Romance The Story of My Telepathic Life

"Audrey, aren't you worried about Henry?" I asked.

Audrey shrugged. "He'll come around. Look!"

Henry moaned and stirred. He opened his eyes. "Audrey?"

"Yes, dear? How do you feel?"

"Fine," said Henry, looking around. "We tell me that I am required to give the Revered One a sample of my sperm."

"Indeed you are."

"Then let's do it!"

I watched as Audrey helped Henry up and guided him to the tall orange pillar with holes in it. Audrey inserted Henry's penis into one of them, and then slapped his ass encouragingly. "Get to it, dear."

Henry started to insert his penis back and forth while Audrey egged him on.

"That's it... fuck it, Henry, fuck it hard, fuck it like you fuck me," she said, looking up at him adoringly.

"Aud, it feels so good. Serving Us feel so good now," said Henry, with a glazed expression in his eyes as he pounded the column hard.

"Doesn't it?" She smiled at him.

I watched the scene with disgust. Audrey and Henry had been loving husband and wife. Now they were something else, simply brainwashed tools who were programmed to encourage each other to cooperate with Us.

"But look how happy they are." Joe put an arm around me. "Do you sense the pleasure in your sister's mind?"

"Yes." Audrey was ecstatic that Henry was being drained of sperm for the Revered One. She loved the sight of his hard rod poling in and out of the fleshy orange pillar. As for Henry, he was excited to participate. The man who moments ago was only interested in making love to his wife was now excited to jack off into a fucking alien pillar! The two of them had been debased beyond belief; they were nothing more than sex slaves now, eager and willing to participate.

That's right," said Joe, giving me a hug. He looked me in the eye. "You did a fabulous job on Audrey. She has now become a very effective tool of Us. We are very happy with both of you."

"I feel like I am going to be sick," I said.

"Then now is the time for it, Shelly. After your Mother and Sister give birth, you will be impregnated again with Us."

They were going to use me like a breeding cow, and get me pregnant every month. For how long?

As long as your body proves useful.

Audrey squeezed Henry's ass. "Come on, dear, do it do it doit!"

Her touch, her gaze, her sexy smile was enough to drive Henry over the edge. He groaned as he released inside the orange pillar, filling it with thick loads of sperm. His wife had edged him for so long that he had accumulated an especially thick batch. He felt tremendous joy as he emptied himself out into the alien receptacle.

Henry moved back and forth in smaller movements now, to milk the last droplets of his sperm for the Revered One. When he was done and pulled out, his penis was semi erect and glistening.

"You did wonderfully, dear," Audrey said, giving her husband a kiss.

He embraced her warmly, enjoying the feeling of her sexy sweaty body against his. "I love serving Us," he murmured.

"Then you're going to love this even more."

Audrey took him by the hand to the edge of the black pool. She whistled, and a long orange tentacle snaked around Henry, grabbing him by the waist. The tentacle curved around and went into his groin. Henry found his organ being stimulated and he instantly became fully erect again. A hole at the tip of the tentacle opened up and Henry found himself inserted into it. He gasped, and gasped again.

"Enjoy it, lover," she said, giving him a goodbye kiss, And then Henry was lifted into the air and pressed against the ceiling, given continuous stimulation every few seconds. His sexual energy would be used to feed Us.

And once he was no longer able to do that, he would be Consumed, I thought. I looked at Audrey's smiling face. Surely she knew that, right?

Mom and Audrey's bellies grew rapidly, just as mine had. They lay side by side on the soft, spongy floor, holding hands and smiling contently.

"I never thought I would have another baby at my age," said Mom. It had been three days since she had been impregnated, and her belly was big and round, just like Audrey's. She rubbed her belly tenderly. "It's just another gift from Us."

This was too much for me. "Mom, you're being used to breed an alien form of life which is going to take over the world."

"Yess.... My baby will take over the world...." Mom looked smug as she rubbed her belly.

