CHAPTER EIGHT
SEVERAL MONTHS LATER:
The sound of a high-pitched whistle emanates from the heated tea kettle on the stove. A woman enters the kitchen, and quickly pours the hot water into a couple of blue mugs, the sound of rain begins to tatter on the roof. Streaks of rain begin to rundown the kitchen window as the woman puts in a teabag in both mugs. She looks about the kitchen for a moment, marveling at the fact it's been awhile since silence was the prevailing sound.
"Diric, tea's ready!" she calls out, adding some honey and cinnamon into the two mugs.
Dzukya's head slowly pops off the well slept-in pillow, one eye half open. It takes him a moment to get from under the bedsheet and heavy blanket, placing his feet on the floor.
"Coming, Mom." He runs his hand through his messed-up red hair, waiting for his mind to leave quiet hours. Dzukya's face winces while slowly twisting, the lower back is not happy. A couple minutes later, he heads down the wooden stairs, every step makes a short creaking sound when he places his full weight on it. "Good grief, Mom, what are you doing up so early?"
A smile appears on her face as she shakes her head. She gives him a mug of hot tea. "It's half-past noon, dear." She watches her son stopping himself from taking a quick sip, looking over at her. "That's what happens when you work past midnight, Diric."
Dzukya just shakes his head as she walks by, giving him a playful nudge. He looks around the kitchen while his mother takes out a handful of squash rolls, butter and apricot jam. "Where's Dad?"
"Off into town, mainly to the see the butcher…he thinks Algen shorted him on the meat again."
Dzukya pinches the bridge of his nose with two fingers, as he shakes his head slightly. "Algen has lived here on Eriadu for twenty years and dealt with Dad for as long. When will Dad realize that placing a 'various meats' order always means smaller portions?" Both mother and son are about have a laugh when they both hear the sound of a speeder bike approach the homestead. The two of them leave the kitchen and look through the wide window in the living room. They see someone covered in a hooded rain poncho get off the bike. Dzukya's mom instantly recognizes the rider's attire.
"Imperial Military? Why is this person here? Do they need you for something?"
Dzukya can hear the concern in his mom's tone of voice. He re-assures her everything is fine and heads out. 'Let's see what this guy wants.' Dzukya walks onto the covered porch with his cup of tea. "Yes, can I help you?"
"You look good." The person pulls back the hood, taking off the goggles.
Dzukya relaxes his shoulders as a smile quickly appears on his face. "Dammit, Jana! I thought you were someone else. Now will you get out of this rain!"
Olyone gladly does what's she's told. She wipes the rain off her face the minute she's standing under the covered porch. Dzukya offers her hot tea, which she accepts. "I just wanted to see how civilian life is treating you.", says Olyone.
"It's been good thus far." Dzukya then takes a portion of Olyone's poncho near her collarbone, pulling it slightly – revealing a piece of her uniform. "I like the new threads," he nods in approval, "it suits you." He watches as she wipes off the rain from her walnut complexioned face. Her thin jet-black hair has survived the wet weather mostly intact.
"Thanks. Got some news for you: Capt. Verlund is back at the Academy on the planet Carida as a Major. Cap is still on the mend, getting better each month. Which leaves our friend, Pvt. Lenck." Olyone shows a smile. "He's moving to Medical."
Dzukya almost spits out his hot tea while sitting down on the swinging bench. "He's going to be a doctor?!" The two of them look at the clouds as the rainfall gets a little heavier. Dzukya tells Olyone to come inside but she declines.
"Sorry, I can't. I have to be back in thirty minutes." Olyone gets a little closer towards Dzukya and leans in. "How's the nightmares?"
Dzukya takes another slow sip of tea, rubbing his hand against the mug. "They were bad when we left that rock…now, it's less and less. You?"
"They come in waves...which have gotten fewer." Olyone slowly swirls the tea, looking at it. "Sometimes I end up on the floor in my quarters, drenched in sweat...I've talked to the shrink about it – she said it's normal. Who knows though?" Dzukya can see the look of uncertainty on Olyone's face as she slowly sips the tea.
"But you wonder if the nightmares will ever go away?"
Dzukya slowly shakes his head, "Maybe – time will tell."
Both of them spend the next few minutes listening the sound of rainfall beat against the homestead.
The beeping on Olyone's wrist chrono begins to interrupt.
"Shoot! Look, I gotta go."
