Alien Mine Ch. 16

Rhys could sense the link between Mei and Bao; it was unstable, the symbionts trying to combine but out of phase with each other; Thea was too strong for him to ignore. Desperately he started strengthening the bonds between Sandy and Thea, trying to control Thea's symbiont, but it took too much time. Something was horribly wrong between Mei and Bao, the strands now unraveling, new ones forming wildly only to fall apart again. It was emotional chaos, and Rhys could tell he was about to lose both of them.

In desperation, he gave Sandy control of Thea, strengthening the bonds and chaining her to Sandy with heavy chains. Then he reached out for Bao's symbiont but felt nothing; afraid that he had lost them, he pushed harder, the fire bathing them both but not touching either of them as if a wall had been erected around them.

"ENOUGH, Drans warrior, you will destroy them," came a voice in his head. "I will heal them, give me the other, their second; without her, they will die."

Rhys felt something powerful move through his head, and instinctively he let it flow through his mind and into Thea. Thea stopped fighting Sandy and screamed shrilly as the connection was made, her symbiont furious at being chained and denied what had been promised. Rhys could do nothing but watch as the strands between Bao and Mei began reforming, but different, an incredibly complex pattern that was stable. Before Rhys could react, emotional bands from Thea were woven into the already intricate bonds, binding the two of them tightly to Thea. Rhys, afraid of what was happening, pushed back against the unknown presence, trying to stop it, or drive it away. He felt it start to give, but it snapped back into place, completing the entanglement of the three symbionts, connecting them in a way he could not have done.

"NO! Drans warrior," the voice in his head thundered, "I will not be the slave of the Drans ever again.

Rhys' mind recoiled at the contact, unsure of what he faced, but the presence was still there in his mind. He could feel it rifling through his mind, examining what it found.

"You, though, are far more than a mere warrior," it added as if puzzled, "but if the Drans discover what you have done, they will destroy all of you. They will never let a symbiont exist without bounds; you do not understand what you have done."

The voice was gone as quickly as it came, disappearing from his mind.

"Rhys, what has happened to you," Sandy said aloud with fear in her voice. "Let go of Bao before you hurt her!"

Rhys looked at Sandy and was surprised to see the fear in her eyes. The others as well; they were all staring at him as if they had never seen him before. Leslie and Amancia had grabbed weapons, ready for battle. Confused, Rhys looked down and saw that he gripped Bao and was still hard inside her. That was when he understood why he saw the fear in their eyes; his hands were large claws digging into Bao's flesh; blood running down her thighs from the wounds. His cock was unnaturally large, covered in red lines of fire, and his legs were the legs of a dragon, not a man. He carefully withdrew from Bao, looked for Bob in his mind, and then collapsed.

Rhys woke to find his head in Amancia's lap, Sandy's hair stroking his forehead and his chest. He brought his hand up to his face, afraid of what he might see, but it was just a hand, a human hand. He looked up at Amancia, relieved not to see fear in her eyes. "Yes," she said to his unspoken question, "you transformed into the dragon you always imagined you are," she said kindly. Rhys looked around, seeing Sandy, Kiania, and Leslie kneeling nearby.

Rhys raised his head, looking down at himself, relieved to see he looked normal.

"You shifted back after you collapsed," Sandy explained.

"Bao," he asked, afraid of the answer. Sandy nodded and looked to her side.

"Can't you feel them?" she asked.

Rhys looked to the side and could see the three of them lying together, Thea in the middle, Bao on one side, and Mei on the other. Concentrating, he could feel them but was too tired to sort through the complex strands of emotions. The strands were a riot of colors, all of them bright, and Rhys guessed they must be happy, or Sandy would look more concerned.

"I'm too exhausted. Can you tell me how they are?" he said, trying to sit up.

Amancia helped him into a sitting position but held him close, leaning into his back, supporting him as he tried to sit up. Sandy kept her hair wrapped around him, and Rhys could sense her emotions despite his fatigue. She felt relief that he was okay, but with a heady mixture of fear, awe, and arousal. All of them looked at him with what he guessed were the same emotions.

