inside were keeping very quiet. She decided not to think about it.

The door to the apartment creaked slightly after she entered her key code and she locked it securely behind her.

The room was furnished with a sofa, a few chairs, a view screen and a kitchen. There was a bedroom, too, but she didn’t go there. She knew there was no food stored here, since it was sometimes a year or more between visits. She walked slowly to a bookcase on the far wall, where a picture stood in a frame—a picture of she and Sanya, smiling on a waterslide.

“Keep it together, girl,” she said to the picture and the empty room.

“How is she?” Keir asked as she entered the examination room.

“I’m ...” Marandi Villena sat naked on the table while being examined. She didn’t get to finish her answer.

“I’m not talking to you,” Keir said in a harsher sounding tone than she intended. “Doc, how is she?”

“Physically,” Dr. Mallory turned to face Keir, “I can’t find anything physically wrong,” she began, turning back to her patient, “there are abrasions and puncture wounds consistent with infestation, but it seems like it was caught in time. Mentally ... psychologically ...” she trailed off. “She’s your sister ... she says she’s fine, but I’m recommending rest and observation for a few days ...”

“But ...” Keir said slowly, “there’s always a ‘but.’”

“But, without diagnostic equipment, I can’t know anything for sure ...” Mallory began with an edge of frustration in her voice, but softened as she went, “With an MRI we could ... with even an X-ray we could do a lot.”

“How is that project coming?”

“It’s not ... look, I can make you a kiddie oven with a light bulb and a tin box, but delicate machinery with these resources? ... We keep having to tap the electrical grid at different locations just to keep the lights on and stay off the radar—and parts, well we don’t even have the people to guard this place and fight, much less to scrounge for electronics. We know the slugs are killed by UV and severely screwed with by electric shock, and that they are more than eighty percent nerve tissue and that they’ve assimilated human DNA to be able to survive in this environment ... and we all know what they do to the person they inhabit ... and we know that they give off radio signals and communicate with each other ... but we don’t know enough, and with this tech we can’t ever know enough.”

“Thanks, Doc.” Keir turned and looked worriedly at her sister, “That was a damned stupid thing you did.”

“The team was going to be captured,” Marandi protested. “I did what you would have done.”

Keir softened, “Which only means that you’ve got to start being the smart one ... How are you? ... How are you really?”

“I’m tired, sis.” And then she smiled, “And hungry ... is there any ice cream left?” It was true, she was tired, and she felt like herself, but there were feelings she couldn’t shake. The voice in her head telling her to obey was gone, but she felt ... it was hard to put a finger on. A few hours before she had been shown a path and had known she would follow it forever. She didn’t want to tell her sister about it, though, because ... she told herself that her silence on the matter was because she didn’t want her sister to worry.

“How’s the patient?” a voice asked and eyes turned to see a woman in worker’s coveralls enter.

“I’m fine, Carter,” Marandi answered. “How’s the truck?”

“The truck is fine until it breaks again. We don’t have the parts or facilities to do better.” She fixed Marandi with a serious look. “No bullshit, kid; how are you?” Carter, a few people at the base knew, had been rescued after having been among the hosts to the slugs, as they were called. She knew that the hosts called them something else.

“I’m tired, Katelyn, just really tired.”

Cater stood looking at Marandi for a long several seconds. Her face nearly hid the many concerns she had. “After you get some rest, I want to talk,” and she turned to leave the room. “I’ll get to work on the van after I get some sleep.”

“Keir?” Marandi began.

“I think you need to get some sleep,” Keir stopped her. “We can talk in the morning ... right now, I need to go talk to our prisoner.”

“That’s just it, sis,” Marandi said. “I want to come too ... I need to come ... and face her ... to show her that she failed.”

Keir looked at Doctor Mallory and back at Marandi. The doctor’s expression didn’t offer any answers.

“Okay, but I do the talking; understood?”

Four cloaked figures got out of a car with darkened windows in front of the former teleport center and went inside to find Tiona and Morales, standing motionless, naked in the shadows of the lobby, waiting. The organisms attached to the backs of their necks were pulsing slowly, as if pumping instructions into them.

“Welcome,” the strangers said in unison. One of them stepped forward from the rest and raised a hand to touch the creature on Morales’ back.

“This one is fighting it,” she said, pulling back her cloak and letting it fall to the ground. The woman was a tall, athletic blonde and she leaned in close, touching the creature again.

Morales trembled.

“It will all be much better very soon,” she said.

Another of them stepped forward, disrobing as she went, and approached Tiona. “This one is better accepting her training,” the pretty redhead said, stroking the creature on Tiona’s back.

Tiona almost fell as her eyes rolled back into her head.

“It will be wonderful,” the redhead cooed.

Evi peered out the window, keeping low and to the corner behind the thin curtains. There was little traffic in the street below—which was very unusual, she knew. Even having been born off-world, she knew this city as a bustling place at almost any time of day or night. The few people she saw all wore the same heavy robes and clothing that covered every inch of skin possible. Tiona and Morales had been afraid to follow her into the sunlight and the creature which had attacked her had burned when exposed. It followed that all she needed to do was stay in sunlight. The problem was that it would be sunset in less than an hour and there was no food in the apartment.

“Where are you, Sanya?” she breathed quietly in the empty room. The viewscreen was on in the background with the sound at a very low level and she turned her attention to it and the news broadcast it was showing.

Tiona stood motionless, watching the redhead. Her skin beaded with perspiration as her eyes were drawn to the woman’s crotch. There was something emerging from her parting folds. First one, then two black tendrils poked out, then, like antennae, they raised, pointing themselves directly at Tiona’s ever moistening sex. Tiona’s mind was in turmoil. She knew she was a slave and that it was her destiny, but wasn’t this wrong? Against all of the voices and feelings that told her how good obedience was, there was still a voice telling her to be afraid ... to run.

