Greenflies Read online

  “And the equipment?”

  “We have a vault.”

  Caufield entered the cargo doors, the truck with the pressure vessel following close behind her. The concrete walls in this building were invisible, hidden behind layers of white plastic. There was an impression of being inside a giant vacuum cleaner, right down to a continuous breeze caused by the positive pressure of the building. The entire biohazard building was essentially a fume hood. Nothing could waft in on a breeze, even with the doors wide open. Once the doors were sealed, there would be no gas exchange of any sort in or out.

  “One of my troops, Leena Ramashandran, the medic, removed her mask in the field and was possibly exposed. Have her put in with the survivors,” she said to the Lieutenant, before withdrawing six envelopes from vest pocket, “Each of the unit are to be given the corresponding set of orders. Have them waiting for my men after they’ve removed their gear and are isolated. So your men know, it’s possible they’ll be redeployed, with the exception of Ramashandran, at a moment's notice.”

  “But the quarantine…”

  “Not your call, Lieutenant.”

  Caufield was led through a pair of airlocks to a simple but expensively furnished observation booth over the operating gallery. It evidently did double duty as a conference room, possessing a ten-chair table. Currently, the table was equipped with four telephones, no doubt with secure connections routed through the Pentagon.

  Standing by the window overlooking the surgery suite were three men: a short, portly man in Army uniform Caufield recognized as one of General Lassiter’s aides, someone in civilian clothes most likely associated with the President’s office, and Dr. Donald Barnard, an elderly assistant director of CIA Sci-Tech.

  The surgery suite below was large enough to dissect an elephant, were it necessary. It boasted most of the equipment of a common OR as well as a wide selection of power tools, mostly those used for cutting. Around the periphery of the square white plastic suite were four large gas tanks, their symbols indicating they contained compressed gaseous N2.

  Three individuals stood down there as well, two of them darting around doing last-minute checks on the necessary equipment. The last was probably the CDC’s pathologist who would be performing the dissection. All three were in white plastic suits with clear faceplates and corrugated tubes running from their backs to the ceiling. Once the alien cadaver was inside, and the room pressurized, the only oxygen would be what was pumped into their hoods.

  “Ma’am,” said Lassiter’s aide, extending his hand, “Major Starling. We met last year at a budget meeting.”

  Caufield shook the hand, but focused instead on Dr. Barnard, “I’ve only been getting sporadic reports from Gamma Squad. Have they been keeping you briefed here, Donald? Is the living specimen stable?”

  “Not entirely stable, no,” Dr. Barnard replied, “We’ve been receiving reports from the inflight medical personnel. Both the cadavers and the single live specimen are showing signs of an extreme reaction to the air. From the description, I’d guess it’s an extreme oxidation reaction, much the same way human blood oversaturates with oxygen and turns bright red when it bleeds. In this case, the oxidation reaction is more energetic, causing the alien blood to foam from wounds. The living specimen has no visible wounds, according to the medics, but its skin is beginning to turn brown, possibly showing oxidation of the underlying layers. We’re hoping that pressurizing the suite with nitrogen will offset this reaction, both for the autopsy and the storage of the live specimen.

  “Excellent work by Gamma Squad, by the way, taking down three of them. From what I understand, these things are absolute brutes,” Dr. Barnard concluded.

  “That would more aptly describe your team, from my understanding,” said the civilian. “Their mission was to detain an alien for questioning, not kill two of them. This incident may have permanently jaundiced any relationship we could have formed with these creatures.”

  “And you are? Your clearance?” asked Caufield.

  The civilian, a thin and normally pallid young man, turned a bright red and sputtered slightly. He was bald, so the red display was all the more impressive.

  “He’s Department of Energy,” said Dr. Barnard almost dismissively. “He’s cleared. The Chief of Staff wanted someone affiliated with the cabinet here, and Dr. McDowell here is credentialed in high energy physics.”

