Induction pt. One

 'Induction'

by Tabico (tmallory@republic.org)

(mc, f/f, nc)

DISCLAIMER: This material is for adults only; it contains
explicit sexual imagery and non-consensual relationships.
If you are offended by this type of material or you are
under legal age in your area, do NOT continue.

COPYRIGHT:
Copyright (c) 2004 Tabico (tmallory@republic.org)
All rights reserved; this story is not to be reproduced in
any form for profit without the express written permission
of the author. This story may be freely circulated only in
its entirety and with this notice attached.

SYNOPSIS:
The marines of the Human League fight parasitic
mind-controlling aliens.

INTRO COMMENTS:
Lots of shared ideas with another of my stories, 'Riders'.


------
'Induction'
Part One
------

The sun was rising on New Brittany. The windows of the
skyscrapers glittered pink and gold as the horizon of
light crept down them. The largest city on Delacroix'
World, New Brittany was home to just under a million
people.

Or had been, until the Leeches came.

The light reached the streets, the faint nighttime
luminescence of the plascrete fading to dark grey as
the photocells registered daybreak. Here and there, a
few autocars moved, making early morning deliveries.

Chas could see people, too, walking around as though
it were any ordinary day. Walking down sidewalks,
sitting on benches eating breakfast. Looking perfectly
normal. But that was just because the resolution was so
low. The spy drone was on a mountainside twenty kilometers
away.

She watched as a couple of figures emerged from one
of the smaller buildings. She couldn't tell what gender
they were, but one of them was gesturing. It motioned
at the sky.

Then the screen whited out.

The crew in the audience drew breath. They had been
expecting this, but it was still terrible to behold.

As the screen dimmed, Chas could see the skyscrapers
toppling.

The impact bomb - a meteor by any other name, only
specially tailored by the League Defence Forces for
minimal ecosystem disruption - eradicated all forms
of organic life for seven miles from New Brittany
city center. At the same time, Chas knew, a similar
bomb was falling on Toulouse, Delacroix' only other
city.

Major Halstrom switched off the video.

"There you have it," she said, sighing. "The last of
the infected worlds is being retaken. Twenty-eight
DF battalions are going to hit ground today. By
this time next week, there won't be an infected
life form bigger than a tit-mouse left alive
on the planet."

"Good," Brubaker muttered. "Damn things need to
be wiped out lock, stock, and barrel."

Chas didn't disagree with him. But to have to wipe
out all the animals on the planet... all the
*people*...

She hoped that there were survivors. That, somehow,
some people had held out, and not been infected.
Assimilated. Maybe in some mountain hideout
somewhere...

"...share your thoughts, corporal Yuun?"

Chas' attention snapped back to the present. "Uh,
just thinking about the people, major," she said.
"On Delacroix' World."

"There probably aren't any," the major said.
"Not any more. Now, if you'd care to pay attention
to the briefing?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good. As I was saying, the reason *we* are here,
instead of getting our boots dirty, is that we
are to help mop up Delacroix' civilian fleet. Lucky us,
we aren't going to have to troop around in the
mud at all. We're not even part of the force
assaulting Negev station. No, we get to kick back
and enjoy ourselves until such time as any of those
Leech-infected sons of bitches try to flee the
system through our sector. At which point the captain
of our lovely ship will either blast them into hot gas,
in which case you all can just keep playing pocket pool,
or she will decide to have us board them and see
what sort of mess we find. The Science Board wants
live specimens, people, and if we find some would-be
escapees with a sufficiently small amount of juice,
we're going to fetch them some. Any questions?"

Ramirez raised a hand. "So we're just going to sit here
until someone tries to run past us, and then if the
captain thinks we can overtake them, we're going to board
and capture things?"

"That's exactly right, Ramirez. Does that bother you?"

"Oh, hell no, sir. I love sitting on my ass."

"Yes, I thought so. Anyone else?"

The thirty marines looked at each other. No one
spoke up.

"Very good, then. As you were. But I expect you to be
suited and ready for insertion inside of five minutes,
any time."

"Yes, sir," the marines chorused. The major stepped out.

Everyone went back to what they were doing. Handsets came
out and the eight-man Ninjitsu Master 2605 game resumed,
conversations picked up, holobooks were turned back on.

Chas looked at the blank vidscreen, thinking.

"Scary, huh?" Ramirez asked. Chas looked up at her.

"Yeah. I mean... I'm from New Iowa. We're a frontier
world. It could have been us, if the Leeches had come
from a different direction. All those people, enslaved,
and gone..."

Ramirez put a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, well. But it
wasn't you, was it? And what we're doing now, we're
keeping it from happening to anyone else."

Chas nodded. "I guess. It's still... sad, you know?"

"Uh-huh. You want to play some chess?"

-----

"So?" Halstrom asked, closing the door to the bridge
behind her. It was ship's night, and aside from the
captain, only a single other member of the six-man
crew was at his station.

"So look at this," the captain said, gesturing to the
projector.

Above the table hung a translucent image of local space.
The HLDF Wild Rose was a red dot, in the center of
a demarked area of space twelve light-minutes wide.
Delacroix' World was offscreen, the direction noted by
an illuminated arrow on the table.

Captain Anders' finger reached into space, and touched
a small white dot.

"What is it?" Halstrom asked.

"A ship," Anders replied. She tapped at her lips with
a white-gloved hand. "Slow, and bulky. Too small to
be commerical cargo, though. I think it's a homesteader."

"A homesteader?"

"Yeah, colony ships they built around the turn of the
century. Jump engines good for only a jump or two before
refueling, room for maybe five hundred people and colony
supplies. Food, seed, fertilized animal eggs, tractors...
real low-end stuff. Popular among the fringe religious
groups."

"Infected?"

"Almost certainly. They're coming on a direct arc from
Negev station."

