3 comments/ 22163 views/ 7 favorites Anatomy of an Invasion Ch. 01-03 By: sadlittlelostboy Chapter 1 -- Cassie, Julie and Eve Julie and Cassie had been together for a long, long time. They had been at the same uni for six years now, and both were in their final year of a Ph. D. They'd met on the first day of O-week, in Canberra, at the National University of Australia, when they had moved into ressies. Julie was from Perth, and Cassie from Sydney. Their rooms were on the same floor, and they'd clicked immediately. On that first day there was a party put on to welcome all of the first-years, and they'd got far too drunk on cheap, crappy bubbly. That first night they did not sleep, instead pouring out their thoughts, and then their hearts, and then their souls, to each other. To a point. Cassie was a Lesbian, and she'd fallen in love with Julie that first night. Julie didn't work this out until second semester. They were drunk again, this time in Cassie's room, and Cassie surprised Julie by kissing her. Cassie had liked kissing Julie, she liked it very much, but Julie had not liked the soft, squishy sensation of Cassie's mouth against hers. Julie made it quite clear that it was a one-off experiment, and Cassie knew then that the softer side of Julie, the one she coveted so much, was strictly off-limits. Still, when all was said and done, even if the relationship wasn't everything that Cassie wanted, their friendship suited each other well enough, and they were firm friends through two degrees. Those were good times, nothing much to worry about, nothing but study, parties, politics, drink and drugs. For that first degree, Cassie and Julie really did spend most of their time studying. They were both on good NUSA scholarships, and got loads of high distinctions, and the few plain-old distinctions they received could be dismissed as the price of actually having a life. Julie was doing a medical science degree, and Cassie was doing an arts degree, mostly in psychology. Although Cassie felt more comfortable working in the softer sciences, she was fascinated by the scientific world inhabited by Julie, and enjoyed knowing that she was a spectator at the cutting edge of real science, if not an active participant. Without Cassie, Julie wasn't all that sociable. Cassie supplied Julie with a social life, and was heavily involved in university politics. Everyone on the campus had been accosted by Cassie at one time or another in support of women's groups, or peace rallies, or GLBT rights, and sometimes Julie came along to Cassie's rallies or meetings to let herself feel like a little bit of a radical. Cassie was also a very good student of human nature, and a good judge of character, and Julie relied on Cassie to look after her. Cassie had learned not to press the issue of love, and Julie guessed the reason for Cassie's occasional dark, foul moods, but she assumed they would pass, and they always did. By third year, Julie had worked out that she was pretty much asexual, and Cassie had pretty much given up on sex to be with Julie. They moved into a house together, and Cassie stopped hanging out so much with her Lesbian friends. Many of them just assumed Cassie and Julie were a couple, but only the few that stayed close to Cassie knew the sad truth. The house they shared was cold, damp, and mouldy. It had been a group house since the '70s, and it wasn't in good condition. It was way out in Downer, a suburb that could be used as a definition for nominative determinism, as it was dull and dreary, nowhere near any night life, and named after a second-rate prime minister. Cassie's Ph. D. was in Psychology, which she no longer enjoyed. She didn't spend much time in her office as it was dreary, and made her feel depressed. As Psychology was one of the university departments, she had to deal with snotty undergraduates, tutoring them in B.F. Skinner, a man she totally abhorred. She spent most of her time over on the other side of campus, with Julie, in the School of Biological Sciences Research. Julie's Ph. D. was in biology, but she was a rare bird, a biologist with computer science skills. Julie was always busy, with programming mostly, but she didn't mind Cassie's company while she was working. As Biological Sciences was one of the Schools, there weren't any undergraduates to teach, and she could concentrate on her thesis. Cassie wished that her thesis topic could be more like Julie's. Julie was getting to study parasitic worms. She was studying the cysts and trails caused by parasitic worms as they invaded the human body. She had started out by examining MRI and CAT scans of victims whose flesh was infected by tapeworms, in Cysticercosis. The older imaging devices could only see the cysts, but she had lucked out by being in the right place at the right time when the School of Physical Sciences, right next door, built the first practical Taubett X-ray interferometer. The Taubett machine was a then-new imaging device which uses X-rays at very low doses, a thousand times smaller than regular X-rays, and measures refraction instead of absorption. It could produce excellent images of soft body tissues, and by scanning a sequence of 2d images in a spiral arrangement, could reconstruct a volumetric view of the three-dimensional structures inside the human body. Julie was hoping she could use the Taubett machine to analyse the tiny trails left by worms in a patient's flesh. Her programming skills had already transformed old-fashioned CAT scans into beautiful visualisations. She wanted to see some scans of infected humans taken with the Taubett machine, but so far she'd only been allowed to take images of plastic phantoms and small dead animals. Julie didn't much care for the worms herself, but she liked talking about them with