"And besides, didn't you go through the same thing, Sister?" Audrey asked slyly.

"Yes... well... but I wasn't so excited about it," I said.

"Come here, Sister," said Audrey. She patted the ground besides her. "Come here! We demand it!"

I sat down next to my sister. Her eyes had an unnatural gleam in it. She started to stroke my body with her hand.

"You know, Henry and I have been trying to get pregnant for months," she said.

"You have?"

"Um hm," said Audrey, giving me an unnatural smile that made my nipples tingle. "But this is better, Shelly. So much better. I am carrying Us inside of me. Can you feel it, Shelly?" She put my hand over her belly. I felt the pulsating inside of her. Audrey looked up at me, and I at her. She moved her lips to mine, closer, closer, closer.

We kissed long and hard, propelling me through time and space. When we parted, Audrey looked at me with real longing.

"I want you, Shelly. Do you want me?"

I nodded. "But what about Henry?"

"I only have room for one lover at a time. And right now, that lover is you!"

I was making love to my younger sister in a warehouse filled with space aliens.

I was making love to my younger sister in a warehouse filled with space aliens, and we were both under alien mind control, and my younger sister had an alien monster growing inside her belly, and my mother was watching approvingly.

I never thought I would write such a complicated sentence in my biography... did you, when you first started reading?

ANYWAY, As I kissed and hugged Audrey, Mom patted me on the back. "That's it, my two dear sweet girls enjoying the fruits of Us. Do you finally understand, Shelly? Do you understand what I mean by submitting yourself to happiness?"

"I think she does, Mom," Audrey grinded, as she snaked a hand down to rub my clit, even as I was rubbing hers. "I think she loves it now as much as We do."

Audrey kissed me passionately, pressing her heavy breasts against me. "Do you feel it, Sister? Do you feel the life growing within me?"

I felt her heavy belly jostling between us. I remembered the giant penis inseminating my sister, the enormous phallus thrusting in and out of her furry bush as we stood knee deep in slimy black water. I remember the look of pure bliss on her face as she was taken, how she hugged and kissed me passionately as the enormous phallus inseminated her.

"I'm so glad, Sister," Audrey whispered, as her fingers expertly played over my clit. "I'm so glad we were both taken. Only We could have brought us together. Only We could have broken through archaic societal taboos and given us each the lover we truly deserved."

I looked at Audrey's sparkling eyes, and her bright red hair, and her heavy erect nippled tits, and I shuddered as I felt my orgasm closing in me.

She kissed me hard. "We'll be lovers forever."

I felt the tension in my clitoris reaching a critical peak.

"Lovers forever." Her breath was hot and sexy in my ear.

And then Audrey planted her lips over mine, and I cried out as best I could as her tongue penetrated me. My orgasm erupted just as hers did, I felt an explosion radiating out from my overstimulated clit, and I sensed Audrey struggling with the tidal wave of her own orgasm, an orgasm triggered by me, her older sister.

"I love you so much, Shelly," She whispered passionately, with an alien gleam in her eyes. As I stared at my sexy red headed sister's young, smiling face, I wondered what I had become. What we had become.

That started a pattern. Every day I would come to check by on Mom and Audrey's progress, to touch and feel their burgeoning bellies and to compliment them on their pregnancies. Mom would give me a kiss on the lips and a welcoming smile. But then Audrey would say something like, "And what about me, Sister?"

And so I would come and kiss her on her lips as she gave me a longing look with her sparkling green eyes. "I've gotten so lonely without you, Sister. Why don't you stay and talk awhile?"

Stay and talk a while, Shelly.

And I always did. Except, we never talked.

As I grounded my pussy against my pregnant sister's, and felt her increasingly heavy pulsating belly, and our tongues swirled in each other's mouths, I realized that somehow I had become my sister's lover.

