Only A Matter Of Moments

There are worlds out there, strange and savage worlds that are inhabited by creatures that have no regard for what we humans hold dear. Just as we have evolved to cultivate the food stocks that make up our diet, there are countless others who strive to survive by seeking out, and taking to their own needs, other life forms they encounter. What follows is a tale of just such an encounter...

She knew she only had a matter of moments. Her mind reeled as she tore desperately, this way and that, straining to tear away the gossamer material that was slowly surrounding her torso, clinging ever more closely to her lithe body like some second skin, making her appear like some creature undergoing a process of molting, in reverse. Her cries for help went unnoticed within the largely deserted mining complex, as she danced wildly about the corridor.

She knew full well what was happening to her. She'd seen it happen before- several times in fact. While working the rich veins of ore, or on patrol of the caves beneath the planet's surface, members of their mining team or its security detail turned one corner or another, and became enmeshed in a web-like material that had been stretched across the passage. She had watched helplessly as frantically her fellow crewmates twisted about for the few moments it took for the soft, clingy web material to become securely gathered around their bodies, gradually reducing their struggles to the faintest of movements until, depending on how large they were, they either hung poised in midair awaiting the harvest, or lay where they had fallen to the ground, a quivering cocoon of white, surrounded so completely that it was only thru one's imagination that it would be realized that it was a human that lay helpless within. And in terror at the approach of those mysterious beings as they drew near to collect their prey, she and her mates could only turn and flee, lest they too should fall victim.

Now it seems it was her turn- her moment to confront the horror of the beings that were slowly and relentlessly harvesting the men and women of the mining station.

They had tried valiantly to deal with the creatures who were steadily decimating their numbers and impeding the effort to mine this new world for the sorely needed natural resources her home world needed. No weapon in their arsenal succeeded in killing them, in driving them back. It was her turn, she feared, as that soft web, the irresistible new garment began to spread over her bare skin- soothing and tantalizing with every touch as it seemed to feed on her frenzied movements in the struggle to tear it from her body.

She had thought herself safe, or at least relatively so, within the trooper's bunker, as she stripped away her sweat-soaked uniform and made her way to the showers. As she passed below a ventilation duct overhead, however, a small blob of alien material fell upon her shoulder. Reflexively she swatted at the object as one does an insect, and in so doing a bit of the foreign material became stuck to her hand. More unthinking, reflex movements followed as she tried to wipe her hand on her hip, on her belly, finally with her other hand. But everything she did as she stamped, naked and angry, around the empty passageway, succeeded only in spreading the clingy material about her body. In reaction to the contact with her skin and its moisture from the perspiration that now flowed freely from her every pore, the second skin was quickly growing- thickening and spreading to the point that it needed no further assistance from her flailing hands as it eventually bound her arms close by her sides and reduced her struggles to a helpless, limited swaying back and forth as she stood there, poised and ready for the taking. Tears welled up in her eyes as she stood there, panting and completely immobilized. While she prayed someone would turn the corner to see her and come to her rescue, she knew that anyone who did so would become hopelessly entangled along with her, and be lost as well.

The exclamations and grunts of struggle the woman made gradually fell away to end in what seemed a sigh of resignation that came after the sudden cry escaping her lips that would accompany the ecstasy commonly occurring in the midst of intercourse and orgasm. A soft sigh came from her coccoon, and then nothing more...

Taken was what indeed happened to the lithe, beautiful woman, once the web had completely encapsulated her body- head to toe. Like a beautiful chrysalis she teetered there, her form that of a sleek cocoon that was so smooth that it merely suggested what it contained by its contour. The stunned woman didn't display any reaction, as she stood there, when a ropy, oozing substance descended from the vent over her head and, extending downward until it touched the cocoon and surrounded her upper torso like a lariat, lifted her upward until the soft cocoon disappeared silently within the maze of ductwork of the complex.

Needless to say, when her uniform was found at her bunk after she failed to appear for muster, the guard of the outpost was doubled, and every sentry post or patrol required to be manned by two or more personnel- not that that would long suffice in the game of attrition that was steadily taking its toll.

Deep within the caves, she slept alongside her fellow captives, her cocoon now filled with a creamy fluid that bathed her and kept her skin supple. Her heart beat was slow, and faint, as she dreamed. There were almost enough of them now, it was decided. Soon the journey would commence- the journey across space and time that she would accompany her captors on. She, and her fellow crewmen, would provide the sustenance their new masters would require, on the way back to her home planet Earth.

Based on their observations, the creatures that she and all the others had fallen prey to, her home world would provide the bounty they needed if they were to thrive. Once there, Earth's new masters would subdue and farm the native population, shipping countless soft, white cocoons to their many colonies scattered throughout the cosmos- delectable food, enough to last a lifetime.