CHAPTER 3
THE ALIEN
~
Lila had never been to Canada. The brief stop in Vancouver before they stepped into a helicopter that would take them to the research facility was hardly the visit she had had in mind whenever she’d thought about going to Canada.
Her mom had been so confused when she called her the evening before, telling her that she was going away for work and didn’t know when she’d be back.
“What about your apartment?” her mother had asked her.
“I terminated the lease an hour ago.” Lila had said it with a heavy heart—she loved her studio apartment, even though it was small and a bit shabby.
“What about all your stuff?”
“The company will arrange storage.”
“But what do you mean you don’t know when you’ll be back? Where are you going?”
“I can’t tell you where, it’s classified. Mom, it’s for work, I’ve told you.”
“You’ll be home for Christmas, right?”
“Mom, I don’t know.”
She’d cried herself to sleep that night.
The mere thought of leaving her parents behind like this was torturous, not to mention leaving all her friends behind.
It got so bad, she’d regretted ever accepting the job.
But then she’d thought about the image of the alien, and realized that this was a sacrifice she had to make.
Friends came and went, and she could talk to her family on the phone, but she would only get one chance in her life to do something like this. She was going to research an actual alien. One that could self-heal, no less.
Melinda Bryce, the leader of the project, explained it all to Lila while on the plane.
They had researched the alien’s DNA for five years, trying to figure out what made it able to self-heal, and if they could use it and turn it into medication for humans.
So far, their efforts had been fruitless, as if they were missing some piece of the puzzle.
“I just think we need some new blood,” laughed Melinda and elbowed Lila. “A fresh set of eyes.”
Lila smiled faintly. This was well above her skill level; there was no way she could extract something like that—but she figured she would have to do all the boring and mundane work to give the real scientists more time to do the actually important things.
They arrived at the research facility late at night, deep into the Canadian wilderness. The facilities were just like a glass cube in the mountains that contained a front desk and some padded benches in a lobby but extended downwards in elaborate tunnels and rooms inside the mountains.
They were installed in their rooms—looking like hotel rooms, but without windows, because it was deep underground—and they had a late-night dinner before they all went to bed. In the morning, their work would begin for real.
Lila could hardly sleep that night. Her belly was fluttering violently, and she shivered in fear and delight when thinking that come morning, she would meet an actual extraterrestrial being.
It was something she’d only dreamed of, something that only happened in movies or novels—now, she was actually seeing the alien in real life.
When her alarm went off, she almost sprung out of bed and into the shower. She hadn’t slept all night, but she had never felt so awake before. She felt the same energy from the others as she entered the breakfast canteen.
Dr. Bryce and a few others were the only ones who had seen the alien up close, but there were about fifty new recruits, all working with different things.
There were cooks, security, cleaners, engineers, biologists, physicists—everything.
The facility was self-sufficient, and everyone in there seemed to do their bit.
Lila had never felt more like an imposter, but the excitement of seeing the outer space creature triumphed over any negative emotion.
She sat down next to Melinda and smiled. “I can’t believe this is happening. I couldn’t sleep! I don’t know whether to be excited or frightened!”
Melinda took a sip of her coffee and smiled. “Don’t worry. He looks intimidating, for sure, and make no mistake—if he gets his paws on you, he could snap your neck in an instant. But he’s inside a highly secured enclosure. We don’t go in unless he’s heavily sedated.”
Lila stared at her. “It sounds so grim… like a caged animal.”
Melinda frowned. “Well, he sort of is. He’s highly aggressive and extremely dangerous.”
“But, I thought the alien was intelligent—didn’t you say you found advanced technology at the crash site?”
“Who says he developed it?” Melinda took another sip of coffee.
“But haven’t you tried to talk to it?”
Melinda chuckled. “We’ve got some of the best linguists in the world working on a way to interpret him, but he seems kind of reluctant.
” She sighed. “We’ve tried to communicate with him, trust me, but we haven’t been very successful.
Some rudimentary sign language and stuff, but he’s not very communicative. He mostly grunts and growls.”
Lila bit her lip. “How do you know it’s a male?”
“Well,” she chuckled, “unless females of his kind are packing big, he’s definitely male. We call him Atlas.”
