Chapter 8 - Back on Top

Note from the Author:

Hello again everyone! Thanks so much for your patience as I took the time needed to sort things out and start writing again! Over the past *checks watch* YEAR or so, I told many people many times that the next chapter would be done soon. However, every time, life got in the way. A new job, new relationship, travel, other projects, the end of covid restrictions, and good ol’ fashioned burnout all took a toll. I did my best to keep in touch with everyone who messaged me, and all of your encouraging comments really helped keep me motivated.  Fortunately, things have finally settled down now and I can get back to writing (and drawing, I hope) on a more regular basis.
 
Starting this chapter, I will be publishing shorter installments, so as to maintain a steady content flow. Writing gigantic 40K word short stories each chapter was clearly too taxing on me to maintain for long. While ambitious at the start, it quickly led to serious burnout, and wasn’t a writing schedule I could really handle after several big life changes.

Hopefully these smaller uploads will suffice for everyone – I’ve also heard feedback that some people find trying to read such large installations a bit daunting (which is understandable), so this should also make the act of actually reading the story less of a chore for you all (while making it less of a chore for me to write lol). 
 
This chapter is technically only the first half of what was planned to be chapter 7, so the pacing (and amount of sexual content) isn’t what I initially had in mind. I initially planned to have chapter 8 be the first “small chapter”, but I wanted to share this portion now just to give everyone SOMETHING after such a long drought of content. 
 
That said, the next part/chapter should be ready pretty soon, so there likely won’t be a long wait until we get to see all the interesting new ways the Krinis have been evolving and using their cattle since Sarah and co last encountered them. Trust me, there’s a lot yet to come. I’d love to be able to commit to a monthly release window or something, but I’ll see how things go over the next couple chapters or so.
 
There’s a chance I might start up a Patreon as a form of donation, where people can just pledge money per creation if they want instead of a monthly subscription. I didn’t realize that was even an option until recently, and didn’t want to do the subscription style donations because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to deliver much at the time. Regardless, I’ll always post most of my stuff for free, so only donate if you really want to. Who knows, if I earn enough to make a living, maybe I can quite my day job and create way more content (though I have no idea what I’d tell my mother I do for a living lol).
 
Anyway, as always, thanks for your continued understanding, patience, and support! I hope you manage to enjoy this chapter despite it being kinda oddly paced.


_________
 
A’luhr led the rest of the group as they slowly made their way through the winding, fleshy tunnels of the Krinis hive. Adam was still passed out from exhaustion, so she carried his trembling, naked body over one of her shoulders while Sarah leaned on her other one for support, trying to regain her energy while still moving expeditiously.


Zoey was in an even worse state than Adam. Her entire slender form was drenched in a mixture of sweat and cum, which had mostly dried into a sickening crust that made her pale skin shine in the dim lighting. Steven had desperately attempted to clean her off, but all he had at his disposal was his own bare skin - which was in only slightly better condition than hers - so there was little he could do. 
 
Steven now held Zoey’s unconscious body in a fireman's carry, flinching in embarrassment every time he felt his sister’s still-hard nipples brush against his back. He trailed slightly behind the much stronger alien woman, but he didn’t mind. Despite all they had been through, seeing A’luhr’s shapely, tight blue ass bobbing up and down in front of him still served to put some pep back into his weary step.
 
The sounds of dripping fluids, moaning human captives, and squelching tentacles permeated the darkness around them as they walked in a nervous silence. A thick, sweet smelling haze filled the air and tenderly caressed their exposed flesh. Sarah felt her nipples stiffen slightly, but tried to keep her eyes locked dead ahead, as if worried that glancing at the slithering walls would greet her with the sight of a mottled tendril lurching out towards her, ready to drag her helpless body back into that hell of endless pleasure. Soon, however, the silence became too much to bear.
 
“Where are we going?” Sarah croaked, still having to exert considerable effort to speak complete sentences. “Did you find a way out before rescuing us?”
 
“Not quite,” A’luhr responded, keeping her attention on the floor ahead of them to determine the optimal footfalls for avoiding any squirming, wayward tentacles. “These tunnels seem to have grown even more labyrinthian over time, so finding an easily accessible exit would be close to impossible, especially as we do not know how much time we have before The Queen returns.” Sarah’s already haggard expression drooped even further in disappointment.
 
“Yeah, but A’luhr thinks there’s a chance we might find her ship somewhere in here!” Steven said, clearly trying his best to inject as much optimism as he could muster into his tone.
 
“Sh-ship…!?” Adam suddenly gasped, his eyes popping open as he jolted awake. The jerking movement caused him to fall off of A’luhr’s shoulder and land on his rear in a pool of mucus-like orange slime. Sarah reached a hand down to him and he clasped it, rising unsteadily back to his feet while the orange goo dripped off his balls in goopy droplets. Sarah’s eyes briefly flickered downward at his crotch but then awkwardly darted away as Adam finally stood in front of her.
 
“Oh, come on,” Adam sighed, rolling his eyes. “We’re all naked here, right? We’ve seen and done so many… things… already! So why are you being so prudish?” As Adam spoke and got a better look at his naked girlfriend, his penis - which had only recently started to soften for the first time in weeks - began to swell yet again. He mumbled something incoherent and hastily hid his erection with his hands. “...You, uh, said something about a ship?” Adam coughed, trying to regain his composure. Sarah smirked as Adam took A’luhr’s arm that she offered him for support. 
 
“It is not a certainty,” A’luhr continued, walking slightly slower than before now that she had to deal with Adam’s uncertain steps as well. “However, I believe it possible that my ship is mixed in with the non-organic refuse stored somewhere in the hive.”
 
“Huh?” Sarah said, looking up at A’luhr in confusion. “The Krinis store trash?” She hadn’t considered such an advanced alien race needing to deal with such mundane chores.
 
“I have noticed that instead of simply dissolving the captured humans’ garments - something that should be quite possible for the Krinis - they instead prefer to physically remove them, possibly as it requires less resources. But where are all the discarded items?” Sarah raised her brows in surprise. Now that she thought about it, wouldn’t it make sense for there to be piles of shredded clothes strewn about the squishy floors of the nest? From what she could tell, however, the surfaces were all immaculately clean, besides the countless rippling puddles of alien mucus and human cum, of course.
 
“It makes sense that they would want to keep the tunnels clear of debris given their need to sense vibration,” Adam mused. “But how are we supposed to find whatever chamber they are using to dump stuff, if such a room even exists?”
 
“Simply follow the trail,” A’luhr replied, using her long, antennae-like eyebrows to gesture towards a fork in the tunnel ahead. Sarah squinted into the dimly-lit recess of the fleshy walls. At first, all she saw were the several dozen naked bodies, helplessly trapped within the pulsating surfaces while being fucked in milked. Their muffled screams and moans distracted her for a moment, but as she looked closer, she saw another form of movement that stood out from the sea of otherwise writhing tentacles and limbs.
 
A pair of blue cotton panties was being quickly dragged along the floor by a small tentacle-like worm. There were several other pieces of clothing being taken away by the little workers as well, ranging from individual socks and shoes to tattered pants, and even an entire pink sundress that must have been yanked up and off of its previous owner all at once. They were all covered in slime and blended in with the glistening floors around them. 
 
When Sarah had previously been navigating the tunnels, she had either been too focused on the dangerous, waving tentacles to worry about looking for wayward clothes, or been too overcome with nectar-induced lust to seek out anything other than her own pleasure. Now that she thought about it, maybe she had seen a stray pair of boxers move past her face while she feverishly sucked a stranger’s unnaturally large erection protruding from a mass of tentacles, but she hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
 
“I imagine it would be impossible to store everything in one area,” A’luhr continued, satisfied that the rest of the group seemed to have finally caught on. “So it is most likely that the ship would be brought to the chamber closest to The Queen, which is an area we are fortunately already near.”
 
“Why do you figure it will be there?” Adam asked.
 
“You should know that there’s no point in doubting her,” Steven scoffed. “She’s got more brains than all of us combined.”
 
“...Thank you for your confidence,” A’luhr’s eyebrows curled slightly, and her voice sounded surprisingly bashful as she spoke. “But it is good to explain and share our knowledge. As I mentioned when we first met, I was forced to abandon my vessel just before it impacted with the waters of your planet. Though I managed to escape, the ship’s auto-navigation system was still locked onto The Queen’s specific biosignature, so if the engines managed to last, it stands to reason that it would have come to rest near where the original Queen initially took root. The odds are low, but not zero.”
 
“Well it sounds like it’s our best shot regardless,” Sarah said with a shrug. “It certainly sounds more promising than randomly wandering these tunnels until some tentacles decide to grab us…” As if to drive her point home, a nearby woman embedded upside down in the oozing walls suddenly let out a loud gasp of pleasure as three thick tentacle cocks withdrew from her pussy.
 
