Future’s Past – Past Perfect

Future’s Past

Chapter One – Past Perfect

Throwing away one’s past was a prerequisite of joining a team of problem solvers. Especially ones involved in black operations that could never be made public. Plausible deniability was key.

That was one of the reasons Kate had done everything she could to expunge her history. She was far more interested in discovering the dirty secrets of others than having hers exposed, and her current employer was an expert at making problems go away.

In return, she ate shitty food, slept in strange places, and had to travel at a moment’s notice. She couldn’t scoff at the paycheck, however. Being an agent wasn’t easy, but it was certainly profitable.

Take this situation. A standard case of mad science gone wrong, promulgated by Expedient Tech Inc. An apropos name, if she had ever heard one.

There had been the usual excited and garbled nonsense reported by the press in the last few weeks, heralding their discovery of a new kind of portal technology, then everything had gone silent. They were either trying to figure out a way to monetize it, or they had made an enormous mess.

It was her job to find out which, take their tech, and shut them down. By any means necessary.

The first step was an infiltration mission to get the lay of the land. Who knew what, where things were located, that sort of thing. The plan was to steal anything she could, and figure out a way to access the most restricted zones. Bringing in heavy explosives right away would be a waste of time, especially if she got caught.

It was child’s play to slip past their first security layer by dressing up as one of their scientists and tagging along when one of them opened the door. A quick smile and a flirty wink, and the nerdy guy she had accosted had become so flustered he even dropped his badge.

It wasn’t too surprising. Her heart shaped face was framed by two strands of black hair, cheeks dimpling when she smiled. Beauty enough to make any red blooded man blush, and very few could resist her bobbing ponytail. He probably hadn’t had any in ages. Too easy.

The second line was tougher to get through, but not because of the security guard, who was nodding off in his booth. No, instead it was because she needed to roam the halls for a good half hour, looking for the appropriate mark to pickpocket for his badge.

Now she was in, and in a good spot, by the looks of things. She had found what appeared to be a conference room, with closed shutters, blacking out the interior. Likely a place for them to discuss things that shouldn’t be seen by just anyone.

Better yet, the room possessed what she was looking for – a computer terminal. Sitting down at the desk, she turned the computer tower to look at the case. Examining the screws on the back, she grinned devilishly. Perfect.

Pulling the power cord, she slid her fingers into the pocket of her lab coat to retrieve a screwdriver, which she used to pop off the side panel. Glancing at the motherboard, she sniffed. This was hardly worth her time.

Removing the connectors to the primary drive, she slid in a replacement above the original, pressing the cords back into place. It was but a matter of moments to replace the side panel, turn the case to look like nothing had been disturbed, and replace the power cable.

Pressing the power button, she folded her hands, waiting patiently for the hacked OS to boot to the login screen. She cracked her knuckles, typing in the user name and password that had been given to her. Soon enough, tiny icons of applications gazed back at her from the desktop.

This was so much easier than having to rely upon her personal hacking skills… all the hard work had already been done for her. The machine was already on the network, she simply needed to do a little poking around.

For any normal person, this might have taken a long time, but she had been given the name of their project, Stargazer. Running a quick search, she was amused to find folder after folder popping up on her screen. Was their security really that bad?

She knew the answer to that question, and didn’t bother bemoaning the current poor state of corporate IT. Especially when this particular oversight had made her job a darn sight easier.

Diagrams, spreadsheets, and oodles of documentation. She would want to save it all to her flash drive, of course, but before that, she wanted to make sure she wasn’t stealing garbage.

Double clicking on a sample document, she frowned as an alien looking creature popped up on the display. She thought she was looking for technology, not bio-organisms! Just what, precisely, was this company dabbling in? They certainly weren’t a biotech firm.

She frowned, examining its grotesque form. Its ribbed abdomen was colored purple, two dangling claws hanging from its front. A short, stubby sucker protruded from the bottom, while a long, ridged tail extended from the rear. White bony spikes were attached horizontally along the length of the tail, turning it into a deadly weapon, if swung with force.

She scrolled down, grunting as she noted more photos taken from different angles. The rubbery flesh was more than a little unappetizing, but worse was the gigantic eyeball mounted on the creature’s back. The scientists had gone through the effort of dissecting one of them, and it was the size of a giant peach. Terrifying.

She was going to have nightmares about these things, ugh. She closed the document and opened another. Yet another, similar creature, but this one was smaller. Perhaps it was a juvenile, but the appendage on its bottom was longer, rounder. Ridged, with a head, almost like… a penis.

Closing her eyes, groaning. She was acting just as bad as the scientist she had bamboozled earlier. She’d have to deal with her needs sooner or later.

She sighed and closed the document. The creatures weren’t sexual. They were disgusting.

She’d seen enough. Whatever these monsters were, they should be destroyed. Her employers would definitely want to know about them, however. Reaching into her pocket, she plucked out a flash drive and plugged it into the front port on the computer. When a file folder popped up, she dragged over the directories she wanted.

Pressing her lips together, she sat back to wait. There was a lot of data to copy, and their networking speeds apparently weren’t the greatest. Tapping her fingers silently against the table, she pressed her palm against the edge and stood up.

This was the part she hated the most – waiting. She shouldn’t get complacent, however. This would be a good opportunity to examine her surroundings more closely. Being disciplined was key, and getting caught here would be difficult to explain, given that the picture on her stolen badge looked nothing like her.

Faint motion caught her eye, and she froze, breathing slowly. Was it…? No, there was nobody at the door – but one of the windows didn’t have shutters on it. She hadn’t caught that when she had entered the room.

Quickly, she moved over to the wall, being careful to make sure that her body wasn’t backlit by the conference room lights. Sliding towards the window, she took a peek outside.

She could see almost nothing in the murky blackness besides the looming forms of large, metallic objects. This must be an observation point for a lab, perhaps. There might be a lightswitch nearby, but did she dare?

There was a large utility box on the wall with a series of switches. Her curiosity was aroused. She needed to know what was in the next room, even if it might force her to grab her thumb drive and run.

Making sure to stay out of sight, she ran her palm under the switches and pulled up decisively, flicking them on with satisfying clicks.

