by Master Nage
“No more than you have betrayed her.”
I tried to catch my breath. I had no idea what they were talking about. Jondhru had threatened to kill me, but he wasn’t a danger to humanity. The dermagen was, but there was nothing I could do. He owned my mind—or did he?
That I couldn’t reveal his identity bespoke specific instructions. He hadn’t been directly controlling my mind, for he had remained in the past. As he couldn’t have predicted this situation, he couldn’t have programmed me to respond to it. He’d have to resort to direct mind control. Perhaps with Jondhru there he’d have less influence on me. It was the only chance I had.
“It’s over, Jondhru,” said the dermagen.
“No.”
I knew Jondhru had access to defenses he could control mentally and couldn’t figure out why he didn’t use them. Could it be the great Jondhru didn’t want to die? He’d advised me to do as much for the safety of the human race. Then I knew how I could redeem myself.
With a single fluid movement, I kicked out, striking the dermagen in the wrist. The blaster flew across the room. It clattered against the far wall. Fortunately, it didn’t discharge. We all moved for it, but I was a hair faster. I snatched it, whirled and pointed it right at the dermagen.
“Excellent work, Agent Luna. Now shoot it.”
If I killed the creature, I would be free. Perhaps Jondhru would even spare my life.
“She can’t, Jondhru.”
“Try me,” I said.
Jerico held up a placating hand, as if that would stop me from blowing him all over the place.
“There is something you need to know, Luna. Jondhru hasn’t been direct with you.”
“Shoot him now, Luna. Before he exerts his mind control.”
I raised the gun and pointed it to the dermagen’s head.
“Luna, wait. Think. If I were so important, why did he only send you and an android to track me down?”
“I have no idea.”
I put my finger to the trigger. One squeeze and I’d be redeemed.
“He couldn’t use any other operatives. He didn’t want this known.”
“Of course I didn’t,” said Jondhru. “Top level security clearance is required.”
The dermagen would not be dissuaded.
“Luna, do you know what I did to deserve Jondhru’s wrath?”
“No.”
“Of course not. So how would having more agents involved affect security? No one else would know either. And why you? Are you the best the Agency has to offer? Why send an android when it had never been done before? I’ll tell you why. You can reprogram an android’s memory very easily. No one keeps personal records on androids. And you, with your record of, shall we say, creative espionage, it would be easy to order your execution. Who would question it?”
“You’re not going to talk your way out of this,” said Jondhru.
“Are you sure? Perhaps I don’t need to. Think Luna. What are you defending? Who’s hurt you more, me or Jondhru? Who are you more afraid of?”
The answer to that question was easy, but I didn’t understand its relevance.
“If you don’t start making sense, I’m going to pull this trigger.”
“Do it, Luna! Now. Before he takes control of your body!”
I pointed the blaster at Jondhru.
“Shut up. I think I want to hear this.”
Jondhru’s dark eyes bulged with anger, but he didn’t respond. I turned my attention back to the shape shifter.
“So tell me, why should I trust an alien over my own kind?”
“Because, Luna, I’m not an alien.”
“You’re a dermagen.”
“Ever wonder where the name came from? Derma is a word for skin and gen is short for generation. Dermagen isn’t the name of an alien race. It’s the name of a company. It’s actually more complex than that, but Dermagen makes nano-machines. Microscopic machines that reside in the bloodstream in order to help a Time Cop assume the identity of another person before he goes back in time. I’m from the Agency, Luna, just like you. I’m from your future.”
“No. It’s not possible.”
“Of course it is. I do what you do but without the external machinery, that’s all. I’m just as human as you.”
“If you’re human, how did you mind-rape me?”
“By my year, humans have developed all sorts of psionic powers. What you call mind-rape isn’t even the most impressive.”
“So why are you here? What’s your mission?”
“To track down Jondhru. He’s an alien shape shifter, Luna. He’s here to change the past. He has placed himself in the perfect position to threaten the existence of humanity.”
“But you can’t change the past. That’s been proven.”
“Wrong. It’s not easy to change the past, because the past tries desperately to repeat itself, but enough small changes or a giant change will tip the scales, constantly increasing the odds of a time probability shift. That’s what Jondhru has been using the Agency for. A time probability shift would destroy humanity’s future and allow his people to take over the empty Earth and all its resources.”
“Why did you hide in the past, then?”
I studied Jondhru, trying to assimilate this new information. Was it possible?
“Jondhru is like me…he’s from the future. He has ways of detecting the occurrence of time travel, so I couldn’t come directly to this year without revealing my presence. The only way to fool him is the way I did it. By taking over an agent, I could travel to this year without worrying about Jondhru detecting my arrival. He would simply assume the agent was returning to the present. He would, of course, suspect the agent had been replaced, but suspecting and knowing are two different things. In any event, he couldn’t possibly know I could replicate an android. That technology hadn’t been developed until after he’d left for the past.”
I looked at Jondhru. He smiled.
“It’s a great story, Luna, with only one problem.”
“Which is?”
“It’s a lie. There is only one alien in this room. Have you ever seen me display super-human powers?”
“No.”
“Why do you suppose that is?”
I looked from one of them to the other and back again. Then I raised the blaster so it was pointed at Jondhru’s face.