Olyone slaps on her goggles, slides the hood over her head and makes it over to the speeder bike. The goggles begin to get wet as the rain smoothly runs down her poncho. "I almost forgot…got a recorded message from my parents yesterday: my brother checked himself into rehab."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing…I erased the message." With that, Olyone starts up the bike.
"Hey!" yells Dzukya. "The door is always open."
Olyone just nods, revs up the engine and takes off. It takes a couple minutes for her to disappear from Dzukya's view into the horizon of dirt and falling rain.
Dzukya stands there on the porch for a little longer, then walks back inside the house. Somehow, he knows that Jana will be fine.
A few days later, Olyone is on an Imperial shuttle heading to her new 'home'. The vessel exits hyperspace, and she sees it: The Executor, the super star-destroyer.
One of the shuttle pilots see her face. "First time being assigned to a ship of this size?"
"Yes, it is."
"Don't worry about it, give it a couple months. You'll—". A communication from the Executor interrupts the pilot.
"Shuttle 59-1515 Tango, is 1st Lt. Olyone on board?"
"That is correct," says the co-pilot. The next instructions are as follows: Olyone is to report Lord Vader and the 501st Legion immediately.
Both shuttle pilots quickly look at Olyone. "The 501st huh?"
"Yes, got any advice?"
"Just one: failure is not an option," says one of the pilots.
The shuttle lands in one of the Executor's hangar bays. A private escorts Olyone over to where five platoons of the 501st are standing at attention. She quickly sees Darth Vader standing there almost as if he's waiting for her. The private points out the spot for Olyone to stand.
"1st Lt. Olyone reporting for duty, my lord," she says, bowing to Vader.
"The 501st is in need of a company commander." As Vader walks pasts her, Olyone quickly sees what his flowing black cloak reveals: the lifeless body of an Imperial officer. "Do you accept your new position…or shall I look for someone else?"
Olyone looks back down at the dead body once again. She then sees herself there dead on the ground, but in her enlisted uniform. "No, my lord…I gladly accept."
"Congratulations, you're now commander of Echo Company, Captain Olyone."
A lone Imperial freighter travels through hyperspace. As the ship get closer to its destination, the two pilots are in the midst of a conversation.
"An asteroid belt with a bright yellow sun," says 2nd Lt. Susik. He gives off a smile, which quickly goes away upon look seeing the look coming from the pilot.
"We're in space, every sun in its system is bright!" snaps 1st Lt. Amon through narrowed eyes. She turns her focus away from the second lieutenant, back onto the ship's main instrument panel. 'God, I'll be thrilled when this is all done!'
While Susik easily sees Amon's annoyance, he can't help himself. "Come on, aren't you the least bit curious about what cargo we're hauling with all of those enforcer droids?" Just then, the cockpit door slides open and someone walks in.
"Lt. Amon's mind isn't on the classified cargo…and neither should yours," says Col. Faizon. Susik quickly looks over his shoulder and sees the Colonel in the standard gray-green uniform and black shiny boots. Susik then turns around, looking out through the ship's viewport.
"Yes, sir."
Faizon looks at Lt. Amon and asks for an ETA to the destination.
"In about a couple minutes, sir," replies Amon. She watches as he looks down at his huge hands, seeing the slight wear on them.
"Something you wish to ask me, Lieutenant?" This catches Amon by surprise a little bit.
"Sorry, sir…I heard a rumor that you're retiring?" A small smirk appears on the Colonel's face.
"The rumor is true: I'm done once this mission is complete." Faizon tells both pilots that one day, he just knew that it was just Time. He looks at both pilots. "You'll know it, too."
A warning sound starts going off, Susik immediately takes a quick look at the flight instruments. "We've arrived."
Both Amon and Susik flip and toggle switches. "Okay, coming out of lightspeed in three…two…one!" says Amon firmly. The freighter drops into normal space with a slight jolt. What the three officers see leaves them worried: empty space with no stars, pitch black and a red sun.
"Are we at the correct coordinates?", asks Fazion. Susik quickly checks navigation. He shakes his head. "Ok, then. Call it in," says Faizon calmly.
"This is Omnicron calling Space Station Rodina, do you read, over?" says Amon. The three officers wait…no looks over at Amon with a slight look of concern as she tries again. "This is Omnicron calling Space—".
"This is Space Station Rodina, we have you on our scopes, Omnicron. Transmit your security codes."
Susik immediately pulls up the codes and sends them. The pilots get a little nervous while waiting.
