Larva: Terrible Progeny

Chapter 1

Into the stack they repelled on lines descending from the silent Stealth Class Hunter Chopper.  The Chopper would hold position for exactly fifteen minutes before dropping the lines and leaving, all troopers would be assumed dead or captured and there would be no rescue attempt.  It was a quick in and out mission, Tybor Harbest, Squad Commander of the mission touched ground and instantly detached from his line and made for the ichor dark edges of the stack…the booby-trap Death Chamber as the Stack had been titled after viewing the video that a large number of bugs had died in delivering.  Tybor Harbest had been one of the few individuals to sit through the entire unedited video and if the bugs though witnessing the demoralization of human captives and namely that kid, who had guided reporter Rufus Jones, would frighten them, they had been terribly mistaken.  Though the full video had not made it out to the grunts certain excerpts of it had been released to play on the sympathies of the soldiers and fire up their blood.  Here in this Death Chamber every soldier recalled witnessing the boy try to self-terminate with the booby-trapped soldier and he or she thought that it had been a pretty noble attempt on his part.  Course, most hadn’t seen the entire video, hadn’t seen the kid get reamed in the kitchen (that’s what the kid had called it and so the name stuck), or when he and Rufus had got it on, or later when the tank fucked him so Tybor Harbest was more inclined to think that the kid had been reconditioned by the bugs into being their personal sex toy…and that at some level the kid enjoyed all that attention.

Of course, the kid was why they were here within the bugs’ hive using their GPS locators to make their way to the crèche where it was assumed the kid would be at this point, getting bred like a good little mare.  The President wanted his grandson either back or dead; those were the only two options.  Thanks to Rufus’ reporting and some deep space scanning they had a pretty detailed map of the hive and having picked a time when most of the bugs were dormant they had so far unrestricted and undetected access to the place.

Once his entire team had repelled down Tybor gathered them up with a roundup signal and said softly, “Ok this isn’t a bug hunt.  This is a simple in and out mission.  We rescue the kid or if that isn’t possible we terminate him, now according to the kid he should be in the crèche right now, so that is where we are headed.  We go in silent, and we get out silent.  Were under a time limit people so let’s muster.”

He gave another signal to start them moving; they had two additional precautions to work under.  Rule one: See a bug shoot a bug.   Rule two: Get separated or lost, then stay lost; they all knew that this was a no-rescue mission.  In double time they made their way from the death chamber toward the crèche, the tunnels were silent and empty at this time of the night, with many of the bugs dormant, though they did terminate a couple that had the bad luck of crossing their path, but they hadn’t encountered any Tanks or Soldiers and the bugs they did encounter were easy kills.  It took little time to find the crèche and fan out into the eerie chamber, there was a low mist hanging along the floor, while the bugs dangled from the ceilings above the vapor line.  The whole scene looked like something out of a H.R. Giger nightmare, and it was hard to differentiate between the bugs and the human bits that appeared here and there in the mass.  Tybor gave the silent order to check out the human mares to find out which of them was Kris Solarin, the President-General’s missing grandson.  He did his own looking and saw for himself the disgusting marriage of bug and man where the nursery tube exited from the human male’s body.  Of course, even more disgusting was how so many of males he saw looked grossly pregnant with their guts severely distended by the eggs they were presently nurturing.  The plan was to gas the entire crèche when they went to pull Kris out of it, since the operation would require some cutting they didn’t want any live bugs suddenly squealing in alarm or terror, so once Kris was located everything in this room would be terminated—looking at the human mares or crèche’s as Kris had called himself Tybor was pretty sure that the humans here would be relieved to die.

A softly whistled Fweeet signaled the squad over to one of the soldiers as he pointed upward into the mass, “Think that’s him.”

Tybor glanced up, recalling that in the video the upper portion of the head was protected by the saddle bug so he couldn’t see the eyes to be certain, but that fair skin and slim young body even distorted by eggs couldn’t belong to anyone else…besides he thought he’d recognize that pretty mouth anywhere.  The kid was well into the breeding cycle and his belly was fully distended with eggs, also eggs marched along in the long heavy womb attached to him; and with a cursory glance to the end of the womb bug Tybor was pretty sure another fully developed egg was nearly ready to deliver, which meant a nursery bug would be coming to collect it so they had to move fast.

“Verify.” He ordered.

The same trooper who had recon’d the kid shot a bore grapple up at a visible portion of stone ceiling closest to the kid’s location; in seconds he had ascended the attached line and reached over to touch the youth while simply asking, “Hey, you Kris Solarin?”

The boy gasped, and though he couldn’t move because he was restrained, he did open his mouth and utter a breathy, “Yes.”

That was all Commander Harbest needed as he ordered, “Mask up!” Even the soldier hanging at Kris’ side fastened his own mask in place before leaning over and pressing a mask over Kris’ exposed mouth and nose.  Just to be sure he also sprayed a sealant over the exposed portions of the chitinous black carapace since the boy might be susceptible to the gas through his symbiote and if they killed him while trying to rescue him, while that would just look bad now wouldn’t it.  Once the trooper nodded, the gas canisters were released and they quickly vented their contents…anything that was a bug…died almost instantaneously.  That was all it took, with in seconds Kris was being cut loose, first of the nursery bug, of which eggs in its long channel tube plopped out of the drooling end to thud and break open like rotten fruit.  Next Kris was cut free of the saddle bug and very gently he was lowered down to the waiting troopers.  Instantly, with their target in hand they mustered back for the Stack and surprisingly they met with resistance all along the way, instead of one or two bugs, they met groups of them coming through passages, attacking from over head, and Commander Harbest noticed an strange occurrence, wherever Kris was, the bugs made a special effort to reach him and yet at the same time control their violence, thereby protecting the boy from injury.  And Commander Harbest used that coincidence to further his troops’ escape by holding a grenade at the boy’s back and making sure the soldier bugs were aware of it so that they would back off and not attack.  Whatever he could do to get out alive was good for him, besides it wasn’t like Kris was aware of what he was doing.  The boy had gone into a stupor almost at the start of the EVAC and now he was moaning softly and twitching a bit as if he were in pain or something.

They made it back to the Stack and hooked into the drop-lines for the lift out of the hive.  On the ascent a few more of his soldiers were plucked off the lines, but any close to Kris were perfectly safe and he made certain the bugs were aware of his willingness to use the kid as a shield against them, which did slow the bug attacks considerably.  In no time they ascended back into the belly of the Stealth Chopper and to make things ever more interesting for the bugs they dropped a payload of incendiary bombs down into the Stack before they streaked out of the bug’s territory.

While they were on route Kris, who had been fretting and twitching for a time suddenly went into violent convulsions and though it took a few moments to realize what was going on it soon became all too apparent that his body was trying to rid itself of the length of womb bug tube still remaining inside his bowel.  Two perfectly formed eggs close to the mouth of the tube (and the boy’s exit) pushed free, one egg was slightly smaller and less developed then the other, but nonetheless the boy saw them and even in the throws of intense agony he cried insistently that the eggs had to be destroyed, but the eggs were ignored as the boy’s body struggled to eject the tube and it took long sweat drenched minutes before the medic trained troopers assisted the youth in expelling the long thick length and by that time Kris had mercifully fainted.  There was a lot of blood and clear ichor both coming from the boy and the tube, they weren’t certain if or how badly the kid might be hurt, they suspected that a lot of eggs had been crushed with in the tube during the convulsions and hoped that the blood came mostly from them.  Knowing, no matter what the boy had wanted that the base scientists would want to examine the eggs and the bug tube they gathered it all up and placed everything in a Bio Containment Bag.

They arrived at the heavily fortified base 20 minutes after leaving the hive, and five minutes after the kid had passed out.  Quickly the boy was wheeled into the Base Medical Center and there a series of scans and tests were run, the first to determine if the boy still had any eggs with in his bowel, of which the scan revealed twelve, growing steadily toward delivery…the medics surmised that the eggs had survived the kids powerful convulsions because they were still small enough and had not entered the tube yet or if they had they had been close enough to the mouth of it (as the other two had been to the exit) to be safely ejected back into the kid’s squeaky clean bowel.  The tests also revealed that the Bugs had tampered with Kris Solarin’s DNA, for the boy, despite appearances was not wholly human anymore, he had bug DNA, though they couldn’t classify which bug since it almost seemed a soup of bug DNA.  They also discovered in their scans that unlike regular manants that though Kris’ symbiote had implanted control tendrils into the boy’s brain, that the symbiote’s brain was not controlling the boy, rather these tendrils had awoken new paths and communication centers in the boy’s brain and created entirely new circuits that had the scientists speculating if Kris was could telepathically communicate with the bugs, since many of them they knew communicated non-verbally.  Kris’ symbiote, curiously enough was completely dormant, showing nearly no activity in its own tiny brain, it was alive (otherwise Kris would be dieing right now) but it was not plugged in, in fact it was wrapped around the youths thigh and seemed as if it planned to stay that way…it was the medic’s who suspected that the symbiote must go dormant during the breeding stage…since it would destroy anything that it found in its warm snug home.  That was interesting and they took test samples from the symbiote too, sealing the small drill hole they had made to extract their sample with quick drying glue, so that the symbiote wouldn’t die before it was able to repair the small hole in its flexible shell.  Just to be safe they also fastened a binding strap around the symbiote, the same kind used on an electrically shocked symbiote that had temporarily released its more normal manant host.  But Kris, as he had explained once, wasn’t a manant; he was a crèche and that apparently made the difference.  The binding strap wasn’t the best solution, since the symbiote could break the strap and damage anything in its path to re-implanting; however both the medic staff and scientists felt that the symbiote would remain dormant until Kris had completed his breeding cycle which according to Kris lasted 10 days.

Meanwhile because they worried that the weight of the growing eggs could rupture Kris’ bowel they moved him to a saline tank where they intubated and masked him and also secured his wrists so that he couldn’t pull his drip lines out if he went into convulsions again.  Then they monitored him and waited.  They had opted not to try to surgically remove the eggs since they were still deep in his bowels and they could do more harm to him this way then by letting his body handle them as he had already before, the only difference with this breeding cycle was that Kris didn’t have the nursery tube to protect him when the eggs reached his large bowel, when the eggs themselves were large enough to maybe rupture him while they continued to grow.  But they could only trust that the boy’s body could manage the eggs.

With Kris temporarily taken care off, the medic and science teams turned to the samples Tybor Harbest’s team had brought back with them.  They found to their surprise that one egg was still viable, and the larva inside was still very much alive, they speculated that the egg had survived because of the moist environment it had been placed in since it had be sheltered by the length of nursery tube.  As scientists carefully examined the tough leathery egg a decision was made to allow the egg to continue its development to term, since they still had another egg to examine and the kid had twelve more within his body also for further examination if necessary.  That decision made it very likely that all of Kris’ eggs would be allowed to develop to term.  Still the egg would require an artificial womb to continue in, so they examined the nursery tube, made some educated guesses and prepared a special oxygenated saline and electrolyte bath to nurture the first egg in, placing monitoring probes on its leathery surface to watch for signs of stress or other problems. 

They turned to the second, smaller egg, this egg was not viable and the larva had died in transit, it was surmised that it was because the larva hadn’t been at the right growth stage for its second stage of development when it had been ejected from Kris’ body.  Because the larva was dead anyway, they cut open the shell and revealed that the larva was actually a fetus that combined human and bug characteristics as well as DNA.  Though much smaller than normal the fetus looked to be an infant at the three-month growth stage and it looked disturbingly human in the shape of its body and head, which meant that these bugs would be basically humanoid.  Furthermore they were developing with their symbiote already as part of them, growing as a single unit and not two disparate entities; and this symbiote was already plugged-in.  In testing the fetus’ DNA they determined that it was part soldier bug and it already had faint stripe patterns developing on its arms and legs.  Though smaller than a normal fetus at the 3 month stage, the creature had been developing at the same apparent rate, but so quickly that they wondered how soon would the other one reach delivery growth stage, in days obviously?

