Chapter 1

Harriet ran with a newspaper held over her head to her car from the library entrance. She was just passing the old sycamore when the lightning struck, startling her badly, so badly that she tripped. Since she was on her way to the ground, she didn’t see what would have looked like an afterimage of a figure as the lightning’s energy grounded out through the trees roots. The tree split as part of the moisture in its heartwood was superheated and expanded explosively. Half of the tree fell to one side, fortunately on its far side from Harriet.

As she got to her feet, Harriet felt a flush of heat, which slowly faded as she shook her head. The thunder which had accompanied the lightning bolt had been extremely loud. She felt stunned, and rattled to her core, but stumbled to her car.

She looked at the tree, which had flames licking up one side but which were being doused in the downpour. She fumbled for her phone to call 911 to alert them of the fire, then realized she couldn’t hear if they answered -- the thunder had temporarily deafened her. She gave her name and the location of the library, and explained about the lightning strike and the fire, and said she couldn’t hear them if they were there. She repeated this three times, then hung up, hoping that someone had gotten the message.

There was a loud ringing in her ears. She saw rather than heard the firetruck arrive, and watched the firemen hose out the remains of the fire. One walked to her car, and she rolled down the window. The ringing was fading, but she could still barely hear him as he asked her if she was alright. She pointed to her ear, and told him she could barely hear him, but assured him that she was okay. She noticed he was quite handsome, and felt herself blush. He looked concerned, and said she should see her doctor in the morning if she didn’t want to go all the way to the hospital to be checked out. She nodded, and thanked him. She really just wanted to get home and dry off.

She carefully drove home and ran inside. As she got out of her wet clothes, she realized her nipples were hard from more than the chill, and her panties were wet from more than the rain. That fireman had been quite handsome! Lovely blue eyes, and a chiseled jaw, and concerned about her. It felt nice to feel someone cared. She bet he had muscles under his coat ... goodness! She hadn’t gotten this worked up in a while!

It had no idea where it was or what had happened. There was a flash, a pulse of energy, and it had wound up somewhere else. It had found itself in a place that sucked the life energy from it, and grabbed for the closest point of stability. It had been drawn into a protective shell that kept it from being drained away completely.

There was an energy field here that was meshed with something it had never experienced before, things that actually produced low levels of energy. After a time, another of such things came to its anchoring shell. The two interacted somehow, in a way that made no sense to it. It did notice, however, that the energy in its ... host? increased as they interacted.

The energy remained at the slightly higher level even after the two ceased interacting, and its host did other things it didn’t understand, but it felt different energy flows around its host, energy of a type it couldn’t use or draw upon. There was nothing it could do but watch and learn from it’s new environment, as it had no idea how to get home.

Harriet ran a hot bath as she stood naked, looking at herself in the full length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. She was fifty-five years old, with B-cup breasts that drooped only a little, capped by medium-sized pink nipples. She had a bit of a belly from lack of meaningful exercise in the last thirty years, a round cushion of fat that actually looked good on her. She had mature hips and a butt that was more bountiful than she liked.

Her face was lined, but not unattractively so, with laugh lines from using her professional smile and crows feet at her eyes. She had dimples that only appeared when her smile was genuine rather than professional. Her face had become prettier as she had matured -- as a younger girl it had been less so, and in high school she had worn unfortunate 1950’s-style old lady glasses with a chain around her neck. She wasn’t sure why the chain had actually been there, as she’d never taken her glasses off except for bathing or bed. Growing up had changed her into a good-looking woman, but by then the habits of shyness and bookish reclusiveness had been firmly entrenched by then.

She slipped into and relaxed in the hot water, laying back and thinking about the handsome fireman. She was still turned on, thinking about his good looks. He’d had Paul Newman’s gorgeous blue eyes!

She imagined being in his arms, looking up into those eyes, and felt her nipples get even harder, and her clitoris begin to tingle with need. For the first time in a long time she touched herself, stroking a nipple with one hand and her button with the other. After a few moments, she dipped a finger inside herself, and found that she was quite lubricated. She rubbed her thumb in circles over her clit as she thrust her finger in and out, and pinched her nipple for a thrill of pleasure that arced across and down to her excitement below. She gasped, and felt her need build, and build. She reached her climax, gasping and cooing in pleasure, and felt the walls of her sex grasp her deeply-plunged finger and her nipples throb. Oh, that was good, so very good!