"This is Space Station Rodina: security codes accepted. Hold your position, we'll come and meet you." With that, the communication ends.
'How can a space station come and…' Amon doesn't finish her thought upon the sight of Rodina slowly coming out from the pitch black into the light of the red sun. Everyone is in stunned silence. The space station is an immense behemoth of a dreadnought. The warship encased in jet black durasteel and quadrianium; her hull is 17.5 kilometers long. The bow of the ship resembles a sharp beak of an attack bird.
The three officers take it all in when Rodina sends out another communique: they are to land in Hangar Bay 10. Amon and Susik see a couple TIE fighters come out to escort the freighter. They increase the ship's thrust and follow the fighters.
A FEW MONTHS LATER:
Col. Pax Affland stands in front of his office window on Space Station Rodina. As he looks out into the starless black of space, he easily sees his face and eyeglasses in the reflection. With his arms behind his back, he patiently waits for the person shifting in his chair to make their move.
"Can you move before I turn gray? It's only chess."
"Sorry, sir." 1st Lt. Frist quickly looks about the chessboard and its pieces. His mind runs through the moves that he can currently make. 'If I move my knight…no. Ok, what about this pawn? No. Wait a minute…'. Frist sees it. He rubs his eyes, making sure what he's seeing isn't some illusion. The Lieutenant takes a quick peek at Col. Affland, who's still looking out into space. He takes his piece and moves it. "Bishop takes Queen, sir."
Affland turns around, seeing what Frist did. With a raised eyebrow, he cocks his head. "That it is. Good job, Lieutenant."
While Frist is happy, he wonders about Affland's strategy. 'Exposing your powerful piece so early in the game? Weird.'
Just then a chime begins to go off. Affland quickly walks over and turns on the small holoprojector on his desk. A stormtrooper appear in blue. "Yes, Captain?"
"Emperor Palpatine's shuttle has just landed in the hangar bay, Colonel."
Affland turns off the holoprojector. "Has everything in the lab been set up, Frist?"
"Absolutely, sir."
Affland orders Frist to head down there immediately. The Colonel quickly looks at his uniform, looking for any spots, snags or wrinkles. 'Only have one shot. This cannot fall flat on its face in front of the Emperor,' he thinks.
It doesn't take Frist long to reach the medlab and put on his biosuit on. He quickly punches in the access code, pulls down the handle to open the hatch. As the Lieutenant enters the large rectangular medlab, he sees Randa Trede pulling out samples from barrel- shaped cold storage container, and Aug Ruscro turning on the monitoring machines. Both scientists look over at Frist.
"We're just about done, Lieutenant," says Trede.
"Good. After what happened a couple days ago—." Frist is interrupted by the sound of the hatch being opened. All three people watch as someone else comes into the medlab. "Well, look what the lothcat dragged in," he says.
In walks 2nd Lt. Vai Cransol and another scientist. He gives a somewhat stiff bow to the mock cheer, then walks over to Frist who's pulling up data on the computer terminal. "Where do you need me," Cransol asks.
"Bring in the test subject, please." Cransol nods his head to Frist's request. But before he goes, Frist stops him and whispers. "Are you okay? Feeling good? After what happened—."
"Yeah, yeah - I'm ready to go. A whole gambit of tests was run on me after Decon: all negative. Did Engineering ever find the cause of stasis tubes 1 & 2 exploding?"
"Nope, they said it was a glitch." Frist can see the look on Cransol's face: he's not happy. "Don't worry, I've continued to stay on them until the 'culprit' is found."
Cransol nods his head and enters another hatch. Frist receives word via the lab's comm panel: Palpatine and the Colonel will be arriving shortly.
The feeling of nervousness runs through Affland's body as he walks side by side with the Emperor down Rodina's immense hallway. 'I wonder how many officers would kill for this moment?'
The Colonel has already thanked Palpatine for choosing him to head this special project, providing him the means, people and materiel as well. Palpatine stops and looks over, pointing at Affland.
"I hope this trip doesn't turn out to be a waste of my time. Do I have to be…concerned?"
"No, my lord. Not at all," replies Affland firmly. They've reached the door to the viewing room. The Colonel walks over and punches in a code, the doors quickly slide open. The Emperor, a couple of sector governors and Adm. Vulic, Commander of Rodina, walk in. They head down to the first row of the viewing room. As Palpatine sits down, Affland walks over to end of the viewing window that's covered under a sheet of metal in front of the guests. The window stretches from ceiling to floor and is several inches thick. He presses a button and the metal slides up. Everyone in the viewing room can see the inside medlab.
