The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

With the rest of the staff working over at the hospital to get the Taubett up and running, Cassie and Julie had the department to themselves. Eve spent most days working at her apartment, and only came into the uni for meetings.

Stefan began sending Julie data from the scanner in the USA by the end of that first week.

This seemed remarkably fast to Julie, but there were many problems with the initial data sets.

The first scans were only of small regions of the body. The Taubett could only image one section of the body at a time, and a full scan would have to be stitched together from many pieces. The stitching work had not yet been done.

There were also unresolved problems with imaging bone, because bone absorbs X-rays so strongly, so those first scans only showed fat, muscle, veins and connective tissue.

There were still a few dead sensor pixels, too, and these had yet to be processed out of the images.

Julie was immediately engrossed. Despite all of the problems, the quality of these initial scans was brilliant, with individual muscle fibres and capillaries visible in each slice.

She had been given three data sets to start with, of clean women, cured women, and infected women.

Under the Taubett, the infected women stood out a mile. Their muscles were infiltrated by the worm’s nerve fibres, which glowed in the 250keV radiation in fine, silvery threads. Before the Taubett came along, nobody had seen this before: neither transmission X-rays nor the TSA’s back-scatter machines had the resolution to show these fine details, and the TSA’s back-scatter X-rays could only image near the surface of the skin.

This was the reason that women passing through the scanners had to stand with legs akimbo; some of the radiation had to be directed directly upwards to detect worms reliably.

The cured women were not at all obvious in the scans. Julie could see some evidence of the channels where the worms’ fibres had been. However, after a worm was removed, Eve had told them that the fibres were absorbed by the body, not leaving much evidence behind.

Cassie and Julie spent hours looking at those first results.

Julie was thinking about how she might be able to emphasise the evidence of a previous worm infection.

Cassie was imagining what it might feel like to have all of those nerve fibres running through one’s body, subverting the nervous system, bending one’s will to an alien intelligence.

Rather nice, she thought.

Although Julie was excited to be getting good results so quickly, Cassie had been busy, too, and seemed to have about a dozen chat windows on her screen.

“So what are you doing, Cassie?” asked Julie.

“I thought you were supposed to be interviewing cancer patients?”

Cassie hesitated for a moment, then made a decision.

“Jules,” Cassie said, “Eve told me not to discuss my work with you.

“I don’t trust her. She seems to think that we might get into some kind of battle of egos if you found out I had some real work to do.

“I’m chatting to cured women in the FEMA camp in Nevada.

“I’m trying to develop a test to detect worm infection. Eve saw the results I was getting with that toxoplasmosis test, and wants me to do tests for cured and infected women, using a standardised personality test.

Cassie continued,

“I’m sorry, Julie, but, basically, Eve accused you of being an arrogant, frigid, bitch, and told me to keep my work away from you.”

Julie looked surprised.

The she looked hurt.

Then she cackled.

“Ha-ha. Well, no flies on Miss Eve. She got that part right, at least. I am an arrogant, frigid, bitch.

“But I also know all of Cassie Grayndler’s innermost secrets.

“I bet you’d like to join them, hey Cassie? Chat to them, real close, about what it was like to be possessed by worms? What it was like to have your mind controlled by aliens? What it was like to be forced to fuck other women all of the time?”

Cassie laughed, embarrassed, and demurred, not very convincingly.

Of course, Julie was right.

Julie looked on as Cassie chatted. She was a little disappointed. It was just normal stuff between strangers on the Internet, getting to know each other, talking about their school-work, their accommodation, their room-mates.

Cassie explained.

“I have to be careful when I talk. Everything that we say is monitored, probably by the NSA.”

After a while of watching them chat, Julie started to notice.

“That woman is so polite, Cassie. She’s absolutely charming. That’s just not normal!”

“That’s Eve’s kid sister, Lilli,” Cassie said. “Yeah, human kindness is real spooky, I know. But she’s a Yank, Julie. She’s nothing like you or me. And, also, I expect she knows what’s at stake here.

“She’s stuck in a poxy FEMA camp, and the NSA is spying on her and listening to everything she says. I have to be careful what I say, as I don’t know what they’ll be looking for. Those women have no way out.

“It sucks, Jules. I don’t know what we can do.

“Eve seems to think that if we can show that their brains are normal then they have a chance of getting released.”

Julie contemplated this for a little while, and came to the same conclusion as Cassie.

“If they pass the test, that’s no proof that their brains are normal.” Julie said.

“It only proves that they’re able to fake the test, or that the test isn’t testing the right things.

“If Eve really wants to get her kid sister out of Nevada, she won’t want you coming up with a test which shows that her brain has been altered by the worms. She’ll want a test that shows her to be totally normal. Even if you come up with a good test, Cassie, it could be that Eve’s just going to pass it on to her sister, or even on to all of the women.

“It would be pretty easy to cheat.

“I think you could build a bit of insurance into your test, Cassie.

“Let’s add a little watermark to your data. Before you give Eve your results, let’s just perturb all of the statistics for the answers, very slightly, with some random numbers. Those random numbers form a kind of watermark.

“If someone cheats by making up a set of answers using your measurements, they’ll pass your test, but we can still use a correlation test to detect the watermark. If you have a lot of questions, say, a hundred or so, you don’t need much of a watermark to see if they cheated. Using a correlation test to detect random numbers is amazingly sensitive.”

Cassie thought the idea sounded completely impractical.

Who would go to the trouble of making up a bunch of answers to match some complicated statistics, and then memorise a hundred answers before taking the test? Every person who wants to cheat would have to make up a new set of answers, too.

However, she admired Julie’s devious mind, and couldn’t resist putting something over Eve, however impractical.

“Sounds great, Cassie. I’ll add in the watermark. But you’ve got to write the cheat detector, and you can write the code for processing the test scores, too.”

Julie nodded, half-heartedly,

“Ok, Cassie, no worries,” but she was distracted by what was on her screen.

There was something in the Taubett scans that looked familiar to her.

She brought up the image of one of the phantoms, taken on the Taubett machine when it was next door.

This was the machine that was now at Lennox Hospital.

She compared it against one of the new images, supposedly from the new machine in the USA, and flipped between the images several times.

She had been right.

When she flipped, the dead pixels remained exactly the same.

