Well, I've had quite a shitty week at work. Our management has such a DISGUSTING turnover rate, and the new supervisors don't know what they are doing, so I end up getting pulled from my department to assist another department, and get bitched at by the establishment manager for not finishing my tasks. I've been looking for a new job for MONTHS to no avail, and I really hope it changes soon; given that I don't have a Bachelor's Degree yet, my options are very limited.
Okay, now that my venting is out of the way, we are back to continue unearthing more secrets! There'll be more surprises in store as the story goes on, so just sit back and enjoy the new chapter!
SORIA had managed to access the mainframe of the womens' dorm, and was now working to locate a computer under the name "Elisabeth White".
"I have determined the IP address of the computer under said username. It is linked to an Ethernet port on the second floor, in room 206." SORIA said.
"Excellent!" Kai said. "Good work, SORIA!"
"So, I guess we gotta go upstairs?" Kira asked.
Kai nodded. "And not try to draw any attention."
"Gotcha." Kira responded.
They unplugged SORIA's transmitter, and both left the room, starting to head down the hallway. There were not very many girls in the dorm halls, fortunately. They climbed the stairs and made it to the dorm room in question. However, they had the expected misfortune of finding the door locked.
"Okay... figured as much." Kai said. "So, how are we gonna get in?"
"Oh! I've got it!" Kira said, reaching into her pocket.
She pulled out a hairpin that she had, bent it into the necessary shape, and started to pick the lock. Kai watched her back, standing over her to prevent suspicion. There were no girls who came by, but Kai was still fairly tense from the whole situation.
"Could you speed this up a bit?" he asked.
"This isn't as easy as it looks, y'know..." Kira said.
Eventually, the door clicked. Kira was able to open it. Quickly, both of them slipped inside before they could be spotted by anyone passing by. They locked the door again, switched on the lights, and began to look around the room.
"Okay, so we need to find her computer." Kai said.
"Found it!" Kira said, peering into the bedroom.
Kai walked over to take a look. Sure enough, there was a desktop computer on a desk in the corner of her bedroom. At the moment, the computer was in sleep-mode. He pulled out SORIA's transceiver, plugged it into an exposed Ethernet cord, and the computer woke up.
"Okay, SORIA... I've hooked you up to the computer. Now see what you can do to access it." Kai spoke into his earpiece.
"Understood, Kai." SORIA said. "I have already established an encrypted link to the computer, and I will now enable my crypto-smasher protocol to determine the password."
The password began to scroll through letters in alphanumerical order, alternating between uppercase and lowercase for each character, until SORIA determined the correct one, and moved on to the next. It turned out that Elisabeth's password was "daddysgirl1".
"Hmph..." Kira said. "...could you get any more cliché than that? Well... I guess your mother's maiden name would be the only thing more cliché."
The computer unlocked, and displayed some information that Elisabeth had presumably been working on prior to logging out.
"And now, I shall inject a worm virus into the device. It will obliterate all data beyond forensic recovery, and spread to all computers on the shared network." SORIA said.
Kira sighed. "We're gonna have to re-adjust that humor level of yours at some point, SORIA..." she said.
"Acknowledged, Kira. Now Kai, I will need for you to navigate through the files to locate the necessary information." SORIA said.
"Alright then..." Kai said. "...let's start by checking Elisabeth's file history."
He started to work on opening up the history, and checking for any files relevant to this supposed virtual world project Weyland was working on.
"If we can't learn anything about what this project is, or where it's taking place, I think we might be too late to do anything about it by the time we do learn something about it..." Kai said.
"Just try to do it quick, okay?" Kira said, looking behind her. "I'm a bit worried that the party could be over soon."
"Ugh..." Kai said, shifting one of his "breasts" around. "...these are a huge distraction. How do you live with these things?"
Kira chuckled. "Well... how do you live with a pair of sensitive organs dangling between your legs?"
"Okay, nevermind... back to business." Kai said.
Eventually, he thought that he saw a document file that looked like it related to what they wanted.
"Look at this... 'WY_VR_prog summ'. I think this might just be it!" Kai said.
He attempted to open it, but all that came up was a login window.
"It's encrypted." Kai said. "But lucky for us, it's not a very strong encryption program."
"You will need to execute commands of your own to restore the file to a readable state. I cannot do it from my end." SORIA said.
"Okay, let's do this..." Kai said.
He opened up the command terminal, and began to input lines of code into the computer, pressing the "Enter" key, which spawned more lines of code, and repeated. It took a few minutes, but eventually, he managed to crack the code and get into the file. The document program opened and displayed the file information.