Giant floodlights bathed a double story room beyond the conference room’s window. Looking down from above, Kate ran her eyes over a gigantic circular steel structure that was built into a metal platform. Large tanks of unknown gas or liquids were situated around the structure, along with a row of terminals. This was probably the portal device she was looking for.

That wasn’t what made her gasp, however. The floor in front of the machine had been subsumed by a purplish, organic kind of carpet. Small creatures, similar to those she had just seen in the documents, were crawling quickly across its spongy surface to hide themselves in cracks and crevices between banks of equipment.

The ground was throbbing, as if alive. Gross.

That wasn’t the worst of it, however. A large, purple, worm-like organism had wrapped itself around a rack of computer equipment, grasping the servers with oversized black claws. Striped in green, its entire body thrummed with energy as its bottom end twitched. Its tail flipped over, flexing as a pile of small, white eggs spilled from its end.

A faint humming sound echoed from the other side of the thick glass, the long, rounded proboscis on its head dipping towards the floor. She couldn’t even imagine what it might eat with that thing, but its wrinkled skin could probably stretch wide enough to fit a cow. She shuddered.

Another creature stepped out from behind the momma worm, its arms hanging slack. This one was a vaguely humanoid female, but she had been extensively altered. Nude, her body was a fluorescent purple, swirls of color whirling under her skin in random twisting patterns. Rubbery knobs decorated her shoulders, growing smaller as they raced down her arms. Her feet were raised on fleshy heels, talons growing from her toes.

Her breasts were tight and pert, but were decorated with small bumps. Dark holes in her flesh circled those breasts, filled with small, glowing green blobs. Her belly was swollen, as if pregnant, her chest swaying with each step.

One of the smaller alien creatures had locked itself around her waist, its tail dragging on the organic carpet. Another was wrapped around her skull. As she stepped forward, it moved its tail over to her mouth and she sucked on it, her throat bobbing as she took a drink.

As the thick tail slid out, she dropped her jaw, pearlescent liquid dripping onto her chin. The tail slid down her back, plugging into a hole between her shoulder blades. The end of it pulsed, as if it was feeding something into her body. Perhaps it was.

To her horror, she realized that the two creatures weren’t alone. Near the edge of the organic mass, scattered men and women were embedded into the surface of the carpet, their limbs flailing uselessly. She could hear faint noises as their mouths moved, but they were indisputably stuck. Like food.

Whether they had been gifted to the creatures by the company, or had experienced a misadventure while attempting to examine them, she couldn’t tell. Whatever the case, she could do nothing but watch as the humanoid creature approached a curvy blonde.

Hovering over the trapped scientist, the creature’s mouth opened wide, liquid pouring over her victim. The woman shuddered, her name tag jiggling as it splashed over her chest.

At first, Kate thought it was some kind of acid, but it didn’t appear to eat through the woman’s blouse. Instead, her wiggling body was coming loose from the organic mat, threads of the material sloughing off as she stood ungainly.

She expected the scientist to put up a fight, to throw a punch, anything, but the woman did nothing. The creature took her by the hand, and turning, led her towards the large worm.

That was when she noticed that the scientist had a creature attached to her skull. Two pronged limbs were wrapped over her head, holding it in place, while its tail draped over her back. Its solitary eye blinked lazily, the blobby body parked against the back of her skull.

She couldn’t see the creature’s central sucker under its body, but knew instinctively that it must be penetrating straight into the woman’s brain. She shivered as her imagination took over. What must it be like to have that thing riding on your head? Was it actually in control of the scientist?

Whatever the case, the scientist appeared to line up willingly in front of the giant mother worm. Stripping her clothing off, she handed the articles to the humanoid alien, who folded them neatly and laid them on a desk.

Nude, she waited patiently as the large creature snorted a dollop of slime from its proboscis onto her face. This didn’t appear to disturb the scientist, although what happened next certainly should have.

The mother worm leaned over, its sagging proboscis spreading wide to engulf the woman’s head. In one quick motion, it dropped downwards, muscles surging up its trunk. One moment, the woman was there, the next, she was gone, slurped up the creature’s mouth.

Kate stared, wide eyed. It had flat out eaten her!

The center of the worm began to glow yellow, the light highlighting the green stripes on its main body. Flexing, the worm began to contract in upon itself, the ridges on its body touching together. The light grew brighter, and the worm lengthened.

This process repeated, over and over, a mesmerizing sight that Kate had problems turning away from. She wasn’t certain how long she stood there, watching the undulations, but eventually the glow began to fade, and a lump appeared at the tail end of the beast.

The contractions continued, as if the monster was giving birth. The lump grew, pushing down the length of its tail, in a parody of a snake un-swallowing its prey. The egg laying end widened as the edge of the lump pressed into it, revealing two, small feet.

When the feet curled downwards, talons grew from the toes, the heels permanently arched upwards on spongy, rubber platforms. Next came feminine legs and a pregnant belly, followed by two enlarged breasts with dark, hollow pockets around them.

As the worm’s tail finished disgorging this new beast, Kate knew in a flash – this was where the other creature had come from. More of them were being made!

“What the hell are those things?” she hissed in panic.

They certainly weren’t from this world, damnit!

“They are Takrin,” breathed a low voice gruffly. “We need to stop them before they enslave everyone.”

Startled, Kate fell on her ass, turning to look at the figure crouching next to her. The woman was dressed in a lab coat, the fabric torn and tattered. Splotches of color decorated her face, making it difficult to determine the definition of her features. Her hair might have been long at one point, but it had been cut unequally, the dark frizzled mass hanging around her shoulders.

“Who the hell are you?” she asked in a high pitched voice.

The other woman remained where she was, chuckling bitterly. “My name’s Katy. I work here. Well, I used to work here, that is, until they opened that.”

She gestured at the circular apparatus sitting ominously in the rear of the room, past the alien creatures. “That’s called a Gate, and it’s what’s caused this disaster. While messing with the harmonics, they managed to get the Gate to open to an alien landscape. At first, this was heralded as a great discovery. Until they started coming through.” She shuddered. “We must stop them, or we’ll be overrun.”

