I do not own the Species film series

"_" Telepathic speech

Chapter 8 – Project Athena

When Laura awoke she knew she was in trouble before even coming fully to her senses.

The first thing she felt was the cold and the chill on her skin, and she realised to her embarrassment that she was naked and tied down to a cold metal examination table. She tried to get up but the restraints that bond her wrists, legs and chest were too strong for even her alien strength to break. The air was freezing cold, her warm breathe easily visible to the eye.

She then remembered that Lennox had captured her and realised that she must be inside Project Athena and fear gripped her immediately as she looked around the cold and dark lab. Nightmares about being locked up in a tiny cage and experimented on almost made her tremble in fear but she took a few calming breaths and forced herself to calm down. If Sil had escaped from this place so could she. But actually just being here would keep her safe from Patrick.

This knowledge made her feel a little calmer and her thoughts suddenly turned to Eve, the other alien hybrid at the facility. How was she? Laura thought to herself, she hoped that she was alright. While she'd been the head of Project Athena, she taken every opportunity to teach Eve as much about being human as she could and to show her caring. She could only hope that whoever was currently in charge had treated Eve well, not just for Eve's sake but for Laura's own as well.

The door opened to Laura's right opened and man in a lab coat walked in, he was a squat looking man with greasy black hair and a pudgy face complete with beady looking eyes. He looked over the lab table at her body and licked his lips before shaking his head. Laura nearly shuddered in revulsion which was made worse when he spoke in a nasty perverted voice.

"Pity I can't do what I want to do with you" he sneered at her and ran his ice cold hand over her bound left leg, she tried instinctively to get away but the restraints held

"Now your presence is rather puzzling, the other two embryos are accounted for and Eve hasn't left the compound so what are you" he said but didn't give her a chance to answer before pressing a button on the wall near the door and Laura's world suddenly exploded in pain as electricity was pumped into the metal table and she screamed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX

"Even after I stopped the electricity she refused to speak" The nasty scientist called Doctor Ronald Hollister told the gathered head officials in the meeting room of the Project Athena facility led by Colonel Carter Burgess Junior and an n uncomfortable looking Press Lennox.

"Why didn't you continue the interrogation?" Burgess asked and he received a disgusted look from Lennox which he ignored

"Her skin has developed some kind of quality that absorbs the electricity without harming her, what so ever. After a few times it does didn't hurt her anymore" Ronald told them and a grim look crossed their faces

"We need to know where she came from. If someone else is carrying out a program of their own we need to stop it before one of those freaks gets out" one of the gathered suits said and Lennox scoffed

"Something funny Mr Lennox?" an air force general asked him annoyed

"Considering the number of screw ups you guys have made with this alien bull shit your hardly any better are you?" he said and the assembled group bristled at his words "Let me talk to her" he added

"And why would she talk to you?" Hollister said arrogantly

"Maybe because I won't try to electrocute her" Lennox said and Burgess said pointedly

"Fine twenty minutes, then you get your ass back on finding Patrick Ross" he said not expecting Lennox to succeed but was desperate enough to allow him his request.

Lennox made his way quickly out of the room, glad to be as far away from the idiots in there as possible. He'd been astounded when he'd found the woman who looked identical to Sil and that new one Eve. He'd been chasing Patrick and had nearly cornered him until that woman had shown up and knocked him off balance.

He made his way down to the lab where the new alien hybrid was being kept and he swore that when she saw him enter, she looked…relieved.

"Well I must say you're a surprise" Lennox said pulling up a chair to sit next to the table she was tied too "They swore to me that they didn't make any more of you. What's your name?" he said opening the conversation

"They didn't and my name is Laura" she said to him

"Laura?" He said and stiffened at the name Laura remembering the blond doctor who had worked with him to stop Sil years ago.

Laura was in two minds about what to do; she could reveal the whole story to Lennox and hope that he might help her. But she thought grimly he probably won't and think she was lying and lose a possible ally. She decided it best to not tell him anything more than she had too and definitely not tell him who she was.

