The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Meghost had never been into girls before. But now that she was Host, her Master decided what she should desire. She loved the feeling of her throat stretching as she implanted her Masters’ eggs into Alicehost. Her eyes darted up to the new Host’s face as she continued sucking on the smooth, beautiful pussy in front of her. Driving her ovipositor even deeper into the pretty young woman.

Ten minutes ago, Meghost and Davidhost had made their way to the main life support servicing room. They were surprised to find that Ensign Parker was there. Alice was a maintenance technician and usually she was working at calibrating the sensor systems to keep them working at full functionality. She had complained that the door and computer systems weren’t responding and she had gotten locked in when the alarm sounded. Alice had been really glad to see them, but that had only lasted for a minute. The two new arrivals glanced at each other before they dropped the bags they were carrying and Meg shut the door again. David then lunged at Alice and pinned her to the floor before she even had a chance to make a sound. Luckily, he had brought along another Master and very soon it had squirmed its way into Alice.

Now, Meghost was making Alicehost ready to spread the Hive. Davidhost was kneeling next to them as his Master joined with Alicehost’s. He was gaining all the information he needed from her whilst implanting the Masters’ plan into the new Host’s mind. Meghost loved watching the Masters join. The sight of the small, almost flesh-colored tentacles twitching and undulating together was so beautiful. Just less than an hour ago it would have terrified her, but now she knew what it meant.

This wonderful act in front of her meant that she and Davidhost had a new Hivesister. Her eyes rolled back and she moaned as another egg moved up her throat. Her pussy twitched as Master rewarded her for her obedience. It was all so amazing!

With a loud squishing sound above her, the two Masters untwined. Davidhost immediately stood up and got right to work on the computer console behind him. A little slime dripped onto the keyboard as the tentacles finished withdrawing into him. He had a very important task to accomplish for the Masters.

It had been a rough ten minutes. Chloe had finally managed to separate Lucy and Elizabeth to different beds. And she had fully bandaged Evie up. Now they were all comfortably resting. Unfortunately, there hadn’t been any time to get Lucy and Elizabeth into new clothes, so both of them were still naked.

About a minute after Wash came all over the floor, he had started to come back to his senses. He had sheepishly helped Chloe clean sickbay a little so anyone who came in did not immediately start humping the first thing in sight.

Now it would take about three minutes before that happened. Chloe rolled her eyes and sighed at the thought.

Wash had warned Chloe that they should keep a close eye on their new guest. He told her how Elizabeth was suspected in the sabotage of the shuttle bay. So, they had decided to leave her strapped down. Wash was more convinced than ever that she was behind it, especially after the way she was able to get the lab door open when everything he had thrown at it failed. Nevertheless, until they could get some answers out of her, Chloe had to start testing her theories.

“Okay Wash, now if I’m right I can use this UV light to prove May has one of those creatures in her.”

“Well, we know she does.” Chloe frowned at him. “I know what you mean.” The light chuckle and soft smile faded from his face replaced with a look of worry that mirrored Chloe’s.

“That’s theory #1. Theory two is that exposure to the slime makes you immune to its effects in the future.” Chloe looked at the lab door. “Ready to test both?”

Wash looked over at her. Neither of them were wearing suits other than the boots to protect them from the lab floor that was still sticky with slime. “If you say so. But don’t blame me if we end up…” Another glare shut him up, but reminded Chloe of a possibility she’d rather not think of right now. Or maybe she should? Her and Wash together. Forever. No, now wasn’t the time to think about that again. She had to focus.

“Okay. Here goes nothing.” Chloe opened the door.

They headed in and closed the door to prevent the scent from getting out. Avoiding stepping in as much slime as they could, they made their way to May’s side. The slow rise and fall of her chest was accentuated by the tentacle that was still draped across her.

“Are you smelling anything or feeling any different?” Chloe asked.

Wash sniffed loudly. “Not really anything other than the usual lab smells. Maybe just a little sweet smell, but nothing like before.”

“That’s what I smell too.”

He paused for a second, considering. “And I don’t feel like masturbating.”

Chloe sighed, shook her head and pulled out her light. “Let’s see if this works.” She switched it on and pointed it at the tentacle on May’s chest. Immediately it lit up bright blue. “It does!”

“That’s great Chloe!”

“Thanks!” Chloe looked back at him. “Now we just need to get this info to the Captain and Carmen and we can check…”

“Uh, Chloe what’s that?” Wash pointed.

Chloe had left the light pointed at May and now something under her shirt was glowing blue as well. “Hold this.” She handed the light to Wash and, untucking May’s shirt, pulled it up slightly. Chloe gasped.

