The Time War

Chapter 31: Parasites Love Earth

!

Goodlife:

They were having a party.

In the Binochi Corridor.

Everyone needed to relax, and Goodlife were no exception. After working hard trying to destroy all life on the planet Earth, and seeing their efforts thwarted by the very myopic Continuity Service, Mercury Jones decided his people needed a break. So he and all three Andrew Wyatts and all three Alina Sestacovikas and two Nigel Romans and the three Oliver Wayfairers entered the Binochi Corridor for a much needed recreational break.

One of the Nigel Romans had been lost, in the year 1962. It was Nigel Roman 2, to be exact. No one knows exactly what had happened to him, just as no one knew exactly how and why the Earth failed to destroy itself.

Perhaps it was counterintuitive to have a party in the Binochi Corridor. The voices were louder here, as were the images in their heads. But actually they were so loud that they cancelled each other out. It all became like white noise, and for once their minds, so heavily assaulted by what might happen, what could happen, and what did happen, would have a few moments rest. And so they were singing and dancing in the Corridor. They had even brought their own music system into the Corridor with them, and they heard the loud sounds of an animated, industrial beat that filled their heads and feet with joy.

They danced and yelled and laughed on the lit pathway, off the lit pathway, and sometimes, far off the lit pathway, deep into the brightly lit mists. It didn't seem to matter. They could effortlessly find their way back, any time they liked. They were one with the time stream; with all the time streams, as a matter of fact. Mercury smiled as he felt the hot mists bathe his skin, like he was in a sauna. He saw Nigel Roman 3, looking closely at a temporal vortex, shining like a little sun in the mists. Mercury, thinking it amusing to see Nigel bent over like that, pushed him into it. Nigel Roman 3 howled with pain as his face was burned off by the temporal vortex, and then his headless body collapsed in a heap.

Mercury laughed and laughed and laughed. It was such a small loss. The 3's were always the most unreliable. They tended to disappear whenever the slightest changes in the timeline was made. Mercury tried to remember what he himself was: a 1, a 2, or a 3? He couldn't be a three, could he? But if he was, wouldn't he disappear with every change to the timeline? On the other hand, if he

did

disappear, wouldn't he be completely unaware of it?

No. Some deep instinct told him he was not a 3. He was 2. He must be a 2. Everything had started with the 2's, therefore he must be a 2 as well. He was sure of it.

And so he laughed with Nigel Roman 1, danced with Alina Sestacovika 1, wrestled with Andrew Wyatt 1 and then Andrew Wyatt 2 and 3, and yelled incomprehensible things to the Oliver Wayfairers, all three of them.

And then when he got tired he went back to the control room. He walked nonchalantly through the mists until he found the path, without any trouble. Very soon he and the others were in a slumber in sprawling couches in the control room.

That's right, there were couches in his control room. Mercury had wanted the control room to be comfortable! He was thinking about adding wall to wall carpeting at some point as well. Maybe once he had more time, after he had destroyed the human race. Then he would have plenty of time to think about redecorating.

********

Mercury yawned as he woke up. He saw the other members of his team on the other couches. But some of them were missing. Alina 3 and Wyatt 1, to be precise.

He looked over at the Binochi Corridor. It was still active. Must remember to turn that thing off. It consumed a lot of power.

And then, at that moment, Alina 3 and Wyatt 1 came laughing through the gateway.

"Hey guys!" said Alina 3.

"Where have you been?" Oliver 1 asked.

"You'll never guess," said Alina 3. "The Year 2754. Oliver and I located the most

awesome

inflection point, on a Survey Service Ship called the USS

Scunathorpe

, of all places!"

"What did you find?" Mercury asked.

Alina 3 and Wyatt 1 exchanged knowing glances. "Better just to show you, I think."

She started to take off her blouse. Wyatt removed his shirt. When they were topless, they turned and showed their backs to the others.

There was a yellow, pancake like creature on their backs, nestled between their shoulder blades. The creatures each had a golden band around the edges, and they pulsated.

"What are they?" Nigel 1 asked.

"Mind controlling parasites," said Alina 3, with a shit eating grin. "They're called riders."

"They're controlling your mind?" Nigel 1 asked.

"Oh yes," said Alina 3. "But relax, they have the same goal we do. The total destruction of mankind, ha ha!"

"How do they plan to do it?" Mercury asked, with a grin.

