The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

“We can’t do it,” I said.

“Why not?” Cassie turned to glare at me, one hand on her ample hip.

“We can’t just unleash all of the Sentinels in the western U.S. all at once. The aliens will notice hundreds of their wardens being slaughtered by their own minions, and they’ll do something we really don’t want them to do. Like blow us all up.”

“Well we can’t just go at them one at a time. There’s thousands of them, and we only have eighteen days left.”

“I know, Cassie,” I said. “But we have to do this in a logical way. I have to know that they can’t strike back at us before I authorize any more operations. We’ve got our best shot now, by getting One through Eight on our side. It’s like we’ve hacked the aliens network, and have a spy inside their operation, but I can’t risk them figuring it out until it’s too late for them to react.”

The eight bodies in Albert’s basement were our new secret weapon, and I’d had everyone I could spare working on ways to use them to our best advantage. Cassie and Dr. Goldberg had helped immensely, by improving the chemical compounds that circulated through the containment boxes. She’d given each person improved nutrition, less pain or pleasure as their gender dictated, and best of all, had fine-tuned their solution of neurotransmitters and hormones to improve their brain functions. Under Albert’s use, large portions of their mind had essentially been shut down, but with their new care, they were starting to wake up.

I’d had the doctors in, to see if we could remove them from the tanks, and get them back to being real people, but the jury was still out on that. The superficial things could be addressed; the missing skull could be replaced, the skin stitched back, and they could all be fitted with artificial limbs. But the internal issues would be harder to solve, since it seemed like several organs and glands had been modified or repurposed. Plus the fact that they no longer breathed or had human blood—their lungs and their veins were full of orange goo.

“Once the ships get here, and the aliens bugger off with our soldiers, having spies won’t mean shit,” Cassie said.

“But we can’t just do this piecemeal either. We either have to hit them everywhere, all at once, or in a place that’s so critical, that they spend all of their energy fixing it, and not striking back at us. It’s a balancing act, and I don’t think we’ve found the balance point yet.”

“Well, along with the neurochemicals for our friends in the boxes, I’ve done like you asked and grown more graphene strands. Can I ask what you’re going to do with them?”

“I’m not sure yet,” I said.

I wasn’t used to walking through buildings that I didn’t control, but the offices for RelayCast, Inc. weren’t on my normal list of destinations. I’d left Mike at home, but my Glock was tucked into a holster under my jacket—just for laughs, I’d put on a suit, like this was a regular business meeting. I could have arrived in my underwear if I wanted; it wasn’t like there was anyone around to be offended by my dress, and even if there were, what would they do, call an Arbiter?

That was actually the reason I was here. The Bay Area had no overseer any more. The lesson that I’d learned from Fresno, Salt Lake City, and now Cold Bay, was that if the resident warden was killed, there were no replacements waiting in the wings. I think the aliens were spread thin already, and unless it was a major disruption, they wouldn’t pull personnel away from other tasks—especially this close to D-Day. I’m sure they were all anxious to get off this hostile planet, and it was easier to just ignore any issues that didn’t affect their main objective.

The problem was, for the converted population that was left behind, there was no one to keep what little order existed in the world. I was always cautious when thinking about life beyond the invasion—because the chances were so slim, and I didn’t want to dwell on a false hope—but, if and when the aliens left, the planet would be in complete shambles. I was hoping to start the process of reclaiming humanity here at the offices of Dwight Raleigh’s media company.

As I crossed the lobby, I was met at the reception desk by Dwight and his ex-Arbiter wife. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow when she saw the suit but didn’t say anything. I introduced myself to her husband, even though we’d technically met before, and the three of us went up to his top floor office.

Looking out of his floor-to-ceiling window, down on the nearly empty streets of San Francisco had me a little melancholy, but I put it aside to focus on today’s task.

“So, Dwight,” I said, “what’s the reach of your little empire here?”

The round-faced man smiled, in pure salesman mode, and launched into a glowing review of his holdings. I actually knew most of it from the research I’d ordered from my minions, so I let him ramble for a minute, just to confirm that he was telling me the same things, then cut him short.

“So your vid broadcasts reach all of Northern California, most of the Northeast, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas?” He nodded. “About forty percent of Canada, twenty-three percent of Mexico, as well as minor stakes in Europe and Australia?” Another nod. “And you’re seen by eighteen percent of the population on any given day?” Third nod. “What would it take to increase both your reach, and your rating?”

He’d been waiting to jump into the conversation. “Well, for ratings, our programming is second to none, and we’re claiming market share all the time by leveraging our key demographics. But for reach, everything is pretty locked up by government regulation. Our deal with the sat companies, though, says that if another operator—say ChronoCast in Los Angeles—stops transmitting, then we’re automatically piped in to cover. So our reach can only increase if the other stations go offline. But other than that, it doesn’t have any limit. I could blanket the planet if every other station went off the air.” He laughed loudly, like that would be the funniest thing in the world, but I was already thinking of how to make it happen.

“And your satradio is pretty much the same?”