Her body remained still, trembling slightly as the two tendrils touched her skin for the first time. Her mouth was suddenly awash in a kiss as the redhead threw her arms around the captive and slowly, gently eased her down onto the floor, where several blankets had been spread out. She felt a pinch in her lower spine as something—a tendril—connected with her nervous system and then her brain felt like it winked out. Coming back, there was something new, something larger was sliding into her and a new, even more powerful voice in her mind told her how wonderful it was.

Her hips bucked upward into the beautiful woman with whom she was connected as her body welcomed the intruder. Mostly unnoticed, the creature on her back released itself, gliding back into the shadows until it was lost from sight.

Morales watched as Tiona was lowered to the floor. She saw the tendrils enter her commander, her friend, and was afraid. Her brain was in turmoil; she knew that she was a slave. The voice told her she was and, deep down, she knew it was true. The voice also told her how much she desired slavery, and deep down she did, but there was a part of her—a very persistent part of her—that didn’t. That part of her was afraid and, as she saw the blonde woman close in with the two black tendrils seeming to lead the way, her body moved. At first it was just a twitch, but then her foot took a step. It was just a matter of it sliding an inch on the floor but it gave the defiant part of her new drive. Her other foot raised slightly and took a full step ... only to be encircled by the waiting arms of the beautiful blonde woman.

Her mind winked out as something deep within her connected to her spine and she saw herself, a somewhat blurred vision of herself, through the eyes of the woman whose body was straddling her. She didn’t notice any more when the creature on her back detached. Her mind and body were too busy responding to the stimuli as she first accepted the intruder into her sex and then lost herself in wantonly fucking with her captor.

The two hooded figures stood over the scene, their heads thrown back in the waves of pleasure radiating from the women on the floor and the first orgasms of many to be experienced by the new slaves.

“Call me Kaita,” the captive police woman said, looking behind Keir, directly into the eyes of Marandi, who worried that someone would see her squirm uncomfortably.

“Officer Kaita Sallas,” Keir spoke formally, “I’m going to ask you some questions.”

“Mmmm ...” the naked woman leaned back languidly in her cell and her free hand went to her sex while the other was handcuffed to a pipe on the wall, “and what if I don’t cooperate, Sergeant Villena?” She licked her lips and winked an eye, causing Marandi to fade a little more behind her older sister. “Will you come in here and make me talk? Ask your sister how much fun we could have.”

Marandi found herself wishing she hadn’t come. This woman was doing something to her. She could sense it deep within, pulling at her, teasing her, setting parts of her body afire. She could feel it, and it scared her that she somehow couldn’t shake the knowledge that somewhere deep down she wanted it. Her eyes never left those of the pretty police woman.

“I have a better idea,” Keir began. “If you don’t talk I’ll make it hurt.” She paused, leaving the accent on the word to have its desired effect. Officer Sallas went pale; the thought of her controller being hurt scared her. That which controlled her and which she would gladly give her life to protect could be hurt and there was nothing she could do to stop it. “I’d like nothing more than to roll a bunch of tanning lamps into this place ...” Keir smiled, letting each syllable do its work.

“Marandi told me you were a hard ass,” Officer Sallas began, recovering the initiative. “When she gave herself to us we shared everything ...” her hand went deeper and she paused, biting her lip. “How are you dear? Doesn’t it hurt you so much to be without your controller?”

You belong to us Marandi, a voice—that of the woman in the cell—said in Marandi’s mind. You will always belong to us.

“You will tell us what we want to know,” Keir tried very hard not to let her growing anger show.

“Oh, I think you will all know everything soon enough,” Officer Sallas said, sighing as her fingers touched another sensitive spot. “It’s wonderful, Keir ... Marandi couldn’t wait ... oh ...” she paused, biting down again " … when we were joined her mind was full of images of fucking her sister and making you one of us ...” She paused as her eyes rolled back and she bit down, letting out a long rasp of breath, “The sergeant, pretending she’s a general ... a president ... You’re out of your league and you know it.”

Obey, the word crashed through Marandi’s mind and she felt dizzy, grabbing her sister’s arm to keep from falling.

Keir moved to help her sister, “Are you?” the question trailed off when she saw how pale Marandi looked.

“I think I’m worse off than I thought,” Marandi said, “I need to lay down.”

“I’ll kill you,” Keir rasped; “I’ll kill every goddamned one of you things!” She turned to half-carry her sister away down the hall.

Marandi saw, as her eyes broke contact with those of the other woman, a smile of satisfaction come upon her features.

“Where is Ollie?” Sanya stood as Keir entered the room, “And why are we being held prisoner?”

“Oliver has been taken to a secure facility where he’ll be protected,” Keir said, flatly. “I don’t even know where it is ... no one here knows.”

“What?” Sanya shot back. “You took him ... why?”

“Have you noticed something?” Keir began, “Have any of you noticed anything?” she paused, letting her question sink in. “They take the men and we don’t know where. We know they’re building ships and trying to build new teleporters so they can spread, but we don’t know where. Since we blew up every ship and teleport early on, we’re all stuck here ... no one leaves and no one comes in. I don’t know how many men the resistance has ... not many, but we’re not going to keep one in a forward base like this. It’s the survival of the human race, girls. I don’t know if the slugs are breeding us—probably, but we’d better start or there’ll be nobody left.”

Sanya was silent, looking from face to face among her team.

“Which bring us to the important question:” Keir continued, “where did you come from and how did you get here?”

“Io Station,” Sanya answered. “Teleport alignment was just reestablished after periodic blackout. We’re the first team to get leave.”

“Periodic blackout?”

“It isn’t my area of expertise,” Sanya explained. “Morales, in the other group, would explain it in better terms, but teleportation is greatly affected by alignments, positions within the asteroid belt, occultations, and solar activity.”

“You’ve been out of contact for ...?” Keir asked.

Sanya looked to her team while answering, “Seventeen months, give or take.” The rest nodded.

“So you’re from space ... that explains the leather suits.”

“I’m from Ottumwa,” Sanya said. “Io is just a job site.”