It felt the burst of energy after the slow and steady increase. This was energy it could use, and needed! It drew upon that energy, and with it, began to more closely examine its host. It recognized that its host was alive, but in a way different from itself. And this was a host, one that existed in this place in a way it could not. The host had electrical fields and currents within it that it could recognize as somewhat related to itself, but which seemed to be dependent on things it had never seen before, things that changed only very slowly. These things, structures, had as a part of them something that moved and changed more quickly, that interacted with more of that something that flowed a bit more like energy currents. It was the smaller structures that generated the energy it needed, that flowed along networks of slightly different structures. This place was peculiar indeed!

It tried not to waste any of it’s own energy because it did not know when the next surge would happen. It also sensed that taking too much of the hosts energy would cause the whole system to fail. The structures and their energy were dependent upon each other.

There were smaller structures within the structures that were in frequent motion, replicating themselves, and even causing the larger structures to replicate. This system was extremely intricate and complex! It knew it needed much more understanding of its host and how it operated, so it continued to observe.

There was a part of the system that constantly generated much more energy than the rest in far more complex patterns. This part of the system was at one edge of the host, but with a structure that connected it to the rest of it with a great deal of energetic exchange. This energy was similar to it’s own, but not quite the same. It also was different from the energy it needed to survive. That energy was generated within the major network complex located more peripherally to the structure of the host, but closely connected to the central structure that had been so active before. It was like the central structure had triggered the food energy pulse.

There was also a highly energetic pulsing structure that caused the more energy-like substance to circulate. Fascinatingly, even the circulating substance was made up of smaller structures which were quite active in their own ways. There had been a change in the composition of that substance which had slightly preceded the food energy peak.

It wondered, perhaps it could find a way to stimulate another such build-up and peak. That would assure a supply of it’s necessary food source...

Harriet got out of the tub and dried herself off with a fluffy soft towel. As she dried her breasts, she was extremely conscious of the terrycloth brushing on her nipples, which hardened again. She was even more aware of the sensations as she dried between her legs.

What was going on? She was feeling friskier than she had in years. Was this a symptom of her change of life? She had felt fortunate that it hadn’t occurred sooner in life; she wasn’t looking forward to hot flashes.

Her skin was tingling, like the tiny hairs on it were doing sit-ups with joy. Her erogenous zones were very much activated, and reminding her that she was a woman, a sexual woman, with needs and desires, never mind that she hadn’t indulged them for long time, and only occasionally at that.

She wondered, had she a actually been hit by some of the lightning? She had certainly felt the electricity in the air. Maybe it was just the close call that got her blood stirring...

Still naked, she walked to the refrigerator and looked inside. Nothing looked good. She thought, ‘Why don’t I treat myself to a dinner out? I was just nearly struck by lightning!’ She returned to her bedroom to get ready.

She chose her sexiest dress, which was not particularly daring but did reveal some of her cleavage. She styled her hair and put on a bit of subtle makeup, which was definitely unusual for her. She was enjoying feeling sexy, and her look that evening capitalized on and even enhanced it.

Harriet drove to a nearby upscale restaurant she liked, and rather than going to a table immediately, she chose to go to the bar for a drink. She sat on a barstool, and ordered a sloe gin fizz, the only alcoholic drink she could think of off the top of her head.

As she waited for the bartender to mix her drink, she glanced around. It was actually a bit early, so there were few people there yet. There was a couple at one end of the bar, and an older gentleman almost directly across from her. The gentleman noticed her glance, and smiled. A bit nervously, she smiled back just as the bartender served her drink.

As she took her first sip, she thought about the man. He looked about sixty, distinguished, with hair that was only touched with gray, and deep brown eyes. Fairly handsome, she decided. She looked up from her drink to find he had disappeared.

“Are you waiting for someone?” a baritone voice asked from slightly behind her.

Stifling a start, she turned and said, “No, not tonight. I just wanted a drink before dinner.”

.”You’re dining alone? Surely not!” he replied, as if this was difficult to believe. “In that case, may I join you? I find myself at loose ends this evening, myself, and I would consider it a great privilege if you would indulge me with your company.”

“Well, you put it so graciously, how could I refuse?” she smiled. She found the recognizable, polite, old-fashioned flirtation deeply flattering. Usually any compliments or flirtations she received passed right over her head, unrecognized, and only later suspected and wondered about. She felt her low-level arousal jump up a notch as her nipples tightened again and she became aware of the slight flush of blood to her pussy. She blushed, and her heart fluttered. She felt more aware of her body than she had in years.

“My name is Jack, Jack Dawes,” said the gentleman, “and I am very pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“I’m Harriet Walters,” she said, “and likewise.” She smiled.