“Yes. Well, other than using different satellites, but basically the same. If you’re worried about not getting enough exposure for your advertising dollar, Mr. Drummond, I can assure you—”

“That’s enough, Dwight,” Elizabeth said. Her voice was cold, but apparently, being told to shut up was part of Dwight’s normal behavior, because he closed his mouth and sat quietly. She gave me a thin smile, and invited me to continue.

“I would like to see your signal uplinks, Dwight. Are they on site?”

“Yes they are,” he said, jumping out of his seat. “I’d be happy to show you. Always love showing people the techie stuff.” I got another salesman’s grin, then he led the way out of his office. The gorgeous assistant outside his door gave all of us a bright smile as we passed, and I was sure I saw Dwight’s face flush when he glanced at her.

While the uplink dishes were on the roof, the actual equipment that generated and coded the signal was on the twelfth floor. Several workers flitted about in the large, air-conditioned room, filled with a bank of over a hundred vid screens. Everything from cooking shows to porn flashed on the vids, showing the reach of the Raleigh media empire.

My best comm and computer people had put together a way for me to sniff out where the alien signals were imbedded into the media stream, and I fingered the small drive in my pocket as I looked around the room.

“OK, Dwight,” I said. “You know that I have the ability to command, right? I’m commanding you to introduce me to your staff here, and advise them that I have complete access to the facility and all the equipment.” That way, I wouldn’t have to stop and give give new commands each time someone noticed me fiddling with the machines. “Then I want you to go up to your office and wait for us.”

When the balding CEO finally left the room, I took the drive out of my pocket and went to one of the terminals scattered around the floor. The first thing I saw was a security screen, and I cursed at forgetting to clear that with Dwight.

“Need some help?” Elizabeth said, leaning over my shoulder and typing in her info. She made a point of rubbing her breast against my arm as she backed away, and then stood behind me with her hands on my shoulders. It was a little odd, seeing her acting this way, since the only other times I’d interacted with her had been in her early bitch persona, or as part of a naked trio that I rolled around on a mattress with. She’d always been there, in the background, when I met with Kara to discuss anything, but she’d never spoken with me by herself.

Once I was logged in, I took the drive out of my pocket and plugged it in. Fourteen computer minions in San Jose had been waiting patiently for just this action, and I leaned back to watch as they took remote control of the search. Elizabeth ran her hands down my front, and leaned her chin on top of my stubbled head. Figuring it was OK. with the way she was acting, I reached back and rubbed her thigh through her skirt.

A window popped up on the vid, showing the place downstream where the signals were injected into the feed. It was somewhere on the roof, right before the transmission reached the uplink dish. I let go of Elizabeth’s leg and stood up. As I headed for the door, she trotted up beside me and took my hand, like we were teenagers going steady or something. I stopped and turned to face her, bringing our linked hands up in front of her face. Her eyes widened, and she blushed, but didn’t try to pull her hand back.

“Kara really loves you,” she said, shrugging her shoulders, “and I guess some of that has rubbed off.” She flashed me a bright smile, and then headed for the door, dragging me behind her.

We found the device on the roof, a ring of eight tiny orange ovoids that surrounded a trunk line snaking toward the dish. There were no lights or signs that said “alien device here,” but the color and the shape screamed out their purpose.

I went to the south edge of the building, looking out over China Basin, and the low hills full of colorful houses that defined southern San Francisco. “Param, can you hear me?” The personal comms had a limited range, especially if we wanted to keep them as undetectable as possible. Hopefully the hight of the building would let me reach him. Of course my satphone was available, but this way was so much easier.

“Yes, Alex, we read you,” my assistant said.

“Are you ready to assume control?”

“Affirmative. We have copied the current alien signal, and through the backdoor you just installed, we can continue to broadcast it through the satellites.”

“Good. Don’t make any changes to the imbedded instructions until we can run a few tests.”

“Understood,” he said.

“OK, start transmitting on my mark.” I opened my briefcase, and surveyed the collection of tools and explosives I’d brought with me. Taking out a small shaped charge, I placed it inside the alien ring, between the cable and the device, pointing outward.

“Stand back, Elizabeth,” I said, moving us both behind a solid-looking air-conditioner. “OK, Param. Three, two, one, mark!” I pressed the detonator, and heard a satisfying pop. We ducked our heads out, and saw pieces of the ring scattered across the roof.

I turned to smile at Elizabeth, and saw her shivering, and rubbing at her bare arms. I hadn’t noticed that the afternoon fog was starting to creep in, and the temperature on the roof was dropping. I took off my suit jacket and draped it around her shoulders, getting a grateful smile in return. I pulled two pairs of heavy gloves out of my case and handed her one.

“Help me gather up the fragments,” I said. She took the gloves and moved off, while I went to the edge of the roof again. “Param? How are we looking?”

“As far as I can tell, Alex, the transfer was a success. We now control the embedded signal being transmitted through all of Mr. Raleigh’s media channels.”