Kate frowned. “Don’t you want to know who I am?” she asked, still cautious. Where had this woman come from, anyway?

“Don’t know. Don’t care,” she replied easily. “If you don’t work for Expedient, it’s all the better, really, as those idiots think they can study and understand these… things. I’ve seen what they can do, and they need to be destroyed before they bring more of themselves through that portal.”

Kate flicked her eyes to the monitor, noting that her download was complete. Being careful to avoid the window, she backed over to the computer. “How do you know that they’re called Takrin?”

The woman shrugged and stood, apparently not worried about being seen by the aliens through the window. “Whatever that worm thing does to them doesn’t seem to remove their brains. It just… twists them to do whatever advances its cause. They’re more than willing to talk about their utter devotion to the Takrin and the Mother, whatever that is. They could be talking about that worm, or something else, we don’t really know.”

She folded her arms together. “That’s why the higher ups have stupidly decided to proceed with the research. They think that they can figure out some way to bargain with these aliens. To find a way to use the Gate for their personal profit.”

Her eyes widened with fanaticism. “They’re wrong. These aliens are abominations and should not be allowed anywhere on this planet.”

Kate, with her back to the computer, retrieved her thumb drive and palmed it carefully. “Let’s say I believe you. Do you have a plan to stop them?”

The other woman smiled, in a way that seemed eerily familiar. “I do. If we overload the power supply, that will destroy the portal, and prevent any more aliens from getting to this world from theirs.”

Kate frowned. “Won’t that kill us, too?”

Katy laughed. “This isn’t the movies. The Gate isn’t a reactor, and not everything explodes when it fails. Besides, even if my idea works, we’re still going to have to do something about that giant worm. Try to come up with some ideas while we’re getting to the power room, I’m fresh out.”

Slipping the thumb drive into her pocket, Kate thought speculatively. She didn’t have explosives on her, so that was out. Oh, how she wished she could have had advanced warning! The tranquilizer blow darts she had secured to her thigh could possibly help, but she had no idea what the dosage would be for aliens, or if it would even work at all.

She hesitated. Was she really going to go through with this plan? Unknown quantities were expected during missions, but so was betrayal.

The risk wouldn’t be too bad if she expected it, however – what was one wimpy scientist going to do to her? If she let the woman wander off, she could easily hit the alarm on the way out, and then she’d be in hot water. Best to keep this one close.

Still… “What happened to your face?” she asked, pointing at the ugly splotches that marred her complexion.

Katy quirked her lips, her voice harsh. “I was ‘voluntold’ to gather a specimen for the next experiment. It didn’t go well. You saw the other members of my party below. I was the only one to escape, although…” she pressed a hand to the back of her head. “I can’t be certain whether I’ve been infested. The gigantic worm thing splattered some kind of liquid over me, and it messed with my skin.” She shrugged. “I guess we gotta hope I don’t go crazy before we can close down the portal.”

Kate stepped around the side of the conference table, watching the other woman carefully. The scientist had admitted she posed a threat. Paradoxically, this calmed some of her paranoia.

“Very well,” she said slowly, reaching an open hand towards the door. “Lead the way.”

Katy nodded, a quick tuck of the head, then turned and walked in front of the window as Kate hissed. “Don’t worry, they can’t see us through the one way glass. We need to hurry, before the other scientists figure out what we’re doing.”

She paused at the door, hand on the latch. “It would be best if you went first. If they see me wandering the premises, they might get suspicious.”

Kate narrowed her brows. “I don’t think so. I have no idea where I’m going. It’s going to look weird if I have to constantly pause for directions.”

The scientist rolled her shoulders. “Suit yourself. If we get caught, just remember, it’s your fault.”

Kate stared at her, waiting patiently for the other woman to open the door. As the scientist left the room, she pressed her shoulder up against the door frame, scanning the hallway beyond. It was clear, but that meant little.

She waited for the other woman to move halfway down the corridor before she moved herself, smoothly closing the door behind her. Standing up straight, she marched forward with authority, making sure to keep her eyes on the heels of the scientist.

When the scientist made a left turn, she followed, pacing herself. This hallway was not as long, a large window on the right built into a blue concrete wall. A long row of servers in racks extended in both directions, green and blue lights blinking in random cacophony.

Their path up ahead was blocked by a solid steel door. As Katy leaned over to run her card over the reader, Kate noted a strange, discolored spot on the back of her head. Curious, she stepped in closer to examine it.

At first she thought it was a birthmark, but it certainly wasn’t natural. The hair follicles in the affected area had been seared away, leaving a large raised red welt in the shape of an oval. It was the size of a plum, with small, spidery black legs extending off underneath her remaining hair.

It would be easy to mistake for a tattoo from a distance, but at this angle it was obviously a lump. Unable to stop herself, she reached out and prodded the surface. The rubbery surface distended, soft like a grape. Something black shifted inside, disturbed by the presence of her finger. Yuck!

She jumped backwards in fright as Katy stood up. Turning, Katy stared at her with a questioning glare. “What was that for?”

“There’s an… egg shaped thing on the back of your head!” exclaimed Kate. “How could you not know that?”

Confused, Katy reached up behind her skull, feeling around with her hands. Her jaw dropped open as her fingers prodded against the bulge, her throat gulping. “What the fuck is that?” she hissed.

Wild eyed, she grabbed Kate’s arm. “I’ve been infested. Get it off me! Please!”

Pulse pounding, Kate blinked, trying to think. “I don’t know how. I’m not a surgeon.”

The woman gritted her teeth. “Then we need to get in there and kill them before… I’m no longer me.”

Turning decisively, she pushed open the doors and marched into the room, a burst of cold air whipping through Kate’s hair. She proceeded directly towards a console mounted in the middle of the floor. A series of four monitors were fixed to the rear of the table, providing different views of the room with the Gate in it… and the aliens.

Kate, jittery from the revelation that her new partner was infected by the aliens, resolved to stay on her game. She turned to the right, following an L-shaped bend in the room to make sure there were no surprises.

She was nonplussed to find the racks of computers she had seen through the window in the entryway. The two rows had been partitioned from each other by a wall, with two doors in the center. A large hood built above the contained box served to draw hot air away from the powerful servers.