Starting at May’s bellybutton a wide blue line extended under her skin all the way up her body to the edge of the light, getting thicker as it did. “That must be where the creature goes to.” She wanted to check a little farther, but she was surprised by the fact that May wasn’t wearing anything under her top.

“Where else is it?” Wash asked slowly. They both looked at May’s face.

Chloe made sure that May’s eyes were closed and pointed the light at her face. They both gasped as blue lines started showing up all over her face. Especially around her ears and her neck. In fact, her neck was entirely blue. Chloe stepped back from her friend a little and turned away. “That thing is everywhere in her!” She felt like a knife went through her heart at the thought of losing another friend today.

Wash turned her around to face him. “We can get this thing out of her.”

“How?” Chloe was fighting back tears.

“I’ve seen you and Evie work miracles. I’ve got faith you guys can do this.” He paused and held her close. “I know you can save her.”

“Thanks.” Chloe said softly, enjoying the feel of the strong arms around her.

“Good. Now, where do we start?” Chloe was silent for a moment while Wash was looking down at May. “Maybe by stopping that.” He pointed the slowly moving tentacle on May’s chest.

“That’s not possible. I gave her enough to knock her out for a couple of hours!” Chloe fumbled with the sedatives on the table behind her.

“Not possible. We’re dealing with something that takes people over and turns them into tentacle monsters!” Wash said, exasperated.

“Not the time Wash!”

“Chloe, hurry up!” As he watched, the tentacle started moving around quite a bit as if feeling the environment. He gasped as a sharp needle came out of the end of the tentacle. “Chloe, I, I, I thought you said you cut the stinger off.” He stuttered.

“I did.”

“Well, it’s back.” He held the twitching tentacle as best as he could so it didn’t sting either of them. Wash’s grip kept slipping. The tentacle was still slimy despite being exposed to the air for well over ten minutes.

Chloe quickly turned around and administered another dose of sedative to May. “There.” After a few seconds the tentacle lay still again. She looked over at Wash. “We’ll have to work fast.” He nodded quickly.

A minute later, they were back in sick bay after cutting off the new stinger. Wash was pacing back and forth in the small room, while Chloe was staring into the lab. They had tried contacting the bridge again to no avail. Everything was still locked down.

They tested each other with the UV light as well as Lucy, Evie, and Elizabeth and it looked like none of them had a creature in them. That was a relief, Chloe thought. But they still had no way to get this test out to the rest of the crew.

“So how do we kill this thing and get it out of May?” Wash asked finally.

“I don’t know.” She turned around to look at Wash. “Evie and I never got that far. I’m sure that she’d know what to do.” She said looking over at her still unconscious friend.

“Until that poison or whatever wears off it’s just you and me. I want to know how to kill these things before we go out there and face down however many got into the crew.” He said, nodding towards the door. “So, what do we know hurts these things?”

Chloe thought for a second before she spoke. “They’re hurt by electricity, but not very much. It just kind of slow them down. And it looks like they’re able to process drugs out of the people’s bodies really fast from the way the sedatives are wearing off so quickly. I think that means most drugs are out. And it looks like they heal really fast, so I don’t know about cutting them up.” She paused for a second. “Um, Evie and I think that certain radioactive compounds might kill the creatures.”

“That’s good.”

“They’re poisons and not good for us either.”

“That’s not so good.” Wash scratched his head. “Anything else? What killed the creature in Frank?”

“Well, Evie and I think that maybe the creature died because it was ingesting something harmful in Frank’s blood and that stopped its ability to make the slime.” She motioned him over to the window. “You know how the tentacle coming out of May is still slimy? We think that maybe the creatures need it to survive.”

“So we need to dry them out like a fish?”

“Yes. More like a squid, but yes. The only problem is the slime doesn’t seem to evaporate under normal circumstances and certain types of radiation are the only things that break it down. And until we know better, it looks like that way also kills the person too.” Chloe’s face was downcast.

“It’s too bad we can’t just suck the slime out of the creature with a sponge.” Wash joked a little trying to brighten her spirits.

“There’s not nearly a sponge large enough.” Chloe said, dismissively.

“I know. I was just...”

“But.” Chloe’s face suddenly lit up. “What if it wasn’t a sponge?” She hurried over to the computer and started digging through what records she could access.

“Chloe, I was joking.” Wash walked over to her. “What are you looking at?”

“Superabsorbers.” She said, quickly.

“You want to kill these things with sponges?” Wash asked, incredulously.

“Not sponges. Aerogel.” She showed him the screen.

“What?”

“Aerogel. The ship uses it for its great insulating properties, but it’s also a superabsorber.” She was getting excited. “It can absorb almost 1,000 times its own weight. Just a little block of it can hold two kilograms of water. If we could get some of the panels out of the wall we could use them to quickly dry out the creature.”