"Okay, let's see here..." Kai said, reading over the file. "...'Project: SUBCON'? Hm... 'A very high-budget experiment that will involve uploading the minds of Xenomorph test subjects into a virtual world via apparatuses stuck to the skin of the specimens' heads, where the environment will be manipulated as a means of triggering positive and negative reinforcement, all as a means of determining what sets off Xenomorph fight-or-flight instinct.
"The virtual world is run on one of the most advanced quantum supercomputer mainframes on the planet, but the name of this world is classified only to those directly involved in the project. It has record of nearly everything on Earth, creating a near-identical replica of the world in pure code. Said computer is housed in the WY laboratory in Austin, Texas, and runs on multiple carbon nanotube isotopes, charged by a massive solar farm outside of the facility'."
Kira's eyes widened immensely.
"Wait, wait..." she said. "...this project... it's happening right here, in this city?"
"That's what it looks like." Kai said.
He continued to read:
" 'This experiment is the result of dedicated scientists and programmers working to carry out the unfinished project establish by former Department Chair of Weyland Advanced University, Dr. Hugh Meyers'."
"Oh my God..." Kira said. "...this was all Dr. Meyers' idea in the first place?"
"Yeah, and looks like the supercomputer took several years to build, and the virtual world took even longer to complete. He's been working on it for well over a decade, long before we even started at Weyland Advanced University!" Kai said.
Kira pursed her lips, looking at the ground.
"So, now that we know where it is, and what it is... how are we gonna go about stopping it?" she asked.
Kai was about to give his thoughts... but a voice in their ears stopped him from doing so.
"Guys, Mayday, Mayday!" Sam said over the earpieces. "Elisabeth White left the scene! I think she's heading back up to her room! Get out of there!"
"Oh, shit..." Kai said, closing the program, and putting the computer back to sleep. He grabbed SORIA's transmitter as well.
"Let's go! Before we get caught!" Kira said.
The two of them proceeded to do a quick check to make sure that everything was back the way they found it before they prepared to leave. They quickly exited the room, locking the door behind them...
...and happened to be spotted by the resident of said dorm room. She walked up to them quite briskly.
"...What were you doing in my room?" Elisabeth asked, already on the alert.
"This was your room?" Kira asked. "I thought it was my friend's room! I could swear she told me she was in room 206!"
Elisabeth glared at Kira and Kai.
"Don't try to bluff your way out of this! I saw you come out of my room! I'm going to be telling the Dean about this!" she warned.
"Wait, please! It was just an honest mistake!" Kira said.
"You'd be lucky I don't cave your head in right now! What were you even doing?" Elisabeth said.
Kira remembered about her Xenomorph abilities.
Immediately after the thought, she began to focus her telepathy into Elisabeth. She had to focus quite intensely in order for it to work.
"What are you looking at me like that for?" Elisabeth asked Kira. "Don't think you can stare your way out... of..." she slowed her speech, falling into a trance. "...tres... pas... s-sing..."
You, Elisabeth White, know absolutely nothing about what happened after you came up the stairs. Kira thought, subconsciously planting it into Elisabeth's brain.
Kira was, in actuality, a human-Xenomorph hybrid. She was originally human, but due to having... "gone at it" with Aster for the first time, she had been mutated, and took on Xenomorph traits, including telepathy, and acidic blood. Kai was also much like this as well, having been due to mating with Sugarcube.
It seemed to work... but they did not have any way of knowing for sure.
"Let's move away and see if she can recall anything..." Kai said.
"Okay." Kira said.
They moved down the hall, and as luck would have it, some girls came up behind Elisabeth.
"Yo, Lizzie!" one of them said, tapping her shoulder.
Elisabeth snapped out of her trance, looking confused.
"Ah... wha...?" she uttered.
"What're you doing up here? The party's still going strong!" another girl said.
Elisabeth rubbed her head. "Honestly... I don't even know what I'm up here for..."
"You feelin' okay, girl?" another student asked. "You been studying too hard again?"
"I guess I have..." Elisabeth responded.
Kira and Kai looked at each other triumphantly.
"It worked!" Kira said. "Pretty nice when you've got Xeno DNA, right?"
"Totally! So, let's find Sam and tell her what we've learned." Kai said.
Meanwhile, Sam was downstairs, doing a shell game misdirection trick. She moved the three cups around with a marble inside one.
"So," she said to the volunteer. "which one is it under."
"That one." the girl said, pointing to the one she had been paying attention to.
Sam sighed, lifting the cup... and like with the other volunteers, it was empty.
"Y'know, now I'm starting to feel kinda bad..." Sam said, lifting the other two cups, revealing them to be empty as well. "...it's important to pay attention, but the issue here is that you're paying too much attention."
