CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Emergence
Major Alcheck stood over Melissa’s bed as the nurse worked to replace the bag full of plasma connected to her central line. Her body was absorbing the fluid at a rate vastly greater than a typical human body should, and the doctors outside the door of the room were discussing exactly that now. What did it mean? Where were the fluids going? Her urine output had all but ceased a little more than three hours ago, and now she just seemed to be taking it in and storing it, although scans showed her stomach was empty. Well, what they thought was her stomach anyway, as the anatomical structure was all wrong now. They simply couldn’t explain what they were seeing, and their hushed tones betrayed their concern and frustration about not having the answers the Major was demanding.
This was just a side conversation though, a distraction from the main event, which was the story Melissa had just relayed to Major Alcheck and Alex. Each word was forced through clenched teeth as the pain was becoming excruciating, and no drugs seemed to be having an effect.
Unfortunately for Melissa, she knew she woul d have to endure the pain just a little while longer.
Alex stood staring out the window into the night sky, trying to process what he had just heard. He no sooner had run through it all in his head than Major Alcheck finally broke the silence that had stood in the room, save for the beeps of the medical equipment and Melissa’s progressively more horrifying biologic sounds, for nearly five minutes now.
“Melissa, I’m sorry, but I need you to run through this with us one more time.”
“Brendan,” said Alex, “With all due respect, Melissa’s in a tremendous amount of pain here. Do we really need her to have to repeat all of that again? You know what’s coming, can’t we just… let her go… in as much peace as possible?” Alex turned and looked at Melissa now, and Melissa returned his gaze through bloodshot and barely human eyes, the look of anguish etched on her face was as pronounced as the Grand Canyon on the Arizona desert. He didn’t want to see his wife suffer any longer, and he was beginning to come to terms with what was going to have to happen next, though his steely expression betrayed the anguish of a different sort that he too was feeling.
“Wasn’t once enough?”
“I don’t want to prolong his suffering any more than you do Alex. But we’ve got to make sure we have this right. We can’t afford to get even one small detail wrong.”
The tone of Alcheck’s voice was almost fatherly now. The man was clearly sympathizing not only with Melissa’s pain but with Alex’ sharing of that pain on an emotional level. It was an unusual tone of voice from him to be sure, and Alex recognized it instantly.
Alex looked at Alcheck, held his gaze for a second, and finally nodded in agreement. He knew Alcheck was right, he just wished he wasn’t. He also found himself wishing that they weren’t friends. He thought it might make the resolve in Alcheck’s voice easier to take and that realization shocked him just a little bit. He grabbed Melissa’s deformed hand and squeezed.
“Melissa, Brendan is right, we need to go over this one more time. I’m sorry.”
Melissa shifted on the bed, clearly trying to steady herself and find a position that caused her the least amount of pain. Alex and Major Alcheck, nearly simultaneously, reached out to help Melissa into a slightly more seated position, which they could see was what Melissa was trying for. Finally, after a few moments of struggle, grunting and grimacing, Melissa relaxed, to the extent she could at least, and drew in a deep breath. She choked out each word, the strain evidence with each syllable.
“I’m being transformed. I’m not sure into what, but I know it. I’m having visions of invasions of countless planets, destruction… Alex, you wouldn’t believe it if you saw it! Whole planets, entire species, wiped out of existence without the slightest hesitation or, seemingly, much effort.”
“The nanotech probe we’re infected with is what’s doing it. I believe it’s only affecting me because of my higher intelligence. Higher intelligence correlates to a more complex brain structure, more interconnects between neurons, more capacity.”
Melissa managed a smirk as she said: “Sorry about that Alex, you just weren’t bright enough to be this thing’s host.”
Alex, against his own emotions, smiled back. It was that good she could still make that joke, he thought. Maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem and she’s gonna be okay. And, never one to miss the opportunity to retort, Alex fired back
“It figures that big brain of yours would be your undoing. I always said you were way too smart for a guy like me, I guess this probe thing realized that pretty quick too, huh?”
Melissa chuckled, which lead to a seconds-long coughing fit.
“Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, I’m not sure how I know that, but I do. I think the process of transforming me is allowing some of the information embedded in the probe to seep into my consciousness mind. That would explain the invasion visions.”
“Now Melissa,“ said Major Alcheck, “You used the word probe again. What exactly does that mean in this context?”