“Excellent,” I said. “I’ll talk with you again when I get back.” I switched off the comm, and turned back to Elizabeth. She had worked faster than I expected, and had just gathered the last pieces of alien tech before I could pick up even one. She dumped them, along with her gloves, into my case with a satisfied look. I closed it up, and we headed down to her husband’s office.

I didn’t see the assistant at her desk, and as we neared the door, I saw Elizabeth’s face turn cloudy. She must have had better hearing than me, because I didn’t catch it until I was pushing open the door.

“Yes, Mr. Raleigh! Fuck me, sir! Fuck me!”

Inside the large office, the beautiful brown-haired assistant was naked, bent over the edge of Dwight’s chrome and glass desk, while he pounded into her from behind. His pants puddled around his ankles, and his pale ass dimpled each time he trust his hips forward.

The young assistant was moaning and twisting in the throes of ecstasy, but I almost laughed as I saw the bored look on her face. Evidently, her normal behavior was to fake it for her horny boss.

I glanced over at Elizabeth, to see how she was reacting. According to Mei, she’d known about her husband’s affairs before the invasion, and had chosen to ignore them. She’d even sat Mei down to make sure the Chinese girl was on reliable birth control if she was going to keep fucking Dwight. Now, I watched as her face went blank. Not angry, just neutral. I put a hand on her shoulder, and she jumped, then looked over at me.

She stared at my face for a long time. Over at the desk, I heard Dwight wheeze and grunt as he came inside his assistant. Suddenly, she took my hand, and dragged me out of the office. Around the corner from Dwight’s reception area, there was a conference room with a huge oval table, and large leather couches against each side wall.

Elizabeth took off my jacket and threw it over a chair as she pulled me inside. She turned around suddenly, bumping into me before I could stop my momentum, then taking my head in her hands, and stretching up to kiss me, moaning as our lips made contact. Her tongue invaded my mouth as she melted against my body.

I could feel her, just like I felt Kara when we were together, but where Kara was full of purpose, optimism, and occasional humor, all I got from this connection was a sense of desperation. I pulled away from her and looked into her eyes. “What’s going on, Elizabeth?”

“Please call me Beth,” she said. “Only he calls me Elizabeth, and I hate it. I hate him. And except for my kids, I hate everything to do with who I was before.” She backed away from me, and reached for the buttons on her blouse as she kicked off her heels. “Kara told me about the first time that you and she did it.” She pulled her top off, showing her smooth round tits, bulging out of her white lace bra. “Actually she showed me—showed us—everything she’s ever done with you.”

I didn’t know if that was good or bad. I remembered that day, when Kara had asked me to drive out the memory of Albert by taking her hard and making her cum. She’d wanted to associate her pleasure with me, not with an alien. I had assumed, since they now had their sisters to rely on, that the other two women hadn’t needed the same “treatment.”

“Kara said she had problems getting free from Albert because of her uncle, and what happened to her when she was young. I don’t seem to have the same feelings. I know what the alien felt like in my head, but it’s not like he’s always hanging out in the back of my mind. Instead, I just have the memories of how cold and passionless my life was. Dwight and I never had sex, not in years—David was actually a lab baby. And while I knew he was screwing several girls, I never looked for anything on my own.” Her skirt fell around her ankles and she stepped out of it. Her silk slip followed, and she was in just her bra and panties. She put her hands on her hips, and pushed out her chest.

“We need to have sex,” she said. “Isn’t that how Kara brought it up? Well I’m saying the same thing now. We need to have sex, Alex, so that I can put all of that misery behind me. We may all get blown up in the next couple weeks, but I’d really, really like to fuck you before that happens.”

Who was I to refuse an offer like that? I loosened my tie and kicked off my shoes, as I watched the gorgeous woman in front of me unsnap her bra and shrug it off, then wiggle her hips as she dragged her panties down to the floor. She stood proudly, showing me her sculpted body, and then cocked her head like she was listening.

“Mmmm, I haven’t gotten that reaction from a man in a while.”

I didn’t bother to deny it, since the bulge in the front of my pants gave me away. I didn’t pose the same as she did, but when I pulled my boxers down, I made sure that she saw the hard evidence of her attractiveness.

When she came into my arms, I got a little bit of the same tingle that I received with the trinity. If the two of us maybe didn’t fit as well as Kara and I did, there was still a solid connection there—something to work with. Her mind said that she loved being kissed, so I kissed her, hard, and soft, and every way in between. She wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled her body to me like I was magnetic.

In all of this surreal chaos of alien invasion and mind control, I’d had the unique pleasure of being with a dozen different women, and just like now, the first time was always something special. New smells and tastes and textures. New enthusiasms and motivations. It was by far the best part of my “job.”

My hand wandered down to her gym-chiseled ass, and I pressed her hips into me, grinding my hard shaft into her belly, letting her feel in my head and through my body how turned on I was. She pulled away from me finally, gasping for breath, and backed toward one of the large leather couches in the room. She reached out to grab my jutting cock, and used it to bring me with her.