"I don't know where I come from; I just woke up one day in some place about three months ago" she told him surprising herself at how easily the lie had slipped off her tongue.

"Where?" he asked

"I think it was Los Angeles, I just sorted wandered round for a while" she said

XXXXXXXXXXX

Lennox could tell that she was hiding something but what he didn't know, but his twenty minutes were soon up and he was quickly sent by Burgess to hunt down Patrick with the help of Dennis Gamble, the other astronaut from the Mars mission who had been fortunate enough not to be infected with the others from the mission.

Hollister came back and told her that she was being transferred to cell in the main lab, they pumped her with enough sedative to put an elephant under and when she woke up she was being moved on a rig of some kind still naked. When Laura saw the cells, her heart sank; the small eight foot by eight foot cells lined in steel and transparent plastic walls one of which held Eve who looked miserable and just lay on the floor unmoving. She was brought forward and ejected from her rig into the cell which slammed shut behind her. She pressed against the glass but it would break or move.

There was no bed or even a bucket in the cell, Laura looked over to Eve whose eyes met hers and Laura saw in her mind the misery that Eve had suffered through. Flashes of each other's recent lives sprung into their minds as a telepathic connection formed, just like the one Laura shared with Patrick. Their minds touched and Laura felt all the pain that Eve had suffered since she'd gone and Eve suddenly saw that it was Laura, the scientist who had been so kind to her.

"Laura how can this be?" Eve asked not really understanding the images she was seeing

"I was made just like you by a cure I made for a disease" Laura told her, sending as much comfort as she could to Eve.

"We're like sisters" Eve said and Laura was about to deny this but something stopped her, an impulse she couldn't explain

"Yes we are sister" Laura said and their minds revelled in the connection as the alien side of them rejoiced in their bond which rather than the domination and frightening edge that their connection to Patrick had, the bond between Eve and Laura was comforting and warm.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hollister came to their cells the following day and announced that he had been put in charge of finding any way possible to kill them; the two women could sense his glee and the terrible experiments had in mind for them. Laura was taken off for testing while Eve was left behind, Hollister injected Laura with a variety of different poisons to try and discover their effect on her. Eve sent as much comfort to her as she could through their bond while Laura's body was wracked with effects of many different poisons.

Hollister was frustrated when even the most potent of them was defeated by her body, which managed to create anti-bodies that neutralised each one. He actually walked up and slapped Laura in a rage.

The next day it was Eve's turn and while telepathically Laura sent as much support as she could to Eve, Eve was subjected to different poisonous gases but her lungs developed filters that allowed her to breathe the trace amount of air while filtering out the poisons. The days went by and each one was exposed to new torments. Laura hadn't had anymore dreams of Patrick for a while and her disgust at the people that ran this place got stronger everyday as did Eve's. Both of them now had been poisoned, shot, stabbed, electrocuted, hung and burned but always survived to heal within minutes of the event. As each day past she had to remind herself that not all people were like the ones here as she grew to hate them.

Laura was seething as she sat in her cell not even feeling the cold anymore, if she wasn't half human and hadn't met good people in her life she could easily have grown to hate humanity. She had just drifted off to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The following morning when awoken by the scientists for the next round of tests, Eve caught Laura's eye and the two of them made a pact telepathically

"We need to escape Laura" Eve told her with her mind

"Yes but if we do then we must disappear, leave the country otherwise they'll just bring us back" Laura told her

"Patrick could help us" Eve suggested remembering the dreams she had of him and the erotic visions of them both in his arms, their faces displaying ecstasy but Laura brought them both down to Earth

"We can't rely on him to help us, when I was captured he ran and abandoned me. And you've seen what happens to those women" Laura said to her remembering their brief meeting and the nightmares

"But how are we supposed to get out without him?" Eve asked

"I have a plan" Laura told her

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXX