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Chapter 18 –Genetic Engineering
Minas Tirith

Éomer tried to control his spirited horse as he waited for Faramir and Éowyn to ride up. He knew from the looks on their faces that the children of his friends Aragorn and Legolas had not been found. He had searched Osgiliath from one end to the other, resorting to turning over rocks in hopes of discovering a burrow where they could have crawled into. Their horses had been found wandering in the fields. But their masters were nowhere to be found.

"Nothing," said Faramir as he drew his horse to a stop before Éomer. "The guards have searched everywhere."

Éomer turned in the direction that led away from Minas Tirith. "Could they have possibly followed the others when they left for the Grey Havens?"

Éowyn shook her head. "Not without horses."

Éomer gave his sister a thoughtful look. She looked haggard and exhausted. "Then they must have been picked up by Aragorn or Legolas. To be sure I ride for the Grey Havens within the hour."

"I will ride with you," said Faramir.

Éowyn frowned at them. "I yearn to ensure that the children are safe as much as anyone, but it is my duty to point out that Minas Tirith cannot be left unattended."

"My dear sister, you and my wife are quite capable of seeing to the needs of the city," countered Éomer. "I leave Gamling here for you to rally the men if there should be a need."

Valinor

As Eldarion continued to dig his dagger into the mortar holding the bricks in place, Anwar wished she had a dagger of her own to help him. All she could do was watch with unbridled fear as the creature screeched and hissed and broke more bricks from above.

At long last one of the bricks at Eldarion's feet came free. But he quickly realized that with the amount of time it had taken him to free just one brick, it would take far too long to break off enough bricks to widen the hole for even Anwar to crawl through.

Suddenly Anwar stiffened. In her misery, she did not realize the frantic distress call she had subconsciously released and was just then sensing the presence of someone close to her. "Naneth." (mother)

Eldarion abruptly stopped and glanced at Anwar. "Did you say something?"

§

Ariedel stopped in her tracks and frowned, her eyes glancing left and right. "Anwar."

Ripley paused when she realized Ariedel had stopped. "Are you okay?"

Ariedel looked in the direction of the village just beyond the hill. In the next instant she raised her pulse rifle and started running down the hill.

Ripley shrugged and followed, trusting that the other knew where she was going. When they reached the main road of the village, Ripley scanned the area and noticed movement along the rooftop of a building several hundred meters away. "Over there."

Ariedel stopped running and turned to where Ripley was pointing. The lower half of an alien was just barely visible as it frantically dug through the bricks of a chimney.

"Something's down that chimney," said Ripley.

Ariedel couldn't understand why she was thinking of Anwar at that moment. There was a sick feeling in her stomach and all she knew was that she needed to find out what that alien was after.

Together Ariedel and Ripley rushed into the building with the alien on the rooftop. They gave each room a cursory glance, looking for the fireplace that belonged to the chimney. Then they found it in what looked like the kitchen.

§

A brick struck Eldarion on the head, but he ignored the pain and the warm feel of blood dripping down the back of his neck. He needed to concentrate on breaking more bricks free. Another had finally come loose, but there were three more layers to go through.

Anwar glanced up and her eyes widened when she saw the creature had broken through and was beginning to crawl down toward them, head first and using its limbs to support its decent. Its progress was fortunately slow, due to its bulk. But Anwar realized that the creature would reach them before Eldarion could break enough bricks.

Ariedel walked up to the fireplace as a brick fell down into the ashes at the bottom. She dropped to her knees and crawled forward into the fireplace, looking up into the chimney. What she saw shocked her beyond reason. There was her daughter, Anwar, with Eldarion desperately trying to widen the hole for them to crawl through before the alien above reached them.

"Naneth!" cried Anwar when she saw her mother's face appear below them. (mother)

Ripley handed Ariedel a metal rod that looked like a poker, which she quickly handed up to Eldarion.

With this heavier instrument, Eldarion was quickly able to break more bricks free. The hole soon widened and the alien continued its decent, screeching at the possibility of losing its prey.

