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Description
The star fell from the heavens, and as it did so it burned.

The heat and intensity that enveloped it as it burned its way through the atmosphere were indescribable, the fabric of it twisting and writhing as if alive under the strain of it, but still it came, ever onward.

It fell like a bomb, like a missile, like some terrible thing, for in truth, and no one could have known at the time, that was exactly what it was.

A woman Sat alone in a room full of monitors in a building far out in the heart of a desert. She watched it fall.

A woman watched inside a giant telescope atop a mountain, and she watched as it broke apart and released its contents.

Both of them felt The Pulse, though in the desert it was much more pronounced. They watched as screens burst into static, cabling sparked and melted, computers went haywire.

But the woman in the desert... It made her different.

*****

Ichat burbled to itself as it connected. She'd had to grab an old iMac out of a storage cupboard as her main workstation had died in the strange onslaught, but nonetheless she was too excited to think clearly about how heavy her task. She had to share with someone.

Suri waited, bouncing in her seat excitedly, watching the sluggish hardware wrestle with the task of connecting a gossamer thin stream of data half way around the world.

Connected.

The window unfurled like a lotus flower on her desktop, bringing into sharp relief her own excitable features and for a moment a blurry swatch of pixelated white noise. Momentarily it orientated itself into a face, one distinct from her own.

"Annie, thank god, I have news."

Suri's English was impeccable; despite having been born in Mumbai she had been educated at MIT, where she had met a certain excitable American girl. Annie. The two had begun their tumultuous friendship as rivals, though as many enemies can attest even a shared struggle is an experience that can bring two parties together. And so it was with them.

Annie nodded, a brief smile flickering across her rounded plump features. American convenience had been good to her. Her hair, a violent shade of red, seemed to almost glow in the low resolution image from the web-cam.

"It's about last night, isn't it? You felt it too. The pulse. Everything in my lab switched off, there was a surge when that object entered the atmosphere and broke apart. I imagine the damage must be worse here as you're calling me..."

Suri shook her head, her brilliant blue eyes closed for a moment as a slender finger tucked a loose strand of naturally white hair behind her ear.

"My workstation is fried; I had to lug an old loner machine out of the stockroom to replace it. Though, to be honest, it isn't the computers I'm calling about... Tell me, Annie, did you... Did you get a shock?"

Annie tilted her head quizzically.

"You mean since the last time I stood on the scales? Not really, unless you count last night... There was a bit of an electrical discharge, yes; I did catch a bit of a shock."

Suri nodded sagely, before lowering her voice slightly.

"I'm going to show you something Annie; you can't breathe a word of it to anyone. Promise?"

Annie was taken aback for a moment, before eagerly agreeing.

"Sure, not even to the tax man. What's up?"

"You might want to take a test Annie, in light of you getting that shock, I've taken seven and they all came back positive."

"Tests for what? What have you caught, Suri?"

"It might be easier if I show you..."

Slowly Suri pushed back her chair and stood.

"I got shocked too... But I think it did something to me..."

She gently unbuttoned her loose white lab coat, parting the two halves and slowly lifting the bottom of her navy blue sweater.

Her normally flat stomach bulged outward slightly, an unmistakable convexity to it that had most definitely not been there before. The smooth, light brown of her skin flawless, invitingly rounded, her navel appearing somewhat shallow on the face of her belly.

"I was shocked too Annie, and now I'm pregnant. And so might you be."

*****

Annie stared in disheartened annoyance at the tiny plastic stick. It was her fifth, the others all lined up in identical judgement.

The single blue line stared at her, mocking her.

Not pregnant.

She patted the dome of her pot belly gently, it responded with a melancholic gurgle beneath the velveteen sheerness of her camisole, prompting her to slip a hand between the bottom hem of it and the waistband of her panties, sliding upward to gently cup the pronounced bulge.

"Guess the only twins you're ever going to have in here are Ben and Jerry..."

She let her shoulders drop in disappointment, her eyes flitting to the computer screen. She had set the background of her own personal laptop to a slide show, this one for her own personal enjoyment. On screen was a time-lapse progression of the previous two weeks, the images of her friend Suri, proudly lifting her shirt and showing off the bump that was developing beneath. Her small, pert breasts had begun to fill out slightly, forming a more noticeable silhouette beneath her modest wardrobe, but most of all, she had that glow. That indefinable thing, that air of maternity, that feeling of motherhood about her. It was enough to make Annie sick.

The two of them had discussed their conditions at great length, sharing notes and ideas on a nightly basis. Annie, much to her own disheartenment, had discovered that she wasn't pregnant, that the shock she had received from the passing of the extra-terrestrial object had been just that. A shock. Nothing more.

That didn't stop her from pretending though.

She stepped over to her full length dress mirror and turned to her left, showing herself off in profile for a moment. Her plump frame filled the looking glass nicely, but there was a trick or two up her sleeve yet.

"There's always pretending..." She whispered to no-one in particular.

Taking a deep breath, she puffed out her tummy, noting with a tingle of excitement how her belly bulged outward immediately, filling out her nightwear and pushing its way into visibility, parting her outfit horizontally. She patted it with her hands, smiling to herself as she did so.

There was always pretending.

Annie had told Suri the tests had been positive, that she too had been impregnated by whatever it was that had performed some manner of otherworldly Immaculate Conception. Annie was no virgin, neither was Suri for that matter, but neither of them had had a man's touch within the prerequisite time frame in order that this could be something more humble and traditional in origin.

She and Suri began to make their plans. They first of all would tell no-one else. This was their discovery, and should it's true nature be discovered early they would have a lot of explaining to do before no doubt someone above them in their respective organisations took ownership of what it was that grew inside them. Or not, in Annie's case. They had both heard the rumours, more persistent in the scientific community than amongst the civilian population of scientists who had stumbled across something-or-other in the course of conducting maverick research in untested fields and had suddenly vanished, their deaths announced as lab fires or explosions or tragic car accidents, and their bodies never released.

Neither wanted that to happen, and so they had taken to the covert exchange of emails and illicit web chats to communicate with one another. Each was in response to the other and included pictures to document their progress.

