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The Coughmex return. Good news for Alice. Bad news for Alex. This chapter is mostly a transition to the final chapter.
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The dream that she was suspended above the ground while she was bullwhipped and then raped was the worst night ever for Alice. And it was on that night that the voices began. The dream had been so real that when she awoke, her body still hurt in the places where she had been whipped. She had awakened screaming. She had thrown up. She had cleaned up. She was trying to muster the strength to return to bed when she heard the voices. They were soft voices... almost feminine voices... but not human voices. There was definitely something non-human about them. They were whispering, "Alice... Alice... Alice, we are coming for you. Things will be made right. Be prepared. Do not fear."
From that night on, it was better. The dreams were still there, but when the dreams were at their worst, the voices would wake Alice. And when she awoke, it was not with terror and dread. Somehow the voices brought Alice hope. The message was always the same, night after night after night. The only things that changed was the clarity and the volume. As time passed, the soft whispers became clearer. Then the words gradually became more like normal speech. And now, finally, they were speaking loudly and clearly each night in their almost human cadence, "Alice, we are coming for you. Things will be made right. Be prepared. Do not fear."
On the nights when the voices would wake Alice from her dreams, sometimes the after-images of the dreams would shimmer before her as she steadied her breathing and gradually came to full wakefulness. Tonight, however, when the voices awakened her, the after-images refused to fade. Alice shook her head and blinked her eyes. She took several deep, clearing breaths, but two images remained.
They were the lizards from the nightmares - but not quite. There was something softer about them. Their skin had the dry shine of a snake or a lizard but appeared to be soft rather than scaly. The one closest to her spoke. She recognized the voice as the one she had been hearing in her dreams. "Alice, we returned when we realized that you were one of us. I was originally attracted to your image because you reminded me of my own daughter. I believe that you are a survivor of a pre-mech probe which either crashed on this planet or was stranded here many, many years ago."
Alice shook her head and tried to comprehend what she was being told. The lizard woman continued, " The implant is designed so that it will transmit emotional responses from lower mammals. For lower animals the connection is one-way. For our minds, the connection is bi-directional. Because you are, at least partly, one of us, your implant has been working in bi-directional mode and you have been experiencing the dreams themselves. The implant doesn't work perfectly in your body or we could have communicated with you much sooner and blocked the dream transmissions. Now that we know who you are, and that you are one of us, we can modify the probe slightly so that it will work properly for you as it does for us."
Alice stared at the two lizards in disbelief and sputtered, "How could I be related to you? You are... You are... lizards!"
The lizard who had been speaking laughed softly. "We are Genetically Reoriented Physco-Mechanical Transport Devices, more commonly called Grophmechs. I am, or once was, very much like you. I had a mammalian body." She paused and ran her hand over her smooth forehead, "I even had red hair." Shuddering, as if remembering a powerful emotion, she continued "... and I could FEEL. I knew pleasure. I knew pain. I knew LIFE."
Her shoulders slumped downward, she hugged herself and became quiet. The other Grophmech continued for her. "But mammalian bodies cannot stand the rigors of long-term space travel. And life support mechanisms for fleshies use too much power and resources. Many lives and many probes were lost before a way was developed to 'Genetically Re-orient' the minds of travelers and place them in mechanical transport devices."
"So you are alive in there?" asked Alice.
"No, I AM alive." The first one answered. She then pointed at herself and shrugged. It was a very human-looking gesture. "Yes, this is a machine - a transport device. But my mind has become the mind of this machine., This machine does not carry me. This Grophmech is me - a new me. It is a machine version of me - a mech me, but it is me."
"For many years after the transfer, I was connected to the fleshie me by an implant like that which is implanted in you. That allowed her to experience what I did as a mech and allowed me to feel what she felt as she lived out her life in her flesh body. But machines outlive flesh. The mammalian me died centuries ago, and I have been alone in this mechanical body ever since."
She came forward and looked directly into Alice's eyes. "We mechs do not die, but without a connection to emotion and feelings, our minds eventually degenerate. That is equivalent to death for us. We use the dream experiences of humans and other advanced mammals to delay our succumbing to space madness, which is inevitable once our fleshie has died. One of our crew recently devised a way to retain these dream experiences. Everything is recorded for playback on our vessel and will be useful for us and for others for many years to come."
"The recording process required that we create what you call a pornographic website. We picked one of the least repulsive of the many pornographic website programmers on your planet and gave him the programming and technology for ten subjects. We thought our fanciful threats to destroy your entire solar system would prevent him from doing anything other than what we requested. We had, unfortunately, over - or underestimated humanity."
She sighed. "We should have known better. We have often stopped at this planet and implanted humans so that we who passed through this section of space could experience your dreams and your lives. Normally the people who are implanted never know it, except for a vague memory of having been taken to our ships. But, you, Alice, are one of us, and as soon as we realized what you were, we came back."