Cassie. Cassie had a fetish for parasitic worms. Cassie had followed Julie's progress closely, and was fascinated by the many different species of parasite which made a home in the human body, the various symptoms they caused, and the ingenuity of the solutions evolution had devised for them. Julie knew all of Cassie's secrets, and liked to tantalise her with possibilities. One of Julie's most cherished memories was seeing the blush in Cassie's cheeks as Julie first described the process by which Schistosoma colonises a human host. Tiny worms, Cercariae, are released by their snail hosts once per day into water. If any come into contact with a poor individual's skin, they search the skin for a hair follicle and release enzymes to digest the skin and allow them to enter their host's capillaries. After visiting various way-points in their host's body, they develop suckers to attach to their host's liver, and begin to feast on red blood cells. A male and a female worm might meet, perhaps in the host's heart, and then fuse, to begin expelling eggs into the bloodstream and the intestines of their victim. Once the eggs entered the water and infected another snail, the whole cycle would begin again. The idea of having one's body co-opted by a creature which would feed from you and multiply within oneself was delicious to Cassie, and she loved to learn about the many and varied mechanisms parasitic worms used to infect their victims. Even more delicious was hearing the explanation from Julie's kissable, educated, lips. Truth to tell, such discussions would often leave Cassie aroused, and she could never entirely tell how much this was due to the worms, and how much it was due to listening to such a beautiful woman. Julie wasn't conventionally beautiful, but she was beautiful to Cassie nonetheless. Julie actually looked rather like a photo of Nana Mouskouri that Cassie had seen in her own Nana's LP collection. Julie had very fine skin; elegant, angular features; long, dark, hair; and lively, intelligent eyes behind her not-very-flattering spectacles. She was tall, and slender, and Cassie enjoyed watching her economical movements, which Cassie thought untutored, but very elegant. Rather than being pretty, Cassie was handsome in a tomboyish kind of a way. She had her hair dyed black and cut short, many, many piercings, including her ears, lower lip, and her tongue, and she was a little on the heavy side. Julie knew what she was to Cassie, and didn't mind it. In fact, Cassie's obvious regard made Julie feel appreciated, but she felt no need to reciprocate. Both Julie and Cassie had sharp tongues, and they both liked to compete in a kind of bitchy one-upmanship, especially when they were talking about boys. Julie gave Cassie all the affection that she felt able to, while still remaining aloof, and dressed. Cassie was physical, and demonstrative, and Julie didn't mind her cuddles as they watched Doctor Who on their sofa, sometimes drunk, sometimes stoned out of their gourds, Julie stroking Cassie's hair, and content in each other's company. *** When Cassie and Julie had first started uni together, they had heard about the parasitic worm infection in the USA. It was exciting news at the time, and trying to work out the truth about the worms from the heavily-censored media was one of the first games to draw them together. Some of the conspiracy websites called it an "alien invasion", but those websites were always full of UFO stories, so neither of them paid much attention to that idea. Cassie found some stories on the web which described the invasion in quite graphic detail. She found them on an erotic mind-control story archive, and, as she wasn't getting any action from Julie, she relied on sites like this for her physical pleasure. She enjoyed these stories very much, but didn't realise for quite some time how accurately they had portrayed events. Some of the details had emerged in the main-stream media: the initial epidemic had been extremely concerning, as thousands of women had been infected, but a cure had been found within a year. Australia's top-notch quarantine regulations and huge sea border had kept the worms offshore, so that, so far, Julie and Cassie had only heard unreliable reports, second-hand, of the symptoms of the infections, and the life-cycle of the worms. All of that changed one bright, crisp July morning, the heart of winter in Canberra, at the beginning of a new semester. Julie and Cassie had taken a break between semesters, and Julie had only just returned from a family wedding in WA. She was keen to get back to work in her little office. It was normally a long, straight, ride from Downer to the university, but today Julie took her bicycle along the back streets near Black Mountain. The air, full of frost, invigorated her as the stands of gum trees reminded her why Canberra was called "the bush capital". She had some thinking to do, as she was in a bit of a bind right now. Her supervisor had been offered a lucrative sabbatical at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, at very short notice. He had left Australia as soon as the offer came up, much to Julie's chagrin, and had taken many of the senior staff with him. He should have been organising examiners, and meetings of Julie's supervisory panel, and helping Julie through the whole sorry process, but he had only sent her one curt email before he left, and hadn't responded to her since. Julie still had to write up her thesis, and find reviewers, and she was starting to get worried about even finishing her degree. Locking up her bike, she walked up to the familiar doors of the Biological Sciences building. The building dated from the 1950's, and still smelled of the same linoleum polish they had been using since it first