These scans had both been taken on the same machine.

She brought Cassie over to show her the results.

“Cassie, there’s no way these images were taken in Baltimore.

“These scans were taken on the machine that used to be next door.

“I think we must have a whole lot of worm-infected women right here in Canberra.”

Julie spent the next few weeks fixing up her visualisation software to work with the Taubett scans, and had started working on the worm-trail detection.

Both Cassie and Julie had a meeting scheduled with Eve the next morning to give her a status report.

Julie was pleased with her work so far. The old worm-channels were very narrow, so finding evidence of a past worm infection was difficult, but her visualisations of infected women were looking very nice.

Cassie spent the time sending out standard personality tests to the two groups selected by Eve: one of cured women, and one of normal women selected as controls. The cured women were like troopers, answering every question, and never failing to send back a survey. The normal women were intransigent, and kept stuffing up the answers, and with each new survey, a few would always drop out altogether.

Cassie couldn’t decide if the cured women were unnaturally conscientious, or if they felt they owed their lives to Eve and her institution.

The test results were pretty clear.

The cured women were very different from normal women.

There was no way that these women could possibly pass for normal.

Eve’s not going to like this, Cassie thought to herself.

She put all of the survey results into a spreadsheet, and only added Julie’s watermark to the normal women’s results as a kind of afterthought.

The idea of cheating sounded a little ludicrous. There would be no way that anyone could learn how to answer the questions like a normal person, as they’d need to do a lot of calculations in their head, and would need to make up random numbers to get the statistics to come out correctly.

Humans are notoriously bad at such things.

Eve was already in her office, apparently working hard, when Cassie and Julie knocked on her office door at 8:30 the next morning.

“Good morning girls. Welcome to our first official project meeting.

“Are there any problems? How is everything going?”

“No problems, Eve. I’m enjoying the work, it’s proceeding well.” Julie said.

“Ditto,” said Cassie, “we’re actually starting to get some great results already.”

Cassie presented first, showing Eve all the results she’d gathered so far..

“As you can see,” said Cassie, “we can pick out the cured women very easily from the normal women. All of the cured women are nearly two standard deviations away from the norm, and I expect that with more sensitive analysis, the difference will become even more apparent.”

Cassie didn’t mention the watermark.

As Cassie had predicted, Eve didn’t like these results very much, and she sat, tight-lipped, throughout the entire presentation.

When Cassie had finished, Eve didn’t make any comments. She asked for a copy of the results, and asked Julie to commence her presentation.

Julie pulled out a folder, and laid out some printouts of images from her programs.

The silvery skeins of worm fibres were clearly visible in the muscle tissue.

“Eve, this Taubett data is of a very high quality, as you can see..”

Julie pointed out the trails, but this was unnecessary, as they were bright and clear, and Eve looked very, very pleased.

Julie finally asked what had been on her mind.

“Eve, how did you get this data? I know for a fact that these scans were done in Canberra. Australia’s quarantine regulations are supposed to keep the worms out. There aren’t supposed to be any infected women here, yet here’s a scan, showing clear evidence of a worm infection.

“Where are you keeping the infected women?”

For a good ten seconds, all Eve could do was stare at Julie.

She was livid.

She looked at both Julie and Cassie, in obvious disgust.

“Julie. Cassie. I don’t want to tell you this again.

“The Taubett machine has been working in Baltimore for a few days now. I have had your colleagues working very hard to process the data for these images, and their high quality is a testament to their programming skills.

“There are no worms in Australia.

“Australian Customs border controls are more than sufficient to keep them out.

“I never want to hear such unfounded allegations in this building again, or anywhere else.

“Julie, your results are absolutely brilliant. You are obviously an an asset to my team. You’re well on the way to showing the after-effects of a worm infection, I am sure.

“Cassie, I know you’d like to spend all day with Julie, and chatting with my sister.

“But you’ve completely ignored your NDA, and have deliberately disobeyed my instructions.

“You haven’t done a lick of work with our cancer patients. I suggest that you get yourself over to the hospital today to begin planning your other interviews.

“Julie, I suggest that you should get over there, too, as soon as possible. You should stay up to date with the progress that Stefan and his colleagues are making on the Taubett data.

“Good work, Julie. Please continue.

“And, Cassie, I know you have a lot of potential. Don’t squander it.”

“I’m a little busy today, so I’ll have to ask you to leave now.

They both scuttled out, feeling chastened.

A man in a suit was waiting outside Eve’s office.

He looked familiar.

He caught Julie’s eye, and reached for her hand.

“Julie Smith, Cassie Grayndler?”

Julie was still feeling cross with Eve.

She greeted him quite brusquely.

“Yes, nice to meet you. And who might you be?”

He didn’t seem offended.

“Oh, don’t worry about me, I’m not important. I’m just paying Eve Hunter a courtesy call.”

He shook hands with Cassie, too, and passed them both a card from his jacket pocket.

“I’ve taken a tour of the new hospital, and what Ms. Hunter and Dr Kelly have done for cancer treatment in this country is nothing short of astonishing.

“We all have high hopes for your work. Things are looking a bit dicey at the moment, so please give Eve your very best. The future of the new clinic needs to be sorted by the end of the year, and I’m sure you understand that there is a lot at stake.”

Eve was holding the door open for him.

He gave Cassie and Eve a mischievous wink, and a smile, which they could see, but Eve could not.

Such a simple gesture managed to convey so much.

I’d rather stay and chat, but I’d best go through. The High and Mighty Miss Eve Hunter doesn’t like to be kept waiting, does she? I think I’d better humour her.

He bid them farewell,

“I’m so glad to have met you both. Bon chance, Julie. Bon chance, Cassie,” and, without a trace of disrespect, greeted Eve with a smile.

“Good morning, Eve,”

Eve looked severely at Cassie and Julie as he walked into her office, and she closed the door.

Cassie read the card that had been passed to her.

They should have recognised him; he was John Landers, the Federal Minister for Health.

Cassie had only ever seen him on television. He was pushing fifty, but looked remarkably fit and healthy.

She also remembered his twin daughters, Sophie and Jessica, with some distaste, as they’d been horrible to her at uni.

But also, with sympathy. At their graduation, three years ago, they’d already been showing symptoms of early-onset Huntington’s.