  “Ah,” said Caufield, before answering McDowell, “Dr. McDowell, I have full confidence in my team. If they used lethal force, it was because they were under threat by the same. While I have not yet debriefed them fully, from their field report aboard the Osprey, it is my understanding that Gamma squad found rubber-jacket rounds totally ineffectual before turning to lethal rounds. They were also attacked in close-quarters, and I’m told the aliens are quite lethal in hand-to-hand.”

  “But this was our opportunity to make a good impression on another civilized species, and instead, we gunned down two of them,” McDowell persisted.

  “An armed response to an alien incursion was inevitable. If you haven’t heard, an incursion in Africa left an entire alien group dead as well as several dozen local Congolese,” replied Caufield, “A good impression, considering the aliens are visiting the entire world, was never possible. Besides, if this species were truly civilized, they would have made some effort at communication. Instead, they’ve shot several people for attempting contact. These are tactical operations they are performing. We just don’t know the purpose.”

  Lieutenant Leonard entered the room and sealed the door behind him, “The Osprey is on the ground outside. It should only be a minute or two before the cadavers are brought in.”

  True to form, in less than two minutes another pair of men in white plastic wheeled in a pair of metal carts, each with a six limbed form laying immobile in a half-zipped body bag. Both bodies had a purplish foam slowly oozing from their wounds. The fluid had partially filled each body bag and left a purple slime over the aliens’ green skin. The bags had to be left open, as the bodies had assumed a cartoonish death pose, with all six limbs held aloft in front of their torso. Even the long necks had fixed into curves, pointing their eyes to the ceiling.

  “They look like big bugs,”said the DoE man.

  “Green wingless flies, just as Gamma reported,” said Caufield.

  “Superficially, perhaps. In that they have six limbs and large eyes,” replied Dr. Barnard, “But these green flies appear to have an internal skeleton instead of an exoskeleton, and those eyes do not appear to be compound. Also, look at how the skin still moves slightly, even though the creatures have been dead for nearly half an hour.”

  There was a hiss, audible even through the glass barrier, as the atmosphere in the surgical suite was slowly replaced. Pressurized nitrogen forced the native air out controlled vents. After only moments, the purplish fluid had stopped bubbling. The suited pathologists noted the pressure, partial pressure of oxygen, and corresponding behavior of the fluid as the atmosphere changed.

  “So, it is most likely an oxidation reaction,” Dr. Barnard said.

  “Indicating they come from a world with a non-oxygen atmosphere,” added the DoE man.

  “Or no atmosphere at all,” replied Barnard, “After all, they don’t appear to be wearing any space suit or the like. They have no mouth or obvious venting. Perhaps they are vacuum creatures. Or perhaps they breathe through that complicated skin. They may have evolved on a planet but somehow escaped the need for gas exchange. We’ll have better luck determining that aspect of their physiology from the live specimen.”

  The pathologists in the suite below were unbagging one of the specimens, doing their best to drain the fluid into a receptacle on the metal dissection table. Video cameras mounted in the corners of the suite roved their focus across the cadaver. There appeared to be no orifices on the creature and, other than the peg-like scales, there were very few landmarks on the skin. The only gaps in it appeared to be the interface with the glassy eye coverings and the
points on the three-fingered hands, all six of them, where the claws emerged. There was no sign of genitalia, a maw, or external adornment.

  With the body free of the bag and transferred to the suite table, the pathologist began, “We begin dissection of the specimen designated XT01. Subject weighs 340 pounds and is four feet, three inches in length, lying in semi-anatomical position with six limbs held ventrally to the torso. The subject appears bilaterally symmetrical with six limbs with gripping hands and one extremity analogous to the head with two transparent solid spheres, presumably eyes, anterior. All of the gripping hands are three-fingered with four-inch long fingers and two-inch non-serrated claws. Were the specimen’s lower limbs extended, it would reach seven feet six inches in length.”