“Wouldn’t it suck all the water out of the air first?”

“No, the panels have a coating that keeps them from doing that. But if we worked fast and cut them to make a sharp point, we could put it into the creature…”

“And dry it from the inside out.” Wash finished. “Chloe, that’s great!”

“We’d have to work pretty fast once we broke into one of those panels. Once the creature was dead Evie might be able to cut it out of her.” Chloe slowed down and her voice lost some of the enthusiasm it had. “But I don’t know how that might affect May. It could kill her anyways.”

“Well, it’s worth a try. Anything’s got to be better than being controlled by one of those things.” Wash shuddered a little.

“I guess…” Chloe said softly. She couldn’t bear the thought of losing one of her closest friends.

“So how do we get started?”

“The outside walls of the ship are lined with the Aerogel to keep the heat from escaping. The far wall of the lab will have some inside of it. Take as many of the wall panels off as you can and it should be there behind the wiring and piping. When we’re ready, we’ll cut a bit off and try it on the creature.” Chloe explained.

“Okay.” Wash turned to go just as Elizabeth moaned a little on her bed. “It looks like our visitor’s finally waking up. Why don’t you find out why she was here and I’ll take care of the Aero… Stuff.”

“Oh, Wash. Here.” Chloe stopped him and handed him a pair of the environmental suit gloves. “Don’t touch the stuff barehanded. If you do your hand will start drying out pretty fast.”

“Thanks.” He smiled a little and took off for the lab. “Just remember: be careful around her.”

“Okay.” Below her, Elizabeth was trying to sit up. Her eyes opened as she began to understand that she couldn’t.

Elizabeth moaned again then looked up at Chloe. “What’re you…” A sudden look of realization crossed her face as she started to remember all that she had done. She bit lip a little and her face turned a little redder as her nakedness hit home. She slowly turned her head away from Chloe only to see Lucy lying on the bed next to her. She very quickly looked the other way. “Why do you have me tied down?” She said finally, not looking at Chloe. “I saved you.”

“We kept you like that because Wash told me what you did.” Chloe said firmly.

“I didn’t do that. I was framed.” She said, between gritted teeth. “Somebody used my code to make it look like it was me.”

“We don’t know that. Now, why did you show up here? Wash said that the security team was going to hold you.” Chloe tried her best to be a good interrogator. However, her small frame made it really hard to be intimidating.

“I was attacked by one of those things. It was inside Dr. Floyd.” She turned to look Chloe dead in the eyes. “I came here looking for help.”

“What?! Dr. Floyd too?” Evie had been right, there were more of these things on board. If both Frank and Dr. Floyd had one in them, then maybe… No. Marybeth wouldn’t let that happen to herself. She was stronger than those creatures. Chloe knew that she had to stop these things before they got to more of her friends. “So how did you fight him off and get away?”

“Please, I want some clothes.” Elizabeth said, sternly.

Seizing her upper hand, Chloe responded, “If you answer my questions.”

“Fine.” Elizabeth paused for a second. “I was surprised when he came in rather than one of the guards, but when he started choking I knew something was up. I managed to just barely get out of the way in time when that tentacle thing came out of his mouth, but that slime got everywhere on me anyways. He came at me while he was pulling that tentacle back into him, but I had time to get out the small stun baton that I had in my shoe. I was really glad the security team didn’t do a full search of me. I managed to throw him against one of the cargo containers before I shocked him and started choking him from behind with the baton. That’s when more of that stupid slime got on me.”

“How come he didn’t try to sting you again?” Chloe asked, surprised that Elizabeth was so forthcoming with her story.

“He did. I could feel the tentacle trying to come up his throat again, but I was holding him tight enough that it couldn’t come out. Once he stopped moving I made sure I killed the thing.” She said, coldly.

“How?”

“I broke his neck.” She said matter-of-factly.

“You just killed him? We could have tried to help him!”

“It was him or me. Then I came up here hoping that somebody could help when I started feeling woozy from the slime.” Elizabeth paused. “Now, Ensign Matthews. My clothes. I’ve answered your questions.”

“They’re a little slimy at the moment.” Chloe tried to recover. “Now, how does a diplomat get that kind of training.”

“We don’t have time for this!” Elizabeth was furious. “There are most likely more of these things. If they were in her then they’ve spread even more.” Elizabeth said as she nodded her head towards May. “Now, do you have some way to detect these things?”

“Yes…” Chloe said slowly.

“Then I’m sure you’ve checked me. You know I’m not one of them. We need to kill these things before they get more people.”