Horrible disease.

They were probably dead by now.

Maybe that explained why he’d become Minister for Health; he must have spent a lot of time in hospitals.

Cassie still felt quite pissed off at Miss Eve as she rode towards the hospital, helmeted head down and strong legs pedalling fast.

She had been working hard, and was already getting some definite results. The results weren’t the ones that Eve wanted, and wouldn’t help the cause of the cured women at all, but that wasn’t Cassie’s fault. She wasn’t going to make up data for Eve’s benefit, and, in any case, that wouldn’t even work, as Cassie imagined that US government agencies were doing the same as Cassie.

These women were not normal, that was clear, but there were all sorts of problems with analysing the survey data. These women were Americans, from many different backgrounds, and, being stuck in musty trailers in Nevada, they were all eager for something to do which might help their circumstances.

It was no wonder they seemed odd.

Now she had to go and talk to cancer patients about their “feelings”. She had hoped that her “official” work would remain just as words on her paper job description, never to be examined or worried about ever again.

The cancer survey would not be hard work, as she had learned all kinds of interviewing techniques in her background reading for toxoplasmosis, and for her Ph.D.

However, it was going to be pretty boring.

Depressing, too, as she knew that the prognosis for these patients was very poor.

Some of the women she talked to at the hospital were likely to die before the year was out.

Julie had piked out, of course.

She didn’t like hospitals much.

Parking and locking her bike, Cassie unclipped her helmet and wandered into the new cancer ward.

She was a bit taken aback by the scanners. The hospital had been built with American money. Did all US hospitals have body-scanners now? Or was this a TSA scanner, set up to find something more interesting?

Eve had instructed her to talk to Doctor Kelly, and Cassie hoped she wouldn’t have to spend much time with any patients today.

The doctor greeted Cassie in a friendly way, and ushered her through the twisty little corridors of the building. They both took the lift up to Doctor Kelly’s office on the top floor, and Cassie was impressed by its size.

“I’ve been hoping that you would pay us a visit, Cassie. I know that cancer may not be your chief interest here, but I’m very enthusiastic about the new treatment. It has been having amazing effects on the patients.

“When you’ve settled in, I’d like to find out what your impressions are about the project, and you’re welcome to ask any questions.”

Cassie wondered about Eve Hunter.

Neither Cassie nor Julie had ever had a normal conversation with Eve. She was so overbearing, they had both been swept along by her energy, but Cassie didn’t know a thing about her.

And, Cassie was still angry with her. In their first meeting, Cassie had felt very close to Eve, and had felt seduced. In the second, Eve had turned upon her.

Cassie realised then that she was still very angry.

“Doctor Kelly, who is Eve Hunter? She’s doesn’t seem like an academic, but she has a very senior position here. What’s her role at Johns Hopkins?”

Doctor Kelly considered her reply carefully.

“Cassie, our Eve Hunter is a bit of a mystery woman.

“We had an outbreak of the worms in Baltimore, and were holding a few infected women in the hospital for tests. At that stage, we hadn’t been told anything about the worms, and we were having a hard time getting close to them without risking our nurses.

“I only became involved because we wanted to try radiotherapy to kill the worms in-situ. It was a stupid idea in retrospect, but it was a measure of how desperate we had become, and the US government was throwing money at worm researchers.

“Eve Hunter turned up on our doorstep unannounced, bearing a patent application and a vial of vaccine which she said was a cure for the infection.

“Normally we’d reject such lone inventors out of hand, but Eve Hunter was very special. Her knowledge of the worms was exceptional, her patent application was convincing, and, somehow, she had discovered that we were holding infected women.

“Injecting one of the infected women with an unknown vaccine was a huge risk, but even then we knew what the likely future was for these women. That is to say, no future at all.

“After we saw the results, we knew that Eve was sitting on a goldmine.

“Eve came out right at the start and agreed to split the profits fifty-fifty if we would promote her vaccine.

“Every country in the world has purchased supplies of the vaccine she developed. The patent has been worth tens of millions of dollars to Johns Hopkins, and, of course, to Eve Hunter.

“We have both benefited immeasurably from her discovery, but I still have no idea where she came from, or how she funded the development of the vaccine in the first place.

“I’ve always assumed that she comes from old money in Boston, but everything she does is directed at getting the cured women released, and on saving her sister.

“She’s using that money to promote her pet projects, which you and Julie know about of course.

“She has also been instrumental in getting Johns Hopkins to fund the cancer clinic here. I was very lucky to be chosen to direct it. The new treatment is actually extremely effective. You cannot imagine how gratifying it is to for an oncologist to be able to help all of her patients.”

Cassie hesitated, but then made a decision.

After Eve’s outburst, she wasn’t hopeful, but she was still angry enough to be direct with Doctor Kelly.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained ...

“Doctor Kelly, Julie and I have been looking at the Taubett data from Baltimore, the scans of infected women. But Julie says that the data must have come from the machine in this hospital, and we’ve seen images showing clear evidence of live worm infections.

“We believe that you must have infected women here. What are black thread-worms doing in Australia? I have to say, it sounds highly dangerous, and it’s probably a criminal offence, right? What’s going on here?”

Doctor Kelly beamed at Cassie, not a reaction she had expected.

“You and Julie are pretty special, did you know that? You are both very perceptive. Eve does choose her colleagues well.

“Yes, Cassie, we do have worms here, of course we do.

“They cure cancer, Cassie. The worms cure cancer.

“The worms are very effective in looking after their hosts, and are able to manipulate DNA to remove mutations and damage. They cure cancer, they kill bacterial infections, they fix congenital problems, they heal damage. Dozens of women are alive today who would otherwise be dead because of the worms, these women are healthier than they’ve ever been before. The worms are lifesavers, Cassie, and my job is to save lives. This is the most important advance in medicine since the introduction of antibiotics!”

Cassie was impressed, but she still felt a sense of disquiet. The idea was so crazy that she couldn’t resist being a little flippant.

“Doctor Kelly, the worms are an alien race that wants to enslave humanity. Don’t you think that your new treatment might not be a little risky?”

Doctor Kelly smiled, but humoured her.

“Yes, Cassie, of course. It’s true, the worms did come here in an attempt to invade and conquer our planet, and our species.

