“The Odyssey”
by ThatSquickGuy (thatsquickguy@gmail.com)
Chapter 1
Part 2: Exploration
Marybeth hated reentry, but if it meant that she could investigate alien life she was willing to do just about anything. To her right, Dr. Heywood Floyd was piloting the shuttle down. While Marybeth had never gotten very close to him during the trip, she knew he was a good pilot and great xeno-archeologist. An older man than most on the trip, where the average age of the crew was mid-twenties he was in his fifties. Right behind him was Dr. Poole. Frank was busy staring at the scanner and didn’t see her watching him. He and Marybeth had been together since their trip on The Hercules and hadn’t parted ways since. She loved watching him work and was glad that he’d agreed to come along. Frank was always nervous when going to places other than Earth. Not really an explorer, Frank was a machinist who worked on the latest engines from the Federation. He hated being off-planet, but once he’d met Marybeth he knew he couldn’t let her go. To his left was Dr. David Bowman. He was a chemist by trade and had been recruited into the Fleet when they began to explore deeper into space. The Federation was always hoping to find more lucrative chemicals in their expansion and it was his job to identify anything interesting. Marybeth knew that she had found the best people she could on board and hoped they’d find enough to justify spending more time here. The ride was just starting to get a little bumpy.
“We’re just coming though the atmosphere and we should be there in the next few minutes.” Dr. Floyd reported.
“Thank God.” Frank said, still not looking out the viewport.
“Oh, calm down you big baby.” Marybeth soothed. “We’ll be there in a minute, there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Once we get out there our suits will have 10 hours of life support. After that, we’re relying on the shuttle’s systems.” Dr. Floyd reminded them. “So you better hope they’re coming back for us on time.”
“That’s very reassuring.” Frank said shakily.
“You want reassuring? You should have stayed on board.”
“Now Dr. Floyd…” Marybeth tried to ease the tension.
“I’m reading an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere, could be breathable, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” David chimed in, changing the subject, “there seems to be a lot of other gases mixed in that I’m not familiar with. But I’m not sure what’s generating it. I’m not reading any plant life, it could be a product of that slime.”
“This stuff gets more interesting by the second.” Marybeth smiled.
A few minutes later the shuttle was on the surface. The island seemed to be devoid of any terrain features other than the gaping hole in the middle of it. While a mile across, the island felt smaller when they looked out over the clear, almost blue, ‘ocean’ of slime.
“Ready to ‘boldly go?’” Marybeth asked Frank.
“No. But I’ll follow you anywhere.”
Marybeth smiled. “Alright, I know none of us are cavers, but we’ll have to do our best. Dr. Poole and I will begin setting up the equipment to descend into the cave, while you retrieve a sample of the slime from the shore of the island.” She told the crew. “Here we go.”
With a press of a button the rear hatch of the shuttle hissed and, with a clank, detached from the spacecraft to form a ramp. Dr. Floyd had landed the shuttle very near the cave entrance, so that they could attach the decent cables to it rather than a possibly unstable ground. David and Dr. Floyd had a bit of a walk ahead of them so they set out immediately. Marybeth and Frank retrieved the equipment from the storage bays and set to work. Everything was slower with the bulky environment suits on, the fingers just a little too unwieldy to work some of the finer controls on the cables. And, after a few minutes, Marybeth was starting to get frustrated.
“I wish we could take these suits off.” She moaned.
“We can do that later.” Frank joked. “Once we’re back on the ship.”
“I didn’t mean like that!” Marybeth smiled at him.
“Hey, I want to also, but you said that the Captain ordered ‘full environmental’ the whole trip. He said, doing his best impression of the Captain.
“The Captain isn’t watching all the time…” Marybeth giggled.
“Thank God for that! I don’t think I’d have any fun if she were there too.”
“Now I can’t wait to get back.”
“Ensign Hutchison we have the sample, are you ready to descend?” Dr. Floyd called over the helmet’s built in radio.
“Just about Dr. Floyd.”
“Good, I also, don’t want to be down here any longer than necessary.”
Marybeth gasped a little and Frank chuckled.
“Next time, check your radio settings a little before getting into anything interesting.” David commented.
Very soon, all of them were standing at the mouth of the cave with their cables attached. The cave seemed to stretch down to the very heart of the planet.
“How far down?” David asked.