Someone or something could hide in here, if they wanted to. Seeing the egg-shaped blob attached to the back of Katy’s head had really spooked her. She had better check it out, or her imagination would never stop spinning ever more grotesque monsters waiting in the dark for her to let her guard down.

“I’m going to take a look around,” she said, cautiously moving over next to the wall to limit lines of sight.

“Fine,” replied Katy. “I need a few minutes to get this set up anyway. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.”

Kate slid along the wall past a series of tanks as tall as she was, peeking down the aisle facing the window. Nothing. There could still be something in the other aisle, or in the room between the computer banks.

Scurrying across the raised floor, she flattened her petite form against the side of the door. All she could hear was hissing from the A/C units, air being eaten by the hungry servers and expelled as heat. She took a glance through one of the windows, but could see nothing. It was pretty dark in there towards the rear. She would need to check it out.

“Are you having fun playing secret agent?” asked the scientist, fiddling with the console. “It’s after normal operating hours. There should only be a skeleton crew on duty, and they’re not going to perform experiments with the Gate without everyone here.”

“It never hurts to be careful,” Kate replied, sliding her hand into the door handle and opening it carefully.

A blast of hot, dry air almost took her by surprise, her throat feeling scratchy. Ducking inside, she jumped a little as overhead lighting popped on. There was no reason to freak out – they must be run by motion detectors.

This was one of those times she wished she had ice water flowing through her veins, like some of the other agents she knew. She would never let it show, but when her adrenaline spiked, it was harder to concentrate on what she was doing. So far, it hadn’t compromised any of her missions, but it had come close a few times.

She just needed to concentrate. There was nothing here but a long aisle of computers, their exhaust fans facing inwards. Taking a cautious step forward, her anxiety slowly bled away as the calming hum of the exhaust fans whirred in her ears.

The racks were full, the heat they produced blowing against her lab coat. She was starting to sweat. She wouldn’t lie, it was a bit uncomfortable, but it wouldn’t take long for her to march down to the other end, where there was another pair of double doors.

As she walked, she glanced at the different sized units in the racks. She didn’t know much about servers, but the cable management was professionally done. They hadn’t cut corners here.

These would all need to be destroyed, of course, for her to consider her mission complete. She made a metal note, tallying up the material she would need to get it done. Of course, if the Gate was properly destroyed by an overload, as the scientist suggested, that would solve at least one of her problems for her.

She knew better than to trust the other woman. She could be signaling for security while she was distracted with the racks. She increased her pace, making a beeline for the doors.

A rumbling bumping noise came from somewhere above, causing her to slow to a halt and look up. The overhead lighting seared her eyes, but did little to illuminate the ductwork.

She hissed and slowly backed up as small, fist sized creatures tumbled from above, landing on top of the racks. Spreading out, they made soft chirps at each other.

They looked like giant beetles, their hairy legs picking their way easily among the networking cables. Their abdomens were swollen, transparent, a spherical bubble of green liquid trapping a small, white oval inside.

She had never seen anything like them, and this wasn’t the time to admire their speed. Dropping all caution, she turned and ran, sprinting the last few feet to the door. With a yelp, she tugged it open and rushed through, sighing with relief as the door pulled itself shut behind her magnetically.

“Katy?” She shouted, her voice rising in alarm. “We have a problem! Look out for small, beetle shaped critters!”

She turned left, scanning the remaining aisle. Nothing. They must not have figured out a way to get through the A/C ducting. Fortunately, at least for now, they were trapped in the hot aisle containment.

That didn’t mean things couldn’t change in an instant. She was used to evolving her plans to fit the situation, but this was far out of her experience. Extra guards in unexpected places? No problem. Alien lifeforms with unknown abilities. No freaking way!

Marching down the aisle, she kept her right shoulder against the far wall. She almost expected more of the tiny things to show up once she rounded the corner, but to her surprise, the room was empty. Katy was missing from the console.

“Shit!” she exclaimed, moving fast towards the exit. This had gone wrong, worse than she could salvage. She’d have to make a new plan and come back again later – with heavier equipment, and reinforcements. Burn it all to the ground.

“Watch out!” shouted Katy, grabbing hold of her head and pulling it firmly to one side.

Kate experienced momentary vertigo, scrabbling for a weapon that wasn’t there. In the few moments it took for her to gather herself, the scientist screeched, slamming her foot against the floor.

There came a disgusting pop, purplish red viscera spreading out from underneath her shoe. Kate’s dazed mind registered for a brief moment that the scientist wore the same model of shoe as her, her eyes skittering over the discolored blotch.

The legs of the beetle-like creature were bent at odd angles, its abdomen smushed to a pulp. Whatever creature had been incubating within had been destroyed, its body a gooey dark shadow in the midst of the creature’s ichor.

“Oh crap!” declared the scientist, looking at the smashed blob with atavistic fear. “They’re escaping containment.”

She clenched her fists. “We must hurry. If they are moving through the ducts, they’ve decided that they no longer wish to be contained. We are likely to encounter more of them.”

Kate shook her head and closed her eyes briefly to clear the horrid looking mess from her mind. “I agree with you. Are you ready?”

“Yes!” exclaimed the woman excitedly, running back to the console. “See? Here, the power flows into the secondary coils, then it spins up the magnets. If I increase the current here, it should excite the primary coils past their design specifications, leading to an inevitable overload!”

Scientists and engineers, always so excited about inanimate objects. Ugh. “Okay, then, what are you waiting for? Do it!”

The woman played her fingers over a touch screen, and various orange and red bars began to increase. An ominous sounding hum flooded the room. “There, it’s done,” she said, raising her voice over the noise. “We’ll have to confirm that it worked, and even if it does, that won’t take care of the aliens that have already made it over here. For that, we’d need to do something about that monstrous worm.”

Kate scratched the back of her head absently, casting about for a plan. Her eyes slid over to the tanks stored near the entryway. “What about those?” she asked, moving to look at them more closely.

They were tall, thin, and made of stainless steel. A circular loop of steel had been welded to the top above the valves to prevent damage, a four foot long rubber hose attached to a valve with a green handle. Blazoned across the middle of each was a warning label, stating “NITROGEN, COMPRESSED, NF. EXTREMELY COLD LIQUID NITROGEN, DO NOT TOUCH.”

