Alien Mine Ch. 16

Rhys thought for a minute, trying to judge how the symbiont felt. He could feel it on the edge of his consciousness, but the girls were right; its growth had been faster than expected, and Mika had responded to him as if the symbiont was already influencing her. Rhys looked at the almost comatose naked woman sprawled on the bed. It had been an inspiring night, and Rhys had lost track of how many times he had come, and in who. The girls had been diligent in feeding all the cum to Mika, and she had opened her mouth and swallowed without question. Her breasts had begun to look firmer, as did the rest of her body.

"Her clitoris has enlarged as well," Sandy said as if reading his thoughts.

"Ok," Rhys said, coming to a decision, "let's plan for next weekend, Leslie; make sure to block requests for meetings or anything else next week and keep her schedule clear if we can. Amancia, you are staying here, so you will have to stick close to her as possible, and let me know if there are any problems, and don't let her go to a doctor."

"Ok, but what about tonight," she said, looking restless.

Rhys looked at her and Leslie. "Now, I want you two to interlace and go hunting; let us know as soon as you find something." Rhys felt the interlace snap into place, the familiar set of emotions that identified each of the girls instantly interweaving into a more complex pattern and something entirely different. He sensed instant hunger in them; predators finally turned loose, straining at the leash.

"Yes, Sir, '' both said together in the same tone. Then, standing up together, they walked over to the closet and pulled out weapons and clothes. Rhys still marveled at how they moved, one mind controlling both bodies. They were like sleek predators walking in unison, their movements precisely the same, controlled and deadly. Then, dressing quickly, they walked out the door, into the staff stairwell, and sprinted down to the back entrance, disappearing into the night.

Sandy looked thoughtfully at Rhys, thinking about what she was going to say. She knew he wouldn't like it, but the interlace between Amancia and Leslie and now with Mei and Bao provided unique advantages. Usually, Rhys would never send Leslie and Amancia out to hunt the Om. They were good individually, better fighting together, but interlaced there were literally super-soldiers, better than any of them. If she could see the possibilities, then Rhys could too, and now they had a model in Mei and Bao if they could get the mysterious AI to cooperate.

Sandy wondered what an interlaced mind would be like if one of them was hers or if she was interlaced with Rhys. That excited her in more ways than one. What would it be like to make love linked together?

"Rhys," she said tentatively, have you considered the advantages of creating more pairs like that? They provide a significant combat advantage."

Rhys was uncomfortable with the question, and he almost ordered Sandy to leave it alone, but it was something he had thought of himself. No need to be hypocritical. The advantage was obvious, but the long-term implications were unclear. "I have thought about it," he admitted after a moment of silence, "but we don't know how stable the interlace is yet. The two pairs are so different, and their creation both times were accidental."

"I agree, but if we understood what happened between Mei and Bao, we could reproduce it, creating more combat teams. I understand the moral dilemma, but maybe it can be distant cousins," Sandy said cautiously. "

"And if it's not, what if it only went wrong because Mei and Bao weren't close enough genetically? What if it requires closer relatives, sisters, mother/daughters. I am not sure I am willing to do that."

"I know, but how big a jump is it morally from assassinating the President and breaking up Anita's marriage. We need the best Rhys; more but less effective soldiers means more casualties."

Rhys looked at Kiania. "I agree," she said. "If I had a sister, I would volunteer. We all have made sacrifices and will have to continue to do so. We are just starting the battle; who knows what we will have to do to win. I think it is worth considering. Just think if we could put an interlaced pair in each of our normal human squads. The normal human teams' combat effectiveness would triple at least."

"Let's see how these work out first. I haven't ruled it out, but I am not casually making a decision like this. If I keep breaking my moral barriers, where will it end? I have no desire to become the alien monster we would all fear."

"We understand, Rhys, and it's your decision, but think about how many may die if we do not pursue this, '' Sandy said.

Rhys often felt Sandy was like a dog with a bone that wouldn't let go and growled at anyone trying to take it away. He was saved from having to answer by Mika's soft groan as she rolled over and started to wake up.