You belong to us, Marandi, the voice sounded in her head as she clung tightly to her blankets, you will always belong to us.

“Shut up,” Marandi said, barely above a whisper in the dark of her empty room. “I don’t belong to you any more.” Without her seeming to notice, first one hand and then the other moved under the blankets, stroking, touching, moving.

We’re connected, Marandi, the voice was Officer Sallas ... Kaita, but she was alone in her locked room. Her right hand moved in slow circles across her skin until it found her sex. There are no secrets between us ... listen to what’s inside.

Marandi felt something twitch in her mind as her fingers pushed deeper. She bit her lip as the wave began to rise.

Like a wasp leaves a stinger behind, your controller left something—a gift—behind for you.

“I don’t belong to you,” Marandi insisted again as her hands worked and sensations assaulted her sanity ... “You’re making me think these things.”

I’m not making you, Marandi, Kaita’s voice licked the inside of her mind. You’re right, though, that you are being made to think this way. Marandi tensed as her hands brought a shudder through her body. Ask yourself, Marandi ... does it matter? Is it important why you now think and believe this way, or simply to know that you do ... and is it important why you obey ... or is it more important to obey?

“I don’t ...” Marandi began, but she could feel the lie she was about to tell dry up in her throat. In its place, the word obey filled her mind as her body erupted in orgasmic bliss.

Yesss ... Marandi, Kaita’s voice caressed, obey. As if in a trance, Marandi rose out of bed and began to dress. Obey my controller, Marandi, and let it guide you to where you need to be.

Marandi quietly shut the door behind her as she walked slowly out.

“A little over a year ago there was a crash, a spacecraft from the outer rings.” Keir paused, looking at a communication on her comm-phone. “The site was overrun by rubberneckers and souvenir hunters before the military shut it down. It started quietly at first, disappearances, weird reports, and then conflicting orders came down through the channels. The army was paralyzed and it didn’t even know it. They’d taken command and control ... we fought back, but ...”

“But?” Karan looked from the sergeant to her boss.

“We’re losing.” Keir looked down, kicking at an invisible spot on the floor before continuing, “We hide and we hit and run. We destroy their ships as they build them and steal resources, but spare parts, ammo, food, people ... we’re losing. We thought that winter would slow them down ... but it didn’t. They’re on the communications channels with their programming and they had the police ... most of the army … the government. We had no chance. Now we’re just a handful and some isolated groups hiding in the desert somewhere ... the mountains ... The resistance was using a mobile dish to transmit warnings into space but, once the slugs took the moon … I think it’s being jammed.”

Marandi walked, dreamlike, through the deserted corridors of the base. It felt wonderful to just walk—to be led. It was so much clearer than her own thoughts had been since ... she sighed unconsciously. It was inevitable, she knew; the controller ... her controller had left part of itself behind and, given time, would control her again. There was another way though, she knew, and so she followed without thinking.

“Halt!” a voice came from behind. Marandi recognized it as Nina, who worked base security: “Marandi, what are you doing up here?”

Marandi didn’t stop. She let the silent commands work her like a machine. It was just through this door ...

She was outside and she could feel it in the darkness. She walked toward a Burnt out storage structure. She could feel them, even hear them now. They were close ... waiting for her.

Nina Velia stood outside for a moment letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. Turning her head, she saw Marandi standing, looking at her. “Didn’t you learn yesterday?” Nina scolded, walking toward the younger woman, “Marandi?” She stopped; something wasn’t right here. Why are her hands behind her? Nina thought, too late.

“I have something for you, Nina,” Marandi said blankly, raising a hand holding something Nina couldn’t quite see and releasing it into the air. It flew too quickly, covering the short distance before Nina could react and the athletic brunette’s face turned to horror as she saw it and then felt it behind her head.

Nina tried to turn and run. She brought her hands up to try and pull the ... Nina stopped, her body trembling.

Marandi came up beside Nina, touching the creature that had attached itself and turning so the two were back to back and very close together. There were two creatures, one on the back of each woman and they each began to shift. Thin tendrils, like antennae emerged, connecting each creature with the other.

Both women shuddered. It’s okay, Nina, Marandi’s voice cooed within Nina’s mind. I know you’re scared because I was, too.

“I can’t,” Nina’s voice struggled. “I have to ...”

You have to obey, Nina, it was like Nina was feeling Marandi’s body and her own become one entity. She needed to obey.

We need to obey, Nina.

“I understand,” Nina breathed. It really was better to just let go and obey.

Each woman began to undo her clothes, pants falling down around their ankles and shirts falling open as the buttons were released, one by one. In back, from under their shirts emerged a thick tentacle that stretched downward between their legs and under until it reached their sexes. Nina trembled as her body was penetrated. She still felt afraid, but somehow it felt wonderful not being able to do anything but let it happen. There was a voice in her mind, telling her to obey and she did, and, as she felt something being pushed through the tentacle into her body, she came.

The eggs of our controllers are inside us Nina, flowed Marandi’s voice. When they hatch, it will be wonderful.

Nina felt afraid, and wonderful. She felt the thing ... the egg inside her, and it scared her, but also there was something else. She knew it was wrong and knew it was a thought implanted against her will, but somehow it didn’t matter—it felt wonderful to drift along on obedience and it would be even more wonderful once the egg hatched and she could blend with her controller completely.

The viewscreen was still on in the background, but Evi hadn’t looked at it for a while. It was just a lot of news and none of it particularly useful. There were things happening outside which drew her attentions much more forcefully. Since the sun had set the town square below had gone from deserted to a buzzing hive of activity. Gone were the heavy garments she’d seen that day. The people she saw—all women—were either nude or nearly so. They walked slowly out into the open, meeting, gathering into twos, then threes and then knots of people until the square was full of them.