She took hold of the dewar by the circular loop of steel, leaning the tank over. It was clearly full. Giving Katy a grin, she rolled the cylinder over the ground with ease. “We’ll freeze them out!” she declared.

Katy seemed a little uncertain, wrinkling her brows, but she eventually shrugged. “It’s not a bad idea. Let’s give it a try.”

She grabbed a second cylinder for herself, and they proceeded to roll them towards the door. It was a bit more difficult to do than Kate had anticipated, as the hose kept getting in the way. “How far is it to the lab entrance?” she asked, hoping that she wouldn’t have to roll this thing half a mile.

“It’s not far,” replied Katy, handling her cylinder with surprising ease. “Turn right beyond the doors, into the decontamination airlock. The entrance is just beyond.”

Relieved, Kate pushed the door open with her shoulder slightly, peering down the hallway. Still clear. No aliens or anything else.

Rounding the corner, she came up against a set of serious looking double doors, without any handles. Katy paused to run her badge over the access scanner, hitting a square box mounted on the wall.

“They don’t want people touching things with their hands,” she explained as the doors slid open. “Easier to clean.”

Kate grunted, rolling the edge of her cylinder over the threshold. The interior was small and claustrophobic, two steel pipes running overhead with sprinklers installed at regular intervals.

Katy followed her, and a spinning yellow light on the ceiling flicked on, casting amber shadows on both of them. The doors ground to a shut behind them, and the light swapped to red.

There came a faint hiss, and a smoky mist from the pipes above descended over their bodies. “Don’t worry, it’s just a light decontaminant,” explained Katy. “They really should be using something stronger now that the aliens have shown up, but they designed this only to ensure we don’t bring bacteria to other worlds. They hadn’t expected aliens would infest ours. Cheapskates haven’t bothered upgrading.”

The hissing stopped, a light mist dusting Kate’s cheeks. The spinning light turned green, and the doors on the other side began to creak open. She clutched her tank as if it was a rifle, eyes straining to see if there were any alien critters waiting for them that she could blast.

Just beyond the doorway, there was a ramp downwards, leading to an array of desks facing the large, circular structure beyond. These were probably used to configure and monitor the Gate while in operation, but right now they were empty, yellow lights indicating unused displays.

The organic carpet had overwhelmed these positions, the purplish mass pushing some of the chairs out of the way like a lava flow. Some of the desks had risen off the floor, the power cables still connected.

From this new vantage point, it was easy to see that the carpet had come from the portal, not the alien creatures. A strip of the organic mass led right up to the center of the arching circle, at which point it stopped.

Kate could easily believe that the mass had exploded outwards as soon as the portal had connected to whatever alien realm had spawned these creatures, but she didn’t know why the scientists hadn’t cleaned it up. Too dangerous?

The Gate itself was active, the low hum she had heard in the power control room more obvious here. A bright blue light shone around the arch, two bars of white cycling through the circle as if in a racetrack. If she moved her head, she could barely make out a strange twisting of the light in the middle.

“Is it overloading?” she asked, running her eyes over the extensive system of pipes that connected to either side of the Gate.

“It takes time for it to spool up,” replied Katy, rolling her cylinder down the ramp. “We don’t want to be too close when it goes, so let’s get to work.”

Kate nodded her assent, looking with dismay at the purplish carpet in front of them. It would be impossible to roll the tanks onto that mess. Maybe she could work her way around from the side?

When she got up to the edge, she touched the end with her shoe, which sank into the mass an inch or two. It was spongy, like a pancake. Eww.

Looking up, her breath caught. They were being watched by the humanoid alien. Her slitted, green eyes were following both of them intently, the tails of the creatures gripping her skull and ass standing perfectly still.

Ah. It wasn’t going to be as easy as she had hoped to creep up on the large worm – not when she had to grapple with this unwieldy cylinder to get it into the proper position. She pressed her lips together, mind racing.

Katy tapped her on the shoulder, whispering. “I can see the target! It’s hiding behind some of the Gate’s plumbing, off to the right of the creature. Keep moving! I’ll distract it for you!”

The scientist dropped her tank upright on the floor with a thud. “I’m over here!” she screamed. “Come and get me, you bastard!”

With one hand, she opened the valve of the tank, waving the attached tube at the alien. A hissing liquid poured from the end, some of it turning into a hazy mist. What remained spattered against the purple carpet, fizzing as it boiled off.

The alien wouldn’t be threatened at this distance, but hopefully it would be distracted. Katy was certainly attracting plenty of attention with her antics – some of the beetle-like aliens she had seen in the computer lab were scurrying across the organic mass.

They weren’t particularly fast, but looked unsettling, their bulbous backs lifting towards the ceiling with every stride. She could only imagine what kind of foul cargo they carried.

There was no time to waste. Kate rolled her cylinder sideways, skirting the organic carpet, hiding herself behind a row of tanks. More liquid nitrogen? She wasn’t sure, but at least they provided some cover. “Good luck!” she whispered, not believing for a moment that the other woman would survive the attack.

There was a chance she could freeze some of the scuttling creatures with her liquid nitrogen, but it seemed unlikely that she would get them all. That also didn’t account for the humanoid creature, either, and she was likely to be far more mobile than the smaller aliens.

Peering to the side of the tank, she spotted the small section of computer racks nearer the Gate. The organic mat had infiltrated the racks, shifting a few of them from their bearings. One of them tilted at an odd angle, the fat tail of the alien worm wrapped around the side.

Perfect. Whatever that thing might call a head definitely wasn’t watching her. She could spray it down and get out of here without it even detecting her. She would feel bad about leaving Katy behind, but quite frankly, she was expendable.

She concentrated on the tank, rolling it along the concrete floor. She didn’t want to catch it on anything, and there were several small diamond plated ramps she had to navigate to get past a series of pipes that connected to the tanks.

It was making more noise than she would have liked, but there was no time to worry about that. Speed was of the essence – the bulging, ridged edge of the worm was just ahead.