Sandy sensed his reluctance to pursue the subject, so she would drop it for now. She knew Rhys could see the logic and the need; he just needed time to reach the correct conclusion. Looking down at Mika's naked body, she smiled sexily at Rhys. "Feel up to another round?" She said aloud, reaching down to caress one of Mika's nipples that rapidly hardened even in her sleep.

Rhys felt himself getting hard again. Perhaps the girls were right; he seemed to need more sex lately.

***

Leslie/Amancia slipped out of the hotel, disguised as hotel staff. It was one in the morning, but it was time to hunt Om or look for any signs of the parasite. Disguised, each was heavily armed, and they wore light armor. Under the scarves covering their heads was a flexible band that, when needed, would wrap their heads and faces with light armor protecting them from the parasite.

They moved swiftly in the darkness, running through the deep shadows, Leslie finding and rerouting any security cameras as they went. Bird drones, black as the night, circled high overhead for now. Running through the alleyways and streets, they searched the area around the hotel, but finding nothing, they began to work their way back toward the central city. Stealing a car, the Amancia part of the Double Ds drove while the other let their senses search the night. The interlace magnified all their abilities; if there were Om in the vicinity, they would find them.

The interwoven minds let part of their intelligence lapse into self-examination as they searched. This introspection of their duality often happened, but they had yet to draw any conclusions. Only seventy percent of Leslie's symbiont had survived the Om attack; the other thirty percent had come from Amancia, carrying her programming and unique to her DNA. They had nearly died as the symbiont from Amancia had forced itself into her DNA, but it had worked. The result had been this interlace, but it went much deeper than that. Leslie now had thirty percent of Amancia's personality even when separated. At first, Leslie had fought the strange new feelings and had been surprised when she reacted in different ways than she would have initially. It scared her, losing that much of her old self, and she found herself angry and confused, but it was impossible not to love the other part of the interlace. In a way, it was like loving yourself, she had thought, because when they were connected, they were one.

There was also the sense of power that was addicting. The interlace brought a clarity of mind, a razor-sharp focus, and increased speed and agility, even greater than Rhys. However, he warned them about developing a sense of invulnerability; they were superb warriors, better than anyone else, but not gods. "You can be killed just like the rest of us," he had warned them.

It would have been easy to fall into that trap, believing themselves unbeatable, but Amancia was too grounded, and Leslie had experienced her own failures and was determined not to be overconfident. Nonetheless, there was something else, the pair thought, a smile coming to their faces. Amancia's submission to Rhys was ingrained in her symbiont from the beginning. Her natural desire to be submissive had been emphasized and locked into place. That part of the interlace would be submissive to Rhys no matter what.

Leslie now had those instructions; almost a third of her symbiont was programmed similarly. The pair laughed aloud in the car as they considered the confusion caused by the Leslie half of the interlace. That part struggled, even during sex, but it really had no choice. Sandy was much happier with the changes in Leslie, and she delighted in 'encouraging' the submissive need in her. Leslie struggled against the feeling but was not strong enough, especially when Sandy would wrap her hair around both of them and give orders, followed by strong hits of pleasure when they obeyed. It was an old game to Amancia, and though Leslie fought the joy in submitting, she always lost the battle; even worse now she looked forward to it.

"But it's not enough, is it," the pair to themselves. "I know inside I want more, much more, but I can't give in to those desires; it would change us too much." Those desires came from Leslie, needs that were buried deep. Desires that would be considered dark, darker than she wanted to admit. The interlace knew everything, but it would never willingly reveal those to anyone, even to Rhys, unless he commanded it.

Their introspection was interrupted, and the pair's focus narrowed to a single point. "Om," they whispered together. The two women shivered, their motions precisely the same as the world slowed and their senses became even sharper. "Rhys, we have found it," they both said.

Not an apartment this time, for that they were glad, but instead a medium-size two-story metal industrial building. There were shipping containers nearby, but the purpose of the building was not clear. They assessed the city plans and found the building. Tanim, shipping, the name meant 'wave of the sea,' an appropriate name they thought. The smell was strong, and they listened for any Om communication. The binary split up, one part going a different way, circling the structure, building a 3D map integrated into tacgrid. There was only the wide delivery entrance or a normal-sized door just to the right, and it was likely the Om knew they were here.

