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Jake woke with a burning headache, something so accustomed to him he thought the nasty dream was just one unpleasant side effect of too much liquor or an encounter with the wrong people in the wrong alleys.

The sensation of being moved wasn't all that unusual either. Being wheeled to hospitals tended to involve that. He'd have to escape before arrest, as usual, but that could wait till whatever injury he'd gotten was healed.

Looking through his eyelashes, he saw a slightly warped world pass by.

He didn't feel the slight movement of air either. He was apparently encased in a tube.

Now that was unusual.

... aw crap, twenty years of reality without villains and then he got kidnapped by evil scientists after all.

He closed his eyes and tried to feel the state of his body. Everything seemed just fine.

While he had tried warning some other people, Shadhahvar had continued drinking that horrid stuff and insisting he have some as well. He'd taken some sips to humor her ...

That was probably why he was awake at all. As thrilling as the prospect of escape was, it was equally likely it would only mean he would be awake once they started whatever experiment they had in mind. Probably not something they could do with clones, which meant it had to have a psychological component.

Experiments where he had to be awake to respond, presumably, and didn't get to die soon.

That should be fun.

Right. Time to consider escape.

It was a safe guess this tube was sealed pretty well, even if he could kick it open somehow, that would give security plenty of time to react. As the element of surprise was the only in his favor, the best way to wait until they opened it.

Hopefully, Shadhahvar wasn't too drunk to stay still and conclude the same. In the past he had discussed several tricky scenarios with her, and while evil scientists weren't covered amongst them she had to remember the hammering he'd done on "bide your time".

After a while he felt his container being anchored somewhere. He heard muffled voices.

"Everything is ready, doctor Sullivan. I may assume you heard..."

"Yeah yeah, loose host. I'm pretty sure it's all Bayard's fault."

Bayard ... that was the man Sarah Driscoll had left with. Was on their side?

"Doctor Bayard has no been involved in the escape of any test subjects," said an echoing female voice, presumably the ship's AI.

There was a cynical laugh.

"Really? Too bad. I just would need something ..." The man trailed off, then resumed in a more stoic voice. "I have been waiting for months until Regina Insolitax would lay eggs. Two hosts less or not, we will proceed."

Eggs?

Jake forced himself to stay calm. It could be Shadhahvar whom had escaped. She wouldn't abandon him, but she probably would do something stupid like run through the halls screaming once she didn't find a way to play guerrilla warfare — Shadhahvar had a somewhat one-tracked mind.

Then there was a click, indicating the containers were locked onto something. The hiss of a closing door followed shortly after. A long silence followed, then the containers slit open with a smooth hiss.

Jake jumped out at once, reached down to check whether he had either knife or gun and found them missing.

Quickly looking around, he found himself in a long hall, filled with open containers in which the other passengers slept. In the wall his left were windows a good ten meters above the floor, behind which a number of scientists stood. They seemed quite upset he was awake, but didn't hold his attention for long.

On the floor below these windows, more containers emerged from the wall. On them were monstrous, slimy seeds, ... eggs?

Jake backed away involuntary, frantically looked around for anything he could do. He'd heard rumors of acidic aliens, never had paid them much heed, but now ...

The eggs opened as if they were alive and released a swarm of pale, spiderlike creatures.

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The mother of these eggs only laid a batch once in several months, regardless of any stimulation they could administer. Jonah idly wondered how curious and excited he might have been, had his emotions been on. He was interested, but that wasn't quite the same.

Oh look, a host that was awake. Somewhat burly guy, tan, reached for missing weapons, probably one of the fighters. For such a special batch of eggs, they had wanted a most diverse batch of hosts. Jonah thought they should have done better background checks, one could never know what new and obnoxious drugs came onto the market to tamper with the brain.

In response to his casual thoughts on the inevitably violent death of that man, there with a tingle of rage — the sort that made him want to smash things — in the back of his mind. He hadn't been aware of that feeling for years. He knew it, it was the same as when the chimera had been locked away, screaming in his mind. It shouldn't be there at all, but there it was, and he wasn't worried. Not much to feel up front his mind, after all.

He wasn't a fool though. The other scientists fretted and decided on what to do, he just walked to the nearest computer and checked for the chimera's status.

"Checking on your girlfriend again, Jonah?" someone called. He shrugged.