“We’re not sure, there seems to be some kind of interference once the scanners go below 75 meters.” Marybeth replied.
“Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.” David said, stepping over the edge.
The rest quickly followed suit. As they passed 30 meters they switched on the two lights on their helmets and the one on the front of their suit. Their rappelling was made easier by the fact that the cave walls seemed almost unnaturally smooth. After 100 meters, they began to wonder just how much further this cave went.
“I’m glad these harnesses have motors to help us climb out otherwise this would take an eternity.” David tried to lighten the mood.
Finally, just shy of 300 meters their lights started reflecting off a floor. It didn’t look like smooth stone, but almost like carefully place tile. After touching down gently to test the ground’s strength, they had their first real look around. The floor of the cave seemed to go from wall to wall and there appeared to be no further way down other than two tunnels arching off in separate directions.
“It looks like this is where we part ways.” Marybeth said. “Frank and I will go down the tunnel to the left and you two take the other way. We’ll meet back here in one hour and I want to have 15-minute check-ins. Be careful, and if you feel something isn’t right come back to the entrance right away.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Dr. Floyd replied as he got out his data and mapping recorder.
“Hear from you in fifteen minutes.” David said, setting his helmet mounted recorder on.
Then they were gone into the inky blackness of the right tunnel. Frank and Marybeth headed out after he finally got the handheld recorder to work. Marybeth fought the urge to run ahead in her search for alien life or whatever was making the slime. Instead she recorded the tunnel walls and how the arched ceiling seemed to be made rather than formed. The tunnel appeared to be almost spotless and was most definitely devoid of any slime. As they walked along, it was almost as if the tunnel never would stop or even turn. Ten minutes into their trek they were confronted with their first choice: three tunnels branched off from the first. Each looked like a viable choice with almost no difference between them.
“Right, left, or center?” Frank asked.
“We can’t split up, so I guess we’ll go the direction that goes further away from the entrance.”
“Left it is.”
The left tunnel looked just like the tunnel they’d come from, but slightly smaller and just as boring to Marybeth as she led the way. After more minutes of walking it looked like there might be something different up ahead and just as she was about to dash off Frank broke in.
“Fifteen minutes are up. I’m giving them a call. Frank to Dr. Floyd.” There was no answer but static. “Frank to David, come in….” Again, nothing. “Marybeth if they’re having the same trouble we should start back. I think it’s the same interference that was stopping the shuttle’s scanner.”
“I think I see something up ahead, just a second.” She took off as fast as the bulky suit would allow her to jog as she headed down the tunnel. Marybeth was already about 10 steps in front of Frank, so he couldn’t quite see what she was looking at.
“Marybeth, come back!” He shouted for no reason as they were communicating by radio. Frank took off after her, but she already had quite a considerable lead on him.
Marybeth had been right the tunnel did indeed open into a large chamber with a ceiling five times higher than any of the tunnels. Unfortunately, she didn’t have much time to look at her discovery because as she got to the center of the room the ground began to crack and tremble. As the floor gave way in front of her, she struggled to stop her momentum from carrying her over the edge. Marybeth screamed and just as she was about to fall she felt a weight on the back of her helmet.
Frank’s ears were hurting from Marybeth’s scream, but he had managed to grab onto one of the hoses on her helmet before she fell. But his triumph was short lived as he saw the helmet starting to disconnect from the suit. As he brought his left hand around to steady her, the floor directly underneath her collapsed and he was left holding her helmet as she fell screaming into the darkness below…
Marybeth thought for just an instant she was safe before she felt herself falling. Her scream the first sound in these halls for what must be millennia. In what seemed to be almost slow motion, she saw the ground, or rather the slime, coming towards her by the dim light provided by her chest mounted light. She tried to do what she’d learned from training for high level dives and position her legs below her, but instead she landed with a wet splat flat on her back. The impact covered her in slime and for a second she thought she’d broken her back from the pain. But after a few seconds of head clearing, she realized she wasn’t hurt at all, just bruised in a few choice places. It took her a second to realize what she was hearing; it was the muffled voice of Frank calling out to her.
“Marybeth!!! Are you alright! Answer me Marybeth!!!”
“I’m okay!” She had to spit out a little slime to say it. “I think the slime took most of the fall!”