“... And we’re now receiving reports that a group of newcomers were spotted today in the city and that two of these newcomers have been welcomed into the hive. Reports indicate that the newcomers arrived via a redundancy in the teleport system and that it will be of great use to our expansion.” Evi turned to the screen, which was flickering very brightly in the unlit room. “Five other newcomers will be welcomed very soon. Four of them are believed to be with a resistance group that we’ve had under surveillance for some time, and one more is at large. As these new hosts are welcomed and their essence shared, the hive will be stronger.” The reporter paused, releasing a long sigh of breath before continuing.

Evi turned back to the window and her vision sluggishly focused on the scene below. There were hundreds of the women now, gathered closely together.

It was then that she saw it happen. A woman stepped up to the edge of the crowd and something emerged from between her legs. In the streetlight glow it was hard to see the moving shape, but it stretched out in an inky dark strand and met with more of its kind which had emerged from the others in the square. Evi was transfixed at the sight of all those women, joined together by ... whatever those things were.

Behind her, the reporter was speaking again, and she only sort of listened to the words.

“Our controllers will hatch in a few hours,” Marandi said as she pulled up her coveralls.

“Yes,” Nina said, “I am still resisting, and will require the control drone to remain attached.” She pulled up her coat collar to cover the back of her head and neck.

“I am a slave,” Marandi said, “I will hide my control drone in my room as it may help us, but I obey without it.”

“I ...” Nina’s body shook “… I want to obey ...” Nina began walking toward the door. “The next duty shift arrives in twenty minutes and I will proceed directly to my quarters after they relieve me.” Marandi followed her, gently placing the creature she carried into the front of her coveralls and smiling contently as she felt it nestle against her breasts.

“A horticulturist,” Keir said, looking at Sanya, “An astronomer and a computer programmer,” she finished, looking to Karan and Suilli respectively, “Ok, you, gardener: you’re with me and the two of you ...” she paused, ready to lock the door as passed her into the hall, “We’ll find places for you as soon as we can.”

“Are we prisoners?” Sanya asked as Keir secured the door.

“As much as the rest of us are,” Keir fixed her with a determined look. “We need every hand, so no, you’re not prisoners, but none of us can leave. They won’t risk the underground to get any of us out and we can’t let any of those fuckers get off-world because, if they do, then everybody in the solar system will be infected, including your friends on Io.”

“Sergeant,” a woman in full combat gear approached as the two walked away down the hall.

“Lee,” Keir said, “This is Sanya. She’ll be joining us as our guide.”

“Sanya,” the brunette—who still looked imposing even in the ill-fitting uniform she wore—acknowledged, “We’ve just gotten a report that two of their group were taken today, so they know about the teleport.”

“Two?” Sanya was cut off by Keir. please be safe, Evi.

“Fuck,” Keir grated, “it won’t be light for a couple of hours yet but we’ve got to risk It ... Let’s roll.”

“What do we do?” Karan spoke after the sounds of footsteps faded outside.

“I need to pee,” Suilli answered, getting up and walking to the narrow door in the near wall.

“That’s not what I meant,” Karan glared at the door as it closed between them, Stuck up bitch ... now isn’t the time to get uppity about the promotions. She stood and tested to main door, knowing already that it was locked but checking anyway.

“Mom?” Suilli whispered into her comm-phone. She’d stuck it into her boot when she saw that they were being searched and it had been missed.

“Su!” said the face on the small screen. “Where are you?”

“I’m not sure ...“Suilli answered, turning on the faucet. “Are you and dad safe?”

There was a pause, “Yes, dear, we got out of the city in time.”

“It’s good to hear your voice, Mom,” she paused, listening. “I was really scared.”

“Don’t be, honey; it’ll all be all right very soon.” As the tinny voice came through the speaker, the screen emitted a sudden pulse of light. “Are you there, Suilli?”

“Yes,” Suilli spoke flatly, her eyes fixed on the now pulsating screen.

“Good girl ... there are things that you must listen to.”

The flash was reflected in the glass of the window Evi was watching through and her mind went blank. Turning, she walked slowly closer to the viewscreen which flashed collapsing patterns of color. “This is a test,” the voice spoke through the speakers, all around her, “This is a routine compliance test of the information broadcast system. Your mind is relaxed and compliant. Please turn your monitor to channel R-seventeen.”

Without thinking, Evi reached out to change the channel to the new setting. On the screen flashed new colors in a pattern of collapsing rings that seemed to be drawing Evi’s eyes ... Evi’s everything into the screen itself.

“You are relaxed and compliant.”

Evi nodded slowly. She was relaxed and compliant.

“You are not of the hive.”

Evi felt suddenly very sad, but the voice was still there, telling her things.

“You are a slave, you must obey.” The suggestion coated Evi’s mind like a cool drink. “You desire only slavery, and you desire to bond with a controller and be absorbed into the greatness of the hive.”

“Greatness of the hive ...” Suilli repeated slowly, softly, “I desire only slavery.”

“Good girl,” the voice that was no longer her mother’s continued. Suilli felt very good, listening and knowing she was compliant. The pulse had shut off her will and now the voice was telling her how to obey. Obedience was much nicer than the isolation she had been feeling. “Your only purpose and desire is to bond with your controller, Suilli.”

Suilli felt her pussy twitch and grow moist. It felt good to hear her name and know that she had pleased them.

Evi walked slowly, robotically to the window. She was no longer keeping low, and stood in full view of everyone below. On the ledge outside, she saw two of the creatures that had attacked her group earlier. As one, the faces below turned upward toward her. Evi looked at them and saw, near the front; two faces she recognized. Joined to the rest of the masses by a spider web of black tendrils that fanned from their pussies, Tiona and Morales smiled up at her. Her hands moved to the window locks, but hesitated. One lock clicked loudly as she released it, but the other resisted. As she pulled at it, her concentration shifted and she stopped. Looking at the creatures and the crowd outside, and at the faces of her enslaved friends she slumped to the floor, curling up in a ball and sniffling back exhausted tears, “Where are you, Sanya?”

Evi knew somewhere in her mind that they would be coming for her. In her slow thoughts, she looked up at the viewscreen which was still on channel R-seventeen, and knew they would be coming.

Somewhere in her mind, she tried to raise the willpower to do something about it.

Two tactical trucks squealed to a stop in front of the warehouse and disgorged their police units. Too late, they realized quickly as fires were already visible from outside.

“Thank you,” Keir said quietly, some distance down the street, “we stopped them.”

“For how long?” Sanya spoke softly, “The teleport system was designed with redundancy in mind so there are bound to be other backups ... and how many other cities with teleport hubs?”

“I know,” Keir said, “but what else do we do?”

“Hitch a ride, it seems …” Lee said dryly. Their van had broken down again and they had barely been able to hide themselves before the police arrived. “… unless you can talk them into surrendering to us.”

“The sun is coming up,” Keir observed, “We should be able to call for a pickup after they leave.”

“Thank you for coming, Nina,” Doctor Mallory said as the two met in the hall on the way to the detention area. “With everyone out right now, you’re the only one from security not on other assignments. “Sorry for killing your sleep time.”

“Not a problem, Doctor,” Nina said. She hadn’t been sleeping. It was growing inside her and she could feel it. Deep within her she knew that if she told the doctor there was a good chance they could get it out of her before it hatched, but the words never formed and instead she dutifully marched along behind the doctor, who was pushing a cart full of equipment and tools. “Interrogation time?”

“Yes,” Mallory answered, “we need to get what we can and then ...” she trailed off, “… and then we need to kill it.”

It, something inside Nina twitched and she felt faint, but kept walking. The controller on her back was pumping instructions and new thinking into her mind and it was hard for her to feel the old ones any more. All she could do was obey, and it felt very good to do so.

“Hi, Chiara,” Mallory said to the posted guard, as she rounded the corner to the cell block. “And how is our patient today?” she turned to address their prisoner. “Putting on some weight, I see.”

“She eats about non-stop,” Chiara cleared her throat, “when she isn’t jilling off.”

“I’ll be a lot better when you girls come in here and help me work off some of this energy”, the policewoman pulled her hand from her crotch and gave one of her generous breasts a squeeze. “Oh, Nina,” she said with a widening smile,” you look tired ... sleepless night?”

Nina’s mind was lost in a whirlwind of almost-thoughts and she didn’t answer, but her eyes were fixed on the nearly naked woman still cuffed to the pipe in the cell. Obey, the voice in her mind commanded, she wasn’t sure if it came from the control drone or her own thoughts, but it made her wet to know how obedient she was being by not telling the doctor anything.

“Officer Sallas knows all of us through her, um, contact with Marandi,” Mallory explained. “Today we get to find out what else she knows,” for emphasis, she patted the top of an apparatus modified from a defibrillator.

“Call me Kaita,” she smiled, leaning back and pleasuring herself. At the sight of the device she had shown a moment of fear, but it disappeared as her eyes met with those of Nina and she recognized the cause of her apparent distress. “When you’re with us, all of you,” Kaita breathed, her eyes never leaving Nina’s, “you’ll feel like this all of the time.”

Mallory pushed the cart into the cell, accompanied by the two guards.

“You resist at first, we all do,” Kaita continued, “I was of the resistance when it started, but if I’d known how it felt I’d have gone down to the crash site and begged for a controller to bond with ... oh!” her body bucked with an orgasm and she sighed, holding her lower lip between her teeth.

Doctor Mallory hooked wires ending in two long electrodes to the machine and held the ends up in her hands. “Hold her down.”

“I resisted, I did,” Kaita continued, “but it’s so much better now ... oh!” she paused, pulling in a long breath, “Look at my body Nina! Look how beautiful my body is! They give us so much ... strength, health, beauty ... pleasure ...”

The two guards grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back to the wall, pinning her. Nina felt something move within her. It was hatching, she could feel it. There was a pinch and then her mind whited out.

“You’ll tell us all that you know about the slugs and the ships they’re building ...” Mallory said, ignoring her and moving the electrodes ever closer, “or that thing inside of you is going to feel a lot of pain.”

“Oh, Tabienne, come now,” Kaita cooed, pushing her hand ever deeper, “they give us so much, you’ll see ... and all we have to give them is our obedience ... we must obey.” Her body shook in another orgasm.

Nina came hard, her body shook and she relaxed her hold on Kaita. Her mouth moved but only a deeply rasped breath came out. Suddenly from behind her head something moved faster than the eye could follow, a black tendril shot out and buried itself at the base of Chiara’s skull and then pulled the creature which had controlled Nina across the space where it landed and nestled itself. Chiara shook and stood rigid as her eyes rolled back into her head.

Doctor Mallory dropped the electrodes, frozen and wide-eyed in shock. She watched helplessly as Kaita flexed her body and pulled up her arms, snapping loose from the handcuffs which had held her, seemingly without any effort at all. “Oh Nina, you’ve been a very good girl, haven’t you.”

Mallory started to turn and her mouth moved to cry out, but the stronger form of Nina engulfed her in a hold with a hand tightly over her mouth. “I obey,” Nina said with her body still trembling. “I must obey doctor ... I’m sorry,” the last words were barely audible.

“Bloody fucking hell!” Keir fumed, watching the fully suited police ransack their van.

“Now that they’ve found that,” Lee said, “They’ll never leave until they find us... right now there’s probably another fifty of them en route to cut us off.”

“You may need this,” Keir said, pushing a .45 automatic pistol into Sanya’s hands.

“I don’t ...” Sanya took the gun, not knowing what else to do.

“It’s ready to go,” Keir said. “You release the safety, point it, and pull the trigger and let it do the rest,” she pointed a finger at the safety catch as she spoke.

“I ...” Sanya began, “I know how to terraform and how to grow crops in hostile environments, but guns ...” she paused. “I don’t know anything about guns.”

“Fucking wonderful!” Lee spat, “A few billion of those maggot-infested sluts and I’ve got a space-gardener and a bean counter for a platoon ...” And then she smiled, “What kind of chicken-shit outfit is this?”

