HP:[" the Illithid Inquisition"]

"Of course, great one." The monster agreed. "How can this lowly creature be of use to you? Perhaps you are eager to complete your ceremorphosis? My pods are a brilliant combination of psionic power and technological secrets. They will allow you to assume a form more befitting of your grandeur, safely in just a few minutes."

"You creations do you justice." Harry said though he felt bile rise in his throat at the thought. "But your shortsightedness proves your inferiority. The empire has need of this form, I can not discard it."

"The empire?" The monster said almost reverently. "But how?"

"My designs are not for the likes of you to question." Harry dismissed glaring at the monster with all the disgust he felt. "I sense that this colony already harbors one Ulitharid, you will take me to him so that I might discuss my plans with him."

"As you wish my lord." The monster agreed. "Just let me store away these thralls less they somehow break the bonds placed on their minds and cause us any trouble before their transformation can be completed."

The impulse to deny this rose in Harry but the new voice in his mind counseled against such rash actions. Harry felt disgusted with himself. There were more than a dozen other people in this room. Surely he couldn't abandon them to undergo the same process that had transformed that poor woman.

They are already lost. His inner voice argued. We have to take care of ourselves first and there is nothing that can be done for them.

Nothing?! Harry shouted back at the voice in his head. He had broken free from these creatures' control, surely if he ordered this subservient monster away he could do something for the others.

We would only be saving dead men. The voice shot back. The tadpoles are already within them. The pods only accelerate ceremorphosis, but the transformation comes from within. There is nothing you can do for them and trying anything will get us killed.

You don't understand what is going on. I do. I woke up before you did and while I didn't notice what was being done with our body I did speak with the Elder Brain. It was willing to enlighten me, to tell me where we are and what we are. And we are already in great enough danger without seeking out more.

Elder Brain? Ceremorphosis? Tadpole? What was this voice talking about, Harry wondered.

We are in an Illithid colony, on a different world, as far from our home as it's possible to be. That presence we felt? That is the Elder Brain. The supreme intelligence that controls this colony. There are nearly a thousand Illithids around us right now and at any moment the Elder Brain can command all of them.

They would submit to its will as your arms and legs submit to your own, the whole colony would react as a single creature. We can not hope to fight or resist over a thousand Illithids, so if we do anything that sets the Elder Brain against us it will spell our doom.

The tadpoles are Illithid children. They are inserted into the skulls of other humanoid creatures and then they devour those creature's brains and take control of their bodies. Overtime they will remake those bodies into new Illithid ones. That is Ceremorphosis, and it is already happening to every creature in this room other than the Illithid we managed to overwhelm.

Every creature? Harry wondered dumbfoundedly. Then he remembered the worm that had crawled over his face and dug its way into his eyeball. He had hoped that had just been a nightmare, but he knew better than that. The thought then dawned on him that there might be something in his head right now that was eating his brain.

No there isn't. You got lucky. Our tadpole fused with our brain rather than eating and replacing it. I don't know why, I have a theory but we don't have time for that now. What's important is that you're still you, your personality and memories are still intact instead of being overwritten by the awakening consciousness of a new Illithid.

The other important thing though is that the process did change our brain into an Illithid's brain, or something very much like one. So we are still undergoing ceremorphosis. Those pods would complete that transformation but it would almost certainly destroy our personality and overwrite it with an Illithid one. So long as we can stay out of one we can remain ourselves, and thanks to your magic we will be able to hold off the transformation for years I think, instead of the mere days that people normally get.

Harry accepted this. He didn't like it, but he had to accept it. If he focused on the people that were being guided one by one into the holding pods by the submissive Illithid he could feel a second growing mind in each of them. Harry hated the idea of abandoning them, but he realized that he couldn't do anything for them. He had no idea how to get out of here or how to get back home, and even if he did get home he had no idea how to cure any of them. He doubted even the most powerful healer in Great Britain could grow someone a new brain.

All he would do if he got these people out of here was lead a bunch of monsters back to his home. He felt revolted with himself and like he was the blackest coward possible, but he had to focus on his own survival. So he asked the new voice in his head how they might escape.

Like I said you're lucky. The voice replied and its own tone was shaky as well. Harry guessed that this voice didn't like abandoning the people around him any more than he did, he had simply realized the futility of trying sooner than Harry had. We're not just an Illithid, we're an Ulitharid. A kind of Illithid prince, destined to rule by right of birth. Even in a still human body we count as an Ulitharid, the Elder Brain recognized us as one and ordered its Illithids to obey us.

This is good since it gives us room to maneuver. What we've got to do now is convince the Elder Brain to let us go back home while we are still human. And do so without it realizing that there's still a human mind in here. I think we can manage it.