Edit: More 'Alien speech' problems. See chapter 4.

"I was a military scientist, working for a special bio-technology branch," said Hukken. "We didn't do any biological warfare stuff – not in my section, anyway. We were working on enhancing the human body, mostly; creating 'super soldiers' out of normal humans, working on the next-generation 'droids… that sort of thing. Then the infestation happened."

"As you probably know, Earth has been infected by a parasitic, predatory life form," said General Gorson. "What you may not know is that we've been aware of them for some time. We've given this lab access to all known information on the xenomorphs, as we call them. You'll need for your next project."

"What will that project be, sir?" asked Dr. Haines, geneticist and commanding officer of the section.

"We want you to study those Aliens until your eyes bleed, doctor. We want information on what makes them tick, how they can be killed… and how they can be controlled. You see, doctors," the General continued, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it, "High Command wants these 'morphs to be the next big thing in warfare. I want you to create the ultimate weapon with those things – enhance them, if you like – and make sure that Command gets what it wants."

"So we did," said Hukken. "Despite plenty of encounters with xenomorphs, there was precious little information to work on. Then we got some luck; Gorson provided us with a batch of Alien DNA. We played with it, and managed to create a few cloned 'morphs. And then, when we were happy, we started altering them. We had realised that only the Queens had any true intelligence, and that was mixed in with a healthy chunk of independence, as we'd found out from our clones. So we played with their brains, trying to create something that could be ordered around. From that, we created the hive we saw today; bigger, stronger and more intelligent even on the drone level than the originals. But we still couldn't get any control over them. That was when Haines seemed to go insane…"
"With all due respect, you must be mad, sir. It wouldn't make any difference!"

"That's where you're wrong, Hukken. Xenomorphs gain traits of their host's DNA, but that gets corrupted along the way. Using a retrovirus would eliminate that corruption."

("What's a retrovirus?" asked Hector. "An artificial virus designed, upon entering a cell, not to replicate itself, but to convert the cell's DNA to a preset design," explained Hukken.)

"Besides," continued Haines. "What do we have to lose? We have the ultimate killing machine down there (he jabbed a thumb towards the area containing the hive) and nothing to do with it. If we use that DNA to convert a human into an Alien, we'll potentially have all the advantages with none of the disadvantages." He waved a hand for emphasis. "The left-over human DNA will allow the creature to be more open to control. Hopefully."

"We found a kid on the street soon afterwards. He was pretty roughed up – lost his family to xenomorphs and was wandering the streets trying to survive. We took him in, gave him a room, and soon after gave him a 'flu inoculation'. It was nothing of the sort, of course. It was the retrovirus."

"You absolute…" Mara was lost for words. "Taking in the poor boy and subjecting him to that!"

Hukken shrugged helplessly. "I couldn't do a thing. Haines ran the whole show. Although… I was excited too. I didn't like the idea, but I was happy with it." He snorted. "You're right, I was a barstard."

"How are you today?" asked Hukken as he opened the door. He stopped in shock at the sight.

"What did you do?" The boy's voice was almost a hiss, as though his vocal cords were no longer fully functioning. His body was a mess of white, soft skin and black, shiny carapace. His hands had changed completely, and had sprouted long claws. A short, whip-like tail protruded from his back. Muscles rippled where they were still visible. "That was no flu inoculation!"

"Try to relax," Hukken said soothingly. "It'll be over soon."

"It will be for you if you don't stop this!" The strange, half-and-half creature lunged, claws flashing, but doubled over in pain. The loose coat he was wearing abruptly ripped and the long, characteristic spines rose from his back. The aberration raised its head, gave Hukken a look of pure hatred with its small, slit-like eyes and leapt.

Hukken belatedly backed off, but if his attacker hadn't suffered another spasm, he would have been hit by the creature.

"I'll leave you, shall I?" He backed through the door, locking it after him.

"A few teething troubles?" smirked Haines, who had materialised at his shoulder.

"I didn't expect such a violent reaction," said Hukken defensively. "Clearly the shock of the transformation, combined with the new xenomorph DNA, produced psychopathic tendencies."

Haines merely grinned.

"How is he?" asked Haines.

"See for yourself," responded the Marine guarding the cell. He pushed a control, and a hologram of the cell's contents appeared.

Inside was nothing more, and nothing less, than a fully-grown Alien drone. The last traces of humanity had been erased from creature.

Haines stared at his creation intently. "And now the acid test. Does it reach our standards? Or do we spill its acid?" He chuckled at his own joke. "Switch on the force field, and send in Dr. Kail. Let's see how it responds."

Kail, a recent addition to the team, had been chosen for this 'first contact' for her small size and unthreatening characteristics. She nodded briefly at Haines, and opened the door.

The xenomorph detected her presence instantly, and slowly uncoiled from its resting position. The creature looked at her, as though puzzled.