"Could they jump out?"

Anders shrugged. "It's a possibility, if they got out past
the limit."

"Past us."

"Yes."

"Any trouble intercepting them?"

"None whatsoever. Three hours tops. But..."

"But what?"

"I'm not sure you should board, Major. It's a bigger ship
than we were anticipating - and you've only got thirty
marines. There could be hundreds of the infected on there.
Thousands. Not to mention animals... I've seen what the
Leeches can make out of cows."

"So you think we should just blow it up."

"I don't know. It would be a real feather to be able to
offer the Science Board that much specimen, all in a neat
package. But..."

"But it could be risky."

"Exactly." Anders' pale blue eyes fixed on Halstrom's dark
brown ones. "Major, it's your call. They're your people who
will be at risk. If you don't want any of them killed,"
Anders paused, "then I'll incinerate the ship, and consider
it the right decision."

Halstrom knew what the captain had refrained from saying.
'Killed, or worse.' Captives of the Leeches were no
rescuable.

"Hrm. Where's the power plant on these things?" Halstrom
asked.

Marines were necessary because the Leeches didn't let
themselves be taken alive. If the Wild Rose simply
disabled the ship's engines with a maser, the Leeches
would detonate the power core and destroy the ship. The
core had to be shut down, or ejected, before it had time to
overheat and explode.

Anders sighed. "Right at the heart of it. Just forward of
the control section bulkhead. You'd have to basically fight
through them all."

Halstrom nodded. She turned to look out the portal. Her
fingers sought her St. Christopher's medal, and she rubbed
it between two fingertips.

The stars were steady, bright holes in black velvet. They gave
no hint as to her destiny.

"We'll do it," she said. "Take us over there. I'll get my
people ready."

----

Chas was dreaming.

In her dream she was home, in the little house she had back
on New Iowa. It was warm outside, and she had been out
by the swimming pool (which she didn't have, but the people
next door did, and in the dream it was hers) in a little
white sundress.

She had gotten hot, so she had come inside to take a
shower and to wash off the suntan lotion and the sweat.
And she was in the shower, showering, and she was looking
at herself through the glass door of the shower, because
the bathroom mirror was right there as you stepped
out of the shower, and she could see her soapy body and
her wet hair.

And in her dream her dog came in, Mel, who was a black
labrador, and although he'd been dead for two years
in her dream he was big and strong, in his prime like
he had been before she went away to school.

And Mel came to the shower door, and scratched, and it
was a little strange because Mel was never allowed in
the bathroom, but somehow he opened the shower door, and
looked up at Chas with his deep brown eyes.

Only they weren't deep brown, they were black, and Chas
realized with sudden emotion that there was a Leech
on him, a big black slug on his neck, and that it wasn't
Mel staring at her, it was the Leech, looking at her
through Mel's eyes...

And Chas was afraid, but not as afraid as she should have
been, and she didn't know why, and as she looked at Mel's
glistening black alien eyes she felt her heart speed up,
and her throat tighten, but it wasn't fear, not exactly...

And then Mel stepped towards her, into the shower,
and she was a little afraid, and she stepped back
against the shower wall.

She couldn't take her eyes off of Mel's eyes.

Then he stood up, on his hind legs, putting his front
paws on her ribcage, just under her wet breasts (somehow
the water had gotten turned off), and she could feel his
breath, and see the big black Leech pulsing on his neck,
and she knew that it had grown all through him, and that
this wasn't Mel any more, it was really an alien in
Mel's skin.

Something prodded her thighs, and she looked down.

It was Mel's cock.

Only it wasn't the red thing she had seen when he had
gotten excited before, it was black, black and shiny,
and smooth, and it was poking her thighs, erect and
heavy but loose, like a pole swiveling at the base,
unmoored.

Her breath was coming in pants as she looked back into
Mel's eyes.

She knew what he wanted.

It was worse, it was worse than bestiality, because he
was a Leech, he wasn't even a dog, and that if she
gave him what he wanted (how could she even think that?)
then she'd become a Leech, become an alien in her own
skin.

With a whine, she tried to get around him, tried to
move out from under his paws, sliding her back on the
tiles of the wall, but instead of getting away, she
fell to her knees.

On her knees, with her back to him. Just like he wanted.

Like IT wanted.

And she didn't stand up, she didn't run, she just waited,
waited as she felt the paws press down on her
shoulders, waited with her teeth pushing into her lower
lip, waiting until she felt him enter her...

And he did, and then he was in her, and it felt good,
it felt *good*, it felt gooood, and Chas gasped and
closed her eyes and thrust back, pushing him deeper,
pushing IT deeper, and she panted and gasped and pushed,
and then she was coming and her eyes flew open and

they

were

Jet

Black

And Chas realized that she was looking at her own face,
and the dream Chas was looking back at her, its face twisted
in ecstasy. And then the dream Chas *saw* her, saw
her and smiled, and her face clenched as she shuddered
in pleasure again and then she looked at Chas and said

"Get up!"

Chas gasped and grabbed the hand on her shoulder, Ramirez'
hand, and shoved at it.

"Woah! Woah," Linda said, "take it easy!"

Chas looked around with wide eyes, panting. It was a
dream. Only a dream.

"Bad dream?" Ramirez asked.

Chas stared at her. "Uh. Yeah," she said. She tried to
calm her breathing. "It was. Real doozy."

"Well, forget it and get into your suit. We've got a bogey,
a big one, and we're already a minute into our five. Up and
at 'em, sport."

----

The marines waited impatiently in the boarding bay. The
lights next to the three ram docks were yellow - the
rams were deployed, jutting out from the ships' arm,
but had not yet attached themselves to the other ship.

