Future's Past

Future's Past

Chapter Two - Present Perfect

The light in her eyes faded. She was facing the large, bay window that opened up into the Gate room below. The broodmother was producing more eggs, and the converted humanoid was tended to the trapped scientists. Perfect, everything was going exactly as she had anticipated.

Legs feeling wobbly, she dropped into a crouch, turning to look at her past self, who was still absorbed with peering out the window. She looked so cute! It was too bad she had no idea about what was to come! *

The absolute pleasure involved!

*

Before she began, there were a few ground rules she needed to follow when talking to her past self - first, she needed to modulate her voice lower, disguise it as much as possible. Second, she must not refer to herself as 'Kate' - that would be the fastest way to arouse suspicion.

Calling herself 'Katy' was a thin fiction, but one her past self would likely buy. Besides, by a stroke of coincidence, that was the first name of the scientist she had melded her memories with.

She narrowed her eyes. Very well, then. The hunt was on.

"What the hell are those

things?

" hissed Kate.

"They are

Takrin

," breathed Katy, growling the words with the lowest voice she could muster. "We need to stop them before they enslave everyone."

Kate fell on her butt, her head narrowly missing the window sill. Katy caught a glimpse of perfectly coiffed black hair bundled into a ponytail, two thin strands framing her face. Beautiful, but irrelevant. *

Mother is more beautiful.

*

"Who the hell are you?" she asked, her hand slipping towards her thigh.

She had better give her past self a good excuse soon, or she might end up being jabbed by a blow gun dart!

She chuckled bitterly, gesturing at the Gate. "My name's Katy. I work here. Well, I

used

to work here, that is, until they opened

that

."

This wasn't

totally

a lie. She hadn't worked here herself, but the memories pushed to her from the scientist were just as real as hers. If she wanted to pretend to be 'Katy' who helped to design and operate the Gate, it would be as simple as remembering. *

Remembering what owned her.*

The whispers could have been distracting, but she vowed to use them to push her forward towards this task's completion. The reward waiting for her would be more than worth it in the end.

"That's called a

Gate

, and it's what's caused this disaster. While messing with the harmonics, they managed to get the Gate to open to an alien landscape. At first, this was heralded as a great discovery. Until

they

started coming through." She shuddered. "We must stop them, or we'll be overrun."

Kate scrunched her brows together. Oof, she was going to have problems keeping her hands to herself. On herself. It was confusing just thinking about it. Oh, bother.

"Don't you want to know who I am?" Kate asked.

Katy shook her head side to side slightly. "Don't know. Don't care," she replied easily. "If you don't work for

Expedient

, it's all the better, really, as those idiots think they can study and

understand

these... things. I've seen what they can do, and they need to be destroyed before they bring more of themselves through that portal."

A thread of physical pain echoed from the top of her skull at the thought of destroying the creatures, but it couldn't be helped. This was for the greater good.

Kate backed away from her, trying to access the computer behind her surreptitiously. Katy pretended not to notice her grabbing the flash drive. It didn't matter - she wouldn't be leaving here with it anyway.

"How do you know that they're called

Takrin

?" asked Kate.

Katy shrugged, thinking about the blobby egg tucked into her pocket. "Whatever that worm thing does to them doesn't seem to remove their brains. It just...

twists

them to do whatever advances its cause. They're more than willing to talk about their utter devotion to the

Takrin

and the

Mother

, whatever that is. They could be talking about that worm, or something else, we don't really know."

She folded her arms. "That's why the higher ups have stupidly decided to proceed with the research. They think that they can figure out some way to bargain with these aliens. To find a way to use the Gate for their personal profit."

They were fools to think so, but she had never met an executive that didn't have dollar signs in his eyes. Mother would use their greed to Her advantage. *

They would belong to Her.*

She widened her eyes with fake fanaticism. "They're wrong. These aliens are abominations and should not be allowed anywhere on this planet."

Kate shuffled back against the computer, doing a terrible job of hiding the fact that she was palming the thumb drive. "Let's say I believe you. Do you have a plan to stop them?"