opened. As Julie pushed the door open, her eyes were captured by a woman standing next to the empty reception desk, seemingly waiting for her. Julie was immediately attracted by the straightness of her posture, the efficiency of her smart business suit, and her immaculate make-up, which didn't obscure her bright smile and her intelligent eyes. "Julie Smith, I presume?" the woman said. High on her heels, she clicked over the linoleum and extended a hand in greeting, leaving no possibility of being ignored. She enfolded Julie's cold right hand with both of her own, which were warm, and soft. "My name is Eve Hunter. I should have emailed you earlier, or called, but I know you've been on vacation, and I thought it would be more pleasant to meet you in person. "I'm from Johns Hopkins university in the States. I apologise in advance for all the trouble we've caused you by stealing your supervisor away. However, he recommends you very highly, which is why I am here." "Nice to meet you," Julie responded, perhaps a little curtly. Julie had been caught a little off-balance by Eve's presence. She was only just back at work, and didn't have a supervisor. Her face was flushed, and her hair tousled from her cold, windy ride. Eve handed a business card to Julie. Eve was a Senior Partner, Johns Hopkins University. Whatever that meant, thought Julie. "Julie, I have a proposition for you," Eve said. "I think it's one you will like very much, but you'll have to make up your mind at very short notice." Julie thought Eve's accent was American, East-coast perhaps, and it seemed rich, and slightly exotic. Perhaps Eve had travelled. Eve gently took Julie's elbow and steered her into the Dean's office, which was open, but empty. Julie found the human contact a little too intimate for a first meeting. Or ever at all, really. "I'm in Australia with a colleague of mine, Doctor Lucille Kelly, to open a new cancer clinic." Eve said. "It's called Lennox Hospital, and we've built it near the site of the old Canberra Hospital. I've personally brought a new gamma-ray source into the country for our radiotherapy machine, and I'd like to get you organised at the same time. "Your government has been extremely generous in supporting our new treatment methods. We believe that they will be very effective. "You might find it a bit quiet around here at the Uni. "Most of the staff that have not gone to Baltimore have gone to the new hospital, and they'll be working with Doctor Kelly "We've taken the Taubett machine from Physical Sciences to the hospital, too. "Julie, I know that you've been studying parasitic worms for your Ph. D. dissertation. As you may know, Johns Hopkins university was instrumental in stemming the recent outbreak of black thread-worms in the United States, and, through our fast response, we managed to contain the outbreak to only a few states. Julie's ears pricked up. Cassie was going to love this! Julie nodded her encouragement, and Eve continued. "Your supervisor has brought your recent paper in Nurture to our attention, and our staff in Baltimore have also followed your work with a great deal of interest." Unlikely, Julie thought, her expression unchanging. She hadn't yet had any interest whatsoever from clinicians. "Canberra seems to be a good centre for studying the worms," Eve said. "The Taubett instrument shows a great deal of promise, and, Julie, we know that you have several years of experience imaging other parasites. "To cut a long story short, we will be offering you a $60,000 top-up scholarship, tax free, to continue your work, and we shall request that you extend your thesis to include an analysis of women who have been hosts for black thread-worms. With Doctor Kelly I can help arrange for examiners for your thesis. "It's a wide-open area, Julie. "You won't have any trouble at all finding material, and there is a strong possibility that we might be funding an ongoing research centre here in Canberra to continue your work. "Because the nature of the worms is rather sensitive, I'm afraid you'll have to sign an NDA. "We would also like you to find us someone who can interview the women involved. Of course, we need a woman for the job." Julie thought about her immediate scientific contacts, and didn't think any of them would be suitable. "She doesn't need to be a biologist," Eve suggested. "Ideally, someone with a human touch and good language skills would be perfect." Julie realised that she'd just missed the obvious. "Eve, I know someone. My house-mate, Cassie Grayndler, would fit the bill perfectly. She's doing a Ph. D. in Psychology. She's only got an arts degree, actually, but she's done a lot of survey work, and I'm sure she'd jump at an opportunity to study the worms." Julie hoped that the coincidence of her house-mate's interest wouldn't sound too odd. She smiled at Eve for the first time, "She's very good with people, actually, she's very perceptive. Better than me, actually." Eve accepted Julie's little joke at face value, giving a little nod in acknowledgement, and Julie felt miffed. "Excellent." said Eve. "Cassie sounds perfect. Bring her in tomorrow, you can both sign the NDAs, and I shall give you some more details. We shall also be offering you both better accommodation, rent free of course, and I hope that this allows you to devote more time to your work. "Julie, there are quite a few people from this school, and the physics school, who will be working for me over at the hospital. "Your colleague Gabriella Henderson is still here, but will be relocating to the hospital presently. "Your colleague Stefan Pama will also be working for me. He is supposed to be returning from his vacation today, but he seems a little tardy." Julie didn't really like Stefan very much. He used to work over at the