Bugs. Giant, horrible, swarming, monstrous bugs. The men on the trolley were firing rifle shots, shattering through chitin and splattering beige goo with every shot. But the bugs were big, and there were a lot of them. The trolley came crashing to a halt as the men fled into camp, their clothes sizzling from the acid rain burning their skin below. Honestly, the bugs almost seemed like a secondary concern as some were already kicking off clothes as they ducked into tents.

Water droplets pelted my face; they tasted a little tingly. Thank God for alien biology, thank Nicole for making it happen.

The large insects were now stomping towards the camp.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Nicole muttered, the stampede approaching.

“Run!” I told her.

This time, Nicole did. Just in time, too, as one big horned beetle-like thing crashed into one of the cabins, sending the whole structure tumbling down on it. These things were like tanks. Feral and angry tanks.

People were screaming now. Forced to flee into the rain. Every drop must have burned horribl,y but better than being trampled. I watched over Nicole’s shoulder. She wasn’t the fastest carrying me, but she wasn’t the slowest either. And that was enough.

More gunshots started up. Officers wearing space suits had arrived as reinforcements. It suddenly occurred to me as I watched a man reload that we only had so many bullets. Each shot did a tremendous horrible amount of damage, but these were big creatures; they just kept going. It seemed to take dozens of shots to finally put one down. The rifles were powerful, but it was a numbers game more than anything else.

Nicole carried me away from the chaos towards the beach. When we finally stopped, we had reached the water. Turning around, we had a clear view of the chaos in the distance. A woman fleeing was impaled by one of the bugs, shooting a spike out of a gross, fleshy orifice on its back. She hit the ground only to promptly be mauled by large pincers.

Oh, we had just left people to die.

Nicole watched with a with a stony face.

Another large monster was put down, then another. Slowly but surely the tide turned thanks to modern weaponry. But by then it was too late, people were injure,d and a few were dead. And we had just run.

Despite my restlessness, what could we have even done? Nicole had a pistol. I had… thumbs.

A piercing vibration cut through the air. The host didn’t feel it, but I did. It made my head spin. I stumbled, grabbing onto Nicole.

“What's wrong?” she asked me worriedly.

“Nothing, I… felt something,” I explained, steadying myself. When I looked back up, the remaining bugs had turned to retreat, coordinating as one. “They runnning.”

“What did you feel?” she asked me.

“Like… a-a call. Not a whistle but kind of like a whistle,” I tried to explain.

Nicole nodded. “Must have been some kind of signal. Great… just great… a eusocial hive of giant insectoids that we’ve not upset.”

“Is Vander & Frakes?” I suggested. I didn’t see how it could be possible, but it would certainly be a creative option.

“Or the mining,” Nicole grimaced. “The explosions could have pissed them off.”

“Shit,” I muttered. “Are they… are they Hell?”

Nicole nodded, seeming to consider it. “Subterranean giant insects, who knows how far the hive stretches. It could be Vander & Frakes weaponizing them. Or not, who knows?”

“What do we do?” I asked anxiously.

Nicole sighed. “I need to go be a doctor. After that… I have no idea.”

There were two deaths, but over two dozen were injured and burned. A few broken bones or big cuts seemed to be the worst of it. Nothing that couldn’t be repaired with time. The damage to our structures was maybe more of a problem long-term. As the rain dried up and people began to inspect the damage done, it wasn’t good. Mercifully, everything important was more inland, but one of the shuttles had been damaged. Two of the insects had been bashing their large crests into it until they had finally been put down.

Nicole helped patch up the injured. Commander Alcantar and his men were already preparing to go investigate what exactly had happened, while others got to work clearing rubble. The mood in the air was tense, but crudely it could have been far more. That seemed to be the general consensus. There was a lot of yelling, blame being tossed around. Considering those starting the mining had literally lured back the insects, I didn’t really blame anyone’s anger, even if I didn’t like it.

“We got a live one!” someone yelled.

Nicole and I hurried to see what was going on. One of the large insects was still alive, awkwardly trying to climb to its feet despite being absolutely shredded. Commander Alcantar walked up, hoisting an axe like a maniac.

“Wait,” Nicole interrupted. “Bring it back to my tent. I can do a vivisection, see how it works.”

For some reason, Commander Alcantar, the axe wielder, looked creeped out. After a moment he sighed. “Do it,” he told the two men who had been clearing rubble.

“But sir, it's… moving,” the taller one protested.

“It’s on death’s door, chop chop. You’re both in protective suits,” he huffed.

I scurried out of the way as the large creature was brought back to the medical tent. It was really ugly, with the armour as slimy fleshy bits and even fine hairs. Its mandibles were huge, like jagged shears. It even had spikes and a big horn on its face.