"Climb down!" Ariedel reached up to grab Anwar as she slid head first through the opening. When she was through, Eldarion jumped into the hole. Ariedel grabbed both children and dragged them away from the fireplace, pushing them behind Ripley while she turned back and raised her pulse rifle.

Seconds later the alien emerged from the opening, parting its jaws in glee at finding more prey. Instead of two, now there were four. But it didn't have a chance to think any further. Ariedel pulled the trigger of her pulse rifle and delivered more than two dozen rounds into the alien, acid blood splattering everywhere.

When the alien was dead, Ariedel whirled around to embrace her daughter. Then she pulled Eldarion into their embrace as well. After the initial moment of relief was over, she held them both at arm's length. "Where did you two come from? How did you get here?"

Eldarion and Anwar exchanged glances. They wondered if they would have been better off with the alien rather than to feel the wrath of their parents.

Weyland-Yutani Research Base

Jordan handed the twins each a mug of hot chocolate. "Here you go. Tell me how it tastes."

The twins took sips and at the same time looked up and nodded with smiles on their faces.

"I promise you that Mr Train won't bother you again," she said.

Elladan looked up from his mug. "What will he do to Legolas?"

"Legolas? Who's Legolas?"

"Our friend from Middle-Earth," continued Elrohir. "We grew up together…although we are now Elflings again."

"Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me that Train brought another Elf into this compound?"

The twins nodded.

Jordan got up from the table. "When I leave, I want you to lock the door the way I showed you. Don't open it for anyone except me." Then she walked to the door.

Leland frantically typed on a keyboard attached to a screen, which was in turn hooked up to a large unit with dozens of wires. The wires ran along the ground to a pair of cryochambers. Thick tubes transferred various substances from one cryochamber to the other. "This is brilliant. I can't figure out why I didn't think of doing this sooner."

Phillip Quinn sat working at another terminal. Every once in a while he would glance up in Leland's direction, trying to determine where the doctor was in the process. Quinn just shook his head, thinking how like Dr Frankenstein the man looked at the moment. Two hours ago, Leland had Quinn running around, giving him orders to do this and do that, menial tasks that should have been assigned to persons of lesser status. Then when Quinn asked to help on the more interesting parts of the experiment, Leland physically pushed him away and glared as if Quinn had attempted to steal his secrets or something of that nature. Well fuck him, thought Quinn.

Jordan walked in several minutes later. She tried to appear as casual as possible, only because she wanted Leland to believe that she was interested in what he was doing so she could get information out of him. "Hey, this looks like a great set up. Anything I can help with?"

Leland turned to Jordan. "I'm glad you're here Dr Messer. You're about to witness history in the making."

"Great. Can't wait to see what you come up with." Jordan strolled over to the cryochambers and peered into the first one. It contained an immobile alien drone. The other cryochamber contained a blonde-haired Elf, completely alert and twitching as if he had no control over his own nervous system. The fact that the Elf was conscious troubled her. She walked over to Quinn and casually showed interest in what was on his screen. "What the hell's he doing?" she whispered from the corner of her mouth.

Rather than speaking, Quinn blanked out his screen and began to type: HE'S CREATING A HYBRID. HE'S FIGURED OUT A WAY TO ALTER THE ELF'S DNA AND INTRODUCE FOREIGN BODIES INTO HIS SYSTEM. SAYS HE'LL TURN OUT BETTER THAN A CLONE.

"And do what with him?" she whispered again.

Quinn typed: WHO THE FUCK KNOWS. HE WON'T LET ME TOUCH ANYTHING. SAYS I'LL SCREW SOMETHING UP, LIKE I'M SOME IDIOT.

"How did he get the Elf?"

Quinn typed again: TRAIN BROUGHT HIM IN A COUPLE HOURS AGO. UNFORTUNATELY I MADE THE MISTAKE OF IDENTIFYING THE ELF AS THE ONE FROM GATEWAY THAT COULD COMMUNICATE WITH THE ALIENS.

Jordan cringed at the news and walked away from Quinn. She came up behind Leland. "So what's the game plan, Leland?"