“Why should we trust you?”

“Please, I didn’t do that. I’m afraid that these things got to the Captain. She’s the one who would know which codes to use and how to frame me. She was acting very erratically during her interrogation of me. Just ask Lieutenant Ibanez, she was there.”

“I don’t believe you, but you did save us back there.” Chloe face was clouded as she tried to figure everything out. “I’ll let you up if you answer my question.”

“What?”

“Where did you get that military training?”

Elizabeth paused for a minute like she was considering her options. “Fine. This goes against everything I was taught, but I guess secrecy won’t matter much if we all get one of those things in us.” She lowered her voice a little before continuing. “I work for Section 13.”

“The Intelligence Branch?”

“Yes. About a year ago our deep space listening outposts starting picking up strange hyperspace signals coming from this area of space. The higher ups thought it might be some kind of new weapon or a transmission from an extremely advanced civilization. So this mission was put together to ‘survey’ this region. I was assigned a cover and put on as the civilian advisor.”

“What?”

“My real name is Ellie Comstock. The system that the creatures are from is very near the center of where we think the signals originated. When the habitable planet was found, I was sure we were in the right spot. So, I pretended that the Federation might be interested in the slime so we’d have more time to search the system. And it worked.”

“Yeah, it worked alright.” Chloe said angrily.

“I didn’t know this would happen. I’m sorry.” Ellie sounded very genuine to Chloe. “If your friend over there is right then those alien ships exploding as they went into hyperspace could be what caused the signals. Why they exploded I don’t know. But we have another problem right now. These creatures are extremely dangerous and we have to stop them before they spread further.” Ellie looked down at the straps pinning her to the bed then back up at Chloe. “Please. Ensign, why would I kill people who are helping me investigate? I can help you stop these things. Just imagine if they got to a station or a planet.”

Chloe teetered for a moment, indecisive. Could she really trust her? “I hope I don’t regret this.” Then she undid the strap over Ellie’s arms. “There’s a spare jumpsuit in the cabinet over there.” Chloe motioned with her head as she undid the second pair of straps over her legs. “And Ellie, my name is Chloe.”

“All right Chloe, I hope my trust wasn’t misplaced.” Ellie almost smiled as she got up and headed over to the cabinet.

Down the row, Evie moaned as she tried to move. Her eyes slowly fluttered open. Chloe gasped and ran to her and hugged her tightly. Doing her best to avoid Evie’s injured arm. “Evie! I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I’m okay.” She said softly as if reassuring herself.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Evie repeated.

Chloe let go of her friend and stood up straight again. She knew they had a lot to do. “Can you get up Evie?”

“Yes.” She got to her feet faster than Chloe would have expected. “Ow.” She moaned a little and held her arm.

“Be careful. Don’t hurt yourself.” Chloe chuckled a little.

“I’ll be careful.” Evie replied.

Chloe was worried. Evie still seemed a little woozy from the venom. She wasn’t acting quite herself.

Just then, Wash came in through the lab door. “Okay I’ve got the panels off. Evie, you’re okay!” Seeing Ellie, he stopped dead in his tracks and walked quickly over to Chloe. He hissed in her ear. “What are you doing? Why is she up?”

“It’s okay Wash. We’re on the same side.” Turning to Ellie she introduced them. “Wash, Evie; this is Ellie. From Section 13.”

Wash’s jaw nearly dropped. “What?”

Ellie grimaced, obviously displeased at more people being told. “Lieutenant. Doctor.” She nodded in their direction. “Now that introductions are out of the way, would you mind telling me why he’s been tearing apart the ship?” Pointing towards the lab wall that was now in pieces.

“Oh, right!” Chloe smiled. “Wash and I came up with this plan while you were…” She stopped herself. “Um. Anyway, since it looks like the creatures need the slime we came up with a plan to dry them out and then Evie could remove it from May,” she paused and looked at Ellie “without killing her.”

“I think we should get this to Lieutenant Ibanez before we waste time trying to save one person.” Ellie said. “Have you told her yet?”

Chloe was about to speak up, but Wash interjected. “Yeah, we’ve tried. Everything’s locked down. Maybe you could wave your hand over the computer and fix it, just like you did the door.” He said rather sarcastically. “How did you do that again?”

“It’s a microchip implanted in my wrist. It contains on override code that was programmed into the ship by the High Command.” She said, pointing to the spot on her wrist. “Now do you understand?”

“See Wash? We’re on the same side.” Chloe defended her.

“Fine.” He said, begrudgingly. “But once we’ve dealt with these things I want proof you had nothing to do with the shuttle bay.”