After thoroughly examining the fetus they moved on the reexamine the nursery tube, specifically to count the number of crushed eggs, they also asked how many eggs the troopers had seen in the womb bug and then by adding the number Kris still carried they reached a conclusion that at least 10 or more eggs had been safely delivered to the Bug nursery and were probably right now developing under bug supervision.  The soldier’s observing the scientists realized that this revelation made them very nervous, though they didn’t know why.  But what the Scientists found was that Kris’ larva went against the standard, they had retrieved other breeding crèches and eggs before and though occasionally a different bug was created from a union of human and bug the rule was still the symbiote bug, they had determined that there were at least 4 types of symbiotes…but of all the larva that were created by mixing human and bug DNA…the scientists were quite sure Kris’ were the first to actually combine Human appearance with human ingenuity and intelligence.  And if Kris always sired the same sort of larva then there could already be approximately one hundred Hybrid offspring maturing in that hive.

One of the scientists spoke for all of them when he observed grimly, “We should destroy the kid and that egg before all hell breaks loose.” Of course, if there were 100 or so hybrid offspring developing back at the hive, then maybe it was already too late.  They grimly looked toward Kris, slumbering peacefully in the saline tank while his twelve hybrids continued to grow and develop within his body and more than one feared that within that quiescent boy they were looking at the extinction of the human species…for he could be the precursor to a new kind of evolution, one of which the humans could find themselves horrendously outclassed.

***

Kris awoke all at once, he wasn’t sure exactly what had waked him, but he’d awoken with a vague sense of pain and fear combined.  He realized almost at once that he was floating in a water solution and the growing awareness of pain and pressure in his gut told him that he was still carrying those terrible eggs.  He tried to moan his denial, and that was when he realized that he had been intubated for he couldn’t make a sound.  His face was also completely masked to keep the fluid out of his eyes and nose, but he could cry, and did as the reason he had been awoken finally became clear as he felt such awful pain bearing down between his hips.  It hurt so bad that he wanted to scream and being unable to all he could do was strain and thrash and bear down as he fought his restraints and the agony of delivering a first stage egg without the nursery tube protecting him.  His pain and thrashing sent off the alarms which brought medic staff and scientists running to see what was going on, he could only try to tell them with his eyes, how very painful what he was going through was, but they quickly seemed to understand.  He didn’t even struggle as the shifted him over onto his side, so he could draw his legs up against his stomach in this position, which helped him bear down.  He hardly felt as something slimy was rubbed over his bulging anus, something which numbed him and relaxed the ring of muscle and then hearing them say (even though the water), “Give him something for the pain!” he quickly found himself floating away from his pain and into a soothing lethargy.  He was aware that his body was still bearing down, he was aware of some pain as the egg finally spread him open and then he felt relief as the egg pushed free and as his body relaxed while he wondered if he would be going through this again in less then an hour.

The medical staff took the egg and cleaned the blood and lubricant carefully off its surface before transferring it to the same bath the first was developing in.  They entered the time to second egg went into the solution…it was almost exactly six hours younger than the first egg.

Over the next twelve hours Kris delivered the final eleven eggs, each with gaps of anywhere from 45 to 70 minutes between deliveries.  By the delivery of the fourth egg, which was slightly larger than the others had been, Kris lost total consciousness and was unconscious through the rest of the deliveries, but his body still knew what to do and each egg was passed successfully though there was always bleeding which was worrisome since they didn’t know how badly the boy was being damaged and couldn’t safely check while he still carried the eggs.  As the final egg went into the solution and it’s time was recorded as 18 hours younger than the very first the scientists looked at the 13 eggs sired and carried by Kris and wondered if hell had descended down upon them on that day.  Tybor Harbest who also looked at those 13 eggs thought something else entirely different; in them he saw a special troop of hybrid soldiers raised and trained by humans to terminate bugs… it was perfect justice as far as he was concerned.

Once scans determined that Kris had indeed delivered his last egg and that his normal body functions were starting to re-align they moved him from the tank and back to a bed where he could be examined again.  In scoping him they determined that he was only injured in his rectum and anus were the straining to expel the eggs had torn him, but he was not ruptured through and nor did it appear that his bowel was damaged.  They treated the worst of the internal tears and decided that he would be intravenously fed until he had healed so as not to risk a serious infection.

Within minutes of finishing their examination Kris was readied for EVAC off the planet because the bugs were headed toward the Base in droves.  So as the army of bugs descended upon the Base Kris and his clutch of thirteen eggs were being taken off the planet.   As the smaller ship docked with a large battle cruiser the bugs swarmed the Base.  While Kris and his terrible progeny were being secured for the trip deep into human territory the Base retaliated and those that had escaped from the Base with Kris and his brood witnessed in silence as with a terrible mushroom cloud that bloomed into the stratosphere the Base self-destructed.  They knew that the base was gone, the attacking bugs with it and the toll of human lives remaining on the planet would have been horrendous, but what made it even worse, though a good portion of the planet would be eradiated by the fallout, they couldn’t be sure that the hive, which was a good distance away would even receive a tiny dose of radiation.

***

“Doctor Kowalski, Number 1 is showing signs of stress.” Kris heard that (a female voice) on the edge of his consciousness as he was starting to wake up.  He had no idea what the woman was talking about and in his lassitude he didn’t really care either way.

A male voice responded (Dr. Kowalski?), “Then Number 1 must have reached its 3^rd growth stage, remove it from the solution and let it continue its development in the oxygen rich tank prepared for this.  Monitor and record everything, especially watch for continued stress and now that we have a timeline for the second stage we’ll be ready to remove them before they get stressed.”

“Yes, doctor.” The female voice said and Kris heard her steps hurrying away as he was opening his eyes.  He blinked and yawned and stretched, and in that stretch he discovered that one of his wrists was restrained to the bed he was laying on.  He could move it just a little bit, maybe about a foot away from the bed, possibly so he could hold things, but otherwise he was definitely restrained. 

Puzzled by the restraint and having drawn someone’s attention he asked, “Why this?” he pulled at the restraint to show it to the male who was just standing there looking at him, and when he didn’t get a response he repeated, “Why am I restrained? Did I do something wrong?”  He couldn’t see how he could have possibly done anything that would lead to him being restrained, but he didn’t really understand very much at the moment.  The only thing he did know was that he was no longer in the hive.

The white coated male approached the bed and smiled faintly, “Now that you are awake we will take the restraint off, it’s just that while you are sleeping you might be susceptible to bug influences…being as they tampered with your brain and we have no way of knowing what you might do.  You could try to suicide as many freed manants do, or you could try to return to them.”

Incredulous, Kris stared at him and shook his head adamantly in denial, “I wouldn’t!  I wouldn’t do that!”

“Yes, well, we can’t be certain of that.” He peered at him thoughtfully, “Of course you are different.  The bugs really tampered with your brain.” He stepped away for a moment, while Kris was left to digest that bit of alarming news, and when he had returned to the room he was accompanied by a nurse and a large man in a military-like uniform complete with badges of rank on the shirt pocket, stars on the lapels and chevrons at the shoulders and on the cuffs too.  The nurse, a dark haired young woman, approached to release Kris’ wrist from the restraint, while the military man just stood scowling in the background.

“Wha—what do you mean they tampered with my brain?” Kris wondered as he sat up while rubbing his wrist. He knew that being manant’d meant there was a certain amount of brain alteration, after all four big tendrils drilled right into the brain at the base of the skull, which enabled the symbiote’s brain to control the human brain.  But those tendrils were simply that control mechanisms like the nerve tendrils that took over and replaced the spine function as the body of the symbiote married with the human spine.  But he also knew that as a crèche he didn’t get the final stage of the symbiote implantment, for the symbiote’s brain did not take over his brain functions and it never released the internal tendrils to enwrap his spine from inside.  He was free to think and move on his own, unlike a manant that was completely controlled by its—his—symbiote.  He blushed, considering a human that had been manant’d an IT was just wrong…and yet that human, once he was manant’d lost all personality, individually and even pretty much became a neuter although he though that they might still be able to function sexually though he was by no means certain of that fact, for of all the ways he had been punished, the bugs had never thought to have him raped by a manant.

It was the military man who answered, “We think that the bugs can sense you and you can sense them.  We think that you can sense them right now.  Can you?”

Kris stared at him in fright, in the hive colony he had been surrounded and overwhelmed by bug presences, he had never been far from any bug even when he slept in the gardens there had been bugs all around him, so he had simply gotten used to their presence and was sometimes aware when one or more were coming toward him even if he wasn’t watching for them, but that didn’t mean he could sense them.  “I don’t—I don’t know what you mean….” He evaded fearfully.

The military man stomped past the doctor and nurse and grabbed Kris by his arm.  “Liar…you know perfectly well what I mean.   We haven’t left bug space yet and they have been tracking this ship— only this ship you understand, so they damn well sense you being here, and funny thing is they won’t touch this ship…’fraid they’ll hurt their little freak mare I guess.”

Stunned by the military man’s verbal and physical assault Kris shied back as the big male loomed menacingly over him and with shameful tears prickling at his eyes he pried at his trapped wrist while pleading shakily, “Please…you’re hurting me.” He was also frightening him, but Kris couldn’t admit that.

“Yes,” the doctor finally uttered, moving in to separate the military man and Kris, “That’s quite enough Commander Harbest.”

Commander Harbest backed off with a disgruntled huff and stood once more with his arms crossed while scowling at Kris.  Warily Kris looked back at him.  The commander’s eyes were icy blue and his short cropped hair, the color of rich dark coffee, framed a strikingly handsome face complemented by a strong chin, wide cheekbones, and a broad lightly lined forehead, while his sensual mouth was at once both cynical and cruel.  He strained the chest and sleeves of his crisp white shirt with muscle and looked as if he could do the same to his heavy navy slacks.  Everything about the male was menacing and overpowering.  Feeling disconcerted Kris looked away when the doctor tsked over his reddened arm and turned to scowl at the commander though he didn’t say anything.  The nurse briefly reappeared to apply a cooling medication to the reddened skin and then the doctor, tilting his head slightly, asked, “Are you certain you can’t sense the bug presence out there?”

Kris wanted to shout “NO!” but he hesitated as uncertainty overtook him, because he did seem to sense something…except it wasn’t out there as the doctor indicated.  Finally, he shook his head, though his hesitation had both the doctor and the commander frowning at him.  Seeing their speculative and plain disbelieving looks he finally shouted, “I don’t know what to think!  I don’t know!”

He felt a sudden prick at his neck and slapping the nurse away in alarm he cried, “What did you do?”

The doctor grasped his arms lightly, drawing his attention back to him.  “It’s just a tiny injection to dull that overactive area of your brain.  Now what do you feel?  Anything?  Any sensation at all?”

Kris gasped softly, for now he was aware of only emptiness, where before there had been awareness of something nearby, he no longer felt that.  “I—I don’t feel anything now.”

Commander Harbest snorted, “Meaning that you did before, I told you.”

The doctor huffed and stroked Kris’ cheek, “He probably had no idea what he was sensing commander, why should he?  But the presences have gone away for now and we have been giving you this treatment every six hours…which is about as close as we can manage without causing you damage, so you will feel the presences return until we truly leave the bugs behind.”  He watched the boy as he looked up at him with those big lovely brown eyes of his and he smiled encouragingly to alleviate the boys growing fright, “You don’t need to be afraid of this gift you have, once it has been trained properly you’ll know when bugs are in the area well before they attack and you’ll be able to sound a warning.  Also you will be able to sense roughly where they are and the greater the presence you feel should tell you how large the attack might be.  What we would like is when you can feel them that you let us know where you are sensing them…in what direction and whether you sense a lot or a few.”

Kris nodded helplessly; glad that the sensation had been dulled, but he was still alarmed how the dulling of that sensation had actually told him that he was sensing the bug presence.  “But…I don’t remember any of this while I was in the hive.”

Again the doctor patted him, this time on his cotton gowned shoulder where his gloved hand lingered a moment making Kris wonder at his familiarity, “That is probably because you were so utterly surrounded by bugs that you sensed them all the time and didn’t know that you were.  Why should you have known…you can’t possibly know what they did to your mind?” He frowned then and looked at him thoughtfully, “There is another thing, we know many of the bugs communicate by means other than verbal and body language… we suspect some of communication is by scent…but we also think that they also communicate mind to mind.  Could you hear the bugs with your mind?”

Kris paled, and feeling apprehensive he whispered, “I could.”

Both the doctor and the military man merely looked satisfied with his answer and Kris had a sinking feeling that he was going to become a military asset whether he wished it or not, after all he could sense and speak to bugs, he could more than hear them in his mind, he understood their language.

