Chapter 2
It had been a year since the Carers' arrival. Taylor’s office was huge compared to what it had once been. In the course of a year, as Carers slowly but surely integrated with society, his department had been reduced to a team of just ten. It had long ago started to feel silly to stick to their tiny cubicles from before, back when the cryptography department had employed over a thousand people. The entire building now contained less than fifty.
Of course, the office he was in would have felt huge even before the Carers had arrived. Now though, everything had been renovated or even outright reconstructed to accommodate their immense forms, practically doubling the width and height of most rooms in a building and halving the number of floors.
Elevators had new signs to indicate weight capacity, such as sixteen humans or three Carers, and all too often when Carers did enter elevators humans would find themselves pinned beneath - or occasionally even in between - the monstrously soft bodies of Carers who would only afterwards politely apologise… though never quite admitted it was a mistake.
Indeed it had been quite a joke around the office when a young intern from their office had been visiting a nearby hospital, only to wind up ‘accidentally’ stuck inside an overburdened elevator with four carers for the better part of two hours. When they were finally rescued, the young man was a wreck, barely able to walk - and partly dehydrated. Luckily for him he had had a quartet of very willing nurses, the same from the elevator it just so happened, who were more than willing to make sure he got home safe. It wasn’t clear how the elevator had gotten stuck, as while it was clearly working at the limits of its tolerances, one did wonder if the emergency stop button may have just accidentally been pressed by an idle finger.
Thinking about it then, Taylor realised he hadn’t seen the young man again after that.
The office he had been left with, which would have been ostentatious before, now felt obscene and excessive. Indeed it felt like everything was changing to make things easier for them to settle in among humanity - or atop them, he mused. Not that he was complaining - at least not about the office space.
It had been a year since the Carers had arrived, and in that time he and what was left of his team had kept working. Their language was so complex it put codework to shame. They barely had a handle on sentence structure, let alone what more than half of the symbols meant.
In reality, despite initial firm resistance, Cryptography was one of the few branches of the military that still existed in any meaningful capacity. Most of what remained was merely a ceremonial position, mostly in charge of helping the Carers offload their vessels or direct landing zone traffic. It was no secret many branches of the remaining military had Carers involved at this point, in an ‘advisory’ role.
The words of the visitor speaking at the United Nations from a year ago rang in his head. ‘If we wished you any harm, you would have been helpless to resist us.’ He mulled it over. If the Carers were a threat, a possibility he could barely bring himself to even contemplate anymore, they had had plenty of chances to do something aggressive - and hadn’t.
As the gently smiling face of a Carer beamed at him from his new portable alien TV, cheerily reading the morning news - which now amounted to little more than an ever increasing list of good news - his task had long since started to feel a bit redundant. The device was another of the many wondrous gifts the Carers had so generously provided to humanity which was now in their care. The devices seemed to interlink effortlessly with the mind of whomever was watching it, ensuring that the Carers’ telepathic communication was transmissible across the globe entirely unfiltered.
He couldn’t deny a little unease from time to time. Maybe it was just the trace remnants of his misgivings from a year ago which hadn’t quite simmered out yet, but his fathers words rang in his head, albeit a little quieter. Nothing was free, the cost just wasn’t always obvious.
“That concludes today’s updates on the Carer diet plan!” The news anchor announced cheerily, and a slight bounce sent her massive alien cleavage into mind-bending jiggles as if to celebrate it. “Don’t forget, a balanced diet only took into account the nutrient requirements of pre-Carer food! Now we’re here, all you need is the food we give you! Just give in… to the delicious taste.”
As he watched and stared, paying more attention to her tits than her words as they effortlessly implanted themselves into his subconscious, his unease slowly faded away.
“Taylor?”
He looked up from his desk, and paperwork stuck to his face. At the door was a man in uniform, a rare sight in his department as standards had understandably slipped under the circumstances. Taylor saluted as best he could.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Avery.” He said, and returned it. “Intelligence.”
The man seemed wired, as if strung far too tight. He seemed to be checking every corner, looking for something. He was suspicious, Taylor grinned, the way the military had used to be not so long ago. Somehow it was reassuring, even if it felt a bit awkward.
“How can I help you, Sir?”