*****

April 12th – Annie to Suri
S, great news, I've gained 6 pounds and another four inches. I'm growing at an incredible rate; it's astonishing to see the change day by day. Still no stretch marks yet, all the lotion must be doing some good! Here I am, front and side, I'm starting to find my regular sized lab coat a little on the snug side, might have to invest in some larger sizes in preparation!

Attachment – My tummy.jpeg

April 15th – Suri to Annie

A, was pleased to see how much you've grown, we seem to be progressing at a very similar rate, if not slightly faster in your case. I'm trying to monitor my dietary intake, dairy is out obviously, but I have found no increase in appetite despite how the foetus/foetuses are developing. I find this rate of growth a little perplexing, it has been around a fortnight and so far I appear to be well through my first trimester, if not into my second. I too am having wardrobe issues, though my male predecessor left behind a good stock of lab attire and was by all accounts a rather heavy set man. Still, it concerns me that so far I have yet to feel anything kicking or the faintest flutter of movement; I wonder what it is in there? It keeps me awake at night, staring at the ceiling while I go over this extraordinary turn of events in my mind. I contacted Jorge over at the Puerto Rico radio array about the event, he said while they monitored it on their equipment, he received no shock and none of their lab was damaged. It seems awfully strange to me, that we two female technicians should receive shocks and as a result find ourselves with child, when other arrays around the globe reported no such events occurring. It's almost as if it was looking for people like us, like it was a deliberate action. Does that bother you as much as it bothers me, or am I being paranoid?

April 15th – Annie to Suri
S, you need to calm down babe! Seriously, that's some straight up X files nonsense right there. Maybe it did look for us, maybe it chose us, in the end is there any way we can find out? It's not like we can ask it now, is it? Besides, maybe it's for the best that it's only us, after all, we don't want anyone else sharing this before we go public with it, do we?

April 16th – Suri to Annie
A, you're absolutely right, I worry too much. It's just that the bigger I seem to get, the more I worry. I couldn't fasten my jeans today, I had to walk around with them unbuttoned beneath my coat, I was so worried they would fall down!

April 16th – Annie to Suri
S, don't worry about it, I've done that, though usually it's thanks to a bit too much lunch rather than a baby bump. In fact, I haven't done my jeans up in the past four days! I guess filling out a little has it's benefits, besides, it's way more comfy. I'll order you a little something online that should help though, I've never used them myself so you'll have to let me know how it goes! Also, where's the belly picture?! You're slacking, the Nobel committee will have to give me the medal if we can't prove you had as much input

April 19th – Suri to Annie
I'm so sorry A, I've been rushed off my feet with getting the new equipment installed to replace the old stuff. Pictures tomorrow, I promise!

April 19th - Annie to Suri
You'd better deliver, I'm holding you to that!

April 20th – Suri to Annie
Here you go, this is my three week belly shot. My belly button seems to be beginning to pop out, it's definitely more shallow these days than it ever was before, yours doesn't seem to be doing it though, so we'll have to see what comes there. I can't wait for it to pop, I'll look really really pregnant.

attachment – Suri3wkshot.jpeg

*****

Pretending can only get you so far, soon you have to back it up with proof. Annie sighed as she pulled the plastic film roughly from another tub of double fudge cookie dough ice cream and began to shovel it in methodically. Her breathing was shallow and somewhat laboured, made difficult by the four tubs she had already consumed so far that evening. All this ice cream was giving her a royal tummy ache, but the one thing she wasn't short of in her lab was freezer space, so as a matter of necessity her extra-terrestrial illusionary supplies had to be of the frozen variety. And what better choice than ice cream?

She'd began a rigorous diet, not so much eating for two as eating for a family of five with pets on the side. Suri was growing at an incredible rate, it was all Annie could do to keep up the illusion of her own growth, and that extra mass had to come from somewhere.

GROOOOOOOAAAANNN...

"Ooof, that's enough out of you, just one more tub, baby, I promise, and we're done for tonight..."

Annie's hand slipped from the tub to her stomach. The pallid orb gurgled softly, shifting within as the incessant and ever present mass of food within compacted itself yet further to allow more and more to be forced in. Annie was gaining weight steadily, a few pounds a week at least, but she had found there was a much more effective way to maintain the masquerade. By stuffing herself constantly, maintaining a constant and almost unbearable level of bloated fullness, she had begun to stretch her tummy, the glutted bloat of it swelling outward almost visibly, growing with a mockery of inner life as she packed more and more food into herself. She barely gave it room to digest anything, as soon as she felt anything shift inside herself she was ready with something to replace it with, a fattening morsel of something-or-other to pack on the pounds and inches.

She found herself inspecting her belly more and more. She'd given up trying to conceal it, the benefit of being on isolated secondment to an out of the way installation was that you were relatively free to dictate what modesty meant to you. Her top was permanently bunched up beneath her breasts, unable to hide the mammoth orb of her gut any longer, her shirts tended to carry an array of brightly coloured splotches where she had spilled various treats upon herself in glutted ecstasy as she stuffed herself fuller and fuller, ever expanding, her belly inflating like a vast heavy balloon.

Yet, despite her best efforts, she had not yet popped. Not in the traditional sense, for as much as it often felt to her in a moment of heart stopping anxiety as she clutched a suddenly vocal and groaning stomach that she might indeed have overdone things and had one do-nut too many she hadn't simply burst like the balloon she was in danger of becoming. Her belly button, despite her efforts, remained steadfast, a deep hollow on the face of her gargantuan tummy, a single flaw marring it's vast circumference. She eyed it with contempt, her mirror surrounded by printouts of Suri, now become an object of jealousy for the perfection of her gravid womb, her wide eyed and innocent face frozen photographically looking on in shocked bemusement as she appeared to inflate from picture to picture. Her belly was a warm, chocolate coloured swell, taut to the touch and without the generous layer of succulence that Annie's had, she really did look pregnant. Though, in her own mind, she had her doubts.