The major was not yet there; the thirty marines, in
squads of six, leaned against the walls or sat on the
floor. Their dark grey suits looked like second skins;
the impact absorbtion technology only worked when there
was no gas between the skin of the suit and the flesh
of the wearer. So they all looked almost naked.

This often led to joking and accusations of socks
stuffed into locations they didn't belong, but conversation
in the boarding bay now was muted. None of the team had
been on an infected vessel before, and they were
anxious. Hundreds of sim-hours just weren't the same
thing as doing it for real. Risking it for real.

Brubaker leaned over and held his helmet against Chas'.
"You ready for this, Yuun?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be," she replied. He leaned away. Todd
Brubaker was the squad commander, and Chas had complete
faith in his decisions. In the inter-squad games, her
squad - C squad - swept the rest of the squads with
notable regularity.

Linda Ramirez was in A squad, and she gave Chas a nod
when Chas' eyes caught hers.

The airlock whooshed open, and Major Halstrom came in,
her helmet under her arm. The soldiers tightened up.

"Okay, marines, we're going to be hitting them within
the next few minutes. Double check your seals - don't
want any mini-Leeches getting in unawares. You all have
your assignments. Any last minute questions?"

No one said anything.

Then a claxon sounded, and the ram lights went from yellow
to orange, and then with a shudder the Wild Rose touched
the other ship, and the lights turned red as the cutting
beams bored through the target's hull and the foam sealant
sprayed the outside of the rams, cementing them to the
hull and, theoretically, making an airtight connection.

In fact, the rams were sort of like the burrowing mouth
of a Leech, Chas reflected, penetrating the skin of the
other ship and injecting... us.

The claxon changed pitch, and the light for ram #1 changed
to green. Airtight. A moment later, the #2 ram light did
the same.

They waited, but #3 stayed red - there was a problem cutting,
or sealing, or something.

"Right - we have two points of entry," the major said,
"Squads A and D enter and secure the breaches!"

Chas watched as Ramirez and her team opened the #1 airlock,
and hustled through and into the infested ship.

----

Five minutes later, it was their turn.

"Okay, C squad, let's hustle," Brubaker said through the
commlink. Chas fell in behind Nea Thompson, and scooted
through the airlock.

The ram had punched through into some sort of cargo hold;
A squad had already shifted several large crates, so that
squads B and C simply ran in and jumped down a few times
to reach the floor. Gravity in the ship was still on,
which Chas was thankful for.

The other three squads were entering the same room
farther down. D squad had secured the door, and was
holding it as squads E and F scrambled out into the
hall beyond, headed for the power core.

A moment later, it was their turn; "C squad, we are
going to accompany A squad to secure the ship's bridge.
Form combat pairs and follow me."

Chas and Nea looked at each other, then hustled off
to the far side of the cargo hold.

When they entered the corridor, Chas gasped. It was...
alive. The walls, floor, and ceiling were covered in
a green goop, a strange slimy moss-like growth. As she
stepped on it, her boot sank in three inches.

Something black and slimy wriggled twoards her boot.
Chas frowned and changed her footing; the slug
disappeared back into the greenery.

The squad started moving. At a quick walk, they followed
A squad down the transformed corridor. In places, long
streamers of greenery hung from floor to ceiling. They
passed a number of closed doors; for some reason, the
green stuff wasnt growing on the doors or on the light
strips overhead. Chas' helmet readout told her that the
humidity in the corridor was ninety-eight percent.

Brubaker's voice came over the comm. "Squad, there's an
open cargo hold on the left; A squad reports possible
hostiles in it. We're going to stop here and secure the
hold while they go ahead to the bridge."

Ahead of her, Brubaker and Trinh paused, then moved
left into an already open door. Chovsky, with the meson
cannon, followed them, and then Chas was at the door,
watching the corridor as Thompson entered, then following
her into the room.

The hold was similar to the one they had entered
through, but this one had been transformed the same way
that the interior corridor had been. Green moss-algae
covered every surface, hanging in long strings from the
ceiling, coating the huge crates and canisters piled
high throughout the room.

Something moved near her, and Chas swung her beamer
around. A sinuous white worm-like thing slid away
deeper into the green stuff. Chas frowned and turned
away.

"Spread out and search the room," Brubaker said. "Trinh
and I will go forward; Yuun and Thompson, you head
back. Chovsky, hold the door."

Chas nodded at Nea, and they swung into action; Chas
covering while Nea moved, then Nea covering as Chas
did the same. The huge moss-covered crates loomed
above them, reaching almost to the twenty-foot ceiling.

As they neared the rear of the chamber, the women had
seen nothing other than more of the slugs and worms that
seemed to infest the slime covering everything; there
were a few unusual plant-like structures growing higher
up on the boxes, glossy tubules in burgundy and purple,
but they seemed harmless.

Nea was gesturing at her - Chas looked down, and found
one of the black slugs crawling up her leg. She flicked
it off. Though thin, nothing short of energy weapons
could get through the suits.

They were almost at the end of the room. Nea motioned
her around the corner, and Chas stepped out and swept
the space between the last of the crates and the rear
wall.

And gasped.

There were people here. Two women and a man, hanging from
the wall. The green algae surrounded them, encased
them, so that Chas could only see the man's upper torso,
and his head. His eyes were closed. All that was visible
of the woman next to him were her breasts; the rest of
her was only suggested in the outlines of the moss covering
her.

But the third woman, the one nearest to Chas, was exposed.
Fully - like the other two, she was completely naked.
Somehow, she was adhered to the wall, hanging forward at
a slight angle. Her arms were raised, bent at the elbows,
her hands hanging limply at the level of her head. Her
eyes were closed.

And between her knees was a pod.

It was leathery and wet looking, a wrinkled green olive
two feet long. From the top of it, a thick, clear tube
stretched up six inches and plugged into the woman's vagina.