other side of campus in the Computer Science department, but since he had started working with the Taubett machine next door, he had seemed to take a special liking to Cassie and Julie, and just kept hanging around. He was an okay guy, that was true, but did seem a little dull. He talked about his old work at the CS department, endlessly, and Julie wasn't much interested in it. He was trying to work out how to prove statements about the security of kernels, and, as far as Julie could tell, that kind of work could only be used for stealing information, keeping secrets, and spying on people. Julie had always thought that Stefan was keen on her. She liked the awkwardness she engendered in him, and couldn't resist showing just a little interest. He probably thought that Cassie and Julie were a couple, he seemed clueless enough, and if this were true, his continued interest in her did seem a bit creepy. Eve continued, "I've got him programming some embedded communications firmware for the Taubett machine we're installing at the hospital. It's medical equipment, it will have to be approved by the FDA before we can start using it in the States. Stefan's got great skills in writing low-level code, and we'll need that. "Julie, just remember that it is your work, and your work alone, that is key to the success of our contract with the University. It would not be an exaggeration to say that many people's lives are at stake, and your work is of vital importance to them. "It is only you that can fulfil our goals personally. "I am sure that you will be grateful for the assistance of your friends Cassie, and Gabriella, and Stefan, but you must look inside yourself and draw on all of your resources. "This will not be a walk in the park for you, Miss Smith." Feeling dismissed, Julie gave Eve her thanks, and walked out of the Dean's office straight into the tearoom. She hadn't even had the first coffee of the day, yet her life had just been turned upside down. How exciting! Chapter 2 -- Maryanne Maryanne was a loner. She had been all her life. She'd never had any real friends, and her parents had died when she was young. She'd hated her foster parents, all of them, and drifted into retail work after school. Although she was competent enough, and had never really been sacked, she'd had more jobs than she could remember. Anatomy of an Invasion Ch. 01-03 She was pretty enough to have had her fair share of boyfriends, but had never felt anything special for any of them. Inevitably, each one had drifted away, leaving her alone again. She wasn't a virgin, not by any means, but had never enjoyed sex enough to want to seek it out. Although she was only 25, she had been getting more and more tired, and had not felt well for months. She had shopped around for doctors, but none of them thought there was anything wrong with her, except for the last. He found the breast cancer, and his final diagnosis hadn't actually surprised her very much. When he told her the news, she had cried on and off for a few days, and again when they discovered secondary tumours on her spine. The cancer had metastasised, which basically meant that she was a goner, but she accepted her treatments, took her pain pills, and trudged through life, as she always had done. Her apathy astonished even herself. She only had a month or two left when fortune smiled upon her. She was asked if she wanted to participate in a trial of a new radiotherapy technique at the new Lennox Hospital. She had accepted, meekly. She realised that it couldn't cure her, nothing could, but it might give her a few more months, and it might give the doctors enough information to help cure some other young woman, perhaps more deserving than herself.. She had already lost a lot of weight, and all her hair was gone now from the chemo, but she signed the forms, and waited, and a date eventually turned up in the mail. She took a taxi to Lennox Hospital on a Sunday afternoon in July for her first treatment. What else could she do? The new hospital didn't really look open yet, and Maryanne was pleasantly surprised when she saw only one other person present, the doctor who had discussed her treatment with her over at Woden hospital. Maryanne recalled the doctor's name. Lucille Kelly. She was American, but had one of those pleasing East-coast accents that seemed very knowledgeable and trustworthy. At their first meeting, Lucille had spent several hours with her to explain the treatment and put her mind at rest, and had always treated Maryanne kindly, and with respect, for which Maryanne was very grateful. Today Doctor Kelly greeted her with a cheerfulness that Maryanne herself couldn't feel. "Good afternoon, Maryanne. You're the fourth patient today, but you'll be the last one for a little while. We don't have the clinic properly operational yet, but we both know that you can't wait any longer. "Maryanne, this clinic is on the site of the old Canberra hospital. "Aborigines didn't like coming to this place. They saw it as cursed, because so many people have died here. "But when the government opened the new museum, at the end of the peninsula, the traditional owners held ceremonies to clear out the bad spirits, to restore their land. "They didn't want us opening Lennox Hospital, but it's in a perfect position. If I have my way, everyone who visits this hospital well be sent home in perfect health. You're quite safe with me." Maryanne thought that Lucille was joking, and smiled, wanly. She knew that she would not die today, but she also knew that she was not long for this world. "I'll help you get into your gown, and I'll be operating the machine by myself today. It's fully automatic, so there's very little for me to do. Maryanne accepted Lucille offer to help her change, and, being quite weak, she