The men hauled the bug inside.

“You sure you’re okay with it?” the shorter man asked.

“I will be perfectly fine, thank you, gentlemen,” Nicole smiled even as she practically shooed them out of the tent.

The insect was struggling to pull itself along the ground. Now no longer rampaging, I couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for the dying creature.

“Elsy,” Nicole paused, turning to me. “I don’t suppose you're up for a little adventure?”

“What?” I blinked.

“As of yet, you have shown the ability to control vertebrates. I’m curious if that is a limit or just a precedent,” she explained, trailing her finger over the creature's chitinous armour.

I stared at the giant insect with unease. “You… Youuu want me to get in thhhat?”

“Only if you’re comfortable with a little experimentation,” Nicole reassured. “I am admittedly curious, and I think it would be good for you to know as much about yourself as possible. We can sedate the primate and keep her in the animal trap. Once you’re done, you can slip right back in.”

“Oh… alright,” I groaned. I hated the idea of being out of a host again, and doubly so getting into this thing. But Nicole had a point. Just what exactly were my limits? Better to find out now than when I really needed to know the answer.

By now, I knew the drill. Nicole gave me an injection before helping me climb into the cage. Once I felt thoroughly drowsy, I unwrapped myself and carefully extracted myself, trying to do as little damage to the ape. Everything went dark and quiet.

“Alright, Elsy, let's do this,” Nicole’s voice reached me.

I waved a tentacle, and after a moment, she picked me up. Coming in contact with the bug was icky. It was surprisingly cold, though I was fairly sure that was better than it being warm as I slithered inside. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing since there was no spin to wrap around. I absorbed some of the juices, just glad I didn’t have taste buds. Lost as to where to start, I reached out tendrils in search of… anything interesting.

I squished around organs and wormed around. I could feel the host occasionally jostling me as I shifted. I didn’t find anything that felt… right. It seemed as though I had met my match. No bones.

“Nothing,” I offered. “No spine to wrap around.”

“That's to be expected,” Nicole replied. “Can you try plugging into the nervous system itself, or the brain. The spinal cord is an easy go-between, but it may not be ultimately required.”

“I will try, but I don’t know what to look for,” I grumbled, retracing my wiggling back the way I had come.

One of my tentacles pressed into something, and a jerk of sensations went through me, blinding white that stunned me for a second. I had no idea what I had just interfaced with, but I had connected with something. I tentatively prodded it again.

It felt almost tingly, like my arm was a wire being plugged into a system. I could see, but it was far too much to be comprehensible. I siphoned the light reaching the insectoid’s eyes, seeing what it was seeing, but I was unable to make sense of any of it. It was too… alien. It gave me a headache trying to brute force myself through the foggy weirdness. It didn’t help that I felt so much pain, not my own pain, but the firing cries of the nervous system. It seemed as though I could interface, but I couldn’t… fully get settled.

I relayed all this to Nicole and tried a few different things which only produced similar results. Finally, I made my way out, squashing myself out of a bullet wound, now dripping with bug goo as Nicole picked me up and patted me dry with something fizzy and somewhat soft. When I finally settled back into the primate, I was already in Nicole’s arms.

“She was making this panicked crying sound,” Nicole explained, turning off the radio transmitter. “I took her out to rock her back and forth; it seemed to soothe her.”

Blinking my eyes open dizzily, I wiggled my tongue around my mouth and reintegrated myself again to having a body. “She trussted you?”

“Well… It’s not unreasonable that she would be aware of everything even while you are in control,” Nicole explained. “I’ve only been gentle with you; I’m sure she’s intelligent enough to understand that.”

Oh. That was horrifying. It was one thing for them to be alive after I left, another for them to be trapped in their own bodies. Everything I saw, the host saw. Everything I experienced, the host experienced. Oh god.

I wiggled free from Nicole’s arms, dropping to all fours as I tried not to throw up.

“What's wrong?” Nicole asked gently, running her hand down my back.

“She… she is aware?” I managed.

“Well, I don’t know for certain,” Nicole replied. “But she responded positively to my voice, so… I would guess that yes. But I could be wrong; she was quite sedated.”

“Don’t be silly. Of course, you are right,” I groaned, sitting on the ground. Guilt welled up inside me. Taking a life was one thing; sometimes it had to be done for survival. It could be done humanely. But this… I was dragging their consciousness around. It was… torture. I… it was horrible. She had experienced everything, the fear, the joy, the… the night with Nicole, everything! Oh god!

I felt like a monster. I didn’t know I could feel worse about what I was than how I already did.

What the fuck was I supposed to do now?