The next few weeks were a nightmare. Kaylin wanted out, but she had a feeling this was going to be one of those 'you know too much' scenarios, and she would disappear. Yes, maybe the other doctors had enough experience and enough of her notes to continue with the parasite removal themselves, but… she was also afraid to disappear, to die. So she signed the formal contract, even though there was much more frightening clauses that hadn't been in the working contract. Words like 'termination,' and 'penalized,' while normal words in contracts, sounded much more like guns to her head as she signed it.
They issued her a new ID, and she started working on the lower level, wanting to be anywhere but. They treated her fine, they were nice even, to her, and often she was simply left alone to test the materials and medicines that they had found in the alien's kit, and to study its biology from samples they gave her. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that sometimes, just one sound-proof sheer panel glass away from her, that alien they had imprisoned would be tortured.
They were merciless to it, exposing it to extremes, hot and cold, testing different atmospheres until it was either choking or heaving. They would sedate it, without knowing the kind of dose it would need, or if it would even react to it, then they would strap it to a table, and electrocute it, and continue to until it awoke howling in pain.
She could hear it in her nightmares. She would wake up in the middle of the night, sweating, sure that its cries were coming through the floor, even though the room it was in was thrice soundproofed. And then she would hug her knees to her chest and weep. Some nights, she would go downstairs, down to the room it was in, and look through the glass, past the viewing room and into the window. Sometimes she could see it, sitting on the ground on the opposite wall, staring at the glass, as it shoulders heaved up and down, struggling for breath.
It hated her. She could see it clearly. It hated them all, because of what they were doing to it.
And was she really any better for keeping her head down and letting it happen?
She would apologize, put her hand to the glass and try to express how sorry she was. If ever she got a response, it was the alien moving out of her view.
She requested a work room away from the alien. It was absolutely no secret to the other doctors that what they were doing disturbed her. Some were annoyed, the others seemed to pity her, either way, she was granted her own room to continue her research. It made her feel even more guilty, turning her back to the alien's pain.
She didn't understand why they were doing this to it, why they were putting it through torture the likes of which hadn't been witness by humanity since Josef Mengele. It occurred to her, later, that they seemed to be trying to break it, to tear down its spirit, for no matter how much pain and agony they put it through, it would always fight, it would always roar defiantly, and it would always stare them down with the pride of a lion.
They were trying to dominate a mountain that refused to fall, and in this way, it made its life a literal hell. They discovered soon that it didn't like the cold, and she found one evening, trying to visit it, that the very edges of the glass panel of its holding cell were frosted.
She tried to change the temperature, to adjust the settings in the room, only to find that it needed a level two clearance. The door, the computer, and everything else there required a level two clearance to operate properly. There was nothing she could do for it. She apologized to the glass, and it moved out of her view.
There was nothing she could do, she kept telling herself. There was nothing she could do to help it. Progress on her research slowed down 'unacceptably.' She was told to get back to work, that they didn't understand why she was slacking. It was unlike her, they said, they expected so much more from her. But what could she do? What could she really do?
She could do something. She would do something. She began to plan. She got her work up to standard, pleased the higher ups. Even though it pained her, she asked to be moved back into the room with the other doctors, blaming her past inadequacies on the lack of social interaction. Once she was in the room again, she began to monitor routines, trying to find an opportunity to swipe an ID card, or cause one to be 'lost' and retrieve it later.
It never came. Everyone was very careful. Everything was precise. She got caught once trying to take the ID off of someone's pocket, able to pass it off as asking about where their last name was. All the while, just one thin sheet of glass away, the alien's torture continued. This time, a line was crossed. This time, they were exposing it to chemicals to monitor the reactions. This time, they got one.
She barely remembered the day preceding it, but she remembered clearly the gargling roaring noise, the spasming and thrashing as the alien began to seizure. Doctors gave it a wide berth, and just watched. Kaylin pushed through, demanding to help it. When they questioned her she retorted. If it died, where were they going to get another one? Her words struck true, and she was allowed to treat it. She took the medicine she had been studying, hoping there was enough left, and injected one of the liquids directly into its heart.