 “Well anyway, I’m sure you’d like to get up, and maybe get something to eat, you must be hungry since you haven’t eaten in ten days.  How the bugs managed that I’d like to know.”   The doctor muttered, shaking his head before continuing, “We have a nice cafeteria in the clinic and not too many patients so you should be able to get anything you like.  Oh, and by the way I’m Dr. Kowalski and this is Nurse Janice, we have be taking care of you.”  Then he went to lift the blanket that lay crumpled on Kris’ lap, and Kris frantically grabbed the edge to hold it down.  Dr. Kowalski smiled faintly, “I just want to see how you’ve healed… by the way how do you feel?”

Kris could feel that his symbiote was snuggly plugged-in again and he didn’t want the doctor to see that but because he was a doctor he finally relented and lay down again, parting his legs so that the doctor could see for himself. 

“I…see.” Dr. Kowalski murmured after a moment, “It’s no longer dormant.  Janice when was the last time the symbiote was checked for dormancy?”

Nurse Janice referred to the chart and noted smoothly, “Three hours ago, it was still dormant at that time.”

“Hmmm, then I assume you have completed your breeding cycle?” Dr. Kowalski asked while inquisitively arching a brow.

Kris flushed, and stammered, “I-I….”

Again a slight squeeze to his shoulder and then, “Ok, up you get.  I guess since you’ve been out of it you really wouldn’t know when your cycle ended.  Your recording said that it took ten days to complete, so we we’ll simply assume that you’ve finished the cycle.”

With help Kris stood up, he was a bit wobbly on his feet and he found that he was still slightly sore even though he knew the symbiote would be releasing hormones to encourage his body to heal faster.  He wondered how many eggs he had had within him, he vaguely recalled delivering 4 before he passed out and he was amazed that he had survived even those four without the nursery tube to protect his bowel during the final stage of development.  But knowing he’d delivered at least 4 eggs he was worried about what had happened to them afterwards.  Glancing at the doctor he asked hesitantly, “The…eggs?  What happened to them?”

Commander Harbest answered in his hard yet condescending voice, “They’ve been taken care of.  You don’t need to worry your—you don’t need to worry about them.”

Kris stared at him, suspecting that the commander had meant to say something else entirely and had stopped himself at the last minute.  He also didn’t like the way the commander had said “taken care of” which didn’t automatically mean the eggs had been destroyed, though he hoped that was the case but he was too afraid to ask for verification even though he wanted too.  He just didn’t like the man, he seemed so harsh and cruel, and Kris had dealt with too much cruelty in the last few months and weeks within the hive.

As he pulled on a robe over his hospital gown he asked, “How do I find the cafeteria?”  He wasn’t really all that hungry, the saddle bug and his own breeding cycle had taken care of his need for nourishment as well as controlling his other body functions during the cycle, but it did allow him an excuse to do something other than stay in the room.

Nurse Janice gave him the directions, “Go left out of this room, turn right at the first crossing corridor, and go down that corridor, take a left at the next crossing and that will take you to the cafeteria.” 

The instructions didn’t sound too complicated and Kris didn’t think he’d get lost, but Commander Harbest grunted, “I’ll take him.”

Kris looked at him in surprise, and anxiously insisted, “I can find it, I don’t need any help.”  Least of all his!

The commander smirked at him and said crudely, “Doc might be willing to let you off the hook, but as far as I’m concerned you’re still a threat.”

Kris just couldn’t figure how the commander could see him as a threat, when without a doubt the commander was far more threatening.  But he knew better then to argue with these military types for his short stint in the army and his experience in the hive had taught him the beings with authority tended to want to be obeyed immediately or the consequences could be painful.  Sighing he stepped away from the bed and let the commander fall into step with him. 

For a time they walked in silence and Kris looked around the medical or hospital area he was currently residing on.  It looked just like one would expect a hospital to look like, with the walls and everything done-up in boring colors and all of it stinking of sterile cleaning solution.  Dr. Kowalski had been correct, for it seemed as if there weren’t a great deal of patients in the rooms and wards, though there were a few and some of them did notice him and nod or scowl at him in passing.  He didn’t know what the scowl was about, unless it was because if his bald pate, actually, he raised his hand and lightly brushing it over his scalp he felt a light fuzz, so his hair was starting to come back, had he been in the hive the bugs’ would have already dealt with his returning hair.

However as he started to take a left hand turn, the commander’s hand suddenly bit down on his neck, pinching the symbiote and turned him in the opposite direction and away from the cafeteria.  “What are you doing?” Kris protested while pulling against the man’s hold as it hurt even with the symbiote somewhat protecting him.

“Shortcut.” Commander Harbest grunted, pushing the boy on ahead of him. 

“But the cafeteria is the other way!”  Kris protested, struggling to pull away, but the commander held him with embarrassing ease.  He found himself being hauled into a room that looked like a doctor’s office, with all the normal things one would find in a Doctor’s office; a desk and chair, shelves full of books, and a large oval viewport window, though this window showed a myriad of stars it also revealed that the ship Kris was on was traveling in a convoy of other vessels.  He had only a moment to notice these things though as he was pushed toward the desk and Commander Harbest closed and locked the door behind him, while saying, “This office will be empty until they can find another doctor to replace Dr. Brentwood…the bugs killed him.”

Kris stared at him fearfully, still panting from the stress of being so fiercely manhandled into the room.  After a moment he steeled his nerves enough to ask, “Wha-what are we doing here?”

Commander Harbest closed the distance, grasping Kris around his carapaced hips and lifting him up onto the desk.  “Do you know…that we are being exterminated kid?”

Startled by the man’s bewildering actions and not really listening Kris asked worriedly, “Ah…wha-what do you want?”  While growing more afraid as the big male loomed over him. 

The commander smirked, “Do you know that the military still owns your pretty ass?  You’re still a private, Private Solarin.”

Kris shook his head dazedly, having heard the commander describe his ass as pretty just made him feel dizzy.  “I’m underage,” he gasped apprehensively.

The commander laughed at that while his hands moved under Kris’ robe, lifting it up away from his legs and pushing the gown up at the same time while Kris’ breathing began to become very agitated.  “Underage…oh I think that after what you’ve been through that you’re more than old enough.” 

Anxiously pushing at the commander’s offending hands “Please…” Kris whimpered fearfully, while feeling his heart pounding furiously in his ribcage.  “Please, let me go.”

Those cold blue eyes locked with his and the commander loomed closer, making Kris cringe back, “Why?  I saw the video Kid.  I watched you get fucked over and over again.  I jack off watching the tentacle bug ream you.  You just loved that one didn’t you; it felt really great didn’t it having all those gooey tentacles probe your ass?  You like it don’t you?  You sure looked like you loved it when the Tank fucked your ass with its tongue.” 

Kris shook his head, crying in denial, “No…it wasn’t like th-that…” while tears streamed unnoticed down his ashen cheeks.

Commander Harbest lifted his hands and pulled the robe and gown up revealing the boy’s carapace clad body as he cried and shivered in front of him.  Even with his hips and shoulders encased in the chitinous black armor the kid was just as beautiful as the recording had promised.  He’d seen the kid totally naked already, since he had been involved in his rescue, but his body had been distorted by eggs then, now however with his body recovered he was every bit as lushes as he remembered.  He reached out and ran his hand over the youth from his chest down past his navel where the two thin pieces of the body armor nearly touched over his smooth belly and downward to his groin.  The boy trembled and cried out as his hand went lower, then he pushed at him again and sobbed, “Please no!”

The commander moved lightning fast, catching the back of the boy’s head and wrenching him forward, “You let Rufus Jones touch you there.” He growled fiercely.

But that distracted Kris away from his fear as he exclaimed excitedly, “I never knew his name, I didn’t ask.  Is he ok?  Did he make it?  He must have if the video made it out.”

Cruelly Commander Harbest snarled, “The video made it out, but Rufus Jones didn’t.  He’s dead, the bugs killed him.”

Kris just stared, unable to comprehend what he had said.  He didn’t care, the boy’s mouth looked so damn luscious and pretty that he wanted it, just as he wanted the boy’s pretty androgynous body.   He claimed the boy’s mouth in a demanding and cruel kiss, and was lavishly enjoying himself before he realized that Kris was crying in deep heart-wrenching sobs.  He drew back from the boy, genuinely surprised as he sensed it wasn’t even his assault that had the boy crying like this.  Indeed once he released him; Kris curled over on his side and just wept while covering his face and hugging his knees against his body.   After a time the boy sobbed heartbrokenly, “I didn’t know, I didn’t know!  I thought he was alive!  I want him to be alive.  He w-was my f-friend.”

Commander Tybor Harbest did not soften; he still desired the boy and he still wanted to make him pay for the lives his rescue had cost, but at that moment, as the boy cried real tears of grief over someone whose name he hadn’t even known until just moments before he relented.  He picked up the boy’s gown and robe and tossed it loosely over his bare body, assuring crudely, “We’ll have this talk again later.”

Kris wasn’t listening, he didn’t care what the commander had been doing to him before he’d found out that his friend, Rufus Jones the reporter had not made it out of the hive after all, when that belief was all that had sustained him through his time in the crèche.  He was utterly devastated and he cried for a while longer before he quieted and then, the commander watched as he silently redressed and he even took him to the cafeteria, only by that time Kris was still so despondent that he genuinely wasn’t hungry.  Kris went back to his room and his paleness and his lethargy worried the doctor, who put him back on the intravenous drip and induced him to sleep again, which was fine for Kris, he didn’t want to think anymore, his friend was dead and now he had a ranking officer after his ass as well.

***

The rest of the journey went quietly for Kris; he stayed mostly in his room and took his meals there too.  His melancholy over Rufus Jones gradually faded though thinking about him still hurt, and unfortunately Commander Harbest did visit him much too often for his comfort but other than learning inadvertently that the commander’s first name was Tybor, the commander didn’t do anything except ask him questions to test his sensitivity between suppression shots, and ask him questions about how a certain bug might react to a certain stimuli or chemical.  Gradually because they moved further from bug controlled space he became less aware of the bug presence nearby though he knew if there was going to be an attack before the bugs attacked even if his sensitivity was being suppressed.  But finally they moved beyond the range the bugs could easily foray from and his awareness just faded to only the edges where something tickled and bothered him as if there was a small presence lurking just beyond his ability to sense it or as if the presence just wasn’t great enough to do more than tease him.  Once he asked if there were captured bugs on any of the ships in the convoy and though the answer was a guarded no they risked overlapping his suppressants until he nearly went into a coma on them.  After that they stopped his suppressants almost completely and started testing him to make sure that they hadn’t harmed him by telling him that they did indeed have a few captive bugs, on this very ship in fact, and they wanted him to try to locate exactly where they were.  It became almost a game for him, trying to pinpoint where the bugs were being kept, but he was able to sharpen his ability and hone in on them just the same.

Around the sixth day after he’d first awoke on the ship the bug presence suddenly sharpened by one and he had a sickening feeling that it was looking for him as he had been looking for it.  “Something is different,” he hesitantly told Tybor Harbest who had remained with him even after the alarm bells had rung and his doctor had ran off in the middle of a seeking session. 

Tybor Harbest was not his friend, he was still wanted to hurt Kris in a myriad of interesting ways, but he also wanted to use him and his affinity to the bugs so hearing the worry in Kris’ voice, Tybor asked, “Different how?”

Kris lifted those expressive brown eyes and while drawing his knees up against his chest and tucking his arms protectively about himself he whispered, “It’s like it’s looking at me.  Like it’s looking right at me.”

And Tybor knew, from that description that #1 had been successfully born and that it was very much alive.  All along Kris had been sensing his offspring, as they were the only bugs on the ship or anywhere near, and now that one of them was born its sharp mind had already connected to its sire.  He left Kris looking scared and bewildered, as he went down to the temporary nursery that had been set up deep with in the bowels of the ship where Kris’ thirteen little monsters had been growing within their protective shells.  He stepped into the sterile room with its glass divider wall separating the observation deck from the nursery.  A nurse in a biohazard suite was inside the nursery, placing the full size hybrid in an incubator to help with his breathing, although he seemed to be doing ok.

“What happened?” he asked.

Dr. Kowalski, standing with his palms on the glass but only half dressed in his bio-suit said with a touch of chagrin, “He couldn’t break out of his shell on his own.  He went into stress.  We didn’t know that they needed help with the hatching.  Guess the bugs in the nursery must help the little monsters break free.”  He nodded after a moment, “He’s calming down now, but we thought putting him in an oxygen rich environment for a while longer would be good for him.”  Then he sighed shakily and said, “My god, 12 days from conception to birth and he’s a full size infant, he weighs 9.2 pounds and he’s 23 inches long.  How quickly will he and his siblings grow?  How quickly before they all turn deadly?  What are we doing?”

