Chapter Five
As they had hoped, Greg and Tina procured the test subjects without a hitch. Nicolette bought their cover story, and told them that she looked forward to seeing their experimental results. The early results were not promising. The xenomorphs mauled the men, women, and children without hesitation, even after repeated shock treatment. Then Greg and Tina tried a different tack—rewards. Every time a xenomorph neglected to maul a child, they would reward it with dog meat (for some reason, the bugs savored the stuff). It took several test rounds, but eventually the tactic worked. However, they knew they would eventually run out of meat, so they needed another tactic. That's when Tina hit on the idea of coating the children with xenomorph pheromones.
"Think about it," she explained to him one day, while a xenomorph happily cocooned an adult male clone on the other side of the observation window. "If we coat a large enough variety of children—boys and girls of different races—with xenomorph pheromones, the bugs will associate the scent of children with that of their own kind. Therefore, whenever they see children, they'll simply ignore them. At least, I hope so."
Thankfully, Tina hoped right. After a few such trials, the test xenomorphs ignored the children and attacked only the adults. With that part of the experiment successful, Greg and Tina moved on to the task of convincing the xenomorphs to actively protect the children. Greg suggested that they train one of the xenomorphs to attack the children, but Tina countered that they'd come too far to change even one individual's behavior. That's when Greg hit on the idea of a lie.
After pulling out his cell phone, Greg dialed Mike and waited for him to answer.
"Yello?" Mike responded on the third ring.
"Hey, it's Greg," Greg said. "Listen, one of our xenomorphs just isn't working out. No matter what we try, it just won't kill any of the 'rabbits'. Can we switch it out with one of yours?"
"Sure," Mike said, albeit reluctantly. "But what will we do with the dud that you give us?"
"I don't know," Greg said impatiently. "Train it to fetch unexploded land mines, or something. I'm sure you'll figure it out."
"All right," Mike said resignedly. "Swing by my lab tomorrow morning, and we can make the switch."
So they did. After Greg brought the new xenomorph back to the neurophysiology lab, he and Tina set up a scenario wherein they released the new bug into a room inhabited by six children (white male, black male, Muslim male, and the corresponding females) and three trained xenomorphs. When the new bug tried to attack one of the children, one of the trained bugs fended it off while the other two began picking up the children and carrying them out of harm's way. Unfortunately, the new bug ended up killing one of the trained bugs, as well as two of the children (a white boy and a Muslim girl), so Greg and Tina had to gun it down with plasma pulse rifles before it did any further damage. Then they had to clean up the messes, of both the xenomorph and human varieties. But frankly, they were shocked that the experiment was so successful, and presumed that the xenomorphs' natural protective instincts were very strong.
Unfortunately, their happiness didn't last long. At the end of the workday, Greg's cell phone rang again. He looked at the caller ID, and saw that it was Nicolette. Shit, he thought.
"Hello?" he answered pleasantly.
"Yes, I was just calling to check on your progress," Nicolette answered crisply.
"The experiment is going fine," he replied brightly, though his grin was forced. "Better than expected."
"That's wonderful to hear," she trilled delightedly. "May I stop by your lab tomorrow, to observe one of your sessions?"
"Uh, sure," he replied, glancing nervously at Tina. "We look forward to seeing you."
"And I you. Goodbye until then."
Nicolette hung up, and so did Greg.
"What was that about?" Tina asked, confused and concerned.
"Nicolette wants to observe one of our trials tomorrow," Greg said glumly.
"Fuck," she said under her breath. "How can we fudge the results in front of her? We can't procure a replacement xenomorph on such short notice."
"No," he said with a sigh, "but we can mask the children's scents with heavy doses of adult pheromones. Hopefully, that'll be enough to drive even our trained xenomorphs into a murderous frenzy."
Tina nodded sadly. "I hope you're right."
The next day, Nicolette called in the morning to say that she'd be dropping by that afternoon. Greg rounded up five clone children (three Muslim boys and two white girls), and sprayed them with pheromones while Tina held them in her arms. They squirmed vigorously, but Tina gently shushed them until they became relatively calm. Then Greg and Tina ushered them onto the testing ground, where a caged xenomorph was lying in wait. As Nicolette's arrival approached, the xenomorph became antsy, charging at the cage's bars in an attempt to get to its prey.
"Shit, I hope this works," Tina said worriedly, biting her already-short nails.
"Me, too, me, too," Greg fretted as he paced the length of the observation room.
Just then, Nicolette knocked, and Greg walked over to the keypad to press the button that opened the door. She strode in liked she owned the place, and in a way, she did. Nicolette was their direct supervisor, after all.
"So, what do you have for me?" she asked, sweeping her long blonde hair over the shoulder of her navy-blue suit coat.
"Observe," Greg said, pulling a remote out of his pocket and pressing the big red button.
On the other side of the observation window, the xenomorph dashed out of its cage, and rushed the nearest Muslim boy. The poor soul didn't have a chance. After leaping onto the boy's chest, the bug punctured the victim's neck with its inner mandibles, killing him instantly. Downed, the boy just laid there as the bug raked its claws across his torso, spilling his guts. Furiously, the bug ran toward the oldest of the white girls, then raked a clawed hand across her neck. Blood sprayed from it as the girl fell, and the bug pounced on her once she was on the ground. Then it clawed open her guts as well, and began feasting. Sated, the bug ambled back into its cage, and Greg pressed the blue button to close it. The remaining three children cowered in one corner of the room, with the lone girl hugging and stroking one of the boys. It would have been sweet if they weren't so absolutely terrified.
"Excellent," Nicolette said with a proud smile, evidently satisfied with the trial's outcome. "Please send it over to the tech lab tomorrow morning, so Mike's team can load it onto the Excalibur."
"Will do," Greg said, with all the cheeriness he could muster.
With a smile and a nod. Nicolette turned around and left the room. Greg closed the door behind her, then turned to Tina.
"Are we really going to hand that bug over to Mike?" she asked worriedly.
"Of course not," Greg answered. "That bug's been compromised. We'll send another one of ours, and hope that he doesn't notice its unusual temperament."
"How many do even we have left?" she replied, somewhat bewildered.
"Only two," he said regretfully, holding up the requisite number of fingers. "Suffice it to say, it would be best if we ended our experiment, and not a moment too soon."
Tina's face looked pained as she nodded her assent. "I hope everything goes according to plan."
"Me, too," Greg said once again. "Me, too."