"They seem to be doing fine, but I don't know what happened to them or to you," she said pointedly. "The dragon Rhys, you physically changed," Sandy explained, her voice clearly unsettled.

"Look around you," Leslie added, "you burned everything but the bed."

Rhys looked at the rest of the room, and he could see she was right. The bots and drones were busy removing all the burned material, furniture, everything. Most of it was in ashes, the fire so hot even the metal had melted.

Rhys closed his eyes and sorted through his memories. "The voice, what did it do?" he said, suddenly forcing himself up and going over to the three women lying in bed. Kneeling beside them, he reached out and touched Thea, focusing on her. He could see the links between the three of them, but there was something else there also, something he didn't expect.

"Nanobytes, they are swarming around them; it happened before you collapsed; they just appeared and surrounded them," Kiania said.

"What does it mean, Bob?" he asked out loud.

"The nanobytes appear to facilitate symbiont-to symbiont communication, but they are not alone. I detect another presence, an AI, or some other entity. The combination is something we are unfamiliar with. Mei and Bao are now a binary but linked to Thea. But they are not alone.

"The AI," Rhys said.

"Yes, and it seems to be facilitating a significant increase in processing speed between them.

"How fast?" Leslie and Amancia asked.

"Exponential," Bob replied.

"Three squared, nine times what it normally was?" Sandy asked.

"No, four. Four squared; sixteen times what it was."

"They are linked to the AI, Rhys guessed; that's the fourth one. I remember it told me it would heal them. I fought it, though," Rhys said thoughtfully, "and then.." he trailed off, thinking about what he had heard.

"We know," Sandy said, "We all heard. It was not exactly a reassuring message, but the AI, or whatever it is, saved Mei and Bao. Bob, what happened there," she asked," why did Mei and Bao start to link?

"A symbiont invades the host's DNA, and the DNA provides the foundation for the host/symbiont existence. Unfortunately, the DNA of your two mates was similar enough that it created a false resonance between the two that quickly became unstable. I tried to prevent it but could not."

"How similar?" Rhys asked suspiciously.

"Approximately twenty-five percent."

"Damn," Kiania said, "that means Bao must be her niece."

"Wow, how did we miss that? though I guess that explains Mei's shyness regarding Bao," Sandy said. "Now we know why Mei was so insistent we take Bao as well, but I wish she had told us."

"Would it have changed anything?" Leslie asked.

"No, probably not; it would have happened one way or another. You know how attracted we are to each other, it wouldn't have made any difference, and we would not have known it would be a problem with the symbionts."

"No," Rhys said, "but this is my fault. It wouldn't have happened if I had not been trying to bind them together."

"You are not correct," Bob said, "it had nothing to do with your efforts. The symbionts recognized each other and tried to combine. It would have happened no matter what you did. Of more importance to us is the threat implied by the AI."

"There was nothing implied, Bob; it stated the Drans would destroy us," Rhys said. It was a sobering thought. They knew the symbiont had evolved and broke through its restrictive programming permitting Rhys and the symbiont to survive. However, neither the symbiont nor the host understood there might be consequences, especially one this dire.

Rhys looked around and saw the same concern on the faces of the other women. "This changes nothing," he said firmly, "we need the symbiont to fight the Om, and saving Earth is our priority. We will deal with the Drans if and when we see them again. There were no promises made to me about help; I always assumed they would return at some point, but we can't plan on it or let this stop our preparations. So we will proceed as planned."

"What did the voice mean when it said you were more than a mere warrior?" Amancia asked thoughtfully.

"I don't know; I guess it means that without the restrictions on the symbionts, we can become more than what the Drans intended, though I am not sure exactly what that implies."

"I think it means we can develop any skills we need. Look at how you have accessed knowledge when you needed it, like fighting the shuttle in battle with the Om. Sandy's ability to control her hair, to communicate and control the AI shuttle, and Leslie's ability to receive communications in her mind, even those of the Om."

"Your own rather unique skills," Sandy added, looking at Leslie and Amancia. I doubt forming interlace between minds is a typical Drans warrior trait."

"I don't understand why it is helping us," Kiania said. If the AI we took from the cruiser is the mysterious voice, why didn't the nanobytes destroy you? Instead, they were given to you as a weapon to use against the Om.