Her body shuddered and bucked wildly as a mixture  of alien cum and small writhing worms gushed from her worn hole and sloshed down into her open mouth. The poor trembling woman had no time to catch her sputtering breath, for as soon as the birthing had completed, the three tendrils frantically pushed back inside of her swollen cunt as if competing to see which one could fill her up first.
 
Sarah reflexively put a hand to her own lower abdomen, feeling her core fill with warmth and butterflies from the sight. Though she no longer felt completely consumed by her lust as she did only several hours earlier, there was no helping the sudden trickle of wetness she felt running down between her thighs. She pressed her thighs together slightly, hoping no one would notice.
 
“Why haven’t we been attacked yet, anyway?” Adam wondered aloud. “I would have expected us to be yanked back into one of those fucking pod things pretty quickly.”
 
“I believe it is due to the nectar lingering within our bodies,” A’luhr replied. “Fortunately it is weak enough for us to maintain our senses, but it seems the Krinis may be mistaking us for thralls, sensing the chemicals within us. Perhaps it is similar to a pheromone.”
 
“So it’s like we have a status effect acting as a passive buff to ignore aggro.” Steven mused, his eyes sparkling with sudden understanding. A’luhr blinked at him in total confusion. Zoey groaned weakly and stirred on Steven’s back.
 
“Just when I think I have finally grasped your language, you pull out new surprises…” A’luhr slowly shook her head, staring at Steven with a mix of awe and bemusement. He didn’t seem to notice, lost in his mental world of game strategy.
 
 “So the big question is, how long’s it gonna last?”
 
“There is no real way to know,” A’luhr sighed. “Hours? Minutes? Seconds, perhaps?” The rest of the group suddenly tensed up, expecting the worse to come at any moment after this new realization. When nothing happened after a few seconds, they all relaxed slightly.
 
“You can’t just drop flags like that, A’luhr!” Steven cried out while trying to regain the breath he had been holding.
 
“I… what?” A’luhr stammered, clearly not used to being so far out of her element. “I apologize… I was simply trying to convey the uncertainty of our situation, and thus the need for decisive action.” Though it was hard to get a read on her alien facial expressions, it was clear that she was quite flustered. Steven, seeing this, blushed slightly and looked away.
 
“It’s… nothing,” he mumbled awkwardly. “You’re good.”
 
“Well, we should move as quickly as possible regardless,” Sarah sighed, keeping a cautious eye on a dangling tentacle that was swinging a bit too close to her for comfort. “Even if we don’t end up finding her ship, I’d rather have more time to spare than less.” The rest of the group nodded in agreement and refocused on the task of following the trail of discarded garments through the dark, pulsating tunnels.
 
Despite their best efforts in keeping up with the sparse path of clothes, the uneven and slippery ground proved to be too exacting. It wasn’t long before Steven, his thin legs shaking from overexertion, needed to stop to put his sister down and rest. Though A’luhr initially opposed the idea, she relented after noticing how Sarah and Adam were also barely holding it together. Even though the nectar had kept their bodies in peak nutritional condition, their muscles were still aching from the unrelenting orgasms they had endured.
 
As Steven attempted to slowly slide Zoey off of his back, she suddenly grabbed at his chest, hugging him desperately and refusing to let go until the others managed to pry her off of him and settle her down against the spongy wall. Without warning, she violently coughed up a mouthful of orange liquid, nearly spewing it onto Steven who managed to duck out of the way just in time. Her labored breathing returned to normal, and she began to idly massage her lower abdomen with her palm before finally cracking open her misty eyes.
 
“Wh… where…?” Zoey rasped, sluggishly rubbing her face and looking around at the rest of the group. “Is this… part of the dream…?” She cast her empty gaze downwards and let out a weak, rueful laugh as she shook her head in disbelief.
 
“Oh thank God…” Steven gasped, pulling his sister’s slender body against his in a firm embrace. He didn’t even flinch at the feeling of her naked chest pressing to his own. Instead, his eyes welled with tears of relief as Zoey began to realize the reality of the situation.
 
“Stevie…?” She asked, not wanting to believe her own eyes. “This is real…?” She hugged him back and pressed her forehead to his chest. With her face still hidden between them, she muttered, “I’m not sure if I want this to be real or not…”
 
Steven, suddenly realizing their awkward, nude position, let go of Zoey and slumped back against the squishy wall beside her. She let out an embarrassed giggle and rested her head on his shoulder, as she took deep, stuttering breaths.
 
“Glad to have you back with us,” Sarah smiled at Zoey from across the tunnel where she sat. “I knew something like this wouldn’t be enough to break you.”
 
“Thanks, Sarah,” Zoey replied, wiping tears from her eyes. “Even when I was being forced to feel all those… sensations… all I could think of was you guys.” Suddenly, a look of realization flashed across her face, and she pressed her fingers all around it in surprise. “Actually… they didn’t just not break me… I think they fixed me?”
 
“You mean they made you sterile!?” Adam exclaimed. He frantically turned his back to the rest of the group and attempted to surreptitiously inspect his testicles.
 
“She’s not a cat, dude,” Steven scoffed. He nervously glanced at Zoey, clearly checking her for any potential signs of alien tempering, and asked, “but uh, yeah, what do you mean by that, exactly?”
 
“I can see…!” She cried out. “I lost my glasses somewhere and… well, I can see! Crystal clear!” She gleefully began to look all around the tunnel in excitement. However, her starry eyes widened and her expression crumbled when she caught sight of tentacles rutting into the holes of the various naked humans embedded in the gelatinous walls nearby. “Now I kinda wish I couldn’t…” She gagged.
 
“Wh- how is this possible!?” Steven gasped. “You can really see just fine? You’ve been blind as a bat since you were a kid!”
 
“It has to be the Krinis nectar, right?” Sarah mused, shuffling closer to Zoey to inspect her eyes. “We know it has a number of restorative and physiologically enhancing properties, so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if it could alleviate conditions like astigmatism.”
 
“You are most likely correct,” A’luhr agreed. “Before their complete enslavement to the Krinis, my people had a small window of time to study the nectar, and even with just that they were able to find dozens of ways it interacts with organic life. So there is no telling just how potent of a compound it truly is.”
“If only the Krinis had come in peace…” Sarah sighed in disappointment. “If I dwell on all the lost opportunities for medical science, I might never sleep soundly again.”
 
“Sound sleep will be the rarest of luxuries if we do not resume our escape quickly,” A’luhr reminded them all, keeping a wary eye on a particularly large tentacle slithering out of a nearby pool of foggy white liquid.
 
“Shit, right, the buff!” Steven exclaimed.
 
“She’s right,” Adam said, getting to his feet. “We don’t know how much time we have left before we start looking hot to the aliens again.”
 
“Can you stand?” Steven gently asked Zoey.
 
“I’ll try…” She replied nervously. “My body is sorer than that time the coach had the whole team come to school early for those crazy HIIT sessions.”
 
“Oh yeah, you couldn’t even lift your phone to your ear for a week.” Steven chuckled at the memory despite himself. With a breath of exertion, he rolled onto his feet and stood up, reaching out a hand for Zoey to grab onto. With his help, she shakily managed to stand, though she still needed to hold Steven’s shoulder to walk. Feeling more rested, Sarah and Adam decided to move on their own so as to not trouble A’luhr any longer. With resolute looks on their faces, they began marching once again. Steven explained the plan again to Zoey who initially questioned the torn pair of pantyhose that A’luhr called to their attention and began to follow.
 
They walked for another thirty minutes through the seemingly endless series of chambers and corridors, each filled with captured humans who were in the process of either being fucked, milked, birthing tentacles, or all of the above. Sarah had already come to get somewhat used to such sights, even before being taken into the hive, however, some new observations caught her scientific gaze.
 
It was a common sight to see tendrils holding a man in the air while forcing his inhumanly large cock to penetrate any captive women nearby whose helplessly exposed pussies weren’t currently in use. In this way, the Krinis were able to facilitate human mating and maintain the population. Though Sarah had yet to see anyone actually die (in fact, all the human captives seemed to be in incredible condition), there was no doubt that increasing the numbers of their livestock could only benefit the Krinis.
 
Now, however, Sarah noticed tentacles acting as direct conduits between the captives. This was likely an evolution to reduce the energy costs of manually breeding each human, as moving their bodies around, and creating huge structures to store collected semen no doubt put stress on their resources, vast though they may seem.
 
The first time they came across this was in a long passage, where dozens of nude men and women were trapped in the walls opposite each other. Their limbs all engulfed within the fleshy surfaces with just their heads and torsos exposed. The captives all watched each other with a mixture of horror and lust, forced to witness the ravaging of the naked strangers all around them. Some had their mouths full of thick tentacles, but those who did not either called out weakly to people they recognized nearby, babbled incoherently, or were too consumed by pleasure to utter more than gurgled whimpers.
 