Alina 3 gave an excited glance to Oliver 1, who nodded. "Better just to show you," she said, in an excited voice. She and Oliver removed the rest of their clothing. Oliver 1 lay on his back. Apparently he was already aroused and hard. Alina raised his member and inserted it inside of her. Then she started to pole up and down on him. As Alina groaned and moaned and rode up and down on Oliver 1's shaft, they saw her rider on her back start to pulsate and bubble. Before long her energetic efforts were encouraging it to split. A line started to appear down the middle of it.

Alina strained herself as she rode Oliver's shaft especially hard. She needed to make the maximum exertion possible to give her rider the energy it needed to reproduce. Sweat started to drip down her back as her rider sucked up energy from her body.

But it paid off. In moments, the rider on her back had become two, one with a single band, and one without.

Alina dismounted Oliver and stood up. She cupped her hand behind her back and took out the baby rider, the one without the ring around the edges. "This is the immature one," she said, wiping the sweat from her brow. "But they grow very quickly, and will soon control your minds. Who would like to try one?"

"I would, heh heh," said Mercury, grinning from ear to ear.

Alina leaned forward to give him the rider. The immature rider pulsated in her hand. Mercury took it and held it up. "Interesting," he smiled.

"You have to let it go on your back," said Alina, smiling as her rider pulsated between her shoulder blades.

"Thanks," said Mercury. He pulled a compression pistol out of his pocket, and shot Alina 3 and Wyatt 1 dead.

"I'm going to miss them," said Mercury sincerely. He looked at the pulsating baby rider in his hand. "But I think this has some

definite

possibilities."

********

Lieutenants Mercy Kildaire and Ron Cardassian stepped out of the Binochi Corridor into the control room, just as Sarah and Calle were finishing a conversation.

"My place tonight?" said Calle.

"My place," said Sarah.

"We always go to your place," said Calle.

"Not always," said Sarah.

"Often enough," said Calle.

"Are you tired of my place... or me?" Sarah asked, leaning towards him and raising her chin, exposing her bare neck to him.

"Your place."

"Agreed," said Sarah promptly.

Calle frowned, just as Mercy and Ron entered the control room.

"How did it go?" Sarah asked.

"A false alarm," said Lieutenant Cardassian.

Calle looked at Sarah. "Something odd about the timeline," said Sarah.

"Odd?" said Calle.

"In the late 28th century."

"We patrol the future as well?"

"Oh yes," said Sarah, raising an eyebrow. "There's no rest for the weary."

"What did you see?"

"Not sure," said Sarah, making a face. "It seems to me that human development seems to have... plateaued starting in the 28th century. I don't seem to have remembered it being that way from my earlier surveys of the future." She turned to Kildaire and Cardassian. "Nothing at all?"

Mercy shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"No," said Ron Cardassian.

"All right then," said Sarah, turning back to her console.

Mercy walked up to Calle, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, John. Would you like to have lunch?"

"Uh...." Calle looked sideways at Sarah. Mercy caught the glance.

"That's all right. Another time, perhaps?" Mercy asked.

"Sure, another time," said Calle.

Mercy Kildaire and Ron Cardassian left the control room.

"You don't have to abstain on my account," said Sarah. "We're in an open relationship."

"We are?" This was news to Calle.

"Certainly. You can sleep with anyone you like... as long as it doesn't conflict with evenings when I want you."

"Really?" said Calle. "So... you wouldn't mind if I slept with Mercy?"

"Not at all," Sarah assured him. But she wasn't looking at him when she said it. Her face was focused on her monitors, and she was frowning.

"And have you slept with anyone else since we've been together?"

"There's something still odd here," said Sarah. "The 29th century simply doesn't look like it used to."

Calle stared at her monitor. He saw people walking on futuristic city streets. "It looks normal to me."

"It would," said Sarah dismissively.

"You didn't answer my question," Calle said.

"Oh?" said Sarah. "I'm sorry, I thought it was a rhetorical question which didn't require answering."

And then she turned and smiled at him.

********

Calle's eyebrows lifted as he walked by a storeroom after lunch and saw Major Reynolds and Mercy Kildaire coming out of it. Reynolds was adjusting his uniform and Mercy was smiling at him.

Major Reynolds...

and Mercy Kildaire

? The same Mercy who had been flirting with him just two hours ago?