Katy grinned, a rush of excitement tingling through her hands. "I do. If we overload the power supply, that will destroy the portal, and prevent any more aliens from getting to this world from theirs."

That was the biggest lie of all, but Kate had no problem accepting it. She had no idea what the Gate was capable of. Her pussy shivered as she imagined what she was going to do to her doppelganger. *

Make her ours.*

Kate frowned. "Won't that kill us, too?"

Katy laughed. "This isn't the movies. The Gate isn't a reactor, and not everything explodes when it fails. Besides, even if my idea works, we're still going to have to do something about that giant worm. Try to come up with some ideas while we're getting to the power room, I'm fresh out."

That was a lie, too, but Kate couldn't know that. It just so happened that her goals were far different from Kate's. All she needed was a small opening to distract her, a good excuse for attaching the egg to her head.

It

would do the rest.

"What happened to your face?" Kate asked, examining her with a rude stare.

Katy couldn't stop her lips from quirking as she spoke in a low voice. "I was 'voluntold' to gather a specimen for the next experiment. It didn't go well. You saw the other members of my party below. I was the only one to escape, although..." she pressed a hand to the back of her head. "I can't be certain whether I've been infested. The gigantic worm thing splattered some kind of liquid over me, and it messed with my skin." She shrugged. "I guess we gotta hope I don't go crazy before we can close down the portal."

Kate moved around the conference table, watching her carefully. If she was thinking the way she had thought in the past, she was beginning to trust this mysterious scientist. More than she ought to, given the circumstances, but Katy wouldn't complain. Her plan to betray herself was proceeding apace.

"Very well," Kate said slowly, reaching an open hand towards the door. "Lead the way."

Katy turned, proceeding past the window, unconcerned. She flicked her eyes out the window, spotting the humanoid woman staring at her. The warden's claws flexed, looking threatening.

She

might know what was going on, but her past self certainly didn't. "Don't worry, they can't see us through the one way glass," she growled. "We need to hurry, before the other scientists figure out what we're doing."

She paused at the door. "It would be best if you went first. If they see me wandering the premises, they might get suspicious."

It didn't hurt to try. If she took the bait...

Kate narrowed her brows. "I don't think so. I have no idea where I'm going. It's going to look weird if I have to constantly pause for directions."

She didn't actually think her past self would take her up on the offer, so she wasn't too disappointed. It didn't hurt to keep trying, as she had no idea whether her memories of this time loop could be altered. She rolled her shoulders. "Suit yourself. If we get caught, just remember, it's your fault."

She marched confidently into the hallway, knowing full well that nobody would accost them. The main shift had gone home for the night, and the skeleton crew had already run into... problems during their last experiment. She hoped they enjoyed their conversions as much as she had.

She rather envied them their first time. There was something special about being taken, changed, *

improved

* into a superior being.

She made a left turn, ignoring the other woman. She would follow. She had no other choice if she wanted the knowledge stored in Katy's brain.

Pausing at the security door ahead, she leaned over and passed her card over the reader. As the reader beeped, she felt a soft touch on the back of her head. Startled, she turned to find Kate with a shocked look on her face. "What was that for?"

"There's an... egg shaped

thing

on the back of your head!" exclaimed Kate. "How could you not know that?"

For verisimilitude, she pretended to be shocked, moving her hands up to touch the spongy hole where the broodling had burrowed into her skull. The fluid filled pouch was there, as she had expected, but she gulped and dropped her jaw in fake surprise. "What the fuck is

that?"

she hissed.

Leaping forward, she grabbed at Kate's arm. "I've been infested. Get it off me!

Please

!"

Kate blinked, going ashen. "I don't know how. I'm not a surgeon."

Katy gritted her teeth, hiding her growing arousal. "Then we need to get in there and kill them before... I'm no longer me."

That wasn't quite an accurate statement. She was still

her

, she was just

more

. A version of her that had been improved by her broodling. *

A more subservient, loving version of her

.*

She turned and pushed open the doors to the server room, making a beeline towards the power console. It was getting harder to keep control of herself. She really wanted to jump Kate and force her to see the truth!