“Good. Now that that’s out of the way we need to move fast. If we can get this thing out of May we’ll have better information to give to Carmen.” Chloe took charge. “Why don’t you two see if you can get a message out to Carmen and keep an eye on Lucy.” She said to Wash and Ellie. “Evie and I will see if my plan works on these creatures.”

“Okay. That sounds like a good idea.” Wash glanced sideways at Ellie.

Chloe paused for a moment and looked worriedly at Evie. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m feeling fine. Other than a monster headache.” Evie said as she rubbed her head and straightened her hair.

Chloe explained how her plan would work to Ellie and Evie and they all set to work.

A few minutes later they had prepped May for the operation by removing her slime-soaked clothes and sedating her properly. May had been naked until Chloe grabbed an extra scrub top from sick bay and slid it on her. Chloe had gotten a long narrow section of the Aerogel cut off and together she and Evie had managed to stab it into the creature at back of May’s mouth. They had cut off the creature’s stinger tentacle entirely to make room for their improvised weapon to do its job. Other than the gloves for handling the Aerogel they’d given up on the environmental suits since the slime didn’t seem to affect them anymore and they weren’t much protection anyways.

“It’s awful.” Chloe said softly when they were finished. The big tube almost completely filling up May’s mouth reminded Chloe of something she’d done not too long ago. Something much nicer than this. No. Why was she thinking about that right now? Was the slime still affecting her? Evie’s voice snapped Chloe out of her trance.

“If you’re right then it shouldn’t take long at all before I can start pulling that thing out of her. The stuff’s already starting to absorb the slime and it looks like the creature is turning grey just like in Frank.” She said, pointing to the bloating tube of gel. “I just hope May will be okay. Who knows what it’s like with one of those things inside you.”

“Yeah…” Chloe whispered to herself.

“Hey, Chloe.” Wash shouted in from sick bay. “Bad news. It looks like someone’s gone to the trouble of disconnecting the internal comm system altogether. At least that what it seems like; unless her code’s no good.” He said nodding towards Ellie. Chloe walked over to the still partially slimy window.

“It’s fine. You saw it just a few minutes ago.” Ellie retorted. “But I do think we should be careful about using it. If someone is watching the computer accesses they’ll see the unusual code and block it very soon.”

“So it looks like face to face is the only way to go, huh?” Chloe sighed. “Is Lucy okay?”

“Yeah, she’s still resting. But she’ll probably be up soon.” Wash answered. “At the very least we got her clothes back on her.”

“Chloe get over here!” Evie shouted.

Chloe whipped her head around to see the disturbing sight of May thrashing against the restraints for all she was worth. Chloe ran over and tried to hold her down.

“I think that the same thing is happening to her as Frank!” Evie said loudly over the sound of May thumping against the metal table. Evie pulled the Aerogel out of May’s mouth. “The creature’s dying and it’s killing her too! Hold her still and I’ll see if it’ll come out!”

“Guys get in here!” Chloe yelled.

Wash and Ellie ran in forgetting to close the door behind them. Each took and arm and a leg while Chloe tried to keep May’s head still. Evie held May’s mouth open with one hand while trying to cut the creature out with her other.

“Steady… Steady… Hold her!” Evie pulled her laser scalpel out quickly when May thrashed a little too hard and tried to bite down. She readjusted and pinched May’s mouth open again. She sliced through the top of the creature and grimaced as it twitched and squirted out very human-red blood. “Okay I think I got it. Forceps!”

She lay down the scalpel as Ellie handed her the forceps. Very slowly she started pulling the creature out. The color made it look like it almost belonged in May body’s. All except for the, now quite obvious, grey streaks running the length of it. Once enough of it was out, Evie took hold of it directly and started pulling faster and harder as May was starting to choke. The main body of the creature slowly started to emerge with small tendrils flailing everywhere. With one final tug, what was left of the creature was twitching above May’s still heaving chest.

“Grab a container!” Evie was still unwilling to let go of it, just in case.

Wash ran and grabbed a container from the storage on the other side of the lab. As he turned around to run back over, he almost hit Lucy coming into the lab. “Lucy!”

“What’s going…” She said sleepily as she walked in. Then she stopped suddenly and screamed as she finally saw May on the table. “Ohmygod! She has one of those things too?!”

“Lucy stay in sick bay for right now.” Wash said as calmly as he could before running back to Evie.

May finally stopped thrashing as the creature was stuffed into the container. Now she was almost too still. Everyone let go of her and backed away slightly as Evie started checking her out.

“She’s not breathing!” Evie shouted. “Help me carry her into the infirmary! Keep her head up. Lucy, grab the ventilator, over there!”

