"SymbiOS" is a short Cthulhu Mythos story by British author William Meikle.
Synopsis[]
In a dystopian future which much of humankind have been laid low, a new performance-enhancement product has appeared on the market: the biote, a symbiotic entity engineered from both flatworm and Shoggoth DNA. However, the benefits are paired with a downside which nobody is aware of: when the human partner sleeps, the biote claims control of their body and directs it to work on digging a tunnel to connect the underground to the ocean. What purpose this will serve is not revealed.
Characters[]
- The Unnamed Narrator, a former down-and-out who gives everything he owned to purchase a biote in the hope of improving his lot in life.
Publication History[]
"SymbiOS" was first published in the Chaosium anthology Eldritch Chrome: Unquiet Tales of a Mythos-Haunted Future in October 2013. It was also included in the collection of Meikle's own work Home From the Sea: Tales of Lovecraftian Terror in April 2017.