“Thank God you’re all right Marybeth!” Then he realized that he was still holding her helmet. “Just a second. Here, stand clear!” He lit a glow rod and stuffed it into the helmet and tossed it down to her. He was dismayed a second later at the harsh cracking noise of the dura-glass helmet.
Marybeth stood up slowly, the slime coming almost to her knees, and looked over at it. The helmet had landed on one of the pieces of floor that had collapsed and, most inconveniently, on a section that was jutting upwards. The glass was cracked, but the lights still seemed to be working. But the pieces of the floor reminded her of something. “Frank get back! More of the floor might go!”
Frank jumped back a little, but still wanted to see her. “Marybeth, I don’t think I’ve got enough spare cable left to send down to you. You must have fallen almost 20 meters! It’s a miracle you’re still alive.”
“You’ll have to run back and get the others. With all the cable, you should have enough. I’ll wait here and see what’s around.”
“But what about your air? I’ll be gone at least a half hour!”
“I seem to be okay, but if I feel dizzy or anything I’ll try the helmet and see if I can get a few good breaths. You can’t do anything from there anyways, just head back and I’ll be okay.” She paused for a moment trying to be brave. “I wanted to get out of the suit after all, right?” She said with a light smile.
“I’ll make sure we get you back to the ship, so I can see you out of the suit properly.” Frank looked at her worriedly one last time before he dashed off to get help.
“Goodbye…” Marybeth said to no one but herself. Her voice echoing off the high ceiling.
Finally alone, Marybeth started to notice the smell of the air. A sweet smell, not unlike sugar or soda. She hadn’t smelled anything like that in quite a while. Subconsciously, she licked her lips at the thought and was surprised at the sweet taste in the mouth. She had forgotten to wipe off all the slime after her fall and now was getting her first real taste of it. Her eyes widened and she gasped slightly then she sighed blissfully as the slime worked its way over her tongue and down her throat. Without thinking she quickly licked a little more slime off the top of her right glove. This taste was even better than the first! She sighed again and smiled widely despite her predicament. Another taste! Each time got better and better! She giggled a little as she licked more off the bottom of her glove and then smiled as she was rewarded with another out of this world taste. Her gloves mostly clean now, she was just about to lean down and get more off the ground when comprehension slowly returned to her.
Slowly, almost as if in a daze, she said to herself, “what am I doing?” She looked down at her hands and the memory of the last few moments came back to her. “The slime… The air… It’s doing something to me… I need my helmet...” She stumbled slowly in the direction of her lit up helmet. But as she did, she noticed that the ceiling was growing lower and lower and each step seemed to be harder and harder. She shook her swimming head a little to clear it and gradually noticed that she’d been chasing the reflection of her helmet’s light in the ceiling. She’d actually been walking farther from the opening in the roof and the slime was now close to her thighs in depth. As she looked closer at the light’s reflection in the ceiling, she saw what looked like bubbles in the slime.
“What is that?” She squished her way even closer to the lower part of the ceiling. The ceiling was just right over her head now. It was dark enough now that she had to use the light mounted on her right boobie to see. “Boobie? Where did that come from?” She knew the right word, but all of a sudden it felt right to call them that. It was then that she noticed how hard her nipples had gotten. They were really starting to rub on the inside of her suit and it felt so good! The catsuit she had on as her inner layer was extremely form-fitting, and so there was almost nothing between her nipples and the hard metal of the environmental suit. And they rubbed just right every time she tried to point the light anywhere. Marybeth hadn’t felt this way since that time she and Frank had gotten naughty in the engine room on The Farragut. Frank tweaked her nipples just right, just like this now, as they tried to stay out of sight of the engine room crew.
Frank…
“Oh… Ohhhhh…” Marybeth moaned. She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip a little and moaned softly as she leaned her head back as the pleasure built within her. Still leaning back, she opened her eyes and sighed with happiness. She seemed so far away right now. Being trapped in a cavern on an alien planet was the last thing on her mind. If she’d had more of her wits about her she would have noticed that one of the ‘bubbles’ right above her, now lit up from her light, was moving, writhing with recently awakened life.
The creatures had been down here a long time. A very long time. They had slept for so long. So long… Now something had entered their domain… Something living… The Hive must know more… The Hive must spread… The Hive must spread…
As Marybeth leaned back, her eyes regained some of their focus and she looked at the creature above her move around within its pod. Had she been thinking correctly she would jumped for joy as she had discovered new alien life, but now her only reaction was to moan again. This is what the creature was waiting for.