They ran in and laid her on one of the beds. Evie was back in her element ordering help as needed. It took less than a minute before she was breathing again under Evie’s watchful eye.

Once everything calmed down for a second, Chloe asked the question on everyone’s mind. “Is she going to be alright?”

“We’ll have to see.” Evie was grabbing some Gelofusine packs and hooking them up to her. “If she has the same internal injuries as Frank we have to work fast to stop her from going into Hypovolemic shock.”

“What?” Chloe asked.

“She’s most likely bleeding internally.” Ellie responded.

“Oh.” Chloe said softly, looking at May’s unconscious form.

With Chloe’s help, Evie tended to May doing everything she could to patch up her damaged throat. While Evie and Chloe worked, Wash explained to Lucy what all had happened. It was strange, Lucy didn’t seem to remember waking up before, but she did seem pretty keen on sticking close to Ellie. Much to the latter’s annoyance.

“I can’t believe these things are on board.” Lucy said a few minutes later after Wash had finished his story. “What do they want?”

“We don’t know.” Wash answered. “I’m not sure we really want to know.”

“Well, what do we do now?” Ellie asked trying to move away from Lucy. “Do we finally talk to the Lieutenant?”

“I think that’s a good idea.” Chloe spoke up as she turned around. “Once May is doing okay, I think we should all go and talk to her. We don’t know how many more of these things are on board, so it’s probably better if we stick together.”

“I’m all for that.” Wash chimed in. “We should be able to get up there pretty easy now that we have her code.”

“Yes. However, I think we should take every precaution. That gel seemed particularly effective in dealing with the creature. Between that and the stun batons we should be okay. As long as there’s enough of us. Can you make more of those rods?” Ellie asked.

“Sure, but we don’t have that many gloves to hold them with so we’ll have to move fast once we make them.” Chloe pointed out.

“That shouldn’t be too much trouble. Now, about those UV lights…”

A moan from behind them interrupted Ellie’s thoughts. May’s eyes were starting to flicker.

“How is she waking up?” Wash asked.

“I don’t know. Chloe and I gave her enough sedative to keep somebody down for hours.” Evie answered.

All of them gathered around May as her eyes finally opened. None of them knew what to say. A look of confusion clouded May’s face for a moment. She gasped slightly as she obviously felt a weight taken off her chest. Her eyes flicked back and forth between the small assembled crew before settling on Chloe. Staring deeply at Chloe, she smiled lightly and slowly croaked out, “Thank you.”

Chloe’s worried look gradually turned into a smile as well. She laughed lightly before she blurted out, “She’s okay!” Everyone but Ellie joined in in congratulating her. Chloe wanted to hug her, but thought better of it knowing how much pain she must be in.

“May don’t try to talk.” Evie cautioned after they were all done.

“I’m fine.” May said softly.

“Good. We need some answers.” Ellie interjected.

“She just woke up, give her a moment.” Evie warned. “We aren’t sure how much damage that creature did to her.”

“Master.” May whispered.

“What?” Chloe asked leaning in.

“That’s what they call themselves.” May answered quietly.

“The creatures?” Chloe wondered. May nodded just a little not wanting to move her neck too much.

“I will not call them that.” Ellie said defiantly. “What do these things want?”

“Us.” May said, now staring at Ellie.

“Us, what does that mean?” Wash asked.

“They want us as… Hosts.” May visibly shivered at a little at the last word, Chloe noticed. Was it out of fear? Or something else entirely?

“So they are parasites.” Evie mused out loud.

“I don’t care what they are. What I want to know is: how many of them are there?” Ellie demanded.

“I don’t know for sure.” May murmured. She finally swallowed the large amount of spit that had been accumulating in her mouth and winced in pain as it slid down her injured throat. Biting her lip as she did so.

“Bullshit!” Ellie shouted. “She’s covering for them! She’s obviously still helping them.”

“No!” May yelled almost as loud then instantly regretted it and held her neck. Chloe knelt down and held her friend.

“Don’t yell May. You’ll just make it worse.” Evie looked at her worriedly. Then she turned to Ellie. “Please, she’s just been through a traumatic event. And…”

“Yes. Where she broke his nose, stabbed you with a poisonous tentacle and nearly got us as well.” Ellie retorted.

“That wasn’t my fault.” May said as loud as she dared.

“Of course, the creature did it.” Ellie answered back. May tensed up a little in Chloe’s arms. “How do we know that the creature still isn’t influencing you?” Ellie asked harshly. May couldn’t come up with an answer.

“I think she’s telling the truth.” Lucy finally spoke up from the back of their little gathering.

Ellie ignored her, continued, “If you are telling the truth, what are the creatures planning?”

“The Masters want to use us to spread out from that planet.” May answered softly.