Each man sported a towering erection, with some shafts almost two feet long, nearly as thick as an arm, and with bulbous, sagging balls to match. All of them were being feverishly milked by tentacle sleeves that swallowed their cocks down to the base, squeezing and sucking them for their seemingly limitless supply of seed.
 
Sarah’s eyes followed one man’s torrent of white cum as it passed through the throat-like interior of a tentacle draped across the passage. The other end of the tendril was firmly nestled deep inside a young woman’s cunt directly opposite the man. Her curvy body shuddered slightly as the warm spunk was pumped inside of her womb and spilled out down her quivering inner-thighs. Like several other women in the tunnel, her belly was already bulging with cum, but the tentacles continued to fill her.  
 
The tentacles breeding the humans only pulled out of their sloppy pussies every so often to be replaced by another tendril that would collect the fertilized zygote to be taken away to the incubators near The Queen’s chamber. The tentacle connected to the man would simply continue to leak copious amounts of semen onto the ground to be sucked up by passing worm-like Krinis before plunging back into any newly vacated vaginas. 
 
The group needed to crawl on all fours to pass beneath the web of tentacles ferrying the semen between the captives. Sarah kept her eyes steadily on the ground while she crawled behind Adam, awkwardly trying to avert her gaze from his bare ass in her face, along with his swaying cock and balls that smacked lightly against his legs as he shimmied through the slime. She bit her lip, doing her best to focus. She knew it was a dangerous place to be distracted, but she had a hard time tearing her attention away from what they all witnessed next.
 
Further down the tunnel, it seemed like the Krinis were enjoying playing with some captives, as their actions seemed to offer little merit other than entertainment… or perhaps as a visual stimulus to further arouse the on looking captives ensnared in the walls around them. A large, bearded man with a bit of a beer belly was held aloft by tentacles, his arms and legs spread up over his head. A smaller tendril, slick with lube-like mucus, rapidly stroked and twisted around his veiny manhood until he fountained thick globs of jizz all over the face of a well-endowed woman who was being held up with her head adjacent to his genitals.
 
Her swollen breasts hung below her, being kneaded and suckled by tentacles with starfish-shaped ends. Like other women in the hive who had been subjected to the nectar for long periods of time, she was producing milk that could be seen passing through the tentacles, the other ends of which were stuffed deep inside the man’s ass. The tentacle enema made his tight hole drip with her milk, stimulating him even more so that he came all over the woman’s face yet again, continuing the cycle of the two cattle swapping their creamy fluids.
 
As Sarah and the rest of the group stood, they got a better view of the chamber they were in, where such scenes were taking place all around them, with some tentacles swapping back and forth between various captives, spraying milk and semen in dazzling fountains while searching for a new hole to fill.
 
“Fuuuck me…” Adam breathed in disbelief as he took in the unearthly view.
 
“That’s exactly what they’re going to be doing if we don’t find A’luhr’s ship soon,” Sarah couldn’t stop herself from saying. Adam shot her an exacerbated look.
 
“I… I can’t go back to being their… their… plaything…!” Zoey moaned. She tightly hugged herself while Steven gently held her trembling shoulders. Though he was trying to appear calm for his sister, his own face was shadowed with the fear of returning to the seemingly endless edging torture he had endured. “I just wish we could help all these people.”

“We will aid them by locating and finally slaying The Queen once we have recovered my ship and re-armed,” A’luhr replied, paying little attention to the fluid-swapping orgy going on all around them, instead scanning the milky puddles of liquid dotting the ground in order to spot the trail they had been following. “This way,” she declared, gesturing towards a pair of denim shorts that were being dragged around the corner of a connecting tunnel just ahead.
 
“We’ve gotta be close…” Steven muttered as they each danced around the flailing tentacles. “It didn’t take us too long to find you guys after we escaped The Queen’s throne room or whatever, so we can’t be that far away.”
 
“How did you escape, anyway?” Sarah asked, looking over her shoulder at Steven, who shrugged and pointed to A’luhr.
 
“She saved me, as usual.”
 
“It was simply good fortune,” A’lurh replied, her eyes still locked on the denim shorts. “It appears that with The Queen gone, only her weakened mother is producing nectar for the hive now, and it is less potent than before.” She reached up and twisted her long eyebrows thoughtfully. “I suspect that this nectar composition is specialized for your human physiology. As such, its effects were dramatically reduced for me, allowing me to break free from my restraints sooner than the human captives.”
 
“How fascinating,” Sarah mused. “I’m sure that the more the Krinis learn about their victim’s bodies, the more fine-tuned the chemical composition of the nectar becomes. If only we could study it further...” As she continued to walk, she glanced longingly at a nearby tentacle that was draped along the wall. It oozed the familiar orange slime that tantalized her both sexually and intellectually. 
 
She so desperately wanted to reach out and firmly stroke the thick alien appendage to coax out more of that miraculous fluid… for research, of course. Just as she felt her arm twitch towards the succulent-looking tentacle, she awkwardly bumped into the back of A’luhr, who had abruptly come to a halt.
 
“Uh, well this must be it,” said Steven, letting out a low whistle as they all took in the sight of the chamber they had just entered. They stood on the edge of a large pit in a round cave-like room, the walls of which were covered in writhing, dripping tendrils, but not a human captive in sight. The tentacle dragging the pair of shorts ahead of them tossed the garment down into the pit, where it landed upon a truly massive pile of discarded clothing and other various items.
 
Most of the garments had already been reduced to little more than shredded rags, but some items, such as bikes, jewelry, and even the bumper of a car could be seen peeking out from within the lake of clothing. Clearly, whatever the human victims in the area had been wearing, riding on, or hiding within, could be found in this refuse chamber.
 
Even as they watched, other objects and articles of clothing fell down from above like a gentle rain, coming from other unseen entrances, or perhaps from the hole in the distant ceiling that allowed a tiny speck of sunlight to filter into the otherwise barely-lit chamber.
 
“Okay, now what?” Adam sighed, scratching his scruffy chin.
 
“We dig,” A’luhr replied with a shrug. “And, as you humans might say, we ‘pray’.”
 
“That’s your plan!?” Adam groaned. “Who knows how deep this pile of junk goes! We could be here for days!”
 
“The nectar in our bodies might dissolve before then…!” Zoey cried out. “We’ll be sitting ducks for the Krinis after that!”
 
“Hmm, I do not know about the nectar transforming us into birds,” said A’luhr with a look of confusion on her face. “But I should be able to detect the faint emergency frequency coming from the ship’s black box using my r’emuli.” The rest of the group returned her confused expression back to her. “Ah, um, these…”
 
A’luhr reached up and shyly stroked her long, antennae-like eyebrows, which curled back slightly as she averted her gaze in what appeared to be mild embarrassment. Despite the obvious differences between the two races, it wasn’t often that their disparities were so clearly focused on. Perhaps it wasn’t surprising, then, that even after living among the humans for a while, A’luhr still felt like a fish out of water.
 
“That’s incredible!” Steven spoke up, sensing an impending awkward silence. “Your body's so amazing!” He reddened a bit after the rest of the group glanced at him, having realized the wording he had chosen. “Er, like, your body parts are cool… you’re cool. Uh… anyone else want to chime in here…?
 
“I think they’re gorgeous!” Zoey piped up. “Your… what did you call them? Reemulie?”
 
“R’emuli,” A’luhr correct with a small giggle. “Well, the actual pronunciation is a bit more complex, but I did my best to translate it into your language’s phonemes.”
 
“They’re absolutely fascinating,” Sarah murmured wistfully, fidgeting her fingers with a mix of curiosity and nervousness as she gazed at A’luhr’s features. “To tell the truth, I’ve been dying to ask about them… and, er, well, touch them… if I could…” Now it was Sarah’s turn to be stared at by everyone. “Oh c-come on; it’s not like I’m the only one who is curious, right!?” She frantically waved her hands as she spoke. “Besides, it’s literally my job to learn about these kinds of things.”
 
“There will be plenty of time to learn of each other’s… bodies… later,” replied A’luhr, stifling her laughter. “Indeed I have many questions about you humans that I wish to be answered, however that will have to come after we escape this hive.” Everyone’s eyes turned back to the huge pile of junk that lay before them, which was only growing bigger by the minute.
 
“Well, what are we waiting for, an invitation?” Adam sighed. “Let’s do this, team!” Without another thought, he moved forward to slide down the slick incline of the sides of the chamber, landing softly in the sea of clothes. The rest of the group quickly followed suit and began to work together to dig a clearing out from the center of the pit. 
 
At first, they had entertained the idea of donning some of the discarded garments to cover up their nakedness, of which they had become more aware of as the sweet scent of the tunnels behind them were lost in the chill breeze swirling down from the higher regions of the room. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of the clothing they found were either too tattered or the wrong sizes, forcing them to keep their hardening nipples and shrinking manhoods exposed.
 