Nights previous to this one, Suri had sat alone with a stethoscope plugged into her ears, listening to the fecund gravidity that bulged from her, her clothing parted and unfastened to reveal it in all it's glory as it hung before her, silent and ominous. She heard nothing from it, no heartbeat, no movement, nothing, and yet still it grew and grew. She grew larger every day, some days seemingly before her own eyes, and yet she felt nothing from it. Her breasts were indeed slightly larger, though her nipples had not darkened and no milk had come. She was two months into her pregnancy, with no idea of a beginning or an end, all the signs were there but it just didn't feel right. Her navel protruded like a tiny marble beneath the skin, smooth and soft to the touch and ever so sensitive, a dark line could even be seen faintly bisecting the two hemispheres of her girth, and yet she could not say with absolute certainty that she was expecting. How could she? Still, she filled her reports, measured her progress, and built up a comprehensive study of her progress, comparing notes with her American friend who was doing likewise, seeming to love every step of the journey.

Still, it would not be long now.

That week, they booked the press conference for Paris, one month hence. Most of the major scientific journals were there, their editors convinced of the veracity of their earnest claims to have uncovered startling new findings in a brand new area of study. The journalists contented themselves with the occasion, knowing that if they were lying and the whole thing was a waste of time it would still be newsworthy to report as such.

Annie and Suri continued to grow, and as the days grew closer to the appointed time, they each began to prepare. Suri, for the revelation of her impending motherhood, the moment when she would reveal the content of her outlandishly large womb to the world. And Annie, to the moment when she would no doubt have to come up with an excuse for why she was not in the same condition as her colleague, or fake in a more elaborate fashion how she was.

Still, the date arrived with due course, and as the two of them boarded their separate planes, exchanging separate looks with separately disbelieving staff who eyed their separate sizes with a mixture of shock and awe, paid for separate double width seating, ate separate meals, landed separately and took separate cabs to the hotel, their fates finally entwined.

*****

There was a knock at the door of her suite, and as Suri excitedly padded across to it, she knew who it would be instantly. Still swaddled in her towel, she had only just finished bathing in preparation to get dressed for the conference.

True to form, the figure who waddled in through the open doorway and embraced her with the fondness of an old friend was well known to her already. Annie.

"Goodness Annie, you're even bigger in person!"

She had no time to catch her breath for a greeting, their opening exchange was one borne of shock rather than fondness.

Annie was, well, Annie was huge.

Suri had thought herself fecund, had thought herself vastly swollen and heavy with child, but she paled in comparison to her Western counterpart.

Within the last few weeks, Suri's growth had begun to slow. She had found her measurements had begun to even out, the graph of her growth forming more of an S curve, her stomach tight and full and almost uncomfortably taut. She thought to herself as she gamely wrapped a tape measure around her full, bare stomach that she had perhaps grown as large as she possibly could, certainly a girth such as hers on such a slight frame seemed even more outlandish.

Needless to say, Annie had not slowed down. In fact, she would have been incapable of doing so if she tried. The vast amounts of food she packed into her tummy meant that even as she slept she grew, several times she had in fact gone to bed in a tight fitting old shirt or set of pyjamas to find it torn and burst at the seams when she awoke, unable to accommodate her ever expanding engorgement. She hadn't actually put on all that much weight, her face was no plumper than when she had begun and her limbs were still of the same proportion, but the monster of her belly dwarfed not only her but Suri also. It was all the Indian woman could do not to stare at it, the monstrous swell of it protruding from between the halves of her jacket, staring at her like some great, baleful eye.

Jealousy is a terrible thing, as well Annie knew. If she couldn't be pregnant like Suri, she would at least be bigger than she could dream of being. She smiled, and patted the firm protuberance of her midriff for emphasis.

"No point in denying it really, you can't doubt the evidence of your own eyes" she replied with a grin. "Are you ready for today?" She eyed the soft towel, and the unmistakable outline of that which sat beneath it.

"Nearly, I just need to get dressed. I've been up all night going through the notes." Suri lied rather obviously, a slight blush creeping over her cheekbones. Annie knew that look well.

"You're scared, aren't you?" Annie surmised, cocking her head slightly in amusement. "We're prepared Suri, fully so, and when we tell everyone what's happened and show off our... evidence..." Her belly grumbled slightly with hunger as she stroked it "We'll be safe from any form of reprisal. We're going to be famous, Suri, world famous."

Suri nodded.

"That's not it, it started last night and... it's just, well, it might be easier if I show you..."

She slipped open the towel, either not conscious or not caring of the fact that she was perfectly naked beneath it. Her stomach, still glistening with moisture from her bath, bounded into view from beneath the towel, round and achingly swollen. She watched for a moment, the two of them in silence, before she gasped suddenly.

"There, do you see?"

It was as if every muscle in her stomach seized up at once. For a moment the outline of her womb stood out in sharp relief, the skin almost translucent as it squeezed inward. A moment or two later, it ceased, but the sweat on Suri's forehead remained, as did her pained expression. Annie turned wide eyed to her friend.

"I think, I mean... Annie, I'm in labour."

The American let out a sharp gasp. Her hand flew to Suri's belly, lying flat against the hard, unyielding surface. She didn't have to wait long; soon, it did it again. Harder this time, and lasting slightly longer. It was a contraction, unmistakably so.

"Suri, how long has this..."

"It started last -ngh- last night..." she explained, cradling her belly in her hands. Annie led her over to the bed and laid her down while she explained. "About 8 last night it started, I thought it was.... oooooh... I thought it was indigestion at first, but then it just got worse and worse. Have you, I mean... is the same happening to you?"

Her eyes alighted on the constantly grumbling surface of Annie's gut, sat between it's owners thighs it growled softly, though no rippling tightness worried it.

"No... I think maybe mine's more up to the challenge than your stomach..."

Annie prodded Suri's belly experimentally, which caused it to let out a piercing whine.

"Ow! Careful, I feel like I might, well, like I might burst. It's so tight!"

"It's so full, Suri, you're stretched as thin as paper..."

Annie withdrew her hand as another contraction rippled through, even stronger than the last. The skin practically throbbed under the barrage of pressure, Suri gritted her teeth and stifled a cry.

"I don't know how long I can hold it back, Annie, what ever it is, it's coming out, and soon..."

Annie smiled.

"Then let's meet it shall we. Push."

Suri's eyes widened.

"I couldn't, it's too dangerous!"