Chas swallowed. With her chin, she activated her comm.
"Ah, this is Yuun, I've found three humans."

"Hostile?" Brubaker replied immediately.

"Ah, that's a negative. They seem to be unconscious, and
are mostly cocooned in the wall."

"Roger that. This end is clear. We're coming-"

"-it! This is Chovsky! We have hostiles approaching the
door. Repeat, hostiles approaching the door. I need-"

"Everyone get to the door," Brubaker cut in. "No -
Yuun, stay where you are. I don't want those poddies
waking up and causing trouble."

"Roger that," Chas said, and nodded at Thompson,
who turned and ran for the door. She watched the
people hanging from the wall, as the sounds of
battle came in fragments over the comm.

"What the fuck is that? What the fuck-"

"Burn it, Chovsky. Thompson, back him, and advance
down the hall. We don't want them to surround A
squad."

"Behind us, behind us."

"Burn them down, John. I'm hearing that the hostiles
are attacking all squads at once - we're going to hold
here until the Major says otherwise."

"I've got him, I've got him."

"Buddhamn, what the-?"

"Hold here, hold here. They can't come at us from any
other direction. Hold here."

"Take over, Thompson - I have to reload."

The circuit went quiet.

It sounded like C squad was holding its own, but what
was going on elsewhere?

Chas looked at the people in the wall again.

The woman opened her eyes.

Chas squeaked, and brought her beamer up.

The woman - a blonde, her hair slick, plastered to her
shoulders - started moving in place, muscles flexing
slowly under slimy skin. Her eyes rolled up, and
her mouth formed a wide "O".

Chas realized that the tube, the clear cord that
connected the woman to the pod, was moving. It wasn't
perfectly clear, it was slightly opaque, and had
ridges and bumps on its surface.

It was sliding into her.

The woman's eyes rolled back down, and came to rest
on Chas. She shuddered in slow motion again.

The tube kept slowly inching into her.

Chas looked at the woman's eyes, and saw awareness
there. But no panic. Just awareness.

Her mouth moved. Chas realized she was trying to
speak, but no sound was coming out. Beamer raised,
Chas stepped forward.

She was repeating something. Something she wanted
Chas to hear. Chas focused on her lips, her teeth.

"So good."

That's what she was saying. Chas' eyes flicked down
to the tube, almost two inches thick and still sliding
inward. Where was it going? Chas didn't know if
she wanted to think about that. She looked back at
the woman's face.

Her eyes had rolled up again, but her mouth kept
forming the same words. "So good. So good."

Chas' dream came flooding back to her.

Brubaker's voice on the comm startled her. "Yuun?
Have the poddies moved?"

"Ah, not really. One of them seems to have woken
up, but is, uh, just twitching a little."

"Not fully converted, then," Brubaker said. "Leave
them. The attack is apparently over, but we can't
get ahold of A squad.

We're going on a rescue mission."

----

Chas rejoined the rest of the squad at the cargo
bay door. Everyone seemed fine, although Nea and
Andrei were coated in a whitish slime, gooped
onto their suits and streaked across their helmets
where they had wiped it off with gloves.

"They've got some sort of missile weapon,"
Chovsky said on the comm channel. "I'd bet
fifty creds this stuff is highly soporific."

"Not toxic?" Thompson asked.

Chovsky grinned at her. "Not hardly. They want
you alive, sweet cheeks."

"Can it," Brubaker said. "Trinh, you're with me.
A squad is totally comm dead, so we have to assume
they've been overrun. Double plus paranoid,
people. Let's move."

They moved down the hallway. At the corridor
junction thirty feet down, the corpses of half
a dozen creatures lay strewn on the floor.

"Buddha," Trinh said, poking at one with
a boot. "What on earth?"

"We'll find out later," Brubaker said. "Keep
up."

Chas passed the bodies. Two of them were human,
with Leeches mounted on their necks. But one
looked more like a hairless bear, and two were...
were something else. Four clawed legs, and a
barrel-like torso the size of a refrigerator.

No head.

"Sergeant?" Thompson said. "I think these may
be brombones - you know, those host creatures
that the Leeches showed up with."

"Good guess," Brubaker said. "Now get your mind
back on the mission."

A hundred feet and two corners later, they found
more corpses. A lot more - some humans, but
also many of the headless giant dogs. They
formed a trail up to the bridge door.

The door had been forced. Inside, the bridge, and
the corridor surrounding it, was clean, metal and
plastic exposed and uncovered, in contrast to the
mossy hallway.

There was no one there. Outside of the portholes,
the stars shone.

"Okay, looks like this is where they were overrun.
We'll make this our fallback point - Chovsky,
stay here with the cannon ready. According to ship
schematics, that way," he pointed back the way
they came, "is the only way the Leeches could have
come from. Trinh and I will work our way back down
there, searching. Thompson, you take the portside
hall and check all the rooms; Yuun, you do the
same for starboard. If you hit anything threatening,
get the hell back here to Chovsky. Okay, go."

The bridge was circular, at the center of a pair of
hallways running around it like cupping hands. Nea
and Chas shared a quick look, then turned down the
halls.

The hall here was clear of the Leech bioflora;
Chas was silently thankful to be away from the
slugs and worms that infested the rest of the ship.

The doors in her corridor were all on the right side.
She pressed the first door panel, and the door slid open,
revealing a small mess hall. She scanned the room,
beamer out, but it was empty. The refrigerator door
was hanging open, and the shelves inside were bare.

Chas moved on down the corridor. The next room was
a small bunkroom, with two beds. It was also empty.
The next door opened onto a wiring closet.

The door at the end of the hall opened into a small
room for starfield viewing; a clear half-bubble at
the edge of the bridge. Chas remembered that from her
look at the ship schematics. When she opened the
door, the room looked like she expected it to.