They dug for hours, tossing refuse into ever growing piles along the sides of the room until the pit was too deep to easily get back up, forcing them to either try and throw things up or make smaller piles within the pit itself while trying to follow A’luhr’s guidance. It wasn’t long before Sarah began to feel pangs of hunger stab at her stomach. How many days had it been since she’d last eaten real food, and not some grotesque mixture of nectar and cum? 
 
Her mind began to wonder as images of delectable dishes danced in her head. God, she would kill for a slice of cheesecake… or maybe the entire thing. She wiped some drool from her chin and shook her head to clear it of such distracting thoughts. If they didn’t find A’luhr’s ship soon, the only thing she’d be feasting on would be tentacle cocks. Sarah realized that the nectar must have finally started to wear off, as she was now feeling biological needs like hunger, and the mental image of alien phalluses was no longer immediately sending her into a lustful daze.
 
“Ah!” A’luhr’s sudden exclamation snapped Sarah’s mind away from imaginary delicacies. “I can sense the distress signal from my ship! It is weak, but in our proximity. Come, help me over here!” A’luhr gestured to the rest of the group and began to toss large armfuls of clothing away from a section of the pile near the far end of the chamber.
 
Everyone else joined her, and soon they had made good progress. Looking up, it seemed as if they were now in a deep well made of loose clothing, with bra straps and pant legs sticking out of the walls like tree roots. Sarah could feel her fingers rubbing raw with each consecutive digging motion. The harsh fibers of countless jeans, hangnail-snagging socks, and the occasional sharp edges of broken trash had all been slowly wearing on each of their hands.
 
“I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up…” Steven groaned, massaging his red fingers.
 
“We are close,” A’luhr reassured him. “It cannot be more than a few-.” She suddenly froze in place and craned her neck up towards the mouth of the clothing pit, with her r’emuli vibrating slightly. Gesturing for everyone’s attention, A’luhr whispered, “Still yourselves. Do you hear that?”
 
Sarah stood, clothing still in her hands, and peered upwards. Sure enough, voices could be heard entering the chamber above them, and getting closer by the second. A’luhr turn back around and redoubled her efforts, digging as fast and silently as she could.
 
“Faster! I do not believe they are here to aid us!” A’luhr hissed under her breath. The scent of nectar is still strong within them.” The rest of the group followed her lead, except for Zoey, who remained transfixed on the opening above them.
 
“Wait… that voice,” she whispered nervously. “I think I hear… Diana?” Sure enough, a young woman’s voice could be heard mixed in with the others.
 
“I hope she’s here…” said a young woman, who indeed sounded an awful lot like Diana. “I was so upset to see Zoey missing from her pod… just thinking of her getting lost in these tunnels and fucked senseless by some dumb randos makes me so… so… wet…”
 
Zoey looked like she was about to shout up to her friend, before suddenly clamping her mouth shut, her eyes wide in surprise and apprehension. Clearly, it was Diana speaking, but she was still a thrall of the Krinis.
 
“I’m sure I saw a girl like you described enter this chamber…” an unfamiliar man’s voice replied. “She was with a bunch of other people, and some blue woman. They did not seem to be in service to our mother.”
“Perhaps they are responsible for her disappearance?” Another woman’s voice joined in. “Traitors in need of punishment!”
 
“Zoey wouldn’t do that!” Diana snapped. She’s a good girl. “I’m sure she is looking for our mother right now!”
 
“Over here! Someone’s been digging around,” said another man’s voice, one which was now directly above where Zoey and the rest of the group were standing. They could hear several more people approaching the edge of the clothing pit, which was now nearly twenty feet deep. Some of the objects supporting the sides of the hole shifted, causing a large boot to fall down and strike Zoey in the head, who instinctively yelped in pain.
 
“They’re in this pit!” A woman yelled. “Quick!” Zoey looked up, rubbing her forehead, and her eyes met with Diana’s - along with a dozen other people’s. They all stood at the top of the hole looking down, nude and covered in a slick coat of slime. 
 
Sarah glanced up, too, and momentarily thought that all of the onlookers were men, as she only saw huge phalluses between the legs of each thrall, dangling and swaying overhead. However, the truth was that there were several women mixed in. 
 
Their clits had been altered by the Krinis to such an extent that they were engorged and enlarged like erect cocks. Though not quite as long and girthy as the nectar-altered dicks of the male thralls next to them, the impossibly gigantic clits still dwarfed an average man’s penis – some of them looked to be nearly a foot long, and several inches thick. They throbbed gently and dripped feminine juices like a cock’s precum, the droplets of which fell down on Sarah and the others like a warm rain.
 
“Zoey! She’s trapped!” Diana gasped and leaned over the edge of the pit, causing her unnaturally large breasts to swing down and block most of the light coming from above. “Don’t worry; I’ll get you out! Sheesh, I’m always coming to your rescue.” Before anyone could say another word, Diana’s eyes fluttered back into her head while her eyelids rapidly twitched. Suddenly two thick tentacles lashed out from the top of the pit and wrapped around Zoey’s torso.
 
Zoey shouted in surprise as she was lifted bodily into the air. Steven leapt up to pull his sister down, but his hands couldn’t hold onto her slippery nude body. He was momentarily dragged upwards with her before sliding off and falling to the bottom of the pit, where he shouted out in consternation. Adam and Sarah also scrambled to reach for her, but they were too far away, and could nothing but watch as Zoey’s form disappeared from view overhead
 
“We’ll get you all out soon, too,” Diana smiled down at them. “I just want to make sure Zoey is okay first. We will need to check her body thoroughly.” She bit her lower lip, still wearing a knowing smile, and turned away. The rest of the thralls followed her away from the edge of the pit and out of sight.
 
“No! Let me go!” They could hear Zoey shout from above. “Get away! Stop it, Di! This isn’t you!” 
 
“Of course it is, Zo. What do you mean? This is my real self! Don’t tell me you’ve already forgotten the warm embrace of your true family…?” Diana could be heard pouting. “We’ll fix that…” A moment later, Zoey’s cries turned to gurgles, and were quickly drowned out by satisfied moans and the wet sounds of smacking flesh. The thralls must have started to move much more violently, as more and more articles of clothing began to dislodge and fall down onto Sarah and the others.
 
“Why aren’t you all doing anything to help!?” Steven barked. A white bra landed on his face, and he angrily threw it at the wall, which he began to frantically search for some means to climb up.
 
“We are helping,” A’luhr replied, a look of intense focus on her face as she continued to dig through the clothes. Her movements were faster than before, as stealth was no longer necessary. “There are weapons within my ship that we can use if we find it. Otherwise, we are hopelessly outmatched against several enemies of unknown strength who have the high ground.”
 
“She’s right,” Adam agreed. “I want to bust up there and start kicking Krinis ass just as much as you do, but this is the only real chance we have to help her. If we all get caught, then that’s it.” Adam looked away and sighed. Sarah could see that he was gritting his teeth. She knew how he hated feeling powerless so often.
 
“But-” Steven began to protest, a conflicted look distorting his face.
 
“Give me a boost,” Sarah cut him off. “I’ll get up there and try to talk some sense into Diana. She knows me the best out of all of us here.”
 
“What!?” Adam exclaimed, pausing with a pair of torn yoga pants in his hands. “We need all the hands we can get down here helping!”
 
“With me out of the way, you can have more space to throw things. Besides, if things go south, you can get the ship and rescue me along with Zoey, isn’t that right?”
 
“I, err…” Adam mumbled. “That’s true… fuck…” he breathed. A’luhr just nodded as she continued to excavate clothing at an astounding pace. She was nearly neck deep in her own little pit at this point.
 
“Quickly!” Sarah shouted to Steven, who seemed to snap back to his senses upon hearing her words. Without hesitating, he kneeled down with his back braced against the side of the pit, and cupped his hands on his knee in preparation to boost her up.
 
“Thank you,” he said quietly, looking up at Sarah as her foot mounted his clasped fingers. He blushed and promptly glanced away once he realized the delicate tufts of her trimmed reddish pubes were practically tickling his nose. The nectar seemed to also prevent hair growth among the humans. Perhaps it was to maintain hygiene? Regardless, pubes, beards, and other hair seemed to barely have grown out during their stay in the hive.
 
Sarah grunted and pushed off of Steven’s hands as he lifted with his legs. The soft, unstable clothing beneath him offered poor footing, but still he managed to boost her up a respectable distance. Sarah dug her aching hands as deep into the sides of the pit as she could, grasping onto any handhold she could find. It was awkward and slow, but as her limbs began to find purchase, she eventually managed to scrabble up and over the edge of the pit. She knew that her allies wouldn’t let her and Zoey down.
 
She uneasily got to her feet and looked around the chamber. Across the pit from her was a pile of writhing naked bodies coated in glistening sweat, with Zoey’s slender frame barely visible from within the center of it all. Though it seemed crass, the only word that came to Sarah’s mind was “gangbang”. Sarah let out a small intake of breath as she beheld the scene.
 
