"And that makes it all worth it," said the man. "One last thing before I go. Why did you marry Gavin, Sam?"
"Gavin? Gavin was... Gavin accepted my irregular hours. He was kind. He was loving."
"Maybe you should have followed your heart instead," said the man.
"Maybe I should."
"Maybe next time, you will."
"But I won't remember any of this," said Sam.
"No," said the man, starting to fade. "But your heart will."
********
[Nine Months Earlier]
The Container Ship soared through outer space.
"Status report," came a crackle over the cockpit.
Zarabeth pressed the transmit button. "The same as yesterday, and the same as the day before that, Dunlop 4."
"Status report," said the voice again.
"Situation normal," said Zarabeth. "When are you going to relax, Dunlop?"
"When this mission is concluded."
Zarabeth liked Dunlop 4. They had talked briefly before the mission started, but she hoped she could get to know him a little better when they returned home. She was a Z series clone and he was a D series, but they still should be compatible.
Meanwhile, in the lounge, a purple and black man suddenly appeared.
A bald man who was half purple, half black, wearing clothes which were also half black, and half purple. The left side of his body was purple, the right side black, and the left half of his clothes were black, and the right side purple.
The most amazing thing about the black and purple man was his eyes. They were simply wild. And he had a manic smile to match. He looked insane, capable of anything.
For a moment the purple and black man looked around at all the doors, to the crew quarters, to the cockpit, and to the containment areas, and he simply smiled broadly, considering the possibilities. He seemed to relish simply being there, at that moment, having the power to do anything he wanted.
The purple and black man walked over to the containment doors, searching with his mind, until he came to one he liked more than the others. He put his hand to the entry button, and then-
"Stop that," he heard.
The purple and black turned around. He saw a balding man with a short beard staring at him.
"You really didn't think that we wouldn't notice if the entire planet Earth was taken over by parasites, did you?"
The purple and black man smiled. "It's a big galaxy."
"This was not meant to happen," said the bearded man.
"A shame. I would have loved to see how it played out."
"It did play out. Poorly."
"It sounds like I would have enjoyed it. A pity," said the purple and black man.
"And now it's time to end you," said the bearded man, holding out an open hand.
"No!" said the purple and black man. "Please! Give me another chance!"
Suddenly, the purple and black man faded, and reappeared in tiny form, in the bearded man's hand. The bearded man clenched his hand, and the purple and black man screamed, and folded in on himself, until he completely vanished.
And then the bearded man disappeared from the Container Ship as well.
The End
Epilogue
Six months after the Container Ship completed its mission, it returned to the Stellar Union. Dunlop 4 was sent to hunt any remaining parasites, but found none. He was decommissioned, as was Zarabeth. Over time, Zarabeth persuaded him to follow other pursuits.
A year after the Container Ship did not land on Earth, Major Samantha Arden separated from her husband Gavin, and they entered into an amicable divorce. Three weeks later, she transferred out of HomePlanet Security to the Survey Service base on Manassas, and publically started dating Colonel Jack Sullivan.
One year later, they were married. And two years after that, Major Arden retired from the United Survey Service to embark on her biggest adventure ever.
Motherhood.
Author's note, 3/2019
I was originally hesitant to write this book. After I wrote what I thought was the creepiest erotic horror novel ever, The End of Humanity, I realized I had some additional ideas involving sex and alien mind control, ideas which involved alien creatures that weren't microscopic viruses. So I thought to write this book, but worried that it would have too much overlap with The End of Humanity.
I needn't have worried. While the overarching theme of people being taken over by aliens was the same, the execution was, for the most part, decidedly different. This book had relatively fewer sex scenes than The End of Humanity, and focused on control itself being erotic, rather than the sex act itself. The other sexy theme I got to explore was alien impregnation, which was a powerfully erotic staple of pulp scifi in the 20th century, but now that the politically correct crowd demand that all women be "strong and powerful" all the time, it's a theme we are no longer allowed to explore. Well, I just explored it.
The opening scene of the book was inspired by the Space 1999 episode "Dorzak", about a hypnotic alien who was locked up (and yes, in stasis!) and being transported to prison by three very sexy women. The scene at the end where duplicate Jack meets Sam at a picnic table was inspired by the Stargate SG-1 episode "Foothill", which also featured a duplicate Jack meeting Sam and trying to convince her to come home.
I first got the idea for this book when I thought about vampires. Stories about vampires featured them sucking peoples' blood. But they did so in such a sexual way. What if they sucked the living sexuality out of people instead? By the way, "Balok" was a hideous monster in the Star Trek episode "The Corbomite Maneuver."
The idea for the super evolved brains came from an Outer Limits episode "The Mutant" about a genetically altered man with big egg yolk eyes who had mental powers. The idea for the plant monsters came from the Doctor Who episode "The Seeds of Doom", and you can guess what that was about from the title.
