Prologue
"We generally run the test twice. The first run should be as close to immediately after obtaining the blood as possible. The second run should be about ninety minutes later." Geoff watched Matt place the vial in the cytometer and make several selections on a touch screen. The vial began to drain, accompanied by the universal machine hum of lab equipment.
"Why twice?" Geoff asked.
"Well, how much do you know about the subject?"
"Not a whole lot," he admitted.
"That's okay. They keep a lot of things on this station need-to-know. I'm not really supposed to know any more than you do, but it's impossible to work in a place like this without picking things up." Matt paused as the vial finished emptying. Seconds later, a list of numbers appeared on screen. Matt made several touch gestures and flipped the data through several different graph visualizations.
"Anyway," he continued, "the subject's name is Lilith. She's an artificial life form."
"What, like an android?"
"No, not like an android. Lilith is biological, grown using alien technology, apparently. The process is based on a series of experiments that took place on Earth over two hundred years ago, but were abandoned for various reasons. Some of her DNA is human, but the human DNA is more like a camouflage for her real DNA. Take a look at these numbers and tell me what you see."
Geoff duplicated Matt's gestures from earlier and looked at the graphs. "Um… looks normal to me. Actually, it looks suspiciously normal, like a textbook example of someone in perfect health."
Matt nodded and gave him a tight smile, and put another file up on the touchscreen. "These are yesterday's test results from the second run." He gave Geoff a moment to look over the data.
"What the fuck?"
"Yeah, that was my reaction the first time I saw it. We have no idea where these proteins come from, or how they hide on the first run tests. Some we can't even identify. Come on, you should get a first-hand look at the subject. Well, on a screen anyway." Geoff followed as Matt led him down the corridor. "They keep her under twenty four hour surveillance, streaming the video to monitor rooms throughout the station. I wish I could work in one of those. It doesn't pay as much, but… well, you'll see what I mean in a second."
They walked in the door, and found a burly, serious looking man sitting in front of a wall of screens. He turned his chair slightly and looked behind him. Matt waved.
"Hey, Greg. Just showing the new guy around." Greg nodded and turned back to the screens. They all showed different views of the same apartment. Geoff's first impression was of a stakeout; apparently a stakeout on a supermodel, as the woman in the apartment certainly fit that description.
She looked to be in her late teens or very early twenties. She had blonde hair, full lips, and an hourglass figure. Her eyebrows furrowed over blue eyes as she stared intently at a computer monitor, and for a brief moment her tongue absently traced her upper lip. She leaned forward to get a closer look at something, but none of the screens on the wall showed what.
"Wow, she's… hot," said Geoff.
"Yeah, she's hot," Matt agreed. "Engineered to be perfect in every way, apparently. But don't get your hopes up. They generally keep her away from human males. That's not for her protection, incidentally, as much as for ours. I heard that at one point they did catch an unauthorized employee making out with her. He was tasered and sent off to work on some backwater colony world."
Geoff stared at the woman on the screen, trying to wrap his mind around everything he'd been told. Just what had he gotten himself into?
Chapter 1
She took the man's stirring cock past her lips, swirling her tongue around as it grew in size and firmness, until it was fully erect. He grabbed fistfuls of her hair and began to force it down into her throat; her eyes watered, and she visibly fought back the gagging sensation. When he finally withdrew his saliva-coated cock from her mouth, she took a moment to catch her breath, then turned and presented him with her backside. He gave her ass several playful slaps before kneading the twin globes in his hands, then positioned himself for penetration.
Lilith's attention was abruptly torn from the video when she heard the latch on her door unlock. She quickly shut the program down, then took several slow, deep breaths to try and compose herself. The door opened to reveal a man of about forty. He wore the same white lab coat as all of the station's personnel, but unlike most his was pristine and fit him perfectly, and he stood with a bearing of unquestionable authority. Lilth's face broke into a wide grin, then she ran across the room and threw her arms around him.
"Reggie!" she squealed.
Reginald Algard, head of the Weyland Yutani genetics division, momentarily returned her embrace, then struggled to politely extricate himelf from her deceptively strong grip. He wondered idly about Lilith's sense of time; he checked in on her every day, and every day she acted like she had not seem him in ages. But then, he reminded himself, regardless of her appearance and advanced mental capacity she was really only three months old.
"Hello, my dear. Have you been staying out of trouble?" he asked. Lilith finally released him and took a step back, wearing an obvious pout.
"I never have any chances to get into trouble!" she complained. "I'm stuck in the apartment all day, except when they take me out to run tests on me. I get lonely." She once again leaned up against Algard, pressing the side of her head against his chest. Algard stood uncertainly for a moment before awkwardly patting Liliths's shoulder.
"You have a lot of friends on the station you can talk to. And you know that Olivia is always available to…"
"That's not what I mean," she interrupted. "I'd be much happier if you could stay here with me. And I'm sure that I could make you happy too." Algard suddenly realized that her voice had dropped to a quiet murmur with this last assertion, that Lilith was practically whispering into his ear.
