Not Here, Not Now

Once the foot dissolves, the brain slug extends several specialized tentacles into its host. Some seek out the circulatory system, connecting directly to the host's blood supply, acclimating the brain slug to its new host environment. Others attach to the nervous system. Once the connection is established, the brain slug maps the host's neural architecture, extending additional tentacles into the host's brain. Primitive parts of the brain responsible for autonomic functions like breathing are left largely intact, while higher cortical functions attract additional connections. An individual brain slug's brain is about the size of a pea, commensurate with its size; it is when it is connected to a large-brained host that a brain slug achieves true sentience. The two neural structures merge, and when the host opens its eyes, the brain slug is truly aware for the first time in its life, possessed of all the skills and connections its host body needs to survive.
—National Geographic Field Guide to Extraterrestrial Species of North America, Chapter 1

There was an ATM at the Cosmic Fill-Up. Mel ran his hand with the embedded credit chip over the scanner. His bank account came up, and showed that his first paycheck had been deposited correctly. Not a vast amount of money, but enough that he could afford something other than ramen. Or possibly in addition to ramen, since he had plenty of ramen left.

"Get paid, red shirt?" Ha-Yoon said. "All good."

"Yep!" Mel said. He tried to be cheerful. It was his first pay for services rendered. Another little milestone in adult life.

"That's the kind of employee satisfaction corporate likes to see," she said. Then, with a savage grin. "Now, go clean the bathrooms."

The plural caught Mel's attention.

"Including the women's room?" he said.

"Men's room, women's room, family bathroom, and the biowaste disposal kiosk we save for the K'lur'k," Ha-Yoon said. "You know, those six-foot stick-insect looking things? We've never had one before, but corporate likes for it to be sterile. Just in case."

Ha-Yoon had shown Mel how to do this last week. It wasn't so bad. He fetched the swifter and the specialized attachments from the supply closet. Plastic gloves and mask, sanitizer fluid, a pair of goggles with a built-in augmented reality display. A little plastic chain to place across the entrance of each restroom in turn.

Verify no occupancy, mark space for cleaning. He remembered. Follow directions.

The directions came in bright arrows, and instructions overlaid on his vision by the goggles. Identifying where to point the swifter, which attachment to use. Monitoring his progress as he picked up the larger debris of bathroom activities, cleaned up splatter, applied the artificial scent of sanitation unique to the Cosmic Fill-Up—a mix of peppermint and pine that would clear the sinuses but was non-toxic to almost anything.

It wasn't as disgusting as he thought it might be. People could do terrible things in bathrooms. He knew. With the swifter, it was only a matter of minutes for each restroom. Mel ran the plastic wand over each seat, followed the glowing directions for each nook and cranny. Tried not to think of Amelia's soft, shapely butt pressed into the seat of the family restroom toilet.

The women's restroom was where his imagination really went to work.

Ha-Yoon had mentioned casually that she'd fired people for having sex in the bathrooms. Which wasn't something that Mel ever considered a real possibility, but his brain had that seed of an idea to work with. He played through the scenarios. Minding his own business when Jordan slipped a condom into his hand. Blasting one out in the men's room, handing it back to her. Watching Jordan, Blair, and Soong share it at lunch, like they did the little soy sauce packets.

Or his baby batter splattered across the floor. Soong on her knees, lowering her face to the floor to lap it up, to leave the floor as clean as when Mel ran the swifter over it. The brain slug on her neck pulsing in excitement at the salty treat, her head coming up to catch the last drop that dangled off the end of his glans . . .

Mel shook his head ruefully. A sick, silly fantasy. One of those he half wanted to come true, like any good erotic daydream. Except this was real life, and . . . well, it wasn't that it couldn't happen, but he couldn't allow that to happen.

So what do I do if Jordan does ask me to fill a condom for her at work? Mel thought as he finished up. I mean, so far I've been pretty . . . passive about this whole thing. But we have to establish boundaries somewhere, right? I mean, what if she . . . what if they decide to go further?

There was a lump in Mel's throat as he contemplated what "further" could mean. Maybe they wouldn't be satisfied with just watching him anymore. His cock stirred in his pants as his body reacted to his fantasy.

Down boy, Mel mentally ordered, not that his dick would listen. Not here, not now. Maybe later.

Later was something that Mel was thinking a lot about. The Cosmic Fill-Up was a space of relative safety. The brain slug hosts didn't take off their clothes here. Nobody was going to ask him to jerk off here, and if they did, he could just say no.

It was during lunch when the brain slug hosts started rolling their eyes.

Tomie started it. Mel noticed it when she checked in. Her left eye and right eye were moving in different directions, acting independently of one another. Staring in two different directions, focusing on two different objects. She reached out and grabbed Bobbie's hand, and then the brunette started to do it too, her face still placid, but her eyes moving up and down in asynchronous motions. Then they grabbed Blair's hand, and Blair grabbed Soong, who was already holding hands with Jordan . . .

Mel and Ha-Yoon watched as all five of them held hands and stared in ten different directions. It almost put Mel off his rice bowl. Ha-Yoon sighed and glanced at the beer fridge again, but didn't move toward it.

"This happens sometimes," she said.

"The eye-roll thing?" Mel asked.

"No, that's new. But the—sharing. One of them discovers something and shares it throughout the network. It's actually really handy for training, because you can train one to do something, then they'll hold hands for a while, and they'll both be able to do it. I'm sure there's a limit to it—seems to happen most often with physical gestures. Finger snapping, whistling, hopscotch, that kind of thing."

As quickly as it had begun, the hand-holding stopped, and the five brain slug hosts went back to finishing their lunch. Yet Mel noticed that now, occasionally, one of Jordan's eyes would move independently of the other. He saw her left eye fix on him as she finished her meal.

Mel remembered how Jordan and Soong had held hands while reading the magazine. While watching him last night. He realized that just now, when they were all linked together, every brain slug host in the Cosmic Fill-Up might have the memory of him jerking off. Any one of them might present him a condom with the expectation that he might fill it.

His body responded instantly, the erection uncomfortable in its intensity. The rest of his shift would be long and hard.