“I’d say that’s going pretty well.” Wash snarked. “So how they plan to get the rest of us on board with this idea of theirs?”

“I don’t remember exactly.” May looked down as far as she could without pain. “Once my Master took over, he did everything. And knew everything that I knew. I do remember a few strong things like...” Chloe saw May’s eyes widen as she inhaled sharply. She gasped and her lips trembled as she managed to say, “I, I’m the one who killed Grace.”

“What?” Chloe put her arm around May.

“I was the one who locked the shuttle bay.” She looked up at Ellie. “My Master used your code. He must have wanted to make us leave the planet. I’m so, so sorry.” She broke down and cried a little in Chloe’s arms.

“At least, now we have what we need to tell the Lieutenant.” Lucy said softly to Ellie.

“That’s fine, but we need to know what these things are planning.” Ellie said.

“Who put the parasite in you in the first place?” Evie asked, gently.

May sniffled a little before answering, “Marybeth.”

“Marybeth?” Chloe drew back from the bed. “No. No. Nonono. Not her!” Now it was Chloe’s turn to cry. Wash held Chloe tightly as she fought back tears.

“The whole away team probably has one in them.” Ellie ignored Chloe. “That means at least two more of those things running around doing who knows what.

“Two?” May’s eyes widened a little. “I thought that Frank…”

“Dr. Floyd had one and I took care of it.” Ellie said firmly. “Do you remember anything else about what the creatures want to do?”

“Not really.” May shrank back a little at her tone. “But, I do remember that the Masters were interested in the air system.”

“What, do they plan to suffocate us all?” Wash chimed in. Chloe stopped sniffling.

“No, that wouldn’t help them.” Evie said. “Maybe knock us out or…”

“Drug us.” Chloe spoke up. “With the slime.”

“Yeah, they were bringing up a bunch of it from the planet.” Wash said.

“Yes, at the Captain’s orders. She must have one too.” Ellie said, as she put two and two together. “She would be the one to know my code.”

“We know what that stuff can do. If it got into the air system…” Wash said running over to the computer.

“It would give the creatures enough time to infect everyone.” Evie added. “We might be the only ones who can stop them since the slime stopped working on us.”

“We have to work fast. They must have been on board since the first away trip got back if they used the code the Captain would know.” Chloe was worried. “That means they’ve had the run of the ship for over…” Chloe glanced over at the computer monitor for the time. “eight hours. Oh, God.”

“They didn’t have the slime for half that, so they haven’t gotten that far if that’s their plan.” Evie commented. “We would have noticed the smell.”

“Not for the last half hour.” Chloe said with a growing terror. “We’d all been exposed at that point and Wash said he didn’t smell it again when we first looked at May.” She looked back forth between all of them.

“This isn’t good. This isn’t good.” Wash was mumbling to himself at the computer. “Guys, using Ellie’s code I got into the ventilation controls.” He turned around to face them, a look of dread on his quickly paling face. “Chloe’s right. For the last 20 minutes the main filter’s been removed.”

“What about the backups?” Lucy asked.

“They’re still okay, but they’re not quite as full spectrum as the main.” Wash pointed out. “If they don’t cover just the right thing that means any slime exposed anywhere is getting into the system.”

“Including the lab.” Evie realized. All of them looked at the slime soaked lab with new eyes.

“If they took out the main filter, they’ll probably go after the backups too.” Chloe said.

“I can go and lock down the backup filters.” Lucy volunteered. “I know that part of ship like the back of my hand.”

“We can’t split up.” Chloe blurted out. “We’re safer if we stick together.”

“I don’t like it, but it’s a good idea.” Ellie said reluctantly. “Ensi… Lucy and I will go and check out the backups and see if we can get the main air filter working again. You three can take what evidence we have and find whoever’s not infected, preferably Lieutenant Ibanez and her guards. Washburne has my code to get you through the doors. That leaves…”

“May.” Chloe finished. All of them turned to look at May. She looked back and forth at them for a moment then stood up a little unsteadily as if unused to being under her own power.

“I’ll go with Chloe and Evie. Maybe I can help convince everyone what’s going on.” She almost smiled. “If you have something to wear.” She said pointing out the fact she was still only in the long scrub top.

“Well, I think all that’s left is the environmental suits. Ellie took the last spare clothes.” Evie said.

“You can take mine.” Chloe spoke up. “It doesn’t have, a, hole, in it.” She slowed down, realizing what she was saying.

“Yeah…” May whispered. “I’m so sorry Evie.” She looked around at everyone. “You know I didn’t mean to do any of this.”

“We know.” Chloe said softly. Everyone, except Ellie, nodded slightly.