Affland starts. "The materials that collected from the planet you were on, my lord, were fascinating - especially the results."
As Palpatine asks for the results, Affland looks at the sectional governors' faces: they're already bored. This doesn't bother him one bit. With a flick of a remote, he pulls up a few recorded holos of a human, reek, gundark and several other species; securely restrained in separate rooms with a single egg stand a few feet away. At the bottom corner of reach holo reads the time and title: 'Project XX121'.
"Our benevolent Emperor was able to save a few of these eggs for our research. Combine that with the shipment that arrived, things started to 'pop off' in the past few days."
"How so, Colonel?" asks one of sectional governors. Affland presses another button on the remote, and the holos start playing. They watch as the egg opens up, the spider-like parasite comes out, quickly attaching itself to the host's face. One of the sectional governors starts to feel a little queasy, while the other leans forward in his chair, looking on with great interest.
"Folks in the lab named the organism: a 'facehugger'," states Affland plainly. He then fast-forwards the holos by several hours. During the fast-forward, the Emperor and everyone else sees the facehuggers detach from the hosts and die after it crawls away. Affland brings the holos back to normal speed. Adm. Vulic raises his hands up, seeing the hosts come to, acting normal.
"Is this it, Colonel Affland? Nothing hap—". Vulic is interrupted by the hosts in the holos start violently convulsing and thrashing about. Shock runs across everyone's faces (except Palpatine and Affland), when they see the host's chest rip open and a small cylinder-shaped organism burst out, screaming.
"My…God," utters Vulic.
The queasiness in the sectional governor increases, she does her best in keeping it down as sweat begins to form on her forehead. Affland sees the Emperor's hand, motioning for him to continue. He fast forwards the holos again by several hours.
"As you can see, the 'chestbuster' scurries off to molt. Sometime later, it is now an adult. However, take a closer look at them."
"I see, the organisms take on some of the host's physical traits."
"Exactly, my lord! I'm about to show you why." Affland looks into the lab at Frist and nods his head, "Bring the subject out." The other hatch opens up and out walks Cransol, holding the hand of a small child.
"A girl?" says Palpatine. He watches with piqued curiosity as the Lieutenant lifts up the girl and gently placed her on the examining table. She looks at the people looking at her with a shy fear with her blue eyes, rubbing a piece of the straight blond hair with a couple of her fingers. Cransol looks over at the gallery, then back at her.
"Don't worry Rebecca, they don't bite," he whispers. "Now I'm about to take a small amount of your blood, okay?" She nods her head.
Rebecca face gives a slight wince when a needle is injected into her forearm. She watches as her blood fills up the small glass vial. Cransol effortlessly removes the needle.
"Well, aren't you a trooper," he says while giving the vial to Frist. Rebecca smiles while Frist takes out a small sample of her blood and places it under a high-powered microscope.
"Pulling up the sample now, sir," says Frist.
Another holo appears, showing two objects. Affland points it out. "This is in real time. Now as you can see, the double helix on the left is human DNA taken from Rebecca. The one on the right that looks like red and green beads is genetic material from the xenomorph—".
"Xenomorph?" says Palpatine, interrupting.
"Y-Yes sir, 'xeno' meaning foreign, 'morph'-form. The term was coined by—" Affland looks about the lab. "Where's Dr. Luki? I told that woman—".
Trede immediately heads towards the hatch. "I'll get her." Ruscro also tags along. "Come on, I know a shortcut."
The two of them quickly leave as Affland looks back at the gallery.
It doesn't take Trede and Ruscro long to arrive at Dr. Luki's quarters.
Trede quickly punches in the code to get inside. "Thanks for your help, Ruscro." The door slides open, Trede feels up the wall and finds the light switch and presses it. "Good grief, what a state!" Trede and Ruscro look about Luki's room, clothes, papers scattered all over the floor. Trede starts searching.
"What are you looking for?" asks Ruscro.
"Come on, where did you put— Got it!" Trede pulls out a handheld holoprojector from under a mound of clothes. Both of them see a blinking light on it: Dr. Luki left a message. Trede presses the button. A small image of the doctor appears.
"Luki, you look like hell," exclaims Ruscro. Both watch as Luki, visibly shaking, sweating heavily speaks.