The purplish tube flexed, drawing together as it constricted. A large bulge moved down its length, pushing out towards the other side where the end rested on the organic mat.

She detected an odd smell. It wasn’t unpleasant, but didn’t match anything she recognized. An aroma from another world.

She halted, pushing the tank over until it stood up straight. A frisson ran down her back, cold sweat on her neck. This was her opportunity!

Seizing the end of the hose, she reached for the valve. As her fingertips touched its webbed surface, a pinprick of pain shot through her neck.

“What the?” she slapped a hand against her neck, shocked to feel a small dart embedded in the surface.

Dazed, she pulled it out and examined the small container in her bloody hand. Carfentanil. Shit, she didn’t have much time. She was already finding it hard to read the words.

Feeling shocked, she crouched, pulling up her pant leg. There was her blowgun, and it was still loaded, too. The other scientist couldn’t possibly have stolen it from her. It was right there!

Looking up, her heart lurched. Katy had rounded the corner, a similar looking blowgun in her hands. Where had she gotten that from?

“Why?” she asked, her words thick. Legs wobbling, she dropped to the ground, blinking rapidly.

“Shhh,” whispered Katy as she leaned over to stroke a strand of Kate’s hair. “It will become obvious soon. You’ll feel better about everything, I promise.”

Kate closed her eyes, and suddenly, the world was gone.

***

Breath catching, her lungs heaved. She was staring at a tiled ceiling, high above, bright hanging lights spearing her vision. She blinked, feeling hoarse. Her head felt as though it was full of cotton. So hard to think or do anything.

Why was her head so damn itchy? She couldn’t stop her hands from rising to scratch at her skull, intensely surprised to find herself touching something wet and squishy.

“It’s almost ready,” declared a guttural voice that she vaguely recognized as belonging to the scientist, Katy.

The tickling on her skull ceased, replaced by a sharp pain. She reflexively clenched her jaw, a sudden rush of tension flooding her shoulders. The nerves on the back of her head were tingling with pinpricks, as if she had gone numb.

Frantic, she pushed at the squishy material, which yielded to her touch. Whereas before it had been distended, filled with some kind of liquid, now it was flat against her skull. With terror, she could feel a small depression. A hole.

Whatever it was had… injected itself into her brain!

Her head… buzzed, as if it was alive with random activity. “What’s happening?” she gasped, her limbs thrashing.

*Joined*

The sonorous thought bounced through her brain pan, scattering all other thoughts to oblivion. It was so thick, so true, that for a moment she was unable to dispute it.

Groaning in distress, she sat up, hands flopping to the ground, which was strangely spongy. She desperately tried to sort out what was going on.

A gentle hand reached out to massage her shoulder. “Take your time,” a familiar voice said. “At first, it is disorientating, but in a little bit, you’ll feel absolutely wonderful.”

She wasn’t sure how the other woman could say that, as a pounding headache had set up shop in her temples. One fact stood out to her, however. She had been captured.

She wouldn’t cooperate. *Instead, she would tell them everything she knew.*

It wasn’t just the contradiction that caught her off guard – the thought that had bounced through her brain had been in her own voice.

Her shoulders shivered in fear. Her mind wasn’t her own! *In fact, it was much better.*

“What did you do to me?” she asked, her voice wavering.

Some thing had been in the egg attached to her skull, and now it was in her brain! *It was an improvement. She was being made more suitable for this mission.*

Hot lips pressed against her cheek, giving her a wet kiss. “It’s simple enough. I stalled as long as I could, waiting for your egg to hatch. Now that it has, everything is going to be fine. For both of us.”

The woman’s warm hands wrapped around her shoulder, helping her to stand. “Tell me truly, how do you feel?”

Kate pressed her hands to her temples. “Awful!” *Wonderful!*

The woman patted her on the back. “It will pass. Once you accept this new state of being, the cognitive dissonance will fade, along with the pain. As it did for me.”

Her voice sent tingles down Kate’s spine. It sounded so familiar! Her head jerked, looking at the scientist who had claimed to be Katy. “Who are you?”

The woman’s face broke into a wide grin, spooking her. Through the damaged blotchy purple skin, she recognized this woman. She saw her every morning in the mirror. She was her!

“You… what?” Her breath came in sharp gasps, her head spinning. *You are fine,* commanded her own voice in her head.

“You figured it out,” said the doppelganger in her own voice. “That’s right. I am you. Well, not the you now, but the you then.”

Kate’s mind exploded with a sudden realization. That’s how this woman had used tranquilizer darts on her – she had used her darts on herself! “If what you’re saying is true, why would I betray… myself?”

‘Katy’ moved her arms wide. “Why do you think? You’ve been subverted. Well, I’ve been subverted – but you have, too. She told me how to do it, and I did it. Not that I had a choice. I’m you, just as much as you are me. Or will be me, for that matter.”

*And it feels good!*

Kate shook her head, the pounding pain increasing further. Now that she knew what to look for, it was obvious to see that the other woman had the same mannerisms as her. Her physical differences could easily be explained – although her hair was a mess, it was the same dark color as hers, only shorter. She could easily believe that this was her. *Did believe.*

“What was the point of all this, then?” she asked, her throat threatening to close up. “Why did you convince me to overload the Gate? To attack this… worm thing?” She pointed at the giant purplish worm, which was watching both of them calmly, it’s tubular mouth flexing.

“Oh no, not at all,” replied Katy, still grinning. “The engineers designed the Gate to operate at maximum capacity. The scientists are a little mad, but they aren’t crazy. There’s no such thing as ‘overloading the power.’ It was simply a neat fiction to keep you moving down the correct path. While you were distracted in the server room, it was child’s play to slap an egg on the back of your head. You didn’t even notice!”

Kate reflexively reached behind her head, feeling the bump where the egg had sat. The sac had inflated again with some kind of fluid, the membrane flexing under her soft touch. *The interface is ready.*

Katy clapped her hands with excitement. “Once I had it in place, all I had to do was distract you long enough for it to hatch. I had hoped that it would happen before we made our attack, but you moved so quickly I’m afraid I had to use more force.”

“Oh.” Kate’s face dropped. “I feel like an idiot.”

