Slimer

‘Shelley? When did you speak to him last?’ asked the pilot in a conversational tone. His voice hadn’t changed — if it wasn’t for the third eye staring blankly out at her from the back of his head Linda could have convinced herself that it was all a terrible delusion.

‘I asked when you last spoke to Shelley,’ he repeated. He continued to face directly ahead, not looking at Paul and ignoring the gun barrel. Linda saw Paul’s finger tightening on the trigger but still he didn’t fire.

‘Just before we met…you,' said Paul. ‘He told us there was only one of you. That you couldn’t reproduce because you didn’t have to.’

The pilot chuckled. And for a moment sounded like Alex. Linda wanted to scream again — to launch herself at the thing and rip at it with her nails — but she could only sit frozen in her seat, transfixed by the single, staring, unfathomable eye.

‘I’m afraid that wasn’t Shelley. That was me. Or rather the other me. Shelley had remarkable will-power. He held out longer than all the rest but in the end he had to succumb to me. It was inevitable.’

‘Then there are lots of you?’ asked Linda fearfully.

‘No. Notj)W. There is just me now. What the other “I” told you, apparently, while imitating Shelley was the truth. Or had been the truth. I didn’t possess the means to reproduce but once it became obvious that the heroin was killing me I was obliged to rapidly evolve some sort of reproductive mechanism. The result was crude, but, as you can see, effective.’ Again there came the obscene chuckle. ‘And in a sense you two are responsible for this new development in my life cycle.’

‘You got to the pilot,’ said Paul bitterly, ‘took him over…’

‘Not in the way you think,’ said the creature. ‘Otherwise nothing would have been solved. There would have been two of us dying of heroin withdrawal. Instead I injected him with a small collection of newly-formed cells — an embryo if you like, but one that contained all the information and memories of the parent organism. In other words, a miniature version of me.

‘Once implanted within the host the embryo grew and spread at a remarkably fast rate, cannibalising the host’s various organs as it went. The whole process only took twenty-seven minutes from start to finish, though it was a very long twenty-seven minutes for the host, I’m afraid…’ Again the chuckle. ‘Yes, from the host’s point of view my reproductive method has its drawbacks. Extremely painful ones. As you yourselves will find out before this flight is over.’

‘Us?’ Paul couldn’t keep the fear out of his voice. ‘Why do you need to reproduce again? You’re not dying now?’

‘Ah, but there’s still only one of me. I know now — or rather let’s say “I” am now aware on the genetic level — that I must continue to reproduce to ensure my survival. As I told you, thanks to your very nearly successful efforts to destroy me I have evolved a step further. As will always be the case whenever you puny humans attempt to stop me.’

‘But does it have to be us?’ cried Linda desperately. ‘Couldn’t you just let us go?’

‘Idiot,’ said the creature blandly. ‘Fear is making you irrational. Anyway it pleases me to have you two as the carriers of my seed. As the ones who almost killed me it is fitting you should assist me in the introduction of my kind to your world.’

‘You mean you intend to keep on reproducing?’ exclaimed Paul. ‘What will happen when..?’

‘What always happens when a superior species confronts an inferior one. The superior one overwhelms and eradicates the inferior — and I am unquestionably superior. I possess the combined intelligence of many of your scientists as well as great strength and various other unique physical characteristics, asjyou well know. I am the ultimate survivor. The end product of evolution because I will always be one step ahead of any competitor. And soon there will be ten of me, then twenty, hundreds, then thousands. The human race will quickly collapse and its remnants will be acknowledging its new masters…’

‘But does it have to be like that?’ cried Linda. ‘You said yourself you have the combined intelligence of many people. With such great intelligence why do you need to be our enemy? Shouldn’t you be beyond such primitive emotions as the need for violence?’

The single eye regarded her unemotionally for a few moments, then the creature said, ‘You’re confusing intelligence with some hazy notion of moral superiority. Just because something is intelligent doesn’t necessarily mean it has a well-developed empathy for other living creatures. That concept is a piece of wish-fulfillment created by the more idealistic among your race. But your human system of ethics is meaningless to me anyway. This intelligence I possess — a mental patchwork of the minds I have absorbed — is nothing but another survival tool to me. At the core I remain what I originally was before those scientists, in their egotistic way, took me from my natural world and carried out their experiments. I still have the same primal drives.. the same appetites…’

As he’d been talking his voice had gradually changed, becoming harsh and guttural. And now he was beginning to change physically too. The skin turned to an unpleasant greyish-white colour and the head became more elongated. Then, when it turned to look directly at Paul for the first time Linda saw that the pilot’s face had disappeared. A round, glassy eye, like the one on the back of its head, was the dominant feature in its profile. That, and a protruding lower jaw from which a forest of triangular teeth jutted upwards.

‘But no more talking,’ it said, fixing its gaze on Paul, ‘I have pleasured myself with you long enough. I estimate we will reach the mainland in forty-five minutes and by that time I want you both to have completed the gestation process…’

What happened next reminded Linda of a demonstration she’d once seen on TV of a briefcase designed to be thief-proof. When activated, the case had sprouted long telescopic poles designed to prevent the thief from carrying the case any distance. A similar manifestation was now occurring with the creature. Several long appendages erupted from its body, bursting out through the pilot’s clothing, and began to grow at alarming speed. Two of them, coming out of I the top of its shoulders, attached themselves to the ceiling of the cabin, presumably to brace the creature, while others fastened onto Paul and Linda.

Linda screamed as three of the slimy things, which had burst out of the creature’s back, pinned her to her seat.

‘Don’t struggle!’ warned the creature. ‘Remain still and accept the inevitable. Your agony will not be in vain — it will be serving a great purpose…’

‘You bastard!’ yelled Paul. ‘You enjoy causing, pain — and that makes you more human than you think you are. Yes, fish-head, you’ve become tainted along the way… there’s probably more of Alex in you now than you… Superior species, my arse, you’re just like us, only more so.’

‘Silence! And be still! This is the delicate part…’

Linda saw that something else was emerging from the creature towards Paul. A white, pulpy-looking tentacle. On its tip was a sharp, thorn-like point from which dripped globules of black slime. Paul increased his efforts to break free when he saw the thing snaking towards his bare stomach but he was held tight by four of the thick appendages.

Tainted! Alex! The two words blazed together in Linda’s mind with a significance she didn’t, at first, consciously grasp. Then she, realised she was staring at Alex’s money belt around Paul’s waist and it all fell into place.

‘We have more heroin!’ she screamed. ‘You can have it! All of it!’

The point of the tentacle stopped moving. It was only inches away from Paul’s flesh. ‘More heroin?’ asked the creature. ‘No. You are lying.’

‘In the belt! Look for yourself. We didn’t use it all!’ she cried frantically.

‘It is of no significance to me. I don’t want it.’

‘There’s lots of it!’ she persisted. ‘And you can have it all. Think of it!’