She sat down as her legs hit the edge of the couch, and whether by accident or design, my dick was right in front of her. I didn’t even have time to blink before she took me into the wet furnace of her mouth, moaning as she tasted me for the first time. I brushed her hair back from her face, and she lifted her eyes to watch me as her lips and tongue went to work. I felt her smug satisfaction as she did exactly the right things to my cock. It didn’t take her long to drive me right to the edge of cumming. I pulled away, and she squeezed the base of my cock to stop me from shooting too soon.

Something else had come to me from our connection, something that she loved, but had been denied for years. I latched onto her legs, and lifted them up, forcing her back into the cushions. When I got to my knees between her spread thighs, her mind lit up with anticipation, and when I kissed her softly at the top of her mound, she screamed. It got even louder after that, as I licked at her drenched pussy, and nibbled gently at her clit.

With the kind of mental feedback I was getting, it was almost like I was the one who couldn’t stop cumming, but eventually, the smiling, bedraggled, very satisfied older woman pushed my head away, and curled up on the couch, little aftershocks rocking her body. I spooned with her on the wide cushions, and stroked her hair while she relaxed.

“You know,” she said, “I thought I loved you just because of my bond with Kara, but after that...damn.”

I absently cupped her breast and rubbed her hard nipple with my thumb, while she reached behind her and found my cock poking into her back. Without any preamble, she tucked it into her very wet, very open entrance, and pushed her ass back, taking me all the way inside. She put her hand on my hip, and urged me back and forth, getting us into a slow, deep rhythm.

“Fuck that’s good,” she said, arching her back and twisting her neck to give me a kiss.

I could never begin to understand women’s minds. Kara had wanted me to pound her into submission, to drive the alien from her brain, while Beth wanted to be held, and made love to while she replaced all of her bad memories with more pleasant ones. In both cases, I was happy to help.

We rocked gently on the couch. I let my hands wander over her body, while she clutched at the cushions, or squeezed my arm. She kept her head turned so that our mouths were locked, even when she came.

The slow buildup for me had been exquisite, and I found myself thrusting a little harder and a little faster as she tightened her pussy around me. She knew what was coming just as well as I did, and she pushed her ass back at me with determination. I didn’t have to ask what she wanted; as I felt my balls contract, and my cock start to twitch, I held her hips and buried myself as deep as I could. She squealed and came again, as I pumped my cum inside her.

I thought she’d want to stay like that, cuddled up and still connected, at least for a little while, but after barely a minute she glanced up at the clock on the conference room wall, and rolled off the couch. My softening cock unplugged from her hole, releasing a stream of our combined juices onto the leather.

As she picked up her clothes, she seemed nervous, like she was having second thoughts. I caught her as she was putting one arm into her blouse, and wrapped her up, letting her feel everything she needed to know directly from my mind. I have to admit that it was a lot easier than stuttering through platitudes, trying to find the right words. She relaxed in my arms, and gave me a peck on the cheek.

“That’s really nice of you, Alex,” she said. “Thank you for all of that, but seriously, look at the time.”

I smiled and let her go. She continued getting dressed, stealing glances over at me as I did the same. In just a few minutes she was back to her professional lawyer facade, but I could tell by her body language that things had changed between us. I’d almost forgotten about the bitch she’d been when she first got out of the Arbiter’s helmet.

“We’ve got to get back,” she said, glanced one last time at the wet stains on the expensive leather couch, before hurrying out of the conference room. “Our Alaskan sister should be waking up at any time, and I need to be there with the others to welcome her.”

The grey blob barely registered against the background on the vid display.

“You’re sure that’s one of them?” I asked.

Param nodded. “Yes, Alex. It appears that these drone ships are heavily equipped with stealth capabilities, but we managed to capture a few images. Plus there was this.” He switched views to show a pile of crates stacked on the dirt track behind Albert’s former lair. I was surprised to see cubes instead of ovoids, but I guess even with aliens, efficiency trumps aesthetics.

“So it was what, a supply run, maybe?”

Around the room, several heads nodded. “Yes, sir,” Mateo said. “Curtis approached the crates and checked them thoroughly before opening one.” Remote vid from the roof of the building showed exactly what he was describing.

“How did he open it?” I asked.

“He just put his hand on it, and a panel in the side slid back. Sentinels probably double as maintenance workers and personal servants when they’re not out in the field, so it makes sense that the crates open automatically to their touch.”

“And what did you find inside?”

“We are still conducting the inventory, Alexei,” Anatoly said. “But it appears that this was not a typical shipment. It was not just a replenishment of consumables like air and “food” for the alien. I believe that when Albert was killed, and his signal disappeared from the network, the logistics system assumed that he had suffered some sort of catastrophic failure. So along with several canisters that correspond to ones we’ve seen inside the habitat, there were other items in the shipment that could be incredibly valuable to us.”

“Such as?” Why did I feel like everyone was drawing this out, trying to build suspense to hit me with some big surprise?

“Such as, a dormant, but most likely functional power supply.” He put up an image of the egg from the torso rooms, but without the bright orange glow. “Also, an unused Arbiter’s helmet, and one of the large-bore weapons typically used by the Sentinels, along with several crates of ammunition, and what we assume are explosives.”