They sipped their drinks and chatted. Jack had been an architect, had earned enough through good investments of what he’d earned to retire early, and Harriet told him about being a librarian. As the conversation continued, Jack asked her to dine with him, and she accepted.

It was puzzling out the patterns of energy exchange in its host. It was particularly interested in the center which generated its food-energy, of course, but it was so very connected to the network at that one end. It felt another of the things nearby, and found its host interacting with it. Again, there was that increase in energy, almost absorbable, that was being generated, and the trigger center got more active. The circulating substance was being directed to the trigger in somewhat larger amounts where it seemed to collect, and it saw there were other changes within the host’s systems. There were differences in some of the smaller structures not too far away from the trigger center. Many of these structures seemed dormant, while one seemed more active, and was actually changing position in the host. These structures appeared to have only half of something the other structures had.

Several portions of the host seemed to be receiving more of the circulating substance, and seemed to have collected a supply of it, changing the configuration of the structures to an extent. The host was generating more of the energy that preceded the food energy burst, and it seemed to involve interacting with the other host-like thing or the host was interacting with.

It decided to tinker a bit, just a bit, not enough to cause much of a change in the systems. It interacted slightly with the trigger center. The was a large systemic change -- many of the various structures increased their activity levels, the circulating substance sped up as the pulsing center pulsed more rapidly. The electrical activity increased between the trigger center, places where it had noted structural changes, and the major nexus where the food energy was produced! That increase was getting near the level when the food energy release happened! It watched, fascinated.

Harriet and Jack were nearing the end of their meal together when Harriet felt a sudden flush of sexual excitement. Her clitoris buzzed like a June bug for a moment, and her heart raced and her nipples tightened. She felt her panties dampen significantly -- they had already been a bit humid because of her general horniness that evening. She caught her breath, and tried to cover her embarrassment and excitement.

“Are you okay?” asked Jack, seeing her suddenly stiffen.

“Oh, uh, yes,” said Harriet, “I just, um, thought of something I’d forgotten.”

“Ah. I hate it when that happens! Something pops into your head when you’re not even thinking about anything even remotely related, right?” said Jack.

“Yeah,” laughed Harriet, just a bit lamely. She felt another thrill between her legs, and forced herself not to react with as much willpower as she could muster. The thrill was powerful, and she felt that with just the smallest touch in the right spot, she would orgasm. Her legs twitched. She had a flashback to the movie When Harry Met Sally -- God, she didn’t want to act that scene out here involuntarily! She pressed her thighs together, clamped her lips and clenched her jaw, body rigid with resistance.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” asked Jack anxiously, watching her with concern verging on alarm.

“Mm-hmm!” answered Harriet, her tone pitched a bit too high. She held up a hand in a wait-a-minute-I’ll-be-okay gesture. Her orgasm broke, finally, mercifully, and after a moment she relaxed. Jack, however, appeared to be focused inward, and he moved uncomfortably in his seat.

Harriet took a few sips of water, and tried to look as though she had not just cum for no apparent reason, not terribly successfully. Jack half stood in his seat and tried to inconspicuously rearrange his pants, also not terribly successfully.

“I apologize, Harriet!” he said, as he got himself re-adjusted. “It has been a long time since I felt like a teenage boy out on a date! Now, are you okay? You seemed like you were in pain?”

Harriet gave him a look. “I’m fine. I just suddenly felt like a teenage girl out on a date!” She paused. “Actually, I’m not quite sure if I’m all right. I nearly got hit by lightning this evening coming home from work, and I’ve been a bit, ah, out of sorts since.”

“My God! What happened?” Jack asked. “Should I take you to the Emergency Room?”

“I don’t think so, and that’s much too far away to bother,” Harriet replied, and told him about the tree outside the library. She finished up with, “So I went home, and decided to splurge and go out for dinner to celebrate still being alive. The fireman said I should see the doctor tomorrow to get checked out. I think I’d better. But I don’t think driving to the next county to go to the ER is necessary!” She thought she would need a while to work up the courage to describe her symptoms, even to a doctor. At least until tomorrow!

“What hurt just then?” asked Jack.

“Oh! Nothing hurt! It was just a ... a nervous reaction, I guess!”

Jack, aware that he had just met this woman this evening, decided to let it go. It wasn’t like he could just demand that he take her to be checked out. He was feeling a degree of relief that his sudden erection had subsided, too. For a few moments there, Harriet had seemed to be ... well, incredibly sexy. Not that she wasn’t an attractive lady, he thought, but a few minutes ago he had really, really wanted to ... be very inappropriate with her. Right here on the table.