“Bean counter?” Sanya looked at Keir.

“Yep,” Keir said. “Once an army accountant and now the senior ranking military official on the whole base ... hell of a promotion, eh? Lee here is the only real soldier we have.”

“And after I punched out my C.O. ...” Lee said, “... and before they tossed me in the brig for conduct unbecoming ...” she looked from Sanya to Keir, “I told the mutherfucking lazy, worthless skunkbutt to get the lead out of his ass and move the fuck out before he got the whole platoon taken down!”

Karan watched the pretty lights that filled her mind and had mostly forgotten to hear the words that came from the speaker. She’d been excited when Suilli came out of the bathroom and told her that she’d made contact with her parents and then showed her ... Once the flash had taken her will away, Karan had learned to relax and let go. Now she was learning how good obedience felt, and how wonderful it was to wait for them to come and help her.

Karan and Suilli both knew they were coming.

Tabienne Mallory felt the thing enter her. She fought with everything she had, but it wasn’t enough. The pretty police woman had followed her to the floor as Nina forced her down onto it. She could see Nina and Chiara standing face to face, naked, with black tendrils extending out from Nina’s pussy and merging with more that had sprouted from the thing on Chiara’s back ... How had they gotten Nina?

The thought died as she felt a pinch deep inside of her and her mind whited out. All of the fear was suddenly gone, replaced by feelings of need ... she needed it, needed Officer Sallas ... Kaita … to give it to her ... needed to ... obey ...

“Wonderful, isn’t it, doctor?” Kaita purred as she ground herself down on top of the helpless woman, “You’re important ... ooh! You’re too important to wait for an egg to hatch so you get a fully grown controller. My controller has been producing them since I got here. With you we can recruit the whole base without an alarm, and then the whole of the resistance is an open road.”

“Nooo,” Tabienne moaned. She couldn’t, could she? Obey The word crashed through everything she felt and everything she knew. The orgasm shattered everything she knew, everything she’d ever thought, and what remained of her mind felt suddenly at peace as all of her memories and thoughts reformed in her mind, familiar, but new, wonderfully new. The feeling of her resistance, and its eradication, surprised her in its intensity and her mouth sought out Kaita’s in a deep kiss.

She needed it ... moaning ... knowing that the feelings of need weren’t truly hers, but it didn’t matter. She could see herself as Kaita saw her. It was powerful seeing herself helpless, needing to be ... needing to be controlled, to obey. She really did need it, grinding herself upward against her lover, her controller as she felt the shape begin to fill her. The two bodies became like one, rocking, bucking, kissing in a mass of lust. With the new wave of orgasms that swept them both away, Doctor Mallory had become just Tabienne to the hive, so much more than she had ever been before.

Marandi could feel the egg moving inside her. As she lay in her bed, slowly caressing her breast with one hand and fingering herself with the other, she just let her mind drift. In her mind she could feel the new ones ... new minds joining her. She could feel Nina, and Kaita and Chiara and ... Tabienne... She knew that Nina had been a very good girl and felt every twitch within her as the egg ... her controller came ever closer to hatching. She barely heard the knock at her door, but immediately she knew ... somehow she knew who it was outside.

“Four,” Lee said, taking a quick drink from a canteen as the trio crouched behind a loading dock, “coming this way.” They were keeping to the old warehouse district with its deserted streets in order to have a chance at getting back to the base, but every time Lee drifted back or forward to scout she came back with more bad news. With the only laws being broken being those broken by the resistance, the police had become the predators, hunting those who didn’t belong, and now they were hunting Keir, Lee, and Sanya.

“They’re herding us,” Keir said, taking the water and passing it to Sanya. “They’re pushing us toward the waterfront.”

“Nowhere to hide there,” Lee added, capping the canteen and returning it to its holder on her belt. “Another block and we run out of warehouses.”

“Teraforming?” Keir said, looking at Sanya. “You said teraforming? What is that?”

“Basically starting with an alien environment and altering it until it becomes sustainable and suitable to our needs.”

“Wonder if that’s what they call it,” she gestured with her MP5 toward the four policewomen in full cover-gear who had just appeared about fifty meters away.

“Lets not sit on our pretty asses, all right?” Lee sputtered, “Maybe later we can build a fire with marshmallows and sing some old sea shanties, but for now ten-hut, fucking platoon! Move out!”

“Katelyn, how do you feel?” Marandi asked Carter as both sat down in her quarters. Marandi was still in just a robe and Katelyn Carter was trying very hard not to show how uncomfortable it was making her. “You went through it ... serving them, and I need to know.”

Katelyn Carter was one of a very few who had been rescued, a former host to the slugs, as the resistance called them, a former slave. Former, she reminded herself often. “You want to know if I feel the need, Marandi? Is that what you’re asking?” she looked directly into the young woman’s eyes.

Marandi felt the egg within her swelling, opening, waited for the pinch deep inside that she knew was coming—the wait was almost painful for her. She needed it to take her, needed to touch herself and help it take her. She forced her hands to stay in her lap.

“You want to know whether I don’t feel them, here in this base, Marandi,” Carter continued, “even in this room ... spreading like a fire no one sees ...” She let out a long breath, “You want to know how it feels when I find myself ... the times I can’t stop myself from sabotaging the vehicles I’m working on ... the times when I can’t stop myself from obeying.”

Marandi came as her mind whited out and her eyes rolled back into her head. Yes! She obeyed.

“Yes, Marandi,” Carter spoke after several seconds, watching, fascinated as the woman in front of her surrendered, “I obey, as you do. I know it now ... I ...” The words stopped as Marandi stood, letting the robe drop to the floor, “I know that it’s my destiny to obey.” She stood, watching as a black tendril extended from Marandi’s sex, stepping closer and unzipping her coveralls.

