A Strange New World

Out in the universe there are millions and millions of life forms. On one particular blue planet, there are hundreds of thousands, but only a very few with intelligence. As they turn and spin around their sun, they are oblivious to the other existences in the blackness of space. Unfortunately, a small group at a place called Haven will not remain that way for long.

The green fields of grass were inviting to the new arrivals to Earth, the air fresh and clean. They were sure they could find hosts here. Their planet was gone, they were all that was left. Intelligent spores, all working together for the revival of their race, but they needed to reproduce, there were so few of them left. For that to happen they needed warm beings of at least moderate intelligence. They prayed to the great space winds they were there.

They floated on the air currents till they were sucked into a deep warm cave, full of places to stick. They landed, and started their tendrils seeking out the thinking centers of the creature, their forms doubling in the effort of reproduction.

Arania sneezed as she breathed in a little too hard. She never felt it as it started melding with her, taking over her slowly, relying on her knowledge of the world. She walked into the house, eyes darting, yet oddly blank, devoid of emotion or thought. She looked around and knew the men in black were of no use to her.

As she crossed the hallway, she felt like she was floating in blackness, her real self looking through a window to the world. She found what she needed in the solarium, the owner of the house, sitting alone with the blinds drawn. She felt the spores growing inside her and knew she had to buy a little time.

"Greetings Angel." She tried to make the voice cheerful as she approached.

"Hi Ari. What’re you up to?" She motioned for her to sit. As she took her spot beside the woman, she felt the spores breaking off, the children were ready for a new host.

Before Angel could protest, Arania wrapped her arms around the woman and kissed her roughly and crudely, passing the spores from her own mouth and nose into the other woman. She maintained the hold for almost five minutes, increased strength easily holding the struggling woman down till she became passive, eyes going blank.

The invasion had begun.

They looked at each other and nodded. The first was the queen, she whose orders must be obeyed. The presence inside Arania’s mind decided the next would be the one known as the lioness. They would have to take her together, but once that were accomplished, they would have the run of this dwelling and command of it’s funding. They discovered as they probed their hosts’ minds that money was an essential thing on this world, a foreign concept to the invaders. They closed their now green eyes, attempting to quell the new appearance, as they wished there to be no suspicion, but when they reopened them, they had not changed.

~~Unusual, the eyes of these beings refuse to change back to their previous color. We will have to do the remaining subsumations such that the new hosts will not notice this detail until too late.~~ The Queen determined.

Angelhost responded with merely a nod, still trying to assimilate the new data. After a few moments, the Queen had reproduced again, her roots producing more spores through the warmth of the mouth and nose of her host. Within the hour, they had found assimilated the Lioness, who had fought as much as they predicted.

They rested, gathering their strength in the warm dampness of the lioness’s jungle inside the barn, all of the animals sensing the strangeness in the women, running as far as they could in the enclosed space.

Later that evening, MusiKai and Disco hunted everywhere for their mistresses, when Genesis found them.

"Brothers, have you seen my lioness?" Disco and Mus looked at Genesis and each other.

"Add her to the list, neither of us have had any luck finding any of the women of the mansion. Come to think of it, when was the last time you saw the good doctor or any of the other living at all. None of them came down to dinner."

After resting in their new bodies for the night, the Queen knew what had to happen next, but oddly, she felt torn. She was enjoying the sensations in this new body, but a growling noise coming from her stomach overrode any of her plans. She knew from her host that the body was hungry, and unless it was fed they would not be able to do anything. The children all nodded their agreement, their hosts were experiencing "hunger" as well.

The queen took the two oldest of the symbiotes and headed for the kitchen.

~~We must ensure we have something we can do with these…dead men before we attempt any conversions outside this dwelling. There are too many of them in the place known as Kaitown for us to assimilate all of the potential hosts without notice. The answer may lie in the medical lab, and the lab of the one known as DiscoKai.~~

Angelhost and Ketanahost both nodded their agreement. As they entered the kitchen, and the two younger hosts prepared food for the brood, the Queen settled in a chair, and was startled as she felt the mind of her host trying to communicate with her.

Inside her own mind, Arania had constructed a sort of fortress, a castle. Outside the castle was a wide pasture, and it was there the invader chose to meet her.

"Why are you awake?" The Queen inquired. "By all rights you should be dormant, sleeping."

"Like I know." Arania answered shortly. "Why are you stealing our bodies? You didn’t have to do this."

The Queen paced slightly, eyeing up the person in front of her. "We need hosts to survive. Your bodies serve well as hosts, so we took them over. We could have destroyed you, but chose not to."

"We might as well be dead, we’re certainly not living." Arania tried to get the invader to understand how she felt, but got nowhere.

"That is as it should be, these bodies are now ours, whether you like it or not." The Queen shrugged. "Do not interfere, and I will not destroy your mind completely."

"Why can’t you just live with us, peacefully. We could work together, you could experience life through my body, and we’d both have access to the knowledge that either of us have. Please at least think on this." Arania tried to plead with her.

"Perhaps, but I must focus now on procreation and a way to take over the remaining beings in this house. Good bye."

Arania found herself in the tower of the castle, trapped again within her own mind.

As the food was gathered, the Queen was startled from her contemplations by someone entering the kitchen. BladeKai looked around, and saw the three Ladies of the house gathering an extraordinary amount of food.

"Is there something wrong Ladies? Going for a picnic?" BladeKai asked as he crossed the kitchen to gather food for that night’s supper.

"You could say that." All three answered in unison, their voices identical.