“Sounds like Christmas came early this year,” I said. “But why do I get the feeling that there’s more?”

“Well, Alex,” Vivian said, “there were eight containers, taking up a lot of the cubic space of the shipment, that we haven’t been able to identify yet.” Someone put up an image, and I nearly jumped out of my seat.

“Holy...those are the alien cryo-pods, the ones that I saw being manufactured in my vision. Can we see inside them?”

Anatoly shook his head. “There is no porthole, and x-rays do not penetrate the surface. Why do you think the aliens would leave eight of these pods outside Albert’s lair? I thought you said that they did not have enough to go around.”

It was a good question. If the invaders were so desperate to freeze soldiers and send them back to the homeworld, why waste eight of the pods on a warden’s supply run?

“It’s possible that the pods are just temporary containers for what’s inside,” Cassie chimed in. “Maybe they were also meant to be unloaded, and then the cryo units would be picked up for re-use.”

“If that’s the case,” I said, “then we can all guess what’s in them. Or should I say who. OK, Anatoly, priority is getting those pods open, hopefully in a way that preserves the revival process. Let’s see if we can thaw out at least one of these unfortunate people and keep them alive long enough to get us some answers.”

I turned to Mateo. “Is Private Wright still on site?” He nodded at me. “Have him unload the crates into the basement. I’d like to bring everything to whichever research facility could use it the most, but we need to check for tracking devices before we disperse it to our other locations. Param, please set up a team to scan any and all EM emissions from the supplies. Also call Colonel Freeman at Cheyenne Mountain and give him the location and time that the ship appeared, see if he can find a way to track their movements.”

“Cassie, we don’t know the status of the people inside the pods, but I want to make sure that they can survive once we get them out. Can you duplicate the orange gel that they use in the boxes?”

“I’m sure I can, Alex,” she said.

“Good. Create enough of that to sustain all of the bodies, say a thousand liters or so. Work with Scarlett if you need supplies. Oh, and has anyone checked the remote feeds from Fresno or Cold Bay to see if our alien Santa has visited those places yet?”

The small, women’s clinic on the northern edge of San Jose had become the new home for Kara and her band of ex-Arbiters. I walked through a maze of corridors, drawn by my sense of their presence. Finally finding the right room, I entered to find the three women surrounding a bed, where a fourth distinct mind lay resting; the Alaskan Arbiter that had arrived almost four days ago.

After the Sentinel had killed the alien in Cold Bay, his new assignment had been to get himself and the Arbiter to the Bay Area as quickly as possible. Luckily for his “angel,” this Sentinel knew how to fly, since his master’s area of influence included a ton of islands and remote locations. He’d hopped in his twin-prop plane and crossed the Gulf of Alaska before continuing down the coast. While Mateo and Curtis took charge of the soldier, the Arbiter had been rushed to the hospital to be stabilized, before having her helmet removed.

Around the world, every woman under a blue Arbiter’s fishbowl was slowly dying with every passing minute, and while I couldn’t free all of them yet, I wasn’t going to let another one die when we had a chance to save her. Based on how long the average woman could survive without food, over a hundred thousand Arbiters had died within the past year, probably closer to two hundred thousand. Statistics like that often threatened to overwhelm me, but scenes like this helped me focus again.

Kara smiled as she turned to greet me. Her young, delicate face had become lined with stress over the last few weeks. At only twenty-five years old, she’d become the de facto project leader of anything and everything to do with the Arbiters and the female torsos. I hoped that as Beth got more up to speed on what was happening, she could help ease the burden, but for now, my young lesbian barista was in charge.

“Hey, Alex, come meet Tammi.” When I approached the bed, Kara took my hand and placed it gently on the woman’s forehead, then covered my hand with her own. The contact helped me feel the presence of Tammi’s sleeping mind, and even in her unconscious state it felt like she was greeting me. I guess this was their new version of a handshake.

The woman in the bed had been under her helmet for about three weeks. Her round face was sunken, but her features looked vaguely native Alaskan. Her thick, black hair certainly fit in that mold.

Kara must have heard me speculating. “Half native, half Russian,” she said.

“How’s she doing?” I asked.

“Happy to be out of the helmet,” Beth said. She came up behind me, and hugged herself against my back, her closeness sinking me deeper into the group connection. I looked at Megan on the other side of the bed, and saw her blush furiously as Beth started replaying our romp on the leather couch for everyone to “see.”

“Stop that,” I said, reaching back to pinch her taut ass. She yelped and the feelings faded, but now Megan stared at me with a new, predatory look in her eye. “I imagine she’s happy to be free of the aliens, but how’s her health? How soon until she’ll be strong enough to help us?”

“Soon,” Kara said. “But that’s something else I want to talk to you about.” She took her hand away, and moved to a corner of the room. I disengaged Beth’s arms and followed her.

“I’m pretty sure I know what you’re going to say, Kara.”

“Then you’ve already thought about it, and you know that I’m right,” she said. “Right now, our connection to the alien network is too convoluted...too tenuous, and open to problems. Is it any surprise that Mateo is having more success on the men’s side than we are on the women’s?”