“I’m not really sure Major. This is all coming to me at a subconscious level, almost like information, or more like shadows of information, hints of pieces of information randomly bubbling up to the surface when it feels like it, is just appearing in my mind. What I can tell you is that even though there are billions of nanotech devices inside Alex and me, I believe they’re all connected somehow, forming a single entity, communicating with one another, parts of a much larger whole. It’s a probe of some sort. Moreover, I think this probe is a sentient being. I believe that it’s consciousness, if that’s even the right word to use for a machine intelligence, is merging with my own. I think this single entity, this probe, was sent out by the aliens I’ve seen in my visions, the invaders. I think its job may be to make first contact with other species, but for what purpose I just don’t know. Anyway, that’s all I’ve been able to sort of piece together, I don’t think I’m going to have time to figure it out either. And now…“
Melissa began to shift again as a wave of pain shot through her body. Her skin rippled like tides in the ocean and started to become translucent.
“… I think we all know what needs to happen.”
“No, there’s got to be another way!”.
Alex was intellectually preparing himself for the inevitability he knew was coming, but he still couldn’t wrap his emotional mind around it. Ironic, he had thought to himself, that all that special military training, all the opportunities he’d had to use it, couldn’t even begin to prepare him for having to kill his own wife. He had killed people before, in combat, but that felt like an entirely different experience to what was coming, and he was finding himself unable to process it.
“You know there isn’t any other way," Melissa replied. “We can’t allow this transformation to complete. It’s too risky. I don’t know what I’m becoming Alex. We don’t know what danger I might pose. And, frankly, I’m about ready for this pain to end!”
Another wave of agony ravaged her undulating body as blood began to seep from her eyes, running down her deformed cheeks.
“Alex, I know this can’t be easy, but she’s right, we’ve got to do it, and now. We don’t know what the end result here is and we don’t know how much time before we find out. It’s got to be now”.
Major Alcheck was grasping Alex’s arm now, trying to persuade him to leave the room with him. He knew he could order Alex out, and he knew he would obey, but this wasn’t a situation where orders matter much.
Alex glanced at Major Alcheck for a second, and then back to Melissa.
“Alright.”
He choked back the tears he felt welling up in his eyes and throat and forced the last words he would ever say to his wife:
“Goodbye, Melissa. I love you.”
Melissa just smiled, and for just a moment, the pain subsided. She locked eyes with Alex for a few seconds before he finally turned and followed Major Alcheck out of the room. She tried to return his declaration of love, but found that her mouth was nearly sealed shut and she was unable to speak. She willed the corners of her lips a little higher, an effort to make the smile reflect her love for him.
The thick, heavy containment door slid down from the ceiling, and Melissa was sealed in the room by herself.
Alex looked at the control pad next to the door. The large, red button labeled “Irradiate” was pulsating gently, betraying its sinister intention. When pressed, the room would be filled with intense ionizing radiation, instantly destroying all organic material in the room. A powerful EM pulse would simultaneously envelop the room, destroying all forms of technology contained within. Finally, a focused gamma-ray laser would quickly sweep across the room after that, vaporizing everything inside, organic and inorganic alike. Only the special tritium walls would survive.
Most importantly, Melissa would die instantly, along with the alien nanotech probe within her.
Major Alcheck stood beside Alex and, after a few moments of hesitation, moved to press the button.
Alex grabbed his arm with blinding speed.
“Major, it needs to be me.”
“Are you sure, Alex? I can take on that burden, you don’t need to.”
“It has to me, Brendan. It has to be.”
Alcheck regarded him momentarily and then lowered his arm.
“Okay.”
As Alex looked through the specialized containment glass one last time at his wife, his arm began to rise and move towards the button. As his finger was just an inch from the button, Melissa began convulsing violently. Alex’ arm dropped as he ran to the window and pressed his face and hands up against the window.
Melissa’s body was now violently trying to throw itself from the bed, but the metal restraint cables attached to her wrists and ankles kept her anchored to the bed. Her movements were causing splits to appear in her skin all over her body and blood and other fluids to begin leaking out, even spraying out in places where veins and arteries run close to the surface. Her face was now distorted beyond recognition; she was barely even recognizable as human any longer.
The thrashing continued for what seemed like an eternity as Alex.
“Melissa! Oh god, Melissa!”
Seconds later, Melissa’s body stopped its explosive movements. As she lay there, her head turned to face the window.