Joe explained it to me one day after I had just finished a torrid lovemaking session with Audrey. Aud was too big in the belly now for me to lie on top of each her, so we lay back on our elbows facing each other, scissoring our vulvas as Mom watched and cheered us on.

Audrey was sweating bullets as she furiously humped her vulva furiously against mine. Her belly was so big now that she couldn't see my pussy anymore... but she could feel it! "Come for me, you lovely fucker!"

"No, you come for me!" I cried, rubbing against her. It was one of several games we had innovated, to see who could make the other come first. Of course the Voice could decide for us, but lately it had been leaving me alone, leaving me free... to fuck my sister.

I grinded against Audrey, who stared at me with a steely grin. "Come for me, Sister!" she cried.

"You first!" I smiled at her and gave her a fierce stare, the kind of stare that Tom always told he found so arousing. My stare seemed to melt something inside of Audrey's mind, and she cried out, "Ahhhhhhh!" as her head jerked upwards.

"I win," said smugly.

Audrey panted as she came down from her high. "So you did. Now come and collect your reward." She gave me an evil smile and waggled a finger at me. As we kissed and hugged I felt aroused as I felt her heavy baby, filled with alien life growing inside of her.

It was good. It was always good.

But afterwards, Joe had to ruin it. He put an arm around my waist. "We are very pleased with your performance, Shelly. You are fitting in quite nicely."

"I'm so pleased to satisfy your expectations," I said, rolling my eyes.

"We are especially pleased with your sister Audrey. She has exceeded all Our expectations."

I looked over at my sister, who was lying on the ground, staring into space, without a care in the world.

"That is why We decided to give her a special reward."

"What kind of reward?"

"You."

I blinked rapidly. "No."

"Yes," said Joe. "You were all she wanted. And so We gave you to her."

"No," I said. "That, that was my decision."

"You think so? Before you joined Us, would you have been so intimate with your younger sister?" He paused to let it sink in. "You're doing a fine job. We want Audrey to be kept happy, especially during this critical phase of her pregnancy."

I was being used. Somehow I had thought that Audrey had seduced me naturally, if anything could be considered natural in this place. I always thought Audrey was very pretty. I thought I had just... fallen into it. But it seemed like I was being manipulated by Us.

But that still didn't stop me from falling into Audrey's arms the next day, or the day after, or the day after that. All she had to do was smile at me, or waggle a finger at me, and I was hers.

And so we enjoyed ten days of exquisite lesbian love. It only lasted ten days, but felt like a lifetime.

Mom and Audrey were due to give birth any time now. They were both excited at the prospect of giving birth to the next generation of us, the Ultimate Social Justice Warrior. Audrey's lovemaking had become especially torrid and passionate as she approached the end of her term.

But then, just as I was chatting amiably with Mom after having coitus with Audrey, Joe came up to me. "Get some clothes on."

"Why?"

"Tom has returned."

Tom had returned. And he hadn't come alone. With him were four Survey Service officers. His mind reacted sharply when he saw me.

"Shell!" he said. He frowned. "What happened to you?"

"Happened to me?"

"Last time I saw you, you were heavily pregnant," said Tom.

I rubbed my belly and smiled. "I gave birth, Tom. Do you really not know how it's done?"

Tom knew that my belly couldn't get flat in such a short period of time. He knew something very odd was going on here... but it was clear from his thoughts that he didn't know what. He had no conception that space aliens had a base of operations here and were rapidly reproducing to take over the planet. Every day more and more people were brought to the warehouse, to feed the Revered One, and more and more people were sent out to bring more of humanity into Us.

"Shell, I'd really like an explanation."

I put my hands on my hips. "You have no right to an explanation, Tom. You lost that right when you broke up with me." Actually, I broke up with him! Are you listening carefully, Tom?

We are reading your every thought, Shelly Diggler. Do not attempt to engage in subterfuge,

Oh, I wouldn't dream of it!

"Shell, your mother and your sister Audrey and her husband Henry have all been reported missing. Do you know anything about that?" he asked.