"It's too dangerous to keep it in there, Suri. Push. I'll help you."

Suri stared for a moment, before her eyes widened. Something was building inside of her, something irresistible and stronger than she could hope to hold back.

"Oh god, help me, Annie, I think this is it!"

She began to scream, building as the pressure intensified, arching her back her stomach seemed to rise, rise and rise and rise up like some monstrous balloon, like a leviathan rising from the deep crushing dark of the ocean. To swell, to inflate, and finally to quiver, as the pressure directed itself finally in the direction it desired.

Not downwards though.

Forwards.

There was an ear-splitting bang, and all at once Suri burst, popping like some great rubbery balloon, her belly simply giving way, and a cloud issued forth from her ruined body.

Annie gasped, the shock of the passing of her friend not yet registered, she saw immediately what had been growing inside the belly of her rival.

They were spores. Almost like a fungus, the great dark mass bloomed from her, hanging in the air.

She knew instantly what she had to do. She could save face, and still come out of this with her fame and glory intact. Suri hadn't been up to the challenge, to the colossal task, but she would be, she assured herself.

She leaned forward, and she breathed it in.

All of it. Every last bit.

She drew breath after breath, her lungs aching and her throat open she drew them into herself, feeling them saturate her, working their way deep inside her, filling her utterly and becoming part of her. She would be the host now, she would carry them and she would reap the glory.

Once they were all gone she stood cautiously, feeling a slight gurgle in her belly as she did so as they worked their way inward, into their new home. She could feel the progress of them, a slight tickle deep within herself as they made their way to her stomach. That massive, engorged, bloated swell would certainly be big enough to hold them all. It gurgled triumphantly, finally asserting it's true purpose.

She shut the door after herself, and made her way to the lobby. It was time to go; she had a conference to deliver. With one hand on the bulge of her stomach beneath the concealing outline of her jacket, she hailed a cab and climbed in, picturing the accolades that would be hers.

GURRRRRRRGLE!

Something felt wrong now; something had shifted and was different, deep inside, within her belly. Annie patted it maternally and sat back in her seat for the ride to the conference centre.

"Not now my darling tummy, there'll be plenty of time for that later..."

*****

"Ladies and -ngh- ladies and gentlemen... thank you... for coming..."

Her breath was short and shallow; she appeared pallid and wan behind the lectern. Annie clung to its sides, her knuckles looking white in the harsh lighting of the conference room. All eyes were on her, the room was absolutely silent, and every noise was clearly audible, should someone carelessly drop a pin it would be heard. They didn't need to, something else was providing the soundtrack

GRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAANNNNNN!

"I'm here today to -ngh- share something with you... my... my colleague couldn't be here... she's feeling unwell..."

GGGLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRPPPPPPP

"No... Not now... please..."

Her hand was pressed to her stomach, which seemed to be exerting a will of it's own. Her cab ride, though brief, had become increasingly uncomfortable as her tummy began to groan and gurgle to itself, moaning and rippling. It seemed her new passengers were not too keen on their new environment.

Her eyes widened as she felt it. She looked down, stepping back from the podium and opening her jacket. A roar of astonishment went up from the crowd.

She had thought very carefully about what she would wear in order to best show off her new figure, what best to display the gargantuan swell of her abdomen, and had gone for a lab coat which could be fastened mostly over the face of it to hide it like a sheet over an exhibit. AS she undid that, the crowd saw her other wardrobe choices, a red lace bra which cupped her breasts and gave her a rather magnificent cleavage and a pair of low slung pinstripe trousers which curved under the lowest slope of her abdomen, allowing the vast swell to bulge free and unhindered, naked to the world and the world's press, who now looked upon it with fascinated horror.

"Please... not now... no no no..."

She held her jacket open, and the crowd gasped as all at once, the bloated mass of her girth heaved and shuddered, the motion one of tensing up and squeezing around the vastness within it. It was unmistakable. She was having contractions.

"Not now, please, I'll take care of you, I promise, just let Mummy get through this..."

Her belly replied with a voice all it's own.

GRRRROOOOOOWWWWWLLLL

"Doctor, are you alright?!"

No-one saw who said it, all eyes were on Annie as she cradled her gigantic midriff, clutching the inhuman sphere as it juddered and rippled with it's own agenda, quite separate to her own.

"No please, I can't be... I can't be already... I can't be in labour!"

She cried out the final words, gasping them as her belly squeezed in on itself powerfully, moaning and roaring and contracting, stretching the skin thinner and taxing it beyond what it could comfortably cope with.

"Stop, please!"

She begged and pleaded, both out loud and to herself, as cameras clicked and whirred, capturing the moment. She arched her back and cried out, a belch of what looked like black smoke escaping her lips, trailing a thick plume with it as the spores began their escape.

"NNNNNGGGGGHHHAAAAAHHHH!"

She pushed her stomach forwards as hard as she could, seeming to puff out it much in the same way as she had when she first pretended to be pregnant all those weeks ago, pushing out her belly in front of the mirror, stuffing it with fattening treats before swelling herself as round as she could on her web cam to fool a poor, unsuspecting scientist on the other side of the world who was much less enamoured of the whole situation than she was. She was still the same girl she had been since first they met, fat and jealous and secretly delighting in her own gluttony, she had finally taken it too far.

Her stomach, already vast, bloated outward. It trembled and moaned, swelling before their eyes like a horrific time lapse recording, pushing outwards, growing more and more overtaxed as she puffed and panted and cried out. The skin creaked ominously like the timbers of a ship in a storm, and there was a tiny, audible sound like someone undoing the lid on a jar of pickles.

Her belly button popped outward, finally.

"No!" She whispered, her eyes wide, before with a roar her belly exploded.

The spores shot forth from her, the thick cloud seeming to multiply and spread out as it enveloped the crowd arrayed before the now dead scientist, her ruined stomach deflating as they rushed outward.

The crowd screamed and rushed for the exit, unknowing that even as they ran, they breathed in the spores.

Even as they ran, the women amongst them could not have known what it was that was happening to them already.

Annie collapsed on stage, her hands still cradling the outline of where her vast, wondrous belly had been but moments before, when it had cruelly betrayed her. Her eyes closed, and she was at peace.