As far as Calle knew, Major Reynolds was a devoted family man. All right, there was that one time he had gone into the pocket to sample Marilyn Monroe at the age of 18, but almost everyone did that. And perhaps Sarah sampled him once, as she claimed to have sampled every man once, but aside from that Calle was under the impression that Alex Reynolds was devoted to his wife.

Mercy caught his glance, and Calle found that he was the one to blush, for reasons he didn't know.

And then, the next day, Calle saw something even more surprising.

Major Reynolds and Erica, coming out of the very same storeroom, hand in hand.

Erica Green?

Erica Green was the most asexual woman he had ever met. Calle had good relations with Erica, but she had made it clear, by means subtle or otherwise, that she wasn't seeking relations with anyone. For a time he had thought she might be a lesbian, until Lieutenant Pelosi assured him that was not the case.

And now she was having sex with Major Reynolds... who the day before apparently just had sex with Mercy Kildaire?

He told Sarah what was happening.

"Are you jealous that you're not an active participant?"

"Sarah, doesn't people's behavior seem strange to you?"

Sarah looked up at him with dark eyes. "John, I've been working in this room for nearly four years. I've been staring at those holoscreens until my eyes almost go blind. I've seen everything under the sun. Nothing looks strange to me."

Calle frowned at Sarah. She frowned back at him, in an even more exaggerated way.

********

Events took an even odder turn the following day, when Calle noticed Erica Green snuggling up against Daniel Acton at breakfast.

Erica snuggling up against Daniel?

She was clearly flirting with him, a day after she apparently had sex with Major Reynolds.

But then later in the day, by lunchtime, the two totally ignored each other. They passed each other in the lunchroom without saying a word.

Calle, curious, went up to Daniel. "Daniel, may I ask you a personal question?"

"Sure," Daniel shrugged.

"Is something going on between you and Erica?" Calle asked.

"Me... and Erica?" Daniel smiled. "No, no. What gave you that impression?"

"It just seems the two of you were so friendly at breakfast."

"Oh. That," said Daniel. "That was just flirting."

"Oh," said Calle.

"She's, uh, very pretty though," said Daniel. "I think she mentioned she'd like to get to know you better."

"Erica?"

"Yes," said Daniel. "Unless you and Sarah are, you know, exclusive."

"No, we're not... at least, I don't think so," said Calle.

Daniel smiled at Calle, and walked off.

********

Several more days passed. Calle began to get the creepy feeling that something was changing at Continuity Service Headquarters. People were changing. But he wasn't sure how. The men seemed different. More aloof. Quieter. And the women... they were different too, but in another way.

They were

friendlier

. Mercy Kildaire was flirting with him constantly. And Erica Green, Erica, who he thought was completely asexual, was winking at him and giving him furtive smiles. It was like she had turned into a different person.

And all of them, men and women, seemed to be staring at him. Whenever Calle looked around, he felt the eyes of everyone on him, as if suddenly he was the one who was different, not them.

He made the mistake of going to talk to Doctor Vladek about it.

Doctor Vladek leaned back in his chair. "So people are changing, John? How exactly have they changed?"

"I don't know," said Calle.

"But you sense this, do you?"

"Yes," said Calle.

"Do you think they are all plotting against you?" Vladek asked.

Calle gave a bitter smile. "Doctor, I'm not crazy."

"I never said you were," said Vladek, opening his palms.

"And I don't have temporal psychosis!" said Calle.

"Did I say you did?" Those eyes, with the heavy bags underneath them, seemed to stare at him judgmentally.

"That's one of the signs, isn't it? Paranoia?"

"It can be, yes," said Vladek. "Is that what you think you have, John?"

"No!" Calle seemed to be making a case against himself.

Vladek sighed. "It is a very stressful place we work in here. Day in and day out we are called upon to ensure the integrity of the timeline, to safeguard the future of the whole of mankind. It is a very heavy burden to bear. It is natural to feel some... angst or confusion... from time to time."

"Angst or confusion," said Calle slowly. He got up from his chair. "Thank you, Doctor. That was helpful."

"You are most welcome," said Doctor Vladek.

********

"John!"

Calle turned, and saw Ayesha, the Indian woman with the black hair and very firm buttocks, walking rapidly towards him.

"Hello," she said, smiling at him.

"Hello," said Calle.

"John... could we talk for a minute?" she asked, indicating the nearby storeroom.

Seeing as Calle had never before talked to Ayesha beyond a simple "Hello", he was more than a little curious to hear what she had to say. So he nodded and let her lead him into the storeroom.