It took only one minute for its body to stop thrashing. It was unconscious, but alive. She stroked the alien's crest gently, and silently apologized. It probably would have been a greater mercy to let it die.
When the higher-ups demanded to know why she wasted the medicine, she tried the same reasoning of where another alien like it would be procured. The supervisor over the facility didn't buy it, but Mr. Weyland himself intervened. He thanked Kaylin for saving it, saying it would have been a great waste if it had died. Because he had something greater planned for it.
He wanted it healthy. Its regular torture sessions stopped. It was fed a regular diet, and Kaylin was allowed to treat its wounds while it was strapped down to the table. For a full fourteen-day period, they took care of it, and Kaylin was beginning to think that whatever Mr. Weyland had planned for it would be a good thing. Mr. Weyland was a good man.
Then, the day came. That day, there was a sort of tension in the air. An excited buzz that Kaylin couldn't place. She didn't understand, as they strapped the alien down to the table, what it was Mr. Weyland was planning. Then they brought in the canister. Within, unmoving, was one of the fleshy spider-like parasitoid that inhabited this planet. With horror, Kaylin realized that they were going to intentionally infect the alien, and to her further horror, she realized that the reason she was asked to be on-hand in that room that day, that the reason she had been studying the alien's medicines and biology, was to be able to perform the same extraction procedure that she had done for the colonists.
So that the alien could be impregnated again, and again.
She was rooted to her spot, dressed in her surgical gown and mask, nitrile gloves tight against her hands as they clenched into fists. They removed the parasitoid from the canister; it was sedated, for now. She stared dumbly as the doctor turned, carrying the slick and still-wet creature towards the door to the viewing room. She saw the alien turn its head, and see its fate.
They succeeded. When the golden eyes of the alien fell upon the limp, long-legged creature, fear entered its face. It was afraid. They had won. Kaylin's heart broke. She heard the alien whimper through the opened door.
Something snapped.
Gore splattered onto the walls and the floors. People screamed. A body fell to the floor, scrambling for escape. A guttural scream beat against the metal walls. Cries and yells for help reached for the door but never made it. The glass canister shattered on the tile. Blood mixed with the clear, viscous fluid. The screaming stopped.
Kaylin stood still in the middle of carnage, heaving past gnashed teeth, vision blurred by tears. A bloody scalpel in her right hand. She shuddered, not entirely registering what she had done, then heard skittering. Panic filled her as she saw the parasitoid flip onto its legs from where it had dropped. It skittered back and forth, then moved towards the door, seemingly sensing the better of the two possible hosts.
Kaylin lunged, barely missing the end of its lengthy tail as it whipped around the door. The alien saw the thing plan an angle of attack. It strained against the straps holding it down as the long tail whipped to propel it from the floor towards its victim. Its tail was caught. It was smacked violently to the ground, and the sharp end of the scalpel pierced its back, straight in the middle.
Kaylin snatched her hand back, grabbing tightly around her wrist as the acid blood burned through her gloves and ate away at her flesh almost instantly. Crying and hissing in pain she used the gown to wipe away the acid, but not before it claimed her entire pinky, and most of her ring finger. She ripped off the gown and tossing it to the floor before it could melt to her legs or abdomen, curled in pain for only a moment, she reached out and removed the melting scalpel from the twitching parasitoid's body and used it to melt through the straps holding the alien down.
Once the final one was released from around its upper body, its massive hand closed around her throat. It roared at her face, holding her easily off the ground. She grabbed at its hand, trying to gasp for air.
"Plea-ease," she gasped, and it rattled an angry growl, looking at her, then down at the lifeless alien on the ground, then back to her as her vision darkened around the edges. It then dropped her, unceremoniously, to the ground. She held her throat, coughing harshly and gasping for air. The alien moved past her and stopped at the doorway, viewing the carnage that the small woman had wrought.
She stood, favoring her melted hand against her body and slipping past it. It glanced down at her as she turned to face it, bent in pain, half-sobbing.
"You need to go," she said, "you need to escape," she swallowed hard, "I'll help you."
Alarms went off around them. They needed to move quickly.