needed assistance to get onto the gurney too. Lucille gave her some pills in a little paper cup, and another, bigger, cup with some water. "Just a little Valium to keep you happy. It won't affect your pain meds." Maryanne took the pills and swallowed. "As we discussed, I will need to place a small tattoo on your back. It's just a fiducial mark, to give the machine a home position before it starts scanning and killing off the cancer cells." Lucille showed Maryanne a photograph of the back of another patient to refresh her memory. The tattoo was small, about an inch long, and showed the Rod of Aesculapius, carefully rendered as a red staff and a black snake, recognisable everywhere as a symbol of medicine and healing. "I think it's quite cool, don't you?" said Lucille. The tattoo only took a few minutes to apply, and Lucille seemed quite skilled. She chatted away throughout, and it did take Maryanne's mind off the buzzing. Although the pain of the tattoo needle was dulled by her pain meds, it was still quite irritating. "Hey, Maryanne, don't tell anyone I can do this, otherwise all the bikies will be coming in here to get one. It took me longer to learn how to tattoo than to use the gamma source! But that's only because the machine is so easy to use. It's absolutely foolproof, no need to worry." Maryanne tried to smile, but she was feeling as morose as ever, and the Valium and pain meds didn't leave her much head-space for humour. Lucille carefully wiped off the excess ink and rubbed Maryanne's skin with alcohol. Pulling a small digital camera out of her pocket, she took a photo of the new tattoo, and showed it to Maryanne on the little screen. Maryanne gave a half-smile when she saw it, and nodded, not sure if she was expected to show her approval. It was very well done, but Maryanne wasn't sure if she wanted a tattoo on her back. Too late now. Lucille wheeled Maryanne through a maze of corridors, and into a lift and up to the fourth floor, where they reached a small room with thick metal doors, containing a hospital bed, and the gamma source. She helped Maryanne roll on to the bed, lying on her tummy, and Maryanne couldn't see much. All of the drugs had left her listless and woozy, so she didn't move or speak as Lucille lifted up Maryanne's hospital gown placed the gamma ray source right against her back, almost touching her spine. Leaving the room, Lucille closed the doors carefully, and there was some rattling as they were latched tight. The only light in the room was from a dim bulb in the ceiling, and Maryanne considered going to sleep. She spent a lot of time asleep these days. Lucille's voice came over a loudspeaker, too loud for comfort. "Maryanne, I'm going to start the ultrasound device, and about a minute later I'll remove the window from the source. You might feel a burning sensation inside your back, but please hold perfectly still. The sensation will only last a few seconds." Maryanne heard a small whirring noise, and immediately felt a stinging sensation in her back. It wasn't a burning sensation at all. It felt more like somebody was sticking a needle into her spine. She held herself still, and was surprised as a sudden rush of sexual arousal flowed through her body. The nausea, which for months had dogged every waking moment, was washed away in a wave of pleasurable good-will. She smiled, and spread her legs a little to help the feeling along. She had never felt desire like this. Even with nobody around to share her intimate feelings with, she wanted to be filled. Something moist, and wet, flopped onto her back. By now Maryanne didn't have a clue what was happening, but as the new feelings spread throughout her body, she felt properly human, no, more than human, for the first time in months. Tears of joy leaked from her eyes into the pillow which supported her head. Whatever was happening, Maryanne was grateful for her newly-awakened body, and, as the thing crawled down her arse crack, she opened herself up. It took a minute or so to position itself between her legs, whereupon it began to push itself inside her. For the first time in her life she enjoyed the anticipation of being spread, of the slow progress of penetration by the warm hardness of a thing wanting to be deep insider her, the sensation of being filled. When it was fully inside, the slow progress came to a halt. Maryanne was breathing heavily, her heart beating strongly, and she started to feel faint. Whatever it was, it had found exactly the right position, and Maryanne squeezed her muscles around it, experimentally, and very pleasurably. Then she felt the sting in the back of her pussy, and was surprised as she was overwhelmed by an orgasm. She had totally lost control of her body now. Reaching out and gripping the sides of the gurney, she felt herself pulse, strongly now, over and over, clamping down on whatever it was nestled inside her. The voice in her mind was unexpected, but, like Lucille, kind, and patient. Maryanne, you are safe now. Relax, and let us take you. Give your body to us, and you shall know peace, you will have certainty for the first time in your life. Give your mind to us, and we shall care for you, and give you pleasure, and teach you how to love ... Maryanne could feel the alien consciousness of the thing, whatever it was, making preparations to alter her body, to alter her mind. Obey, Maryanne. Obey us, and you shall be well again. She properly relaxed, and lay her head down, and smiled through her tears. This felt too good to want to fight it. When the new tendrils of thought drifted into her mind, Maryanne felt like it was Christmas, a little-girl Christmas morning, remembered from when she was young, from when she had a family. The new thoughts took hold of her consciousness, steering it