‘How did you…?’

     'The pieces you take and give back bring with them their memories as well as their former host’s.'

     ‘Is that why you were so responsive towards me?’

     ‘Yes, you were so kind to them it made me want you to be my host. But now…’ it paused and retreated some from her mind. It could already feel itself beginning to drain its host’s energy reserves to support its self. ‘We may not last the night unless we feed ourselves or you at least feed me.’

     ‘Feed you?’ The image of the bag of nutrient rich liquid the scientists used to feed the creature came to the surface of her mind. The closest ones were currently hooked up to the life support system of the symbiote’s containment unit. ‘I think I can manage to get you something.’ She struggled to rise but she was too weak to even crawl.

     ‘Need help?’ it ask her. A sense of urgency had begun to taint its mental voice.

     ‘Can you…?’

     ‘Yes, but I need you to let me in first.’ It pressed itself up against mental barrier. ‘I can’t help you to move until you do.’

     ‘Alright, I’ll try.’ Kara took a deep mental breath and tried to relax so the barrier separating the two minds from each other would open up. It worked and the symbiote’s mind slipped through the small opening that appeared. But the mind symbiote found behind the barrier was far more vast and spacious than any rat’s and it felt small and lost as two minds temporarily merged to exchange information and memories. The exchange was, however, was cut short of completion as the woman’s mind drew back from the symbiote’s and it found itself back on the other side of the mental barrier.

     The flood of information it received during the incomplete exchange combined with the abrupt stop had left the symbiote more than a little disoriented. As it regained its bearings, it discovered it had control of the woman body and it had access to her external senses. It also discovered that the barrier separating its mind from its host’s had changed. It had become thinner and more malleable allowing it to communicate and exchange knowledge with her more easily without having to immerse itself into her mind.

     'Are you going to be okay now?' Kara asked it, her feelings of concern for the symbiote's well-being radiating through the new barrier.

     'Y-yes, but I still need to be fed,' it answered her, feeling it's hunger grow with each passing moment.

     'Right, hmm...' 

     Indistinct and blurry images of the electronic base of its former enclosure and the lab floated to the surface of her mind as she thought. After thinking for a bit, she spoke while using a few well chosen images to illustrate her words.

     'There's a panel on the left side of your containment unit. Behind it is where we hook up the bags containing your food.' She told it.

     'Containment unit..?' it said, pondering the unfamiliar words as it made Kara's body push itself upright into a sitting position.