"Something…happening…to me…accident…the lab…Getting…very…sick…Come find…me…locker GF13…GF13…".
Trede and Ruscro leave Luki's quarters. "Why would she go down to the deep freeze lockers?" Trede asks.
"Will ask her when we get there! The lockers are several levels below us." Thanks to Ruscro, the two of them make it down to the lockers in quick time. They quickly run down the massive level of large doors. "Okay. Locker 9…10…11..."
Numerous thoughts run thru Trede's mind, none of it makes any sense. She snaps out of it when Ruscro spots Locker 13.
"Strange, why would Luki come here? No one can open the locker from the inside," he says while punching in the code.
Just then the large door opens up, letting out a cloudy mist of cold air. Trede and Ruscro shake when they feel the sharp chill. They head inside and start searching with flashlights.
"The old woman never made a decision in her life without thinking about it over and over!" He breaks off from Trede, looks in another area. "It drove me nuts! ...Trede?" He doesn't get a response. 'Crap!'
Ruscro runs back the way he came, calling for Trede. He flies around the corner and sees her just standing there. Ruscro turns his head to see what she's looking at, drops the flashlight in horror. "My God, what is that?"
"It's Luki..." Trede looks at her colleague, frozen solid in some sort of mid-transformation. "She knew something was up. That's why she came here, to save us." All of sudden, Trede's eyes open wide: 'My God…US!' She pulls Ruscro, bolting out the locker.
"The hell's going on?" he yells. He doesn't get answer. All she does is grab her commlink trying to call Affland, but all she gets is static.
"So, the xenomorph's DNA can mesh with any other species' genetic structure?"
"Yes, my lord. It explains why those xenos that you watched took on the physical traits of the hosts," explains Affland. He then looks down when the chrono on his wrist begins to chime and shuts it off. The Colonel and everyone else hears Rebecca.
"Something's wrong with Cransol." Rebecca watches as the lieutenant starts convulsing, shaking. Frist sees Cransol's face as blood comes out, quickly filling his mask. Every part of his body mutates grotesquely, as the biosuit tears apart due to the increase in size. The skin stretches until it too tears apart and what is unearthed when the last bits of Cransol falls off: a Xenomorph hybrid with human skull, two red eyes. Frist is frozen in horror when the hybrid grabs him, it's inner jaws shoot into his skull, killing him instantly.
Affland looks down at Frist's dead body. 'Queen takes bishop.'
Rebecca screams as she leaps off the table and to the other scientist. Both of them head to the other exit, trying to get out but it's locked. The scientist looks at Affland.
"OPEN THE DOOR, COLONEL! OPEN THE—". She watches as Affland just stands there, watching as the hybrid inches slowly to over by the door. Her tear-filled eyes are replaced by anger. "DAMN YOU, YOU BAST—". The hybrid's blade-tipped tail whips around and lops off her head: the perfect guillotine.
Rebecca darts from the decapitated corpse to the main window, beating her hands on the glass, screaming at the top of her lungs in terror. Affland just looks on when he hears pounding on the viewing room's door: it's Trede and Ruscro, begging to be let in.
The Colonel pays them no mind and looks back, just as the hybrid pounces and tears the little girl to pieces. Her bright red blood splatters across the window. Seeing that was the final straw for that sectional governor, she quickly gets up, finds a bin and throws up.
Palpatine slowly stands up. "You knew that this was happening."
Affland takes off his glasses and wipes the lenses. "More like an educated guess, my lord. I had ordered Lt. Cransol to bathe the xenomorph material in a nutrient-based solution with Dr. Luki supervising. The genetic material grew into miniature eggs until—".
"A couple days ago. I read the incident report," says Palpatine. "It stated that two stasis tubes exploded due to internal pressure skyrocketing. It also stated that Dr. Luki may have witnessed one of the eggs open up and let out a fine mist."
Palpatine taps his finger on the top of his walking cane. "A deadly pathogen…very risky for you if something went wrong!"
Affland nods his head, choosing his next words wisely. "Yes, my lord - but haven't great accomplishments come with some risk?"
He turns around. Both men are observing the hybrid on the other side of the window trying to break it, but to no avail. "This could be used on people who are a threat to the Empire now…and in the future."
Palpatine looks over at Affland, then back at the hybrid. "Excellent work. Continue your research, Brigadier General."
Affland bows his head. "Thank you, my lord."
The End