She hadn't expected to find it occupied.

Chas stifled a squeak.

Linda Ramirez was there.

Being fucked by one of the brombones.

Chas felt tears come to her eyes as she took in
the whole scene and saw the Leech squatting on
the back of Linda's neck.

"Oh no, Linda..."

Her helmet was nowhere in sight. She was on her hands
and knees, still in the slick grey of her uniform
shirt, but her pants were off, tangled around one foot.
Behind her, the brombone had extended a thick tentacle
from where its head should have been. The tentacle
disappeared into Linda's crotch.

Linda looked up, saw Chas, and moaned.

Chas snapped back to her job. She scanned the
room, but there was nothing else in it. No
Leeches waiting to pounce. She looked back
at Linda.

She was saying something. Speaking to Chas,
although her words didn't penetrate the
helmet, and she kept stopping and moaning as the
brombone fucked her.

Chas should report right now. Tell them that
she'd found Linda, and it was... too late.

Linda shuddered, arms weakening, and her
breasts dipped to touch the floor. She looked
up at Chas, pleading.

Chas couldn't hear her.

She looked at the brombone. It was smaller than
usual, the size of a Saint Bernard, and had a
clear sac on its back. The sac was full of
spherical objects.

Chas realized what it was, and what it was doing
to Linda.

She raised her beamer to shoot it.

As she fired, Linda lunged, knocking the beamer
aside. The beam missed the center of the alien,
cutting through the sac instead. Eggs spilled
out onto the floor.

Linda had her arm now, the arm with the beamer;
panicking, Chas fought with her, but Linda just
held on. She was standing, the thick tentacle
still firmly plugged into her snatch. Her mouth
kept moving.

Chas looked at her. She was pleading, not trying
to take the gun. Chas slowed her struggles.

Linda let go.

She wasn't... she wasn't... but she *was*. The
Leech was on her, thick and black and glistening.

There was no way in hell Chas was taking off her
helmet.

But...

The helmet came with a plug, low and off center,
for attaching a drinking tube. It was only
finger sized, not large enough for a Leech to
get through. Chas fingered it.

Linda looked at her, waiting. The Leech was hard
to see in her long black hair. She shivered,
and Chas saw a bulge passing from the tentacle
into her.

Chas pulled open the plug.

"Chas," Linda said.

Chas nodded.

"Please. Please...

"...just a little longer."

Chas frowned.

"Just a little longer," Linda begged, stepping
back from her. "Just a little longer. I know...
I know what you have to do. It's got me... I
can feel it in my mind. A-already I, I must
obey. I must obey it. I can feel it... changing
me. Changing who I am. But..." she gestured at
the thick hose between her legs. "This feels
so *goood*..."

Chas stared, as Linda shuddered again, and
dropped slowly back to her knees.

"I know you- OHhhh - I know you have to report
me- UH- but, please, just a little longer. Just
let me- uuunnnhh - let me enjoy..."

Linda's head dropped, and she shuddered again.

Chas backed out of the room, thumbing the plug
closed again. She closed the door, then turned
around and leaned against it.

A few minutes later, she used her comm.

----

The marines had won.

D, E, and F squads had secured the power core,
and turned it off, jettisoning the fuel rods
into space. B squad had captured the bridge
and the flight controls.

A squad was a total loss.

Most of the ship - the colonist quarters and
colony supplies - were still in the hands of
the Leeches, but were now without power and
effectively sealed off behind the main bulkhead.
The ship's bridge and a small portion of the
ship - the part that the Wild Rose had attacked -
were separated from the main cargo area by
a single point of contact, in case the pilots
needed to be able to quarantine the cargo area.

Precisely like they had to do now.

The Leeches had fought for the bulkhead door,
but they simply hadn't the firepower, even with
the infected humans using all the weaponry they
had available. Colonists simply didn't have
access to the hardware that the HLDF did.

So at the end of the day, the marines managed
to close the bulkhead door, with only one
battle casualty - a leg injury from a laser rifle.

The bodies of Leeches piled the floors.

Of A company, only Linda Ramirez was recovered
alive. Sun-Ying Soon's body was found at the
bulkhead door, a Leech on his neck and a beamer
hole in his chest.

The other three were not recovered.

Although there were immediate commendations from
DF headquarters, the mood among the marines was
somber. Linda Ramirez was put into a stasis pod
immediately, and sent on a ship's boat to the
hospital ship with the Negev station fleet.

No one who had had a Leech attached for more than
a few hours had ever been completely rehabilitated.
On the planet Dyson, one of the last overrun and
the first liberated, tens of thousands of "freed"
humans now eagerly anticipated the return of their
Leech masters. They had to be carefully guarded and
kept to agrarian pursuits, for fear of what they
might do to harm the war effort.

Linda's chances were better, but not good. She would
certainly never return to her unit.

In addition, the battle for Delacroix' world was
not going well. The Leeches had staged highly
successful counterattacks, and overrun at least
one of the twenty-eight assault battalions.

So the troubles of one unit on blockade duty
were considered insignificant. Major Halstrom
was grateful they had even gotten their citations
so quickly.

The Major, of course, was unstinting in her praise,
and tried to drag the unit out of its funk. A funk
which lingered as the invasion went into a second
week, and then a third.

No other ships attempted to escape through the Wild
Rose's space. Which was good, since the Science Board,
ecstatic to have captured an entire infected colony
vessel, had ordered them to guard it at all costs
until it could be towed to Thule, a science system
containing an orbital research station and nothing else.

So the Wild Rose remained attached to the colony
ship via the ram docks, and the marines kept an
eye on the bulkhead door, and everyone waited for
something else to happen.

The Leeches, estimated to be still at least a thousand
strong behind the door, made no move.

