Acheron Chapter 6 – Royalty
A/N- Alright I am sure the vast majority of you know what is going on by now if not I still need to explain this part. Facehuggers do not lay eggs, but instead deposit a special kind of tumor into its victim that binds with the hosts cells to produce the creature. Thus it gives the creature that is born some of the host's traits and a better chance of survival. There are two types of variants to the facehugger, normal and royal. A royal facehugger can produce two off springs if a hive is not already present, the second one it produces is a drone.
Nazz monitored Mr. Jorden's vitals to ensure that the creature attached to his face had not begun any nefarious actions against the man, all the while pondering how best to remove it. As well as monitoring his vitals she ran a series of test on the man's blood, finding two types of chemicals within him that the creature must be putting there. The first made perfect sense the second was kind of a curious discovery, turning in her chair to face Edd, who was currently looking threw a microscope at skin samples from the creature, she presents her findings. Swiping up she sends the report from her tablet to the work tables display, sliding his finger across the surface of the table he scrolled through the document making a humming sound as though contemplating the discovery. Looking up from the document toward Nazz he asked, "So it's suppressing his immune system?"
She nods her head, "For what purpose is still unclear. I'm running a test for microorganisms in his blood now." Edd cocks a brow at her, "If it's suppressing his immune system it might be infecting him with some form of cell that gathers nutrients in some way."
"That's an excellent deduction doctor," Edd closed the file she had sent him then opened an image and enlarged it so it took up most of the surface of the table, by this time they had learned from Mrs. Jorden that it was inside a derelict spaceship where they had found creature. "As you can see in the image, the creature has no stomach or intestinal track of its own, so if it's feeding the way you think it is why subdue your host like it does. In its nature environment that would just invite opportunistic predators to come and feed on your food source and ultimately kill it, seems a little careless to me."
"Could be a part of the natural food chain on its planet, allowing lower end predators to eat something bigger than they normally could get on their own." She hoped her theory made sense, she wasn't a biologist after all, "It would also help explain the acidic blood for a defense mechanism, those predators wouldn't dare attack it for they would die in the process if they did."
"That's a very interesting theory, but one we will unfortunately never have the chance to prove." Closing the image on the table he turns back to the microscope, "Let me know your finding on that test." Making note of the complex structure of the creature's cells and the way they seemed to be formed, he removes the slide and inserts it into a slot in the table. Pulling up a command window he asks the compute to do a molecular analysis of the cells, as the machine did its work Edd stretched feeling the exhaustion setting in from being woken up so early in the morning. Twenty minutes later the screen on the table was displaying the results of the test as another file from Nazz appears beside it as the blonde wheeled her chair across from him again.
"No foreign micro organisms were detected in his system," she lets out a sigh of frustration, "There goes that theory out the window."
This just brought more questions into Edd's mind instead of answers, the other read out was showing that the creature was silicon based with a molecular composition Edd had never seen before. What strange primordial soup spawned the life on the planet this thing was from, or could the creature actually be more artificially made then a naturally occurring life form. "Well it looks like we are back to square one on its purpose."
"Any luck on your end?"
"Not really, we could try dermal applied sedatives to try and subdue it, but with its physiology and chemical makeup I'm not sure if it would actually affect it." He rubbed his eyes trying to wake himself up a little more, it had been at least six hours since Mr. Jorden had been brought in and they seemed to be no closer to figuring out this organism.
"Why don't we take a break for lunch," She punches in a few commands on the table and the med area Mr. Jorden was in sealed itself, "There the computer will let us know if anything changes." Reluctantly Edd took the doctors suggestion and left his work behind to go get something to eat, calling Kevin to join them at the bar and grill.
Kevin arriving fifteen minutes after them having farther to walk, their food arriving a moment later, Edd having order for his husband being fully aware what the man likes. Taking a bit of his hamburger he chews and swallows before speaking, "Any luck with our guest?"
Edd shakes his head, "No we are still at a loss as to what to do."
"I hear the Major wants to send the security team to investigate the wreckage, in case there are more of these things in there, Mrs. Jorden made it seem like there might be." Kevin takes a drink as the two Doctors pondered his words.
"I would have to advise against that," Edd stated and Nazz agreed with him, "If there are in fact more of these creatures in there, we might only end up with more people in the same position as Mr. Jorden."
"He'll probably do it anyways," Nazz states as she skewered the lettuce in her salad with her fork. "First off he has the public safety to think about and second once he's made his choice he can't second guess himself, he would appear weak."
The tablet that Nazz had sitting on the table by her plate starts to chime and she picks it up quickly, "What is it?" Edd asks as the chirping stopped and Nazz looked over the read out.
"It's come off," She says standing and heading toward the door followed by Edd and Kevin. Arriving at the door to the med bay the three of them look in through the glass door, seeing that the creature had in fact detached itself from Mr. Jorden but they could see no sign of it in the room. "Kevin would you call a security detail please," Nazz requested as she hit a button on the side of the door to bring up the lights in the room, hoping it was just the poor illumination that kept the creature out of sight.
Kevin enters operations across the hall from them and a moment later both he and Major Hadley join Nazz and Edd at the door. Looking in the Major asks, "Where is it?"
"We don't know," Edd says still looking in the room for any sign of movement.
A few minutes pass and a curvaceous bluenette with two men at her side join the growing group, "Major," she salutes the man.
"Sgt. Kanker, I need you and your men to sweep this room for an unknown organism," The Major ordered pointing in the direction of the med lab.
As she gently moved Nazz and Edd out of the way of the door, he warned her, "Be careful, it might try and attach itself to your face."
Taking in his words she pushed the button to open the door and removes her sidearm from its holster keeping it at the ready. Checking the corners as she entered the room she keeps her back to the areas she has already looked in and sweeps toward the opposite side of the area. Looking in nooks and crannies of the equipment on the shelves, behind and in cabinets and under tables but there was no sign of any organism. Stepping out of the room followed by the two men, "It's clear," she states to the Major.
"Begin a sweep of every floor, it couldn't have gotten far," The Major orders and Sgt. Kanker salutes him and departs with the two men in tow to get the rest of the security officers in her small detachment.
Down in the living quarters Bethany Reeves lay in her bed asleep having gotten off work early today due to the rescue mission having kept her up all night. Sleeping soundly she was unaware of the thing that was crawling slowly out of the air vent above her, making its way along the ceiling supported by eight finger like legs as it positioned itself to strike. She came into consciousness for a second as the thing landed upon her face delivering its neurotoxins that put her in a coma instantly as it did what its instincts told it to do. The person at the door ten minutes later was unaware of her situation, figuring that no one was home when she didn't come to the door as he rang the bell for the fifth time.