"Grab him," she pointed at the doctor with the level 2 clearance, "we need him for the retinal scan."
The alien looked at here she was pointing with her mutilated hand, and reached down. Rather than lift the whole body, though, it merely tore the head from its shoulders in a single tug. Kaylin was instantly sick by the counter, coughing then swallowing bile before more could make it out of her system. She leaned heavily on the door, opening it and making a mad dash for the elevator.
MOTHER was reporting the incident and calling the marines to the area. There was going to be a lot of guns coming at them soon. Heaving and shuddering, Kaylin turned to the massive alien who stormed into the elevator behind her. She hit the button for the lower level, ignoring the panicked screams coming from outside.
When the retinal scanner panel slid open she had the alien put the eyes to the scanner.
"Welcome Mr. Boothe," said MOTHER, "detecting other passengers aboard, confirm level two or higher clearance please."
Kaylin swore plaintively and turned to the alien.
"Back-up," she told it and it rattled at her. She shooed it with her good hand and it stepped back, then again when she persisted. Once it was out of the elevator the doors started to close and Kaylin waved the alien in. It crashed through, landing heavily on the ground then stood to its full height. It worked. MOTHER had been tricked into thinking the other presence had left. The elevator descended one floor and Kaylin favored her arm, refusing to look at her hand.
Her logic was simple. If it was on level two, then its ship and other things had to be on one of the lower levels, right? Or outside, but she had a feeling outside would be harder to get to. She had no idea how she was going to get to level four. The doors opened and revealed the third level. Bullets immediately tore into the elevator just as Kaylin was about to step out. Both her and the alien took shelter behind the walls of the elevator, the alien standing tall and waiting, Kaylin crouching into a ball, covering her head as she cried.
Something clattered to the ground and she looked down and saw some sort of grenade. In a split second, she kicked it back out of the elevator. Exclaimed cries resounded before an earth-rocking explosion. The alien was gone in an instant, and Kaylin followed after it. She didn't look at the burning and torn apart bodies as they hurried through them, only saw that this was the level they wanted to be on. It had to be, it was huge.
They ran down the level together, entering hallway and she snatched one woman with a level one clearance and demanded from the blubbering woman, "where's its ship!? Where's its ship!?"
The woman blubbered and cried, but then pointed down the hall and Kaylin took off down it, followed by the alien.
"This way, this way," she encouraged, more to herself than the alien.
They ran past a window and Kaylin froze. She took steps back to look in, amber eyes wide with horror. Within the room, lining the walls in glass cages, tall, black shiny creatures skittered and moved. They were almost serpentine, moving up and down the walls, trying to find any means of escape. Black domed, eyeless heads moved back and forth, hissing to reveal translucent teeth.
She knew what these were. She had helped cultivate them.
If these were here, what horrors were on level four?
Choking on a sob, she forced herself to turn, noticing the alien had stopped to look back at her. It probably would have left if she had waited too long.
The hallway finally opened up into a larger area, obviously a docking station, and very clearly there was its ship. It ran forward, stopped, then looked at her as she stayed put.
"Go!" she yelled, squeezing her injured hand. So much desperation, agony, and pain filled her as she shouted, "you have to go!"
The alien seemed to hesitate, but she was sure she imagined it. It turned away from her, running to his ship. As the ramp opened to its touch, she heard footsteps file behind her. Bullets ricocheted around the alien as it ascended up the ramp. She was grabbed from behind, her hair pulled tightly and then she was shoved to the ground, the barrel of a gun to her face. The ship lifted into the air, the noise of the engine so loud the shouts of Mr. Weyland, ordering the men to shoot the ship down could not be heard.
A large blue blot of light tore through one of the walls, and with a flash and a scalding wave of heat, the ship was gone. Kaylin collapsed on the ground, spent and crying. Writhing as she half-sobbed and half-laughed. The front of her shirt was roughly grabbed and she was lifted with ease to meet the hazel eyes of Mr. Weyland.
"You're going to pay," he snarled venomously before roughly pushing her to her knees. He turned his back to her, fists clenched, and the butt of a rifle came for her face.