“What we must for the survival of our species.  He and his siblings are going to help us fight their kind.” Tybor muttered, pressing his nose to the glass as he tried to get a better look at the infant.  From were he was the infant looked like an African-American baby by the color of his skin…but something wasn’t right.  “Get her to wheel the incubator over here, I want to see him.”

The baby was perfect in every way, he had two arms and legs and the full complement of fingers and toes, though fingers were talons complete with tiny claws, and he also had clawed feet.  He had tiny segments at all his joints to allow him normal movement and Tybor could see that even his face was going to be perfectly jointed to allow for a full range of expression.  His skin was a dark gray with a pearly luster though his lips and nipples were so much darker that they appeared black, though they also glittered with the same luster, he had gold rimmed blue-gray stripes on his arms and legs and shoulders and hips, and he had a tiny silver crest rising from a ridge that started at the peak of his forehead and Tybor assumed that it ran to the nape of the neck where it’s symbiote began.   Most disconcerting of all, the baby had facetted ruby red eyes that were heavily rimmed with long silver eyelashes.  He was beautiful, and his skin was hardening to its natural chitinous state even as Tybor watched. The color and the luster did not change, and the segmenting which he had seen in the softer skin was still there when the glossy shell hardened, allowing natural movement and expression, though the baby’s face was utterly still and his eyes were locked on some distant spot beyond the ceiling.

“What is he looking at?” Dr. Kowalski wondered, trying to distract the baby who could already see and hear with perfect clarity, but though the baby’s gaze shifted for a moment and those lashes fanned downward briefly, once again he looked up, toward the same spot.

Tybor knew, “He’s sensing his Sire.  Just as Kris sensed him being born…maybe he sensed his fear when he couldn’t break out of his shell.  They are intuned to each other Doc… I want you to keep Kris under for the rest of this journey and keep him lightly suppressed—.”

Dr. Kowalski gave him a stunned look, “But keeping him suppressed sent him into shock!  We nearly killed him!”

“Yes, but how much more of a shock will he get when he senses all 13 of the little monsters trying to find him mentally?  If we keep him very lightly suppressed and in an induced state of sleep the rest will hatch without his being aware and they won’t be kept anywhere near him when we get to earth so they shouldn’t be able to sense each other.  It’s kindness Doc.  I left Kris alone in that room, huddled and scared right now…putting him out and keeping his suppressed will be a kindness, trust me.”

The doctor looked for a moment longer at the beautiful monster, then sighed raggedly and said, “Yeah…I’ll go look in on Kris now.”  He turned away, saying “We have at least 6 hours before the next one is ready to hatch, at least that is constant…with the first we always know how to time the others.”

Tybor nodded, watching the doctor for a moment as he left before turning back to look at the baby.  It was a baby, a monster true and yet clearly a baby in every way.  He smiled as he wondered if the rest of its siblings would be as beautiful, being that this one took after Kris’ humanity in its looks and he didn’t doubt that the rest of the clutch did as well, he also felt with certainty that they would all be beautiful and deadly little monsters.  As if the baby suspected or detected something unfriendly coming from him it suddenly fixed those ruby red eyes upon him and lifted one of its talon hands to press against the side of the incubator, instinctively flexing its little claws.  Then just as suddenly those ruby eyes snapped back toward that distant spot beyond the ceiling and they widened as if the baby could feel its link with its sire being suppressed, at least from the sire’s side. 

Tybor smiled, “I’m going to take him far away from you #1.  You’ll never sense your sire again, I promise you.”

Again the baby looked at him, and the look in its ruby eyes was probably as malevolent as his own expression.  #1 just stared at him as if impressing the shape of his face in his memory; he smiled again thinking that he would enjoy breaking this new soldier to his command, this one and its 12 siblings, and when he finished conditioning them they would be perfect and obedient killing machines.

***

President-General Abe Solarin just looked at his grandson as the boy came toward him.  He felt nothing, seeing what had been done to Kris on that recording had destroyed any emotional ties to the youth, and now, seeing the boy run toward him looking so happy he only felt disgust at the thought of those arms hugging him, that body pressing against him.  The boy looked well, dressed in jeans and a crisp plaid shirt with his short hair glowing like a pale golden halo about his head.  He looked more than well, he was beautiful, the President-General couldn’t deny that his grandson was beautiful, but he wanted to deny that he was his grandson as he remembered images from the Video.

Kris slowed as he saw the loathing in his grandfather’s eyes and finally faltered to a complete stop before he reached him.  All he could think of since waking up in the shuttle to Earth was that he would be home soon with his grandfather where he’d find love and understanding with his only living relative.  But as tears welled in his eyes and his throat tightened painfully Kris knew that he’d never find acceptance here.  Brokenly he asked, “Why?  Why did you order them to rescue me if-if you can’t bear the s-sight of me?”

The President-General gave the youth a haughty look, “It would have been better if they had killed you…but no matter, you’re here now and the army believes they can make use of your…new talents.”

Kris flinched, and a tear slid down his cheek, “It’s not my fault, Grandfather. I didn’t ask for any of that to happen.  I didn’t!”

Again a cold look and then a callous, “At least your father died a man.”

Kris sucked in a breath and screamed furiously while trying to hold back the tears, “MY FATHER DIDN’T EVEN KNOW HE WAS HUMAN!  HE DIED A BUG SOLDIER IN A BUG WAR!” A second later he was reeling and stumbling back while cradling his stinging cheek.  His grandfather, who was a big man, stood there inches away from doing worse than slapping him

His grandfather snarled, “At least he wasn’t fucked by every bug in the fuckin hive!”

Kris sobbed, sagging to his knees; his homecoming that he hoped would be so wonderful was turning into a nightmare.  He hung his head, trying not to cry and shame himself and gradually he calmed himself and pushed back to his feet and glancing beyond his grandfather at the big house he had been so happy in once he asked tonelessly, “I trust I still have a bed at least?”  He didn’t wait for an answer he knew his own way around that house.  He strode past his grandfather, still working to contain his tears, but once he was out of sight of the man, he ran for his room and flinging the door closed he sought solace in his bed, while clutching his pillows as the sobs and tears washed over him and drowned him with hopelessness.

Hours and hours later, after the supper hour had come and gone and he was finally hungry enough to go look for something to eat he wandered through the silent house, first to the kitchen where he found some leftovers and nibbled on them although everything tasted like ashes on his tongue.  He then wandered out to the attached conservatory which at night reminded him of the gardens back at the hive, with night blooming flowers, silvered foliage and plashing water features.  He sat down on a bench and looked up through the glass panes overhead at the starscape above, he sighed deeply and forlornly telling himself that he would make the best of it, he was home after all and the bugs were a long way from here, and even if his grandfather despised him surely he still had friends who would want to visit with him, and he had school to go back to, and college to prepare for, so it couldn’t be all bad.  Though as tears stung his eyes anew, for his grandfather’s loathing and disappointment was very hard to bear. 

He sighed and hung his head; his heart just hurt so much.  That was when he noticed a moth, hovering just above one of the night-blooming flowers.  He caught his breath, he knew that there were butterflies and bees in the conservatory, but he had never seen moths before.  He held out his hand and the silvery creature alighted on his finger.  He smiled and said softly, “Well at least you don’t hate me.”  The moth fanned its wings a few times then settled peacefully; only a few moments later it fluttered up and flitted away as a new intruder came into the garden.

Kris looked up as he grandfather stood looking at him; then he lowered his head and turned to see where the moth had gone.

“I thought I’d find you here.” Abe Solarin grunted.

Kris didn’t look up as he murmured, “I like it here.”

“Hnnn…” Abe grunted, then cursed as his movement disturbed an entire swarm of moths, “Damn bugs, they’re fuckin taken over the galaxy.”

Kris tried not to laugh, “They’re just moths, here to drink the nectar of night-blooming flowers.”  

“Well, they should all be exterminated.” His grandfather muttered belligerently.

Kris didn’t say anything, though the very idea was ridiculous, the Earth needed insects to help sustain it, destroying them would be stupid and pretty much impossible, unless of course humans destroyed themselves in the process.

After a moment Abe said, “Well since I couldn’t find you earlier, Commander Harbest called me regarding your status in the army, since you were and still are legally underage to have ever joined and you lied—.” He shook his head, “That doesn’t matter.  At any rate…I don’t want you going to the front ever again.  I don’t want—.” Again he shook his head, “But I will let you work for the army to help interrogate bugs and help detect bug recon units and stuff like that…so tomorrow the commander will be sending a car to pick you up for your first bug interrogation.” He nodded smartly and then turning away he strode partway up the paved path before he paused again and said, “I just though I would let you know.  And Kris, this is your home, so I expect you to show up for meals.”

Dismally Kris stared after him and after a moment he said softly, “Yes grandfather.”

***

The next day, as promised a car came for him and delivered him to the nearby army base.  A young soldier who blushed every time he looked at him led him to Commander Harbest’s office.  Other military personal watched him pass and whispered amongst each other, sometimes sniggering or making crude and lewd gestures, and though spots of color warmed on his cheeks he kept his shoulders back and his head high.  He knew what the soldier’s blushes were about then and he looked at him coldly and said, “I guess I’m quite the star around here.” To which the young soldier only blushed all he brighter.

The soldier led him directly to Commander Harbest and knocking on the door he announced Kris’ name to the stern summons of; “COME!”

Kris let himself in and closed the soldier out as he stomped toward the commander as he was rising from his desk.  “How many have seen that video?  Every soldier on the base looked at me and—and—,” he shrugged awkwardly, backing away from Commander Harbest’s shrewd smile. “It was…just uncomfortable.”

Tybor smirked, “Not everyone has had the privilege of previewing the entire video…but certain excerpts were shown to facilitate sympathy for the plight of the manants….” He shrugged, “Of course parts of the video did end up getting smuggled off the base and well, we are still looking into it, but the result is….”

“My face has become famous in certain circles?”

Tybor’s grin broadened, “Exactly.” The he frowned, “And in the future remember to address me as Sir or Commander Harbest.”

Kris frowned in return, “But I’m not in the army anymore—Sir.”

Tybor rose, “Ah that’s where you’re wrong.  I told you that we wouldn’t just let you go.  Your grandfather has plenty of clout; after all he is the President-General; so he’s the very head of the military and the government.  But he allowed us to keep you by special attachment.  You are attached to my unit Kid and I plan to use you thoroughly.” He smirked as Kris caught the double entendre there and blushed to his newly come in blonde roots.

Kris looked at him warily and asked, “Is there really a bug?”

Tybor pretended to look insulted, and challenged, “Can’t you sense it?”

Kris shook his head, and then stopped and gasped, now that he thought about it he could feel the thing.  But the presence felt light and fluttery, a little frightened but hopeful for a nice soft place to slump about and graze…it did not feel like a fast and furious or aggressive presence at all.

“What is it?  Where is it?” He asked in succession, confused by the sure feeling that he knew what the bug was and that it was utterly harmless.

Commander Harbest shrugged, “Damned if I know.  First time we’ve ever caught one like it.  We caught it during a night run and the thing didn’t even offer up a decent fight.  It’s just a big green slug with lots of dewy feeler things sprouting out of its massive hump of a back.”

Kris gasped, “A gardener!”

“A what?”

“You captured a gardener bug!  They are completely harmless; they just take care of the gardens in the hives.”

Tybor scowled at the boy’s disdainful tone and growled, “Harmless huh?  It’s a bug.” He grabbed the kid by his arm and pulled him out into the hall.  “No such thing as a harmless bug.”

Pulled along in the powerful man’s wake Kris could only protest what he was sure of, and he was sure of the gardener bug’s nature.  “But they are harmless I tell you!  They don’t hurt anything!  They can’t hurt anything, even their mouth is just a soft pad.”

“Shut up, don’t tell me how harmless it is, tell me what it knows!” Tybor growled, when moments later he was throwing the youth suddenly in front of him and into a room where the soft green tank was being restrained with ropes and prodded with shock rods by the guards standing around. 