“Taylor, I’m afraid I’m here with bad news. I’m not happy about it, but I’m here to fill you in. This is coming from the top down, nothing I can do about it. Senator Margrave has been insisting on greater Carer integration in the government, and that includes us. He’s one of the most vocal advocates for greater cooperation, I’m sure you’ve seen him on the TV by now.”
The name rang a bell in Taylor’s mind, but was quickly drowned out by the announcement on the news that global warming had been reversed by a new Carer environmental initiative. Taylor’s attention snapped back to Avery, hoping the officer hadn’t noticed the lapse.
“I’ve been assigned here as part of a new initiative, the cryptology department is to have Carers integrating with it to help with the language barrier.”
Taylor blinked. It threw any semblance of secrecy out the window - to have the presumed enemy sitting in your office helping you decrypt their own codes. It was plain on his face that Taylor hadn’t known it was happening until then. Thinking back later on, though, Taylor realised he should have seen what was coming when they started renovating a military installation to accommodate massive, busty alien womens’ bodies.
“Sorry, son. Nothing I can do about it.”
It made sense, Taylor admitted to himself dully. Rather than trying to break their codes, something that was increasingly seeming quite futile, the goal was now merely to understand the Carer’s written language and find a way to translate it. Very little pretence of caution remained surrounding the aliens, in any case, who had already within a year so easily ingratiated themselves with humanity.
“They’re integrating with the intelligence branch now?” He asked, still processing it.
The man removed his cap and wiped his forehead, sitting in the chair opposite Taylor.
“Well, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be going to war any time soon. Their technology renders conflict almost antiquated as a concept. So brass reckons they might as well help us with the translation.”
“Isn’t it still decryption, Sir?” Taylor asked, though the word rang hollow when a foot away from him a massive-breasted alien was near to bursting out of a skimpy news anchor uniform, gladly informing them both passively of how successful their conquest-of-Earth-by-love had already been.
Lieutenant Avery was obviously not happy with the situation. It was undoubtedly emasculating to see the military which had been such a formative part of his life be rendered so obsolete. It made sense to Taylor to bring the Carers in on the project, at least, even if he saw the obvious conflict of interest.
“The book’s title, though, Sir…” Taylor offered. “To Care for Man. That’s reassuring, isn’t it?”
For a while they were both silent, before at length they replied.
“Lieutenant,” Taylor grumbled, and unwound a security cord from the folder, “if I told you to take care of someone, a sickly person, you would bring them food and medicine, keep them warm, right?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“And if I was to put a gun in your hand and tell you to take care of someone, you’d suddenly have a very different plan, right?”
“Yes… Sir.”
It took Taylor by surprise. For some reason, the image of using a gun, or any violence really, had become oddly… alien to him. As an office-bound man it wasn’t like he had much experience beyond basic training, yet even so, it felt almost like removing a thick woolly coat just to process that thought.
Out of the corner of his eye, the massive tits of a Carer swung innocently on a small screen which only seemed to amplify their scale. As he stared, her pendulous globes slowly swayed back and forth, just barely contained within a tight but loosely buttoned formal shirt, and slowly remembering what they'd been talking about became just a little harder; as to Taylor's shame did he.
"We need to stay vigilant. Especially now." Officer Avery said darkly, yet Taylor remained decidedly distracted by the breasts bouncing on his alien-tech TV screen.
"Gentlemen.” A voice which was dripping with intention roused both of them, finally snapping Taylor away from his hazy arousal. “Don't get up."
For a moment, Taylor almost thought the Carer newscaster had somehow appeared in his office. Standing in the doorway, however, was a Carer with an altogether stricter bearing. The doorways had of course also been resized to Carer proportions, which Taylor realised in retrospect was probably another warning sign he had missed at the time. What was harder to miss was how her demeanour matched her uniform, for that was what it resembled. While undoubtedly still alien garb, it bore a striking resemblance to military attire. Padded shoulders and a formal cap belied the otherwise near-sheer flowing silken gown which was the trademark of the Carers.
"I am Carer Mataya. I have been assigned to… oversee your translation efforts."
Taylor had never quite gotten used to the way their telepathic voices seemed to come from nowhere in particular, and yet everywhere at once. It was as if they were all around you, or that their voice had come from within your own head. Sometimes, when it wasn't clear which one was speaking, or when they spoke softly enough, Taylor found himself confusing their words for his own thoughts. This was hardly the first time he had been near a Carer in real life, but he would hardly say he was used to the experience either.