She fiddled with the console, reconfiguring the power supply to properly set up the Gate sequence. Previous tests had only used up to fifty percent power, but with those, they were using it like a portal. For true time travel application, the Gate would need everything the facility could provide.

"I'm going to take a look around," Kate said, moving next to the wall.

"Fine," replied Katy. "I need a few minutes to get this set up anyway. I'll let you know when it's ready."

She glanced at Kate, hiding a smile as she watched her sneaking her way towards the hot aisle. There was no need for her to be so secretive, but

she

didn't know that.

"Are you having fun playing secret agent?" she asked. "It's after normal operating hours. There should only be a skeleton crew on duty, and they're not going to perform experiments with the Gate without everyone here."

"It never hurts to be careful," Kate replied, sliding through the door.

She was right where she wanted her. Looking back down at the console, Katy made a few more changes.

There

, now the return air supply fans would power off for a few minutes, just long enough for some of the creatures to infiltrate their way inside.

She didn't expect this ploy to work, but If one of them got to her, all the better. She didn't

remember

being infected by one of the creatures, but that didn't mean she

couldn't

- but she probably

wouldn't

.

Honestly, this time traveling nonsense was more than a little opaque to her. Her past was probably fixed, but if everything went the way it had gone before, she would reach the desired outcome, anyway. *

Utter slavery

.*

Humming, she waited for the capacitors to charge up. The Gate needed a tremendous surge of electricity to break open a hole in reality, far more than the generators several levels below could provide. There was nothing more for her to do here, really, it was just a matter of time.

She walked over to the doors of the hot aisle, pressing herself against the rack next to them. She knew from her past memories that her opportunity was fast approaching. Reaching into her lab coat pocket, she palmed the oval shape of the egg.

Her other hand reached down towards her pants, but she was able to stop herself in time. Kate most certainly wouldn't understand the utter joy she was experiencing at the thought of betraying her. *

Keep it together, the mission is all

.*

Yes, the mission was paramount. She squeezed her eyes together, listening, waiting.

The sudden sound of the door jerking open at the back end of the room focused her.

Soon

. *

Soon.*

"Katy?" came a high pitched shout. "We have a problem! Look out for small, beetle shaped critters!"

She said nothing, cracking open the door to the hot aisle a few inches. One of the broodlings trapped inside toddled out, moving leisurely across the white floor.

When Kate rounded the corner, breathing hard, she stood stock still. "Shit!" Kate shouted, staring at the power console. After a momentary pause, she began to move rapidly towards the exit.

Shit indeed! She would need to move more quickly than she had anticipated!

"Watch out!" she shouted, flinging herself forward.

Pressing her hand with the egg against the back of Kate's skull firmly, she pulled it to one side. Counting on her doppelganger to be disoriented, she screeched, slamming her foot on top of the unfortunate beetle. Multicolored goop spread under her foot, a sad end for one of Mother's creatures. *

A noble sacrifice

.*

"Oh crap!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "They're escaping containment! We must hurry. If they are moving through the ducts, they've decided that they no longer wish to be contained. We are likely to encounter more of them!"

She clenched her fists together. Would her ruse hold up? Would Kate notice the egg on the back of her head? She had to trust that she had slammed it on hard enough for its anesthetic to be injected properly.

Kate shook her head, clearly dazed. "I agree with you. Are you ready?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed excitedly, running back to the console. She squeezed her legs together to hide her arousal. Her plan had worked. The egg was gestating as they spoke, and soon, it would inject itself inside her! *

Seizing control

.*

"See?" she said quickly, pointing at the touchscreen. "Here, the power flows into the secondary coils, then it spins up the magnets. If I increase the current here, it should excite the primary coils past their design specifications, leading to an inevitable overload!"

"Okay, then," said Kate, still rattled. "What are you waiting for? Do it!"

Katy touched the green button in the bottom left of the screen, and the Gate whirred to life, orange and red bars increasing. While Kate might think this meant the Gate was overloading, in actuality, everything appeared nominal. A faint feeling of satisfaction floated up from the depths of her mind. It was working just as the scientist had designed it.