Utara told him the hybrid was in it's prison and asleep. He informed her of suspicions she might try to wake, to which Utara suggested she might be responding to the eggs. It was noted down, but there was no increase in the chimera's sleep protocol. Jonah felt mildly annoyed, but only insofar this emotion resonated with that of the chimera.

He returned to the window and watched. Some of the orincubix had started attaching themselves to hosts, but they were now letting go for some reason. Others that had not yet changed course and scuttled towards the walls, curling up to die. It wasn't a motion in tandem, some took longer to defect than others.

What did happen in tandem was the response of most other scientists, save those who had their emotions disabled like Jonah. Sullivan started to tremble with anger, slowly boiling over until he exploded.

"Someone tell me right now what the hell is going on here!"

A few scientists started to mumble, offer up theories or curse themselves. Sullivan ignored them and turned to Jonah.

"You! You know something, I can see it in your face!"

If Jonah had felt anything personally, aside of that isolated not-his-own-rage, he would have made a remark about how his facial expressions were lacking due to certain drugs; did Sullivan remember them? They were his idea.

When Jonah did not respond beyond turning his face to stare, Sullivan pushed him. Jonah stumbled back against the nearest control panel, his spine right onto the edge. It hurt, but once the feeling subsided, he just sighed.

He thought for a moment, if only to give Sullivan an answer. He didn't want to be fired, after all.

The chimera might be the cause of the emotion, which suspiciously coincided with this event. However, this had never happened during Regina Insolitax's previous eggs. The orincubix had all behaved as they should, only having failed due to the host bodies being of poor quality. Something had come aboard that altered the game and could possibly affect the sleeping sister ...

"Doctor Sullivan, I have never been told where Amy came from. Whatever caused her, were there more which might have slipped our radar?"

"What?"

"Amy could affect a mass of people into believing they suffered terrible pain. I wonder whether something smarter could affect orincubix to believe their purpose is served."

Fear was one of the things that the drugs affected in him. Lacking this, he had to apply reason to the current situation. The orincubix down there weren't dying, just moving closer to the walls. He was a good counter, the majority of them was congregating below the windows.

There was something on the opposite wall, quick, fast, moving, invisible ...

"You think there's another chimera and it came here?"

"Possibly. Wasn't there an escaped host earlier? Someone should investigate her records, I suppose," Jonah said.

"I'm not going out there, if that host really is ... she looked pretty human too ... and she was with that man who's awake now, ... is he one too?"

"The eggs that resulted in our charming little chimeras were all females," Sullivan grumbled, then grew an odd grin. "Maybe he's the invader's equivalent of Jonah."

"Doctor Bayard, why don't you go check the records?"

Jonah nodded, didn't comment on the fact that Utara could just look it up and tell them, and left. The door closed behind him, he could hear it lock.

He walked to his room. If he was correct, and inside there was a sister of the chimera, then he would rather be out of the way.

In the far off corners of his mind, he started to notice an increase of happiness. She was watching through his eyes, he realized, and now she knew what he knew.

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Jake watched in confusion at erratic behavior of the mutant crabs. One had made a feeble attempt to launch at him, he'd caught it and it had just lost interest. This was probably an awkward moment for whichever mad scientists had invented these creatures.

He was just trying to figure out what to do now — all doors were still closed, lots of sleeping people who might need saving — when a bright orb of energy surged through the air above him. It hit the windows, seemed delayed for a split second, then the plasticide burst. The scientists inside scattered, but none were hit. The shot had been aimed at the control panels, for as far as Jake could see.

He turned to where it had come from, but didn't see a source.

The mutant swarm started to move again, all cluttered towards the broken windows. Morbidly fascinated, Jake watched them climb atop each other with perfect balance until they formed a chain to the gap. The entire swarmed climb through the window and he was ignored. The scientists started screaming, tried to open the doors but could not get out.

Behind him, Jake heard an odd sucking sound. He turned to see one crab having attached itself to a host face, and a few others trying to do the same. Two more were coming his way.

A blurry wisp of air jumped in front of him and battered the two away, hissing loudly.

"~ I can't call them all back. Come with me! ~" something told him. He wasn't certain he had actually heard it.

The shimmering air seemed to reach out a hand, and Jake felt oddly confident his best choice was to let that hand lead him along. Into the vents they went.

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"Thank you very much ...ehm... I suppose it's not Eleanor?"

Kirindi shook her head, pleased to find his response less than "Aaaaa, scary monster girl, let me irrationally scream and run away!" It was so difficult to convince those to stay, and stay she needed him to.

