CHAPTER 1
"How is it going doctor?" General William Harris asks as he enters the lab.
"The good news is there is definite cell division in five of the cultures- numbers 4,6,7,10 and 16," Dr. Gregory Waters answers.
"That's better than we had hoped. Use number four for now and put the others into cryo, just in case something goes wrong we'll have a back up," the General orders, then turns to leave. As he reaches the door, he stops and turns back to the doctor. "Is the data on this project still in the standard files?"
"Of course General, why do you ask?"
"Just a funny feeling. I want all the files on this project fully encoded and secured."
"Of course General, but isn't that going a bit far?"
"Maybe. But if any of this leaks out then we'll be in some mighty deep shit. As it is, if things go as we hope it will, then we'll have one hell of a weapon on our hands."
"If anyone else had told me that they had a funny feeling about something, I would have said it was something that they had eaten. Your 'funny feelings' have saved my ass more than just a few times. I'll get the files secured immediately."
"Thanks, Greg, I'll see you later."
THREE MONTHS LATER
"Everything's going quite well general, there's no signs of any mutations or abnormalities what-so-ever. Number Four is proceeding right on schedule."
"I'm glad to hear that Doctor. The extraction setup you designed will be ready in about a week, just before it will be needed."
"That doesn't give my people much time to train on it."
"I know, but it couldn't be helped. Sorry."
TWO MONTHS LATER
"The subject is now fully sedated," an intern announces.
"Good, then we're ready to proceed," the doctor responds.
Laying inside a sealed surgical chamber is the figure of a woman with wavy brown hair. She looks to be in her mid twenties and in a deep sleep. With great care the medical team begin their operation on her as they make a small incision in her chest just above her breastbone. Opening the incision, they reveal a moving, gray-green mass lying just beneath her ribs.
"Get that container ready," the doctor orders as some of the others gasp at what they see.
With the container now in position, they begin to extract the mass from her chest. As one end of the mass is cleared from the cavity, a mouth opens wide revealing some very dangerous looking teeth. This causes more gasps from the medical team.
"Doctor Waters, we'd better hurry, the readings indicate that the subject will be waking very soon."
"This soon? But that's..."
Doctor Waters doesn't get a chance to finish his comment. The woman suddenly opens her eyes and sits up on the table, an action that causes the creature that is inside her to be suddenly- and fully, removed from her. Her actions startle the team and they accidentally release the creature into the chamber with the woman. Then, to everyone's surprise, the woman picks up the creature and looks at it.
"Fuck," the doctor utters just barely under his breath.
"What do we do now, Sir?" one of the interns asks.
"We've got to get her back under and get that incision closed first and then we'll worry about what to do next."
As General Harris comes into the room, he sees that something has gone wrong and is just as shocked as the others at what he sees.
"What the hell has happened?" he demands.
"We miscalculated. She came to a lot sooner than we had predicted."
"What about that thing in there with her?"
"I'm afraid that we'll have to wait until it gets larger General. That should only take a couple of hours. I don't much care for the idea, but we seem to have little choice. I don't see how we can remove it, not while she's holding onto it."
"That thing is dangerous enough at that size doctor. I don't know if we can safely remove it when it gets larger. We might have to destroy both of them."
"She's avoiding our equipment and we can't get her back under. We might be able to close that incision if we can just get her to lay back down. After that, we can worry about removing it.
"As long as she seems to be protecting the creature General, there's little that we can even try."
"Do what you can Doctor, and keep me informed," the General says as he heads out of the surgical unit.
TWO WEEKS LATER
"What do you plan to do now, Doctor?" the General asks.
"I'm surprised that it has taken this long for that thing to grow to this size. There is no record of it taking so long for these creatures to mature and this one still isn't nearly half grown.
"I'm going to move them both into a holding cell and hope that she'll release it long enough for us to trap it and then get her out of there. Everything's ready for us, all we now need is the go ahead from you."
"Then you'll have it. My men will escort you to the holding area Doctor, we'll all hope for the best."
The soldiers watch as the surgical chamber holding the woman and the alien creature is carefully moved from one room into another. Once there the soldiers stand watch, weapons fully at the ready as the General and Dr. Waters follow it inside. Once inside all but the doctor and the General leave.
The doctor opens the chamber and moves away from it as the woman tests the opening. Cautiously she climbs out, the creature staying close to her. So curious is she about her new surroundings, she never sees the doctor approach with the syringe in his hand until such a time as he injects her with a sedative. It quickly takes effect and soon she is unconscious, laying on the floor with the creature staying near her side. As the General approaches them, his is weapon drawn and at the ready, the creature suddenly runs, looking for a way to escape. It makes one mistake though when it runs back into the chamber and finds itself suddenly locked back inside it.