The control decks were cleaned; the green bioflora was
burned and scraped, the slugs and worms and other things
were eradicated. Two weeks after the assault, the
control decks looked a lot they had before the
ship became an alien hive.

The marines still didn't spend much time there.
Anything past the airlocks of the boarding bay
was suit-mandatory. Since the Leeches made no moves,
most of the marines' time was spent amusing themselves
back on the Wild Rose. On the colony ship - the
Ophelia - two marines watched the bulkhead door, and
one was stationed in the ship's bridge and one at
the ram docks. They were relieved every four hours.

Chas sighed, and looked out at the stars. If she
walked to the front of the bridge, she could look
up at the Wild Rose, just visible where it
touched the Ophelia at one very important point.
The cruiser was slim and sleek, very different
from the bulky colony ship. From nearby space, the
Wild Rose must look like a remora clinging to a
particularly dumpy shark.

She walked around the bridge. In her mind she could
see the captain, the astrogator, the helmsman.
Who had they been, before the Leeches came?
Apparently, this ship had arrived at Delacroix'
World shortly after the Leeches had conquered it.
What a terrible surprise that must have been.

Chas ran a hand along the navigation console. It
was blank, featureless - all of the Ophelia's power
had died when the power core was shut down. Some
of the control section's systems, such as the lights,
and the gravity, were running on a power feed from the
Wild Rose. But the ship's controls were not among them.

This was the astrogator's seat. Linda had trained as
an astrogator... Linda. Chas would never see her
again. She was already in stasis, on a hospital
ship. Chas wondered if the doctors had had the time
to try and remove the Leech. Word was, Negev
station had been a bloodbath.

Chas turned from the astrogator's station, and
checked the time display. Another two hours to
go. But, of course, anything designed to kill time
was forbidden on watch. Too distracting.

Chas thought of Linda, and realized she was walking
off of the bridge, and down the small corridor
to where she had found her. Her fingers trailed
along the wall. In her mind, she could still
see Linda, down on all fours, with that thick
grey-green cord plugged into her...

She opened the door to the little observation
room. The eggs that the brombone had spilled
all over the floor had been destroyed. It
looked as though nothing had happened here.

Linda. She had been... had been so...

The wall vibrated a little, and Chas stopped.

What was that?

Puzzled, she turned around. On a hunch, she
approached the small door that opened to
the wiring closet. Hand on her beamer, she
opened it.

The brombone spilled out.

Chas jumped back as it scrambled to its
feet. It was the same one - its deflated
egg sac hung limply on its side.

Chas had her beamer out, and pointed.

The trunk - the tentacle-like thing that
extended from where its head should have
been - undulated through the air towards
her. It couldn't hurt her, even with its
claws, but it seemed uninterested in
hurting her anyway.

The trunk pushed into her crotch.

Chas was overcome by a rush of blood to her
head.

The tentacle was pushing, not hard, seeking,
sliding around between her legs. The end of
it, open, hollow, looked like the end of an
elephant's trunk, only with one sphincter
instead of two. She could feel the rim of the
trunk plucking at her to no avail.

She knew what it wanted.

But.

She...

Her heart was pounding. She should shoot it,
shoot it and call in. But...

Linda had been willing to do anything, just to
let it keep fucking her.

Chas swallowed hard. The egg sac was empty,
punctured, deflated. There were no Leeches
around - no, she didn't know that. The cleaning
team hadn't found the brombone. They could have
missed a Leech.

But she didn't have to take her helmet off.
Couldn't, anyway, because doing so sent a
radio signal to her sergeant that something was
up.

But she didn't have to.

The brombone had taken a step forward, but
otherwise just continued massaging her crotch,
mindlessly certain that its target was there
somewhere.

Chas stepped back. It stepped forward. She
stepped back again, then again, into the little
observatory.

Once it was inside, she walked around it, and
closed the door.

She wasn't actually... she wasn't... Her hands
found the belt clasps.

Chas, she told herself, get a grip. This is stupid,
and very, very dangerous.

Yes, she replied. But I *need* it.

With a whimper, she unlocked the clasps, and shoved
her belt and pants down to her knees. The alien's
trunk went with them, pulled back, then undulated
up unerringly to her crotch.

She gasped as it touched her. She was wet, so wet,
soaking wet, and horny like she had never been
horny before. The fingerlike tip of the trunk
wormed its way inside her, and she shuddered
uncontrollably, her knees going weak, and she
sank to the floor, remembering how Linda had sunk
to the floor just like she was doing now, and the
memory sent her over the edge into orgasm.

Moaning, she leaned forward onto her forearms,
and felt the trunk push into her. With a jolt,
she was coming again as the strong muscles of
the trunk forced their way into her pussy.

There was a pricking sensation inside her, sending
a tiny cold jolt of fear up her spine, but it
was immediately overrun by "there's nothing I can
do about it now" and she was coming again, titties
brushing the floor and then mashing into it as her
arms gave out, leaving her rear high in the air,
stuffed with the alien's trunk, which was still
pushing in, burrowing down into her. She knew that
it had to be entering her womb, had to have dilated
her cervix somehow, but it didn't have any eggs in
it, didn't know with its missing brain that it was
firing blanks.

But it began to flex anyway, driving its non-existant
eggs down into her, and as the ripples passed through
her distended cunt they felt like heaven, Linda was
*right*, nothing ever was as good as this, and
Chas came, and came again.

And the eggs that had already been in the brombone's
trunk when the marines forced it off of Linda were
safely deposited inside Chas' womb.

----

In her dream, Chas was back in New Iowa.

She had been lying out on the patio, next to the pool,
in a white bikini. The weather was balmy and warm,
and her skin prickled enjoyably with sweat.

But she'd had enough sun, and it was time to take
a shower. So she walked in to her house, in to the
large bathroom of the master bedroom. She turned on
the water and peeled out of the swimsuit, and
stepped into the shower.