"They're fine, Tom. They're all fine. Do you really not have anything better to do with your time than to spy on my family?"

"Shelly, I'd like permission to search the premises."

"Permission denied," said Joe.

"You'll force me to get a search warrant," said Tom.

"Go ahead," said Joe. "This premises has been declared a Closed Zone by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. No search warrant will be valid here."

The men behind Tom exchanged worried glances. Tom squinted at me. "Shelly, what is going on here?"

The Voice spoke loudly and urgently in my head. Get rid of him. Get rid of him now or we will have to dispose of him ourselves.

What would Aunt Tammy do, at a time like this?

And then suddenly, it came to me.

I put my hands on my hips. "Do you really want to know what's going on here, Tom? Do you really want to know?"

"Yes, I do," said Tom.

"What's going on here is that you can't get over your old high school girlfriend. You're pursuing and harassing me because you're lonely. Now that you're single again you've started thinking about the good old days, except there was nothing good about them. Do you remember the particular kind of holoporn we used to enjoy, Tom? You know what I'm talking about, don't you? That's what this is all about. You're watching that same holoporn, over and over again, and you've gotten to thinking about me. Well, it's far too late for that, Thomas Dolby Fisher. Go back to watch your holoporn, and leave me alone!"

Tom's head recoiled as if he had been slapped. He bit his lip and nodded, and gestured for his men to turn and go.

You have done well.

Thank you. Your approval means so very much to me.

Your sarcasm is irrelevant, as long as you continue to perform as required.

I was watching Mom and Audrey, sitting on the fleshy ground of the warehouse with their big bellies.

Joe came over to me. "You did well with Tom."

"Thanks."

He put a hand around my waist again. "It's been decided that Tom must be dealt with."

"Dealt with?"

"Tomorrow you will seek him out. Tell him you had a change of heart. Seduce him, make love to him, and make him part of Us."

"He'll... he'll never believe me... not after what I just said to him."

"Of course he will, Shelly. He loves you."

Joe was right. Tom was still in love with me. I could feel it. I could probably seduce him even without the pheromone. I imagined Tom making love to me, thrusting inside of me. As he made love to me he would feel the heat of the Serum, rising in his penis. He would be puzzled, at first, but keep thrusting, even as he was taken over. Finally as the Infection rose to his brain I would kiss him passionately, and his face would go blank and he would say, "Contact has been made."

It was truly ironic that the one thing I had wanted most in my life, to make love to Tom and to be loved by him, was now going to happen, but in a totally ghoulish and alien way.

I reflected on that as Audrey cried out.

She was in labor. So was Mom.

"Push, Audrey, push!" I cried, squeezing her hand. Audrey's face was a mask of pain. Her legs were widely spread. I saw just the beginning of an orange sphere appear at the entrance to her vulva.

"I am pushing!" she cried, gritting her teeth. "Shelly, I love you so much!"

"I love you too!" I cried.

Audrey looked so beautiful with her legs widely spread, her muscular thighs lifted upwards, her heavy breasts sloping downwards, and covered with a sheen of sweet. She bore down and squeezed again. "Just think, Shelly! I am the reproductive instrument of Us!"

She was so excited, so passionate, that I just had to kiss her!

More of the sphere started to appear at the entrance to Audrey's vagina. But then Audrey frowned. Something was wrong.

As more of the orange sphere started to appear, it suddenly collapsed into pieces. Audrey cried out as a river of orange goo flowed out of her vagina, including bits and pieces of pod.

"Nooooooo!" she cried, with horror in her eyes.

Mom was next. Audrey just lay there, looking lifeless and dull, but I had to help Mom any way I could. She squeezed and grunted and started to give birth to her orange pod.

"This is it, dear," she said. "Are you happy for me?"

"Of course, Mom," I said, squeezing her hand. Anything to help keep her calm!