She revealed the marble in her hand, which she had concealed in her sleeve at some point.
"Sam," came Kai's voice. "we've learned what we needed. Time to wrap up your little show!"
"So, anyways, I'm afraid that's all I've got time for." Sam said.
"Aww... but that stuff's so awesome!" a female student said.
"Yeah! You should start your own show in Vegas!" another one said.
"Thank you, everyone!" Sam said, grabbing a bunch of napkins off to her side. "Enjoy the rest of the party! Goodnight!"
Sam through the napkins in the air, which enveloped her in a cloud of the recycled paper sheets, and when they cleared... Sam herself was nowhere to be seen.
"She disappeared!" a girl said.
"Wow... she's sick!" another one added.
(XXXX)
Sam had managed to sneak out of the building, and rendezvous with Kira and Kai just outside of the building.
"Find anything?" Sam asked.
"Yes." Kai said. "From the look of it, WY has constructed a replica of our world in a quantum computer mainframe, which they plan to link to Xenomorphs' minds as a means of experimenting with their fight-or-flight instinct. And we found that it, coincidentally, is taking place in this city. The supercomputer is charged via a solar farm, so it should be easy to find, if we spend time looking."
Sam pursed her lips, nodding. "Hm... okay. I'd sure like to see what this whole experiment is all about."
"But, what worries me..." Kira said. "...is that this is what was led up to from the people associated with a madman named Dr. Meyers. Me and Kai were able to turn him in a few years ago... but it seems people still want to carry on with torturing Xenos without any genuine research."
"Well... I suppose we'll have to look into this a little bit more in the WY archives." Kai said.
"Yeah," Kira said, just before yawning. "but for now, why don't we call it a night, shall we?"
"Definitely... I get the feeling I've been dragged into a big mess..." Sam added.
(XXXX)
Dr. Meyers and Stephen Baldwin had managed to steal an SUV from an impound lot, and use it as their means of transportation, stopping in overnight parking lots to get their rest. Since they were not very well-known on Earth after escaping from Mars, law enforcement was not a big concern for them at the moment, but the two had to keep a low profile so as to prevent suspicion.
"I'm just glad we're back on our ever-so-green homeland, as opposed to that harsh, cold, dry, red rock." Baldwin said one night as the two escapees laid in their sleeping bags in the back of the car.
"Yes," Meyers acknowledged. "but we still have yet to figure out exactly how our course of action is going to pan out... however, I believe I may have a solution waiting for us."
"Like what?" Baldwin asked.
"Well... let's just say it involves a supercomputer... I've been working with my colleagues to build it for my entire career..." Meyers said.
"Well, you can save that story for another time." Baldwin said. "I'm tired. Let's just get some shuteye..."
"But... if you don't mind me asking..." Meyers said. "...why exactly did you want to escape to Earth with me? Why not head for a more remote system in a hypersleep capsule?"
"Well... it all has to do with my son, Aster..." Baldwin began. "...he always despised me. Called me an asinine, innate bastard."
Meyers raised a brow.
"He was right about me." Baldwin continued. "I fucked up my life, beating my wife and him, drinking, smoking, and doing drugs, day in and day out, and he was always there to see it as he was growin' up... and damn, did the boy know how to pick his fights. He vowed to become the greatest police officer in the galaxy...
"...But now... my son's dead! And there ain't no getting him back! So, I'm gonna find whoever did this to him, and put them in their place! And I know, from rumors, that the guy who did it is right smack here on Earth!"
"Lost your son..." Meyers said. "...that sure is something. Quite a viable motive you've got there."
"Bet your ass, it is. He was right, and I disagreed with him... and now, I'm gonna carry out what he wanted. It's only fair..." Baldwin said.
"But... what was your son's name, again...?" Meyers asked.
"Aster. Aster Baldwin." Baldwin said. "Anyways, time to stop the lippin'... and start the snoozin'..."
As Baldwin fell asleep (accompanied by loud, obnoxious snoring from his sleep apnea), Meyers lay awake, thinking. His mind was fixated heavily on the name of Baldwin's late son, but he could not quite put his finger on it.
Aster... Meyers thought. ...I feel like I've heard that name before, but where? And something makes me feel that it was accompanied by something I hate... but why?
Sorry about the long wait! Like I said above; I had a shitty week at work, and was burned out. But, I'm on my weekly 3-day break now! Any of you get a nice view of the 2017 solar eclipse? It was only partially covered where I live... -_-, but it was 90% covered, and it made everything darker, so it was kinda cool! So, I hope you all enjoyed the long chapter! Keep holding on...