SYLVIE AND THE CATCHER BREEDER
Like all other successful and dominant Dring, Dring Hai maintained a host of Catcher-Breeder insects, for use in controlling his own herds of breeder pods, for occasional breeding raids into the territory of other Dring, and, he had to admit, for recreational purposes. He took enjoyment in the thrill of the chase when he released Catcher-Breeders, monitoring their activities by a variety of widely dispersed sensing tendrils.
Deciding that the new breeder pods, like any mammal, required periodic exercise, Dring Hai decided to combine required maintenance with pleasure, and arranged for one of his most physically well-developed new breeder pods to escape its breeding pen.
The ovipositor of the Catcher-Breeder consisted in a series of linked sacs or nodules. Each sac was shaped, by itself, much like a turnip, with a large rounded base, and a tapered tip. The base was recessed, allowing the tip of the following sac to fit into it.
The tip of each sac was a puckered, flanged unit that could unfold and deploy after penetrating through a small orifice, opening a passage to allow the contents of the sac to be injected.
Each sac was filled, as it was formed in the female Catcher-Breeder, with her insectoid eggs, giving the sac a lumpy appearance. As the controlling agency, a Dring, prepared to launch Catcher-Breeders, the female Catcher-Breeders would scuttle to the males, and insert sacs sequentially into a dorsal opening connected with the male sperm-probe, and leading to the male ovipositor duct. The male Catcher-Breeder's reproductive system would inject insectoid sperm under high pressure into the sacs through the base, filling them to a bulbous appearance, and then shove them on toward the ovipositor tip, a sort of natural version of a breech-loading repeating rifle.
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As Sylvie ran naked from the grove in which she had been held captive and violated by the plants, she was completely unaware, first, that she was being watched, and, second, that Dring Hai had allowed her to "escape." Even if she had known these things, she could not have known about the underground Catcher-Breeder hive near the grove. Down in its tunnels, frantic female insects, the size of small dogs, were scurrying toward much larger male insects. The smallest males were the size of an adult Great Dane, and the typical male was the size of a pony. The females clambered up on to the male backs, and inserted little pale green sacks into openings there. The males began to get excited, and the inserted sacs swelled rapidly before disappearing down towards their posteriors. Dring Hai had sent the signal to catch, and to breed.
This process stimulated local females to produce larger sacs, containing more eggs, which were then filled in turn, and shuttled down in sequence to the previous sacs, filling in behind them and merging together, so as to form a sort of composite phallus of nested egg sacs, progressively greater in size.
After she had been running for several minutes, Sylvie became aware of strange chittering and thrashing sounds in the forest behind her. Pausing to catch her breath and look back, she was suddenly frozen with horror, as she saw a huge insect burst out of the underbrush, running at incredible speed, its multiple legs a blur, heading straight for her!
She screamed in fear and frustration, the colossal unfairness of making a daring escape from repeated plant-rape, only to be caught and eaten by a giant bug, being just too much for her to take. She bolted blindly away from the giant insect, pumping her arms, breath rushing in and out in huge gasps. She was sprinting as she never had in her life, and still she could hear the bug getting closer. In her imagination, she saw the bug's mandibles clacking shut to snap her neck, or, worse, some great stinger filling her with paralyzing poison, so that her insides would turn to liquid, and the bug would suck her dry. It was too horrible to think about! She must concentrate on running.
Suddenly, she tripped and fell flat on her face, hard, and the bug was on top of her. Literally on top of her. As she attempted to get up, rising to her hands and knees, a breathless shriek sounding from her, the bug made a cage around her with its huge brown legs, and her bottom bumped into its underside as soon as she lifted it from off the ground.