Description
The star fell from the heavens, and as it did so it burned.

The heat and intensity that enveloped it as it burned its way through the atmosphere were indescribable, the fabric of it twisting and writhing as if alive under the strain of it, but still it came, ever onward.

It fell like a bomb, like a missile, like some terrible thing, for in truth, and no one could have known at the time, that was exactly what it was.

A woman Sat alone in a room full of monitors in a building far out in the heart of a desert. She watched it fall.

A woman watched inside a giant telescope atop a mountain, and she watched as it broke apart and released its contents.

Both of them felt The Pulse, though in the desert it was much more pronounced. They watched as screens burst into static, cabling sparked and melted, computers went haywire.

But the woman in the desert... It made her different.

*****

Ichat burbled to itself as it connected. She'd had to grab an old iMac out of a storage cupboard as her main workstation had died in the strange onslaught, but nonetheless she was too excited to think clearly about how heavy her task. She had to share with someone.

Suri waited, bouncing in her seat excitedly, watching the sluggish hardware wrestle with the task of connecting a gossamer thin stream of data half way around the world.

Connected.

The window unfurled like a lotus flower on her desktop, bringing into sharp relief her own excitable features and for a moment a blurry swatch of pixelated white noise. Momentarily it orientated itself into a face, one distinct from her own.

"Annie, thank god, I have news."

Suri's English was impeccable; despite having been born in Mumbai she had been educated at MIT, where she had met a certain excitable American girl. Annie. The two had begun their tumultuous friendship as rivals, though as many enemies can attest even a shared struggle is an experience that can bring two parties together. And so it was with them.

Annie nodded, a brief smile flickering across her rounded plump features. American convenience had been good to her. Her hair, a violent shade of red, seemed to almost glow in the low resolution image from the web-cam.

"It's about last night, isn't it? You felt it too. The pulse. Everything in my lab switched off, there was a surge when that object entered the atmosphere and broke apart. I imagine the damage must be worse here as you're calling me..."

Suri shook her head, her brilliant blue eyes closed for a moment as a slender finger tucked a loose strand of naturally white hair behind her ear.

"My workstation is fried; I had to lug an old loner machine out of the stockroom to replace it. Though, to be honest, it isn't the computers I'm calling about... Tell me, Annie, did you... Did you get a shock?"

Annie tilted her head quizzically.

"You mean since the last time I stood on the scales? Not really, unless you count last night... There was a bit of an electrical discharge, yes; I did catch a bit of a shock."

Suri nodded sagely, before lowering her voice slightly.

"I'm going to show you something Annie; you can't breathe a word of it to anyone. Promise?"

Annie was taken aback for a moment, before eagerly agreeing.

"Sure, not even to the tax man. What's up?"

"You might want to take a test Annie, in light of you getting that shock, I've taken seven and they all came back positive."

"Tests for what? What have you caught, Suri?"

"It might be easier if I show you..."

Slowly Suri pushed back her chair and stood.

"I got shocked too... But I think it did something to me..."

She gently unbuttoned her loose white lab coat, parting the two halves and slowly lifting the bottom of her navy blue sweater.

Her normally flat stomach bulged outward slightly, an unmistakable convexity to it that had most definitely not been there before. The smooth, light brown of her skin flawless, invitingly rounded, her navel appearing somewhat shallow on the face of her belly.

"I was shocked too Annie, and now I'm pregnant. And so might you be."

*****

Annie stared in disheartened annoyance at the tiny plastic stick. It was her fifth, the others all lined up in identical judgement.

The single blue line stared at her, mocking her.

Not pregnant.

She patted the dome of her pot belly gently, it responded with a melancholic gurgle beneath the velveteen sheerness of her camisole, prompting her to slip a hand between the bottom hem of it and the waistband of her panties, sliding upward to gently cup the pronounced bulge.

"Guess the only twins you're ever going to have in here are Ben and Jerry..."

She let her shoulders drop in disappointment, her eyes flitting to the computer screen. She had set the background of her own personal laptop to a slide show, this one for her own personal enjoyment. On screen was a time-lapse progression of the previous two weeks, the images of her friend Suri, proudly lifting her shirt and showing off the bump that was developing beneath. Her small, pert breasts had begun to fill out slightly, forming a more noticeable silhouette beneath her modest wardrobe, but most of all, she had that glow. That indefinable thing, that air of maternity, that feeling of motherhood about her. It was enough to make Annie sick.

The two of them had discussed their conditions at great length, sharing notes and ideas on a nightly basis. Annie, much to her own disheartenment, had discovered that she wasn't pregnant, that the shock she had received from the passing of the extra-terrestrial object had been just that. A shock. Nothing more.

That didn't stop her from pretending though.

She stepped over to her full length dress mirror and turned to her left, showing herself off in profile for a moment. Her plump frame filled the looking glass nicely, but there was a trick or two up her sleeve yet.

"There's always pretending..." She whispered to no-one in particular.

Taking a deep breath, she puffed out her tummy, noting with a tingle of excitement how her belly bulged outward immediately, filling out her nightwear and pushing its way into visibility, parting her outfit horizontally. She patted it with her hands, smiling to herself as she did so.

There was always pretending.

Annie had told Suri the tests had been positive, that she too had been impregnated by whatever it was that had performed some manner of otherworldly Immaculate Conception. Annie was no virgin, neither was Suri for that matter, but neither of them had had a man's touch within the prerequisite time frame in order that this could be something more humble and traditional in origin.

She and Suri began to make their plans. They first of all would tell no-one else. This was their discovery, and should it's true nature be discovered early they would have a lot of explaining to do before no doubt someone above them in their respective organisations took ownership of what it was that grew inside them. Or not, in Annie's case. They had both heard the rumours, more persistent in the scientific community than amongst the civilian population of scientists who had stumbled across something-or-other in the course of conducting maverick research in untested fields and had suddenly vanished, their deaths announced as lab fires or explosions or tragic car accidents, and their bodies never released.

Neither wanted that to happen, and so they had taken to the covert exchange of emails and illicit web chats to communicate with one another. Each was in response to the other and included pictures to document their progress.