She began to speak in labored tones, far worse than before, every word a supreme struggle. Her mouth, now little more than a giant, gaping hole in her face where a row of oddly-shaped teeth extended outward like a deformed dog’s snout, began to move in ways that didn’t seem to match the words. The skin that had formed sealing her lips began to tear, Alex realized, very much on purpose. He knew it must have been excruciating,
“Alex… X-100… it… wants it!”
Major Alcheck was watching alongside Alex and was the first to speak up.
“Wants it? What do you mean wants it? Who wants it?”
“Probe… senses technology… advanced… report back…”
Melissa’s skin was now largely translucent, her internal organs now visible through it, although unrecognizable to Alex and Major Alcheck, or even to the doctors who were now looking into the room as well. She now had four arms and three legs, although two of the arms and one of the legs were oddly shaped and bent in directions counter to the others. Ridges had appeared where her neck was, almost like trapezes muscles but far larger than any human bodybuilder ever had, and with grooves running horizontally across them.
“Can’t… fight it… Alex… must stop it!”
Claws were now emerging from the fingers on all four arms, sharpened protrusions at least six inches long each. Her eye sockets were now widening and giant, glowing red eyeballs could be seen, eyeballs with cat-like slit irises. The internal organs themselves were now becoming translucent as well beneath the skin, which was now all but invisible to the naked eye.
The two arms that had formed were now clawing at the metal restraining straps, slash marks appearing across them, gouges forming. The two restrained legs were now bulging with barely-visible translucent muscles, twisting and kicking violently, deforming the restraints connecting them to the table.
Suddenly, as if they were made of wet spaghetti, all four restraining cables snapped, and Melissa - what used to be Melissa Wakeman - propelled itself onto the ceiling. It stuck there, tiny suction cups on its abdomen securing it in place.
She let out a shriek that echoed through the halls of the base, carrying further than any sound a human could make, the birth cry of some terrible evil.
Alex, previously transfixed by what he was seeing, finally snapped back to the present thanks to that horrible scream, his extensive military training now kicking in.
His wife was gone now, what remained was no longer her. It was just a threat now, an enemy, he instinctively knew, to be dealt with.
He reached for the irradiation button and slammed it hard with the palm of his hand.
A blinding white light filled the room like water breaking through a dam. Bolts of electricity began arcing through the light, their bluish tendrils touching the table where the Melissa-thing had been. Quickly after that, a beam of intense blue light swept across the room, touching every inch of it, top to bottom.
Just three seconds after hitting the button, the light faded quickly, and all activity in the room ceased. Alex anxiously looked through the glass to see the results.
The room was empty now, utterly barren. No bed, no equipment, nothing at all except the walls were left. Alex looked up at the ceiling to where the creature that had once been Melissa Wakeman, had latched onto. It was gone. Not a trace remained.
“Scanners!”, yelled Major Alcheck. Two scientists who had been waiting now moved into position with portable scanning gear in hand. They pointed them through the glass and began examining readouts on the LCD screens. Various graphs and data values flashed across the screen, and the two scientists looked at each other and nodded.
“Clear, sir. No organic material detected, no substance other than Tritium detected. It’s been swept completely clean, sir.”
“Good.”
Alex was leaning up against the glass, head down, forehead touching the glass. Major Alcheck walked over to him and paused for a moment before placing his hand on his shoulder.
“Brendan, I know how hard that must have been for you. It wasn’t easy for me either, believe me. She was your wife, and I know that bond is like no other, but she was my friend too. It had to be done though. Especially if what Melissa said at the end is true, if that probe had some interest in the X-100…”
“I know,” Alex replied in a low tone, “but she was… she was my wife.”
Major Alcheck just looked at the back of Alex’s head for a few moments, then finally turned and left the room.
Alex lingered a while longer as the two scientists opened the containment door. A violent rush of air escaped as they did so, which startled Alex enough to make him stand up straight again. He stared into the room through the glass a while longer, his mind empty of all but sorrow for the loss he now felt. He had never felt a feeling like this before in his life. His parents had both died in a car accident just a few years before, and he thought he would never feel as sad as he did.
This day, he knew, he was wrong.
He fought back the tears now, his chin quivering. He sniffled slightly and wiped his eyes before the scientists noticed. They were too busy though, entering the room to run more detailed scans without the containment door obscuring the readings.
Alex tugged the bottom of his shirt to straighten it out. He turned from the window, composed now, as his training demanded. He quickly left the room as the overhead light flickered ever so slightly.