generations, and the male she had originally mated with had been enough to fertilize her eggs--she'd synthesized more sperm after her initial mating, copying the cells that were needed to reproduce. But if this male lived, it would kill everything in its path to protect this cycle of females until they too gave birth, to its offspring. It would kill her because she carried and copied another's sperm.
Even the small beings of which Gus's new friend was a part didn't understand the true nature of the horror that they had brought. The beast crushed her clawed hand into her abdomen and tried desperately to expel the male. The small creature was clawing and ripping at her insides until she finally reached into herself and grabbed it. She brought the struggling male up to view. Its shell had already been shed and it had started to form what would become its armor. Its neck armor was already intact and merely held to its neck by a mucous membrane that would soon dissolve. It snapped and hissed at the mother as she roared and tossed the creature hard into the wall of the cave, but failed to kill it.
The two-foot-long male struck the rough wall and immediately gained its feet. It snatched at a female and took it into its claws. It started devouring it even as the mother slapped at it, knocking it farther away into the darkness. Then she started screaming and throwing mutilated cattle toward it.
The male saw its parent in the darkness as it started in on the bloody meat. The yellow and greenish tinted eyes never left its current threat, the mother.
For the next few hours, as the animals grew and learned their abilities, the real Destroyer ate and grew faster, and it continued to stare with hatred at its parent, only shifting its gaze to the others if they came too near it. And coming near it was the last thing its siblings ever did. Soon they would gather around him and him alone, forsaking the parent that had brought them into this world. Then the work of devouring all life on this world would commence.
Riders on the storm, into this house we're born, into this world we're thrown...
-- THE DOORS
TWENTY-SEVEN
After shaking hands and quickly catching up, Jack explained Fielding's mission. He took it well that he was here in an unofficial capacity of 'advisement' only, and that he would have to take orders from a major. He didn't bat an eye as Jack led him to a table to sign an extensive secrecy and nondisclosure form.
Fielding looked at Jack and rubbed a hand over his bald head. 'Just who in the hell are you working for, Jack?'
Collins held the colonel's gaze a moment; an unvoiced answer seemed to flow between the two officers.
'Why, the same man you work for,' he finally said.
'Got it, don't ask.'
Jack nodded.
Collins entered the tent with Colonel Sam Fielding close behind. The colonel had taken the rest of Jack's briefing without batting an eye, only commenting, 'Should have fucking known the government was covering up at Roswell.'
Sam's element of 101st would be split to secure the town for the quarantine cover story and Site One security. That would free up the Event Group personnel and the Delta/Ranger contingent for tunnel teams. Jack had all of the incoming troops sign secrecy and nondisclosure orders, basically assuring the government they would have to keep their mouths shut forever.
The two men put on surgical masks as they stepped through the makeshift autopsy area. They were met by a staff doctor and shown the way into the examination area of the spacious army tent. There were several of the strange metallic boxes found at the crash site. Teams were using small tools, brushes, and cotton swabs as they gathered minute samples from the containers. To the left was a paneled-off area with a large see-through window that showed teams inside working with other high-tech gear, but most were bent over microscopes.
'Hello, Jack,' Denise Gilliam said as she walked up and removed her surgical gloves.
'Denise, this is Colonel Sam Fielding. He and I served together in the Gulf a million years ago. Colonel, Dr. Denise Gilliam, our chief forensics pathologist.'
The colonel and the doctor shook hands.
'What have you got so far, Doc?' Collins asked.
Gilliam turned and took in the scene around them. 'Well, we have collected the DNA samples of over three hundred different species of alien life in these twenty-seven containers,' she said, then saw the look of confusion on their faces. 'We believe the containers are like cargo bins, they get used over and over. We also know they were empty on this particular trip, as none of them have any recent bodily material inside of them. We have sent off slides and specimens by fighter jet to Helicos BioSciences in Cambridge. But as I was saying, the cages were empty.'
'All of them?' the colonel asked.
She looked at Jack, who nodded his head for her to continue. 'No, sir, we have one here that was occupied upon impact.' She gestured to a large crate that was mangled and torn apart. 'We were successful in collecting DNA of a species of creature that is not found on this planet.' She placed a hand on the ripped-open section of the metal container. 'We've found hair, or what we would consider hair. Actually it's more like a porcupine quill. We believe it's part of this particular animal's sensory input mechanics as the follicles on the ends have bits of nerve ending on them. Now we're running the samples again to be positive of the results, but what it looks like is that whatever was shipped in this container is anatomically different from any life-form we know of.'
'How do you mean?' Jack asked.
Denise turned and walked over to the window and looked in on the other pathologists, who were busily working alongside the paleontologists. 'Its atomic structure is out of whack' she said, looking away into the area her team was working. 'It shouldn't be able to exist,' she said with awe in her drifting voice.
'I don't follow,' Fielding said.
'It means its body should sink right to the core of this planet, Colonel. Its structure is so dense it shouldn't be able to live on this world, or any others that our space probes have reached thus far.'
'Can you expand on that?' Collins said.
'I'll try, gentlemen. Have you ever tossed a rock into a lake and watched it fall once in the water?'
They both gave a quick nod.
'Well, that's what this creature would be able to do here on this world. The ground would be like water is to you or me. It would literally be capable of swimming through our soil.'
'You mean it can tunnel or dig?' asked the colonel.
Gilliam looked at him for a moment in thought. 'The atomic structure of this animal is not like ours and everything around us. You see, every atom that makes us or even the ground we stand on, or the furniture you sit on, is always in motion to some degree. One atom spins around another, that spins around yet another, never connecting but giving the illusion of being a solid to the naked eye. This animal is made up of atoms that are attached to each other in groupings of eight and ten, no single atoms like us, thus its structure is far more solid than our own. So, no, not tunnel or dig, Colonel. It would be able to run or whatever it does in the ground a lot faster than we can walk or run in our own atmosphere. I just used water as an example for lack of a better example. In our air or aboveground if you will, it would be eight or maybe even as much as ten times faster than we are. Just conjecture at this point because it being here and living is still, at least according to our science and universe, an impossibility.'
'That means it could be a threat to my men if it finds us first,' Fielding said. Like any good commander he feared for the well-being of his men above all else.
'Okay, what about these others?' Jack asked hurriedly.
'Well, they're not too dissimilar from us. They definitely died due to impact trauma. Wounds on one were