“Luna, you’re making a mistake.”
“I don’t think so.”
Jerico walked up to me.
“What made you decide?”
“He could have used the flux walls to attack you as soon as you entered. He chose to save his skin, rather than do what was right for humanity. If he were who he pretended to be, he’d have sacrificed his life.”
“You’re right, of course.”
“But why doesn’t he use them now?”
“Because he doesn’t know if he’s stronger than me, and if he’s not, I can take that control away from him. Turn his weapons again him. He’s a coward, Luna. He doesn’t want to die.”
When I was done with him, death would be the least of his problems.
“You raped me,” I said. There was no other way to put it.
“You didn’t seem to mind at the time, Luna. You were begging for it.”
“I’m going to make you suffer as you’ve never suffered before.”
“Don’t shoot him,” said the dermagen.
“What?”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“You don’t know what he did to me. He needs to pay. I need to make him pay.”
“There’s a better way, Luna. Watch.”
The dermagen approached. Jondhru backed away.
“Don’t touch me!”
Jerico laughed. He moved so fast I almost couldn’t follow it. He grabbed Jondhru’s face.
“Nooooooooooooo!”
I had never before seen such pain on a human face—even if it wasn’t human. Jondhru’s features twisted as if they were made of rubber. He screamed,
but no one would come running. Screams had too often been heard from this office. I watched as he melted—as Jerico consumed him. Yet as horrible as it was, what came next was worse.
Jondhru’s skin started to mottle. It turned blue-green and scaly. His face elongated into something vaguely reptilian, down to the sharp, lizard-like teeth in that nonhuman maw. I was looking at Jondhru’s true form. He really was an alien. I thought about how he’d touched me and I shuddered. Thank God Jerico had come along when he did.
The transformation took slightly under ten minutes, during which I stood transfixed. When it was done, a new Jondhru stood before me. There was no trace of the original at all.
“He changed form. Why do you still look like the human Jondhru?” I asked, surprised I could get the words out. What I’d witnessed shook me to the core of my being.
Jerico-Jondhru studied me. His eyes were so much like the original’s I could barely meet his gaze, but I was sure the comfortable expression he wore had never graced Jondhru’s face.
“Every one of his victims, and there were many before the original Jondhru, was stored in his brain. I could have accessed any of them, but Jondhru made the most sense.”
“Isn’t this office monitored? Won’t there be questions?”
“Of course not. Jondhru couldn’t afford the scrutiny. What happened here today remains between us. No one else will ever know. Well, no one except my superiors.”
“What now?”
“Now we have to fix what Jondhru started to break. It’s going to take a long time and a lot of hard work, Luna. Are you up for it?”
I thought about what was being offered. Only minutes ago, I was going to be executed for failure. Now I was being asked to help a time cop from the future redirect history to save it from the actions of a hostile alien time traveler. If it weren’t so tragic I’d have laughed at the irony. Part of me wondered if Jerico (I couldn’t bring myself to think of him as Jondhru) could be trusted, but it was too small a part to call a suspicion. Which left me with a problem. What if I were still under the influence of Jerico’s mind control? What if I’d just betrayed humanity? When I looked at him again my emotions flared, and I realized I’d developed feelings for him. Not the most stable thing to base a decision like this on, but I had nothing else. I could only proceed and hope time would validate my actions.
“I don’t see where I have much of a choice. Hey, let me ask you something. If you really are human, why didn’t you just tell me?”
“Because Jondhru had ways to get into your mind just as I did. He didn’t use them because it would have given him away, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have in a pinch. The only way to fool him was the way I did it, chancy as it was.”
“I understand. And the drugs in my system? How do you explain those?”
“The drug is harmless, Luna. It feels bad at first but the worst of the withdrawal is already over. You’ll be back to normal in no time. I had to find a way to keep you under my thumb without hurting you.”
“But you had my mind.”
“More so after the second mind-rape than the first. The drug helped me there. I couldn’t risk you getting the upper hand on me. Not with what was at stake.”
The new Jondhru smiled and for the first time, I found myself attracted to him. I smiled back.
“You know,” he said, “you saved my life.”
“I’m glad.”
“Is there any way I can repay you?”
A thousand tempting thoughts crossed my mind. Jerico grinned.
“I can think of a thing or two.”
“I’ll bet you can.”
He walked to me and enfolded me in his arms. The image of the original Jondhru sent a shiver down my spine, but the shape shifter’s touch in no way resembled what I’d only recently endured. I melted into him and he held me.
“Jerico?”
“Yes, Luna?”
“What’s it like in the future?”
He lifted my chin, met my gaze and smiled fondly.
“I’m sorry, Luna, but you’re going to have to wait to find out...just like everyone else.”
“And here I was thinking I was special.”
We both laughed and he kissed me. I returned the favor.
As he lowered me to the floor, I felt free for the first time in my life.
About the Author
Master Nage is a real life D/s Master, living in Hobart, Tasmania with his slave (and wife) dana. He's practiced BDSM since 1992, both online and in real life. Master Nage, unlike many Dominants, is into psychological domination and sexual combat. Many of the situations from his books are taken from real life BDSM scenes.