Hosts

"Mnth zit?" Jack said.

"Month? Don't you even know? It's June."

Hell. Hargus went to Arizona every June to visit his grandkids. So much for help from him.

"I'm scared, Jack. You looked like you were in a coma before."

Coma? As in comatose? With this fever, more like coma-toast.

"I'm going to call an ambulance."

"Nuh!"

"Please, Jack. I'm afraid you're dying!"

Couldn't go to a hospital. Too many questions, too many bean counters prying into the nooks and cra

"Nut dine. Nuh husptl."

"I can't take this any more, Jack. I just can't sit here and watch you boil inside your skin. I'm getting help."

As Gia rose Jack slid his hand across the covers and clutched her arm. Not hard enough to haul her back—no way he had the strength for that—but the gesture stopped her.

Had to think. Couldn't let her wheel him into an ambulance.

Abruptly she pulled away. "Why didn't I think of this before? How dumb can I be?"

What was she doing? Wanted to cry out for her to stop. Please, Gia. No EMTs! I'll be fine. Just need some heavy rest. Don't do this to me! But his voice was gone.

His dread was swamped by the overwhelming fatigue that engulfed him and took him under again.

10

Kate came to on the couch with Jeanette next to her, holding her hand.

What happened? was the intended question but Jeanette answered before she'd completed the thought.

"You passed out."

Kate looked around. "Where are the others?"

"We… they left. A matter to attend to."

Did it really happen? Kate wondered, squeezing her eyes shut against a blinding headache. Or was I drugged or hypnotized?

"It really happened," Jeanette said.

Kate snatched her hand free and slid to the opposite end of the couch. This wasn't Jeanette. And she was reading her thoughts.

Could this be? Could a strange new virus change human brains and link minds? It was too bizarre. This sort of thing only happened on that Sci-Fi Cha

And yet, if it wasn't real, what had she experienced a few moments ago?

And why this feeling now that her mind was no longer completely her own? Was it the power of suggestion… or real?

"We know how you feel, Kate."

"Do you? I doubt that."

"Fear…"

"More like terror."

"… uncertainty…"

"How about betrayal, Jeanette?" Anger heated her face. "Do you feel betrayed? I know I do. I loved you, Jeanette. I trusted you."

She realized with a start she was using the past tense. "And you… you…

"You'll thank us, Kate. In a few more days, when you're fully integrated, you'll bless that little pinprick in your palm."

"Never! And bad enough you infected me, but my brother as well! I'll never forgive you for this!"

Kate rose unsteadily. Never before had she wanted to hurt someone, but Jeanette's true-believer complacency made her want to hit her. Or worse.

"But you will. And so will Jack. In a few days you'll come to see—"

"A few days! Is that all? It took you much longer!"

"A mutation in the virus lets it spread much faster now through a host system. We—"

"'We'? 'We' who?"

"Sorry. Once you're part of the Unity it's difficult to think of yourself as an 'I.' All of them are with me now and I am with all of them, even though we are miles apart."

"You referred to yourself as T earlier when you walked in here with the others."

"That was so as not to alarm you."

"Maybe you should keep it up. Because right now I'm very alarmed."

"Okay, okay," she said soothingly. "I've been where you are, Kate. I fought it at first. I was so frightened, but it was only fear of the unknown. Now that I'm fully integrated, it's wonderful beyond description."

"But where are you going with this, Jeanette?"

"You know. We showed you. A transformed world."

"But what I saw was not all that transformed."

"What you saw was not the important part. It was what you didn't see that truly matters."

"You're talking in riddles."

"Think back, Kate. Did you see cattle farms? Did you see streets full of cars? Did you see jet contrails marring the skies?"

"So?"

"The Unity will change the way we live. Humanity will have a healthier lifestyle in a healthier environment. The first things to go will be the animal farms. Existing livestock will be consumed while we convert all the fields now devoted to feed grains to vegetable farms for humans."

"A race of vegans!" Kate preferred vegetables to meat but liked to have the option of fried chicken once in a while.

"Not at all. Wild animals that are caught will be consumed, but cattle, pig, and chicken farms will be a thing of the past. Too inefficient. It takes seven pounds of feed corn and soy to produce one pound of pork. So much simpler and healthier to eat the grains directly. Less waste that way. And speaking of waste, the cattle required to feed the average American family its a

Now this was consistent with the old Jeanette—she'd often railed against what she called "the institutionalized animal cruelty of agribusiness," but her objections had always been on ethical grounds; this sounded more like simple pragmatism.

"There will be no need to travel within the Unity. You are everywhere everyone else is. And the environmental benefits from that are as enormous as they are obvious. Clothes, food, building materials will move on the rails and highways, but not people."

"But you showed me factories, so I assume there'll be industry."

"Only certain ones, the ones that provide the necessities: agriculture, clothing, housing."

"But what about business—banking, finance, international trade?"

"For what purpose? To sell stocks? To lend money? No family, no matter how large—and in the world of the Unity, families will be very large—will go without sufficient food, clothing, or shelter. What more will they need?"

"How about art, literature, and entertainment for starters?"

"No one will feel a need for those things. After all, what practical purpose do they serve? Whatever artistry you wish to express will be instantly appreciated by the entire Unity."

Kate felt her exasperation, growing. "What about relationships?"

"The Unity is the ultimate relationship. You felt just a hint of it. The closeness, the 'oneness'—you've never felt such an intimate bond; it far surpasses what can be experienced with a mere individual."

That stung. "Meaning me?"

"This is different. This goes beyond what an unintegrated mind can grasp."

"Then what you and I had is gone?"

Jeanette nodded. "What we had was a procreative dead end."

"What?" Kate couldn't believe she'd heard correctly. "What did you just say?"

"There is no homosexuality in the Unity. It does not serve our purposes."

If she'd had any hopes that the Jeanette she'd loved might still exist somewhere, this quashed them. Kate backed away from her, toward the center of the room. She didn't want to ask but she had to know.

"What purposes?"

"To bring all minds into the Unity, of course. And then to create a perpetual flow of new minds to keep expanding the Unity. Since homosexuality is not procreative, it is counter to that goal."

"And so you wipe it out?"

"Nothing is wiped out. It simply is not a consideration that will arise within the Unity."

"Never mind considerations, what about feelings? What about love?"

Jeanette gave her a quizzical look. "Love? The Unity is love, complete and unconditional. It is bliss that increases every time a new mind is added. No one will need love outside the Unity. The only need will be the craving to add new minds, more and more, expanding our billions."