Kris stumbled, falling to his knees, and then he promptly cried out as Tybor grabbed one of the prods from a soldier and stabbed it viscously into the bug’s soft side.  The bug heaved and squealed piteously, and Harbest and another soldier only zapped it again.  Kris scrabbled to his feet and ran throwing his arms around as much of that big soft body as he could while yelling, “STOP!  STOP HURTING IT!  It’s harmless it, it can’t hurt anything!  Please stop!”

Tybor cruelly pushed him away, snarling, “I want to know what it knows about the war effort!  I want to know what it can tell me about troop muster.  How many soldier bugs, how many tanks, how many flyers? How many Suicide Bugs?  I want to know everything!” Again he stabbed at the bug, going for one of its pale glistening green eyes. 

Kris, on his hands and knees (he’d fallen again when Commander Harbest pushed him), cried as the bug screamed, “Please, it doesn’t know any of that!  It’s just a gardener!  All it cares about is taking care of its garden!  Please you’re hurting it needlessly!  You’re being inhumane!”

Tybor Harbest gaped at the youth, and then as if to spite him he belligerently stabbed the softly gooey thing again as he growled, “I’m being inhumane?  Maybe you’ve forgotten Private Solarin, but it’s us and them, and you’re supposed to be on our side!”

Kris leaned forward, still on his knees and shouted back, “I am on your side!  But that’s just a gardener bug!  It doesn’t know anything!  You’re hurting it for no reason!”

“Jesus…he’s crying for the bug.” One of the other soldiers muttered, while another added crudely, “He’s probably humped one like it…he’s a bug lover don’t you know?”

Kris felt his cheeks grow hot and he screamed, “Shut up!  You don’t know what it was like!  You don’t have a-a—! You don’t know!  Just SHUT UP!”

Tybor stared at the furious youth, and he lowered the shock rod.  He gestured to the soldiers and said, “Go wait outside.”  The soldiers did as ordered but each sent an unfriendly sneer toward the boy as they passed.  He grunted, “Kid, you just keep burying yourself deeper don’t you?”

Kris looked up at him with tears in his eyes as he said in an aching voice, “No one knows what it was like in there except….” He shook his head and looked down at his hands, which were scraped and bleeding from having fallen (been pushed) twice to the cement floor.  “No one knows…they had no right.”

Tybor nodded, “You’re right.  What they said was out of line and they will be reprimanded for it…but you have to decide what army you’re fighting for kid.  Ours or theirs?”

Kris looked up at him again and sighed glumly, “I already told you I’m on your side.  But it can’t help you, even if knew troop musters it would only know them for its hive…not every hive and—.”

“Then ask it, ask it how many soldier bugs are in its hive, how many flyers?  How many suicide bugs and Tanks?  Talk to it, give me a reason not to turn it into a smear of icky green slime.” Tybor encouraged.

Kris bit his lip, and then he nodded and murmured, “I’ll try.”

Tybor watched as still on his hands and knees Kris went to the bug he called a gardener and sat down in front of it.  He did nothing as Kris extended his bleeding hands, palm up toward the creature and its soft mouth pad snuffled at his fingers then moved to envelope his hands entirely.  Kris was fearless so Tybor didn’t try to pull the infuriating youth away.  After a moment Kris withdrew his hands and lightly began to stroke around the gardener bugs scooped in and flattened face, like the rest of the creature its big face was the same pale pastel green with iridescent tints.  It had three eyes, though one of them was oozing green ichor now, and Kris avoided stroking it around that damaged eye.  In fact there were a few places where it was oozing ichor and Tybor knew that even the soft sided bugs would die of dehydration if their skin of was punctured and not resealed with something to allow them time to heal the wound from within, of course, he had no intention of saving the bug, not even for lovely Kris.

Kris crooned to the bug and spoke softly to it in tones just out of Tybor’s hearing, but Tybor thought the kid was merely speaking a soothing kind of baby talk to the bug anyway, since he was able to catch a word here and there.  The bug, even in its restraints humped forward a few inches and lowered its head onto Kris’ lap and Kris stretched his arms out along its body and pressed his forehead lightly against its suede-soft hide.  Tybor stood back; watching as the kid fearlessly hugged the plump green slug like bug and just shook his head, amazed that a kid who had been put through hell by the bugs could contentedly touch one of them now, even one supposedly as gentle and harmless as the gardener bug.  Tybor knew that he would probably scream like a girl and run for the hills, he grinned ruefully at himself while continuing to simply watch the kid at work.

After a time Kris broke his communion with the bug and murmured dazedly, “I told you it wouldn’t know anything.  This one only cares about its garden, it was outside collecting new moss to repair the damage caused by a rock fall when your boys ran across it and decided to start using it for a pincushion.  It did tell me that on its way out of the tunnels it saw a number of bugs, even some you didn’t list, but it didn’t bother to count the numbers of the same kind of bugs.” He twisted around and looked at Tybor before continuing, “If you really want to know about bug troop mustering, you should order your boys to catch a guide bug or a seeker bug, of course they could try to bring back a soldier or a winged soldier…I think you call them flyers?  But I wouldn’t doubt that the bugs would have to be half dead to be able to control them enough to bring them back.”

Tybor nodded, staring at the kid…and he flipped the shock rod over, murmuring half threateningly, “Maybe I’m torturing the wrong target?  What can you tell me about these bugs? Seekers?  And Guide Bugs?  I think I remember seeing the guide bug in the video, big ugly black brutes, kind of looks like a nightmare version of six-foot ant?  It’s all black, with out any special markings, right?”

Kris nodded, lowering his eyes; he recalled his own encounters with the guide bug with a shiver.  Tybor recalled the scene too, where it seemed as if the guide was trying to kill Kris, that he been during the booby-trap death chamber scene, where the deadly and beautiful (in their own way) soldiers had come to Kris’ defense.  He watched as Kris continued to idly pat and stroke the gardener as if was a big oversized green cat and finally he said, “Come on kid, I’ll take you home.”

Kris rose gracefully; damn his was a juicy mouthful.  Tybor felt his groin itch just looking at the kid. Today he wore jeans that fit his hips and managed to conceal his body armor, and a plain black t-shirt that fit loosely enough to veil any hint of his shoulder’s armor, and his hair which was still coming in was very short and downy soft like baby hair and very fair.  The black of his t-shirt did make his skin seem a bit paler but it also emphasized the soft pink hue of his cheeks and the richer pink of his luscious mouth, and made his big brown eyes seem all the more poignant. 

He took one of the soldiers aside as they came in to stand guard once again.  “Wait fifteen minutes and then off it.  Do it quick and clean, I don’t want Private Solarin to sense its death throws or whatever…”

The soldier sent a skeptical sneer toward the boy who was standing just outside the door and out of earshot to while Commander Harbest was talking with his subordinate.  Tybor growled, “You’re out of line soldier.  That kid is a bonifide sensitive! You get what I mean by sensitive? He mentally picks up the thoughts and feelings of bugs.  So cut him a bit of slack if he gets a bit emotional ’cause a bug is hurting!”  He glared at the soldier and then swept the others into his fierce gaze, “And furthermore, you are to treat him with respect at all times…no more rude comments in his presence and I want any illicit materials concerning him, turned over!”  Of course he knew it wouldn’t work, anymore than having the base swept for pictures and contraband would, for even if he managed to get rid of it all today, tomorrow there would be even more of it on the base.  He was still curious as to how those excerpts had gotten out, the video was being strictly guarded, and yet, still somehow porno shots of Kris getting reamed by tentacle bug, or the tank had made it out, he also knew that there was juicy scene with Rufus Jones, even though Rufus Jones could never have been called movie star quality.  While he was thinking that Kris was movie star quality the soldiers all went to attention and acknowledged, “Yes Sir!” It actually took Tybor a moment to remember exactly what he had said to them to encourage that response before he nodded and grunted, “As you were.”

Since he wanted to talk to Kris, he especially wanted to pick his brain about his bug knowledge he arranged for a driver so that he could sit in the back of his car with the kid and ask him questions.

As it proved, someone should have asked Kris these questions long before, because the kid was a wealth of information.  He described without needing any prompting the different kinds of bug he was familiar with, from the well known Soldiers in both their forms to the Tanks and a few of the swarming menaces that just ripped the flesh of the human soldiers as they overwhelmed them.  Kris simply shuddered and called them Jaws.  But he also talked about the Guide bug, describing that they were kind of like hive traffic wardens and that they helped to maintain the ranks of the bugs… ranks as in making sure that each kind of bug received the care it needed, and that it went to its proper work or rest destination.  Seekers now, when Kris described their appearance were something that Tybor had never seen on the battlefield, Kris wasn’t surprised because the Seekers were kept far from the battle lines since they were the bug version of an empath and a battlefield would just be horrendously overwhelming to the Seekers.  Kris confessed he didn’t know very much about the seekers though one had come to him and crooned comfortingly while carefully stroking him with its forelimb right after he’d made it through his first crèche experience.

By the time the boy finally fell silent and simply turned to look out the window at the passing scenery Tybor had learned about Night Flyers, Assassins, Listeners, and Acid Bombers; he learned of so many bugs that he had maybe only glimpsed on the battlefield that it boggled his mind, and Kris acknowledged that he didn’t know them all and that there could very likely be other types of bugs at different hives through out bug space.  Tybor sat silently; watching the boy as he watched the scenery speed by and his gaze simply flitted from his long fanning eyelashes to his lovely mouth.

It took about 45 minutes to reach the President-General’s palatial home, and with his military credentials and the President-General’s grandson it was easy getting through the gatehouse security.   Once they reached the house though he sent to driver off with his car, while mentioning that he’d call a cab for his return to the base.  Kris looked at him with silent suspicion but didn’t say anything as he led him into the house.

Of course Kris was suspicious and wondering why the commander hadn’t gone back to the base with his car.  He could still remember when Commander Harbest had assaulted him while he had been on the ship and he was half afraid that he was about to get the continuation of that interrupted event. 

The commander asked where his grandfather was today and Kris shrugged, saying, “I think he has a cabinet meeting today.”

Tybor just nodded at the information and hummed contentedly to himself, for if the President-General was off doing his duties as both the head of the colonies and the military then he wouldn’t be here to interfere, and where he went must of the security would also be leaving only a handful of security to mostly monitor the grounds and of course the non-intrusive servants that no one really noticed anyway.  He couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day.

Kris asked if he wanted anything to eat or drink, to which Tybor said a simple no. 

Nervously Kris started showing Commander Harbest different areas of the house, but after a short time the commander halted him with a clipped, “Show me your bedroom.”

Kris felt his scalp tighten.  He asked worriedly, “W-why do you want to see m-my bedroom?  There’s nothing s-special about my room.” He tried to distract the commander by saying, “The conservatory is really pretty and—.”

Tybor caught the boy’s arm before he could continue his tour and said bluntly, “Your bedroom.”

Kris looked at him for a moment then nodded reluctantly and led the man toward his room.  He tried to keep it light as he stepped into his room by saying, “See, I told you there’s nothing special about my room.” His heart however sank when he heard his door close and latch behind him.  He stood trembling and nervously hugged his arms about his body as he waited for whatever the man planned to spring next—while at the same time he repeated over an over that no matter what Commander Harbest did to him it couldn’t be as bad as what the bugs had already done to him.

Of course, thinking that, and then hearing the commander say, “Take off your clothes,” was two different things.  He whimpered and felt tears sting his eyes even as he sullenly obeyed, by first lifting his t-shirt over his head and then kicking off his sneakers.  He hesitated at unfastening his button-fly jeans, but finally he shucked those and stepped out of them too, though he stubbornly refused to remove his briefs. 

In a few seconds Kris felt Tybor Harbest’s hands on his shoulders, even incased in chitinous armor his sense of touch had not diminished.  The commander moved his hands down from his shoulders, sliding them along his back and slid them forward where they bumped into his waist band armor pieces.  Commander Harbest’s hands followed each sinuous piece as it curved around his body and almost touched just above his navel and then they moved down to hook into the elastic band of his briefs.  He shuddered, whispering faintly, “Please—I don’t want to….”

Tybor Harbest ignored Kris’ soft protests as he pushed the briefs down as he slid his fingers within to lightly thumb the youth’s silky pubes.  “These too,” he murmured teasingly as he pushed the briefs down off the boy’s slender and armored hips and left them to slither down the boy’s long legs.  Then with the boy’s bare body pulled back against him he kissed the back of his neck, right along the edge of the black spine.

