Nehru showed the men along a tight passage that felt like a submarine corridor, albeit with higher ceilings and wider girth. They passed laboratory and office doors as they moved.
'We study these creatures in a variety of ways, Senators, including genetic testing, weapons research, physical tolerances…this is nasty, bloody business.'
'Ahh,' Godfrey thought he cornered her. 'So you admit that if the public knew about what happens here they might not approve?'
'Senator, most people would be put off by what happens in a cattle slaughterhouse, but that doesn't stop us from loving hamburgers, does it?'
Senator Wasnieski, an older man from Delaware, asked, 'You said this area is for Hostile biology. What exactly does that mean?'
'It is critical that we discover the building blocks of our enemies,' she explained with the type of elegant tone that so eluded her husband. 'By understanding their biology, we can better understand their needs, tendencies, and weaknesses.'
Evan asked, 'What about finding means to communicate? What about better understanding with the aim of coexistence?'
Anita smiled a polite smile the way she might at a child who wondered if the moon was made of green cheese. 'Well, that’s not part of our charter.'
'What is your charter?' New Jersey Senator Whitman wanted to know.
'It is our mission to find better, more expeditious means of killing our enemies and more effective means of protecting ourselves from their attacks. Furthermore, we are always looking for clues as to the greater nature of the invasion.'
Evan pointed out, 'Of course, beginning next year the budget for this operation will be approved on the Senate floor and not by direct edict.'
'Is that so?' Again that tone of humoring a child, as if Evan told her he was going to be an astronaut when he grew up.
Whitman interrupted, 'Well, I hope they make the things in here suffer real good. Do you have any Jabberwocks?'
'Not presently, no.'
They went through a high security door to a catwalk encased in heavy glass above a series of chambers with transparent ceilings, each occupied by an alien creature.
'Here are holding pens for specimens awaiting dissection.'
She led the group forward. The security glass muffled all sound from the pens below.
'Are they terminated in a humanly manner?' Evan asked as he eyed a Rat-Thing run headlong into its cell wall.
Anita answered, 'Most are put down by draining the oxygen from their chambers. This ensures the cadavers are in the best possible physical condition.'
Being in such proximity to alien monsters appeared to unnerve Wasnieski. His voice wavered as he looked down at a Giant Jellyfish in its cell. 'Wh-what have you learned?'
'Our research has been quite fruitful. The troops in the field have the most up to date information on how to kill or disable our enemies.'
Evan noted a bipedal, reptilian Hivvan in a holding cell. 'There, that’s a very intelligent creature. Why is he caged like an animal?'
She told him, 'Because it is scheduled for dissection tomorrow morning.'
Godfrey's eyes widened. 'Are we now torturing our enemies?'
Nehru answered, 'No enemy hostiles who surrender are sent here as a matter of policy. This particular Hivvan was a slave pen overseer in Raleigh and was captured after being wounded. It is personally responsible for executing at least one hundred human beings.'
Anita used her key card to open another bulkhead into a new section. The skywalk still looked down on specimens, but this time the holding pens spanned areas the size of small gymnasiums.
The first pen held a creature resembling a house-sized hermit crab with slimy, worm like appendages oozing from some kind of shell.
'If you'll look over here,' Anita pointed, 'you'll see our resident Shellsquid.'
Parts of a second creature the size of an elephant with a big seal-like face, a soft fuzzy hide, and a jagged backbone shared the same pen. The Shellsquid held the remains of this 'ChewCow' in its tendrils, puncturing its lifeless hide and slurping in chunks of flesh.
Whitman nearly vomited; the other Senators turned their heads.
'Sorry. I forgot it was feeding time.'
Wasniewski repeated his earlier question, 'What have you learned? What would be your, hmmm, biggest revelation so far?'
As they left the Shellsquid to its meal, Anita answered, 'We’ve made some astounding discoveries in terms of the basic building blocks of life. That is, in relation to our existence.'
Godfrey: 'How so?'
'As you are no doubt aware, every living organism is built with a genetic code or DNA. It’s what makes us look the way we look; gives us big noses and green eyes or,' Anita ran her hand through her hair, 'beautiful, lovely long black hair for that matter.'
'So? So what?' Senator Whitman ignored her attempt at levity.
'All life on Earth is built from DNA and, in general terms, it is structured in much the same manner. That’s why you may have heard that there is a great deal of similarity between, oh, human DNA and nematodes.'
'Nematodes?' Wasniewski was not sure if he heard correctly.
'A type of worm. Anyway, all Earthly life forms have similar genetic structures. Evolutionists theorize that this proves life on this planet is descendant from one particular organism; that evolution, time, environment, and other factors resulted in the slow creation of a variety of animals, including humanity. In essence, every type of animal on Earth evolved from the same seed.'
The next pen held a monster that had rolled itself into something like a fetal position alongside a big fake rock. The tour could see the thick legs, wiry black and silver hair, lizard tail, four arms, and crocodile-like snout of a Troll.
Nehru continued, 'The aliens who have invaded our world have a very similar-if not identical-DNA structure. They look different, of course, but their basic biology is the same and they share a cell structure with us that we categorize as Eukaryota. That means the DNA is enclosed in separate membranes within the cell. You could say it makes us-and these invaders-complex organisms.'
'Do you consider that a surprise?' Evan asked.
'Senator Godfrey, it confirms that the basic building blocks of life are obviously the same. We may come from different planets, but we could easily have sprung from the same type of seed.'
'Good God,' Whitman burst. 'You’re telling us that we have a lot in common with these things. I’m not sure I can accept that.'
'However, during the course of studying alien DNA we came upon a find that may shed light on the nature of what has been happening to our planet. We were able to identify small-tiny-amounts of damage to the stem cells of the aliens that have come to our world. We believe radiation caused this damage, albeit a kind different of radiation than that attributed to the mass disappearances. Now, NASA had been studying the effects of stellar radiation on the human body to understand how it would affect long-distance space flight. They found a threat to stem cells in particular.'
Whitman jumped in, 'But the aliens here didn’t come on space vessels, they came through those damn gateways.'
Evan held an impatient hand aloft. Whitman must learn when to listen and when to speak.
Anita responded, 'I understand that. We believe that their travel through the gateway caused this damage to their stem cells. Nothing major, mind you.'
'So we need to be worried about the aliens’ health? Maybe we should offer them free health care,' Wasniewski joked but no one laughed. His smile faded fast.
She said, 'Damage might not be the right word; perhaps 'marking' would be more accurate, but let's stick
