Ugh. What is this thing? I hate it. But I like it, but I hate it more than I like it. Ick. Disgusting. Sickly. I had to do this for school, god--oops, nevermind.

This had almost no pre-planning before I was forced to write it, so it turned out TOTALLY different than what I wanted it to be. I hate it. Disgusting. Ick. Oh well. Now you know, I am a HUGE HUMONGO Aliens fan. Xenomorphs rock.

I am too woozy. I don't know what date it is, my co-workers are freaking out too much to stop and tell me what happened, and I am too woozy. The last thing I remember was investigating that strange little alien plantation we found on the very outskirts of the mineral mining quarry our ship is assigned to.

But I guess you already know that.

The last date I put on here was…well, appears to be, two days ago. Unfortunately I don't remember writing that down. I'm flipping back through this book and it seems to be like I'm reading something from a different person. This is someone else's, not mine.

But some buried sensation within me bluntly told me that I still had possession over this roughly worn rynth-hide book.

Over the course of the next few time lapses I hope to find the cause of this sudden woozy amnesia. In the meantime, one of my co-workers is calling for me. Jared, I never liked him. Never liked him at all.

Entry 2

In case you haven't figured out, I still haven't acquired the correct date. I don't really think I care anymore; everyone's been psychotic lately, especially when they see me. "Oh Tess, you look so green!" "Go back and lie down!" "Oh! T-Tess! Um…shouldn't you be um…elsewhere?" In the meantime the number of entries I put here would have to suffice.

Believe it or not the only one who would actually tell me what the heck happened just happens to be…Jared. It wasn't nice though, in his idiotic voice he specifically made in that unbearable mocking tone. Besides that, everyone seemed to trust that he was right, so I guess this is the best recollection of why I'm in this mess.

Our mining ship landed at the scheduled quarry a few days late than we should be, but apparently we paid no heed and set straight to work. However…while encountering a new vein of the mineral we were aiming for, one of the older, tender workers, nick-named Mims, found a strange little 'settlement' or 'nest'. Warning her to stay back, I went in first, to try and see what it was. Jared followed straight behind me, cracking the disgusting jokes that he normally does. That's when we hit the jackpot.

When I say jackpot I don't particularly mean we found a whole cavern of the mineral we were looking for, I mean that the jackpot was the source of this beginning of a nest. As we crept through, we noticed that the multiple egg-shaped lumps placed around the floor resembled something rather…

"Turdy," as Jared described it.

As we soon found out, they were far from turds and more like what they looked like. You know, the egg thing? Yeah. Unfortunately we learned that the hard way.

The harder I think about it the more I remember something smothering my face. Like, strange smothering. Then after that there's nothing but black in my memory…

Jared confirmed this by plainly, stupidly stating that I was attacked by a spider-like creature with a long tail that leaped out of the egg and latched onto my features. Attach that to the fact that it didn't let go of me for like, the next hour or so, and yeah, I guess I would be just as freaked as the rest of the crew.

But somebody could at least tell me the date, you know!

Entry 3

I'm looking back and wondering if the false fish I ate for dinner had a bad effect on me. My stomach seems to have a mind of its own and has been bothering me for quite a while. I mean, I was incredibly hungry when I woke up from this coma after the spider thing detached and died. I could've eaten a whole rynth if I had the chance.

Now I feel like I could throw up a whole rynth if I had the chance. Most likely that chance would come if I was talking to Jared.

Anyways, like I said, my stomach is making me feel like I swallowed a fish egg and the egg hatched in me or something. Or maybe the fish ate a smaller fish alive—no, wait, this is fake fish, how would that happen?

So why am I so…sick?

Entry 4

The crew has constantly been telling me I look way too green for their liking. For now I'm just waving them off, but I do believe they're one hundred percent correct. Looking in the mirror I see cold sweat and clammy skin with alienated eyes. I feel like a mess. In the beginning I thought it was the fish, but as this keeps getting worse, I'm just not so sure…

Something's screwing around inside me, I can feel it. I've eaten more than usual, and this thing keeps swishing and swashing about, and believe me, it doesn't feel pleasant. It's like pregnancy…only, worse. How could pregnancy possibly get worse than it already was?