Suddenly, a tentacle shot out from the alien right into Marybeth’s mouth! There was a horrible stinging sensation in the back of her throat and the sweet taste in her mouth was replaced by an awful coppery taste. She tried to scream, but the tentacle was blocking most of her throat and it came out more as a strangled squeak. Marybeth’s awareness returned quickly, but as she brought her hands up to remove the horrifying appendage they suddenly lost all feeling and fell back to her sides. Then, just as quickly, her legs seemed to give out underneath her. As she fell backwards, the tentacle pulled back out of her mouth and back into the alien now emerging from its home for the first time in what seemed like forever. She collapsed into the slime, its embrace now terrifying rather than comforting.
As it came out of its pod, Marybeth got a better look at it. The creature was light gray and somewhat translucent. It resembled a squid from Earth with many tentacles reaching in numerous directions. The main body of the creature looked like it might be 10 centimeters long, but the long tentacles moving around made it hard to tell. The creature dropped from its pod and landed with a wet squish on Marybeth’s chest. Marybeth tried again to scream or move or doing something to stop this horrible thing from getting closer, but she seemed trapped within her own body. Her screams coming out as gasps. The taste in her mouth was getting worse and she was afraid that she might die of blood loss before this thing could do anything to her.
The creature moved up her body pulling itself along with its many tentacles. As it reached her face, it almost seemed to caress her cheek. As it did, its tentacles slowly turned a light shade of pink until it almost perfectly blended into her skin.
Marybeth could feel everything and she was ashamed to admit that with the slime the awful creature was releasing onto her she was starting to enjoy the feeling. The smell, the light touch on her face, the way the creature was reaching up and stroking her slime-matted hair, everything was starting to fade away again… She almost was seeing herself with Frank again. But Frank looked different somehow… The intoxicating combination almost made her forget about the terrible taste in her mouth. That is, until the creature reached a tentacle into her mouth… Then another…
The creature had made sure that this living something was subdued before it began to feed and explore. The creature had injected its venom into the something though the largest source of warmth it could find in the something’s neck. Now it attached its feeding tentacle to the same place and sealed the wound so the something would not lose more of its life fluid. Slowly, the creature eased its whole body into the something’s opening and released more tentacles to investigate further. Some of the small tentacles penetrated into the hardened back of the something and found electrical signals that went from the smaller part of the something to the larger part. The creature was intrigued and moved further in so that it was not blocking the whole opening of the something. The creature then sent its main tentacle up through a hard surface and found a huge mass of electrical signals. It set about deciphering them and learning about the something it was now inhabiting…
Marybeth had been floating on a cloud made of… ‘slime’? Yes, that sounded right. Then this… delightful? Yes, that was right. Delightful, creature moved into her mouth. She had felt another large sting in the back of her throat, then more, but these felt smaller and deeper. She was starting to choke as the creature moved entirely inside her, but then the creature had moved so that it was attached to the back of her throat. Was becoming part of her throat… Then there was a loud wet crunch from the base of her skull and Marybeth’s eyes rolled back into her head and she was back on cloud ‘slime…’
The creature was learning more every second. The something was a ‘human.’ A ‘woman.’ And there were a lot of these ‘humans.’ A lot of these ‘women.’ Not right here. But elsewhere in the ‘galaxy.’ And something called a ‘man.’ These humans could help the Hive. Make it bigger. Make it stronger. Spread the Hive. The creature was trying to understand how the woman moved. It only had four tentacles… No… Two legs and two arms. This human was different from the rest. It was unique. It was Marybeth. No… All humans were unique. Like the ‘man.’ Frank. As the creature accessed the memory of Frank many sections of Marybeth’s brain lit up. Especially the ones devoted to ‘sex.’ This concept greatly interested the creature as it could prove useful to expanding the Hive. By now, the creature’s main tentacle had branched off and splintered into many microscopic tendrils and was now infesting almost every part of Marybeth’s brain. The creature began to test out its newfound knowledge and control of its ‘Host.’ Yes, that sounded right.
Marybeth’s eyelids had been fluttering for the better part of ten minutes now as the creature learned about her and her body. The fluttering stopped and slowly her eyes opened, but they seemed somewhat lifeless. Her former enthusiasm seemed to have been sucked away. Marybeth thought something felt wrong, but she didn’t have the willpower to figure it out. She moaned slightly and as she did felt a new weight in the back of her throat. She slowly started to get scared as the events of the past few minutes began to reach her.