With his hands on Kris’ shoulders he stepped back to get a good look at his graceful back and found that Kris’ symbiote didn’t distract from his beauty at all, that it did in fact look kind of like a very stylized tattoo running from the nape of Kris’ skull to his tailbone, of course the symbiote’s cocktail was tucked neatly between Kris’ high sweet cheeks, molding itself to fit within his crease perfectly.  The patterning of the armor was interesting too, it spread out in vertebra patterns from the small of the back to the ribs, and once at the ribs it followed the ribs with the same patterning though each streak of armor only went out from the spine for about several inches (it grew a bit longer the higher up the back the black spine went) and then it seemed to merge with and sink into the skin as if Kris’ ribs were actually partially exposed in the back like his spine appeared to be, though he knew that it wasn’t the case, the armor was purely external and for the most part appeared to be decorative.  At the hips, waist and shoulders of course the armor altered its pattern.  At the hips it spread out across the upper curve of each cheek, widening gradually until it reached the sides so that at that point it covered from hipbone to thigh before tapering again toward the front where the groin area was left untouched.  The patterning seemed delicate and lacy but it fit the kid’s skin like a glove and moved with him, and of course, best of all it left most of his lovely cheeks bare.  Tybor thought that if he had to describe the hip armor as anything it looked kind of like a garter belt, at least from the back.  The waist armor was thin and fit once again snuggly to the boy’s skin, moving with him as if it really was just part of his skin, in the back it was a bit wider as it started from the vertebra design, but the ends resting about two inches apart just above his navel came to tapering points.  Interestingly his shoulder armor looked the most substantial, his shoulders were fully capped in front and in back, though he knew that the front just touched to his collar bone while in the back the armor dove down to his shoulder blades and then back up again, but they were completely segmented, allowing the boy to fully lift and rotate his shoulders and flex his back.  Tybor had seen one other breeding mare that had been rescued from a crèche, but he didn’t think that his carapace had been anywhere near so ornate or so spectacular as Kris’ was, for bugs that apparently had no eye for beauty they sure had picked a beautiful boy and decorated him very appropriately to grace their dismal tunnels.  And of course, one other thing that separated Kris from a regular manant was the fact that his groin and genital area was unarmored, for a manant’s genitals were so utterly covered that they were effectively rendered genderless.  Kris was decidedly not genderless nor was he nonsexual, and what the symbiote did to his body only enhanced it.

Having gotten a gratifying eyeful of the youth’s back, he drew Kris against him and moved his hands down once more as Kris shivered and gasped.  He stroked his fingers into Kris’ silky pubis, and peering over his shaking shoulder as soft fuzz caught at his fingers he could see that Kris was a true blond, even there his returning hair was coming back pale blonde without any of the reddish tones that many blondes’ had.  Nuzzling the trembling boy’s neck he pressed his hands deeper into the boy’s silky groin, but though Kris had bore all his touches up to this point, the moment his fingers grazed over Kris’ cringing penis the boy exploded in his arms, struggling against his hold until he wriggled free and managed to, however briefly, stumble away from him. 

Kris did only manage a couple stumbling steps before Tybor caught him again.  As he was spun around and dragged back against the bigger male’s hard body he wailed, “Please!  I don’t want—!”

Whatever the rest of Kris’ protest was Tybor silenced by angrily claiming his pretty pleading mouth in a viciously demanding kiss, yet still the boy fought and pushed against him and finally he tried to knee him.   Tybor was utterly pissed, he spun Kris away from him, though he retained his hold on his wrist and as he pulled him back he delivered a hard swat across his pert bottom.  Then, while still holding onto Kris, he bent to retrieve those discarded briefs and half pulled and half dragged the struggling boy to his bed, where he very quickly sat down and tugged the youth over his knees.  He stuffed the briefs in Kris’ mouth to muffle his cries and held him down one handed, while undoing his army issue belt and yanking it off.  He folded the belt in half and while Kris kicked and struggled to get away from him, he landed the first smack across his pretty cheeks.  The boy’s entire body bucked while Tybor held him and watched as his cheeks flexed and quivered and grew a becomingly bright shade of pink from the strapping. 

Commander Harbest paid Kris ten strokes with the belt before he paused long enough to palm those flexing and pinkened cheeks and allow for Kris’ strangled crying to calm down.  “Now this,” he stated, “was just a little lesson.” He punctuated his words by smacking the belt across those reddened and quivering cheeks again, “As your Commanding officer, I expect to be obeyed.  If I say—Strip Boy—then you say—Yes Sir!”  That time he delivered a slightly harder smack of punctuation across the boy’s bottom so that Kris heaved and sobbed into the gag.  “Do you understand Private Solarin?”

Kris didn’t understand, he didn’t understand any of this—but to stop the burning ache he sobbingly nodded, which earned him another smart stroke of the belt before he was turned over on the commander’s lap and the gag was pulled out of his sobbing mouth.  In mere seconds he was whimpering and sobbing into the commander’s mouth as the man straddled and reclaimed him with savage brutality.

Tybor kept the belt close at hand and reminded Kris of it when the boy protested or balked at his touch.  A light stroking against his skin was enough to have Kris sobbing but cooperative as he claimed his genitals for some lavish attention.  Of course the ultimate goal was to hump Kris until he couldn’t walk straight, but right now his symbiote kept his sweet ass quite chaste and safe.  But it was also thanks to Kris that the scientists had a new direction to follow that might allow for better control of the symbiotes and he definitely planned to test it on Kris once it had been thoroughly pre-tested on less valuable subjects, such as any number of the recaptured manant’s the army was storing in a multitude of prison cells where they could be kept safe and protected from their own tendencies to either try to suicide or return to the hive.  But for now, despite the positive trials the real test was a long way off and so Kris remained regrettably unfuckable.

Kris flung his head back and bit down hard on his lower lip to keep from crying out as the Commander inhaled his penis into his warm wet mouth.  He sobbed, arching his body up and helplessly parting his thighs as the man slid his hand down to massage around his symbiote until his anus throbbed responsively, and even though he knew Tybor couldn’t do anything else to him there, not with the symbiote plugged in, it still bothered him how he responded.  The thing was he didn’t want to feel such sensations, however he didn’t know how to deny them or even if it were possible.  He rolled his head anxiously from side to side while his hips rocked in rhythmic echo to the pleasurable pulses and throbs that man encouraged.  He felt his cheeks pinkening with shame at his helpless responses and he wanted to sob his denial when Tybor stopped pulling at his aching penis long enough to gloatingly say, “See, you do like it you naughty boy.”

He hissed as Tybor reclaimed him, shivering as the man’s teeth lightly grazed his sensitive flesh.  He shook his head, panting at his unwilling response as the man’s unwanted fingers moved from stimulating the very sensitive area around his symbiote to massaging his scrotum instead.  He gasped and tried to blank his mind of the shocking desire to be fucked, but his desires betrayed him though he didn’t utter a word of his need.  Still even though it protected him now, at that moment he resented his symbiote for its interference. Undoubtedly afterwards he would be grateful for its presence but right now it was in the way of fulfilling a need he didn’t even want to admit he had.

That’s why, moments later even with the man’s mouth still sucking him Kris felt such a shock course clear through his body as the symbiote moved.  He gasped and his entire body tensed in surprise as the symbiote’s cocktail slipped free of his body.  Before he could do more than register the unexpected retreat the cocktail returned, plunging its length into his rectum.  For the merest moment he harbored the hope that the symbiote had simply been reseating itself but as it thrust at him again he realized the truth, the symbiote was answering his forbidden need.  “No…noooo.” He groaned helplessly in denial.

Tybor detected the change in Kris and drew back from the boy to gloat again, thinking that it was because of him that the boy was fighting his arousal, however as he lifted away from the boy he couldn’t help but notice what truly had the defiant boy gasping and straining.  It was quite stunningly erotic to witness the boy’s own symbiote plunging his throbbing depths with long pulls and tugs of its slick black cocktail.  The boy heaved and arched up, while rolling his head from side to side as he moaned breathily, “Oh God please… please stop….”  Tybor watched as the boy tried pressing his slender thighs tightly together in an attempt to hinder the symbiote’s stroking attack, which of course failed.  He smiled as he looked along the thoroughly aroused youth’s shuddering length; from his tensely curled toes to his tipped back head Kris was utterly enraptured.  He slid his hand back around the boy’s taut penis, stroking the throbbing shaft as he leaned over and captured Kris’ panting mouth, indulging in a deep heart pounding kiss that Kris unwillingly welcomed.  He didn’t know what had caused Kris’ symbiote to react in such a manner and he was fairly certain that it was unusual behavior for it and that Kris was truly surprised too, but he liked how being fucked by the symbiote made Kris so deliciously responsive.  This was the boy he’d seen being enthusiastically tongue fucked by the Tank and splendidly reamed by the tentacles of the Kitchen bug, this was the boy who had played around with Rufus Jones simply because as he’d claimed he wanted to feel kindness after being hurt so many times; this was the Kris he was expecting.

“Don’t kiss me! Don’t touch me!  Get your hands off me!”  Kris mentally wailed while his rocking hips helplessly matched his symbiote’s thrusting rhythm.  He sobbed against Tybor’s mouth, loathing the man as he took advantage of his weakness.  He clinched his fists and tried his utmost to fight the barrage of sensations assailing him, but he knew himself to be overwhelmed when Tybor’s free hand slid up along his shuddering body and only lightly tweaked the hard little bud of one taut nipple.  He flung his head back, freeing his mouth just long enough to utter a bitter cry of despair before Tybor hungrily reclaimed him.

“I wanted to be fucked and it’s fucking me,” Kris thought numbly, as he clutched anxiously at Tybor’s powerful shoulders, “How is this happening?   I can’t control the symbiote I never could, so why is this happening now?”  He tightly squeezed his eyes shut as he felt a flood of heat pooling in his groin, he tried pulling away from Tybor but the bigger man wouldn’t let him go, all he managed was to free his mouth again and cry, “Let me g-go!  Please!”

Tybor’s response was a throaty chuckle as he easily recaptured Kris’ mouth even though Kris kept trying to pull back from him.  Kris twisted out from under Tybor, though he could not escape his mouth chasing him or his hand gripping him, he sobbed, pushing at the man to try to free himself when every sensation lurched sideways.  He hissed and instinctively tightened his groin muscles in an attempt to hold back his unwelcome release but lost all control when Tybor at last freed his mouth, only to reclaim his penis between his lips.

“Ahg…don’t—!” Kris wailed wretchedly, arching back and helplessly gripping the coverlet beneath him as he instantly ejaculated into Tybor’s hot and eager mouth.  The symbiote kept up pumping into him so that he was pretty much coming with each thrust; he was gasping and crying, while pulling at Tybor’s hair even as his hips rocked to the symbiote’s incredible rhythm.  Only when he jettisoned his last shot into Tybor’s mouth did he sag back, limp and sobbing to the bed and then the symbiote stopped and simply as before nestled placidly within his passage.  He sucked in a tremulous breath as his body gradually relaxed and he was hardly aware as Tybor drew away from him with a final dragging suck on his now flaccid penis.  He felt his heart pounding away inside his shuddering chest and heard his blood pulsing hotly past his ears as he heaved a ragged sigh and utterly collapsed, too spent to even move now.  His shocked mind was still reeling at his being fucked by the symbiote, it had never responded to a need of his in that way before.  It would heal him if he needed it, it took care of his waste, and it would disengage at another bug’s command or during the breeding cycle, but it had never actually answered to him.  As he lay there slowly trying to recover his senses, he surmised that this had been a one time fluke though he knew he would try to make it cooperate with him again.  Nevertheless, he thought with bitter resentment, he hadn’t asked for the symbiote to do what it had done, at least he didn’t think he had.  Yes, maybe part of him had craved what had happened, but the rest of him fervently resisted that desire.  Anger rose up within him as he thought how the commander had assaulted him, he hadn’t wanted this, he hadn’t asked for his attentions and his unwilling response was exactly that, unwilling.  The more he thought about it the angrier he became as he realized that he’d been raped again.  Within the hive, no matter how things had looked on the tape, he had definitely been repeatedly raped, he hadn’t asked to be treated in such a cruel manner and surely he had never deserved such abuse.  It was no different here; as once again he was being subjugated by a power of which he had no control over.