The idea for the shit monsters came from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Skin of Evil" about a monster that looked like it was made of chocolate pudding who was the evil extract from otherwise good people. I really, really wanted to address the idea of a monster made of excrement. Excrement is the most taboo subject in the world, even more so than sex. We produce a ton of it, spend time every day producing it, excreting it, and yet we never, ever talk about it. It's a big chunk of our life we aren't permitted to discuss. I think that's wrong, and so I have broached the topic, even if it's in a light hearted, science fictiony way.
The book The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein featured pancakes that took control of people by riding on their backs. I can't deny I got the idea from that book. However, while the idea was fascinating, the execution was boring. Much of the book featured investigations, finding the pancake infested people. Or it was about the pancake people infecting others, but they did it simply by slapping pancakes on their back. It was written in the most tedious way possible, and the main characters were quite irritating. So I wondered if the concept could be redone, in an erotic horror kind of way. (The answer: yes.)
People familiar with Stargate: SG-1 will of course find similarities with my Sam, Jack, and Janice and Stargate: SG-1's Sam, Jack, and Janice. For ten years, Sam and Jack made eyes at each other and were obviously attracted and had great chemistry. That was hot, and worked well. But it was never resolved! And the cock tease lasted ten years. That's not right. So I made my Sam and Jack resolve things. I think in retrospect, the most exciting parts of this book are not just the alien invasion but how it affected the evolving relationships between Sam and Gavin, and Janice, and Dunlop, and Jack. Boy, she sure had a lot of suitors!
As for Sam and Janice, the two were supposed to be friends on Stargate, but it was very clear to me that subtexually, they were much more than that, what with all the eye gazing and shoulder touching and the first name "Janet!" and "Sam!" and flirtatious smiles they gave each other. So I took the logical step and made Janice Sam's former lesbian lover.
If you wanted to
carry the analogy further, then Dunlop 4 is a little like Martouf, one of the many, many platonic alien boyfriends Sam had who were so emotionally constipated that he couldn't figure out how to get Sam's pants off.
At the same time, this book also pays tribute to Gerry Anderson's UFO series (note the references in the story to Gerry, Anderson, GEV--mobiles, and Lexford, a fictional place in Canada only mentioned in UFO), and that series had a General Henderson too, only mine was different, not having the huge eyebrows the TV version did.
Mamoomishom was some kind of play, or musical, on Broadway when I was a kid, only that wasn't quite the name, though it is the closest that I remember. It had such an odd name that the television advertisements would simply repeat the name, over and over, "Mamoomishom! Mamoomishom! Mamoomishom!" and it stuck in my head.
The scenes were Sam spars with her evil twin was inspired by the Stargate episode "Gemini", where Sam also spars with her evil twin (a replicator).
Fans of Sherlock Holmes will recognize the fight with Dr. Moriarty where Holmes goes over the falls in Switzerland. Originally in the "good" outcome, I was going to have Sam survive and impersonate the other Sam, but realized that by taking away the main antagonist, it weakened the dramatic ending of the story.
One of the ways I made this book as different as I could from The End of Humanity was not to have the aliens talk directly to their victims in their minds, using all-cap lettering, but to talk through them, using their mouths. It was a stylistic difference, but came off quite well, with pages and pages of "Sam said" and "Sam said", but each referring to distinctly different Sams. The pages of people talking to themselves was not only not confusing, but I think was a creative way of having the aliens communicate with their hosts.
I was originally going to end the book with humanity losing, again to distinguish it from The End of Humanity. But I found that I couldn't get myself to pull the plug on humanity, not even in fiction, so I devised the ending I did. Except that I came up with what I thought were two very different ways to get to the end of the book, one where Sam wins and one where she loses. I couldn't decide which way I liked better, so I kept both in the story, although neither changes the ultimate ending. (Yes, the story ends with a complete reboot! Just like a poorly written Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, I know. At least I didn't have the main character come out of the shower in the Epilogue and remark what a terrible dream the last year had been, which is the ridiculous way they rebooted the TV series Dallas when they wiped out a whole year of events.)
The most compelling part of The End of Humanity was the struggle within Anna Rogers, as readers try to figure out whether she was really completely controlled by the aliens. It's similar but not identical to this book, where readers have to figure out if Sam has really surrendered and is cooperating with the Hive voluntarily, or whether she is being compelled.
I wrote this massive 180,000+ word book in less than two weeks, plus a few days for outlining and revising. Yeah, you read that right. My first day I wrote 19,000 words. I don't know anyone who writes as fast as me. I heard Isaac Asimov used to be a fast writer, but my books are much more interesting than his.
Gary LM Martin.
[email protected]
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When the USS Asgard crashes on PR-92841, the locals think the survivors are gods. A conservative Christian preacher, an Islamic fundamentalist, a militant black atheist, a luscious lesbian, an aging conman, and a corruptible starship captain each set up their own religions. What could go wrong?
Have a look at Starship Gods!
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Click here to see The End of Humanity
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Parasites Love Earth! Page 58