“You know, they came pretty close to achieving their goal.

“But we have analysed all of the risks, and have managed these risks, and they are negligible. We have impenetrable security at all entrances to the hospital, with every person entering and leaving the hospital being automatically examined by a backscatter X-ray machine.

“We’ve mastered the worms now.

“We’ve come to a kind of truce.

“Any intelligent being knows that it’s better to live in servitude than to die in a ditch. The worms accept their role as humanity’s helpers, and, if they behave, there will be many more clinics like this one, and a comfortable life for them. If they don’t behave, they know that they will not be allowed to survive.

“We have made an arrangement with the Australian government to run this one small clinic to cure inoperable cancer cases. Your security services have made arrangements to keep us all safe, and we are in complete agreement with their methods.”

Cassie thought that everything sounded somewhat dubious, but she nodded her head. After all, she didn’t have anything personal against the worms. Indeed, she couldn’t help reminding herself, she rather liked them and what they could do, but that was all in fantasy, right? She wouldn’t really want Earth taken over by an alien species, would she?

“I can see that Eve has got under your skin.” Doctor Kelly said. “She can be abrasive, but that’s because she is so single-minded. This clinic wouldn’t be here without her. Please, give her a chance.

“I know you’ve had a tough time dealing with the women in the FEMA camps. They’re not in the best of circumstances, and they’re desperately trying to appear normal, to get out of that place.

“Your work would be a lot easier if you could work face to face, with Australians, with people like the people you know. I can arrange interviews with women in the clinic so you can work on your methods.

“If you can find any trace of the worms left behind, Eve will want to know about it.

“Now, Cassie, so you know what you’re getting into, would you like to come in to the inner sanctum, to see the infected women? We could organise a regular time for you to interview any of the women here. We’ll introduce you to the hosts as well. I’m sure you will find the work here far more pleasurable than you expected.”

Cassie surprised herself by being ecstatic at this prospect. With the prospect of meeting the worms, her foul mood had lifted immediately. She had been given permission to meet representatives of an alien race, and the women who were held in thrall by them. She wanted to know how they felt about that, for sure, and what they were feeling.

“Of course, Doctor. I’ve done all the preparation I need. I’m ready to start work straight away.”

“That’s great. Now, Cassie, I must impress upon you the need for absolute secrecy. Nobody must talk about our worms outside this building. You cannot even talk to Julie about this, although you are welcome to bring her here to see for herself what we are doing.

“Have I made myself clear?”

Cassie nodded.

That part was going to be hard.

“I’ll just call Gabby to get you started on a tour.”

Doctor Kelly made a quick phone call.

Gabby.

Cassie wasn’t looking forward to seeing Gabby.

Cassie had always been quite open about her sexuality, and everyone at Uni knew about it. Likewise, Gabby had made no secret of how uncomfortable Cassie’s sexuality made her feel, and had told Cassie so, to her face.

But Gabby still kept making overtures of friendship to Julie, as if Cassie simply did not exist, and, all this time, Gabby had been firm friends with Joan Pellman.

Joan dealt in drugs, and was as much of a Lesbian as Cassie, more so if you were counting conquests. Joan had spent most of second year trying to get into Gabby’s pants, but Gabby simply had not noticed. Joan was friends with Cassie, too, and kept her supplied with dope, but Joan had somehow managed to keep her friendships with Gabby and Cassie completely separate.

Although Gabby was well on the path to becoming a brilliant scientist, Cassie thought her clueless and insensitive, even malicious.

Gabby soon appeared, and her signature woollen coat was nowhere to be seen.

She was looking very well. Extremely well, in fact. Her limp had disappeared, her skin had cleared up, and she was standing straighter than ever before.

The star piercing in her nose finally suited her.

Gabby no longer looked like a nerd wanting to look cool; in fact, she seemed extremely attractive.

“Hi, Cassie. Come with me, and I’ll load you up with everything you need, then I’ll show you around.”

Gabby took Cassie by the hand, and gave it a squeeze.

Cassie was surprised at this small show of affection, but smiled, and squeezed back.

Why was Gabby being so friendly? Actually, why was she being super-friendly?

“Cassie, you’re welcome to spend as much time as you like at the hospital.” Gabby said. “You can spend nights here while you’re doing interviews, if you like. There are spare beds in every ward here, the Hospital is not yet at full capacity.

“We’ve all been introduced to the infected women. I just need to help you make some preparations before your first visit. The infected women are lovely, of course, but you can’t go in there without protection.”

They had taken a lift to the first floor, where the administrative offices were, and walked to the end of a long corridor. Gabby opened the door, and motioned Cassie in.

“Pens, paper. You’ll need these too.”

Cassie now had a bag full of stationery, a desk on the first floor, and a computer. A laminated strip with her name on it had already been created to put on her desk. She had a view across the lake to the university, and there was a microwave link on the roof which connected her to the Uni network, so she’d be able to do her work here, just as if she were sitting at her desk at Uni.

The next stop on Cassie’s tour was Gabby’s lab, and Gabby led Cassie to it, still holding her by the hand.

It was brightly lit, and there were about ten meters of bench space, several sinks, glass-fronted cupboards full of brightly coloured chemicals, and two fume-hoods.

Two nurses were busy preparing something using some kind of mixing machine.

It was a very nice lab for one biologist, Cassie thought.

“Hey, Gabby, this is a beautiful lab. Do you have anyone else working with you, or is this all yours?”

Gabby looked pleased at Cassie’s compliment.

“Johns Hopkins is really throwing the money around. It’s a wonderful place to work. They keep me pretty busy around here.

“Doctor Kelly comes in to use the lab every now and again, but I think she just wants to chat.

“There’s also Anjolie Lalitha. She’s a doctor from India who’s been developing an antibody test for worm infections. She’s very pretty, Cassie, and I think she’s just your type, all bookish and serious, and she always dresses in suits.

“Too bad for you though. She’s got a husband back in India, so she’s taken.

“I’ll have to show you my results.”

“Sounds great!” Cassie replied, quite curious to see what Gabby had been doing, but doing her best to ignore Gabby’s unwelcome insinuations.

“I’d like to show Julie, too! Is she coming in?” Gabby asked.

Cassie shook her head.