She smiled at him nervously. "It feels like we've worked together a long time."

"Well, I think it would be more accurate to say that we've worked on the base together for a long time," said Calle. He had never even had a conversation with her, much less worked with her. Suddenly, he smelled something like rotten oranges in the air. His pulse started to race. He realized how beautiful Ayesha was, and how they were all alone together in the storeroom. The same storeroom where so many couples had seemed to emerge from lately.

"I... I was wondering if we could get to know each other better." Ayesha put her hands on Calle's arms, and started to rub them.

The smell of rotten oranges were entering his lungs. Calle started to feel sexual arousal. He looked at Ayesha, and thought how wonderful it would be to make love to her.

"Would you like that, John?" she asked, looking up at him with dark eyes.

Calle now felt a powerful sexual arousal. He sensed a stirring in his pants. He felt the urgent need to make love, now.

Ayesha reached up and pressed her firm Indian lips against his. Calle didn't resist. Her lips were richer, fuller than Sarah's. As they grinded their lips together, Calle put his hands on her long, dark hair. It felt so soft, so silky.

When Ayesha pulled back, she smiled knowingly. That one kiss told her everything. It told her that she would have Calle, right here and now.

"I've seen you," she whispered accusingly. "Staring at my ass."

"No," said Calle, his mind befuddled by the rotting orange smell. But increasingly he felt he had to have her.

"Touch it, John. Touch it now." She gently took his hands and put it on her ass. Calle instinctively squeezed. They were so juicy and firm.

Ayesha hugged him tightly. "Imagine you squeezing them as you make love to me." She looked up into his eyes. "As you pump in and out of me."

The image was easy to conjure up. Calle imagined himself naked, inserting himself inside of her, while squeezing those firm buttocks with his hand, squeezing with every thrust.....

He was acutely aware of Ayesha starting to open his shirt. They both knew what was going to happen. Ayesha smiled as she realized that Calle was going to cooperate.

And then Calle's wrist comm buzzed.

"Ignore it," she said, kissing him.

His wrist comm buzzed again.

She continued kissing him and opening his shirt.

And then a voice came out of his comm "Captain? Captain Calle?"

Even through the haze his mind was in, he felt compelled to answer. "Yes?" he said.

"Commander Strayker wants to see you," said the voice.

"Later," Ayesha mouthed to him.

"Right now?" said Calle.

"At once," said the voice.

"I'm coming," said Calle, as the connection ended.

"Don't go! This will only take a few minutes!" Ayesha cried, looking panicky.

"I have to go," said Calle, trying to shake the fog from his mind.

"John!"

"I have to go," he said, shaking his head. His mind started to clear as he walked to the door of the storeroom.

"Later?" Ayesha asked.

"Definitely," said Calle, rapidly adjusting the lay of his trousers as he opened the door.

********

Once Calle left the storeroom, his mind rapidly cleared. What had he just been about to do? He barely knew Ayesha, and yet it seemed he had been on the verge of having sex with her! She was an attractive girl, but... it had been too abrupt, too quick.

And it all happened in the same storeroom where everyone else seemingly had intimate connections.

Calle felt almost normal by the time he entered Colonel Strayker's office. Strayker, wearing a severe brown suit with high collars, glared at him. "Thank you for paying me a visit, Captain. I know how busy you are."

"You wanted to see me, sir?" said Calle.

"No. I wanted to see your report on the Manhattan Project mission. It's been three days since you returned."

"Yes sir," said Calle. "I'm sorry about that-"

"I don't want sorry, Captain, I want my report. Do you think you can tear yourself away from your busy schedule to get me a report by the end of the day?"

"Of course, sir. Certainly."

Strayker nodded, and wrote something on his Pad with his atomic pen. He looked up. "You're still here."

"Yes sir," said Calle. "I was wondering if you've noticed anything... strange around the base lately."

"Strange in what way?" Strayker asked.

"People acting... unusual?"

Strayker glared at him. "The only thing I noticed that's unusual is that a certain Captain isn't turning in his reports on time. Do you think we should investigate the matter further?"

"No sir. Of course not," said Calle. He turned on his heel and left.

At least Commander Strayker hadn't been affected.

********

Calle approached Sarah in the control room. He was trying to find a way to tell her what had happened with Ayesha in a way that wouldn't upset her. But Sarah spoke first to him. "You may be right," she said, in a quiet voice.

"Right about what?"

"About people changing," said Sarah.