Chapter Nine – The Balance of Power

It wasn't looking good for Pollard; Kristanna had attached heart rate monitors to his torso and as yet they had failed to pick up a single beat. He had begun to make louder glurping sounds as he appeared to be gasping for breath.

"He has no pulse! What's keeping him alive?" Kristanna yelled to the others as they held his struggling form to the table. She looked into the mangled wreckage of his face and peered into his remaining eye, there was no recognition there, no sign of humanity. This was his body but it was not Pollard. "There are no intellectual responses. I think he's dead, maybe some sort of toxic substance from that… Whatever it was is just causing his body to spasm. Sverre, could you?"

Sverre nodded solemnly, "You might want to turn away for this". Kristanna looked away as Sverre pulled his large revolver out of his jacket and fired a single shot into Pollard's head. His convulsions and glurping ceased immediately and he lay there motionless on the table.

"Bye, man" Morris bowed his head and mentally offered a prayer. It had been a while since he had last prayed but he felt now would be as good a time as any. Once he had finished he turned to Sverre. "Shall we bag him up?"

Kristanna raised her hand shakily, "Not yet; It might be worth performing an autopsy. There might be a clue as to what we're dealing with."

Morris slumped down onto the other table, "I was in there just five minutes before Pollard. There was nothing in there except Akira? Was that thing our dog?"

Sverre rubbed his eyes with a hand, "Some of the parts I found suggest a dog. The markings on the fur that remained on it would suggest it was Akira but there were skull fragments that looked more like bear than dog. It was such a mess down there…" Sverre stopped speaking suddenly, "D'you hear that?"

A dripping sound was coming from the table containing Pollard. They glanced over the body to locate the source of the sound. Kristanna beckoned the others to the remains of his head, "Its blood from the bullet wound. It's ok." She picked up a large clump of surgical gauze and proceeded to stuff it into the gaping hole in Pollard's head. As she pushed it inside with a gloved finger an inhuman scream emanated from Pollard's chest. Kristanna pulled her finger back in time to see a row of razor sharp teeth slam closed in the top of Pollard's head narrowly missing her fingertip. Sverre pulled out his revolver again and emptied it into the head and face of the creature as it slowly began to sit upright. Its back tore apart to reveal two large claws that extended out from within and reached for the ceiling, its spine swinging back and forth like a demonic tongue.

Sverre stuffed his gun back into his jacket, "Bullets do nothing! Torch it!" Martinez stood frozen staring at the beast as its claws tore into the ceiling in an attempt to escape. Sverre screamed even louder, "Martinez! Torch it! Now!"

Morris yanked the flame thrower away from Martinez and blasted the beast with red hot flames. It roared and dropped down below the table. Kristanna grabbed a bottle of ethanol from the cupboard, placed a rag inside and lit the end before throwing it onto the convulsing mass of flesh at her feet. The makeshift Molotov cocktail erupted on contact engulfing the screeching beast. Finally the creature let out a sigh and struggled no more. The charred remains looking no longer like Pollard. No longer human.

Kristanna eyeballed Sverre frantically, "The one in the Kennel. You sure it's dead?"

"Its toast. Couldn't be deader"

"Good, can you bring it in here? I want to check something."

Bok'Tof stood at the brow of the ice hill overlooking the human outpost. From his vantage point he could see into the large lab windows. The cold wind was beating against his skin but he felt nothing but the thrill of witnessing the battle below. Identifying the changelings within the camp would be difficult without the enhanced technology from his home world. He would have to watch and wait until they revealed themselves to attempt assimilation. As the humans perished; the creature would become bolder. It would currently not reveal its true nature unless it was either certain of successful assimilation or under an immediate threat. Bok'Tof was certain that when it revealed itself again; he would be ready.

Tra'Bir and Ramnah hurriedly armed themselves with their spears and plasmacasters. They had to act fast if they were to ensure the safe retrieval of Bok'Tof. The Entity Classification of Type 5 was reserved for the most vicious and despicable beings known to the Yautja. Any beings belonging to Type 5 had historically been a threat to the very existence of the Yautja. Even the Kainde Amedha ranked as only a Type 3. It was forbidden by clan law to even attempt to hunt a Type 5. Although Tra'bir no longer had love for his Clan's rules; he could not allow a fellow Yautja to walk into certain doom. "Ramnah, you have seen the historical records on this being. You understand why it cannot be allowed to live. Our first priority is to retrieve Bok'Tof and regroup to formulate a plan."

Ramnah's wristblade glistened as he extended it in anticipation of the forthcoming battle. He turned to Tra'Bir and simply nodded. Nothing more needed to be said as the duo burst into a sprint toward the outpost.

