The building of the graboid hatchery was primed and ready to go by January 1st. The next method was trying to hatch graboid eggs. Lewis had spent all his time wondering how that could be done. The scientists couldn't use the real eggs until they had a sound method.
The graboid hatchery had some differences from the original plan. There were some off shoots to hold one graboid by themselves, along with a small metal box that allowed scientists to put the egg and whatever other aids they had to hatch along with it. This way no one would lose their lives and the baby graboids can go directly into its new environment.
Caitlyn also added a gate to lead out from one of the offshoots. This way they could load a graboid onto a truck if needed. The construction workers still working on the shrieker and assblaster boxes.
Some of the scientists were bouncing off ideas in a group. Lewis was sitting with the group but he wasn't listening to them. He was racking his brain trying to come up with how graboid eggs hatched. What was it that all incidents had in common?
The 1800 incident was a mining town, Perfection had nothing going on, Mexico was on oil rig, Argentina had nothing going on, what was it? The small incidents that Burt had gone to, also nothing. There must be some connection. He was drawing a blank. His thought process moved over to eggs themselves. Eggs need to be in an incubator if the mother is not there. Day one through seventeen for chickens need to be at 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. There needs to be egg turning, checking for humidity. Day eighteen through day twenty-one, no turning. He thought about how an assblaster would be trying to turn eggs. Since people can use candles to see how the egg embryo is doing, maybe the heat flaps can check through the thick shell. He chuckled to himself. What would happen if an assblaster took off using its butane end? Would it cook the eggs? Graboid eggs, over easy, the new meal for the day. Lewis' pencil dropped. It all pieced together. That's how the eggs hatch.
It takes eight pounds of the best rocket fuel to get one pound into low earth orbit. Assblasters only need so much of fuel to blast off ten feet into the air before they catch wind and glide around. A tiny amount needed for that compared to the eight pounds. High heat source. That was the connection to some of the events. The mining town of Rejection had a hot spring. Natural hot springs can exceed the boiling point of 199F. That must be how they came back again in the first Perfection incident. The hot spring. He made a mental note to thoroughly check when he got back. Mexico with the oil rig facility, that company was drilling for oil. The heat from the drill must have hatched them. Argentina could be the same. Hot springs are natural and found everywhere on the west side of the Americas which could explain the rest of the single incidents that Burt trekked upon.
Lewis stood up. The rest of the scientists quieted down to see what he was doing. Lewis grabbed a laptop. He set it down in front of him. The group was curious on what he was doing. Messerschmitt was the only assblaster still alive. Those team of scientists that study them have some information to the public. Lewis needed that information to begin conducting something similar.
"Aha!" Lewis grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. "Graboid eggs hatch due to the heat from an assblaster. We all kept thinking that an assblaster would sit on the eggs like any other reptilian or fowl would do. Assblaster doesn't need to sit to hatch eggs. They need to use their heat from the back end to hatch them. Hence why eggs can be found in the same area for years upon years. An assblaster could walk away and launch themselves from the area without hatching the eggs. We also don't know much about the habits either. Could have died after hatching eggs? Doesn't seem as logical though but then again with all the eggs still here, not something we could cross off the list just yet.
"We need to recreate the height and motion of an assblaster taking off next to the eggs to hatch them," Lewis drew a rough sketch. "We need to use the same infrared sensors as they do to see body heat. That way we can check on them to see if that actually did anything."
The scientists believed it sounded plausible. The group put their heads together to make it to scale using the information that was already out there. They made sure to fit it according to the small boxed area leading into the concrete box so it was easier.
When it was ready, Caitlyn approved of the system. She was thrilled that it was taking off without a hitch. As promised, she gave them one batch of eggs. The scientists believed to do one egg first to actually test it out with the real thing before moving the rest of the batch in there.
All of the group was watching big screens while two scientists were working the controls of the phantom assblaster cloaca. The egg was positioned just right. One of the scientists started a countdown before the button was pushed. The flames came out of the phantom cloaca, hitting the egg and the ten-inch metal slab door. The flames stopped. It was only long enough for a takeoff. They didn't want to do too much at once. They watched the screens to see if there were any movements from the egg.
One screen has infrared. The egg was lit up, so it did intake the heat. Nothing for the first five minutes. Their hearts started to drop when there were still no signs and it was fifteen minutes into it. The egg was still lit up but nothing else was shown. Lewis thought that it may need longer time. There is an embryo but none of them knew how developed the embryo is inside. They weren't allowed to crack one open to study it. It may take twenty-one days to hatch. This was not an instant result type of work. This was trial and error with getting lucky on how right they were. Helps that this was what his research is conducted on. Lewis has had a few years on graboid studies unlike these scientists who were probably pushed out of their actual fields to make graboids hatch.