Tybor stretched out on his side with his cheek propped up on his palm.  He was momentarily content and satisfied with this session, for Kris had been everything he’d imagined and more.  He felt an amused smile flirt with his mouth as he recognized the boy’s growing anger even as he lay still so helpless and utterly spent before him.   What a remarkably sensual and beautiful boy he was and how he was going to enjoy teaching Kris who was his master.  He leaned forward and trailed a lazy hand lightly over Kris’ heaving chest while murmuring, “That was incredible.”

He only smiled fondly when the boy found the will to slap his hand away and angrily hiss, “Don’t touch me damn you!”

He licked his lips, tasting the lingering essence of Kris there and his smile merely broadened at the boy’s sulky insolence.  He leaned over the boy as Kris stared up at him with panicked eyes and lowered himself to gently touch his mouth to the boy’s pleasure swelled lips.  Or at least that was his intension, but Kris pulled back and made plain his displeasure with a fierce open palmed blow to Tybor’s cheek.

The blow stung but it really wasn’t that big a deal, he had certainly taken harden hits in the past; it was Kris’ insolence that he finally reacted to.  Before the boy could flee or strike him again he had him pinned to the bed, kicking and struggling wildly.  He pressed downward once again to claim Kris, savagely silencing his protests with a brutal kiss while Kris’ wrists twisted frantically in his viselike grip. He drew back when he had to slam his legs over Kris’ flailing limbs to keep the boy from kneeing him and then he smiled gleefully as Kris thrashed and pulled against his hold and yelled, “Let me up!  Damn you, let me up!”

Leering cruelly he reminded, “Do you need a reintroduction to my belt Private Solarin?”

Recalling the stinging burn that still lingered, Kris glared up at the man and sulkily muttered, “No….”

Satisfied that Kris would behave now, Tybor eased his grip on the boy’s trapped wrists and finally moved to cup the boy’s flushed face as he smilingly said, “You are so incredibly sweet Kris.  I can’t wait until I can fuck you.”  He slid his other hand downward, passing it between Kris’ tense thighs and watched as the boy’s face blanked and his warm eyes widened in alarm while he teased that taut flesh stretched around the now slumbering symbiote.  He bent to lightly buzz Kris’ parted lips and drawing back he whispered, “I will found a way to control your symbiote Kris, and when I do…” his smile was downright sinister as he continued, “Well, I’ll let you imagine that Honey Cheeks.”

Tybor felt contented as he watched the horror of realization dawn on Kris’ lovely face and in his warm deep brown eyes.  He let him go then even though he was still hard and could have used a good blowjob.  But he knew that he had pushed Kris to his limit today while he watched as the boy curled over on his side and indulged in a good sulk.  He eased up from the bed, leaving the boy alone as he pulled his belt back on, though of course he was so intrigued by those still nice and rosy cheeks that he just had to lavish a final kiss to each.  Kris only tensed, but wisely didn’t try to move away and perhaps make him angry again.  Good, Tybor though with a smirk, the boy was learning.  By the time the Dormancy Test was ready for Kris he’d have him completely trained and eager to obey.

As Tybor let himself out of Kris’ room to go find a phone to call a cab from, the only kindness he did him was he made sure the door was locked as he was leaving; for it just would have been cruel to let Kris be surprised by any unexpected visitors.

***

Kris stayed as he was, huddled and sulking on his bed for a good while after the commander had left.  His bottom was still stinging from the strapping he’d received.  He wanted to wash the commander’s touch off his body, but at the same time he didn’t even want to move.  It wasn’t that he was terribly sore, except for his bottom, but he didn’t want to remind his body of how some of what he’d experienced had actually not been totally unpleasant—totally unwelcome yes, but totally unpleasant no.

This had been the second assault he’d endured at the commander’s hands, the first time he’d escaped with his very real grief in learning that Rufus Jones was dead, just thinking about that made him feel a little melancholy.  However this time the commander hadn’t been swayed in the least by his tears and he doubted that Commander Harbest would leave him alone after this simply because he’d got to maul him freely this time.  As he touched his swollen mouth it seemed to him that the commander wanted to possess him utterly and he very much feared that this was only the beginning of his unwanted education. 

Finally when the hot soreness of his bottom had faded and he thought he could handle the other memories he rolled over and slid off the bed.  He silently picked up his t-shirt and jeans, since he planned to put them back on after his shower, he found a clean pair of briefs, since he had no intention of putting that other pair back on, actually thinking about it being in his mouth made him want to brush his teeth something fierce.  Fortunately he didn’t need to leave his suite for he had an adjoining bathroom.  He simply didn’t want to have to explain why he was having a shower in the middle of the day.  Not that he really needed to explain himself…but.

Later as the day progressed into evening and Kris’ grandfather still didn’t come home Kris wandered about the house, re-familiarizing himself to things he hadn’t seen or touched in months.  Portraits of his parents brought a tear to his eyes, his mother had died years ago so her memory was softer and sweeter, but his father, how could he ever forget that his father hadn’t even recognized him and that he had died exactly as he had told his grandfather, a manant in a bug battle.  His eyes stung as he put his parents’ picture up and continued his exploration. 

His exploration of the first floor led him to another room that almost mirrored the conservatory for its glass structure and view of the sky over head, this room also had plants, but more importantly what it held, and that which he had almost forgotten, was a full size pool.  He didn’t even stop to consider if anyone was watching, and there were servants and security about, but, as he shucked his clothing off and lowered himself into the silky and refreshing water, he really didn’t think that he cared if anyone did see him.  He swam happily for a long while, his love of water cleansing his soul and renewing his spirit. 

After a time he simply floated on his back, gazing up once more at the stars.  That was how his grandfather found him.  He quickly went to treading water as his grandfather approached the side of the pool.  Before he could ask, for surely his grandfather, who loathed him hadn’t come looking for him two nights in a row, Abe Solarin answered his unspoken question.  “I thought I saw you in here when the car came around to the garage.”

“Grandfather.” Was all Kris said, and he moved a little closer to the edge.

Abe hunkered down draping his big arms over his strong legs; besides being politically powerful Abe Solarin was still a very physically powerful man.  “So, did you help with that bug?”

“I did Grandfather.”

Abe scratched his jaw and frowned, “Did you get anything from it?  I mean they tell me that you can sense them and talk to them…. So did you?”

Kris moved to the edge of the pool, and pulled up out of the water to sit on the rim.  “I did talk to it, but it couldn’t help with the war effort.  They need to catch a totally different kind of bug…the one they caught was completely harmless.”

Abe grunted, looking at his grandson who seemed perfectly content to sit there in the nude made him feel uncomfortable, and after a moment of looking at the boy’s elaborately patterned back he finally asked, “Doesn’t it bother you?”

Kris glanced up, and then understanding that his grandfather was talking about his symbiote he shrugged, “I’ve gotten used to it; it is part of me now I guess.”

Of course Abe knew that part of that thing was inside the boy’s body and it boggled his mind to think that the kid could sit there, basically sit on it and not seem to care.   Still he didn’t say anything about it and moved on, “Anyway tomorrow you’re going to join a joint session of the heads of Government and the Military and review some of that—video…specifically parts that detail the bugs.  We want you to identify the unknowns and what their strengths and weaknesses are.”

Kris glanced up at him and said softly, “I told Commander Harbest about some lesser known bugs.”

Abe nodded, “Yeah, he met me after the session let out and over supper he told me what you had told him.  That’s why this session, so everyone can know what might be coming down the line.” He straightened up and stepped back, in military fashion he tucked his arms behind his back and said, “We’ll be leaving for the Pentagon at 08:30 in the morning, we’ll have breakfast on the way, expect the briefing to last several hours.”

Kris nodded, “Yes Grandfather.” But as the powerful old male strode away he lightly asked, “Grandfather?  Will Commander Harbest be there?”

Abe Solarin turned to look at the boy, and after a moment he shook his head, “No Commander Harbest left after our chat to catch a late transport to Siberia Base.  He’ll be gone for a couple of weeks at least.”  If he wondered at the flash of relief in his grandson’s eyes he didn’t ask after it, instead all he said was, “Get to bed soon,” as he marched away from his disturbingly attractive grandson.

***

They were freakish little monsters, just sitting there watching him watching them.  He had a sense that they were far more advanced in intellect than their apparent age indicated, and shit they grew fast.  The last time he’d laid eyes upon #1 and his siblings they had been helpless infants, now only a few weeks later they were already crawling and exploring everything, though #1 seemed more content to watch what everyone else was doing which included all the staff, the watchers (who took care of him and his monstrous siblings), the doctors and nurses and of course any military personal who happened by.  Tybor found the 1^st born of Kris’ thirteen offspring to be unsettling, the brat was only a few weeks old for all that he looked several months along and was standing on his own even if he hadn’t yet quite learned how to walk.  But seeing those fiery ruby-red eyes watching him with such cunning and obvious intelligence for all his apparent age was just damn unnerving.  That infant recognized him, he remembered he had been present when his link to his sire had been severed and he associated that loss with him.  He didn’t doubt that the brat was still trying to reestablish that link and though he would have liked to have suppressed #1’s psychic ability he had been warned that to do so might impede his natural growth or cause him sever mental damage.  So he watched and he prayed that Siberia was distant enough from California to prevent the link from reestablishing, especially if Kris was kept lightly suppressed as he had ordered.  He wanted the boy to be able to use his abilities and learn to control them, but he didn’t want the boy to learn how powerful he truly was.  Right now the boy was telepathic to bugs, and that was all Kris thought he could hear, but he didn’t doubt now that the channels were open and receiving that Kris could learn to hear human thoughts as well, and as useful as that would eventually be, first he had to ensure he had complete control of Kris so that the youth wouldn’t think of trying anything without his approval.

He smiled slyly, it had been a pleasure forcing the boy to succumb to his demands, and he would continue train the youth even more.  The boy would eventually come to love his lessons and crave to be dominated by him.  Just thinking about the boy and his succulent body made him so hard and hot that it was all he could do to keep his hands off his body.  He didn’t want to draw any attention and none of the staff were paying him any, but…#1 was watching him with curiosity that was not childlike in the least.  He smirked at the brat, who was gorgeous with his ruby eyes and adamantine black diamond body.  His beautiful face was solemn, and according to the staff he never smiled though he was capable of it, but his eyes were expressive enough and they were kind of frightening in how damn intelligent they were.

Feeling the need to goad he sidled over to the brat and mockingly said, “Still searching for your sire #1?  Well I promised that you’d never find him and I always keep my promises.”

#1, who had named himself Jien, rose up to his still unsteady feet and he wrapped his talons into the fabric of the threatening human’s heavy slacks and pulled himself up even higher, so that he was standing on his clawed toes as he tilted his eyes upward to stare into that repulsive face.  From this human Jien was able to steal sensations and glimpses of his sire.  This human stored those memories in his mind and on his body, his sire’s scent oozed out of this male’s sweat and even if he hadn’t any inherent memories of his sire he still would have recognized that scent and those images to belong to his sire, for his brief contact with his sire had left a lasting impression and he would always know him.  The humans were training him to kill his own kind, or at least the bug kind that he was related to and their silly efforts to show who was his enemy was frankly babyish and useless. He knew that the bugs were the enemy for they had to be with how they had hurt and humiliated his sire but he already knew that his bug kin would soon be learning a very devastating lesson for daring to make such a mistake with Kris because he had older siblings who would soon provide the lesson.  He felt almost like smiling, for he knew something the humans didn’t, he knew how quickly he would grow and how soon before he was truly lethal, and he knew that he had siblings already months older than he and that like him their watchers just wouldn’t learn soon enough how dangerous they would be, they wouldn’t learn…until it was too late to make any difference.

Tybor cupped the back of the baby’s head and continued to smirk as he snidely asked, “What?  Do you think I brought him in my pocket maybe?”  He stroked his hand upward; passing it along the silky silver crest that was now several inches long, for it too seemed as if it had been growing for months rather than for mere weeks.  He curled his fingers into the crest and pulled, forcing the baby to strain upward, he was hoping for a yelp or an outcry of some kind, but all he received for his efforts was a baleful glare as those ruby eyes fastened on him with crystalline intensity.  Annoyed and a little unsettled Tybor heaved the baby from him; he wasn’t really considering the value of the infant all he was doing was reacting to the threat of the baby.  But it didn’t matter, for though the baby bounced once and skidded a feet along the floor he was clearly unhurt as he picked himself up and turned to glare at him again with those flashing ruby eyes of his.  Tybor scowled, watching as the rest of #1’s siblings closed around him like a shield and instead of one he now had thirteen pairs of fiery eyes staring at him.  “Don’t forget I own your asses and I can break them if I must.” He growled, but for all his threat they still glared at him with such distain that it was plain disconcerting.