Pulling their rifles from under their clothes, Amancia tossed an explosive charge at the large door; better to go through a wider area. The explosion kicked the door inward, and the bird drones immediately followed. "Trangrods Rhys," they said, and the drones promptly targeted two of them. Each drone exploded as it touched a Trangrod, driving a metal spike through the armor and into the ground.

The rotten fetid smell was still there, and they could taste the communications between more of them. Parasites! Four, at least Leslie guessed, and the pair threw themselves in different directions as familiar shapes jumped out of the broken door. Simultaneously five more Trangrods burst from the upper floor window. The world seemed to go sideways as the Trangrods opened fire and rounds pinged off their armor, but combat reflexes took over. Leslie and Amancia moved quicker than the Om roaches could track them, and dodging the fire, they leaped over one of the containers.

Glass from the surrounding buildings shattered and broke as automatic fire ripped through the street. Leslie and Amancia took cover amongst the shipping containers, taking turns drawing fire while the other one attacked. Amancia put her rifle around the corner, sighted, and saw a dark shape scurrying close to the ground, its movements weirdly less like a biomech and more like a lifeform. Two grenades, one with metal spikes that exploded just above it with a proximity fuse deriving small tips of Drans metal through the armored carapace, the second one explosive that blew it apart. The other half saw the approaching danger, and Amancia whirled, extending her sword, cutting through one of the parasites. It fell in two pieces, cable-like arms still flailing. Amancia killed a second one with explosive darts that burned the remainder of the one she had cut in half.

Leslie fired a hammering burst at another Trangrod, ducked return fire, and then popped out the same time as Amancia, the two of them taking the creature in a crossfire. The Trangrod staggered and slowed, lost pieces, then exploded as two more grenades hit it. The explosion demolished any remaining glass in the vicinity, tearing up the walls of adjacent buildings just as the last of them found them. It took them under fire from atop another container, but the drones were faster, and the final Trangrod was nailed to the top of the metal container.

Leslie noted the calls for police but was too busy defending herself from the last parasites to block them.

Om parasites were quick, but the interlace was operating much faster. It was like they had all the time in the world, and the flailing arms were met with fiery darts that exploded as they hit, and Drans metal swords from two hands for the one closest to them.

More Om, they could both feel the evil taste, the palpable smell in the air. Shit, they thought together, looking frantically around for the threat. Then there was a high-pitched wrenching, tearing sound of metal from the other stack of containers, and one of the new larger Trangrods burst out.

"God Damn it, Rhys, we need support," two voices said as they ran, using long fifteen-meter jumps to put buildings between them and the giant insect-looking Trangrod. The weapons they had would not penetrate the armor of this one. Amancia used her last drones to distract it as they raced away.

Mika felt languid; her whole body seemed to tingle with the aftermath of great sex. She had never had so many orgasms, and her body felt like it couldn't possibly move again. She snuggled between Rhys and Sandy, feeling comfortable in that place of twilight just before she fell asleep. The drift into blissful sleep was broken suddenly when Rhys and Sandy vaulted from the bed and ran impossibly fast across the room to a closet, pulling out guns and what looked like armor. Jarred awake, Mika sat up in confusion as they squirmed into the armor, grabbed their weapons, ran across the room, and climbed out through a window, disappearing toward the roof.

Speechless, she looked in disbelief as Kiania did the same. Instead of following Rhys, though, she stayed. There was a strange-looking rifle in her hand, and Kiania's attention was focused on the window where Rhys had gone. "What the hell is going on," she finally said, staring at the weapon in Kiania's hands. "What's happening," she asked a little hysterically, her heart suddenly beating rapidly.

"Get dressed, and get over there away from the window," Kiania said in a firm but calm voice, never taking her eyes from the windows. "Hurry, we need to be prepared to bug out of here, she added, slightly grimacing at her joke."