"There, it's done," she said, raising her voice as the Gate began its power up sequence. "We'll have to confirm that it worked, and even if it does, that won't take care of the aliens that have already made it over here. For that, we'd need to do something about that monstrous worm."

Kate shuffled towards a set of tanks stored near the entryway. "What about those?" she asked, bending over to look at them more closely.

Katy sighed. Leave it to her former self to come up with a reasonable plan. This posed a new problem - she would somehow have to keep herself from freezing the broodmother to death, while buying time for the egg on her head to hatch. What a complicated headache! *

Do not worry. Just do it

.*

Kate leaned a tank over, taking it for a test spin across the floor. "We'll freeze them out!" she declared.

Katy wrinkled her brow, shrugging. "It's not a bad idea. Let's give it a try."

She grabbed a cylinder of her own, half heartedly maneuvering it towards the door. "How far is it to the lab entrance?" asked Kate.

She wished she could have claimed it was a mile away, but the conference room wasn't

that

far. There would be no opportunity to lead her through the maze of the lab in hopes of wasting time. "It's not far. Turn right beyond the doors, into the decontamination airlock. The entrance is just beyond."

She followed Kate out of the room as they both rolled their gas tasks, catching a glimpse of the egg sitting innocuously on top of Kate's head. She breathed a sigh of relief to see that it had secured itself properly, spidery black lines working their way into Kate's skull. Once the roots had spread far enough, it would strike. She couldn't wait.

She frowned. Kate had paused up ahead, examining the airlock. Stopping next to her, she scanned her card, and the doors began to open. "They don't want people touching things with their hands," she explained. "Easier to clean."

Kate made an unladylike sound, and they both moved together to get their cylinders into the airlock. When the decontamination misters began their work, Kate seemed a little discomforted, but it was easy enough to set her at ease with a platitude.

The outer doors rumbled open, revealing the ramp. Finally! It was almost time for her betrayal. Damn, it would feel good. *

Stay focused

.*

They rolled their tanks downward, stopping right in front of the organic matrix. Instinctively, she knew this luscious material was necessary for hive mobility. The broodmothers ate it to live, and were unable to move very well when not on it. Spreading it would be necessary to infest other areas of the facility. *

Sustaining, expanding, growing life.

*

She noted that the Gate was active, a blue, pulsating mass sitting within its center. All it needed now was configuration, which would be easy enough to provide with the stolen knowledge she possessed.

"Is it overloading?" asked Kate, staring intently at the Gate.

"It takes time for it to spool up," lied Katy. "We don't want to be too close when it goes, so let's get to work."

Katy watched Kate touch the matrix with her shoe, her body stiffening as she looked up. Peering towards the Gate, she saw what had stolen Kate's attention. She had spotted a mature warden, who was eyeing her back with equal interest.

Katy tapped her on the shoulder. "I can see the target! It's hiding behind some of the Gate's plumbing, off to the right of the creature. Keep moving! I'll distract it for you!"

Time to put on a convincing act. "I'm over here!" she screamed. "Come and get me, you bastard!"

Grabbing the valve, she twisted it open, a plume of mist and liquid exploding from the end of the tube. She played it back and forth over the organic matrix, watching soberly as some of it crystallized into ice. *

A temporary setback. We will rebuild

.*

"Good luck!" Kate whispered, rolling her tank parallel to the mat.

Katy grunted, concentrating on making her performance look realistic. The warden hadn't bothered moving, knowing that she was faking, but several beetles were toddling towards her, curious about the foreign substance intruding on their domain.

She eyed Kate as she rounded the corner past a few bulbous white tanks, making a few yelps and curses to enhance her performance. Right as the beetles approached the danger zone, she cried out and shut down the valve on her tank.

The leading creature tried to step out onto the frozen patch of the organic matrix, its sharp legs punching through the surface. It stopped moving, making a soft chirp. The other beetles moved up next to it, chirping back.

As one, they moved forward onto the damaged area, their abdomens dipping until they were pressed against the frozen surface. Soft grinding and crunching sounds came from the group as they processed the damage, removing the surface until the living spongy material below was exposed. This would later be filled in by broodmother as she expanded her domain. No permanent damage would remain. *

Perfect

.

*