“Still, Kara, I don’t want to risk you for this. The reason that I had the surgery done on myself is that my brain hadn’t been messed with before that. You’re still taking drugs to deal with all of the changes that the helmet made in your brain. You’re much more vulnerable to the pleasure signals that the network generates, regardless of whether there’s an alien on the other end of the line.”

“I know that, Alex, and I know that going into the network without you to shield my mind will be tough. Maybe it will be too much. But the upside is so huge, and I’ve got three other women with me, who can help me through just about anything. I think we can do it, and I want you to let me try.” She stepped up to hug me, and I felt all of her youth, and her insecurities flowing into me, but I also felt her determination, and her faith in her sisters.

I looked down at her, and saw her face relaxing from the strain, and her eyes getting softer as she retreated back into memories of less stressful times. “I won’t be there to protect you, if you go forward with this,” I said.

“I know,” she said, closing her eyes, and leaning her head against my chest. “But I’m sure we can do it, Alex. And if we get Tammi on board, we’ll be even stronger. Think about what we can accomplish.”

I didn’t feel anything pass between them, but suddenly Beth and Megan were there, wrapping their arms around us. I knew they were trying to manipulate me, but I also knew that Kara’s plan was for the best. I just couldn’t figure out if my reluctance was really fear about her safety, or jealousy about being left out of the loop. It was true that I was just a middleman between the ex-Arbiters and the female torsos, but if Kara was by herself on one side, and Mateo was on the other, what did that leave for me? It was stupid to feel that way, and the minute I had the thought, it was smothered by my rational mind, as well as the minds of the three women. They wouldn’t think any less of me because I wasn’t leading the charge inside the alien network. In fact, they would respect me more for giving them the freedom to tackle this problem on their own.

“All right,” I said, and immediately felt the glow of gratitude from all of them. “I’ll set it up.”

I took off my helmet as Param announced the all clear. The egg-ships were on their way toward the sun to recharge, and we had anywhere between eight and eleven days to not worry about them. Actually, I had been thinking about the EM pulses, and the ships, the whole time I’d been under that helmet, but I put it aside to examine the progress Anatoly had made.

“The cryogenic container was not meant to be opened by hand,” he said, as he paced around one of the pods. “A series of electromagnetic signals must be sent to the control mechanism, here.” He pointed at a featureless, raised blister on the outside of the pod. “The codes for the operation are not available to us at this time, so we are not able to open the pod without endangering the person inside.”

“That’s the only way you’ve found?”

“So far. Although the operation seems complex for us, for the aliens it is probably as simple as saying...ah...yes, ‘open sesame.’“ He smiled at his own wit. “We simply do not have the tools to operate their machinery in a native mode. Everything must be translated first into sensory signals that humans can process.”

I wanted to pound the top of the pod in frustration. The damned thing was probably as easy to operate as a toaster, but it might as well have been a fusion reactor for all we could do with it. “What do you think of cutting it open?”

Anatoly frowned at that. “No. We have no viable cryonics technology at the moment, so if we made a mistake, and disrupted any of the systems inside the pod, the damage it caused to the occupant would be beyond even my knowledge to repair.”

“Nanites?”

“The pod is too well sealed, and the temperatures involved would make using them impractical.”

“Well dammit, Anatoly, what are we supposed to do?”

He was unfazed by my raised voice. “Our only option is to find the correct sequence of pulses that will trigger the revival process.”

“What about the generator?” I asked.

“Since that did not involve a human, our progress has been rapid. We have discovered twenty-three different input or output ports by simply bombarding the machine with EM signals of varying frequencies.”

I cringed at that. “Anatoly, did you stop to think that a random signal might activate something like a self-destruct sequence?”

“Yes, I did, Alexei. However, my analysis revealed that we would not gather any useful information before our deadline if we did not take some risks. You yourself have said that we might all be dead in fifteen days, so I calculated that it was worth the attempt.”

“All right,” I said. “Keep going on this. I need to borrow Stephan though. I’m going to enter the network and I need him to monitor me.”

The blonde Norseman followed me down the hall to the torso room. I saw the Arbiter’s helmet still on the stand where it had been three days ago, and I was momentarily pissed off, ready to march back to Anatoly and ream him for not following protocols. But then I realized that he had been right, time was running out, and the priority had to be focused on forward momentum, not keeping things tidy.

I found the chair and moved it closer to the stand, then sat down and took the wire harness from Stephan’s hand. I had to chuckle at the fact that plugging my brain into a network of alien signals had become almost routine for me. Settling back into the chair, I gave Stephan a thumbs-up, and saw him pull the EM cover off the helmet. I closed my eyes as my senses doubled, and then tried to find my way back into the network of alien transmissions.

This was my eighth venture into this virtual world. I had learned to remove the external distractions of sight and sound input from the helmet, and turn my thoughts outward, toward the source of the signals coming from the transmitter. It was a bit rough getting into the network because I was so frustrated at the moment, so I paused to take a deep breath and let myself settle in.