Zoey was on her back with her arms pinned below her by the same tentacles that had snatched her up a few minutes earlier. She was thrashing gently, but could do little to fend off the numerous grasping hands and licking tongues that were exploring every accessible inch of her nubile young body. 
 
Several of the men and women couldn’t get into the orgy pile, so they stood around it in a circle, observing. Their tongues hung from their mouths as they panted and frantically masturbated themselves or those next to them as they watched the show. Every so often, a dick would erupt with milky ropes of semen that would splatter down onto Zoey’s trembling body and the thralls who were playing with it.
 
A burly man and curvy woman were on either side of Zoey, both with one of her tits in their mouths as they pressed their noses into her pillowy flesh, and suckled hungrily on her stiff nipples. Their shimmering saliva dripped down and pooled within her cleavage, which heaved as Zoey let out loud, juicy gagging noises from her occupied mouth.
 
A huge, hairy man was straddling Zoey’s face. The woman playing with Zoey’s left breast reached over and slapped the hairy man’s ass as it bobbed up and down while he throat fucked the teenage girl with his thick, veiny cock. It was so girthy that Zoey’s mouth was forced as far open as possible, and her own drool sputtered around the turgid shaft as she gasped for air. Small snot bubbles grew from her nostrils, which popped as her reddening face shook. The hearty smacking noises of the man’s giant balls slapping against her dripping chin harmonized with the smacking of Diana’s abdomen against Zoey’s swollen pussy lips.
 
Diana was between her friend’s legs, holding them up and open under the knees as she rutted her clit-dick hard and fast into Zoey’s cunt, which seemed to clench with every deep thrust. Diana’s voluptuous boobs bounced wildly as she fucked Zoey harder and harder, seemingly lost in the pleasures once reserved only for men. 
 
Diana allowed a moan to escape her lips and she laughed in satisfaction as the hands of other thralls grabbed her jiggling tits from behind and began to squeeze and twist each sensitive peak. There was no sensuality in their movements, just raw, carnal, desperate lust.
 
“I’m going to cum, Zoey…!” Diana gasped, increasing the pace of her swinging hips. Her clit was so long that she could pull quite a ways out of Zoey’s wet hole before ramming it back in again, allowing for extremely powerful and deep penetrations. “Let’s cum together and feel as one again, okay?” Her body shuddered in ecstasy as her fingertips dug into Zoey’s tender thighs. Zoey merely continued to gurgle and choke on the meaty rod in her mouth. It was unclear if she could even hear the words of her friend. 
 
“Diana, enough!” Sarah hollered. The thralls had all been so focused on the lewd display in front of them that they hadn’t even noticed her approach. The ones standing in a circle around Zoey jerked in surprise and turned towards Sarah, still idly stroking their twitching cocks or clits. “I won’t allow you to keep doing such awful things while not in your right mind.”
 
“Not you too, Cassidy…” Diana sighed deeply. “If it’s so ‘awful’, why does it feel so good? So right? This is where we belong… I thought you, of all people, would understand that.” All the other thralls standing around the chamber nodded in agreement. One of the men grunted as he reached orgasm, spurting cum all over Diana’s grinning face. She giggled as she watched the hot spunk drip from her nose down onto Zoey’s pubic region, the skin of which rippled as Diana continued to rail her.
 
Some of the other thralls nearby began to twitch their arms and fingers in unnatural, jerky motions. Within moments, several pinkish tentacles emerged from the dark recesses of the fleshy walls around them, and started slithering through the discarded clothes towards Sarah like snakes tracking their prey.
 
“So help me understand!” Sarah shouted, nervously eyeing the approaching tentacles. She knew that she had no hope of forcing her way out of the situation, so it was either jump back into the pit or stall for time. “What happened to the sassy, rebellious girl from my classes? I know firsthand how intoxicating life in the hive can be, but why have you thrown all your ambitions away? Think about who you used to be! Who you are!” She took a step back towards the edge of the hole, and glanced down to see that part of a large metallic object had been partially uncovered, but it looked like there was still a long way to go. 
 
“I guess it’s finally time for the student to become the teacher, huh, Cassidy?” Diana giggled between groans of pleasure. She suddenly let out a lewd gasp before biting her lower lip in a naughty little grin. She looked down at her friend with a knowing expression. The reason for Diana’s sudden shift was clear, and still ongoing: Zoey’s sweating body had tensed up, having undergone a powerful climax, which resulted in her young pussy clenching around Diana’s clit, multiplying the pleasure for both of them.
 
“You told me to think about who I am?” Diana grunted as her attention turned back to Sarah. “This is the true me! Once I let that cute lil worm get into my ear, it’s like all my dumb inhibitions and worries melted away. I felt so… connected to everyone… to our mother.”
 
“Listen to yourself, Diana!” Sarah cried out. The tentacles were only a couple feet away from her now. “The Queen? That creature is NOT your mother! I’ve met your mother, and she would hate to see you like this!”
 
“She didn’t seem to mind it when we were both sucking my dad’s cock a few days ago,” Diana snapped back. Sarah’s mouth gaped open in surprise, speechless. “You see, everyone else understands that the ties of these old, small, families are weaker than those of the hive – our one true family. If you can’t comprehend that, then… A smirk painted her face as her eyes flashed with sudden inspiration. “I guess you just need to… watch and learn.”
 
Sarah had been so nonplussed by Diana’s shocking words that she failed to notice that the tentacles had finally reached her. In a flash, they twined around her ankles, and slithered up to constrict each of her thighs, ending just under her plump buttocks. Sarah swore loudly and scrambled to pull the slippery tendrils away from her skin, the sight of which caused Diana and the other thralls to laugh gleefully. 
 
More tentacles wrapped around Sarah’s arms and neck, having stealthily dropped in from above. Her eyes widened as she could see more tentacles snaking towards the pit behind her, but her head and body were all suddenly forced to turn away, held in a taut spread-eagle by the powerful tendrils.
 
Sarah instinctively tugged at her organic restraints, but she already knew from experience that escape was all but impossible. She tried to crane her neck around to see any sign of progress from A’luhr and the others, but it was no use. Something warm suddenly brushed against the bare skin just above her pubic mound making her flinch in surprise and look back around.
 
The thralls who had previously just been standing around Zoey while playing with themselves were now all approaching Sarah’s helpless exposed body with predatory looks on their faces. The first one to reach her, a slim middle-aged woman seemingly of Filipino descent, was now tenderly trailing her plush lips down Sarah’s lower stomach while gently using her fingers to knead Sarah’s restrained thighs.
 
Sarah shuddered and bit her lower lip, trying her best not to let herself get aroused, but as other thralls began to converge around her, her mental defenses began to slip away. A dozen or so hands began to explore every inch of her naked body, soon joined by several probing lips and tongues. They did little more than caress and tease her, however, toying with the areas around her sensitive nipples and vulva, without directly stimulating the erogenous zones more desperate for touch.

She groaned in frustration as someone behind her spread her plump ass cheeks and began to circle their moist warm tongue around her tight little hole. She could feel heat steadily rising in her face and core as her pulse pounded in her untouched clit.
 
Suddenly, she felt herself being lifted into the air as the tentacles binding her limbs hoisted her up, turning her forward to be parallel with the ground. Her auburn hair fell down around her face, making it hard to see, but she could still feel her full breasts swinging freely below her.
 
Sarah could tell that she was probably around five to six feet off of the ground, as several of the thralls managed to easily duck down beneath her and begin softly licking and nibbling around her defenseless tits. One of the thralls even started to playfully slap at the soft flesh, causing her boobs to jiggle back and forth, and allowing even more tongues to access her hardened nipples.
 
She felt a head nestle in between her spread thighs and begin to lap their tongue up and down the outer lips of her pussy, occasionally interspersed with delicate kisses placed only centimeters away from her throbbing little bean.
 
She closed her eyes and moaned from the agonizing torture of denial. Her fingers and toes repeatedly clenched as her body began to quiver in desire. Just as she was about to scream out and beg in frustration, she felt a tendril wrap around her forehead. It jerked her neck back, forcing her to look up and see Diana beaming at her while continuing to fuck Zoey, whose bound legs were twitching wildly as Diana circled her clit with two fingers.
 
“Here’s your first lesson, Cassidy,” Diana said mockingly. “The release of pleasure is only awarded to those who know their place in the hive, like my good girl Zoey here who understands that, right now, she is a living cock sleeve.” Diana’s smile briefly turned to a ponderous frown. “...Or maybe a clit sleeve?” She shrugged and laughed, giving Zoey an extra-hard thrust from her clit-cock, causing the bound teen to moan loudly into the penis that was still throbbing inside of her mouth.
 
“Diana…” Sarah panted, “please… don’t do this… Come back to us…”
 
“Listen, the only one who tells me what to do is our queen, got it? Besides, I think in a few minutes, you’ll be begging to join us.” She flourished her hand, and tentacles rose out from within the layers of clothing beneath Sarah and the thralls attending to her.
 
