CHAPTER 2

“Captain’s Log, Day four thousand ninety-two. The crew grows more and more anxious by the day. They are anticipating the results of our excursion with increasing excitement, as any scientist should when faced with such a beautifully daunting task. We are still searching for the source of the energetic flares, and have narrowed our options down to a small planet in the Xenome quadrant. Planet L-24B9-6, where small bacterial organisms have been the only sign of life for the past two centuries. This is a fascinating discovery in of itself, but the fact that multiple search crews have been lost almost as soon as they got this close is evidently making my crew very uneasy. I hope we will find what we were sent here for, and remain unscathed.”

The woman sat back in her chair as she set the recorder down, her soft brown eyes scanning the scene in front of her. Her crew moved quickly and efficiently around her like the bees she was so fond of when she lived on Earth. Her home in a small Mexican town south of Cancún seemed so far away now, and she was much happier here among the stars, on the Stormchaser 12 with the first all-female crew to open and traverse through a wormhole. The scanners projected the image of a bright pink planet in front of her, striped with magenta and red, surrounded by a few lone asteroids.

“Captain Cruz,” one of her crewmates called from the control bridge, “the radar is picking up a dramatic change in the radiation levels emitted by the planet. Small heat signatures are popping up in clusters of half a dozen to a dozen signals. Strange, isn’t it?” A few strands of her short blonde hair fell gently into her face as she turned around to show the Captain.

“Very,” she responded, pulling up the same image on her own hologram screen. “None of them are very far from this larger signature in sector four… we should investigate.”

“Understood, Captain. In T-minus 23 minutes, we’ll be within shuttle distance. I can send a few parties out to scout the area before we -”

“No,” the Captain interjected, raising a delicate hand to silence the crew member. “I’d like to take a solo shuttle and do a quick scan before I send any of you.”

The blonde looked startled, and a young woman with bright purple hair came to stand beside her. “Captain, with all due respect, it’s very dangerous to put yourself in such a position. We don’t know what’s out there, or what’s causing these heat signatures. It could be hostile - you’re taking a huge risk.”

“I understand that, Christina, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. Donna, prepare Solo Shuttle Z34,” she said, the tone of her final words proving that she had made her decision.

—------

Getting into the flight suits was always a challenge for Captain Imelda Cruz. The suits were streamlined and made of strong latex-like material, designed to be strong enough to move through any common foliage on any planet while remaining smooth and flexible enough to allow them a full range of movement. But the slick pseudo-rubber was always a struggle to fit into, on account of Imelda’s well-endowed body. The way her wide hips and thick, jiggly thighs contrasted with her slim waist made it difficult to pull the suit up onto her body. If she did manage to get it past her voluptuous lower half, the task of pulling it past her slightly pudgy tummy was deceptively easy compared to the fight to get it up past her round, bouncy breasts. Each was at least two handfuls, and she found herself trying ungracefully to stuff them into the chest of the suit every time she had to put it on. But eventually, she managed to slip into the tight white catsuit, and with every blue accent line only serving to highlight her curves, she was ready. She grabbed the helmet that reminded her of the motorcycle helmets on Earth, and headed for the docking bay.

Solo Shuttle Z34 was humming with energy as she stepped into the small cockpit, and she gritted her teeth with anticipation as she locked herself into the seat. The blonde engineer from before stepped forward on the bay, her face wrought with concern. “Be careful out there, Captain Cruz,” she said softly.

Imelda smirked at her, nodding. “I’ll be fine, Perrie. Prep the rest of the crew for exploration. I’ll signal for you when I’m ready.”

Perrie nodded, stepping back, and Imelda closed the shuttle, and she was off.

—------

She reached the planet with ease, landing on a rocky expanse of pink dust that seemed unexplored thus far. Cautiously, she stepped out of the shuttle, peering around anxiously. The scanner in her hand was picking up all kinds of signals, all of them coming from the same area about three hundred feet away. With a deep breath under the helmet, she set on her way.

Her heart was beating faster and faster as the scanner beeped louder, telling her she was getting closer to some of the clusters of heat signals they had picked up on the ship. As she crept closer, she realized she was standing over a ravine that swirled with pastel pink fog. Her scanner was beeping louder now, and she knew something was down there. Prepping the laser gun strapped to her wrist, she put her scanner away and started to make her way down the rocky slope.