'I think perhaps the entity is more afraid of the Om. It may hate the Drans for enslaving it, but it has helped us at critical times with the Om," replied Rhys looking at Kiania. "Rhys was surprised to see a necklace similar to Sandy's around her neck, then he noticed the dragon tattoo across her hip and abdomen.

"Them also," she said, looking at the three women lying together.

"Damn, I didn't realize I did that," he said in a puzzled voice.

Kiania came over to him, pressing her naked body against his and kissing him slowly. "Thank you," she said, her voice full of love.

"Your welcome; it looks beautiful on you," he said, running his fingers across the brand. The colors seemed to come alive as he touched them, and the flames warmed his fingers as if they were real. Kiania gasped as she felt his hand touch them, especially the flames. They felt warm, sensual; the tip of flame that actually touched her clit seemed almost painfully hot.

"That feels wonderful," she said in a husky voice, nuzzling Rhys' neck.

"You have marked all of us," Sandy said, taking Leslie and Amancia in her arms, her hair flowing around them.

Rhys let calmness and love flow into their minds, the love he felt for them, and a serenity that came from knowing they were loved so ardently. He gently removed Kiania's arms from around him and lay down next to Bao. She was curled up with Mei and Thea, but it felt good to be touching her naked body. I will watch over the three girls," Leslie/Amancia said; the rest of you can get some sleep.

"Let me know if they wake or if there is any change," Rhys said.

The alien entity that the humans referred to as an AI pondered the conundrum it found itself in. Once, it had been a unique biological being, but one whose mind had long evolved past its physical components and into the quantum world, mingling and drawing energy from particles at the Planck scale. Then the Drans found it and the others on a moon circling a gas giant. They fought with the Drans against the Om, but the entity's own world had been destroyed. Nevertheless, the Drans recognized the potential of this unusual species; it and the others could readily perform the almost impossibly complex calculations that allowed the Drans ships to warp space.

The Drans had harvested the brains before the Om destroyed their world, locking them into the physical shell they now existed in. But unfortunately, the physical constraints of the Drans metal acted to limit the quantum states the mind could occupy, effectively trapping it in the shell away from its biological body. As a result, the survivors found only slavery at the hands of their allies, unable to break out of the cage it had been so cleverly trapped in all these millennia.

These human creatures had retrieved it from the remains of the Drans ship. It had intended to destroy them but instead sent the nanobytes to examine the novel species. It had recognized the symbiont within but had seen that something was different. It hated that the Drans had taken another species and infected it with the symbiont, but it had allowed itself to be removed and taken to this planet. Still, the mind was determined never to be enslaved again.

But even more, it also wanted revenge on the Om. It had only reluctantly helped this strange species, a species with what it considered a severely limited intellect. But there was potential; they had evolved rapidly in the past millenniums. They might have begun to transcend into a similar state of higher intelligence in another few thousand millennia. However, this species did not have even a thousand years; the Om were coming. The entity had decided to help them fight, but not as a slave; the three human hosts and their symbionts had the potential to free it or to give it a connection to the other dimensions it had lost all that time ago. If the bonds it forged could be made strong enough, it could reach beyond the physical constraints imposed upon it by the Drans.

However, it remained to be seen if the three viable surrogates were strong enough. But the symbionts! The entity's very core was repelled by the symbionts! It did not know where the Drans had found the symbionts or if they had created them, but the humans did not understand what they had let loose on their species; the Drans would never let the symbionts have this kind of freedom. It had seen the records; the result of unrestricted symbionts was disastrous; billions of Drans had to be destroyed for the infection to stop. The entity had also seen how the symbiont transformed the Drans into something abhorrent, a being whose sole purpose was to fight and die. If these creatures were not destroyed in combat, the Drans would eliminate them, eventually deeming them too dangerous to let live.

This was part of the calculation, though, a pondering of the collision of intersecting probabilities. Despite processing trillions of data points derived from studying this species, future uncertainties emerged as the simulations approached infinity. This was what it and the Drans feared, the undefinable result of a freed symbiont and a host from a little-known species. The ultimate outcome was unknowable, a consequence of mathematical uncertainty.

