Chapter 9: Inheritance

Six watched in horror as the hulking behemoth pounded on the glass in front of him but the glass did not shatter. As he looked down the room, Six saw many of the same thing: a large, brown-green organism, that looked part animal and part… something else.
"What is that… thing?"
"Oh, that is a sheep that is infected with a parasite we found on the ship. It's incredible; it's sentient, resilient and is compatible with any life-form with high enough calcium levels to sustain it. It's remarkably intelligent by itself; it even has the capability to wield weaponry. We just call it 'The Organism.'"
"And you do what with it exactly?" asked Logan
"We test it on various forms of life. It integrates itself into the host body remarkably fast. It then takes over and gains complete motor control. It also takes some of the host's knowledge, then attempts to spread by releasing what we call the 'base form'. We have some over here," he gestured over to another containment cell. Inside were lots of small squid-like things, bouncing around the walls.
"And these are the first stage of the infection?" queried Sherman
"Not quite, these are the parasites. These attach themselves to a host and take over."
"What are you doing all this for exactly?" asked Brandeis, looking slightly disgusted as a half-dog thing came up and flailed its tendrils against the glass
"Oh, we were told to try and make them obedient. We weren't told what would happen after that."
Six was quiet, slowly putting pieces together in his head when suddenly he spoke
"Are you new here?" he asked
Zimmerman blinked
"Yes, I was on the most recent group to replace the ones who weren't careful."
"They're planning on making these things into soldiers." Said Six. Everyone looked at him, some astonished, some, like Zimmerman, puzzled.
"Why would you think we would make them into soldiers?"
Clegg spoke up
"Think about it: if they are capable of using weaponry, what if you put one of those things on a bear, or a gorilla? You got a huge, intimidating and naturally resilient beast of nature that most people would run away from at first glance; now pair that up with the fact that these things are hard to kill, spread like wildfire and can use guns . I don't think anyone will want to fight it, armed or not."
"How did you guys know so much about this thing? It's highest clearance only." Remarked Zimmerman stunned
"Next time don't leave your test results lying around the secret entrance." said Clegg, as he tossed some sheets of paper at Zimmerman's feet.
Zimmerman looked down, picked up the papers and scanned them with a critical eye which widened, followed by his other eye.
"This, this is unbelievable. I didn't think that anything like this could happen but you're right, these," he indicated the sheets in his left hand "are results from the other testing teams and these," his other hand "are military training statistics, virulence reports and endurance tests." Zimmerman put a hand to his head
"Oh my god, what have I got myself into here? I can't just walk away, they'll find me easily. What am I going to do? What am I going to-"
"Calm down, man. I got an idea." Said Springett
"Ok, by 'them' I assume you mean the guys who employed you, right?"

"Right,"

"And they'll kill you if they find out you messed with their investment, right?"
"Oh, killing me would be merciful for them."
"So what about if we make it look like an "accident," we blow up the elevator shaft so that there is no evidence and you walk away knowing you didn't just commit a sin against nature. Waddya say?"
"It sounds great, but how are we going to convince the others? I'm not going to just let them die."
"Don't worry, I can be very persuasive." Said Logan, hefting his shotgun
"Logan, you know we don't harm civilians." Sherman reprimanded
"I wasn't going to harm them, just, rough 'em up a little. You know."
"I have a better idea, and it involves less guns." said Clegg. He turned to Zimmerman "Hey prof, you guys got a seismograph down here?"
"Yes, there is the occasional tremor but nothing major, why?"
"Good, let's do some tampering."