These scientists probably thought a few days maybe for this egg to hatch but it could be like dinosaurs, it took them three to six months to hatch. Lewis was trying to remember how long it took to boil an egg. Twelve minutes for hard boiled. That was just a regular chicken egg. An ostrich egg it takes one and a half to two hours. It takes a gas stove to eight minutes to bring four cups of water to a boil. He did some calculations in his head. If the embryo was well formed and the heat source was the last touch then it would take an hour to two hours possibly. He thought about the secret diary entries. It said that the things only came out once and then came back three months for the next attack.
"What if we," a scientist started to speak out when it hit an hour.
"No!" Lewis interjected. "We don't know the full incubation period. Keep recording. We are going to do other things while we wait. This is our first egg. We can't think we failed when we don't have instant results right now. We don't know what state the embryo looks like. We just see an egg lit up still hot. We can at least gather that the egg can hold the same temp for an hour."
"So, like a 'watched pot never boils,'" another scientist brought up.
"A watched pot does boil, if you have the patience," Lewis responded. "Let's relax and wait."
The group dispersed from the area. It was around lunch time for them. They sent a few off to bring lunch back to the lab so they could still be there when something happened. Nothing happened. The group started thinking of names to call the baby graboid. It took until dinner time to figure out baby graboids would be called grablites. Since a shark is still called a shark when it's a baby so it could be the same for a graboid but just a lite version, hence grablite.
It wasn't until dessert was halfway eaten when the egg started to move. The group froze while watching the screens. The egg moved again. It was rocking back and forth. The egg started to crack. It was finally happening. The cracking was followed by egg shells being moved. A whitish tan slug of a thing pushed itself out of its egg shell. It moved around on the ground feeling its way here and there. It looked soft. No hard shell. Soft and rubbery. The hatched grablite burrowed their head feeling for the softness of the ground. It slugged across until their full body was on the ground. The grablite started to shake its whole body, it shook so hard it started to vibrate bringing the whole grablite down vertically into the sand. The grablite disappeared from the camera. A tiny blip sounded on the seismo showing the grablite moving steadily into the big concrete box.
"Someone put the mice and rats out," Lewis ordered. "Grablite has been hatched, it needs to feed. We have done it, everyone! We have successfully hatched a graboid or should I say Grablite. Ask one of the guards for MRI and radiology equipment. We don't know if the rest of the eggs are in the same stasis. Let's monitor and reconvene going for the next hatching when we find out about these eggs."
Caitlyn received noticed that a graboid was hatched. She was pleased to hear the news. "Tell my brother to start preparing his end. He has less than three months to get everything ready. We're going to make millions. Someone, create snippets of the graboid hatching. I want to sell some of these over the black market. They can have their very own graboid." She was handed a piece of paper. She skimmed over it. "Give it to them. They're showing me results." She waved her hand.
The group of scientists agreed to slide the metal slab to shut in the box so the other grablite doesn't interfere and it would be safer to put in more eggs without being drawn in to be the next meal. They were going to stay up a few more hours to see how the grablite was functioning.
The MRI and radiology equipment was delivered promptly after their request. Lewis didn't like the readiness about it. This was a Proudfoot plot. He started to worry about Dr. Frankenstein and the rest. If something would happen to any of them, he wouldn't know what to do with himself. He did know he would take that guilt with him wherever he went, even if she forgave him. He couldn't. Lewis needed to make sure these people won't get to achieve their horrible goals by any means necessary.
Lewis knew that Dr. Frankenstein could handle herself but he didn't want that. He made a silent promise to heed her words on Halloween night. If he wanted to become a Last Pioneer, he had to walk that path no one wanted to walk. He could see now why no one wanted to walk it. The risks were extremely high.
Is this why they say it's a highway to Hell but a stairway to Heaven? Lewis thought to himself. But they make it sound so easy but it was so easy. I know can have answers to all of my questions about graboids. The cost though. The risks. I feel like such a villain. Look how far I have come? I would still be at Perfection trying to figure out those questions I racked my brain over and over again. He looked over to the screens. Yet with endless money and no law in sight, I have hatched something that only nature intended to hatch. Lewis shook his head a bit. He couldn't keep thinking like this. This may be the only opportunity he had. He seized it, now he has to continue on but this is his project now. He gets to steer it any way he wants.
Lewis was determined to see what horrible goal they were plotting and started to prepare when to pull the plug. He ordered scientists to break off into smaller groups. One group would manage the grablites in the growing stages. One small group would work on hatching the eggs. The other small group will scan the rest of the eggs and come up with possible time frames it will take for them to hatch. He also wanted all data and material to go through him first before it was sent off to Caitlyn. The scientists trusted him and did as they were told. He would also be the one who would bear the brunt of the force if Caitlyn ever changed her mind. It was a nice fail safe for them.