The reality created by my brain had started to stabilize on a single environment, a cross between a microcircuit board, and a flow chart. Paths inside the local hub were color coded by function and level of security. Lines that led to the larger network were mostly coded as dead ends, since I hadn’t been able to breach any of the alien firewalls.

The space I roamed through was familiar territory by now. My trip inside was more of an escape from the real world, than an attempt to discover something new. It was the same distraction technique I used to employ by playing vid games; I let my backbrain ping-pong me through the local paths, while I went back to analyzing the many problems facing us.

Time was pretty fluid in here, and I had no idea how long I’d been stopped in one place before I finally roused myself to look around. I was next to the impenetrable orange ball of Albert’s CPU. I’d tried to enter this maze before, but had always been rebuffed. It wasn’t because of a security feature, like the firewalls I encountered elsewhere—the sheer power and complexity of the device repelled me, like trying to walk between the water molecules of an oncoming wave and finding out you’re not thin enough.

I was annoyed that I’d gone into the network to escape from the frustrations of the outside world, only to end up in front of one of my biggest frustrations. I went back along the same link, and tried to lose myself in random pathways again, only to end up in front of the CPU, unable to move forward. When a third try brought me right back to the same spot, my calm shattered, and any chance of rationally addressing my problems evaporated.

I’d always prided myself on being logical, and pretty cold-blooded, when it came to adversity; if there was a problem, I didn’t let it get to me, I just fixed it. That attitude had served me well in the last year, keeping me from breaking down when people were dying, or our safety was threatened. But as I “stood” in front of this inscrutable, impenetrable symbol of all the shit we’d had to take from these fucking aliens, my rage took over.

[Fuck you!] I screamed in my head. I didn’t have a form in this reality, but I had a consciousness, an identity, and I charged the orange ball like a raging bull. Sparks flew as I hit it, and my vision flared to white. I was thrown back by the power of the contact, and as my vision cleared, I saw the object of my fury, sitting as cold and immutable as before. Logic said don’t do that again, it had no affect, but rage said fuck these aliens, crush them all!

Rage won, and I charged again, with the same result. And again. And again. I laughed as I bashed my “head” against the brick wall of the alien tech over and over, because I couldn’t hurt it, and it seemed that it couldn’t hurt me. I could do this forever, not eating or sleeping, just taking out my anger on a featureless construct of my imagination, until the transport ships arrived and blew us all into oblivion.

At that moment it sounded like a great idea, and I might have actually tried it, if certain thoughts hadn’t crept into my brain. Lani. Kara. Scarlett. Vivian. Beth. All of them. Every one of the people who were depending on me. They would die too, if I was selfish enough to give up and retreat from reality.

I backed away as my anger ebbed, but for some reason I couldn’t keep my distance; I was being pushed forward, toward the smooth surface of the CPU. I tried to reverse course, but something pressed at my back, something hot and primal. It reminded me of the wave of rage that had swept me up when Maria went after Albert. There was a presence, an angry presence, carrying me along. No, four of them.

I’d never been able to reach the minds of the female torsos. Kara had taken over that duty, which was one reason she was currently recovering from the surgery to install her implants. Their feminine minds had either been too different from mine to make a connection, or they had shied away from me out of fear. But in the days since their alien master had died, Kara said that they’d gotten stronger, and more coherent. The drugs that Cassie had introduced into their life-sustaining gel had reduced the controlling pleasure signals, and awakened parts of their brains that had laid dormant for over a year.

Now, it seems, my anger had triggered their own, and while I was willing to give up, and back away from banging against the unbreakable barrier, they obviously weren’t.

As I was carried along, I tried to distinguish individual minds, and get through to them, to explain how useless it was to give in to this anger they were feeling. They didn’t listen, and the orange surface of the orb grew closer. We were moving too slow to do any damage to it, if we could damage it at all. I thought about picking up the pace to get a good bash at it, but then relaxed and let them have their chance. If they couldn’t muster the kind of power that I’d shown earlier, then they’d soon find out how futile this exercise was.

I was surprised when we slowed down as we got close to the orb. Maybe they weren’t going to smash me into the smooth surface like a battering ram. When we came to a halt, the surface was so close to my perception that orange filled all of my “sight.” I tried to reach the four minds, to show them my curiosity at what they wanted from me. Instead, I was pushed forward again, just a bit. If I’d had a nose in this realty, it would have been pressed right against the skin of the CPU. My “eyes” blurred, and then refocused, and I saw it. A crack. The tiniest flaw in the unbroken shell.

I reached for it, tried to wedge myself inside it, but I was too big, and too blunt to fit through. I’d turned into a wrecking ball when my anger had taken over, but this wasn’t the time for brute force any more. This was time for a surgeon, someone who could wield a sharp scalpel. Or...the tip of the spear. I remembered the metaphor from the first time I’d joined with my muses in this bizarre world of the mind.

I brought all of my focus to the small crack in the orange ball. I soaked in its shape, and its color, and looked for the point of failure. I’d been trained to find weaknesses in complex systems like this, usually for the purpose of patching them, but in this case, to break through. There was one spot where the color lightened more that the surrounding surface, a place where the shell was weak. I stared at the spot, letting it fill my mind, picturing myself thrusting through it...