“I don’t think Julie actually likes this kind of stuff, Gabby, it’s too messy. She doesn’t really want to get involved with people, or the worms, or cancer. Actually, I don’t think she wants to get involved with anything to do with the real world. I’m sure she prefers looking at the world through her computer screen.”

Gabby looked disappointed.

“That’s a shame. Still, first things first …”

Cassie grabbed a tiny glass jar from some kind of dispenser, which held a huge stack of them.

The jar was tiny, about as big as those single-serve jams you get in posh hotels.

Gabby was very proud of it, whatever it was.

She opened it to show to Julie.

It contained an inky grey paste.

“This is processed worm venom, Cassie. It acts as a worm repellent. If you rub it on your back, the worms simply leave you alone. We don’t really know how it works, but it’s something to do with the fact that a worm won’t attack an already-infected female.

“I’ve deactivated the venom part, but I’ve left the scent component behind, and added it to a sorbolene base.

“You could use it as skin cream if you wanted, Cassie, but I think your skin is already very beautiful. It’s cleared my spots right up. Doctor Kelly’s going to start selling it as a moisturiser, and we hope to begin production soon in India. I doubt we’ll need to advertise the stuff, it works so well that we’ll sell everything we can produce.

“I imagine that it will make a lot of money for the joint venture..”

Gabby faced Cassie, gave her a winning smile, and slowly trailed her fingertips up Cassie’s neck, to her chin, and then, softly, held Cassie’s cheek in her hand, stroking her face with her thumb.

For just a moment, she held Cassie’s eyes, and she looked hungry.

Cassie tried to ignore her, but Gabby’s hand did feel very nice.

Gabby was looking maddeningly attractive all of a sudden.

Cassie couldn’t understand how she had changed so much in only a few weeks.

But no.

Gabby was not the one she wanted.

Gabby let her hand down, slightly disappointed at Cassie’s lack of reaction.

“It’s a little bit poisonous, Cassie. Be sure to wash your hands after you use it.

“Here, let me put some on you, then we can go look at the main attraction.”

Cassie turned around, and lifted up her shirt to give Gabby access to her back.

Gabby rubbed her hands together to warm them up, pulled out a little ointment with her finger, and then applied it to Cassie’s back. There was a slight warming sensation as it was applied, like liniment, and it felt moist, and smooth. Gabby gave Cassie a bit of a rub, longer and harder than Cassie thought was necessary, and pushed her fingers down to the top of Cassie’s pants, just at the base of her spine, to rub it into the whole area.

When she was finished, she gave Cassie’s bum a little smack.

“All done now.”

Cassie was a little offended at Gabby’s presumption. When had she got so confident?

Gabby washed her hands and motioned Cassie out of the lab, leading her over to Gabby’s desk, which was in a corner. As with all the desks here, it had a bright, sunny, view over the lake.

She unlocked the drawer under her desk, revealing dozens more of the tiny little bottles.

She pulled two out, and then carefully re-locked the drawer.

The contents of these jars were black, not grey.

“Here’s something to try at home,” Gabby said, quietly, and handed them to Cassie, one for each hand.

“This one is for you, Cassie, and this one’s for Julie.”

“If you have ever wondered what it feels like to be stung by a worm, the answer is in that jar. That’s one hundred percent natural worm stinger. It’s just like the grey stuff, but I haven’t removed the venom.”

“It’s brilliant, Cassie. If you try that on Julie, she’ll thank you, she’ll love you forever. It’s good stuff. It’s strong, very strong, but harmless. The worms don’t want to risk hurting their hosts, so their venom is actually harmless to humans.

She also picked up a handful of latex gloves from a box on her desk.

“Stick these in your pocket, too, Cassie.”

She took hold of Cassie’s hand, and turned it over so the palm was up.

“You’ll want to be wearing gloves when you apply this ...

Gabby softly walked two fingers over Cassie’s hand, and Cassie felt goosebumps.

Gabby whispered then,

“ … otherwise your fingers will be paralysed. It still feels good, though ...”

Cassie was curious, and pocketed the two little jars.

Julie would be impressed!

“Now, Cassie, before we visit the hosts, I have to give you a bit of a reality check. We won’t need to talk about this again, but there is something that you must see.”

“We have to move into the secure area first.

“Every floor has a secure area, which is only accessible by a key-card, in which worms might be present. You must always ensure that you are wearing protection before entering, or you will risk infection.”

Gabby gave Cassie a key-card.

“This card you can keep. It provides access to all areas, at any time..

“There is another bank of lifts and stairs which only serve the secure area, and we will use these to do the next part of the tour.

Gabby let Cassie try her card to get through the security doors, and they both took the stairs up to the next floor, where there was a waiting area, a nurse’s station, and a few doors.

“This floor is almost empty, and there’s nobody here right now. The treatment is currently in progress, but this room will get busy in a few days, when the treatment cycle comes to an end.”

Opening one of the surgery doors, Cassie saw a bed, with some stirrups beside it on the floor.

“This is where we kill the worms, Cassie. After the end of treatment, we have to kill the worms to cure the infected women.”

Gabby opened another door leading out of the surgery leading to a room containing a toilet and a sink, which in turn opened into a bare room containing a few refrigerators.

Gabby opened one, and pulled out a bucket.

It was full of dead worms.

Gabby pulled on some more gloves, and pulled one out.

Cassie was surprised at the size of it. It did look a similar to a garden slug, with its black and grey stripes, but was much, much larger. Cassie thought about having one inside herself, and her heart raced, in terror, but also, arousal.

It was a magnificent specimen.

Gabby took out a beaker, used a clamp to hold on to the end of the worm, and, using her thumb and forefinger, squeezed the worm from its tail towards its mouth.

A stream of fine black threads oozed out, and one thicker one, and curled up in the beaker. The refrigerated mucus and threads looked viscous and lumpy.

It had a strong odour. It was musky, and strong.

It smelled like sex..

“These are the worm’s stingers, Cassie, and the communication tendril. This is what we process to make the ointment.”

Cassie’s knees went weak then, and she had to hold the bench to keep herself from falling. She felt a hot flush, and began to sweat, copiously, and began to feel nauseous. For a moment Cassie thought she was going to be sick.

Gabby smiled at her in understanding, and wrapped an arm around Cassie’s shoulders.