Mom grunted, and grunted again, and then a terrible look crossed her face. "Something.... Shelly, I feel something wrong... down there...."

Suddenly, a river of orange goo shot out of her vagina, including large chunks of an orange pod.

The impregnations had been unsuccessful.

Mom and Audrey lay together, hugging, sobbing quietly. They had failed to reproduce. They had failed Us. They hugged each other for mutual comfort, trying to console each other.

I turned to Joe, who had a faraway look in his face. "They can't do it."

"No, they can't," said Joe. "Which means that your Aunt Tamara probably can't do it either. It might be worth trying with your sister Claire, though, once she gives birth."

I kept a carefully blank expression. "So what's next?"

"For you? You will seduce Tom tonight and make him part of us. Then tomorrow you will be impregnated again. Since you are our only source of physical reproduction it is vital that you be pregnant as often as your body can handle it."

"Goody, I'm a breeding cow," I said. "What about Mom and Claire?"

Joe looked over at them. "It was worth trying. But now they will serve Us in another way."

"What other way?" I looked at his blank expression. "Joe, what other way?"

"Consumption."

Mom and Audrey had gotten to their feet. Their bellies were still distended from their recent pregnancies, and orange goo streaked their pubis and legs.

Joe approached them. "It has been decided that you will both be Consumed. We thank you for your service."

"Consumed?" said Audrey. "Isn't there anything else we can be used for?"

"We have decided that this is the best use for the both of you," said Joe.

Mom nodded. "I'm delighted to serve."

"Mom!" said Audrey. "They're going to kill us!"

Even at this time of intense fear I felt delighted by Audrey's reaction. My little sister was deeply into Us, but not that deep.

"It's what We want, dear. We must serve the community."

The community. It felt like a World Government slogan.

Mom actually smiled as a tentacle wrapped around her waist. "Goodbye, Shelly. I will miss you."

"Mom!"

A tentacle reached out for Audrey.

"No!" Audrey cried. She ran into my arms. "Shelly, don't let them take me! Please!"

"Shelly cannot help you," said Joe sternly. "We have decided your fate."

Audrey looked behind her in horror as the tentacle reached out for her again. This time it grabbed her and pulled her away, along with Mom.

"No!" I cried, pounding on Joe's chest with my fist. "Please, don't do it! I'll do anything you want, anything!"

"Yes, you will," Joe grinned. "You will do whatever We tell you to, as you always have."

Mom and Audrey were pulled towards the dark pool. I knew that in seconds their bodies would plunge underwater, never to be seen again.

What could I do? What could anyone do?

"Stop!" a new voice cried.

I turned to see the most beautiful sight in the world.

Survey Service Half Commander Thomas Dolby Fisher.

Tom had a compression pistol in his hands. "Let them go!" he cried. "Let them all go!"

The tentacles holding Mom and Audrey froze. The eye of the Revered One started to glow brightly, and I felt something going through the air, something powerful that could not be seen. Years later I recognized it as psychic energy.

"You don't give the orders here," said Joe confidently.

Tom started to respond, but suddenly his mouth froze; and not just his mouth, but his entire body.

"Shelly, take his weapon."

I strode over to Tom. He looked at me helplessly. I took it from him.

"Aim the weapon at him."

"What?"

"Do it."

I aimed the compression pistol straight at Tom's head.

"Now fire it."

"Wait!" I said. "Can't I just make him part of Us?"

"No," said Joe. "We have just sampled his mind again. We realize now that he will be too strong willed to be controlled. It is too much of a risk. Kill him now, Shelly."

I felt my finger moving towards the trigger of the compression pistol. I saw Tom looking into my eyes with a pleading look.

"Kill him, Shelly. We demand it."

We demand it.

I felt my finger tightening on the trigger. But then, as I looked into those beautiful blue eyes, blue eyes I had dreamed of for years, I heard Tom's last thought.

I love you, Shell.

Shell.