[Now!]

Fuck. Here I was again. Lying around, unable to move, while all Hell broke loose around me. Had I finally done it? Had I finally gone too far? I felt...large...swollen, like someone had inflated my skin into a pink balloon and then poured so much knowledge into me that I was ready to pop. What if I didn’t have a body any more? What would I do if I couldn’t touch anyone, ever again? Where was Lani?

“Oh my god! What happened to them? Fix it, Anatoly!”

Kara. Why was she here? She should be resting in the hospital.

“Cassie, get in here! What are they doing? Can you help?”

Cassie too. Must be something happening with the people in the tanks. The women who helped me? Were they in trouble?

“Nnngghh.”

“Alex? He’s coming around. Alex, what happened, what did you do?”

“Anatoly! Hurry up! They’re dying!”

Dying? What had I done? I’d gone into the CPU, and it was like bursting into the center of the sun. I hadn’t been able to think, or move, I just floated, soaking up the fire, until it started burning me from the inside. Then...nothing. Again. Fuck, I’d like to stay conscious at least once during these adventures. I should be helping—I should be saving the limbless women who helped me—but my body wouldn’t respond. And my brain...it was...deflating. Everything I had absorbed was slowly leaking out.

“Jill,” I managed to croak. I was pretty sure it was Jill hovering over me. “Record me.”

“What? Record you? What do you need, Alex? Why should I record...oh, fuck it...here, Alex, I’m recording.”

“342.774 megahertz for 0.9932 seconds, 368.991 megahertz for 0.0139 seconds, 327.652 megahertz for 0.0537 seconds.” I tried to speak as clearly as I could. “Anatoly. Cryo-pods.”

“OK, Alex, I’ll get it to him, but he’s got an emergency going on right now. You rest, baby. Let us handle things.”

“Move him,” Anatoly said. “Out of here. We need room. Yes, now set it down, right here, next to the other one.”

I was lifted, and carried. We bounced along for a while before my eyes could open, and then I saw the sky when we passed outdoors. My arms were regaining their feeling, but I was more worried about the precious knowledge draining out of my head. I had a desperate need to capture whatever I could.

“Jill?”

“Right here, Alex.”

“I need a pad, quickly”

She pressed one into my hands, as Mike and Jason set me in the back seat of a large sedan. Jill hopped in the front, and I had to hold on for dear life as she sped away from the Admin building. Her driving was threatening to make me sick, but I focused on the pad in front of me, mumbling into the microphone, and typing as fast as I could. Everything I had absorbed from the alien computer was based on precise sets of EM waves, so I couldn’t afford to let the memories fade. Normally, if I was remembering a past event, like a birthday party, and I wasn’t sure if the balloons were red or blue, it wouldn’t affect the overall impact of the memory, but with these alien thoughts, the difference between a 2 or a 3 could change the entire meaning.

I’d always been good with numbers, and as I typed into the pad, I started to see patterns, almost like a language emerging from the digital strings. Like a composer, trying to write down the notes to the tune in his head before it faded or mutated, I used the representational language of human numbers to record the twitching pulses of alien brains.

Facts poured out of me, some trivial, some important, some so obscure I had no idea of their value. I hardly felt the twists and turns of Jill’s driving any more, and I was completely unaware when the car stopped.

“Should we interrupt him?” It was Lani. I breathed a sigh of relief that I got to see her again. But the numbers...

“I don’t know,” Jill said. “He’s been like that since he woke up, typing and recording numbers.”

“What happened?”

“No one’s sure. I was there to see about moving some of the alien stuff to Lawrence Livermore, when everything just went crazy. Something about the big egg-shaped generator malfunctioning. The bodies in the tanks were in distress, and Anatoly was trying to rig the second generator to save them, while Kara screamed at him. I’m worried that some of them won’t make it, but I’m also worried about what it did to Alex. Look at him.”

“I’m going to get some nurses to move him,” Lani said. “We need to get him to Dr. Li right away.”

I held up my hand. “No. Not yet.” Then went back to typing.

It must have been hours later when I came out of my trance of numbers and frequencies. I was in a chair, in a hospital waiting room, with no memory of how I got here from the car. A stack of three data pads sat on the chair next to me. Sitting or standing around the room were several of my girls, as well as all three of the ex-Arbiters.

“Alex?” Lani’s worried voice came from my right side, and I turned to see her in the chair next to me, face drawn and lips tight. “Are you all right?”

I reached out to squeeze her knee. “I’m OK, baby,” I said. Her face relaxed. “I just had to get all this stuff out of my head, and into a format that we can use. How are things at the site?”

She was just about to answer, when Kara broke away from her two companions and rushed over to me. “What did you do?” she shouted. “Why did you let them...why didn’t you...?” As Beth and Megan surrounded her, she broke down sobbing, but then looked up at me with hate in her eyes. “They’re dead! Two and Four and Six and Seven are all dead! And it’s your fault, Alex!”