In the mirror opposite the shower, she looked
at her naked body through the clear glass of the
shower door and smiled. She was hot, and she knew
it.

There was a creaking sound from the bedroom. Puzzled,
Chas peeked out of the shower, but she didn't see
anything. She went back to washing her face.

Then the shower door opened. Surprised, Chas wiped
her face off and looked down.

It was an alien.

It was the size of a large dog, with tight grey-green
skin. Four legs, no head, no tail. A trunk extending
from where its head should have been.

Chas' eyes widened, and she smiled.

Putting a hand on the shower wall, she slowly dropped
to her knees, and turned around, presenting the brombone
with her wet ass. The water sprayed her back like
heavy warm rain as she spread her thighs.

It fingered her, the flexible rim of the trunk gently
parting the folds of her slit, and Chas bit her lower
lip and sighed. She arched her back, opening her
pussy wider. Enticing it.

"Hey, Yuun."

Chas looked over her shoulder at her mate, but it
had no mouth and no brain - how was it talking to
her?

"Yuun, wake up."

Chas opened her eyes. Todd Brubaker was standing over
her bunk. She wasn't naked, wasn't in her shower.

She was, however, wet.

"Get up, Chas," he said. "You and I have an appointment
with the egghead."

Todd stepped back, and Chas rolled out of her hammock.
She was already in her undersuit - and thank goodness
it didn't show how wet she was, bless the water-resistant
fabric - so she just had to squat down and pull a set
of fatigues from her locker.

Squatting reminded her of her dream, and she smiled.

"I don't get it, Yuun," Brubaker said. "You've been
in such a good mood all month. The rest of us... well,
you know what's been going on. But you always have this
blissed-out smile."

Chas shrugged, and stepped into her pants. "I dunno,
sarge. I've just been feeling... good a lot recently."

"Are you taking stims, Yuun? 'Cause if you are, I
want some."

Chas laughed. "No, nothing like that. You know me.
I just... I dunno, I just feel good. Sure, we're stuck
out here in bureaucratic limbo, but we're not down
on... well, we're not down there."

Chas didn't really know why she was feeling so good
all the time, but that seemed like a good explanation.

Brubaker nodded, but didn't add anything.

The war wasn't going well.

Nominally, the HLDF now controlled seventy-two percent of
Delacroix' world. That was after almost three months
of combat, ambushes, and encountering more Leech-infested
lifeforms than had been thought possible. The Science
Board was barely able to keep up with the encounters,
categorizing the new species of attacking plants and
strange bio-designed animal hybrids, much less come
up with effective ways to fight them.

Which was why the Wild Rose was still here, still
attached to the Ophelia. The Board wanted to examine
the ship, badly, but couldn't spare the time or the
personnel. So they waited, while down on the planet,
their colleagues were having to fight every living
thing they saw.

The Board *had* sent one person. Doctor Shapatna. She'd
arrived on the ship's boat that returned from the
hospital ship, tasked with beginning the investigation
of the Ophelia. So far she'd rarely left the cargo hold
which she had turned into a laboratory.

"But today, she wants to talk," Brubaker said, walking
down the hall with Chas. "So we're going to have lunch
with her."

He hit the panel for the hold door, and it slid open.
Chas stepped in.

The room had been stripped of cargo - not hard, since
the Wild Rose was well into her supply of food by
this point - and was now mostly empty, a few large
tables supporting metal dishes and microscopes and
other scientific gear.

And there was the cage.

At the far end of the room, a set of bars had been welded
in place, forming the front of a cage. In it were the
three people that Chas and Nea had discovered.

They were all Leeches, of course. All three of them had
the slick black bodies adhered to the back of their
necks. But they hadn't caused any trouble. Chas couldn't
help but stare at them. They were still naked, standing
motionless in their cage.

"Yes, they're still here," a woman said, and Chas turned
to find Dr. Shapatna coming in behind her. "Sargent
Brubaker, Corporal Yuun. Sorry about being late - I
was speaking with the captain."

"Not a problem," Brubaker said, taking her proffered
hand and shaking it. "What can we do for you?"

"I understand that you were the ones who found Specialist
Ramirez," the woman replied, looking straight into
Yuun's eyes as she clasped her hand firmly. "I'd like
to ask you about that."

"It was Corporal Yuun who found her," Todd said. "I was
nearby, but I didn't actually see Ramirez until she was in
custody."

"I see," Dr. Shapatna replied. "Then it's Corporal Yuun
I'd like to talk to." She gestured to a small metal table
with some chairs around it. "Please, have a seat. Sargeant,
you are welcome to stay."

"I think I will," he said, and they all took places
around the table.

Dr. Shapatna pushed her glasses up her nose with a long
finger. Chas hadn't seen glasses in years. Corrective eye
surgery was free for those in the HLDF - and mandatory
for those in the combat services - but a number of people
still shied away from it.

"So, Corporal Yuun. You were friends with Specialist
Ramirez?"

"I... yes. Yes, you could say that."

"Were you lovers?"

Chas blinked. That sort of relationship was common enough
in the defense forces, but she'd never... "No."

"I apologize if I sound like I'm prying. I just want to
understand your perspective."

"That's fine, Doctor Shapatna. I understand."

The coffee-skinned woman smiled. "I'm glad. And please,
call me Trisha."

"I'm Chastity. But everyone calls me Chas."

"Very well, Chas. Please, in as much detail as you
can, tell me about finding Linda Ramirez."

"Well, ah, we had secured the bridge. You've seen the
schematics?" Dr. Shapatna nodded. "We knew A squad had
been overrun. And there were all these Leech bodies
there... so we spread out to search for them. The
sergeant and the Specialist Trinh went back down the
main hall, and Corporal Thompson and I each checked
the side halls.