I gave an agonizing, painful wail as I felt something ripped apart inside of me. The gun fell from my hands and went clattering to the ground. At that moment Tom looked at me and I felt it, I truly felt it.

His true love for me.

Joe frowned, shaking his head. "You have proven truly disappointing, Shelly. I think you may need another dose of Us." He reached for me-

"Keep your hands off of her!"

I looked up, and saw a Survey Service Captain run into the warehouse, followed closely by an overwhelming number of soldiers. The soldiers were Survey Service Space Marines, elite extraplanetary and Zero G combat soldiers. I recognized them by their grey khaki outfits.

The officer wore Survey Service dress whites from head to toe. She wore tall silver boots and an imposing cap. And trailing her was a long silver cape, the kind of cape that only Survey Service Captains were allowed to wear.

And the face of this particular Survey Service officer was none other than my Aunt Tamara.

An inhuman scream filled the warehouse as the Revered One roared. Aunt Tamara was holding a minicompression pistol. That may sound like a child's toy, but it wasn't. Aunt Tamara, standing in the classic Survey Service firing position of her legs spread and arms pointed straight in front of her exactly where she was aiming, started firing. The first round knocked Joe's head clean off his shoulders, sending blue liquid spraying everywhere, including over me. Blue?

The second round hit Alpha, my son, causing his chest to explode.

The other soldiers opened fire as well. They had compression rifles which were even more deadly.

The Revered One screamed again and launched its tentacles at the Space Marines. First two and then three and then four and five were swatted down by the giant tentacles. One of them tried to crush Aunt Tamara. She did a very agile rolling dodge that I never thought she was capable of and landed on her feet, still firing her compression pistol. She emptied round after round into the Revered One, who roared with pain but kept attacking.

"Turbolasers!" she cried.

A Special Weapons soldier squatted on his knees and aimed a long thick tube. There was a brilliant flash of light, a tremendous roar of energy, and a beam of pure power shot out of the tube, blasting into the Revered One.

It was all over in an instant.

The Revered One looked downwards with its giant eye. It looked downwards... and saw a gaping hole in its middle. It gave an inhuman cry, fell over, and snapped cleaning into two.

At that moment, every tentacle collapsed, and the Revered One went dead.

And that's the last thing I remember.

Whiteness.

I opened my eyes, and everything was white. Was I in heaven?

No. A hospital bed. "Where am I? What time is it?" I groaned.

"You're in a Survey Service medical facility on Kiawah Island, it's one o'clock in the afternoon, and I've been waiting all morning for you to wake up," said a very familiar voice.

I looked to my right and saw my Aunt Tamara, smartly dressed in the same Survey Service uniform I had seen her a few minutes (an hour? A day, a week, a month?) ago.

"Aunt Tammy. Is it really you?"

She squeezed my hand. "It really is me, dear."

"That... that uniform!"

"Oh, this old thing?" Aunt Tammy smiled. "I had nothing to wear. Laundry day, you know. And I just happened to find this hanging in my closet."

To say I was confused would be an understatement. "Aunt Tammy... what's been happening to me? Memory flooded back to me. Us. The Revered One. Mom. Audrey. Audrey!

"Was any of it real?" I asked.

"I'm afraid so," said Tamara, looking troubled. "You've gone through quite a difficult time, dear."

I sat up in bed. "Mom! Audrey! Tom!"

"They're all right," she said, squeezing my hand again. "They're all right, and you'll see them soon."

"Aunt Tammy... what happened to me?"

Aunt Tammy took a deep breath. "You got caught up in something you had no business being involved in, dear Shelly. An alien invasion of Earth."

"They were really aliens from another planet?"

Aunt Tammy nodded.

"Just like Parasites Love Earth?"

Suddenly, I realized something. There was no Voice in my head anymore.

"Auntie, I used to have a Voice in my head-"

"I know."

"It's gone!"