Almost as soon as her feet touched the bottom, she heard a soft moan. It sounded tired and weak, but human. “Hello?” she called out. “This is Captain Imelda Cruz of the Stormchaser 12. Identify yourself.”

“Captain Cruz?” the voice answered back quietly. “You need to leave.”

“Identify yourself,” the Captain repeated. “I am armed and ready to shoot.”

“Captain…”

Imelda glanced down as she walked forward, and gasped. The fog cleared just a little, and she was left staring at the bruised and naked body of a young black woman with hazy eyes. Her belly was swollen, and she was covered in some sort of pink fluid. She wasn’t wearing a helmet, telling Imelda she could breathe this planet’s air, and she touched a button on her helmet that lifted the face of it, allowing her to see the body clearer. “Identify yourself,” Captain Cruz said again, though she turned the gun off and instead crouched down closer to the woman.

The woman shuddered before answering, her eyes still glazed over. “Neh… ohh… N-Nia Jacks-son of… uff… of the Stardweller Eh… Eight…”

“Jesus Christ,” Imelda hissed. This was the head engineer of the last ship that had been sent to this area. “What the hell happened to you?”

“You need to leave,” Nia said again, one hand moving slowly to touch her bloated stomach. “That thing… it’s too good… feels too good… it’ll take you, and… and…”

“What thing?”

“You need to leave b-before it gets you…”

“What fucking thing, Jackson?!”

Too late. Nia fell limp, and the gentle rise-and-fall of her small, naked breasts was the only sign that she was alive. Imelda huffed in frustration, and as she stood up, the fog cleared a little more, and suddenly she was speechless.

Nia wasn’t the only one.

Countless bodies littered the ravine, all women, all naked and bruised and covered in the same pink fluid, and all of them with their stomachs swollen to near-bursting. They were alive, she could tell, but they were all in the same-trance-like state.

Feeling nauseous, Imelda made her way past them across the ravine and hauled herself up the side. For what felt like ages, she followed her scanner, finding more and more groups of naked, tired women with swollen bellies. “What the fuck is going on here…” she muttered. Eventually she reached a cracked pink ravine that she could tell was made of tall, balanced rocks, and she gasped as she spotted someone familiar. “Officer Nuygen!”

She hurried over, careful not to disturb the precarious surface, and kneeled down next to the woman who had trained her, trying her best to ignore the older woman’s lean, muscular naked body and big perky tits. “Officer Nuygen, what’s going on? These women, they’re all… what… what happened to you?”

“Cruz,” Officer Nuygen said softly. She was a little more conscious than the rest, and she gently raised her arm to touch Imelda’s face. “Cruz, you need to get the hell out of here.” She coughed, spitting up a little bit of pink fluid. “We’re beyond saving. You… you need to take your crew and get out of here.”

“No, I’m not leaving you. What the hell did this to you?”

“Imelda… go… get out of here.”

“I can’t, Officer, you know I can’t leave you or the rest of the women here. I’m gonna call the ship, and we’re gonna - woah, woah!”

Something reached up and grabbed her ankle, and the ground underneath her gave way, and suddenly she was dragged away from her trainer and down into the abyss under the rocks. She screamed as she fell, dangling in the air by her leg. She stared down wildly, spotting a bright pink, glowing limb wrapped around her ankle, and on instinct, she pressed a button on her laser gun to load it, and fired.

A direct hit! The appendage split in two, the tip of it still wrapped around her leg, the rest of it falling away, and she felt a rush of savage satisfaction as she watched her shot land. The thrill, however, immediately returned to terror as she realized she was now free-falling in a bit of blackness, and she screamed again, accepting that this was how she would die, before another glowing pink thing reached up and caught her around the middle, lowering her gently onto the ground despite her kicking and screaming. It released her as soon as she was laid on the ground, and she sat there for a moment, wanting to keep a low profile in case whatever the source of the tentacles was knew she was here.

Slowly, she reached up and tapped the button on her helmet to cover her face again, glaring around with her wrist-mounted gun at the ready. She could hear her own heartbeat pounding in her ears, and her breath was labored and heavy, but she held still, ready for another attack.