These tentacles had bulbous, warty tips that suddenly began to rapidly vibrate. The closest thralls grabbed the appendages and guided them up to Sarah’s trembling body, pressing them against her supple flesh like living vibrator wands. Sarah let out a sharp gasp as the devilish combination of vibrating tentacles, moist tongues, plush lips, and stiff fingers began to work over every inch of her body, except for her desperate little clit.
 
The tentacle binding Sarah’s head in place gave her little other option than to continue watching Diana have her way with Zoey. The sight of the two teenage girls fucking only added to Sarah’s rapidly growing arousal, which had no sign of release. Sarah could feel sweat starting to bead on her face as she breathed heavily through her clenched teeth, ballooning her flushed cheeks. She hoped that focusing on her breathing might distract her from the sensations surrounding her, but it only managed to make her even more aware of her body’s current pathetic state.
 
As Sarah watched, the man and woman who had been teasing Zoey’s tits began to move towards Sarah to torment her alongside the other thralls. Without the hands and mouths holding them in place, Zoey’s pert boobs began to wildly bounce in time with Diana’s violent thrusts. They didn’t remain free for long, as the man filling Zoey’s throat with his meaty cock reached down, and firmly squeezed his large, calloused hands around each tender peak. He eagerly fondled the teen, using her tits as handles to help steady himself as he reached yet another orgasm. 
 
He pulled out of her mouth, allowing her to take a few sputtering coughs. Thick, cloudy cum belched from her throat and nose as she desperately gasped for air. The jizz draining from her mouth was quickly replaced by a fresh load that erupted from the man’s throbbing shaft, covering her already drenched face and tits.
 
The man yanked on Zoey’s draping, cum-soaked hair to prompt her to open her lips more for a continued throat-fucking, but tentacles rose up from the floor, and gently wormed their way around the girl’s neck to pull her up to face Diana.
 
“You’ve had enough fun with her,” Diana sighed in an exasperated tone. “Let me enjoy this reunion alone with my friend for a bit, okay?” The large man grunted in annoyance, but he simply scratched his hairy chest and grabbed the hips of a nearby woman who was on her hands and knees, too busy gargling on a tentacle cock to notice him push his swollen manhood between the dripping folds of her pussy.
 
“D-Di…” Zoey shakily wheezed, spitting the remaining semen from her mouth, which ended up messily dribbling down her cheeks and chin. She lifted her head up to get a better look at her friend, and seemed about to say something when suddenly the tentacles around her body pulled her torso forward into a sitting position, with Diana’s phallic clit still lodged deep inside of her pink cunt.
 
“Shhh…” Diana whispered, pressing her forehead to Zoey’s, and placing her palm on Zoey’s reddened cheek. She began to intimately rub Zoey’s cum-drenched lips with her thumb, slipping her mouth next to Zoey’s ear before breathing, “there’s no need for words between friends. With that, Diana grabbed both sides of Zoey’s face and pulled her in for a sloppy French kiss.
 
Zoey’s eyes popped open in shock, but then her eyelids started to droop, and her eyes rolled back slightly as she began to succumb to the erotic feelings flowing through her body. Sarah could feel an unusual, stimulating warmth emanating from where the thralls were licking her body, so she theorized that their bodily fluids must have been altered to have aphrodisiac qualities. If simply having a small amount of saliva coating her skin was giving her this much of a reaction, she couldn’t imagine the effect that such a deep kiss might be having on Zoey.
 
Diana’s nimble fingers weaved through Zoey’s blonde hair, scratching at her scalp in ecstasy as tentacles from below found Zoey’s tight little ass. They squeezed her firm cheeks and began to help raise and lower her hips to slide up and down on Diana’s clit, which was glistening and dripping with a mixture of both girls’ pussy juices.
 
Both teen girls were now moaning lustfully. Zoey’s arms were still bound behind her back, but her limbs hung limply in their restraints – all thoughts of escape abandoned. Suddenly Zoey’s eyes opened wide again in fear and confusion, as her moaning devolved into a series of gurgling choking sounds. Zoey began to thrash yet again as Diana slowly pulled her mouth away from Zoey’s. 
 
What at first looked to be Diana’s tongue exploring the inside of Zoey’s mouth was soon revealed to be a pinkish tentacle, which had emerged from somewhere within Diana’s throat and was now worming its way down Zoey’s gullet. Only a brief glimpse of the tentacle connecting the girls was given before Diana hungrily locked her lips back onto her friend’s.
 
Zoey continued to squeal and squirm while Diana kissed her, letting out a throaty, muffled groan as the other end of the tendril suddenly pushed its way out of her spread asshole. The tip of the tentacle idly waved around in the air as if searching for something, before sliding between Zoey’s thighs, around Diana’s pistoning clit-dick, and then plunging deep inside of Diana’s puckered starfish.
 
The sudden stimulation caused Diana to shudder with delight, using one of her hands to press on Zoey’s back and pull her even closer. Diana’s breasts, which had been noticeably smaller than Zoey’s back in school, now swallowed up the other girl’s respectable globes. The cum dripping from Zoey’s mouth coated both girls’ tits, which now rubbed together deliciously, erect pink and brown nipples grinding around one another in a lewd dance.
 
The girls’ choked whimpers of pleasure were barely audible over the loud, wet squelching noises coming from Zoey’s stretched slit, which was gushing a seemingly endless flow of juices down her friend’s thrusting girl cock.
 
Zoey’s eyes began to roll in their sockets while her hips and torso bucked wildly from yet another body-shaking climax. Sarah had a brief pang of envy flash through her as she watched the younger girl squirt hard all over Diana’s abdomen. The tortuous edging from the thralls hadn’t relented a bit, and her body was shaking and dripping sweat. She tried to grind her crotch into the person’s face between her legs, desperate to find even the slightest touch against her aching clit, but it was no use.
 
Sarah let her mouth dully hang open, uttering a low, drawn-out moan as her tongue dangled weakly, and drool poured from her lips.
 
“P-please…” Sarah groaned. “Just use me… not Zoey.” She wasn’t sure if she was saying that to save Zoey, or to get someone to give her the sexual release she so craved. She continued to stare weakly at Zoey with a combination of envy and anguish, who met her gaze for the first time, as if hearing her name had snapped her back to her senses slightly.
 
Zoey’s glazed-over, drooping eyes gazed back at Sarah as if only half-aware of her. They were the eyes of someone who had finally given up. But suddenly, light returned to them, and they widened in surprise. Zoey was no longer staring at Sarah, but something behind her, and then above.
 
The thralls playing with Sarah’s hanging body were suddenly knocked onto their collective asses as a powerful gust of wind roared past them. Loose articles of clothing scattered into the air as a cacophony of mechanical whirring and screaming jet engine sounds rocked the interior of the chamber. A large object floating in the air cast a shadow down onto Sarah and Diana’s backs.
 
“Hey Di!” Steven could barely be heard yelling over the din. “Instead of my sister’s mouth, I always thought you’d look good with some balls in your face!” Diana spun around to see what was going on, Zoey still pressed to her chest. Her eyes also widened, and the thick tentacle still in her mouth garbled whatever she was attempting to say back to Steven. That was soon changed, as a silver orb the size of a grenade suddenly hit Zoey in the back. “Shit! Sorry! I didn’t think she was gonna spin around like that…”
 
A high-pitched frequency exploded out from the sphere, partly muffled by the giant pile of clothes it now rested on, but still clearly enough to affect the Krinis and their brainwashed hosts in the area. The thralls rolled on the ground clutching at their ears, howling in pain.
 
Diana, too, had collapsed onto the pile of textiles beneath her feet. The tentacle penetrating Zoey’s mouth quickly squirmed its way out, snapping back into Diana’s throat like a tape measure. All the tentacles in the room, whether used for binding, teasing, or fucking, fell limp as well, chaotically spasming around in the mounds of discarded fabric.
 
Sarah fell a few feet as the tentacles holding her up slackened. She landed on the pile of floundering naked thralls below her, and was quickly pushed away to flop onto her back. Nestled among the sea of clothes, she tiredly looked up above her, flashing a weak smile.
 
“Took you long enough…” She called out as loudly and casually as she could muster. Hovering in the air about ten feet above her was an alien-looking vessel the length of a school bus.
 
The metallic craft looked like a jagged, obsidian arrowhead with a large dome on the bottom, which was flanked by two large, rapidly spinning rings that reminded Sarah of bladeless fans. The source of the winds and noise was clearly these two rings, which, despite being impressive marvels of technology, were rattling and shaking in a way that seemed to suggest some level of instability.
 
Steven was standing on a platform that had lowered from the underside of the dome. He was holding several of the familiar silver grenades that they had seen A’luhr use against the Krinis before. Behind him, the walls of the ship were lined with dozens more of the orbs, along with several other containers and objects that Sarah couldn’t identify.
 