"I know," said Auntie. "You'll be delighted to know that you're completely cured. There is no trace of the alien influence in you. Your physiognomy has been completely restored."

"How?"

"We've made a lot of progress in 200 years."

"What does that mean? 200 years since what?"

"Since the last invasion."

"WHAT???"

Aunt Tammy explained. "Almost 200 years ago aliens invaded the Earth. In fact, these very same aliens invaded. The last time they came from a place called Planet P. They infected two shiploads of Survey Service officers, returned to Earth, and spread far and wide. Humanity was nearly completely enslaved until we developed a counteragent. We even tried nukes to stop them. The original version of this base... everything around us... was radioactive ash, just 200 years ago....."

"Wait a minute. Are you saying that there was a massive alien invasion two hundred years ago... and no one knew about it?"

Aunt Tammy nodded.

"How is that possible?"

"Very possible," said Aunt Tammy firmly. "The World Government controls the educational system. The World Government controls the media. Within two generations, the invasion was treated as an outlandish rumor. Within three generations, no one had even heard of it."

"But... why would the World Government have suppressed this information?"

"The World Government felt that continued public knowledge of the attack might make people alienophobic. That when we encountered our next alien race, that we would discriminate against them and show prejudice. Therefore the decision was made to suppress all knowledge of it." She patted her hair self consciously. "Almost all knowledge, of course. People who worked in Intelligence and at the command levels of the Survey Service and the World Government knew about it, of course."

"And you... you really do work in the Survey Service! And you're a Captain! You lied to me!" I said.

Aunt Tammy shook her head. "I never lied to you, dear Shelly. Not once. I withheld certain facts, yes. But I never lied to you." She took a deep breath. "I was a cook in the Survey Service. For at least a few weeks, anyway, during my probationary posting before my promotion to Ensign was confirmed. But at the time I retired from the Survey Service, I was a Commander of the War Frigate Titan's Fist."

"You... were a commander of a frigate named... Titan's Fist?" My Auntie, the Survey Service cook?

Aunt Tammy nodded. "I was one of the youngest non-black officers to get my own command. Graduating near the top of my Academy class may have had something to do with it."

"You commanded a warship, Aunt Tammy?" I repeated. I couldn't believe what I was hearing!

"Yes," said Aunt Tammy. "And my last mission was on the planet Ramada. That's where things went wrong." She paused. "There was a hostage situation there. Followers of Laquinta had taken the World Government embassy staff prisoner. 124 staffers, including 34 children. They ran a little school there, for children of diplomats. I was ordered to go in and launch a rescue."

"What happened?"

Aunt Tammy looked away for a moment and rubbed her head.

"It went badly, as I knew it would. They were too well prepared for us. The bombers detonated a series of suicide bombs. 39 people were killed, and 73 were injured. Including me," she said, tapping her head meaningfully.

The plate in her head!

"The Service covered up the disastrous failure in security. I was offered a promotion to Captain for 'a job well done', but I refused it. I retired, but was awarded my promotion anyway," she said.

"You told me you were never a Captain-"

"I told you I was never an active duty Captain. And until last week, that was very true."

Last week. How long had I been here?

"I was in the inactive reserves, though inactive is not really a good word for it," said Aunt Tammy. "One never truly leaves the Service." She took another deep breath. I could see how hard this was for her.

"When the bombs went off, I had just reached the classroom. I could never get the image of the exploding classroom out of my mind, of children's bodies flying through the air."

"That's why... that's why you became a school teacher?"

Tammy nodded sadly. She was crying now. "The teacher in the classroom was nearly torn apart from the shrapnel. Somehow they managed to keep her alive. But she was crippled for life. All she could do.... " Tammy bit her lip, trying to keep her voice steady. But her voice still cracked. "All she could do was sit in a fucking chair and make a light blink on and off."

My eyes widened. "Louisa! Henry's wife!"