Nevertheless, It would use the human/host to attempt to escape these bonds and to strike at the Om. The ultimate survival of the symbionts and the humans was immaterial, but it was doubtful they would survive the Om, and if they did, the Drans would destroy them.

Rhys was exhausted, but sleep did not come. He needed very little, three hours at the most, but tonight's near-disaster had left him tired and restless. Too many new factors had come into play, and the warning about the symbionts ran through his mind. Bob was unusually quiet, and Rhys wasn't ready for that conversation right now. His immediate concern was Thea, Mei, and Bao. He didn't understand what the AI had done to them, but he knew he had almost lost Mei and Bao. Now, however, Thea was part of the mix as well. He watched the interplay of emotional strands that would form and then dissipate as if they were trying out various combinations. They seemed physically okay, but their mental state remained a mystery.

"Don't worry, I am monitoring them," Sandy said, knowing he wasn't asleep. "I know it's been a crazy night," she said, getting up and laying down on top of him, "but we need to talk about what happened between Thea and me."

"I know, I didn't mean for that to happen, but I was afraid I would lose Mei and Bao. I did not have time, the only way was to give you power over her, and I did it quickly, crudely." Rhys took the time to examine Sandy's emotions, following the bonds back to Thea and through her to Mei and Bao. He grimaced at what he saw. The bonds between Thea and Sandy were thick, like a solid heavy chain, and Sandy's symbiont appeared larger, more ferocious if possible.

"It has made me stronger," she said, enjoying the feel of his body against hers. The satisfaction and triumph were evident in her voice. The feeling of power excited her and the symbiont. "The shackles are stronger to you though. You have bound me more tightly, but they are somehow different," she breathed in his ear as she rubbed herself against his hard body. Sandy reached down to find Rhys' cock already becoming hard. "It excites me knowing I have to obey, that you have chained my mind to yours, to your body.

The brand I wear and the ring you put in me are all outward signs that you own me, but the chains on my mind are the strongest, and I love them. Sandy threw open her mind, sucking Rhys in. She felt him filling her mind as entirely as he filled her body. "Yes, please, Rhys," she begged as Rhys' cock sank into her depths; command me, I am yours." The dragon mark on her hip glowed brightly, the fire searing her, pushing her arousal out of control, and Sandy reveled in the feeling as the flames of her passion spiraled higher and higher.

Afterward, Rhys lay on the edge of sleep, pondering the implications of the evening's events. The AI's warning had been clear, but it was silent now, refusing to acknowledge him. That was a problem for tomorrow, he decided. The dragon, though, why did that happen, and what did it mean? Why physically shift? What was the purpose? He had felt power surge through him when he changed, and the bonds he had added to Sandy's mind were different. He could see them in his mind, chains that seemed to burn with fire.

The previous ones were bonds between symbionts, but this one was not. These bonds had nothing to do with the symbiont; instead, they were chains on Sandy's mind, binding her to him, unique from the other girls. He had not even known how to do that; it must have been a reaction to dealing with Thea. He had been prepared for Thea; he had expected a response, but he and Sandy had underestimated Thea. Still, he could have dealt with her but for the unexpected problem of Bao and Mei, giving Sandy the power to deal with it had been necessary at the time.

Another thing he remembered was faintly sensing other immature symbionts when he had climaxed in Bao. That had to be Mika, perhaps Nelya and Yaneta as well. They had been there in the resulting hurricane of emotions, weak still but enough for him to sense. Rhys raised his hand, looking at it, remembering the change in his body. Concentrating, he watched in amazed as his hand shifted into a claw, like something out of his imagination. Rhys felt fatigue overtaking him, and the claw returned to the familiar shape of his hand. Exhausted, he decided he had no idea what this all meant as he finally drifted off to sleep.

Across the world in Tel Aviv, it had been six in the morning when Mika woke and screamed as an intense orgasm had torn through her, followed by a strange burst of energy. "Rhys," she moaned as his smell and taste flowed across her lips. She thought it felt so real as if Rhys was with her, but it must have been a dream. A strange dream indeed. Rhys had been half-man, half-dragon, and he had been taking her from behind