“That’s the ointment, Cassie. When it’s first applied, your body’s immune system reacts to the deactivated venom, and your sweat protects you from the worms. Johns Hopkins discovered the effect with women who were stung but never implanted.

“Don’t worry, it will pass quickly. It only happens the first time the ointment is applied.”

Gabby filled a beaker with water and passed it to Cassie.

“Drink this, it will make you feel better.”

“Thanks, Gabby,” Cassie said, smiling wanly.

She was still feeling nauseous, but the feeling was passing already.

Gabby left the beaker full of black tendrils on the bench, and threw the dead worm into a hatch in the wall, followed by her gloves. She had a sour expression on her face.

“Straight into the incinerator. A sad end for such a magnificent creature.

“The worms are intelligent, Cassie. Curing these women means killing a sentient creature.

“Sometimes I feel like a murderer. We all do. These worms are invaders, wanting to possess women’s bodies, wanting to possess men, wanting to colonise the world. But they are intelligent beings, with complex motivations and alien emotions.

“The worms accept death, Cassie. They have to. If they were more like humans, they would fight. But, for the worms, physical death is not the end of their consciousness.

“They are a hive-mind, Cassie, and the death of one individual is not a tragedy to them.

“We let them communicate with each other, before we remove them, so that they are able to learn from their hosts, and pass memories and ideas amongst each other.

“Before we cure a woman, Cassie, we let her spend a night with the hosts. Her worm is able to say goodbye to its fellows, and to the hosts, and to the patients.

“Despite the fact that their end is certain, the worms have adapted well to life in the clinic. We no longer feel like enemies, Cassie, although we never drop our guard, either.

“Many of the women begin to cry after their worm is removed, but we never have to use the stirrups any more. The worms accept it. They know what is ahead of them, but they are not bitter. They’re even friendly to the nurses, even though they know that these nurses will have to kill them one day.

“Frankly, Cassie, it’s too sad to contemplate for long.

“Now, come along to meet the patients.”

Cassie and Gabby took the lift up to the fifth floor.

The ward here was full, and Gabby said that it contained twenty-four women, half-way through their two-week course of treatment.

It was a beautiful room, open-plan, with brand-new furnishings, colourful art on the walls, and those huge picture windows showing a grand view of the lake.

Cassie could see her own apartment across the water, the black windows glinting in the sunlight.

The women were mostly out of bed, and were chatting, or watching television, or talking on their phones, probably to their families. The families were not allowed in here, of course, because of the “radiation”.

The few that remained in bed were missing much of their hair, and looked skinny, but had colour in their cheeks, and smiled at Gabby.

One of them, a tall brunette with dark eyes and olive skin, sat up in bed, caught Cassie’s eye and motioned her over. She was about Cassie’s age.

She was also stunningly beautiful.

Smiling at Cassie, she patted the bed beside her.

Cassie moved towards her bed.

“My name is Sheyda,” she said, shifting across and turning down her sheet, leaving room for Cassie to get into the bed with her. Cassie caught a view of her legs, skinny and wasted, but the skin was in good condition and a healthy colour.

“Do not be embarrassed. We are all host-form here. What I say to you, we all say to you.”

The activity of the other women paused, and they all turned towards Cassie. They all smiled at her, then went back to what they had been doing.

Gabby smiled at them both.

“I think you’re well on the way to making a new friend, Cassie,” Gabby said, quietly.

“I know you need to spend some time getting to know the infected women, so I’ll leave you here for a while. We wouldn’t normally do this with a first meeting, but Doctor Kelly has requested that you be given full access, and suggests that you should spend as much time here as you like.

“If you want to stay for dinner at the hospital, I’’ll take you up to see the hosts afterwards. You’re quite safe here, but just give someone a call if you run into difficulties. We all carry quick pagers just in case there’s a problem, but I don’t expect you will have any.”

Gabby passed Cassie a black plastic tube with a button in the end of it, and went back to the lift.

It fitted nicely in Cassie’s palm, and she put it in her pocket.

Cassie suddenly felt very alone. She was the only free woman in a room full of women controlled by aliens.

But it was hot.

It was her sick, twisted fantasy, made flesh.

Sheyda turned to speak to her again.

“You are not like our other visitors, Cassie. You like us, Cassie.. You do not hate us. You like us just as we are, I can see that.

“You are afraid, but also curious. Come on, Cassie. Lie in bed with me. Hold me.

Cassie hesitated, as if at the edge of a precipice.

“Gabby comes to visit us. She lets me hold her.”

Cassie’s panties were getting soaked.

She jumped.

She pulled herself up onto the bed, and lay beside Sheyda.

This was her darkest, most pleasurable, deepest sexual fantasy, made real..

Why am I feeling awkward?

Sheyda pulled the blanket and sheet over them both, and snuggled close to Cassie.

“Cassie. Cassandra. That’s a nice name. Knowing the truth, but never to be believed. Where are you from, Cassie?”

“Sydney,” Cassie replied.

She felt the need to pour herself out to Sheyda.

Cassie really liked Sheyda.

“I lived in Sydney, but I hated it. My family are Exclusive Brethren.

“Fundamentalist Christians.

“Hateful people.

“When I came out, when I told them that I loved women, they wanted to lock me up. They wanted to ‘cure’ me.

“I got out of there as soon as I could.

“When I ran away, they disowned me.

“I haven’t spoke to them since.”

“I understand, Cassie,” said Sheyda, “I understand.”

Cassie had felt a common bond with Sheyda when they had first seen each other.

“Sheyda, that’s a nice name. Are you from Iran?”

“I am host-form, Cassie. I am from Iran. I am Australian. I am from the stars. We like you, Cassie.”

Sheyda wrapped her arms around Cassie, and moved her lips close to Cassie’s ear. She tugged Cassie’s earlobe with her teeth, and whispered to her..

“I am as you. My family was as yours. They were Muslims, very strict. I love women, I have always loved women, but to be myself would be the death of me. I could not live that way, with the lies, with the hatred, with the rules. I thought I had to give away everything I knew to leave them and come to Australia.

Cassie realised that they were both more similar than she had realised.

“In truth, I had nothing of value to lose, and coming to Australia was like being reborn. Australia is a paradise, Cassie, it is a kind country. I thought my life was perfect.