Now I'm suddenly reminded of the fatherless son left back home. My sweet 12-year-old Connie. Lost his father when he was eight in a rynth stampede on the ranch we used to live on. I guess now my thoughts will be full of him, and how stupid this is in how sick I'm getting. I am not doing well, and it doesn't look like I will be doing well in the future, either.

My stomach hurts. I think I'm going to go lie down for a bit.

Entry 5

This sickness has revealed a new devil—a cough. It only happened a few minutes ago, but the cough is quickly mutating into something truly annoying. Every cough I take pushes bile in my mouth. It's just my luck that my coughs are loud enough for that jerk, Jared, to hang out around my quarters to 'see if I'm alright.'

The first time I tried to tell him to go away sent a wave of nice, juicy coughs shuddering up my throat, which somehow made him obliged to jog over and place a hand on my back. I flinched away at first, but the coughs became too violent for the meanwhile. He didn't take his hand off my back until I calmed down. Then, suddenly he bestowed upon me a whole new look, one I had never ever seen in those dark eyes of his underneath the curtain of sandy hair.

He was utterly concerned, and not just in a joking manner either. For once his gaze was stern and concentrated, his mouth twisted in a worried expression. He stared directly into my light blue eyes as he asked one question in a tone very unlike his normal one.

"You okay now?"

I shook my head in disbelief at him, and he tut-tutted.

"You shouldn't be sitting up at this desk doing nonsense work. Go lay down."

I tried to explain to him these import papers needed to be done before we arrived back at Port, but he shrugged it off.

"Do it later. Now go lay down."

I was going to refuse again, but he was so determined that he didn't even wait for me to give a resistant cry as he tugged me off of the chair and dragged me over to my cot, ungracefully flopping me down on it. I yelped in surprise, followed by a few coughs. He backed up and, as if to restrict my activity, grabbed the chair and pulled it away from my desk, sitting on it no more than six meters away, staring at me with dark pools of eyes. I sneered at him, and turned my back to quickly jot this down in here.

I don't want to say this to him, but this is getting bad. Really bad. Something's inside my stomach and it's unnatural. Whatever that thing was that latched onto my face must've done something to me—that must be it. It's the only explanation I can grasp and believe at the moment. The fish? Forget about the fish. It's history. There's something in my stomach that's squirming, and I just felt a very soft push. Somehow I know this is going to end badly. Somehow I know.

And suddenly, somehow I know that even though I denied it, somehow I always had something for Jared.

What's happening to me?

It hurts…

Jared held the pocket-sized journal in his slippery hands, his ragged sand-colored hair falling just in front of his eyes. He knew something was kooky the very moment he stepped into that chamber after Tess. He just wished he would've caught onto it sooner—before that thing—that, that demon, killed her. Hugged her face. Split her torso.

But it's all over now.

He and Mims were the only survivors after that beast broke free from the host it had chosen—Tess. The rest of the crew had perished from the mutant-bug's destruction. Nothing had gone right. And reading this…Tess's last testimony that was horribly soaked with her dying blood…well, that just made things all the worse for Jared. He had been interested in Tess for quite a while, despite the fact that she seemed to hate him. The poor woman had lost her husband and was a single mother. That was more than enough reason to pity her, really. Yes…Jared really wanted to be with her…deep down in his heart.

But it's all over now.

He didn't even change out of the clothes that he had worn when that thing burst from Tess's chest. He was still splattered with her drying blood, and for some reason nothing that Mims could say could make him come back from the clouds his head was currently in, reading her journal word for word in the meager station they had docked in as the creature lay dying in a escape pod below the ship. Mims knew that even though she was a great counselor, after what she had witnessed and what she had figured out from Jared's stone expression, nothing could ever bring him back now. He'll never be quite the same slack-off slap-stick Jared he always was.

Because it's all over now.

Jared closed the book and lowered his sticky forehead to the cover, taking in deep breaths. There was nothing he could do now. Nothing at all, except for one last action.

"Connie? I'm Jared. I'm your new…guardian."

See? It was supposed to be a disgusting story, but UGH! This...this...hideous man-thing appeared, and it turned all lovey-dovey! DIS. GUST. ING. Ignore it please. Thanks.

Review if you want to.