Steven smiled gleefully, and began to chuck more spheres down onto the helplessly writhing people and tentacles.
 
“Don’t just chill there forever!” Steven hollered at Sarah. “Grab Zo and let’s get the fuck outta here!”
 
Sarah staggered to her feet, which was made difficult by the oppressive force of the ship’s thrusters, the slippery wetness between her thighs, and the plush, uneven terrain below her toes. But she soon managed to half-stumble, half-crawl over to Zoey’s quivering body. She grabbed the girl under the armpits to try and pull her up, but Zoey was still reeling from the after-effects of several mind-melting orgasms, leaving her body as dead weight.
 
Sarah strained her muscles, which were still stiff from disuse over the past months, and did her best to yank Zoey only a few feet away from the wildly flailing Diana, whose lengthy clit had smacked into Sarah’s face on more than a few occasions while she tried to get a hold of Zoey.
 
Looking up, Sarah could see the entrance to the chamber that they had come from. The tentacles and webs of slime deeper in the hive reverberated with the roar from the ship’s engines, the cacophony echoing deep into the dark tunnels like a monstrous alarm. Even among the din within the chamber, Sarah could start to hear the sounds of running footsteps approaching from down the passageways, accompanied by the shadows of hundreds of thralls making their way towards where Sarah was desperately scrabbling to pull Zoey towards the waiting ship.
 
“Oh shit, Sarah needs help!” Steven shouted up towards the interior of the spacecraft’s upper level. “Hurry!” A few moments later, Adam appeared behind Steven. He didn’t hesitate for a moment before running straight off of the edge of the suspended platform, and dropping ten feet into the soft pile of clothes below.
 
He quickly waded through the garments, stepping over the writhing thralls, before coming to a stop next to Sarah and Zoey. He glanced up at the entrance, and seemed to recognize the impending danger as well.
 
“I knew you’d come,” Sarah sighed in relief.
 
“Sorry, no time to make a dirty joke,” Adam replied, grabbing one of Zoey’s arms. “Here, take her other arm! We don’t have much time!”
 
“Yeah, I deduced that. Now, less talking, more running!”
 
Together, the two of them awkwardly carried Zoey over to the ship. On the way, Zoey sputtered and opened her eyes.
 
“Y-you guys can put me down now,” she murmured. “I think I can walk.”
 
“‘Think’ isn’t really good enough right now,” Adam remarked. “We’re on a pretty tight schedule.” They could now hear the sounds of thralls shouting in the tunnel behind them. Steven was beckoning from the ship’s platform only a few yards away, but even then it wasn’t looking like a guarantee that they’d get there before the thralls began to flood into the chamber. The weapons could likely keep them at bay, but for how long?
 
“Can we get closer!?” Steven yelled up into the ship. After a brief pause, the ship began to slowly drift towards Adam and Sarah, but then the entire vessel began to shake violently, and it came to a stop. It hadn’t made it all the way to them, but it was enough.
 
“Take her! Take her!” Adam called up to Steven. Using all of their remaining strength, and grunting from exertion, he and Sarah lifted Zoey’s trembling body up into Steven’s arms. He pulled his sister deeper into the hovering ship as Adam hopped up onto the platform and quickly extended a hand down to Sarah. She clasped it and hoisted herself up. Her legs gave in, causing her to stumble forward, but Adam managed to catch her by the shoulders and ease her down to the floor while the platform raised up and sealed shut behind her with a metallic hiss.
 
Still trying to catch her breath, Sarah glanced around the inside of the alien spacecraft. The interior seemed to be split up into two sections. The lower part they were in now was clearly some sort of cargo hold or armory, given the rows of equipment and marked containers strewn about haphazardly on the black metal walls and floor. They shook and rattled noisily as the ship’s engine suddenly started to clank loudly before calming down again.
 
Strips of red neon light pulsed around the room, and led up a ramp into the higher area of the ship where seats and blinking panels could be seen. Steven had helped Zoey ease her way into one of the chairs near the front of the ship, and he now sat next to her, speaking to her quietly as she nodded her head and rubbed tears from her eyes. He glanced down at Adam and Sarah and gestured for them to come over.
 
Adam assisted Sarah in getting to her feet, and they made their way up the ramp. Sarah noticed that some sections of the walls were transparent, allowing her to see down into the chamber where the thralls were now getting to their feet, and being joined by even more people who were now jumping down into the pit from various entrances. As evidenced by the fleshy walls passing by them, the ship was starting to ascend higher up the pit, however the movements were shaky and uncertain, as if the ship was barely managing to keep its course.
 
A’luhr sat at the front of the ship in a cockpit-like area. Her r’emuli were raised up above her head, intertwined with two cables that descended from a console above her. Blue light could be seen pulsating irregularly within the cables, and every so often, A’luhr would shift her wispy antennae to different sections of the cables, as if using them as handles.
 
She was otherwise occupied by poring over several flickering blue holographic displays, which appeared to be showing various readouts and stats regarding the ship. Incomprehensible text and symbols scrolled by as A’luhr gestured with her fingers, causing some blueprints of the spacecraft to appear, covered almost completely with angry-looking red highlights. A’luhr let out a frustrated sigh.
 
“I am glad that we are now all aboard, but we are not in the clear yet; the ship took quite a beating from the water pressure and Krinis defenses,” A’luhr reported in a matter-of-fact tone, while still manipulating the interface in front of her. “Shielding systems are heavily damaged, fuel coolant chambers are flooded, warp core is offline, flight stabilizers and primary propellant thrusters are in critical condition…” She continued to rattle-off jargon under her breath. Sarah couldn’t understand half of it, but none of it sounded promising. “I calculate that we will have just enough coolant to get out of here before the engine overheats, assuming we do not encounter any more obstructions.”
 
As if on cue, several strong impacts suddenly pounded into the side of the ship, causing it to lurch into one of the squishy walls of the tunnel. A rain of tentacles and slime spattered down from the damaged section of the pit onto the windshield, blocking most of A’luhr’s sight as a shrill alarm blared. 
 
One of the larger holograms near the front of the ship, which seemed to be some sort of 3D radar, displayed a model of the spacecraft along with a dozen or so huge tentacles latching onto the back of it. The ship’s engine sputtered and groaned from the strain as the powerful tendrils and began to slowly reel their ensnared prey back down to the bottom of the pit.
 
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!” Steven shouted as he looked out one of the side windows to see the attackers for himself. The view was short-lived, as several more tentacles shot out from the walls of the chamber, and clung to the ship as well, covering the glass with pulsating, pinkish flesh. “See, THIS is why you don’t say stuff like that!” He shot a pained glance at A’luhr.

“What are we going to do!?” Zoey cried out, gripping the edges of her seat in panic. “Those things can’t get in here, can they? This is a high-tech alien battleship, after all, right?”
 
“It would be more accurate to say that The Brightdark is a custom-fitted cargo ship, “A’luhr replied, with a hint of pride in her voice. “While it does have rudimentary defensive and offensive capabilities, its primary function is to transport supplies and weapons.” As she spoke, the sickening sound of rending metal reverberated through the ship. Large indents began to appear around the interior’s frame, as if a huge hand was crushing the entire vessel from the outside. “So yes, it is safe to assume that the Krinis can breach its hull.”
 
Suddenly, a panel on the ceiling was ripped away with a high-pitched metallic screech, creating a hole to the outside. Almost immediately, a thick tentacle forced its way through the small opening, and began to stretch out towards the nearest life form within the ship: Sarah.
 
The tip of the tendril split open like a starfish to reveal a mouth-like hollow filled with undulating feelers. They paused for a moment, dancing threateningly in the air, before suddenly shooting out towards Sarah’s face. 
 
She screamed in surprise, and attempted to roll out of the way, but her bare skin was still slick with alien mucus and cum, leaving her to awkwardly slip around on the floor like a flailing fish. Just before the tentacle could latch onto Sarah’s fear-stricken face, it was knocked away by a sudden blow from the side. Adam stood over her wielding one of the black batons, which vibrated violently in his hand.
 
“Stay back!” Adam yelled, wildly waving the baton in front of him as he moved between Sarah and the writhing tentacle invader. He jabbed at it a few more times, but the limber tendril nimbly evaded each blow. Its swift, jerky movements cause several droplets of aphrodisiac-laden slime to fling off towards Adam’s exposed skin. 
 
Recognizing the danger, Adam leapt back towards Sarah, but his heel slipped on the mucus puddle forming around her dripping body. With a startled yelp, he fell backwards onto her. Fortunately, she managed to catch him, and break his fall with her pillowy chest, but the sudden stimulation to her still-sensitive nipples caused Sarah to gasp and instinctively push him.
 
“S-sorry!” Sarah sputtered, embarrassed that she had just shoved her savior away.
 