She held out a hand, smiling coolly. However not to be outdone, Avery stood and saluted, which Taylor belatedly mimicked.
"Avery." He offered, gravely, but did not take her hand.
Undaunted, she merely brushed her hair aside.
"It appears you are to be my opposite number, Lieutenant Avery."
She then turned her eyes to Taylor, but otherwise didn’t move.
"And you must be Corporal Taylor. I have enjoyed reading your work on our language. I saw a lot to desire… between the lines." Cool as ice, she seemed to know just what to say to arouse the respect for authority instilled within him… as well as an altogether more direct arousal. He had to consciously remind himself that she was a foreign agent, even as he forced his eyes not to wander over her stunning body. Not that she seemed to mind, grinning slightly as his gaze dipped a little lower to the utterly daunting cleavage she displayed.
"I would very much like for us to get to know each other better. For now though, Lieutenant, you and I must discuss quite a few matters of very… deep importance. Shall we meet in my office?"
At that she turned to leave, the effortless grace with which the Carers moved leaving Taylor's heart beating a little quicker as usual, not much aided by the fantastic view he now got of her truly stunning ass.
"Our office," Avery countered sternly, "we will be… sharing that office," he added diplomatically as an afterthought.
"Ah yes…" She grinned, as if that was precisely what she'd wanted to hear, "of course."
With that, the massive woman took Avery’s hand.
“Now come along,” she said curtly, "we have a lot to go over.”
The man was evidently too stunned by this infantilising move to even feign indignance, as her rapid steps and far longer strides left him stumbling to keep up with her as she dragged him along. Taylor couldn’t help but privately chuckle as he watched their retreating forms, and he couldn’t help but be reminded of a mother dragging a bratty child away to be scolded given their size difference.
As his eyes drifted back to his portable TV - another Carer device which had become extremely popular, although it only broadcast Carer created and approved channels - a smug Carer’s grin framed atop a massive set of breasts beamed back at him. Sitting down, he rested his head again, listening as the Carer’s voice spoke inside his head.
In what was becoming an increasingly more common occurrence, he felt himself drifting into a semi-conscious state. Not quite asleep, certainly not fully awake. Her words were smooth and silky, and he soon settled into enjoying that telltale pleasant buzz in the back of his mind the longer he listened.
Even as he tried to focus on the task at hand, translating endless ciphers, once more, the Carer’s words so easily mingled with his own thoughts. It was just so much more comfortable to listen to her voice than Avery’s worries, or his own for that matter. Those problems sounded so harsh to the ear, and he much preferred just listening to the Carers telling him what to think and how to think, about just how wonderful things were now the Carers had come, and how much better things were going to be.
Soon he had entirely forgotten what he’d been so worried about just a short while before.
A breaking news announcement roused him some time later, and he blinked as he realised he didn’t know quite how long he had been staring emptily and listening. The screen flashed, and a bubbly reporter with even larger breasts than her predecessor was practically bouncing in place as she reported with utter glee the first official cultural exchange between Earth and the Carers’ homeworld. Taylor paused, taking note of the broadcast and, he admitted to himself, the news anchor’s utterly colossal tits.
“That’s right! For the first time, humans will be travelling to our homeworld to begin new lives there together, in the loving arms of their Carers…”
As he watched on, a group of high profile celebrities and dignitaries waved from a red carpet as one by one each was being led by the hand by a far larger Carer, they were led up the landing ramp’s stairs into the massive shining silver vessel. Taylor recognised a few of them as some of the earliest Carer-human couples from the first year of contact. He leaned in closer to get a good look at who was going, and his eyes slowly narrowed. Those who were boarding seemed smaller somehow. It made sense. The sheer size of those next to them would make anyone look smaller. The news broadcast gleefully announced that after their long journey to the Carer homeworld this cultural exchange would only be the first of many, and that soon the Carers hoped to operate a permanent regular transit service for any who wished to visit or even emigrate to their planet.
Taylor huffed slightly in shock. The idea of living on an alien world was all at once incredible, and yet, already felt so natural. Once more he could only marvel at how these creatures had so effortlessly taken their place atop humanity, and it all felt so… normal.
He shook his head slightly.
“Well, you’ll never catch me on one of those space ships.” He said to himself, but out of the corner of his eye couldn’t suppress a little jealousy as he watched the landing ramp close and - silently - the vessel took off for a distant world among the stars.