This time Algard was the one to take a step back. He straightened his collar and regarded the young woman staring back at him. She had made a number of attempts to seduce him, and he supposed it was inevitable that she would. All the information on the original SIL program indicated that the hybrids possessed a heightened mating instinct. For this reason, Algard was one of the few men on the station who was allowed to have contact with Lilith. The staff psychologists said she should have a human authority figure to imprint on, and he was the obvious choice. During the first weeks of her life, he was every bit a father figure to her, but once she reached physical maturity that relationship began to change.
Algard sighed, and shook his head to clear it. Today there were more pressing concerns than Lilith's overtures to him.
"I understand that you feel confined here," he said. "That's only natural. But you know it's been necessary, and you know why."
She looked like she wanted to object, but finally looked down and nodded. She knew that she was a potential threat to humans. They told her what had happened with the SILs on Earth.
"What if I told you that something terrible had happened, and that you might be able to help?" he asked her. She saw him looking down, trying to hide the worry in his eyes. "It would mean leaving the station, and getting to see a real planet with people living on it. But it would also be very dangerous, even for you."
Lilith paused for a moment to consider. Her heart leapt at the chance to get out among people and see a wider world, but Reggie's warning made her nervous. In the course of her life on the station she had been cut open a number of times, for tissue samples and other tests. While the sensation was not pleasant, she always healed within moments, and had come to take her invulnerability for granted. If something could pose a threat even to herself, it must be truly terrifying.
"Tell me more," she said.
Algard sighed, though he was not sure if it was relief or resignation that he felt. Quite possibly both. While he ran the genetics division with absolute authority, even Reginald Algard was beholden to the head office. His research was expected to produce useful results for the Company. Now the Company had a problem, and they believed that his latest project offered a possible solution.
"It involves a particular species of alien lifeform," he began. "The Company has had several run ins with it in the past. Although not intelligent, as far as we can tell, it has proven to be extremely adaptable and particularly deadly. The first record we have of an outbreak dates to a small mining colony in the Zeta Reticuli system. Within three weeks the aliens had wiped out the entire settlement, and the team of marines who were sent in as a rescue party. There are some indications of prior encounters, but nothing definite. The creatures breed using other species as hosts for their young, and rapidly mature into biological killing machines."
Lilith listened with rapt attention and growing horror as Algard described the alien creatures, and Weyland Yutani's history with them. He paused to retrieve his com panel from his breast pocket. "I'll forward you all the information we have available; please familiarize yourself with the material."
He tapped a quick sequence on the device that resulted in a notification on the screen next to her. As she opened the files, scanning rapidly through images and text, Algard continued.
"The aliens have turned up again, this time on a planet of significant interest to the Company. Right now there's only a single small hive, in a relatively isolated area. The Colonial Marines have a platoon on standby, but before sending them into harm's way, my superiors would like to try a different approach." He paused.
Lilith was still taking in everything Reggie said, but was transfixed by the images in front of her. The creatures were indeed frightening to look at, their form well suited to their savage function. But there was also something mesmerizing about them, something that seemed to resonate within her. She suddenly realized that Reggie was waiting for her to look up, and managed to tear her eyes from the screen.
"I can't think of a more tactful way to put this, so I'm just going to come right out and say it. They want you to destroy the hive."
Lilith blinked. "They what?"
"You're stronger and more agile than a human; more intelligent, even. You seem to heal from anything." The corner of Algard's mouth twitched in a slight smirk. "I think the Company board have gotten it into their heads that you're some kind of superhero. I can't really say that they're wrong."
"What's a superhero?" she asked numbly.
"The fact is, I've told them a lot of good things about you, so they have high expectations. You represent a considerable allocation of Company resources. They want to see what you can do, to know they're getting a return on their investment." He leaned forward and gently gripped her shoulders, looking directly into her eyes.
"Listen to me, dear," he said softly, "You don't have to do go, not if you don't want to. The marines are prepared to move in on a moment's notice. I know you're capable of doing this thing, but I made it clear to my superiors that it's your choice, and I won't be disappointed if you say no. Frankly, these things terrify me, and I don't want to see you get hurt."
Lilith took a moment to consider everything she'd been told. The aliens were definitely scary, but she felt an undeniable thrill at the notion of facing the creatures, testing herself against them; Lilith could be scary too, when she wanted. She was actually more nervous about leaving the station. Despite her loneliness, this was her home, and she had never been away from it. Still, she desperately wanted a taste of freedom, no matter how artificial or temporary it might be. Most importantly, there was Reggie to consider. Despite his words, she knew it would reflect badly on him if she refused to go, and she didn't want to let him down. If she killed the aliens, if she could impress Reggie with her good work, then just maybe he would stop rejecting her advances.
Algard watched Lilith as she thought through her decision, feeling torn. If she succeeded in this mission, it would vindicate all his efforts to date, paving the way to a future of breakthrough research. But despite all his efforts to the contrary, he had become quite attached to her, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to deny the physical attraction between them. If she were somehow to be hurt or even killed, he was not sure he could handle it.
"I'll do it," she finally said.