Leland continued to type, speaking with his back to her. "You know how we've been able to take certain traits from the alien and add them to the human physiology when we create a clone?"

"Yes?"

"Well, I've discovered a way to actually alter those same traits in an existing specimen."

"Sounds intriguing. What're you working on right now?"

"Trying to decide what I want to give him."

"What're the options?"

Leland moved away from the screen to give her a chance to read what was on it.

Jordan faked a sincere smile and leaned forward to look at the screen. As she saw the items on the list, her brows drew together in concern. Could Leland truly give the Elf all of the traits listed? It was by far many more traits than could have been accomplished through cloning. Some would be easily distinguished at first glance. But there were many internal traits that would never be seen from the outside. She pointed to one on the list. "How is this one possible?"

Leland make a tsk sound. "Dr Messer, I'm disappointed you don't already know that. It was accomplished on the Ripley clone."

"That may be so, but with the clone it's like starting from scratch and everything is altered from the very beginning. What you have here is an existing specimen."

"Very well. Allow me to explain." Leland typed on the keyboard and the image on the screen changed to a set of DNA strings, both different in every aspect. "By altering this section of the DNA string on the Elf to match the one of the alien here, the arteries go through a drastic change on a molecular level, thus making it impervious to the acid being introduced to the blood. Using that same technique, I can also alter the molecular structure of the internal organs, as well as the epidermis."

Jordan was appalled, but impressed at the same time. The man was beyond a doubt a true genius in the genetic engineering field. She thought about how this could benefit humankind. Soldiers could be altered to withstand the acid blood of the aliens. They could think like them, move like them, maybe even look like them. To what end could human beings be altered? Would they no longer exist in their current form? The idea quickly began to sicken her. This was too much. It just needed to stop. "You're truly insane," she said in barely a whisper because she didn't trust her voice enough to speak louder with the sudden outraged emotion she was feeling. Jordan had expected something bizarre, but she truly hadn't expected Leland to come up with something so farfetched.

At Jordan's statement, Leland's excited expression changed to a look of bitterness.

After composing herself, Jordan turned to Leland. "You can't expect our society to accept mutated human beings. This is not what our research is meant for. As foul as these aliens are, through our research, we've been able to find cures to diseases we never thought curable. Aside from that, we're looking for ways to communicate with the alien race so we can understand them better."

Leland grimaced. "Understand them? What's to understand?"

"Where do they come from? Why do they do what they do?"

"Don't you know that by now? They do what they do because that's all they know. They're like bees, with not an ounce of reasoning."

Jordan waved her hand in the direction of the cryochambers. "But that Elf can communicate with them right now. Did you at least try to get them to communicate before you started messing around with his system?"

"I've learned something rather important in the last couple of days. I've learned that no matter what method we use to try to communicate with these things, there's nothing we can say to them to alter their way of thinking."

"And what exactly are you trying to accomplish by doing all of this?"

"I'm trying to find ways to improve the human race, so we can beat the aliens at their own game. Why should we have to live in fear of them?" he spat. "They should be living in fear of us. We're the superior beings in the universe. Humankind must prevail over any other lifeform we encounter!" Leland turned away from her in disgust.

Jordan shook her head, thinking that Leland actually sounded as insane as she thought him to be. "You can't continue what you're doing."

"It's too late," he said over his shoulder.

"No, it isn't." Jordan walked away from him and moved toward the cryochamber containing the Elf.

(Legolas's POV)

Muffled voices reached my ears, but I was unable to discern any words due to the constant buzzing that sounded in my head. Every part of me felt so utterly cold that I shivered, while at the same time, I was burning from the inside, feeling an intense pain entirely engulf me. Above all I was unable to control the continuous twitching of my joints as if an invisible force pulled at my neck and my limbs.

My vision was slightly blurred from the involuntary watering of my eyes, but I could see the face of a woman looking down at me. She had a pleasant face and seemed genuinely concerned upon seeing me. Her lips moved as if she were speaking to me. I would have tried to respond if I could get my lips to move the way I wanted them to.