It had worked! There had been a sudden release of food energy, but it was like the host was resisting it. The results were not nearly as satisfactory as the previous release, and various parts of the host had been expending energy in a way they had not before. Had it done something incorrectly? The host’s systems had returned to their previous states, so it didn’t think it had damaged the host.

It had noticed something like an echo, or correspondence, in the other host-type thing. It had radiated an increase of energy like its host’s prior-to-food-release energy surge, but there had not been a release of food energy in the other. It wondered if it were having an effect beyond its host. How could that be?

Harriet and Jack indulged in a light dessert and a cup of coffee. Harriet had truly enjoyed Jack’s company, and she did find him attractive. His compassionate concern for her had struck a chord deep within her that made her quite happy, and complimented. She felt even more complimented and happy that he seemed to find her attractive, too. She still felt a bit embarrassed by her sudden and unexplained orgasm, and if Jack had any idea what had really happened, he had accepted her evasion and helped her through an embarrassing spot.

She thought, I hope he asks me out again! Then, with a daring very much out of her character, wrote down her number on a slip of paper and gave it to him. “I have had a wonderful evening,” she said, “and would like to have another sometime soon, if you would like. Give me a call sometime ... soon!” The last word came out a bit impulsively.

He took the proffered phone number, and carefully placed it in his wallet. “I would very much like that! I will call you. Would tomorrow be too soon?”

“Not at all!” she smiled.

Jack paid the check after a few protests from Harriet. “I have had such a lovely evening, that I’d like to call it a first date, if I may. And a gentleman always pays on a date!”

She blushed, and said, “I’d like that, especially the ‘first’ part!”

Jack walked her out to her car, watched as she drove away, then got in his car to drive to his empty home to await the morrow.

Harriet drove home and as she undressed found herself getting a bit more excited again. She thought about Jack, and about how he had to straighten himself out because of her! She hadn’t felt so flattered in years! She felt like no man had ever gotten an erection for her, because of her, and that a handsome man, a man she was attracted to, would get one for her was beyond wonderful!

She had gotten undressed but had not yet donned her nightgown, and she was very aware of her tightening nipples and her wetness below. On impulse, she threw herself backwards onto her bed and began to play, imagining Jack was the one touching her. She gave herself to the fantasy, cooing and saying his name, and talking to the man who was only there in her head as she moved her finger, spreading her juices around her outer lips and button, making them slick.

It was surprised. It hadn’t tinkered, and had been relatively quiescent since the host’s last release. So it paid attention to the naturally occurring event. The host was doing things that it had done with the other host-type creatures, but there was not another of them within its sense range. It paid attention to the complex energetic center at one end, as it had before, and noted the differences. There was an energy pattern that had been present when the other had been present, but there were differences. An input channel was not active where it had been before, and the pattern that channel was connected to had some of the previous patterns, yet different. It was like the host was deliberately focusing on that pattern rather than one that would correspond to it through that input channel. The channel suddenly activated, but it was still relatively uncomplicated, then the channel went back to its relatively inactive state.

The host seemed focused on the input from the trigger point it had discovered earlier, and appeared to be stimulating it itself. It was paying attention to other, seemingly related structural centers distributed about parts of the host’s surface.

It perceived an input channel receiving and transmitting a pattern intermittently. It tried to sense the pattern more closely by merging portions of itself with the structures involved. “Jack, oh, Jack!”

That pattern seemed associated with the pattern that the host appeared to be focusing on. It tried a different system, the one connected to the relatively inactive channel that had been so active until the last few minutes. The pattern was confusing, but appeared to be, perhaps, how the host perceived its surroundings. Suddenly, the input channel activated again, and the pattern did seem to correspond to a portion of the outside of the host, perceived from one angle.

Ah ha! It had found something important! If it kept trying to do this, perhaps it could understand this strange place better, as well as understand its host better. This was ... ah! A release of food energy! It consumed and stored what it could, then went back to observing.

The input channel was active again, and it observed as the host manipulated portions of its environment, and actually distributed parts of it around its exterior. This also stimulated other centers in the host, and it traced the channels from the exterior to the central network and then to their nexus in the complex processing network at one end, where it seemed most of the input channels led. The central network was coordinating, or linking the various inputs! The at-a-distance input channel would perceive something, the host would move itself nearby, extend parts of itself to manipulate that thing, and would receive feedback through a broadly distributed network of structures. So this was how the host existed here!