Blade looked from one to the other, eyes widening as he saw the changes in them. As the spores took hold fully, the women’s skin took on shades of gray and green, their eyes becoming solid masses of green, with that of the queen being the richest and fullest in color. He tried to slowly back out of the room, but found himself wrapped in vines that were as thick as his arms. They led back to the body of Arania, coming from her stomach. He gasped, startled, and tried to use his brace to cut through what held him.

The Queen shrieked as the vines were cut, and they retracted into her body. The others turned from the fridge and faced Blade. He decided to retreat from the room, and gather his brothers to tell them what had happened to their ladies, and decide what to do.

Seizing the opportunity, all three took as much food as they could carry and returned to the remainder of the brood in the barn jungle.

Fifteen minutes later, the Kais were gathered in Disco’s office. MusiKai, Sparrow, Genesis, and BladeKai all sat around his desk. Blade retold for the third time what had happened in the kitchen.

MusiKai frowned. "There is something wrong with them. Even with her new skills, she had never sprouted anything from her body before."

Disco nodded his agreement. "But the question remains what is wrong with them brother. Obviously it is something that only effects the living. If it didn’t I imagine you would not be sitting here telling us what happened." He looked at Blade.

"They were gathering a lot of food. I am willing to wager that all of the living from the mansion are...infected, for lack of a better word." Blade sat forward. "Perhaps the cryopod diagnostics could determine what it is, if not it should be able to freeze it in place until we can figure it out."

Mus nodded his agreement. "But we have to find where they are first. Any ideas?"

Genesis frowned. "I have searched the house high and low since yesterday and not see hide nor hair of my lioness or anyone else for that matter. The only place that remains is the animal clinic and the barn areas."

They decided that Blade would remain in the house to warn the others, and they would watch all entrances, taking any of the living immediately to the cryochamber and put them in stasis. The others decided that they would remain together to search the barn and clinic.

The feline host heard the Kais coming before any of the others, and as such all of the invaders knew instantly. The queen decided the male hosts would remain to distract the ones coming while the females would retreat. Their imperative above all else though was to protect the Queen.

As they went out through the rafters, creating a small hole in the roof, they heard a scuffle below, and knew the others had been captured. The Queen was right in her gamble though, she could tell that the hosts would not be hurt. She could feel them being moved into the house, and instructed them not to fight, herself and their "siblings" would find a way to retrieve them.

The women left the barn roof, and headed for the woods behind the mansion. The lions there sniffed them out, and they were chased once more, losing all but the first three to the clones as they went, the others were too slow.

As they rested, in a secluded cave, their eyes met across the dirt floor.

"They are frozen. The others are dead." The Queen stated simply. She was beginning to feel the edges of an emotion called worry inside. "We must find a safe place to hide and plan to try again. This time we have to disable those clones first."

"You’re losing you know." Came the voice from deep within the mind of the Queen’s host. "There are only three of you left, and Ketana keeps fighting your control."

"Shut up." Was the response, and Ari grinned.

"The offer still stands, you can live with me in this body, and enjoy what humanity has to offer. There are dozens of foods out there to try, emotions to sample. You could try them all through me." Arania kept prodding her mind with the offers, showing her things she’s done, foods she’s enjoyed.

"Leave me be Damn you!" The Queen grew frustrated with this distraction, the other symbiotes watching out the cave door for signs of life.

"The Kais won’t let you go, not without my protection. They will hunt you down and freeze you, like the others, and kill you. Then I will have my body back."

The Queen laughed. "Oh, but not if I kill it first. I will do that should it become necessary. So if I were you I would watch what I said."

They were taken by surprise, and the Queen only barely managed to escape being put into the cryopod, but here she stood now surrounded by Kai clones. She looked form one to the other, standing on the roof of the mansion.

"If you come closer, I will throw this body off the edge of the roof, she will die." The reaction she received from two of the clones let her know this was both an effective threat and that they were her clones.

"Don’t do this." Arania pelted her mind with images and options. The Queen was torn, if she agreed to this then she would not be able to produce more of her own kind, but if she didn’t this host would be likely to be killed, and as the last of her kind her race would die.

She continued watching the men around her, eyes panicked. She was limited in her options, but her threat had bought her a precious few moments to decide. She lowered her head, resigned to her fate. She would not let her kind die off completely. She accepted the offer given to her by the woman and allowed her control of her mind once more.

Arania looked up to see MusiKai and Sparrow glaring at her. She knew their looks were reserved for the invaders.

"Mus…Sparrow…I’m all right." She said holding her hand out to them.

"Prove it." Glowered the clone in front of her.

"Gladly Mus." She held her hand to him, and he grabbed it roughly, eyes glowing white. After a few long moments he grabbed her and kissed her deeply and thoroughly.

Sparrow watched this. "I take it that is a yes.."

An hour later all of the residents of Haven sat around the dining room table. They were talking and comparing notes. The other living were well again, their eyes and skin back to their normal color. When they were released from the cryopods, they had gotten ill, spewing a green viscous fluid out of their bodies, cleansing themselves of the remainder dead spores within them.

Ari stood at the head of the table, her eyes also returned to normal, but she had green streaks in her hair.

"I am glad all of you are all right. The queen chose to live in me rather than causing any harm to anyone else. She apologizes for what she did though, she now is starting to understand us more. I wouldn’t blame you should you choose not to forgive her, but I could not knowingly let her die, she is the last of her kind, much like the original Kai."

As the Kais tended to their ladies, Ari settled again in her seat, and watched them all. BladeKai brought out a wonderful meal to help replenish their strength. The rich smells filled the room as talking resumed. Once more things at Haven were back to what could be called normal.