*****

April 12th – Annie to Suri
S, great news, I've gained 6 pounds and another four inches. I'm growing at an incredible rate; it's astonishing to see the change day by day. Still no stretch marks yet, all the lotion must be doing some good! Here I am, front and side, I'm starting to find my regular sized lab coat a little on the snug side, might have to invest in some larger sizes in preparation!

Attachment – My tummy.jpeg

April 15th – Suri to Annie

A, was pleased to see how much you've grown, we seem to be progressing at a very similar rate, if not slightly faster in your case. I'm trying to monitor my dietary intake, dairy is out obviously, but I have found no increase in appetite despite how the foetus/foetuses are developing. I find this rate of growth a little perplexing, it has been around a fortnight and so far I appear to be well through my first trimester, if not into my second. I too am having wardrobe issues, though my male predecessor left behind a good stock of lab attire and was by all accounts a rather heavy set man. Still, it concerns me that so far I have yet to feel anything kicking or the faintest flutter of movement; I wonder what it is in there? It keeps me awake at night, staring at the ceiling while I go over this extraordinary turn of events in my mind. I contacted Jorge over at the Puerto Rico radio array about the event, he said while they monitored it on their equipment, he received no shock and none of their lab was damaged. It seems awfully strange to me, that we two female technicians should receive shocks and as a result find ourselves with child, when other arrays around the globe reported no such events occurring. It's almost as if it was looking for people like us, like it was a deliberate action. Does that bother you as much as it bothers me, or am I being paranoid?

April 15th – Annie to Suri
S, you need to calm down babe! Seriously, that's some straight up X files nonsense right there. Maybe it did look for us, maybe it chose us, in the end is there any way we can find out? It's not like we can ask it now, is it? Besides, maybe it's for the best that it's only us, after all, we don't want anyone else sharing this before we go public with it, do we?

April 16th – Suri to Annie
A, you're absolutely right, I worry too much. It's just that the bigger I seem to get, the more I worry. I couldn't fasten my jeans today, I had to walk around with them unbuttoned beneath my coat, I was so worried they would fall down!

April 16th – Annie to Suri
S, don't worry about it, I've done that, though usually it's thanks to a bit too much lunch rather than a baby bump. In fact, I haven't done my jeans up in the past four days! I guess filling out a little has it's benefits, besides, it's way more comfy. I'll order you a little something online that should help though, I've never used them myself so you'll have to let me know how it goes! Also, where's the belly picture?! You're slacking, the Nobel committee will have to give me the medal if we can't prove you had as much input

April 19th – Suri to Annie
I'm so sorry A, I've been rushed off my feet with getting the new equipment installed to replace the old stuff. Pictures tomorrow, I promise!

April 19th - Annie to Suri
You'd better deliver, I'm holding you to that!

April 20th – Suri to Annie
Here you go, this is my three week belly shot. My belly button seems to be beginning to pop out, it's definitely more shallow these days than it ever was before, yours doesn't seem to be doing it though, so we'll have to see what comes there. I can't wait for it to pop, I'll look really really pregnant.

attachment – Suri3wkshot.jpeg

*****

Pretending can only get you so far, soon you have to back it up with proof. Annie sighed as she pulled the plastic film roughly from another tub of double fudge cookie dough ice cream and began to shovel it in methodically. Her breathing was shallow and somewhat laboured, made difficult by the four tubs she had already consumed so far that evening. All this ice cream was giving her a royal tummy ache, but the one thing she wasn't short of in her lab was freezer space, so as a matter of necessity her extra-terrestrial illusionary supplies had to be of the frozen variety. And what better choice than ice cream?

She'd began a rigorous diet, not so much eating for two as eating for a family of five with pets on the side. Suri was growing at an incredible rate, it was all Annie could do to keep up the illusion of her own growth, and that extra mass had to come from somewhere.

GROOOOOOOAAAANNN...

"Ooof, that's enough out of you, just one more tub, baby, I promise, and we're done for tonight..."

Annie's hand slipped from the tub to her stomach. The pallid orb gurgled softly, shifting within as the incessant and ever present mass of food within compacted itself yet further to allow more and more to be forced in. Annie was gaining weight steadily, a few pounds a week at least, but she had found there was a much more effective way to maintain the masquerade. By stuffing herself constantly, maintaining a constant and almost unbearable level of bloated fullness, she had begun to stretch her tummy, the glutted bloat of it swelling outward almost visibly, growing with a mockery of inner life as she packed more and more food into herself. She barely gave it room to digest anything, as soon as she felt anything shift inside herself she was ready with something to replace it with, a fattening morsel of something-or-other to pack on the pounds and inches.

She found herself inspecting her belly more and more. She'd given up trying to conceal it, the benefit of being on isolated secondment to an out of the way installation was that you were relatively free to dictate what modesty meant to you. Her top was permanently bunched up beneath her breasts, unable to hide the mammoth orb of her gut any longer, her shirts tended to carry an array of brightly coloured splotches where she had spilled various treats upon herself in glutted ecstasy as she stuffed herself fuller and fuller, ever expanding, her belly inflating like a vast heavy balloon.

Yet, despite her best efforts, she had not yet popped. Not in the traditional sense, for as much as it often felt to her in a moment of heart stopping anxiety as she clutched a suddenly vocal and groaning stomach that she might indeed have overdone things and had one do-nut too many she hadn't simply burst like the balloon she was in danger of becoming. Her belly button, despite her efforts, remained steadfast, a deep hollow on the face of her gargantuan tummy, a single flaw marring it's vast circumference. She eyed it with contempt, her mirror surrounded by printouts of Suri, now become an object of jealousy for the perfection of her gravid womb, her wide eyed and innocent face frozen photographically looking on in shocked bemusement as she appeared to inflate from picture to picture. Her belly was a warm, chocolate coloured swell, taut to the touch and without the generous layer of succulence that Annie's had, she really did look pregnant. Though, in her own mind, she had her doubts.