Shaking off her confusion and responding to the tone in Kiania's voice, she jumped out of bed and began to pull her clothes on. "No, not yours; in the closet, put the bodysuit on first; it's bulletproof." If there was time, Kiania would get Mika into armor, but she expected to be under attack at any minute. The roaches could climb right up the wall of the twenty-story hotel and swarm in through the window. Kiania thought that was more likely than coming up through the building.

"What's happening," Mika said again as she tried to figure out how to get into the bodysuit and why she was suddenly in danger. For God's sake, Kiania was a vice president of a corporation; what was she doing dressed in armor and carrying a gun, she thought, trying not to panic.

"Trangrods, alien biomechanical killing machines. They are here and are probably looking for us, and you," she added ominously.

None of this made any sense to Mika, but Kiania's words penetrated her confusion, and she tried to push back the panic that was trying to overwhelm her. Flashbacks of being taken hostage and someone holding a gun to her head froze her ability to move or think.

"Stay calm, breathe slowly, but move," Kiania commanded; they will be here soon if they are coming. Get dressed, please," the last one added calmly.

Mika shook herself and forced her panicked breathing to slow, which cleared her head enough to put on the bodysuit, and then into some kind of uniform.

"Here, put this helmet on," Kiania said, sticking something on Mika's head. Mika jumped in surprise as the helmet sealed around her face, leaving just a clear area in front of her eyes. Kiania grabbed her arm, pulling her quickly down the hallway toward the door, but it burst open, two men rushing through before they could get there. "Get behind me," Kiania said calmly and let go of Mika, trying to move in front of her. Mika screamed as one of the men lunged for her, but a sword appeared in Kiania's hand, and with a flick of her wrist, Kiania cut off the head of the leading assailant, blood spurting several feet into the air from the still-standing torso.

Before the body could fall, something exploded out of his chest and reached for her with a long cable-like tentacle. Mika tried to duck, but it was too late. Kiania's sword was moving to cut it in half, but the Om parasite was quicker, dodging the blade and reaching for Mika. But the nanobytes Kiania carried were even faster, and they knew this threat well. The small space between Mika and the symbiont filled with a silvery cloud as a tentacle reached for her, and the creature screamed like a soul in hell, the floor reverberating with inhuman shrieks as parts of it dissolved. Kiania's sword was a hundredth of a second late but still cleaved the remainder in half. They fell toward Mika, dissolving into nothing as the nanobytes broke apart the molecules.

At a command from Kiania, a drone swooped down from the ceiling and dove through the second man's body, blood splattering the wall behind him. Kiania paused, her sword ready as the man's chest also exploded outward, blood coating the room. Mika was frozen in place, but the sword moved quicker than she could see, slicing something into pieces. Darts flew out of Kiania's arm simultaneously, exploding into fire, burning the men and whatever that thing was.

Mika's brain refused to function, and she couldn't move even though Kiania was telling her they had to run. Before she realized it, Kiania had picked her up and thrown her over a strong shoulder. Mika was carried at an impossible speed through the flames spreading in the room and into the stairwell. They went down several flights of stairs before she was suddenly dumped on the hard cement floor.

"Get back," Kiania said in a voice like ice.

Mika scrambled to her feet in time to see something from a nightmare coming up the stairs, firing a weapon. Kiania dodged behind the stairwell and then popped out to return fire. Explosions knocked Mika back, terrified but still on her feet; she could see a creature through the smoke that looked like a giant armored insect, with blades on its forward legs humming with power. Kiania had killed one, but there was another right behind it. Mika knew she should run, but there was nowhere to go. Sure she was about to die, she turned her head as more gunfire and explosions ripped through the stairwell.

"Time to go," Kiania said calmly, taking her hand and stepping over the remains of something. Then, with disbelief, Mika saw shredded parts of the monsters that had attacked them scattered across the stairs. Her stomach rebelled at the sight of pieces of what appeared to be flesh and metal bonded together that were leaking a dark fluid of some kind. Gagging at the sight and smell, she stumbled forward, holding onto Kiania until she saw three armored figures climbing over the rubble in the stairwell. "Rhys," she shouted, recognizing him even in the armor, throwing herself into his arms.