  “Beginning at the head analogue, each eye is approximately three and three-quarter inches in diameter and consists of a hard spheroidal outer shell with a second smaller shell interior. The interior shell appears to be mobile within the eye. The intervening space is filled with a translucent liquid. I am taking samples of the exterior shell and the fluid within.”

  The sound of a bone saw filled the speakers in the observation lounge.

  “Telescopic?” asked Major Starling from Lassiter’s office.

  “Only reason to have two lenses that can move in relation to each other. A far deeper field of vision than we possess,” said Barnard.

  There was a small spurt as a section of the eye’s glassy covering gave way and the fluid, under pressure, emerged. The pathologist dropped the glass chunk into a prepared dish, and subsequently sampled the fluid.

  The alien turned its head to the side.

  All three pathologists in the suite and the observers from the lounge jumped. More fluid drained out of the hole. The pathologists recovered when the alien made no more moves. The lead pathologist manipulated the head back to its original position and looked into the eye.

  “I can see down into the socket now that most of the fluid is drained away. Evidently, the weight of the fluid was such that draining it from only one eye caused the head to roll. As small as the head is, the eye appears to extend through to the posterior of skull analogue, leaving no room for a brain. I would approximate the depth of the socket to be six inches, with the secondary eye sphere suspended by what I assume to be musculature midway down its length. There is extensive vascularization within the cavity. The purpose of the head appears to be solely vision. I am sampling the vascular units now.”

  “Telescopic,” said Caufield.

  “Moving on to the limbs,” continued the pathologist, “We will begin a cursory examination of the anterior right limb, examining skin, musculature and skeletal structure.”

  He took the alien’s three-fingered claw in his own hand, and felt the range of motion of its fingers. Despite the rictus in the arms, the hands themselves were limp, and he could easily determine that each finger had a greater range of motion than a single human finger. For the alien, it must have been like having three thumbs on each hand. Each finger ended in a claw, which unlike mammals, seemed to penetrate the skin and link directly with the skeleton beneath.

  “The hand of the alien consists of three clawed fingers, each with two joints. The fingers appear flexible, however, the claws must get in the way of simple tool use. The claw itself is a brownish color and seems to join directly with the alien skeleton. I am taking a sample of the claw material now.”

  The bone saw hummed again for a moment, then stopped abruptly. The doctor had gripped the alien hand to steady it and been unable to pull his hand away. The latex glove was stuck at one point to the palm of the creature. One of the peg-like pylae there was raised, and the glove was stuck to the underside. Normally, removing the glove would have been the easiest solution, but the thick rubber glove was taped to the environment suit the pathologist wore.

  “Can we speak to them, Lieutenant?” asked Dr. Barnard.

  “Yes, the button next to the speaker.”

  Dr. Barnard pressed the button, “Doctor, don’t try to pull away from the skin. Grip the skin with your other hand and remove it with a rolling motion, as if you were unpeeling the skin and the latex from each other. Like Velcro.”

  The pathologist removed his hand nearly instantly when applying that technique and gave the observation lounge a wave. He then pulled the bone saw again and continued to take the claw sample.

  “Where did you pull that from, Donald?” asked Caufield.

  “I understood from satellite intelligence that the aliens had been seen adhering to walls, trees, and such. Given their size, the only mechanism we know of that could accomplish that feat would be the method by which geckos adhere to surfaces. It involves nano-scale structures on the geckos’ feet reacting with a surface through atomic forces. The gecko foot becomes unstuck at an angle of about 30 degrees. Evidently the aliens possess a similar mechanism. I would not be surprised if we find each one of those bumps on the creature has millions of nano-scale hairs on its underside. They could be covered in powerful adhesive, in a manner of speaking, that they can activate or deactivate at a whim.”

  The pathologist dropped a chunk of the brown claw into another dish and began to slice into the hand and arm to reveal its musculoskeletal structure. The skin and underlying tissue was extremely tough and laminar, set in layers of thick fibrous tissue interspersed with layers of blood vessels.