Suddenly a hand covered her mouth and I could see that she was struggling to free herself. Then she was gone and I was left alone again with thoughts of the pain, the buzzing, the twitching, the cold and the burning.

And then I wondered who I was…or what I was.

Jordan was tossed into one of the empty observation chambers. She rolled on the floor and hit the far wall. When she sat up with a groan, she discovered she had a gash on her forehead. "Train, goddammit!" Jordan stood up and rushed to the entrance just as the door slid shut, sealing her inside. From the other side of the Plexiglas, Jordan saw Train grin at her. She slammed her palm on the barrier in anger. "Let me out of here!"

Train turned away from the observation chamber. "We've hooked the satellite back up and there seems to be an urgent message from headquarters for you, doc."

Leland sighed heavily, reluctant to leave during the critical point of the mutation. Then he shook his head and followed Train toward the door.

"Anything you want me to do?" asked Quinn from his terminal.

Leland whirled back around. "No, you blithering fool! Don't touch anything!"

After Leland disappeared out the door, Quinn's docile expression turned hostile. "Don't touch anything, huh?" He pushed a button to release a tiny disk from his CPU drive. He took the disk and walked over to the terminal Leland had been working on. After placing the disk in the drive, Quinn began typing commands. "Let's see how you like me messing with this shit, cock sucker." The image on the screen changed and thousands of data strings scrolled rapidly.

Jordan watched from behind the Plexiglas. "Quinn! Get me out of here!"

Quinn looked over his shoulder at Jordan. "Can't do it, Jordan. Just stay put and when this is over, Train'll let you out."

"Oh come on. Do you really think after all of this is said and done that Train is going to let any of us walk away? Think about it, Quinn. Weyland-Yutani owns their own security people. Why would they hire a man like Train, an ex-USCM, to play security man for a bunch of scientists? He was hired to deal with us when our work was finished."

Quinn continued to watch the data scrolling on the screen, but he was also thinking about what Jordan was saying. It made perfect sense in a way. "So what're you saying? He's going to kill us all?"

"I'm sure of it."

"And what're we supposed to do? We can't leave the base without getting attacked by the aliens outside. We have no weapons."

"Let me out of here, Quinn and we'll figure it out."

Quinn waited until the data stopped scrolling and the disk drive slid open. He took the tiny disk, typed on the keyboard to bring Leland's original screen back up and then he turned toward the observation chamber containing Jordan. He quickly walked over, pushed the button to cycle the door open and stepped aside to let her out.

Jordan immediately went to Leland's terminal. "We have to stop this."

"If you do, you'll kill him. It's too late."

Jordan turned to Quinn. "Don't you think he'd be better off dead?"

Quinn grabbed her by the wrist. "Come on, before Leland comes back."

Freak peered through electronic binoculars, scanning the immediate area of the small building cleverly concealed in the shadow of the mountain. There was no movement outside the structure. But he did see a set of tire tracks from what looked like a heavy APC. Obviously a new model and from the way Glorfindel described what he saw, the APC had a cloaking device, making it virtually invisible.

Aragorn was lying on the ground to Freak's right. To Aragorn's right was Gimli.

"Blazing Balrogs, tell us what you see already!" grumbled Gimli.

"Way too quiet," said Freak. "But the good news is, the lens on their exterior surveillance camera is busted."

"What does that mean?" asked Aragorn.

"They won't see us approaching." Freak pushed his left sleeve up. "Synchronize watches."

Aragorn and Gimli both stared at Freak in confusion as they watched him make an adjustment to the black band with the metallic circle on his wrist.

"I do not have one," Aragorn said unsurely, hoping that it was not critical to the mission that they all had one of the devices.

"Nor do I," added Gimli.

Freak turned to the two and rolled his eyes. "Never mind. Come on."

The two men and the dwarf moved out from behind their rock cover and headed for the compound, weapons held ready in case of any trouble. Their mission had two objectives. The first was to rescue Legolas. The second was to destroy the base.

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