Katy rolled her shoulders. “I don’t know why. You simply outsmarted yourself, with knowledge that you currently aren’t privy to. Don’t feel bad about it. You’re going to love being controlled. I know I do.”

She sighed, her cheeks becoming flushed. “Now that you’re here, infested, I have to say, it’s hard to keep it in my pants. I have needs.” She mashed her breasts against her chest, breathing a soft sigh of pleasure. “But I know my place. You must be made ready.”

Kate frowned. “Ready for what?” *Ready to obey.*

“To go back, of course,” replied Katy. “The Gate can not only traverse space, but it can also traverse time – but only at maximum power. After a few… alterations have been made to you, you will be sent back, as me, to convince yourself to take the same steps you just took. The time loop will collapse, making what has already happened, happen again. Just as it should.” *Just as it would.*

“What if I don’t want to?” Kate asked, stamping her foot against the ground. Her anger was rising at the realization that she had been completely misled.

Katy rolled her eyes. “You already know you gave in, so why bother resisting? Look at me, I am your inevitability. Your future is my past.”

She ran her hand over her crotch, squeezing hard. “Believe me, it’s going to feel amazing betraying yourself. You’ll never see it coming. I’m already incredibly hot just thinking about it.”

Stopping her self pleasuring, she took a step forward. “Now, you must accept your new state. You will be made to serve, as I have. It’s inevitable.”

“What if I don’t want to?” she asked, the pain increasing in her brain pain. *But you do.*

She ignored the thoughts that were increasingly replacing hers, taking a step back. There must be some kind of plan she could execute, some way to escape. She was an agent, damnit! She could make amazing things happen with nothing.

Clawed hands wrapped around her shoulders, holding her in place. Startled, she tried to duck and twist to one side, but the hands gripped even tighter. A chuckle hissed in her ear, as she struggled uselessly. A warm tail wrapped around her neck, cinching tight until she was forced to gasp for air.

“There’s no escape,” grinned Katy, her own smile glaring back at her. “I might not remember each exact detail, but I already know everything you’re going to do. I’ve planned out all the details. I am you.” *You will become her.*

Become. Become. *Become.*

The thoughts rattled around in her head like peas. She was so confused. Even if she was being lied to, it didn’t matter. That thing was in her brain. *And she would learn to love it.*

Hot breath misted on her neck. She choked, her neck being squeezed by the alien.

It was all so futile. She would be forced to remain here until the alien *delightfully* took over her brain. Fighting against herself was impossible, but she couldn’t just give in. Could she? *Wouldn’t she?*

Was it just that easy? Give in, give up, become?

The pain in her skull began to ease. Was that because these were good thoughts? *Good*

Quite frankly, it was incomprehensible to her. Her body ached, her head hurt, and there was no reason for any of this. *Good*

It was highly unlikely she would receive the proper medical care in time, and what could they really do for her, anyway? *Nothing. Joining is permanent.*

“It won’t be long now,” declared Katy, taking a step forward and raising her hands. I wasn’t able to resist that long, and she is me, so she won’t, either.” *She is right.*

Katy pulled aside her lab coat, grabbing the pull on the zip of her shirt. “Besides, how long can you remain as you are when you’re being pleasured… by yourself?”

As she pulled down, cool air tingled over Kate’s skin. All that protected her from being ravished was a plain white bra which tightly covered her modest assets.

This didn’t prove to be much of an obstacle for Katy, who ran her fingers under the middle notch of the fabric, pulling it taut. Grabbing it with her other hand, she flexed her muscles, the fabric creaking. “See how strong the broodling can make you? Relish the changes, like I do.”

Soon, her cold hands were wrapped around Kate’s breasts, fondling them mercilessly. “Normally, this wouldn’t arouse you much,” explained Katy clinically. “However, the new connections the broodling has made in your brain have enhanced your tactile sensations. All I have to do is this…” she trailed off, rolling her thumb over one of Kate’s nipples.

Kate hissed, her eyes rolling. Why did it feel so damn good? *She wanted more. She wanted all

of it.*

“…and you’re helpless before me. Just as we’re helpless before it. You love it. You love being infected by it. You love being changed by it. Belonging to it.” She pressed her hands under Kate’s breasts, pushing them back and up into her chest, squeezing as she did so.

A dam broke, pleasure sweeping everything before it as it rolled through her memories. Everything about her shitty life was being swept up with it, removed and cast away. It felt good. Too good. *In the end, there was no reason to resist at all.*

Katy hummed to herself. “I wish I could feel what you’re feeling, but we’re not linked in that way. I know, though. I know exactly how you feel. You want more of it. You want to feel this way again.”

Her grip shifted as she groped Kate more quickly. “Give in to yourself. Let your thoughts become its thoughts. Let its thoughts become your thoughts.The broodling is not a separate being. There is just you, merged with it. A part of it. A servant of Mother.”

Moaning nonstop, Kate bucked her hips, reaching down to undo her pants. Slipping her panties down, she desperately planted her fingers in her snatch, rubbing as fast as she could to match what her doppleganger was doing to her breasts. Being infested was the most pleasurable experience of her life.

Katy squeezed hard, pressing the tops of her thumbs against Kate’s nipples. A spark of lightning quick pleasure shot from her nipples up her neck into her addled brain. Her hips bucked, fingers wet with her own juices.

The orgasm, when it came, was short and sweet, but the newfound knowledge of her submission was lasting. With this change came a low thrum of pleasure that stroked her pussy, her reward for accepting its presence. *Her string of obedience.*

She realized her headache was gone. There was no difference between her and the parasite. Its thoughts were hers, and her thoughts were its. They were indistinguishable from each other. *They were one.*

The alien hands let go of her, somehow knowing they weren’t needed. She leaned forward, wrapping her hands around the back of Katy’s head, pulling her in close. The afterglow of sex still hummed through her body, and she wished to share.

Leaning in close, she pressed her lips over Katy’s mouth, giving her a long, slow kiss. The other woman accepted the advance, extending her tongue so that they tangled with each other. The tickling sensation turned her on, her breasts throbbing with need.

And why not? At the moment, there was no one she loved more than herself.