Nights previous to this one, Suri had sat alone with a stethoscope plugged into her ears, listening to the fecund gravidity that bulged from her, her clothing parted and unfastened to reveal it in all it's glory as it hung before her, silent and ominous. She heard nothing from it, no heartbeat, no movement, nothing, and yet still it grew and grew. She grew larger every day, some days seemingly before her own eyes, and yet she felt nothing from it. Her breasts were indeed slightly larger, though her nipples had not darkened and no milk had come. She was two months into her pregnancy, with no idea of a beginning or an end, all the signs were there but it just didn't feel right. Her navel protruded like a tiny marble beneath the skin, smooth and soft to the touch and ever so sensitive, a dark line could even be seen faintly bisecting the two hemispheres of her girth, and yet she could not say with absolute certainty that she was expecting. How could she? Still, she filled her reports, measured her progress, and built up a comprehensive study of her progress, comparing notes with her American friend who was doing likewise, seeming to love every step of the journey.

Still, it would not be long now.

That week, they booked the press conference for Paris, one month hence. Most of the major scientific journals were there, their editors convinced of the veracity of their earnest claims to have uncovered startling new findings in a brand new area of study. The journalists contented themselves with the occasion, knowing that if they were lying and the whole thing was a waste of time it would still be newsworthy to report as such.

Annie and Suri continued to grow, and as the days grew closer to the appointed time, they each began to prepare. Suri, for the revelation of her impending motherhood, the moment when she would reveal the content of her outlandishly large womb to the world. And Annie, to the moment when she would no doubt have to come up with an excuse for why she was not in the same condition as her colleague, or fake in a more elaborate fashion how she was.

Still, the date arrived with due course, and as the two of them boarded their separate planes, exchanging separate looks with separately disbelieving staff who eyed their separate sizes with a mixture of shock and awe, paid for separate double width seating, ate separate meals, landed separately and took separate cabs to the hotel, their fates finally entwined.

*****

There was a knock at the door of her suite, and as Suri excitedly padded across to it, she knew who it would be instantly. Still swaddled in her towel, she had only just finished bathing in preparation to get dressed for the conference.

True to form, the figure who waddled in through the open doorway and embraced her with the fondness of an old friend was well known to her already. Annie.

"Goodness Annie, you're even bigger in person!"

She had no time to catch her breath for a greeting, their opening exchange was one borne of shock rather than fondness.

Annie was, well, Annie was huge.

Suri had thought herself fecund, had thought herself vastly swollen and heavy with child, but she paled in comparison to her Western counterpart.

Within the last few weeks, Suri's growth had begun to slow. She had found her measurements had begun to even out, the graph of her growth forming more of an S curve, her stomach tight and full and almost uncomfortably taut. She thought to herself as she gamely wrapped a tape measure around her full, bare stomach that she had perhaps grown as large as she possibly could, certainly a girth such as hers on such a slight frame seemed even more outlandish.

Needless to say, Annie had not slowed down. In fact, she would have been incapable of doing so if she tried. The vast amounts of food she packed into her tummy meant that even as she slept she grew, several times she had in fact gone to bed in a tight fitting old shirt or set of pyjamas to find it torn and burst at the seams when she awoke, unable to accommodate her ever expanding engorgement. She hadn't actually put on all that much weight, her face was no plumper than when she had begun and her limbs were still of the same proportion, but the monster of her belly dwarfed not only her but Suri also. It was all the Indian woman could do not to stare at it, the monstrous swell of it protruding from between the halves of her jacket, staring at her like some great, baleful eye.

Jealousy is a terrible thing, as well Annie knew. If she couldn't be pregnant like Suri, she would at least be bigger than she could dream of being. She smiled, and patted the firm protuberance of her midriff for emphasis.

"No point in denying it really, you can't doubt the evidence of your own eyes" she replied with a grin. "Are you ready for today?" She eyed the soft towel, and the unmistakable outline of that which sat beneath it.

"Nearly, I just need to get dressed. I've been up all night going through the notes." Suri lied rather obviously, a slight blush creeping over her cheekbones. Annie knew that look well.

"You're scared, aren't you?" Annie surmised, cocking her head slightly in amusement. "We're prepared Suri, fully so, and when we tell everyone what's happened and show off our... evidence..." Her belly grumbled slightly with hunger as she stroked it "We'll be safe from any form of reprisal. We're going to be famous, Suri, world famous."

Suri nodded.

"That's not it, it started last night and... it's just, well, it might be easier if I show you..."

She slipped open the towel, either not conscious or not caring of the fact that she was perfectly naked beneath it. Her stomach, still glistening with moisture from her bath, bounded into view from beneath the towel, round and achingly swollen. She watched for a moment, the two of them in silence, before she gasped suddenly.

"There, do you see?"

It was as if every muscle in her stomach seized up at once. For a moment the outline of her womb stood out in sharp relief, the skin almost translucent as it squeezed inward. A moment or two later, it ceased, but the sweat on Suri's forehead remained, as did her pained expression. Annie turned wide eyed to her friend.

"I think, I mean... Annie, I'm in labour."

The American let out a sharp gasp. Her hand flew to Suri's belly, lying flat against the hard, unyielding surface. She didn't have to wait long; soon, it did it again. Harder this time, and lasting slightly longer. It was a contraction, unmistakably so.

"Suri, how long has this..."

"It started last -ngh- last night..." she explained, cradling her belly in her hands. Annie led her over to the bed and laid her down while she explained. "About 8 last night it started, I thought it was.... oooooh... I thought it was indigestion at first, but then it just got worse and worse. Have you, I mean... is the same happening to you?"

Her eyes alighted on the constantly grumbling surface of Annie's gut, sat between it's owners thighs it growled softly, though no rippling tightness worried it.

"No... I think maybe mine's more up to the challenge than your stomach..."

Annie prodded Suri's belly experimentally, which caused it to let out a piercing whine.

"Ow! Careful, I feel like I might, well, like I might burst. It's so tight!"

"It's so full, Suri, you're stretched as thin as paper..."

Annie withdrew her hand as another contraction rippled through, even stronger than the last. The skin practically throbbed under the barrage of pressure, Suri gritted her teeth and stifled a cry.

"I don't know how long I can hold it back, Annie, what ever it is, it's coming out, and soon..."

Annie smiled.

"Then let's meet it shall we. Push."

Suri's eyes widened.

"I couldn't, it's too dangerous!"