"They would call me an Amy here, because of what my mother called her only real daughter. I'm fake. Mother was a fake too. So, I am Kirindi."

It was funny to see herself through his eyes. He didn't find her pleasant to look at, thought she was something of a fleshy insect. She supposed the skeletal tail and the six spikes on her back did it, along with her anti-corrosive armor made out of kainde amedha shell. He amusingly though it was part of her body.

"So, Kirindi, what are you ... doing here?"

She smiled at him, it was nice that he thought he shouldn't ask about what she was. It meant consideration, and such people she liked to have in her hivemind.

"I need to find my sister. She is also an Amy, but not Kirindi. She is here. We don't want to be here, so I came to get her out, she will like it better where me and father live."

He had unpleasant thoughts about what it meant that she had a sister, which involved exploding wombs. She soothed down those thoughts and said, "No, I was from an egg. Mother was from a tube. No explosions."

Jake was starting to fall into that confused state that really didn't help humans.

"Could you do something for me?" she asked quickly.

"I think so. What would it be, miss?" he said. The vent was rather cramped, he tried rearranging himself.

"Go into more vents and sabotage something. I asked my friend to send Shadhahvar there if he met her. I can do that from a distance, you know...but don't tell anyone, okay, that I can do that?"

Ah, there was that shock when a non telepathic creature learned she was reading their mind. She quickly suppressed the panic that was whelming up in him; he really shouldn't fear her, she knew she wouldn't do anything bad.

It slowly worked, where he had momentarily threatened to see an enemy in claws and tail, he now saw more of a child in her. Kirindi didn't know whether she was innocent, but he seemed to like that thought so she let him play with it.

"Is what I am supposed to do going to help me get out of here?"

"Off course. You and all those people back there and Shady too and perhaps Sarah too, I hope."

"Aren't those things —"

"My friend released seven digital enemies on Utara, the AI that controls this ship. They're battling now and they should close the pods when they can. The humans will be save, don't worry."

"Okay ... do you have a map for me somewhere, and ... weaponry perhaps? Yes, I need weapons."

She nodded eagerly and hoped he'd soon adapt to the hivemind. He seemed a little too slow right now. She pulled out a tiny gizmo from one of her gauntlets and handed it to him.

"The red side, push it with your fingernail. I fight with my body and plasma caster only. You cannot control the caster and can't become me, so nothing I can give, sorry."

"It's okay. I'm already glad I've got a shot at getting out of here," he said as he followed the instructions.

A three dimensional map manifested, displaying the entirety of Enigma II.

"Woah." He was awed both at the expanse of the ship and the technology in his hands. She quietly urged him to go, they were on a schedule.

"Push it again to make it vanish," she said. He did so, and pocketed the gadget.

"Say, Kirindi, if your sister is here, does that mean there are also others of your...kind?"

She nodded, but said no. "I hunt the other Kainde Amedha. We only have sharp blood in common with them, we are our own kin. I have not met Kainde Amedha that could be as us. Kainde Amedha that don't disturb the balance of nature."

Oh, he didn't quite know what xenomorph were, only had heard rumors.

At that moment her gauntlet beeped.

"Kirindi, I am here with a certain Mary Sue McKenzie. She insists on joining our rebellion and wants to be useful. According to my digital friends, you have acquired miss McKenzie's friend. Do you think they might be of use?" 921-Y said.

"Yes, I read his memories, he is a mercenary good enough. His friend can help him, if directed, I think." The compliment seemed to fall in good earth, and a flare of feeling his privacy was being invaded cooled down quickly under her mental hand. It helped him to know she didn't find anything embarrassing, would never tell his secrets. She didn't understand why it helped him, for her a hivemind was so much more pleasant than secrecy, but that was how humans were.

"If they can take care of the generator, this could buy us a lot of time. Utara is dealing better with my attacks than expected."

"Hey, I know you, you're the pilot of the ship that got us here. I haven't got a clue what I am doing, but I'm with you guys. Miss Kirindi just gave me a map of where I should go."

"Excellent. It will show what you need to destroy." There was a brief struggle while Shadhahvar tried to grab 921-Y's arm, thinking it was his phone, and shout to Jake about how he owed her an apology. Kirindi had considerably more trouble with influencing Shadhahvar, any thought given to her risked flying into some random direction. Kirindi shared this with Jake, who grinned in response.