The host had placed a portion of the environment inside itself earlier, and was absorbing small parts of it steadily. Parts of the host that were very different from the exterior were constantly interacting with the environment, and exchanging things with it, particles in, particles out, parts removed from the system and held apart, contained, others retained in the circulating system. The host was maintaining its shell, fueling itself, storing energy and expending it. This was a profoundly intricate system, maintaining a balance constantly.

It became aware that the at-a-distance sensors had suddenly gone quiet and focused its attention there. There was a reduction activity in the network center that the channel led to as well. Slowly, that changed, as the sensors adjusted. The environment had changed rapidly, a center of energy that had been there was gone. Wait, not gone, but fading in output, until it matched the rest of the environment. Apparently, that energy source was important to the functioning of the at-a-distance sensors. All this was so very different from the place it had always known until it had wound up here!

Harriet had dressed for bed, lain down, and turned off the light. She considered her day. She had masturbated twice and had a spontaneous orgasm at dinner; this was more sexual activity in one day than she usually had in a week! Ever since the lightning strike, she had been horny to some degree. This had been good in a way -- she had met Jack and had a lovely dinner, which was so very unusual and wonderful for her. She had made choices that were different, taken chances she usually wouldn’t take because she had been aroused. She lay back and basked in the afterglow of her self-induced orgasm, her third orgasm in a day! Her third! God, she felt ... sexy! She felt so alive, but tired, very tired.

She resolved to live her life more fully, to continue taking more chances for happiness, to live more in the moment than in dull, safe routine. As she drifted off to sleep, she wondered that it took nearly being struck by lightning to wake her up.

As Harriet slept, it watched. The host’s shell was stationary, for the most part, for quite some time, but there were remarkable processes happening. The shell’s systems were repairing themselves more than before, moving substances into and from the tiny structures which made up the host. The host was using much less energy, and using it differently, but there were some systems that were periodically quite active in the main network at one end.

It carefully merged part of itself with those systems, as it had done before. The input channels were quiet, but patterns were happening as if they were active. It perceived a pattern it recognized -- the other host-like ... being? -- and it was using its manipulators to touch? its host’s shell in ways that activated the energy centers that released food energy. A quick check told it that the sensors covering the body where the pattern was touching the shell were quiet. Another quick check revealed that the center that it had stimulated before, that the host had touched before, was active! It traced the channel between the two centers and found that it was active, that energy was being exchanged between the two, though there was no exterior stimulation!

It returned to the system it had monitored before. Things had changed a great deal! It experienced the things -- touches, sights, sounds -- the patterns were beginning to make more sense. The not-really-there other host-like being was doing things that stimulated its host in different ways. It was exciting the host.

It realized that there were other patterns associated with the things it was experiencing -- “body”, “sexy”, “lips”, “tongue”, “hands”, “breasts”, “ass”, “vagina”. It realized that these were parts of the host or the other, “Jack.” It got these from the center it was partially merged with. This was fascinating!

The host was experiencing Jack’s “penis” inside its, no, “her”, “vagina”. Oddly, the “penis” was a vague pattern, not clear like other parts of Jack, or its host. But it was close to the trigger center, which was only being stimulated in reality in the center that it was partially merged with, but that was in communication with the actual structure. This communication was becoming stronger, and it found more and more of the pre-food-energy-release energy in a particular center of the network.

There! It happened! Food energy was released yet again, and the host’s “body” moved. Apparently the center it was partially merged with was very, very important! That release was “coming” or “cumming”, it learned. It fed on the energy and grew stronger, and stored more of it. It was becoming more powerful, and able to merge with and observe more of the host’s systems.

Harriet woke the next morning in a puddle, not of sweat, but of vaginal secretions. She was so wet and slick, and she was incredibly horny. She had dreamt of Jack making love to her all night -- well, it must have been all night, considering -- and she still wanted more! Her nipples ached to be sucked, and her vagina -- well, until now, “vagina” had seemed the appropriate thing to call it, but right now she wanted to be wickedly naughty and call it her pussy -- her pussy needed to be filled!

She writhed on the bed, reveling in the delicious, naughty feeling of her excited body, her wetness soaking the bed under her. She threw her legs wide and fingered herself with abandon, celebrating her sexuality, her sexualness, and her flaming wet desire! Her orgasm was quick and powerful, and she screamed in pleasure as she thrust her fingers deep inside herself as she came. God, what pleasure! She rubbed her juices all over herself, her stomach, her breasts, her nipples! She sucked her fingers with abandon, tasting herself for the first time and finding it exciting and good.

Still more! She wanted more and more, and brought herself off again, and then again, screaming her pleasure to the world. She finally lay, exhausted, in an even larger puddle, panting with relief, and fell asleep again.