She spotted a pink glow out of the corner of her eye, and whipped around to shoot the source, but the beast was quicker - it grabbed ahold of her wrist, effectively disarming her, and she shouted in surprise as she tried to use her other hand to free herself. Another glowing tentacle reached out to grab her other wrist, and she groaned, trying to kick herself loose.

Two more organs appeared to wrap around her calves, and suddenly she was helpless. The adrenaline that had been powering her defiance faded like a match being blown out. She was just scared now - terrified. Something told her that this is what had happened to all those other women, and she was about to be the next victim.

She shivered as another tentacle hovered in front of her, whimpering in fear. It looked like it was examining her, though she couldn’t see a face. She winced as it drew nearer, struggling again, failing to notice that one of the limbs accidentally pressed the communicator on her other wrist. She gasped, her stomach turning over anxiously as she heard the static of the communicator making contact.

“Captain?” Perrie’s voice called through the intercom in her helmet. “Captain, what’s going on?”

I can’t lead them here! “Perrie, stay on the ship,” Captain Cruz ordered in a whisper. “I don’t know what’s down here, but it’s too dangerous for the rest of you.”

“But Captain, the distress signal -”

“Forget the signal! And forget me! Save yourselves, get the ship out of here and report back to Home Station.” She turned her head away from the tentacle as it came closer to her face, investigating the noises.

“Captain, your suit shows contact with a very large heat signature that doesn’t belong to your physical body. You’re in danger.”

“You think?” she hissed. “Leave me behind. Report. Back. To Home Station. Now.”

“We can’t do that, Captain. Not without you.”

“You are currently disobeying a direct order. I could have your asses for insubordination.” Imelda tried to keep her voice steady as the tentacle wrapped around her helmet. “Officer DeVille, I’m telling you as your Captain and begging you as your friend, go back to base.”

Perrie’s answer was suddenly distant and staticky as the tentacle pulled Imelda’s helmet off her head. “Captain? Captain, we are not leaving you there to die.”

“You have to!” Imelda suddenly shouted, her mind reeling with the possibilities of her crew’s fates. “Perrie, please, just leave me here!”

“We’re coming to get you, Captain, just hold on and we’ll be there -”

The last few words were cut off as the strange thing curled around the helmet and crushed it, breaking the communicator and startling Imelda with how strong it was. What does that mean for me and my crew?

Dropping the crippled helmet, the tentacle reared towards her again, and she found it in herself to glare at it. “I don’t know if you can understand me, but know this,” she growled. “I am Captain Imelda Cruz of the Stormchaser twelve, and I will not let you hurt my crew, nor will I let you hurt me. I will not suffer as the women have before me.” Her voice shook with fear, but she pressed on. “If you value your life, you will free me, and allow me to bring these women home in peace. Make your choice, or so help me, I will make sure the last moments of your life are spent in agony - mph!”

The tentacle suddenly stuffed itself into her mouth, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t bite down on it hard enough to hurt it. She gagged as it started thrusting in and out slowly, the girth stretching her lips until the corners of her mouth felt like they would tear, her throat spasming as she choked, but the antennules didn’t care. The pink glow was disorienting up close, and Imelda could only breathe through her nose in panicked little gasps as the others settled her onto her knees, her hands being bound behind her back.

She could only watch as more feelers appeared out of what seemed like thin air, swirling around her body before they found the fasteners on her flight suit, slowly stripping it away. She wanted to argue, but the tentacle fucking her mouth made it impossible. She could feel the tip of it prodding the back of her throat with each thrust, and was left helpless as the slimy things pulled off her suit, her naked tits spilling out with ease. Two appendages found her chest, rubbing each perky mound in circles, causing her to moan against her will as their tips flicked at her nipples. More of them pulled the suit further down, and she choked on an attempted gasp as they suddenly ripped her suit apart, leaving her completely exposed on her knees in the glowing pink tangle.

As her eyes stared around, she realized there were countless tentacles swirling around her. Another one - or maybe one of the same ones? - reached down between her legs to stroke her bare pussy, and she snarled around the one in her mouth, biting down again in an effort to stop it. She didn’t want this!