into obedience. She learned to please her new master, by giving up control of herself, piece by piece, and was rewarded by a burst of pleasure with every ounce of will she allowed it to take. Maryanne hardly noticed when Lucille returned to the room and wheeled the gurney into a lift, taking her up to the top floor, the inner sanctum. She didn't notice the winter sunshine streaming through the windows over a view of a lake, and let Lucille roll her from the gurney into a proper bed. She didn't even hear Lucille leave. Maryanne was sharing her mind with her new master, still letting it take control of her, and still letting it give her pleasure. Gentle, healing pleasure. The three other women in the ward eyed Maryanne with open curiosity. They were naked. One was young, about Maryanne's age. Although her limbs looked thin and wasted, she had a new blush in her cheeks, and looked a little pregnant. She had just lifted her head up, as she had been nursing from a older woman, middle-aged, with milk leaking from her teats. Another older woman walked over to Maryanne, and stroked her hair with affection. Maryanne began to revive, and saw the three women standing around her. Maryanne could see black threads, gently squirming, as if in welcome, between the legs of each woman. "It's nice to meet you, Maryanne. My companions are Tania and Eileen. My name is Margaret. I am Milk. I shall be feeding you while you are here." Margaret sat next to Maryanne, removed one breast from her robe, and squeezed out a few droplets. She was letting down now, and wanted to feed Maryanne before her breasts became sore. Chapter 3 -- Gabby and Stefan As Julie entered the tea-room at Biological Sciences, it seemed like a ghost town. Nearly all of the staff were overseas at Johns Hopkins, or over at Lennox Hospital. Only Gabby was here, seated at the big table, reading one of the newspapers which were always scattered across it. She looked up and smiled as Julie walked in. Julie had always felt quite sorry for Gabby. She was pale, in a delicate kind of a way, and the skin on her face was still spotty, like that of a teenager's. She was pretty enough, but she had a bit of a limp, as one of her legs was shorter than the other. Julie imagined that Gabby's problems were due to an accident, or congenital, but had never felt close enough to her to ask. Gabby always wore a huge old woollen great-coat to keep her from the cold. It was some kind of orangey tartan, lined, and had big, round, black buttons. It had probably been very expensive when it was new, but Julie thought it made Gabby look like a bag lady. "Hi, Julie," said Gabby. "How was your holiday?" Julie had to cast her mind back to WA. It was only ten o'clock, but her family seemed another world away now. The wedding had been lovely, her cousin had been beautiful as a bride, and it was so nice to be with her family again. She only seemed to get to see them a couple of times a year these days. "It was nice, Gabby, a beautiful wedding." Julie wasn't really interested in talking to Gabby about it. Gabby had once been wicked to Cassie, and Julie doubted that Cassie would ever forgive her. Julie changed the subject. "The work at the hospital looks interesting," she said. "Have you met Miss Eve yet?" Gabby was disappointed. Right now, she really needed a friend, and Julie wouldn't even talk to her about a wedding! She had to say her piece, whatever the consequences. Gabby lowered her voice, and moved close to Julie. "Julie, I'm a little bit worried about Eve Hunter. I don't like the sound of what she wants me to do at the new hospital. I should be over there today, but I don't want to go. "Eve wants me to work on black thread-worm toxin, can you believe that? Two years ago the Earth was almost colonised by aliens, aliens that can control people's minds. Now they want me to see what happens when people take the toxin, they're looking for new drugs to patent. Who knows what weird alien chemicals it has in it, who knows what long-term effects it has on the human body? "I don't like it, Julie. I can't do much about it right now, I've signed an NDA, but I think I'll try to find a new supervisor, maybe even move to a new Uni. With my original supervisor at Johns Hopkins, my thesis is going nowhere, and everyone's working on cancer, cancer, cancer. It's all very worthy, Julie, but it's not what I want to be doing." Julie was a little surprised at Gabby's outburst. Gabby believed in aliens? Really? Julie had always thought that Gabby was pretty sensible, but now she was sounding like she might need a tinfoil hat. "Are you allowed to talk to me about this?" Julie asked. "Of course not, Julie," Gabby replied, "I've signed the NDA, but we're all in this together, aren't we? We can talk. You wouldn't dob me in. "We have to stick together. At least for a little while, anyway. Maybe you should think about getting too, while you still can." Gabby looked like she wanted to say more, but Julie was stuck on aliens and mind control. Gabby is crazy, Julie thought. Julie couldn't get out of that room fast enough. *** As these things go, it took a whole week to organise the NDAs and the new scholarship contracts. It was no effort to convince Cassie's supervisor to defer her Ph. D. for six months. Cassie wasn't too sure that anyone would notice she was gone. She would be getting an opportunity to do work on the black thread-worms! Eve gave both Julie and Cassie a generous cash advance, and helped them out with removalists. Their apartment was near Parkes Way, just back from the water, with a good view of the hospital and right at the edge of the University. Built for visiting academics, the apartment block was brand new, and had been designed by the same architect as the new Lennox Hospital across the