“Until I got cancer.

“But that is past now, my mistress has cured me.

“You will enjoy being host-form, Cassie. I am pleasured by my mistress, all day, and all night, and I can feel the pleasure of my sisters, too.

“We like to give pleasure to those who we prepare to become host-form. You are special, Cassie. You do not need to be prepared, you are ready.

Sheyda kissed Cassie then, and whispered, “Be still, Cassie. Hold me tight.”

Cassie held Sheyda then, and Sheyda pulled up Cassie’s shirt, and wrapped her arms close to Cassie’s skin.

She rolled to face Cassie, and Sheyda held still for a time. Cassie soon felt the tendrils. There were many of them, and they were light, fluttering things as they moved across her pants.

She only properly felt them as they reached her bare skin.

Although alien in origin, they felt like a lover’s caress.

She felt doubly held, firstly by Sheyda’s arms, and also by the tentacles, which now encircled her waist.

Sheyda smiled at Cassie, but then looked a little disappointed.

“So it is not yet, Cassie. You are marked. You are not to be host-form just yet. But soon, we must join as lovers and share with each other.

“I love you already, Cassie Grayndler.

“Please, let me pleasure you. When I have pleasured you, we can talk some more.”

The tentacles withdrew, and Sheyda’s fingers undid Cassie’s pants.

Cassie helped Sheyda push them down, and they were soon thrown out of the bed, with her panties following.

Sheyda was only in a hospital gown, which she shucked over her head.

Her breasts were beautiful. They stood up proud, and the nipples were red, and swollen.

Sheyda nodded her head at Cassie, in invitation.

Cassie leaned down and took a nipple in her lips, and was rewarded by a flow of warm milk.

Sheyda gazed down at Cassie, beaming, and stroking her long hair.

“Good girl, Cassie. You will be a good friend to us.”

When the breast was drained, Sheyda swung Cassie around, and was soon on top of her.

“My mistress wants to feel you.”

Sheyda positioned herself above Cassie, and Cassie felt the wriggling worm, questing for her pussy. It was all of her fantasies, made flesh. She would come soon, when she was penetrated, she would come, she would come immediately.

But, she realised, it was not what she wanted.

She was ashamed.

She wanted Julie.

Cassie knew then that love was more important to her than physical pleasure.

Loving Julie had given her as much fulfilment as the worms ever could. Maybe not physical pleasure, but she wasn’t ready to trade one love for another quite yet.

Sheyda was not Julie.

Giving herself up to Sheyda would mean betraying the woman she loved.

Julie might not realise it, but Cassie had not had another lover since they had moved in together.

Their relationship was flawed, or, more accurately, completely dysfunctional, but her love for Julie was the most important thing in Cassie’s life..

Cassie knew that her love was held together by denial and sacrifice.

Admitting this to herself, and taking another as a lover, would mean giving up on Julie.

Cassie gently pushed Sheyda away, retrieved her pants, pulled them back on, and slid out of bed, feeling disloyal.

All of the heads turned towards Cassie.

Two dozen women looked at her, disappointed, and sighed.

Cassie smiled inside.

Her love for Julie had always coexisted with her dark fetish for parasites. When unearthly temptation came along, Cassie found within herself that, after all, her love was more important to her than the prospect of dark pleasures.

She had seen enough of the infected women for now.

She should be spending her time on the fourth floor, interviewing the cured woman, worm-free, nd safe, ready to head home to their families.

Cassie leaned in towards Sheyda, and whispered in her ear,

“Goodbye, Sheyda. I have work to do know. I’ll come visit you, though, don’t go away.”

There would be plenty of time to visit Sheyda on her breaks.

Julie missed Cassie that afternoon. They’d been together, night and day, since they’d moved into their new apartment, coming to grips with their new work, and the worms.

Cassie had seemed pretty pissed off with Eve, and Julie really didn’t know what Cassie was supposed to be doing now. Was she doing a test to detect cured women, or was she helping cancer patients? The two tasks didn’t really seem related in any way.

Still, when Cassie had rung her from the hospital, she had sounded happy with her lot, and had told her not to expect her at home in the evening.

Eve had said that Cassie might want to stay over at the hospital, but Julie couldn’t imagine any reason for her to want to do so. The whole idea of interviewing cancer patients had seemed terminally dreary to Cassie, and Julie had to agree with her.

Anyway, with Cassie gone, Julie was making good progress on the data sets..

The views of the normal and the infected women were looking very good now, and Julie had made real progress with the cured women. She had finally produced a view of the trails left in their flesh, and had managed to render them to look very similar to the silvery structures so visible in the infected women. She thought they looked very convincing.

Julie kept tweaking and improving over the next couple of days, and was soon feeling the limitations of the small data sets. She had finished as much coding now as she was able, but wasn’t sure how her programs would cope with full body scans with bone structures.

She hoped new data would be coming any day now.

She also found time to play with Cassie’s survey data, and set up a scheme whereby she could detect cheating with only a few hundred multiple-choice questions, while also timing the answers.

Julie felt confident that if the worms still exerted any influence on the cured women, then they could be detected. If they were truthful, or if they were cheating, they would be detected, either way.

Cassie was enjoying her work at the hospital.

The cured women were delightful, and Cassie spent a while getting to know them. Cassie didn’t want to administer the tests herself, so Eve had given her some budget to employ some undergraduates to do the actual testing.. Cassie knew a double-blind trial would be more convincing, anyway. This left her a lot of time to roam around the hospital.

She was eating her lunch by herself at the hospital’s cafeteria when she saw them walk in.

She turned away, hoping she hadn’t been spotted.

It was Sophie and Jessica Landers.

“Cassie!” two voices shouted in unison.

They sat themselves down on either side of Cassie, and tried to give her a hug in greeting. Cassie wasn’t at all pleased to see them, so it was a bit awkward.

They were fraternal twins, and very striking. They were very similar in their facial features, which were long, and angular, but Sophie was a red-head, and Jessica a blonde. They were tall, and looked very fit, and when they’d been on campus, they were always wearing shorts and sports jerseys.

If Cassie had liked butch, she might have found them quite attractive.

But she didn’t.

They drank, and played hockey, and chased boys.

They had been a thorn in her side her whole time at Uni.