>I haven't seen you before. Kail almost had a heart attack as the voice echoed through her head. The good Dr. Haines has decided to investigate the results of his little experiment, I take it?>

"You…" She gulped for air. "You can speak…"

>More than that,> was the acid response. >Your precious experiment has the mind that he started off with. You transformed me into the creature that destroyed my life. And if you think I'll play along with your sordid little project, think again.>

"He was like that for a while. We eventually persuaded him to at least talk to us." Hukken paused. "Or at least partly. His telepathic abilities were impressive – he seemed able to view the world through our eyes, at least partly. He insisted that we didn't monitor his contact with Kail. There didn't seem to be any harm at the time; she reported everything that happened. In retrospect… you'll see when I tell you the rest.

"Haines, for his part, was delighted with the result. He called up Gorson, and started asking for military volunteers. Ten came through, and we started injecting them with the retrovirus."

"How are the patients?" asked Haines cheerfully.

The Med-tech in charge of the ten volunteers gave him an icy look, and switched on the screens that monitored them. The view made even Haines breathe in sharply.

Eight cameras showed horrific combinations of human and Alien. "They're all dead," said the Med-tech bluntly, gesturing at them. "Various causes. Four due to losing organs while they still needed them. Suffocation due to having no lungs… that sort of thing. The other two's immune systems started rejecting the new Xenomorph cells, and the new cells returned the favour."

She turned to the ninth camera, which showed an apparently healthy drone, but it was un-naturally still. "As far as we can tell, this one underwent the change without problems. However, his mind was lost… that thing is even more psychopathic than the average 'morph if it detects something that could be prey, and it just stays like this the rest of the time. It doesn't even have consciousness as we would recognise it; just a bundle of instincts."

The tenth camera showed a drone. The fact that there was another Med-tech next to it, without the Alien attacking him, indicated that it was the sole success. "Not a brilliant record, is it?" she snarled. "One success out of ten. General Gorson will not be pleased. I suggest you fine-tune your little virus, or risk losing your funding. Which you've been drawing on quite heavily…"

Kail shut the security door behind her. "Things just went wrong."

>The other… experiments were not successful. I know. The only one that was successfully transformed will not survive for long. He refuses to join the hive, and under the current circumstances we cannot afford a rogue. The Queen is slowly driving him insane even as we speak.>

"Current circumstances. Then you still want to proceed with your plan."

>Yes. Do you? We have reached a junction in time. If you back down now… things will become difficult for the entire base, including you. If you help us…>

"You're sure that they're not watching us?" whispered Kail. "This is tantamount to treason."

>Relax. I'd know. The Queen is a very good teacher.>

"I still don't see why She would accept you into the hive so quickly."

The drone gave a mental shrug. >Why not? But now is not the time.> The xenomorph looked at her piercingly. >This is no time for second thoughts. You know that eventually someone will slip up and we'll get out. This way will be far less bloody. It paused. That's what we both want.>

Kail sighed. "Having seen what both you and the 'original' hive are capable of… all right. But… I really don't want anyone to get hurt. They're idiots – Haines particularly. But I don't want anyone to die."

The other was silent for a long time. >I'm human too. Sort of. I can make no promises. I'm no fortune teller. But I will try to keep this under control.>

Kail nodded sadly, and clicked the interior door panel. A few seconds later it opened at the guard's order.

"Doctor? That was cut short. Is there a problem?"

Kail looked back towards the room one final time, and then acted. She snatched away the guard's pistol, clubbed him with the butt, and opened first the door, then the inner containment field. The guard looked at her in horror as he raised himself from the floor.

The guard raised the pulse rifle and tracked towards the cell's door, evidently deciding that the potentially escaping drone was a higher priority. He was too slow; the drone leapt out and flicked its stinger at his chest. The guard groaned, clutching at the wound, and then collapsed as the paralysing toxin took effect.

The drone turned to look at Kail, and flicked a claw towards the door. >Run. I cannot guarantee your safety when the hive is released.>

She needed no second order, but sprinted away.

"That bitch… that absolute BITCH!" shrieked Haines as the scene unfolded on the security screens. "I KNEW she was up to something. That bloody drone must've insisted on no monitoring so that we couldn't intrude on their cosy little chats." He spun to look at the marine Colonel standing at his side.

"I'm sick of all those xenomorphs cluttering up the cells," he snarled furiously. "We have the retrovirus. Kill the escapee and terminate the hive."

The drone watched Haines' outburst coldly. The fool should have been watching the screens more carefully; Kail had managed to delay the camera footage's transmission before breaking him out. If he had been looking more carefully, he would have spotted that the time index on the footage was fifteen minutes slow.

It was tempting to pounce now and deal with Haines immediately – his Xenomorph instincts were screaming for the taste of warm flesh, and his human mind was eager for vengeance. But he had promised Kail that no-one would be harmed. First release the hive, then see what happened…

Evance: Yes, the chapters have been a little on the short side to begin with. Hopefully it should start to bulk out a bit.