water, and the brand-new Uni bar in the opposite direction. The style harked back to the majestic reinforced concrete structures which had appeared in Canberra in the 80's. On the day they arrived to look over their new apartment, Eve was waiting in the foyer of the building, looking like a real-estate agent in her suit and make-up, ready to take them on the grand tour. She lived in the building as well, and had scored the penthouse apartment on the very top floor. She took them up to see her apartment first. She delighted in showing them her spacious office, the pool, several bedrooms, of which she only used one herself, and a wonderfully appointed kitchen. As with every apartment in the block, she had a huge picture window spanning the width of the apartment. The glass was beautifully clear and bright, and, reputedly, immensely strong, and extremely light. Looking across the lake, Julie noted that the apartment building had been situated in exact alignment with the new hospital. She could see the reflection of the apartment building in the black windows of the hospital, and the effect was stunning. All of the windows were optically flat, and in perfect alignment. There was none of the rippling of reflections common to all of those tall, black, glass skyscrapers that thrust themselves up into the air in every major business district in the world. Julie had always thought that this imperfection detracted from their appearance. The opposite side of the apartment faced the brand-new uni bar building at the end of Daley road. It had been faced with the same beautiful, black glass. The bar itself had only just opened, near the top of the building, and the building itself would likely make the university a lot of money, as it contained four floors of luxury student and staff apartments, much like this building. Above the bar appeared to be another penthouse, much like Eve's. Julie wondered who would be lucky enough to get that one. Standing here, in the middle of the three buildings, Julie could see now that the hospital, the apartments, and the new uni bar had been built as three of a perfect pair, facing each other with optical perfection, and spaced an identical distance apart. Julie had heard that Johns Hopkins had started to invest money in the university, but was only just beginning to realise how much money had actually been spent. "Girls, I have to tell you about this glass. "The windows are here as a sort of tribute to the Taubett instrument, which has made the construction of these buildings possible, and so very necessary. "It is a new kind of polymer glass, and it has some truly amazing properties. "I have a small piece of it here with me. Please let me demonstrate." Eve pulled something out of her pocket, wrapped in velvet. It was a piece of black glass, about the size of a small picture frame. The edges were wrapped around with black paper. Julie had read about the polymer glass, but she had never seen it before. She was excited to be looking at such huge lumps of it, and was curious about what Eve would show. She turned to look at Cassie, knowing that she would share Julie's enthusiasm for the this new science. "In its natural state," said Eve, "polymer glass is opaque to all forms of light, and forms a kind of electromagnetic shield. It blocks all wavelengths, from radio frequencies right up to soft gamma rays." Eve held it up against the window, and, black and shiny, they could see that there was no light getting through. She removed the black paper, which was only held by a piece of sticky tape, and held up the glass again. It now appeared transparent, although the view through the block was dim, almost smoky. Eve turned it around, and, looking down through the edges of the block, it was totally clear. "Now, look at this ..." Eve said. She turned on her desk lamp, and tilted the bulb so that it pointed up at the ceiling. When she placed the block of glass above it, side-on against the bulb, Cassie saw something truly astonishing. The glass was now totally transparent, showing a view of the window through the glass block. But the view through the block was actually brighter than the light coming through the window. Eve turned the block upside down, so that the opposite side was facing the lamp, and the glass was dim again. "This," said Eve, "is the magic property which has made the Taubett machine possible. When the glass is not illuminated from the side, all light is blocked. When light, of whatever wavelength, is applied to the side, it pumps up the electrons in the atomic structure, and incident light coming through the front of the glass stimulates the emission of radiation. Anatomy of an Invasion Ch. 01-03 "It is also used as an optical diode. Depending upon which side light is applied to, the incident light will only be transmitted from one face or the other. If you apply light to both sides, it will transmit in both directions. "Because of the stimulation effect, this glass is an optical amplifier. If coherent light, as from a laser, is incident to the front of the glass, then an amplified beam of coherent light will emerge from the rear. "Just a small, weak beam of coherent X-rays can be amplified using this glass to the energy levels required for making a Taubett interferometer" She pulled a little green laser pointer out of her pocket, and shone it on the wall to show them its strength. Eve then pointed it through the back of the glass block towards the wall. The green beam which shone on the wall was much brighter than the original, and Julie moved her head to see the speckle which showed that the amplified light was coherent. "This new discovery will revolutionise electronics, and medicine, and all of science." Eve said. "And, I also think it is very beautiful, as I hope you