The parasite had changed her thinking. Removed her inhibitions. Increased her libido. *It was so satisfying, and she loved it for showing her the path to pleasure.*

Eventually, the kiss came to an end, and regretfully, her doppelganger drew back. “I’d love to stay and do this with you more, but you have things to do. As me.”

Kate nodded eagerly. “What’s next? I can’t wait to experience more.”

Katy looked at her critically, resting her hand on her chin, just as Kate would have done in a similar situation. “We need to make you… look like me. Remember, if you recognize me when I first meet you, this won’t work. You can disguise your voice by using a lower pitch, but you can’t disguise your clothing.”

“Therefore, you’ll need to use these.” She grabbed a tattered lab coat, blouse, and loose fitting top that were folded neatly on an angled computer desk. “Strip!”

Kate did as she was told, discarding her belongings onto the spongy ground around her. She was quickly nude, but found herself unconcerned. She had seen herself without clothing plenty of times, and this was no different. Whatever embarrassment she might have felt had been removed during her merger with the parasite. *Nudity is natural.*

She quickly put on the clothing handed to her, dressing up to look like Katy. There was no bra included with the new clothing, but that was okay – she needed to be dressed differently to fool her past self.

“That’s almost correct,” stated Katy. “There’s just a few more things.”

She made a hand gesture, and her hair was suddenly seized by the creature behind her. There came a quick whizzing sound, and locks of her black hair floated to the ground in an ungainly mess.

Yes, this was necessary, too. Her hairstyle needed to match her future self as well. Nothing could be out of place. Everything must happen as it was meant to be. As it had already happened.

Katy took a lock of her hair and spread it out. “Yes, this will do. There’s more, however. Let me introduce you to some of our more… integrated forms of life.”

She took Kate by the shoulder and turned her to face the female humanoid who had accosted her. She was surprised to find another figure standing next to her as well, almost identical to the first.

She had noted most of their features from a distance earlier – fluorescent purple skin, rubbery knobs on their shoulders, and fleshy heels, talons tipping their fingers and toes. However, up close, the details were far more apparent.

They had piercing green eyes, with black, slitted pupils. Their skin had been altered, some kind of black material growing down from their ears to cover their mouth and neck in a semicircle. One of them opened her mouth, revealing the utterly dark hole within.

It would have been horrifying, just a short hour ago, but now it seemed wonderful. *They had taken a step up to the next level. She was envious.*

“These two creatures are wardens, blessed with Mother’s favor, transcending their former lives,” explained Katy. “They have been altered to carry Mother’s favor to others, complete with temporary homes for some of Her brood.”

Katy stepped in, running her fingers down the side of one of the creature’s breasts, which were circled by dark cavernous holes that tunneled into their flesh. She reached inside one of the holes, pulling out a beetle-like creature, which walked calmly out onto her arm.

“See here?” she asked, pointing at its bulbous abdomen. She poked the green liquid filled sac, and it parted for her fingers as if it was made of jelly. “They don’t grow the eggs inside themselves; they simply store them.”

Pressing her hand inside, she wrapped her fingers around the egg, extracting it gently. The white oval was smaller than Kate had expected. Unlike a hen’s egg, one side was flat.

She waved her other hand lazily towards the giant worm. “Our broodmother lays these eggs. These creatures pick them up from her and encapsulate them within their bodies.”

She picked up the beetle creature by its leg, turning it over, revealing a circular maw hidden underneath, filled with sharp teeth. “These creatures are quite capable of implantation, but ultimately, they aren’t necessary. The eggs themselves can bore into a host body well enough, if they are implanted in the right spot.”

Turning to Kate, she handed her the flat oval of the egg. “This is yours. Was yours. Will be yours again. Your special egg. Take care of it.”

Kate briefly examined the rubbery form, noting that the flat side appeared a bit red, but it was otherwise unremarkable. It was amazing that this tiny bit of life had changed her so much. *Great things come in small packages.*

She slipped the egg into her lab coat’s pocket, careful not to damage it. *Life is precious, in all its forms.*

“Next, we must do a knowledge transfer.” Katy took the hand of one of the wardens, pulling her closer. The tail between her legs waved back and forth lazily, the alien sitting on her ass throbbing.

“This one was formerly a scientist, who has the knowledge we need to run the Gate. Quite convenient, if you ask me. Mother knows, and Mother provides.”

She took Kate by the arm, positioning her behind the converted woman. “Stand still, this will hurt, but it’s for the best.”

Kate was no stranger to pain, but she disliked being unable to see what was happening. It made her nervous. *Everything would be fine.*

If she thought it, it was true. She closed her eyes and braced herself as something tickled against her upper back. It nosed between her shoulder blades, pausing momentarily before jabbing into her.

The sharp, grinding pain wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be. Her muscles clenched involuntarily, and she ground her teeth. After a few moments, the pain dulled, replaced by a cool, twisting sensation, which actually felt worse than the pain.

It was as though something was screwing itself into her, and for all she knew, it literally was. *This was okay, too. All in service of the Mother.*

Who or what the Mother was, she didn’t know yet, but clearly She was an important entity, and her parasitic half was beholden to Her. Not that she was separate from the parasite, any more. They were inextricably entwined, and she *loved it.*

A rush of endorphins exploded in her mind, followed by a cool river of knowledge. Calculations, formulas, power cut offs, programming languages – they burst inside her head like sweet grapes, nuggets of knowledge embedding themselves into the wrinkles of her brain.

She had taken a bachelor’s, no, a master’s, no, she was a graduated PhD student, with a major in electrical engineering and a minor in computer science. She had spent many years in study, and many more designing equipment for Expedient Tech. She loved apples, and the smell of grass after a good rain. *She loved Mother.*

Instantly, she knew exactly how to operate the Gate. How many scientists were on staff in the department. When security checked the hallways, and where the cameras were. Everything she needed to know to navigate the lab flowed into her, filling her up as if she was a lake.

After the initial rush, the flow slowed to a trickle, then reversed. Her life, her name, her skills as an agent – they were all being transferred back down the pipe, over to the other woman. This memory transfer was uniquely transcendent, beyond the realm of anything a human would ever know. *It was glorious, and she loved Mother for having her experience it.*