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CYOTF (New)

Penultimate Lifeform

added by RainingJustice 2 years ago O

The first sign of how truly amiss things were came as Siobhan noted the darkness beyond the plexiglass. The light was kept dim, making it difficult to make out the steel walls along the remaining sides of the room, or the burnt-up hunk of metal that had once been the Artemis II capsule. Once the window had been fully exposed, she found herself squinting to peer into the dark room, and promptly backing up with a gasp as a pair of golden eyes opened to stare back at her.

Sharp clicks echoed through speakers mounted near the window as something began moving, slowly approaching the better-illuminated portion of the room. A figure that became more recognizable the closer it was - after all, she'd seen the photos of Captain Stone hundreds of times in the past few weeks. Where it differed... well, she different greatly, but the first thing that Siobhan fixated on was her skin. Black as charcol, fully exposed by her currently-nude state. It would have been indecent, if not for smooth plates that could be found on her arms, covering her chest, stomach, and groin, and even down to her legs. At the bottom of those particular limbs, the doctor's eyes fell upon a pair of sharp points that extended from her heels, almost like razor-sharp stillettos that pushed her overall height up by several inches.

As her eyes flew back up the woman's body, she noticed something moving behind her, a long, narrow limb, about twice the length of her leg and the diameter of an arm... a tail, bony yet black as the rest of her skin, with a sharp, blade-like formation at the end. It curled and twisted in what seemed like a curious manner as Siobhan looked back up into those golden eyes. They seemed to be... probing her, in a way. Intensely scanning a stranger, trying to discern all that was possible about this new addition to the habitat. She tried to stare back, only to falter as the predatory glint in Stone's gaze sent a shiver of primal fear down her spine.

"Hasn't said a word since landing," Kelly elaborated, her unease lesser than Siobhan's yet still clearly visible. "Just stalks around her cage, staring at the scientists and guards. We've tried sending people in to collect samples from her, but..." She winced. "It got messy."

As if in response, Stone briefly snarled, showing off rows of razor-sharp teeth. "Yeah... I can imagine." Slowly she reached up to take off her glasses, stepping closer to get a better look; the woman on the other side of the glass responded by moving closer to the window herself, still staring at Forrester. "Incredible. She must have been exposed to some kind of spaceborne organism with... well, I can't even imagine what kind of natural mechanism could be used to cause such fundamental tissue and genetic alterations... i-it must have been something engineered, maybe surgical... and the ramifications of that..."

Kelly sighed. "It's just an alien, Forrester. Don't lose your shit."

"Just an alien?! Just a bloody alien?! This... this completely changes our fundamental understanding of the universe, of life as we know it, of our place in-"

"Gonna stop you right there." The older doctor held up a hand. "This isn't the USAF's first extraterrestrial rodeo. But this?" She gestured to Stone. "This is completely new. We've never cataloged anything like it before. That's why you're here - all the veterans can't make heads or tails of what's happened to her. We need fresh eyes, somebody who doesn't think they know all there is to know about alien bullshit - but I don't need someone freaking out and having an existential crisis." She sighed. "Trust me, get enough of those in an average day already..."

Siobhan had to lean against the window, trying to collect her multitude of thoughts. "Uh... right... sorry, it's just... Sweet Jesus." She shook her head back and forth a few times. "What, uh... where do we need to get started, then? I... I can't even imagine where to begin with this..."

"Well, lucky for you, we've already got an idea of where to get going. I'd like to you..."


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