“We gotta get going.” Wash hurried them along. “We don’t know what those things are up to right now.”

May put on the suit, wincing a little as the cold suit touched her still bare nether regions. “I’ll just leave the helmet from Evie’s suit here.” May said. “It’s not like the whole thing is going to do me much good anyway.”

Wash and Lucy got work making more Aerogel tubes for them to use. Meanwhile, Chloe and Ellie were working out the best routes for them to take that should keep them away from most people. Evie got some extra sedative doses ready while she kept an eye on May.

Chloe wasn’t quite sure if they could trust May. She was one of her best friends but who knows what that thing had done to her. However, she had seemed to give them good information so far, so she didn’t know what to think. Chloe hoped everything had gone perfect when getting the creature out of May. That would mean that they could save everyone else too. That hope kept her going.

Ellie and Chloe each took a set of the environmental suit gloves so they could hold the Aerogel. They got some of the UV lights ready and Wash and Lucy each took one. It took a little bit, but soon everyone was geared up and ready.

With a deep breath, Chloe opened the door out of sick bay. “Good luck.” She said to Lucy and Ellie.

“You too.” Lucy said, trying to smile.

“Be careful.” Ellie said before she turned and started walking away.

The teams split up. Lucy and Ellie heading for the access tubes at the back of the ship, while the rest headed for the elevator near the front.

As they all kept a wary eye out around any door, Chloe finally asked May the question that everyone was thinking. “What was it like?” May looked at her. “When it was… you know…”

“Controlling me?” May finished. “It was wonderful.” She smiled blissfully. “Once my Master took over all I remember is floating along so happily. Doing anything He wanted.”

They reached the elevator and Wash checked to make sure there wasn’t any kind of alarm tied to it.

“So it felt good?” Chloe asked amazed. How could anything like that feel good? Why would the creatures ever want to do something like that?

“Oh… yes.” May almost sighed. “Better than anything I’d ever felt.”

Chloe looked at May with a hint of worry in her eyes as Wash spoke up. “Guys, this is weird. The elevator isn’t locked at all.”

“That’s good right?” Evie asked.

“Yeah, but that means anybody could have been coming and going while we were in sick bay. Not just the people with clearance.” Wash answered.

“Well, we’ve only got one choice…” Chloe pointed out.

“Yep. Get ready.” Wash pushed the button to summon the elevator and after a tense few moments it arrived. May stood back while Chloe and Evie readied their gel tube and stun baton respectively. Wash stood off to the side waiting to ambush anyone who might be inside. The doors slid back and much to everyone’s relief it was empty.

“Ladies first.” Wash waved his hand to show them in. He was obviously trying to break the tension, Chloe noticed. That was always like him trying to make everyone feel better.

They all crowded into the elevator.

“Both the bulkhead doors around the elevator should be sealed.” Chloe reminded everyone. “Luckily that means we’ll only have one main door between us and Carmen’s quarters and hopefully we should be safe from behind.”

“And if we meet anyone else?” Wash said, closing the doors.

“If they attack us we’ll know. If not, we’ll check them with the UV light.” Chloe tightened her grip on the light gel rods. The ride was a lot shorter than she remembered. Just a few seconds later the elevator stopped.

“First floor. Command deck, quarters and aliens.” Wash joked halfheartedly.

The doors slid open. Wash jumped out and the ladies quickly followed suit. The hallway was empty and, just as expected, the fore and aft air-tight doors were closed. Quickly and silently they ran over to the forward door and Wash got to work opening it, making sure not to set off any alarms. May and Chloe watched the back while Evie waited for any movement of the door.

Wash nodded them towards the door and he unlocked it. They readied themselves for a fight. Expecting someone, if only a guard, on the other side. With a slight grinding sound, the bulkhead disengaged its locks then split in two and slid back into the walls with a light hiss of displaced gas. This time they were surprised to see no one. At least one of the security guards should have been around the quarters in this area.

They were operating as silently as they could. Wash gestured them to Carmen’s quarters. Not too far down the hallway was the main bulkhead door, locking out the Captain’s quarters and the cockpit from the rest of the ship. Chloe prayed she didn’t see that one open. Wash entered Ellie’s code and the door clicked open.

Chloe was wholly unprepared for what she saw next.

There on the floor was the naked form of Carmen. That wasn’t the worst part for Chloe. The most shocking thing was the equally naked Captain eagerly sucking on Carmen’s hairless slit. As the door slid fully open, the Captain turned as far as she could and looked up, revealing a long, clear tube coming from her mouth and deeply penetrating the paralyzed Lieutenant before her.

Chloe screamed in terror, breaking the silence. “Captain!”