"It's too dangerous to keep it in there, Suri. Push. I'll help you."

Suri stared for a moment, before her eyes widened. Something was building inside of her, something irresistible and stronger than she could hope to hold back.

"Oh god, help me, Annie, I think this is it!"

She began to scream, building as the pressure intensified, arching her back her stomach seemed to rise, rise and rise and rise up like some monstrous balloon, like a leviathan rising from the deep crushing dark of the ocean. To swell, to inflate, and finally to quiver, as the pressure directed itself finally in the direction it desired.

Not downwards though.

Forwards.

There was an ear-splitting bang, and all at once Suri burst, popping like some great rubbery balloon, her belly simply giving way, and a cloud issued forth from her ruined body.

Annie gasped, the shock of the passing of her friend not yet registered, she saw immediately what had been growing inside the belly of her rival.

They were spores. Almost like a fungus, the great dark mass bloomed from her, hanging in the air.

She knew instantly what she had to do. She could save face, and still come out of this with her fame and glory intact. Suri hadn't been up to the challenge, to the colossal task, but she would be, she assured herself.

She leaned forward, and she breathed it in.

All of it. Every last bit.

She drew breath after breath, her lungs aching and her throat open she drew them into herself, feeling them saturate her, working their way deep inside her, filling her utterly and becoming part of her. She would be the host now, she would carry them and she would reap the glory.

Once they were all gone she stood cautiously, feeling a slight gurgle in her belly as she did so as they worked their way inward, into their new home. She could feel the progress of them, a slight tickle deep within herself as they made their way to her stomach. That massive, engorged, bloated swell would certainly be big enough to hold them all. It gurgled triumphantly, finally asserting it's true purpose.

She shut the door after herself, and made her way to the lobby. It was time to go; she had a conference to deliver. With one hand on the bulge of her stomach beneath the concealing outline of her jacket, she hailed a cab and climbed in, picturing the accolades that would be hers.

GURRRRRRRGLE!

Something felt wrong now; something had shifted and was different, deep inside, within her belly. Annie patted it maternally and sat back in her seat for the ride to the conference centre.

"Not now my darling tummy, there'll be plenty of time for that later..."

*****

"Ladies and -ngh- ladies and gentlemen... thank you... for coming..."

Her breath was short and shallow; she appeared pallid and wan behind the lectern. Annie clung to its sides, her knuckles looking white in the harsh lighting of the conference room. All eyes were on her, the room was absolutely silent, and every noise was clearly audible, should someone carelessly drop a pin it would be heard. They didn't need to, something else was providing the soundtrack

GRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAANNNNNN!

"I'm here today to -ngh- share something with you... my... my colleague couldn't be here... she's feeling unwell..."

GGGLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRPPPPPPP

"No... Not now... please..."

Her hand was pressed to her stomach, which seemed to be exerting a will of it's own. Her cab ride, though brief, had become increasingly uncomfortable as her tummy began to groan and gurgle to itself, moaning and rippling. It seemed her new passengers were not too keen on their new environment.

Her eyes widened as she felt it. She looked down, stepping back from the podium and opening her jacket. A roar of astonishment went up from the crowd.

She had thought very carefully about what she would wear in order to best show off her new figure, what best to display the gargantuan swell of her abdomen, and had gone for a lab coat which could be fastened mostly over the face of it to hide it like a sheet over an exhibit. AS she undid that, the crowd saw her other wardrobe choices, a red lace bra which cupped her breasts and gave her a rather magnificent cleavage and a pair of low slung pinstripe trousers which curved under the lowest slope of her abdomen, allowing the vast swell to bulge free and unhindered, naked to the world and the world's press, who now looked upon it with fascinated horror.

"Please... not now... no no no..."

She held her jacket open, and the crowd gasped as all at once, the bloated mass of her girth heaved and shuddered, the motion one of tensing up and squeezing around the vastness within it. It was unmistakable. She was having contractions.

"Not now, please, I'll take care of you, I promise, just let Mummy get through this..."

Her belly replied with a voice all it's own.

GRRRROOOOOOWWWWWLLLL

"Doctor, are you alright?!"

No-one saw who said it, all eyes were on Annie as she cradled her gigantic midriff, clutching the inhuman sphere as it juddered and rippled with it's own agenda, quite separate to her own.

"No please, I can't be... I can't be already... I can't be in labour!"

She cried out the final words, gasping them as her belly squeezed in on itself powerfully, moaning and roaring and contracting, stretching the skin thinner and taxing it beyond what it could comfortably cope with.

"Stop, please!"

She begged and pleaded, both out loud and to herself, as cameras clicked and whirred, capturing the moment. She arched her back and cried out, a belch of what looked like black smoke escaping her lips, trailing a thick plume with it as the spores began their escape.

"NNNNNGGGGGHHHAAAAAHHHH!"

She pushed her stomach forwards as hard as she could, seeming to puff out it much in the same way as she had when she first pretended to be pregnant all those weeks ago, pushing out her belly in front of the mirror, stuffing it with fattening treats before swelling herself as round as she could on her web cam to fool a poor, unsuspecting scientist on the other side of the world who was much less enamoured of the whole situation than she was. She was still the same girl she had been since first they met, fat and jealous and secretly delighting in her own gluttony, she had finally taken it too far.

Her stomach, already vast, bloated outward. It trembled and moaned, swelling before their eyes like a horrific time lapse recording, pushing outwards, growing more and more overtaxed as she puffed and panted and cried out. The skin creaked ominously like the timbers of a ship in a storm, and there was a tiny, audible sound like someone undoing the lid on a jar of pickles.

Her belly button popped outward, finally.

"No!" She whispered, her eyes wide, before with a roar her belly exploded.

The spores shot forth from her, the thick cloud seeming to multiply and spread out as it enveloped the crowd arrayed before the now dead scientist, her ruined stomach deflating as they rushed outward.

The crowd screamed and rushed for the exit, unknowing that even as they ran, they breathed in the spores.

Even as they ran, the women amongst them could not have known what it was that was happening to them already.

Annie collapsed on stage, her hands still cradling the outline of where her vast, wondrous belly had been but moments before, when it had cruelly betrayed her. Her eyes closed, and she was at peace.