The two smouldering heaps of burnt flesh sat precariously on the examination tables of the lab like side attractions at a ghoulish freak show. Bones, tendons and appendages jutted from the masses adding to the macabre spectacle. Kristanna; now wearing coveralls and a surgical mask; carefully examined the shapeless form that was formerly Pollard. The others sat around the lab watching with disgust and fascination in equal measures. She skilfully wielded her scalpel as she sliced into the flesh where she suspected the heart and lungs might have been. The burnt flesh separated with ease and soon the blackened innards were on display. She deftly plunged her hand inside and pulled out a thick red ball of sinew.

"Heart. Enlarged. Mucous covered suggesting that some early onset infection was in place."

Morris hurried to the waste bin and promptly vomited. Sverre snorted his approval; clearly welcoming the distraction from the current dire situation they all faced. Morris turned to Kristanna with a look of sheer disgust, "Can we be a little less descriptive?"

Kristanna looked at him blankly and finally delved back into the mangled carcass. "Hmm, pieces of dog skull. Must have happened during the struggle… What the hell is this?" Carefully she grasped at an unseen mass in the centre of the chest cavity and with a groan of exertion she pulled it slowly clear of the body. It was a thick fleshy sack. Its pink opacity concealed its contents from view. Gently, Kristanna made an incision along the perceived top of the container and prised open the two parts. She jumped back in revulsion as an appendage limply fell through the newly created opening and flopped to the table. It was a miniature head.

"What is that?" Morris exclaimed in horror. "It looks like two halves of a different head stuck together".

Kristanna doused the head with water, cleaning off the mucous and blood that obscured their view. "Its looks like a hybrid of some form. Maybe partly digested by the monster and has fused together from the heat. The structure indicates that it is. What? Look at this part! This is the jawline and upper neck of a polar bear but it looks… Incomplete." As she turned the head to better see the remaining part she jumped back in fright. "No. What the hell is going on here?" The second part of the head was unmistakeably human. It was unmistakeably recognisable by those who witnessed it either being pulled from the ice or escaping from the compound just the night before. The second part of the head was formerly known as Childs.

Kristanna quickly bore down onto the mutilated corpse of Akira and tore its outer skin open; anxiously looking for an answer. Ribs and muscle tissue landed on the floor with a sickening squelch as she pulled at the insides. Finally she stopped. Her hand was resting on something spongy but firm to the touch. Gingerly she pulled at it; at first it resisted but after a moist tearing sound it finally began to move. As it left the gaping wound in the dog, Kristanna let it drop to the floor. It was a human arm.

Kristanna knelt over the arm, "Another victim? Clearly Caucasian although muscular and quite tanned so not belonging to Childs, Pollard was a slight man with freckled skin so it was unlikely to be his. Besides, prior to him turning inside out on the table, all his extremities were accounted for. Unless." Kristanna stood over the mass of dog flesh and manipulated the burnt flower of flesh, carefully forcing it closed. It was an entire dog's head. She briskly walked to the computer terminal.

Sverre approached her cautiously, "Unless?"

She replied without taking her eyes from the screen, "Unless I'm on the wrong train of thought. What if these parts aren't taken from the victims?"

Sverre looked confused, "Sorry, you've lost me."

Kristanna eyed him suspiciously, "That might be true." Without warning she ran to the surgical trolley and grabbed the cleaver.

Morris jumped to his feet, "Krissy, what the fuck?"

She waved the cleaver at each of the others slowly. "Body snatchers."

Martinez shook his head laughing "She's flipped. That's it. We're fucked. We either die by armoured beasts, alien blobs or this psycho bitch"

Morris waved his hand frantically at Martinez, then at Kristanna "Martinez, shut the fuck up! Krissy, body snatchers; what do you mean?"

She leant back against the wall. The pressure of the situation was telling. Her countenance was one of desperation. "Isn't it obvious? These aren't bits it has eaten. These are bits it is storing or growing; stealing body mass from its victims. The only reason such a creature would want to make copies would be to imitate. You have all been alone with that dog to a certain degree. That male arm might be part of any of you."

"Krissy. I'm not one of those, things. I sounded the alarm when Pollard was attacked, remember? Sverre shot and torched them."

"Each separate creature may be a completely new life form, only out for number one. If keeping quiet or even attacking another of its kind aids its survival, why wouldn't it?"

Martinez stepped forward, "Hey, you were in here with Navarro. You were both left alone with that body. What's to say it didn't grab you?"

Kristanna gazed defiantly at him, "You can't know for certain. The only suggestion I can offer is that it is a fairly peaceable being, favouring slow quiet takeover rather than forceful attacks. The times it has 'burst out' in front of a group it has mounted an escape attempt."

Morris nodded in agreement, "That sounds likely, it will know how many people it has taken over and would wait until the balance of power was in its favour. Better for three to overpower one than a single creature reveal itself to an alert and possibly armed crowd and risk being killed. I'm guessing that those who are taken over will know that they are. In which case I know I'm me. So if there is another one, its more than likely in this room pretending to be one of the others."

"Easy to say; I don't know who I can trust and until I do; you can all keep the fuck away from me."