"Alright then, I'll be heading there and destroy that generator," Jake said. "See you ... nevermind."

Jake struggled to turn around in the air shaft and started crawling away in the direction Kirindi pointed out, still mentally linked. She was pleased he accepted the bond.

She turned too and went her own way, all the while continuing to ease Jake and Shadhahvar into the hivemind. One of the first things she learned them was the existence of xenomorph.

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Sarah's sleeping head felt like it had a hamster in a wheel running inside. That hamster kept running while she woke and found herself on a couch, Jonah standing over her.

"You saw her, didn't you?" said he coldly. "Care to tell me what she looked like? I assume the human part was a disguise."

Sarah felt like pretending to have no idea of what he was talking about, but didn't quite know what she wasn't supposed to know ... had she been holding a tail?

"I've been through this as well, with another one. I know what you're wrapped up in."

"What are you jabbering about, Jonah? Can't this wait? I have a burning headache. I accidentally drank some garbage from that idiotic woman and it's bloody awful." To add to the effect, she rubbed her head.

"It's calleidion," he said. "I took a blood sample while you slept, the effects will wear off eventually. The trap your mind is in won't."

"What are you talking about?"

"I still have a link with Amy, I noticed a few things. Also, your friend's records were a little too perfect. I had a good guess where to suspect another chimera. How she ever got off Terra Mirror is a mystery, but it's not impossible." He seemed to be talking more to himself than her.

"Jonah, please be clearer! What's going on?"

"Isn't she telling you?"

Sarah paused for a moment, tried to find a balance in her mind ... someone was indeed telling her things. Lots and lots of things. Xenomorph, Internecivus Raptus, Jake and Shadhahvar were family now, Jonah was a traitor, watch out.

She sat up.

"Jonah, how did you come to work here?"

He sighed. "Have you ever heard those rumors about what took Earth from us?"

"Off course."

"Internecivus Raptus, as perfect as a non-sentient killing machine can be. We have two hives and three queens. We cannot tame them, but there is indication we can rewrite their instincts on a genetic level, so that they become tamable."

"But you —"

"Let me finish. The Enigma stations are in service of pursuing this and thus hunt down various creatures that could give a clue about how to achieve this goal. This led them to a recovery mission of certain eggs, curtsy of United Systems Military on Terra Mirror, where I happened to be. I was to be cleaned up, but bonded with a human-xenomorph chimera there —"

Kirindi responded to this by filling her with knowledge of this, fragmented memories even that seemed to come both from Jonah and her sister.

"Stop. Just, stop! Don't talk anymore, okay?"

"Sarah, please.."

"Don't say anymore!" Sarah felt tears run down her cheeks and she stood up, pacing to the other end of the room. Once there, she whispered, "Murderers."

She heard Jonah turn away. The door opened, and he paused to say, "I do agree with you, Sarah. We are murderers. Don't lump me with them though, they chose this job, I had no such luxury."

Before she could consider what to say, he was gone and she was left with her thoughts. Awareness of Kirindi became stronger, a soothing feeling.

Monsters did exist, and her old friend Jonah had become one of them by mind, as Kirindi had turned out to be one of them by body. She didn't like monsters that wore human bodies when that implied being humane, she decided.

Kirindi said she had befriended Schrodinger, but couldn't befriend Jonah. He had something in his head, and mind, that made him resist. No emotions, she told Sarah by letting her feel the gap he hovered above.

Monster.

With sudden vigor, she spun around and ran after Jonah, grabbing the nearest solid object. The door opened for her, she knew what to do.

He was about to ask her whether she needed anything or wanted to continue the conversation — Kirindi got that much from his mind — and Sarah rammed the vase on his head.

He slumped down, vase and fake flowers splintered around him. Sarah knelt down to check his pulse, felt a little relieved when he was still alive.

With some effort, she dragged him back into the room and left him on the floor.

Confusion and fear was still there, but Kirindi offered her a safe feeling too. Sarah felt powerful, and of her own she produced an almost childlike sense of amusement. There were xenomorph down below, bred from humans. They might be released.

She felt like meeting Kirindi's sister. There was a plan, it would be safe.

Sarah felt a little proud of being the only member in their makeshift hivemind whom Kirindi didn't need to steer. Just a bit of encouragement, that was all she needed. When she surrendered to the hivemind, it felt like she would never again be alone, never again need to fear social rejection, never again need to care for anything outside of them.

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