The tentacle in her mouth suddenly stopped, shoving itself deeper into her mouth, until she felt her stomach churn with the need to gag, and before she could fight it, it shot a warm rope of thick, sweet fluid straight down her throat. Immediately, the world around her blurred, and she felt her mind unfocusing. Everything was fuzzy for a moment, and she felt her limbs go numb and loose as the strange trunk reached between her legs again, stroking her inner thigh gently, as if to tease her. She knew what was coming, but she was powerless to stop it.

Contact.

Imelda shivered as she felt the warm slickness of it, sliding back and forth between her pussy lips, making her moan against her will. She hated the waves of pleasure radiating from her naked cunt as the tentacle touched her, lubricating her with pink slime, but her limbs felt too numb and heavy to move. Her mouth still felt stretched to the breaking point with the member still slowly fucking her throat, and she moaned again as two lengths each wrapped around her ample breasts, moving in a way that massaged them as they tweaked her nipples with their tips. She felt a blush rise in her cheeks as her body responded to the attention.

She had always had sensitive nipples, and in her teenhood on Earth, she had always been privately embarrassed at the way they each stood out about half an inch when they were erect. She couldn’t help it, and it only served to embarrass and frustrate her further now as they stood proud under the relentless flicking. The tentacles quickly took notice of her body’s reaction - two very small outgrowths suddenly wrapped themselves around each nipple and began stroking, and she would’ve gasped at the touch if her mouth hadn’t been so full.

The tentacle working itself between her pussy lips suddenly added more pressure, its strokes shifting to a sharp back-and-forth over her clit. She groaned as she felt herself pressing against it, wanting more despite her knowledge that this was wrong, all wrong. What’s happening to me? she wondered. Her mind felt groggy and tired, and she struggled to think straight. I need to find the origin of these little fuckers. It must be some kind of monster. With sleepy eyes, she gazed around, but she couldn’t seem to place wherever they were coming from.

Suddenly she felt the tentacle between her thighs slide a little further, and her eyes flew open as she felt the wide tip of it prodding her hole. No! I’m a virgin! She couldn’t let her purity be ripped away by these beings. She bit down on the one in her mouth again - and again, to no avail - as she started to struggle as much as her body would allow. She hated feeling so helpless, so inebriated, and she wanted out.

The organ in her mouth pulled out almost entirely, and she thought for a moment she might’ve actually gotten somewhere this time - until another shot of the sticky, too-sweet fluid landed on her tongue, then another, and another. Suddenly her mouth was full of the thick cream, and she felt it spill out of the corners of her lips as the tentacle pushed back into her mouth, shoving more of it down her throat. She moaned as she felt it, noticing through an increasing mental fog that her gag reflex was disappearing. The realization hit her just as the appendage between her legs pushed in further - it was brainwashing her.

And despite her training, despite all the instincts telling her to escape and call for help, her melting mind told her that she was loving this.

She moaned as the tentacle pushed itself into her hole, stretching her walls inch by inch as it eased in. It felt amazing - every cell in her body was tingling as the tentacle pushed in a little, then pulled out, then in a little more, then out. Her eyes rolled back before closing as she let herself be fucked by the strange pink monster that seemed to surround her, the feelers on her ankles and wrists loosening as her body relaxed. Soon the glowing pink appendage was fully inserted, and she moaned again as it moved inside her, teasing her cervix and her g-spot. The one in her mouth started moving faster, gently picking up its pace as it fucked her throat, keeping perfect rhythm with the one in her pussy.

Imelda was fully enjoying herself now, under the influence of the strange drug these things secreted. She felt herself squeezing around the member inside her, working each muscle in turn in an unconscious effort to pull it deeper, and she was rewarded with a sudden, sharp thrust that made her choke on another groan of pleasure. Eyes still closed, she squeezed again, and the damn thing started fucking her faster, matched by the one in her mouth. Long strokes that she was sure rivaled those of the men on Earth that she had never had the pleasure of feeling. She had always been too busy, she had reasoned with herself as a teen and a young adult, more focused on her dreams of traveling the cosmos than on letting her peers cum inside her. But now, wrapped up in the throes of these tentacles, she found her foggy mind wondering what it would feel like if the sticky fluid running down her throat were to fill… other places.