  “I’ve cut down to the bone… um… interior skeleton in the anterior right forearm from the palm of the hand to the first joint of the three-jointed limb. While at first I thought that the tissue I was cutting through was connective, I now believe it to be motile tissue. It appears to grow in sheets, separated by sheets of vascular tissue. I could not make out any structure within the muscle sheets. Presumably that structure exists at a smaller scale.

  “The interior skeleton itself seems to consist of the same brown material as the claws. The shaft of the long bone of forearm is cylindrical, with very few external features. There is a depressed ring near the wrist where muscle sheets attach to the bone, connecting the forearm to the wrist. The joint itself is very unusual in its simplicity. It looks like it consists of two interlocking rings, one attached to the forearm, the other the hand. There is very little space in the joint, and the interior of each ring appears worn smooth. There is no cartilage or equivalent material, only a small amount of blood for, presumably, lubrication. It does not appear to be very flexible.”

  The pathologist began to sample the muscle, vessels, and bone-like material. As he cut into the bone, he noticed it was completely devoid of porosity. It was a solid chunk of material without blood vessels, gaps, or visible grains. If all of the interior skeleton was of this construction, it probably constituted half of the creature’s weight, as opposed to the ten percent in humans.

  “Moving on to the torso, we note that this specimen has five bullet wounds, entrance wounds only. The torso appears to be articulated into three sections, one for each pair of limbs, and there appears to be a separate ribcage-like structure in each torso section. We will begin by making an incision between the upper and middle ribcage structures and exploring the torso cavity.”

  The pathologist went straight for the bone saw, finding it more conducive for cutting through the thick alien tissue than the scalpels. The skin and muscle sheets gave way to a hollow space between the upper and middle ribcages, no doubt to allow a range of motion at the joint. The space may have been filled with fluid at one point, but, if so, it had drained through a bullet hole. There were several cords extending across the space, a few resembling the blood vessels he had seen so far, and one looking like corrugated conduit. He biopsied both types before moving on.

  “I am now cutting through the fibrous sheath to the middle ribcage.”

  The muscle sheets parted to reveal a new kind of tissue, spongy and yellow, but immersed in purple blood. There was a great deal of vascularization, as well as the source of the corrugated conduit-like structure.

  “The interior of the
central ribcage is largely occupied by an amorphous yellow tissue with a large number of blood vessels. Several ridged brown tube structures can be seen emerging from the yellow tissue. Upon closer examination, the yellow tissue appears not to be shapeless but has small ridges on its surface, of roughly the scale of human fingerprints. I’d estimate the mass of this structure to be several kilograms. If it is a central nervous system, as I conjecture, it is several times the size of the human brain. Hold on…”

  The pathologist began probing into the tissue.

  “Doctor, what are you seeing?” asked Caufield.

  “There appears to be a second organ buried deep within the nervous tissue. All of the vascular elements appear to connect to it. As I clear the nerve tissue away, I see that one of the bullets grazed this deep organ, and it is bleeding a thick, bright green fluid. The organ itself is shaped much like a kidney, with the exception that it is drawing far more vasculature than does the human kidney. I am biopsying the organ now.”

  With a popping noise, the pathologist removed the punch biopsy. Purple alien blood began flowing freely from the wound. He dabbed at it with some gauze, but the blood refused to be soaked up. It quickly filled up the cavity within the central ribcage and then began leaking out of the gap between the ribcages. The flow emerged with decent pressure, and the volume continually increased.

  “I need suction! Now!”

  The suction tube was dipped into the cavity, but the blood continued to pour out of the creature, flowing over the metal table and down into the sink receptacle. In moments, it had begun to overflow this as well.

  “What the hell is going on?” asked the DOE man, “That has to be all the blood in this thing, and it keeps coming.”

  The blood overflowed the lip of the table and began oozing onto the floor. There was no drain for the blood to flow into, and it started to spread a puddle nearly the entire area of the floor. Finally, the flow ebbed and then stopped. The volume of liquid was many times what would be found in a human and at least twice what should have been physically possible to store in the alien body.