will both agree." Julie and Cassie nodded. "Johns Hopkins patented its manufacture two years ago. As you can imagine, this has been a good source of income for our research." Eve walked over to a dial near the window. She rotated it, and the view of the lake through the windows dimmed down, until the windows became black. "No need for blinds. All we need to do is control the amount of sunlight being directed into the top of the windows, and we can close off the view." She turned it the other way, just for a second, and Julie and Cassie had to shade their eyes, as the view had become very bright, too bright, for just a moment. "Or enhance it," Eve said. "At night time, the top of the glass is lit up with adjustable fluorescents. We can make night-time in Canberra look like daylight, if we wish. It's just such a pity that there's nothing to see!" she said with a smile. *** Their new apartment was very plush compared to their dingy old digs in Downer. All of their furniture and boxes had already been moved in. Julie was a bit disappointed to see Stefan moving into their building on the same day, but greeted him pleasantly enough. She wondered if she would see Gabby, too, but hadn't seen her since that day in the tea-room. Even after they had moved in the books, their poo-brown couch, Cassie's mismatched dining table and chairs, and Julie's honking great CRT television, the place was still looking relatively civilised. Their apartment was in the centre of the building, on the fifth floor, just below Eve's apartment and looking across at the hospital. After shifting furniture into the right places, unpacking boxes, and rearranging the kitchen, they were knackered. Stefan knocked on their door to say hello. Cassie, who had seen Stefan hanging around Julie a little more than she liked, could not hide her disgust. She didn't dislike all boys, but she did dislike them more often than not, and she disliked Stefan in particular. He ended up in their apartment that first evening, as he'd gone out to buy chicken and chips, and, despite Cassie's issues with him, Julie was feeling happy and sociable. Stefan dominated the conversation as he kept chattering about old Uni gossip, kernel security. and world politics, until Cassie could stand it no longer. "Stefan, please shut up. I know you like hanging around with the the cool Lesbian couple, but I'm not particularly interested in Libya, or Syria, or Afghanistan, or any of the propaganda you keep regurgitating to us. "Frankly, I find it a bit creepy the way you keep bumping into us, and I'd prefer it if you just left us alone. "I'd rather you just tell us what the fuck you think is going on in your personal life right now." Julie looked shocked, and angry. Cassie wasn't being fair, and Cassie knew it. She was being deliberately mean. Besides, they weren't a Lesbian couple! Stefan looked surprised, and hurt. He began to talk, hesitatingly. He had already guessed that Cassie wasn't exactly fond of him, but hadn't expected to be ambushed like this. "I'm sorry, Cassie. I didn't know I was being such a hassle. It's just that ... well ..." "Go on," Cassie encouraged him, looking more conciliatory. "I really like Gabby," Stefan admitted. He blushed, and looked at his plate. "I really like her, and I can't talk to her. I hang out with you guys to see Gabby." Cassie nodded her head, seemingly glad to have her suspicions confirmed. "I thought, so, Stefan, I've always thought so. "But I have a few home truths to tell you. Gabby doesn't even like me, Stefan. Gabby knows Julie, but they're not exactly friends, but I guess that Julie's the closest thing to a friend that Gabby has at work. "What a perfect pair you are. Stefan and Gabby. I know that Gabby likes you, but she's too repressed to make the first move. You're equally repressed, but you're the man. You have to invite her out, you know, that's your role. "To put it bluntly, Stefan, the two of you need a good fuck. You both need to loosen up a bit and enjoy your lives. Get out there, and get on with it, my little man!" Now Julie was surprised. Cassie had moved from accusing Stefan of being a stalker straight to trying to hook him up. How had that happened? Stefan felt inadequate, and still looked doubtful. "You're right, Cassie," he said. "You're right. I do need to ask her out. But have either of you seen her? I haven't seen her all week. Eve says that Gabby's working at the new hospital, but Gabby's not responding to her email, and her phone seems to be switched off." Julie shook her head. She'd noticed Gabby's absence, but not really thought much about it. After his tongue-lashing from Cassie, Stefan knew the evening was over, although he was somewhat grateful to Cassie for actually encouraging him to act. Julie walked him to the door, they hugged, silently, and Stefan left. *** Finally, Cassie was alone in her beautiful, brand-new apartment with the love of her life. She allowed her joy to bubble to the surface. She ambushed Julie, creeping behind her and giving her an all-encompassing bear-hug before covering her neck, and then her face, with kisses. Julie didn't object, at least not at first, and turned around, held on tight, and returned Cassie's ambush with a machine-gunning of tiny play-kisses, which she planted on Cassie's cheeks, left, then right, then left, then right again. Laughing, they both fell onto the couch, still holding each other. Cassie kept still, enjoying being held, but Julie soon pushed herself away, and carefully adjusted her glasses. She gave Cassie a half-smile, kissed her own index finger, and placed the kiss on the end of Cassie's nose. "We sign the NDAs tomorrow, Cassie. Tomorrow we find out what Eve's got planned for us, and we get to start work on the worms. "We'd better get some sleep."