"Yes." My aunt's voice was raw and uneven. "Henry's wife was crippled. But his daughter had been saved. You must have noticed the scar on Annibell's cheek. That was the only thing they couldn't properly heal." She looked away, obviously distressed. "Henry... Henry wasn't angry with me, as he should have been. On the contrary, he was... grateful, very grateful that I had managed to save Annibell. We took to... corresponding with each other. At some point... correspondence... became consolation, and consolation...."

"Became love."

Aunt Tammy nodded as she wiped tears from her eyes. "Henry never blamed me, but he should have. He credited me for saving Annibell's life when in reality it was just random chance. But we fell in together, and I felt I owed him, more than he ever knew... and with his wife crippled like that...."

"You both fell in love."

"In a matter of speaking," said Aunt Tammy.

I paused, thinking about this while Aunt Tammy regained her composure. Then suddenly I was brought back to my own situation. "Aunt Tammy, how did you know where I was? How did you know I needed help?"

"It was Tom. Tom and you."

"Me?"

"You saved them, Shelly. You saved them all," said Aunt Tammy.

"I did?"

"Um hm," said Aunt Tammy. "Let's go back in time. After your first date with Joe, you told me how wonderful he was. How he was the One. Do you remember?"

I blushed furiously. "I remember."

"After that I expected to hear more from you. But I didn't. You disappeared. Uncontactable. I couldn't do much in the Inactive Reserves but I knew Tom worked in HomePlanet Security. When I contacted him he became very concerned for you."

"He did? I mean, he was?"

"Of course," said Aunt Tammy. "He conducted some inquiries, and traced you to the warehouse. But in the course of his investigation he also found out that something larger was going on. Scientists were disappearing, leaving their families without a trace. Well, that's not quite true. There was a trace.... to the warehouse. The same warehouse where you were, Shelly."

"When Tom told me you were heavily pregnant it was a surprise, quite a surprise, since you hadn't been at all pregnant just a few weeks earlier. Even then neither Tom nor I quite knew what was going on in there. It was you, Shelly, who provided the final clue."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. Despite the many layers of mind control, despite the near total surveillance of your thoughts, you managed to get a message out to Tom. Remember the last time you saw him? You told him off dismissively. You told him to go masturbate to holoporn, the same holoporn you talked about as kids."

"Tom... understood what I was referring to?"

"He certainly did, Shelly. The gift that keeps on giving. Parasites Love Earth." She paused. "Now, that was the story about an ostensibly fictional invasion of Earth. But Tom knew that there had been real invasions in the past."

"Invasions, plural?"

"Quiet, you're interrupting me."

"Sorry."

"When you put the idea in his head about alien invasions he connected the dots, so to speak, and he called me. I immediately returned to active status under emergency Survey Service regulations meant especially for situations just like this and raced to the factory. Tom pleaded for the chance to go in first to see if he could rescue you before the fighting started. I gave him three minutes. It all worked out, but just barely."

This was a lot to take in. It had all been real. Suddenly, I felt a tremendous weight of guilt on my chest. "Aunt Tammy... I did things... terrible things."

"That's true. But you weren't responsible for your actions."

I thought about all the men I had made part of Us. All the men who had been hooked up to tentacles and eventually Consumed. Helping my own mother get taken over and impregnated! And Audrey, my dear sweet Audrey!

I had helped seduce her, Infect her, put her under mind control, get her impregnated, and... and... and...somehow, I became my sister's lesbian lover.

Audrey!

I cried out in pain as Aunt Tammy flew into my arms and hugged me tightly. "There, there," she said, petting my hair.

"I... I did such terrible things!" I cried. "Mom and Audrey... they'll never want to see me again!"

"They will, of course they will," said Aunt Tammy.

"How can I live with this?" I whispered. "How can I live with the memory of what I've done?"

"The same way I do, Shelly. One day at a time."

[This is an abridged version of my novel "The Story of My Telepathic Life"]
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