Tybor took an involuntary step back at feeling a thrill of fear rush through him as they all continued to quietly watch him.  It was only when a light touch at his elbow which distracted him and caused him to look away allowed them to also break away from him.  He nodded at Dr. Kowalski who headed the project here, though he didn’t thank him since it was only his timely arrival that had broken the impasse and not the man himself, after all Dr. Kowalski was a useless weakling.

“We should have destroyed them all Harbest.” Kowalski muttered as he stared at the thirteen infant monsters, right now of course they were everything from adorable to outright cute, and that of course was the problem for they were monsters but they looked like babies and sometimes it was hard to see past that outward appearance to recognize the real menace within each of them.  They were monsters, adorable, lovely, cute…monsters and every one of them should have been destroyed.   

Watching them now it was clear to see that each was unique though most were as dark as #1 was and all had red eyes in varying shades, from #1’s ruby to #9’s sherry.  They all had silver hair but only 11 of the babies had crests while two had full heads of hair with about the same appearance of several months of growth.  One didn’t have the tell-tale groin-guard that all the males had, so this was the female or Queen of the hive, she wasn’t quite as large as #1 and was a bit more delicate in build in comparison to most of her brothers, but nonetheless she was every bit as lethally armed and had garnet red eyes.  The only other baby to have a full head of hair was a little male if the groin-guard was any indication, but he was smaller than all his brothers and sister combined, he was delicate and seemingly weaker then they too, but like #1 he was shockingly lovely for all that he was probably the runt of the litter.  There was one other male baby who stood out besides #1 and the Runt, he was simply large, taller and stronger than the rest of his brothers and though he wasn’t walking yet when he stood up with the help of his siblings he was inches taller than #1, though he was a handsome baby and seemed generally to have a more approachable nature there was something dull about his expression, as if he wasn’t fully aware, and his port colored eyes seemed too friendly and kindly to be related to #1. 

Puzzled Tybor turned to the doctor, “Tell me about them?”

“Well as you can see they look around six months old though they are only a few weeks old, so our best guess is that in one year they will probably look about six years old and in about 3 years they will be fully grown adults.  We also think they will reach breeding age sometime during the second year.  #1 is developing the fastest, and though he only has about the age appearance of a six month old we’re are pretty sure he’ll be walking within the next couple of days, I expect his siblings will follow very quickly too.”

Tybor pointed at the large baby, “What about him, he’s already standing too.”

“Ah yeah, #5 his egg was oversized at delivery, he’s been big ever since.”

“Is he retarded?” he asked bluntly, recalling the egg delivery which had knocked Kris out.

“He’s a little slower to learn some things, but not so that you’d notice and as you can see he’s quick at learning to stand, so I expect it will be a contest to see if he or #1 walks first.  He’s the best natured of the little demons and you can actually engage his interest for a while, not like those others, we have to keep finding new ways to engage them, for they grow bored with repetition too soon.”  Kowalski actually smiled, he wasn’t as afraid of #5 as he was the rest.

Again Tybor’s eyes skimmed over the silver haired runt, and he frowned as he became aware that its siblings were all watching him now while they closed around the runt too…protecting him the same as they protected their elder sibling.  #1 actually glared at him while stroking his talonned hand lightly over the baby’s silky head.  The runt was also one of two babies that weren’t dark skinned, rather his chitinous hide was a glossy opalescent white and his eyes were the stunning pinkish red of almandine garnet.  “What’s with the runt?” he grunted, smirking at #1 before continuing, “is he an albino?”

Dr. Kowalski looked at the little monster in question and frowned slightly before answering, “#7’s a hermaphrodite.”

Tybor growled in disgust, “You mean it’s some kind of misbirth?”

The doctor shook his head, “Oh no, not as perfect as it is, though it’s to early to tell we believe that it is a fully functioning intersexed hermaphrodite, meaning that it should be able to breed both as a male and a female, it might be part of the insectoids own biological makeup or something passed down through Kris’ DNA.”

“Ah,” that, Tybor noticed, was the second time the good doctor had mentioned breeding in relation to these little monsters, and he supposed it made sense that to increase their numbers they would need to be bred, he idly wondered as he eyed the delicate female and the opalescent hermaphrodite if they laid eggs like bugs or if they carried their young like humans, he supposed he just might have a chance to find out if they became fertile in their second year as the doctor surmised.  “Is it to early to tell whether they are cross fertile with humans?” he wondered.

The second light skinned infant, a male of course, jostled the herm and caused a ruckus to breakout amongst the group, the doctor shrugged uncomfortably while he watched as #1 and #3 (the female) sorted the others out by using fists and feet to knock and kick them into order, that was how they dealt with each other, and they definitely had a pecking order with #1 and #3 at the top and #7 at the apparent bottom except that only #1 and #3 could pick on zir and for the most part their rough housing with #7 seemed light hearted and often instructive, as if that was how they were teaching zir to protect zirself.  It took him a moment to recall the commanders question but finally he replied, “They should be cross fertile with both bugs of their strain and humans…oh and I think they are probably also cross fertile across any manant strain sired by Kris.”

Tybor felt his eyes narrowing… “So the other three strains…”

“Yea, they should be able to cross with those strains too—that is assuming they aren’t all mules.”

Jien stroked Yoshi’s silver hair to sooth his smallest and most fragile sibling while he watched the two humans talking all about them.  Yoshi cuddled on his lap and enjoyed zir eldest siblings’ attention, but ze knew not to distract Jien for it was obvious to Yoshi that zir big brother was thinking deep thoughts and wouldn’t want to be disturbed now.  Yoshi looked at the humans, he didn’t like them.  It was true some humans were not bad but many were so it was simply easier to not like any of them, which was why it confused Yoshi a little to think that zir sire was human for ze didn’t dislike zir sire even though ze had never met him.  As soon as they had been old enough Jien had shared his memory of his mind touch with sire and that had woken up Yoshi’s memories too.  One day they would get sire and take him back to the hive where he belonged, for he did not belong with these humans even if he had once been human now sire was something more and though Yoshi didn’t understand totally he knew somehow sire was important to the continuation of the hive colony.

***

Weeks passed and gradually turned into months, Kris was called to duty once or twice a week every week sometimes he dealt with captured bugs and sometimes he spoke with officials about bugs, their strengths and weaknesses and stuff like that.  The first council session he had attended with his grandfather had turned into a long question period where one answer seemed to generate a dozen new questions.  Whenever he went to the base he was treated courteously though he still received a lot of sly looks and heard murmured comments behind his back in passing.  But at least he didn’t have to deal with Commander Harbest whose stint in Siberia had turned out to be longer then he’d expected.

It wasn’t easy settling back in, he was different and he had gone through something that most people couldn’t understand and he found that he got one of two reactions from people who knew him or recognized him, sympathy or disgust.  He could bear the sympathy, but the disgust was a lot harder to take, it either came with avoidance, as if he had a disease, or with crude slurs and suggestions about his sexual orientation.  According to those who were disgusted by him he wasn’t homosexual; rather he was Arthrosexual, meaning that he was into bug sex, which was just stupid and cruel and wrong.

He even had trouble renewing old friendships.  Some former friends didn’t want anything to do with him, or a few did until they found out from their friends or family how he had survived his captivity…and then they either had a lot of uncomfortable questions or didn’t want to see him anymore.  A few did try but they were awkward and uncomfortable with him.  A very few of his old friends were very curious about him and revealed that they had seen some of the illicit video excerpts that had somehow been released but they assured him that they were okay with it…only the prove later that they were only making nice because of bets or dares from others or because they were interested in having a sexual relationship with him, basically wanting to fuck the boy that bugs fucked, as one of his former friends had said snidely after he’d politely told him to get out and never come back.  So he gave up trying to restore his old friendships and stopped returning any calls until the calls stopped coming.

When he wasn’t working, he had other things to do; he had private tutoring to help him catch up what he’d missed so that he’d be prepared for his college entrance exams.  He puttered in the conservatory planting and transplanting, he walked the grounds of his grandfather’s presidential estate and he swam a lot.  Most nights he sat down to supper with his grandfather and dutifully told him about his day.  It was during these meals that he usually learned if he was needed at the base to interview a bug (a polite way of saying interrogate) or try to sense an imminent attack on one of the outer rim colonies by using his senses to sort of search and locate. 

He wasn’t very good at that, but they kept testing him by using star charts and having him see if he could sense any bug activity in or around this or that sector.  So far only three of his perceptions had panned out, and though he was discouraged by his failure rate (3 out of 10) the army kept after him to try extending his senses to detect such things as possible attacks on remote colonies.  All those exercises did was give him a headache, but he cooperated, since it might have been because of him (though he doubted it) that 3 attack forces had been repelled and three colonies on the rim had been spared.  He also was starting to feel bug presence before he was informed that there was a bug needing to be interviewed, the base was 45 minutes away from the Presidential estate, and yet he always knew now when a bug had been delivered to it.  Sometimes, even when there was no overwhelming bug presence he thought he could feel them and he began to wonder if he was tuning in to the insect population of earth, though he doubted it since their minds were too simple in comparison to the bugs, and yet, often if he was in the conservatory or just some place quiet and peaceful and if he closed his eyes and opened his senses he wondered if the presence he felt was the combined hive mind of earth’s insects…all disparate yet somehow merging together.  It was strange and peculiar but not really disturbing, and he supposed that it was maybe just a side effect of his growing awareness and ability.

That was why he knew that his services would be required the next morning.  It was after dinner and he and his grandfather had already parted ways when he felt the bug presence suddenly came alive it was so powerful and violent that even at the distance he was from the bug’s location he was overwhelmed.  It hurt so much connecting to that bug that he actually collapsed from sensory overload and it was only because a pair of guards was making the rounds that he didn’t drown in the pool where he’d happened to be swimming when the violent bug presence slammed into him.

He was quickly pulled from the water with no ill effects though he coughed up a bit of water but it was his sensory pain that had him shaking and hugging his head and keening in agony.  All his grandfather could get out of him was, “Bug—make it stop!  Oh please—make it stop!”

He didn’t know what happened afterwards but the violent connection died down to something more normal, so he assumed that his grandfather had called the base and confirmed that they had just brought a bug in, and he also assumed that he must have instructed the base commander or whomever was in charge of the bug to put it under, since he could still sense its presence but now without the overwhelming violence and anger it had been feeling which had hurt so much.  Once the presence quieted and he wasn’t in such pain though his head still felt a little bruised deep inside he was able to uncurl and ask shakily, “Wha-what kind of bug is-is it?”

Until that moment his grandfather had continued to be skeptical of his ability to sense the bugs, but he had just confirmed that his awareness was very real and that a particularly strong presence could hurt him.  “I’m told it’s a fly—er—what you call a winged soldier.”

Kris shakily touched him head and thought worriedly about facing what was probably one of the smartest and most lethal of the bugs tomorrow (for he didn’t doubt he’d be asked to interview it), so far the army had brought him reconnaissance bugs, messenger bugs, cleanup drones; bugs that expressed their fear and terror of humans by fouling the air and cowering and didn’t have powerful or very intelligent minds.  He had never been brought one of the civilization building bugs though, no soldier bugs (whether winged type or not), no seekers, no guides, no assassins…none of the truly smart bugs that controlled the hives and managed the war effort.  The military had accomplished quite a feat to capture a winged soldier alive, though he suspected that it was probably pretty badly injured for it to have been captured at all, but he was truly afraid that he wouldn’t be able to get anything from it, although he didn’t doubt that he’d be able to contact it.

He went to bed early that night, with painkillers to sooth his mild mental pain but he had strange nightmares and sensations that kept waking him which he didn’t think were actually his, he thought that he was still on some level connected to the bug.  The military was using him, forcing him to extend his senses and increase his awareness but so far nothing had been done to teach him how to protect himself from the same things he was meant to sense, maybe they didn’t think he needed to be protected since until now all the bugs he had interviewed were lesser bugs, important to the hive but without the necessary intelligence to really do anything except follow orders?  He spent some time quietly meditating and concentrating on that area where his senses were awake and tried to work out how to shut it down or at least cloak it so that he could protect himself, since what if the next bug they brought in was a Seeker?  How could he protect himself from a truly telepathic bug if he couldn’t shut it out?