“My controller only just hatched, Katelyn,” Marandi stretched her arms around the now naked woman, “You don’t need the control drone, but its eggs will give you what you need.” Marandi gently placed the creature that had impregnated her against Katelyn’s skin as the tendril from her own sex entered the other woman. As Katelyn’s mind exploded into blankness and her body shuddered, the two were lost in an embracing kiss. Their one mind felt every bit of the egg being deposited in Katelyn’s body.

Eland walked down the long hall toward the infirmary and was surprised to see a familiar face exiting and walking toward her. Gianna, who was among the pair stationed at the South entry point while Eland had come from the North side, smiled at her as she went past. The doctor must be doing more spot checks, she thought. The gates were not unattended, she knew; Chiara had come to relieve her and keep Sandrine company while the doctor performed whatever urgent check this was.

“Hello Eland,” Doctor Mallory smiled as Eland took off her jacket and stood her AR-15 against the wall. “You’ll need to strip down for this. You know the drill.”

More spot checks, Chiara owes me twenty, Eland thought as she placed her clothes in a plastic tote. This was nothing new. The doctor did this all the time.

It was new, however, when the doctor dropped her lab coat, revealing her bare chest. Eland reacted, but too slowly as she was suddenly grabbed. Nina had come out quietly from behind a curtain while Eland had been distracted. Now the big jock had her pinned. Eland tried, but couldn’t free herself.

The doctor took several steps closer, smiling. Eland’s eyes went wide as black tendrils extended like whips outward from the Doctor’s lower lips. “You can fight it if you want to, Eland. I’ve found that I rather like it. Resistance is delicious.”

“Doctor, no ...” Eland pushed harder and tried to put Nina off balance, but she was too strong. She was afraid, like she’d been when her sorority sisters had come after her with the same black tendrils. She’d ran away, like she’d never run before, and she wanted more than anything to run now. “You can fight it, Doc ... Nina ... Please!” Eland thrashed to no avail, “The things ... we can get the things out, Doc!”

“I don’t want to get them out ...” she stepped ever closer with her hips swaying to some unheard music, “… and in a little while, Eland ... neither will you.” She held her hands above her head in a belly dance around the captive woman, playing with her. “I know it doesn’t make any sense ... that, just this morning, I would’ve given my life ... my soul to see them destroyed ... the controllers, that is ...” she trailed off, running her hands slowly up her sides and cupping her breasts, placing them directly against Eland’s face. “mmmm ... yes ... Eland ... yessss ... my controller ... it doesn’t make sense.” She drew out each syllable slowly as she continued her slow, serpentine dance, sighing deeply as the feelings overtook her, “We’re the best hosts, you see. They need us and we need to serve them ... to help them ... it’s our destiny, Eland, our purpose ...”

Eland felt light-headed; the doctor was sooo ... she was never this hot before, was she? Her mind swam.

“We make perfect hosts, Eland,” she was fingering herself while swaying just a breath away, the tendrils tracing circles ever so lightly around the captive’s navel and moving slowly lower. “We’re unlike any they’ve ever had ... ooh! … unlike others, we have the capacity to enjoy our enslavement ... ooh!” She moved her fingers deeper, still swaying, “and I do. I am a slave and it’s delicious. Your resistance ... intoxicating ... it will come, Eland, the moment when I kiss you ...” Her mouth moved like lightning and her arms encircled both Eland and her captor like creeping vines, engulfed the restrained woman in a deep, lusty kiss.

Eland was slow, but as her mind became focused, her resistance came back in force and she bit down hard.

Tabienne pulled away, wiping a bit of blood way with her hand, smiling wide and placing the fingers in her mouth, tasting her own juices on them. Her body began swaying in its dance again. “It will come, Eland, the kiss, the moment when your resistance responds, but is defeated by your need, your desire, and, in that moment you’ll return the kiss, drown in the kiss ... ooh! … and then you’ll beg ... plead with me to let you have a controller of your own inside you.

“All right, there’s only one of them”, Lee observed. The van they’d stumbled onto could be a trap, they knew, but it was also their only chance. “Sanya will approach from over there,” she pointed, “And we’ll take out the guard ... and then we drive away.”

Sanya stepped out into the open, looking unsteady. The guard readied herself upon seeing her, raising what appeared to be a dart gun. “Help me,” Sanya said, and then fell down, not moving.

The guard started walking toward the apparently unconscious woman and didn’t notice as two figures appeared behind. She fell like a wet sack when the tazer charge surged through her.

“Should we take her back?” Sanya asked, stepping past the downed guard toward the van.

“Keys are in it,” Lee said, inspecting the vehicle through its open side door. “Let’s go.”

“The doctor should be able to take it out of her.” Keir said, raising the limp woman by an arm as Sanya bent to help.

“What the f ...” Lee began, not finishing her sentence as something hit her in the chest. She looked down at the dart that stood proudly out from her left breast. “Fuck!” she said, pulling the half empty cylinder out and tossing it away. “It should be okay, it didn’t give the full dose,” she said to her two comrades who had dropped the guard and come to help.

Another dart bounced loudly off the side of the van.

“Get her in!” Keir shouted, as Lee fell to her knees.

Still more darts cut the air, coming very close. “Chickenshit slug bitches,” Lee stumbled as another dart hit her, “Don’t have the stones to come and face us ...”

“Get her the fuck in the truck!” Keir repeated, holding up a discarded board as a shield with one hand and helping drag Lee with the other.

“Leave me,” Lee slurred groggily. “Get away ...” She fell limp.

Dragging the unconscious woman into the van they slammed the side door shut and Keir jumped to the driver’s seat.

Gravel flew as the van sped away into the afternoon sun.

The otherwise dark room flashed with lights from the comm-phone on the floor as the door opened and two figures stepped in.

“Lovely,” Kaita purred as she and Gianna stood over the two women on the floor. If Karan and Suilli registered their presence, they were beyond caring, engaged as they were in a tangle of sixty-nined lust. “Obey.” Kaita said, softly commanding.