"The first few doors were empty, and then there was
a... a wiring closet. And then I checked the the
observatory, and there she was, with that... thing,
behind her." Chas licked her lips. "Uh, it was..."

"I know what it was doing. I'm the one who had to
remove over a hundred eggs from her. Did she say
anything to you?"

"Ah... say anything? Um, uh, she tried, but I
couldn't hear her through the helmet. They've
got a vacuum seal in them, you know." Dr. Shapatna
nodded. "Yes... yes, she was trying to say something.
But I just backed out of the room, and closed
the door, and radioed in."

Dr. Shapatna was looking at her with golden eyes,
and wasn't saying a word.

"So, uh, Sargeant Brubaker told me to watch the
door until some people from F squad arrived to
back us up, and I did, and then they went in and
pulled, uh, it off of her, and carried her away."

"And what happened to the egglayer?"

"Uh?" Chas blinked. "I don't know. I mean - I
didn't know then. It must have hidden somewhere."

"Because you ran into it later."

"Uh. Yes. I was on patrol, and I heard something
in that wiring closet. And I opened the closet,
and it was there."

"What happened then?"

"Uh, it tried to... to get me. But it couldn't get
in the suit, of course. And I called it in on the
comm, and they came and got it."

Dr. Shapatna held her with that golden gaze for
a long moment, then nodded. She gestured with her
head at a table farther down the room, and Chas'
eyes widened as she saw the brombone lying on
its back, its belly cut open.

"I've already dissected it," Dr. Shapatna said.
"Someone - possibly Specialist Ramirez - had
shot it, rupturing the egg case. But it was
otherwise intact. An interesting, and disturbing,
specimen."

"Disturbing?" Chas asked.

Dr. Shapatna looked at her again. "Yes. It has
human DNA. That thing was bred from human stock."

Chas looked at Brubaker, who looked back at her,
eyebrows raised.

"Jee-sus," he said.

Dr. Shapatna shrugged. "We know the Leeches are...
biologically omnivorous. Adapting human biology
to their needs was only a matter of time. But it's
still not a fortunate development."

"No," Chas agreed. "Not good at all."

----

There were a few more perfunctory questions, but
for all intents and purposes, the interview was over.

Dr. Shapatna wanted Chas to fill out some forms.
Todd saw no reason to stick around for that, and
headed back to quarters.

A few minutes later, Chas handed the datatablet
back to Dr. Shapatna, who took it with a nod. She
was already peering back into a microscope as
she put it on the table next to her.

On the way out, Chas' eye was caught by the
people in the cage. She looked over her shoulder
at Dr. Shapatna, but the doctor was busy with her
microscope. Anyway, there was no harm in looking.

Chas walked over to the cage. The people in it
didn't seem to notice her. They were staring at
the far wall, hands at their sides. The man
was in good shape, possibly some sort of soldier
or guard. There was an old scar on one shoulder.

His cock was semi-erect, thick and full but
dangling. Chas looked away from it.

One of the women was short, with bob-cut dark
hair. It was interesting to see her out of the
slime; Chas would never have recognized her by
just her breasts. She looked like she would have
been an interesting person to know, before...

Before.

The other woman was the tall blonde that Chas
remembered.

Her expression was as vacant as the rest of
them, powder blue eyes staring off into space.
She was quite tall, taller even than the man.
Her nipples were only a shade darker than the
pale flesh of her breasts.

Chas stepped up to the bars. There was something
between them - plastic. The Leeches weren't just
in a cage, they were in a cell.

The eyes of the tall blonde flicked over to
look at her. Locked onto her.

Chas took an involuntary half-step back, then
rocked forward again.

There was, suddenly, someone in there.

Slowly, the blonde cocked her head. Her lips
twitched.

Chas stared at her. She felt... kinship, almost.
If she'd been unlucky, this woman could have
been her.

The corners of the woman's mouth turned up
into a smile.

"Fascinating."

Chas jumped. Dr. Shapatna was standing just behind
her, staring at the blond woman.

"They haven't done a thing but stare since they
got here." The golden eyes turned to Chas. "What
is it about you that interests her?"

"I... I saw her before. I was the one who found
her in the ship."

"Oh? I hadn't been told that. I should have asked.
You think she recognizes you?"

"I... I think she does. When my squad was attacked,
I was assigned to watch," Chas waved her hand, "to
watch them, to make sure they didn't come at us
from behind. And while I was watching them, she,
she opened her eyes."

"So she does recognize you. Fascinating."

Chas smiled weakly. "It's kind of creepy, now
that I think about it."

"Yes, I can see where you might feel that way. But
they can't get out. Not them, and not the things
inside them."

"Inside them?"

"Oh yes. You recall the xenofauna in the ship? The
worms and slugs and whatnot?"

"Yes..."

"Well, all three of them are full of those things.
I've pulled out quite a few, but of course they
are quite fast at spawning, and if we feed these...
prisoners - and I use the word loosely - then we
also feed the parasites."

"They're growing in them?"

"Oh yes. In fact, rather like that egglayer back
there, these particular parasites seem to have
been specifically designed with mammals in general,
and humans in particular, in mind."

Chas turned away. "Oh my."

Dr. Shapatna put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm
sorry, Chastity. I forget that not everyone has the
luxury as being as... clinical as I do. Remember,
Chastity, you can't think of them as being human.
Not any more. They've been with the Leeches for
too long. Every fiber of their bodies has been
transformed, their minds most of all. They are just
Leech slave animals."

"I know that," Chas said quietly. She looked at
the beautiful blue eyes, still fixed on her.
"But it's still... it's tough. I mean, she looks
like a normal person."

"Yeah," the doctor said. "But that's the very
last thing she is."

------
END 'Induction'
Part One
------