A man listening in leaned closer, a wide grin on his face. “Are you telling me the alien’s got a dick?”
Snickers traveled around the table, but Melinda seemed unfazed by it. “Yes, Sanders. The alien has a penis, used for reproductive purposes—we assume.”
“So,” another guy mused and put his hand under his chin, “you’ve been here since the beginning, right? Must get lonely on those cold winter nights, eh?”
The others started laughing, but Melinda Bryce was unbothered by their juvenile humor. “Would you copulate with a pet, Flannagan?”
The laughter died down some, but Lila just found it all very uncomfortable.
Dr. Bryce spoke about the alien as an animal, likened it to a pet, but if it was a thinking, sentient, and intelligent being, then five years inside a secured enclosure on an alien planet would be torture. She shuddered at the thought.
After breakfast, she followed the research team down several flights.
Lila didn’t even want to think about how far below the surface she was, or how far away from civilization she was; if that creature was as dangerous as Melinda said it was, Lila didn’t want to be anywhere near it if it ever got out of the cage.
They stepped through several disinfection and cleaning stations before they were allowed inside the immense hall where the alien’s enclosure was.
Lila’s heart thudded loudly in her chest, and her knees felt like jelly as they walked across the large, open space.
Large, intricate control boards ran along one of the sides, with computer monitors mounted on the walls above them.
Dr. Bryce gestured at the sides. Two sets of rows of small, cannon-like objects ran vertically from floor to ceiling. “Those are laser cutters that will activate in case Atlas escapes. The doors we just walked through will automatically lock in case of a breach.”
“But,” Lila breathed, “what if there are people in here when that happens?”
“If you’re fast enough, you could run,” said Melinda, “but if you’re in here when Atlas escapes, chances are you’re already dead. If the lasers don’t get you, he will.”
Lila swallowed hard.
“But don’t you worry,” said the doctor. “He tried to escape once, but I guess there’s a brain behind all that brawn because he’s never tried it again.”
“What happened then?” Lila whispered.
“He slaughtered everyone in the room, but he couldn’t get through the locked doors,” said Melinda.
“But, what happens if there’s a fire?”
“There’s a fail-safe,” said Melinda and pointed at a red button underneath a clear plastic cube on the control board.
“Only in case of emergency, of course. You would need a pass card to activate it—we wouldn’t want anyone to accidentally hit it, because that thing opens all doors.
We wouldn’t want to put him through any danger either, of course.
More likely, however, he’s the one putting us in danger. ”
“What happened after he’d killed everyone?”
“Snipers got him in the end. They had to use three times the amount of sedative they use for elephants before he would go down.”
“H-how big is he?”
“Nearly eight feet tall.”
Lila’s legs seem to freeze—each step she took felt like agony. “E-eight feet?”
“Why do you think we call it ‘Project Titan ?”
Of course, Lila thought. She was so stupid. “It… it was difficult to estimate his height on the photos.”
“Oh, the photos don’t make him justice,” said Dr. Bryce. “He’s magnificent, I promise. Terrifying, but magnificent. And he’s the key to creating the ultimate cure.”
They approached what seemed to be a glass box, but the closer they came, the clearer it became; it was only a glass front.
Inside, there seemed to be a forest. Pine trees, birches, stones, moss—it was like a slice of the Canadian landscape in there.
On the side, there was a long tunnel with several metal gates.
Dr. Bryce fiddled with a computer screen on the side of the first gate and turned to Lila. “Are you ready for an introduction?”
Lila’s tongue was tied.
Melinda smiled and pressed a button on the screen. “Atlas, come on out. There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
Time seemed to stand still while they waited. Lila could barely breathe, barely feel her legs, and all she wanted to do was to run in the opposite direction. It felt like an eternity before the tree branches shook and slid apart as the giant, grey-blue creature stepped into the light.
She gasped, clasped her hands over her mouth, and took a big step backward; the alien, Atlas, was enormous.
Melinda was right, the pictures did not do him justice.
Void black eyes with irises burning like the forges of Hell observed her through the glass, and the tall, muscular alien cocked his head and eyed her slowly.
“Good morning, Atlas. I hope you had a good sleep. This is Lila,” said Dr. Bryce. “Be nice to her.” She moved her hands around and repeated, “Be. Nice.”