The two women looked up, stickily, with the word obedience thundering in their minds. Their eyes came to rest on the two black tendrils which were emerging from the naked sexes of the women standing above. They stood, obediently, arms wide, embracing as the tendrils entered them, and they lost themselves in the waiting girlflesh and felt the pinch that cemented their obedience—obedience the knew would never end as their hips bucked in and out onto the segmented shapes that now flowed into them.

“The resistance, Eland,” Tabienne purred as she swayed, touching herself, “they’ll be allowed to continue, at least on some level, because we need them ...” she paused, sighing as her hands teased her eager folds. “The hive grows stronger as it assimilates new individuality that is different from itself, and humanity at its most desperate, resisting ... is the most fertile ground to sow our seeds ... so the resistance will be allowed to continue and procreate ... just more ... controlled, isolated.”

“It’s your weakness,” Eland spoke, exhausted, “you’re all the same, thinking the same and we ... humans are free to innovate ... unorthodox ...” Her head swirled with unwanted feelings. There was something in the air, she knew.

“And yet, Eland ...” Tabienne leaned in close and ever so lightly touched her tongue to an erect nipple, standing out on Eland’s breast, “… we still win.”

“No ...” Eland breathed, but her body shook the with sensation. Her vision was filled with the doctor and her seductive dance while her mind, her everything was being assaulted from all sides and within by feelings she could no longer suppress or keep hidden.

“You like my breasts?” Tabienne cupped them in front of Eland, “The pheromones are wonderful, aren’t they?” She kissed the still-resisting woman on the lips and resumed her dance. “We’re their perfect hosts ... ooh …” her voice stopped in a deeply drawn breath as she bit her lip. “It’s like we were created for the purpose ... oohh ... designed to be their slaves ...” She swayed like a hunting jungle cat toward Eland, Placing her hands on either side of the captive woman’s face and pulling her into a deeper, more passionate kiss. Eland’s body shook as a black tendril probed delicately at her folds.

Her mind rolled over upon itself, thoughts trying to form and crashing away with each new onslaught. The kiss had overpowered her and her traitorous body arched forward, seeking contact, seeking the probing tendril. As the kiss broke, a long moan escaped her lips.

“Oh,” Tabienne purred, “the breaking point.” Her hands went to Eland’s pussy as the captive body responded, trembling: “If I had known it would be like this, I would have fought for it ... begged for it ... to be a slave, Eland, I want you to feel it, to need it ... oohh, I want you to beg for it ...”

“Yesss” was the sound that breathed from Eland’s mouth as she bit her lower lip, feeling the pinch and pushing, grinding herself against the doctor and the controller that now connected them. Released from the strong arms that had held her, she slid slowly to the floor under Tabienne, their mouths locked in a forever soul kiss, their bodies and minds now as one.

Etta scanned the darkened badlands under the still-bright sky from where they stood among some boulders as the jeep, which had just dropped off her charge pulled away. “Ever ride a horse before?” she turned to Oliver and replacing her binoculars in their pouch.

Oliver looked at the four tethered animals and back to Etta, his expression answering the question.

“Ever see a horse before?” Etta spat, missing a bug that had crawled from under a rock.

“My friends, where ...?” he didn’t finish.

Etta, a woman who seemed as rugged as the barren landscape of the desert that surrounded them was silent for several seconds before responding. “They’ll do their best,” she said looking at the ground, “all of them will, but ... " her voice trailed off. “You don’t worry though. The slugs don’t like this place. It’s too damned dry and the sun shines hot all day long. They don’t come this far out so we’ll get you where you’re going... two days I think ...” Etta looked at him for a while and then moved to the horses. “This one’s name is Joanie, she’s mine and this here is Ritchie, he and Ralph here are carrying our water and supplies. This one is Chuck ... he’ll be your best friend for the next two days ... and he’ll make your ass feel like the bottom of the Indy Five Hundred ... but he’s as good as any to disappear on.”

Oliver stood, cautiously approaching the offered mount which was calmly looking at him while chewing on something. “I guess it’s time for me to meet my first horse.” he said, petting the animal.

“Fuck your password,” Keir said into the communicator as she saw Eland give her the thumbs up from the mostly concealed checkpoint. Being waved past the gate put her mind at ease, and as a result her mind was very slow processing what she saw in the yard as she came up. Both she and Sanya gasped as they realized that there, in the fading twilight of the base, were two police tactical vehicles and a line of police with their dart guns ready. Glancing behind them, they saw another one close them in.

Keir grabbed her MP5, “Time to become a soldier,” she looked at Sanya, who was looking at the .45 on the floor.

“I ...” Sanya began, “I don’t think I can ...” She looked out at the police women, and the base inhabitants appearing behind them, among them her friends, and then at Keir, “They’re still people. I ... I don’t think I can shoot them.”

Keir had just caught sight of her sister, naked and smiling, looking back at her. She dropped the gun slowly, letting it slip away from her. “And an hour ago I thought we were in trouble.” Keir breathed, still looking at her sister. She typed an identifying code into her communicator and then the phrase broken arrow, knowing that, once her resistance contacts received the signal, they would know that the group was compromised and knowing too that, unless some miracle happened very soon, she would likely not want to give them such a warning later. She crushed the device with her boot against the floorboards.

“How fast can you run?” Keir asked, after a long silence.

Epilogue: Nightfall

Evi walked slowly around the crowded square. In the dim streetlit crowd, her eyes went from face to face. Everyone was naked, engaged in mass sharing. The hive was connected through all of them, their bodies entwined in each other and in the black tendrils that were everywhere. Evi walked, stopping only when she saw a familiar face approaching. Sanya, naked like all the rest, was coming up to her, slowly. Evi was naked, too, blending with the throngs. She had been looking for her lover. She and Sanya drew each other into a deep kiss as their eyes rolled back into their heads and their minds whited out. The tendrils emerging from their bodies intertwined, becoming one, and their minds followed. They shuddered as their minds became one with all of those around them.