The woman is then taken back down to medical and promptly secured to one of the beds. When she wakes, she begins to struggle at her bonds, looking around at her surroundings, as if she were looking for something.
When the General enters, she settles down as she soon realizes that he is approaching her. Gently he touches her cheek as he looks at her, amazed at the quality of the work that is before him. As he touches her, she calms down even more, as a confused look comes to her face.
"Well Number Four, now we can get to work. I hope you can make us proud of what we are doing here. We have great plans for you," he softly says to her.
Suddenly, a crew of soldiers wheeling the chamber holding the creature enters the room. Seeing this, the woman again begins struggling against her restraints. This time she manages to break free and runs over to the chamber.
In amazement the soldiers and the medics watch as she tries to get at the creature, as well as it trying to reach her. Obviously there is an attachment between them.
"Sir," one of the soldiers begins, "what are we to do with the creature?"
The General thinks for a moment as he watches the woman.
"We keep it soldier. Put it back into the holding cell and release it from the chamber- but do it carefully."
Quickly the soldiers wheel it back out as the General tries to hold onto the woman. She doesn't fight him as she watches them leave but there is a scared look on her face as she looks at the officer holding her.
"Don't worry about your pet Number Four, you'll see it again. I promise."
She settles down and follows the General's directions, sitting back down on her bed. For the first time he realizes that she is still nude. He wraps a sheet around her as they wait for the doctor to come in.
Surprised at her willingness to cooperate, the doctor runs his tests. When he and his men are done, they leave her alone in the room. Once she is certain that she is alone, she cautiously gets off the bed and heads over to a computer terminal, watching the doors as she goes. Once there she begins punching commands and codes, all the while watching the monitor in front of her. It is while she watches the monitor that she happens to see her reflection on the screen. Wanting to get a better look, she shuts off the monitor.
Looking at herself, she becomes distraught, confusion showing on her face. Something is not right and she isn't sure why. Her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the men returning and so she returns to the bed.
THREE DAYS LATER
"What's going on Waters?" the General demands as he and several of his men come running into medical.
What greets his eyes is the sight of Number Four choking the doctor and the lab in shambles. The soldiers waste no time in stunning the woman, resulting in her releasing the doctor. With her now down, one of the other medics manages to get a large dose of a sedative into her and soon she is under control.
"Restrain her and get her into a holding cell," the General orders, and then turns to the doctor.
"What happened here Waters?"
"Damned if I know. One moment she's fine, the next has her going for my throat."
"What were you doing?"
"I was just giving her a physical, checking her eyes. I don't understand why she suddenly attacked. There was no cause for it." He answers as he rubs his throat.
"I'm going to have to let command know what has happened, see what they want me to do," he comments as he scratches his head.
"By the way, there has been an unusual amount of use reported coming from your computers Doctor. Have any of your people been on them quite a lot?"
"No, not that I'm aware of. Does anyone's code come up a lot?"
"No, just that these computers are receiving a lot of use lately, nothing else."
As the General leaves, he wonders what has happened with Number Four. Until now she had been causing no one any problems, and the attack on the doctor was so sudden.
"What has happened?" he asks himself. "Maybe she'll become more agreeable if she gets to see that alien in holding." he hopes, still just to himself.
The next day finds the woman in no better of a mood. As earlier, when the doctor enters the room she immediately attacks him only to be driven back by the soldiers using their stun rifles.
"It seems she has taken a disliking to you Doctor," the General says as they leave the cell.
"I agree though I don't understand why. It looks as if she'll have to be kept sedated for now until we figure this out."
"I hate to ruin your day even more Greg, but command has said that we either get her back under control, without drugging her, or terminate her and start again."
"How much time did they give us?"
"They didn't. They did suggest that there might be another way to solve this problem."
"And what's that Bill?"
"One name- Ellen Ripley."
"She's alive?" he asks incredulously. "Damn, we sure don't need her here."
"I agree. Ellen Ripley is bad news and an uncontrollable element. We'll just have to hope for the best and keep working on Number Four. We might be better off if command just has us terminate this part of the project instead of bringing her here."
"If we do have to bring her here, I hope she never finds out what we did to create Number Four, Bill."
"I agree with you on that Greg. Let's just pray that we don't have to bring her in on this."