“That’s my line!” Adam snorted, keeping his eyes locked on the aggressive tentacle. More and more tentacles started to slip through the cracks of the ship, beginning to slither along the walls towards the front of the vessel.
 
Undeterred, Adam propped himself up with one arm, and desperately swung the baton around in an attempt to fend-off the first tentacle that was now closing the distance between him and Sarah. The tip of the tendril opened even wider to reveal a “mouth” filled with countless writhing cilia and a phallic, tongue-like appendage, which began to drool copious amounts of slime onto the floor as if in anticipation of its impending victory.
 
“If you’re gonna do something, now would be a good time!” Adam shouted over his shoulder at A’luhr, who was still fighting with the ship’s unresponsive controls. She swore under her breath, and swiveled her chair around to face a different panel of buttons.
 
“I did not want to have to do this, but we are left without a choice,” A’luhr called back through gritted teeth. “I am going to evacuate the cargo hold.”
 
“Cargo? Like the supplies you mentioned?” Zoey asked, anxiously eyeing a growing hairline fracture that was starting to web across the glass of the windshield as the powerful suckers of more and more tentacles began to latch onto the window.
 
“And the weapons,” A’luhr reminded her. “Especially the weapons.” She smirked and flipped a switch on the wall before slamming her fist down onto a big red button.
 
“I’ve always wanted to do that, “ Steven sighed, watching A’luhr with a look of pure admiration. His misty expression changed to surprise as a new alarm sounded, joining the already deafening chorus surrounding them. The whole ship began to shudder and groan as something mechanical below them sprang to life.
 
“W-wait!” Zoey stammered, realization flashing across her face. “What about the humans down there!? Won’t they get hurt!?”
 
“Most of the weapons need manual activation to be fatally harmful,” A’luhr assured her. “The rest only require a sufficient impact to trigger, and those weapons are specifically tailored to work against the Krinis.”  Sensing that Zoey wasn’t particularly convinced, she continued. “And do not forget: the nectar, weak though it may be at the moment, will likely be able to help them recover from any serious injuries. It is too late to stop regardless.”
 
As she finished speaking, the entire floor of the area below suddenly slid away, opening up to outside. All of the objects that were not fastened to the walls – which was most of them – tumbled out of the ship and down towards the thralls below, who hurried to get out of the way of the falling debris. Soon after, a series of small explosions and high-pitched, siren-like screeches could be heard filling the chamber, and echoing deep into the hive. 
 
The entire ship shook violently and spun through the air as the tentacles binding and infiltrating it swiftly retreated. A’luhr grunted, and hurriedly gestured at various holograms while using her r’emuli to deftly manipulate the strange cable-like interface above her head. After a few heart pounding seconds, the ship stopped its uncontrolled spinning, and A’luhr let out a relieved breath. Sarah had never seen a look of such intense focus on her face before, which was beaded with yellowish sweat-like moisture.
 
The floor beneath them closed back up, and A’luhr began to steer the ship so that its nose was aiming up towards the top of the deep tentacle pit. 
 
“Strap in!” She shouted. Adam and Sarah didn’t need to be told twice. They quickly leapt into the last two unoccupied seats and…
 
“H-how!?” Sarah stammered, frantically feeling around for any sort of belt to fasten around her body. The other humans in the room were having a similar level of success. The only strap-like objects near the sears were sets of two cables that hung over each of them, similar to the ones that A’luhr was connected to.
 
A’luhr spat some sort of indecipherable swear.
 
“Just grab onto anything! I swear, how you humans managed to reach this level of civilization with just your two hands as primary manipulators is beyond me.” She 
 
“Is that really important right now!?” Adam shouted, desperately clinging to some pipe-like structures that exuded from the walls. “We’re ready! Just punch it!” A’luhr shot him a confused expression.
 
“He means get us out of here!” Steven clarified, holding onto both the walls and Zoey, doing his best to keep her steady. Both of their faces were pale, and Sarah had the suspicion that hers was as well.
 
“Ah,” A’luhr snorted. “Do you not think I would if I could? I must wait until the guidance system is stabilized, and we are pointed in the right direction. I imagine that crashing into the walls would be a significant setback for our escape.”
 
“We believe in you, A’luhr,” Zoey assured her. “But, um, sooner would be better.” She nervously glanced out one of the slime-smeared windows and noticed that the large tentacles lining the walls were no longer madly twitching, but were instead starting to rise back up as the high-pitched sounds began to dampen.
 
“Like… really soon…!” Steven shouted, looking out the window next to his sister. One of the tentacles suddenly reared up and began to unsteadily reach back up towards the ship, which was now almost completely perpendicular to the ground, and facing the distant speck of light in the ceiling far above.
 
Everyone in the ship, except A’luhr, was slipping precariously in their seats, white-knuckling the closest thing they could get their hands on to use as handles. Just as Sarah was worried she might slip, the seats automatically swiveled away from the wall to face the front of the ship, allowing them to brace themselves much easier.
 
“I forgot I added that feature,” A’luhr sheepishly admitted.
 
“Enough with the jokes!” Adam cried out. “How can you be so calm in this situation!?”
 
“Because it is ready.”
 
A’luhr suddenly leaned forward in her seat, tightly gripping the cables above her head, and let out an excited whoop as the sound of the ring-like thrusters grew to a crescendo. Sarah felt the g-forces punch into her navel as her entire body was pushed back into the seat. She clenched her watering eyes closed, and grit her teeth, blindly finding one of Adam’s large hands with her own and grasping it tightly as the ship rocketed up through the darkness of the hive.
 
The walls of slime and tentacles blurred past the windows as the sunlight ahead of them got brighter and brighter.
 
“The opening is a bit smaller than I thought!” A’luhr informed the rest of the group, seemingly unperturbed by the speed at which they were ascending towards an opening that was apparently “smaller than she had thought.” “Brace yourselves for a rough penetration!”
 
The rest of the group was already too busy bracing themselves to even consider making a snarky retort. Looking out the windshield, the blue sky was visible beyond an opening that was just a bit narrower than the ship, criss-crossed with a web of tentacles that were busy tossing refuse down into the pit, some of which banged loudly off of The Brightdark’s hull.
 
“Breaching!” A’luhr shouted. The spacecraft slammed into the thick tentacles, the sharp wings slicing through the fleshy columns like tree vines. The tendrils began to flail in confusion as they snapped apart and fell down into the darkness of the pit, but a few of them managed to snag the sides of the ship, attempting to drag it back down into the hive.
 
The engine groaned and sputtered from the strain as it tried to break free, slowly starting to lose momentum as it continued to ascend and get tangled in more and more tentacles. All seemed lost, when suddenly one of the tentacles grasping the ship wove itself inside one of the rotating rings-thrusters. The mottled flesh shredded apart inside the machine’s invisible blades, causing the tendril to reel back in surprise and release part of the ship. That was all that was needed. 
 
The Brightdark slingshotted up through the rest of the layers of tentacles, which were trying to quickly fill the gaps and snare the ship like a spider trying to trap a wasp. Just as the sunlight was about to be completely blocked by the meshing tentacles, the ship broke through the last of them, and streaked out into the fresh air, joining the frothy white clouds that apathetically drifted through the blue sky. Everyone squinted their bleary eyes, unaccustomed to the warm, bright rays of the morning sun that now illuminated the cockpit’s interior.
 
Bits of torn tentacles fell away from the hull as A’luhr turned the ship to be parallel to the Earth. For the first time in months, they all got to see the outside world again. It was not at all like they had left it.
 
The group collectively gasped as they looked down over the city. The skyscrapers, once shining spears of glass that pierced the sky, were now all totally covered in a thick, pinkish-orange ichor, with huge tentacles slithering up and around them like living, titanic pillars. There had been signs of tentacles trying to claim the human architecture before, but now it had been all but completely consumed.
 
Slime and mucus webbed between buildings and dangled over streets that were lined with roaming Takers, many of which had taken on forms unfamiliar to Sarah. For a moment, her old excitement to research and document new discoveries flared up deep down inside of her.
 
“Would you take a look at that…” Adam whistled in amazement. “It looks like they’re trying to terraform the whole city… maybe even the whole planet. It just stretches on for miles.” Beyond the tall buildings of the city, Sarah could see twisting spires seemingly composed entirely of weaved-together tentacles. The pulsating, organic structures curled and twisted like claws grasping at the horizon, changing the terrain into something distinctly homogeneous and alien. 
 
“Well, we are indeed about to get a very close look,” A’luhr said in a slightly anxious voice as she scanned some information on the hologram in front of her. Unlike the other blue images around her, this one was very bright red. “We have run out of coolant. If you had stopped holding on, you should resume doing so.”
 
A frantically beeping alarm started to go off all around the cockpit, replacing the noise from the engine that started to sputter and die out. The nose of the ship slowly began to dip down towards the ground, and a moment later, The Brightdark was plummeting from the sky like an ashen raindrop.
 
TO BE CONTINUED.
 