If the twins had been stupid, Cassie might have been able to tolerate them better, but they weren’t dumb jocks.

They were smart jocks, and really knew how to hurt people, and had managed to really get under Cassie’s skin.

They had made it quite clear to Cassie that they didn’t like Lesbians, and had made it quite clear to everyone else they knew that they didn’t like Cassie in particular.

Cassie had learned to avoid them, but she’d had a tough time avoiding the vile stories they spread about her. The fact that some of the stories were true was especially galling.

Their father was John Landers, the Federal Minister for Health.

Cassie had only met him the once, outside Eve’s office, but Julie knew of his work, and said that he was a good man. Julie and Cassie had never been able to work out for sure why the twins had turned out to be such poison, but they had gone to CCEGGERS, a posh private school in the old part of Canberra. Knowing some of the girls that came out of that place, it seemed to be another case of nominative determinism, as they drank hard, and partied hard.

She had some sympathy for the twins, however.

Their mother had died young, and they had completely missed out on inheriting any feminine graces.

After graduating, they had both been hit hard by early-onset Huntington’s..

That’s what had killed their mum, and, at the time, they weren’t expected to live more than a few years.

Cassie had even felt a little sorry for them at the time.

But here they were, looking in robust health. They were both wearing nice Italian shoes, skinny jeans, and they’d grown their hair long.

They looked quite feminine for once.

Actually, they were both looking really nice.

Sophie, the red-head, spoke first.

“Hi, Cassie, how are you doing? Are you still hanging out with Julie?”

Cassie decided to be non-committal.

“Hi, girls. I’m well, really well. Julie and I are doing great.”

“We haven’t seen you for a while. I guess we lost touch after uni.” Jessica said.

There was a moments silence, and she continued.

“Sorry about all of that. I guess we weren’t very nice to you back then.”

Sophie changed the subject.

“Did you know we’ve both been sick?”

“Yes, I heard,” Cassie said, “It sounded really bad.”

“Yes, it was really bad.” Sophie said, “I think we both seriously thought that we were going to die.

“That’s while we were conscious, anyway.

“We’ve been patients at the clinic here. We’re cured now.”

Both of them turned around, and lifted up their hair.

Right at the base of their skulls, just on their hair-line, Cassie saw their tattoos.

A black snake twirled around a red staff.

How appropriate, Cassie thought, a snake. But isn’t Huntington’s a genetic disease? And doesn’t it destroy your brain? I thought that nerve tissue never regenerates?

“So how did radiotherapy cure that?” Cassie asked.

“You and Julie are working for Eve Hunter now, aren’t you?” Jessica said, seemingly ignoring the question.

“Dad met her three years ago at some medical conference in New York.” Jessica continued, “We’d only just been diagnosed, and I think he was kind of desperate for help. He helped Eve and Lucille get everything set up in Canberra, and Eve got us a place in the clinic as soon as it opened. It was only just in time for us, I can tell you! We were bed-ridden, Cassie, all drooling and slobbering, with tubes coming out of our faces.”

“Disgusting. It was truly disgusting,” said Sophie.

“It was the same way Mum went,” said Jessica, more quietly, “she was only twenty four.”

They both shuddered, and shook their heads.

“Hey, Cassie, enough about us,” Jessica said. “What’s Eve got you working on here? And what’s Julie doing now? Are you guys married yet?”

Cassie didn’t think that Jessica was being deliberately rude, as gays and Lesbians had been getting married in the ACT for a few years now.

“Ummmm … no, Jessie. But we’re still living together. In the new apartments on Parke’s way.”

Perhaps Jessica did not know that that Cassie and Julie had never, in fact, been together at all in any real sense.

Cassie was surprised to find herself beginning to warm to the pair. Maybe she just had a thing for women who had spent time being under the control of alien intelligences.

But that wasn’t fair. The twins were being really nice now.

“Oh, I’ve been doing some surveys with the women, seeing how much pain the treatment is causing them. As you guys would know, I don’t think there are any problems on that score. By all accounts the treatment is not hard to bear at all.”

“You got that right,” said Sophie, and they laughed.

“Julie’s working with the Taubett machine. She’s helping them get it integrated with the gamma source, so they can target the radiation better.”

“Uh-huh. That sounds great, Cassie.” said Jessica, doubtfully.

Although they knew that it was a snow job, Cassie reckoned that they could probably join some of the dots.

“Hey, Cassie,” Sophie said, “we’ve started up a social club for the cured women.

“We’re having a get-together at the new Uni bar in November. It’s the six-month anniversary of the clinic opening. The weather should be starting to get really nice by then.

“It’s mostly for cured women, but as you’re helping out with the hospital, would you guys like to come? Tickets are fifty bucks each, but there’s an open bar, we’re getting a few bands, and Tezuka Wasaba is doing the finger food.”

Cassie was really warming to the twins now.

She really did want to to come, and was interested in meeting more of the cured women, especially those from the early days of the clinic.

“Sure, Sophie. That sounds great. We’ll come.”

Cassie pulled out two fifty-dollar bills from her purse, and handed them over. Jessica wrote out two tickets, tore them out, and handed them to Cassie.

“Hey, Cassie, sorry again about first year.” said Jessica.. “You can’t believe how sorry we are about that.”

She handed one of the fifties back, and tore out four more tickets, and handed these to Cassie as well.

“If there’s anyone else working for Eve who wants to come on the night, we’ll let them in, no worries.” said Sophie, and continued..

“We’re working at the new Uni bar now. We’re being employed as caretakers, there’s a flat right at the top of the building, it’s really nice. There’s a sort-of private club at the top for regulars. We’re doing door there most Saturday nights, and we’re always easy to find.

“Come visit us, don’t be a stranger.”

“Thanks, Jessica, thanks, Sophie.” said Cassie. “I’d like to do that. I’ll try to bring Julie this Saturday night. We’re due for a big night out.”

“I hope you’ll do Eve proud, Cassie.” said Jessica “She saved our lives, you know, and we still owe her.”

The twins bade Cassie farewell, and both gave Cassie a kiss on the cheek, one on each side.

Although they were still tall, and strong, and a bit overbearing, Cassie thought that they seemed kind of cute now.

Cassie cleared off her table, oddly uplifted, and went back upstairs to learn more about the cured women.