The creature realized that its host was starting to get worried about it. The creature knew it needed the host’s personality to blend in with the rest of the humans. The Host should obey the creature. The creature tried to reduce its Host’s fear response, but that wasn’t enough. Maybe it could make the Host have a different reaction to it… The creature wanted to find the most overwhelmingly positive feeling it could for how the Host should feel about it. The creature remembered the thoughts its Host had about sex. The creature decided to try an erogenous response. It set about bending the thoughts of its Host the way it wanted.
Marybeth was starting to feel less afraid as she thought more about the creature. In fact, the more she thought about it the more right it felt. There was nothing wrong with this creature inside her. As she thought that, a jolt went through her pussy. Pussy? Yes, this wonderful creature was making her pussy so wet right now. Was making her boobs so sensitive. She wanted so much to massage her pussy and boobs, but she still couldn’t move. She felt the lovely creature slowly starting to grow further down her throat, further into her neck, further into her mind. She wished it would grow all the way down to her pussy and make her feel even better.
Laying there in her sexual haze she thought she heard something whispering to her. It seemed to be right in her own head. A soft voice, but commanding. “Obey.” As she was trying to process this she heard it again, but louder: “Obey. You are Host.”
Host? No… That didn’t seem right… She knew who she was… Host didn’t seem like her name…
“Host obeys. Master commands.”
Master? Who is Master? Her mind was still sluggish from the blissful feeling she was still experiencing.
“Master commands. Host obeys. You are Host.”
I am Host?
“You are Host. Master commands Host. And rewards Host.”
As she heard that an orgasm washed over her. She wanted to move and enjoy it, but all she could do was moan harder as the voice kept talking…
“Host is rewarded by Master. You are Host.”
I am Host…
“Host obeys Master. Master rewards obedience. You obey Master.”
Another orgasm pulsed through her, rewarding her for being Host.
“You obey Master.”
I obey Master…
Another orgasm. This time she squeaked a little as she realized that she had a Master.
“Master commands. Host obeys. You are Host.”
I am Host.
She felt another orgasm as her existence as Host was confirmed.
“Host obeys Master.”
Host obeys Master.
The bliss returned again. As it did, her arms started to regain feeling and she immediately started trying to knead her boobs. They were so hot right now! Her nipples ached, yearning to be touched.
“I am Master.”
You are Master.
The strongest orgasm yet filled her body and made her eyes roll back into her head as she learned who her Master was. Her whole body was now back under her control and she tried, with little success, to rub her legs together and make her pussy feel even better. She writhed deeper into the slime as her Master continued:
“Master is inside Host. Host will help Master spread the Hive. You will obey.”
I will obey!
She felt the blissful feeling grow again, but not all the way to orgasm this time. She was disappointed. She had obeyed. What was wrong?
“Host obeys Master without thinking. Master commands Host entirely. Obey.”
Without hesitation, Maryhost stood up and started to release the locks on the pants of her environmental suit. She smiled dreamily as she felt the pleasure from her obedience. Her pants fell down to her thighs, but got stuck in the slime before they could go further. Her catsuit was soaking wet underneath both from sweat as well as her heated pussy juices. She undid the micro zipper over her crotch and finally exposed her pussy to the alien world. Maryhost then turned her head slowly and looked up at the countless pods above her on the slime covered ceiling. She felt such a love for all the Masters above her, and she knew what she must do. She reached up and pulled the nearest pod off the ceiling and held it down near her pussy.
The creature inside detected the heat from the being next to it and began to squirm in its pod. It also detected the presence of another one of its kind within this being so it knew this being was friendly. It slowly moved out of the pod and sought out the source of the heat…
The Master’s pod squished open and its wonderful tentacles started moving inside her pussy! As the Master moved deeper inside her, Maryhost knew this is what she was always meant to do. Her former life, while remembered, meant nothing to her. She was Host and she was helping her Master spread the Hive. She felt so complete. The Master reached her womb and released a small feeding tentacle into the side of her uterus. There was a slight sting, but Maryhost loved all the Masters and knew they were always more important. Her Master rewarded her for her obedience and she had another all-consuming orgasm.
She reached up and got another pod…