(When the International Space Alliance [ISA] team up with NASA to discover an anomaly, humans start to become controlled by bio-implants. Is it the military controlling them? Or an alien species?)
The world had advanced a lot in the last hundred years. I remember being a young a child, talking with my grandmother. Her smiles and her voice still stay with me.
"Back in my day," she used to always say. "Your generation don't know how lucky you are."
I've been aboard the new International Space Station for about three months now. My job is classified, but I can say we were given a mission early this morning. I'm enjoying a rare bit of down time. There isn't a lot in here, but I get a cupboard for pictures and memorabilia. My fiancé, and our twins are always looking over me. I met Ella at university. The University of Astrophysics and Aeronautics Application. She is a technician for NASA. The children are three now, Kate and Jim. They love each other more than me and my brother ever did...
"Captain Morgans to the Bridge!" The intercom called, interrupting my thoughts. I pull myself up, not that it's difficult in low gravity. I make my way the bridge, down the narrow passages. I swear I'm becoming claustrophobic up here.
I appear on the bridge. Lieutenant Brown was the officer on deck before I arrived. He updated me on the situation.
"We've reached the location, sir." He said (obviously) a green swirl in the stars near Mars had appeared and been spotted by the hubble space telescope. "There has been no activity as of yet, and no interference as of yet."
"Have we made contact with Washington?"
"Yes sir. Orders are to investigate and retrieve a specimen if possible."
Of the four of us here, the specimen sample will be my job, most likely.
The ISS mark two, was placed near the anomaly, and I was ejected into space, into this unknown. My utility belt has my various tools, but it's designed for minerals and rocks, not this...
The green of the anomaly was not made of light. It was not gas, matter or anything you'd expect in space. They were hundreds of millions of green glow worms. I fill up my specimen pots, all six of them, and return to the station.
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There was a knock at the door. It was sounded like it was going to pound through. A young blonde lady answered the door. She was maybe mid twenties. Her eyes carried bags, presumably work stress, or the children being children.
Behind the door was a male and a female. Both muscled, but clean and smart. The woman wore a blue dress, blue hat and black tights and shoes. The guy wore all black aside for their medals. Both looked old and beyond their years.
"I'm First Sea Admiral, Johnson. This is my colleague, Second Admiral Allmand of The International Space Alliance." The old man said, his voice low and sincere. "May we come in, Miss Weston?"
Ella's heart sunk. "Certainly." she said, allowing them to pass into the hall, and keeping her voice steady.
Ella closed the door and leads the way into her kitchen, avoiding the messy living room cluttered with toys and clean washing. The soldiers took a seat at the table, and Ella made herself a Great British tea. She did offer one to these two, but they declined politely.
"Miss Weston, Lieutenant Morgans was killed upon returning to Earth this morning. I'm so sorry for your loss." The woman told her, her American accent was thick.
Those words made it real. Her barrier fell allowing her emotions to flood.
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Ella returned to work on Monday morning. She was ignored as much as any other day. But the whole department knew about some ISA mission that went wrong. The people involved were just a number to these people. But no one could hide the influx of biologists that NASA had brought in, nor the ISA operatives, consisting of the director, his management team and a group of scientists, including chemists and physicists.
"The ISS mark two needs some repairing. Can I have a team of volunteers to be briefed on the repairs." the section officer asked during the morning briefing. Ella had volunteered before she had even processed the movement.
The five person team was taken to the hanger. "Brace yourselves." an officer warned them.
The interior had been redecorated with various parts of humans. The electrics and the hull had been scratched and dented from the inside. The bridge windows had been destroyed, but the craft did not crash land.
Ella made her way through, past the crew's cabin. Her fiancé's cupboard was open. His recorder and the picture he kept of his family was in there. She took them. She carried on her way through the ship. Crunch! Ella looked at her feet. Glass lay on the floor, alongside a lid. This must have been a specimen jar. Another four were found throughout the ship. All broken and empty. No specimens, but sealed jars. "What did they find? What did it do to them?" Ella thought to herself.
She started work on the bridge, calibrating the electronics and systems that made the station function. When she checked the stations camera's, they had no previous footage, the backup had been wiped clean. The station had also had its black box recorders disconnected.
The day ended after what seemed an eternity, leaving Ella with memories and thoughts of the day she had just had. When the twins were put to bed, all the red wine in her home couldn't put her thoughts to rest. This was obviously being covered up, the security systems proved that. But Morgan's personal recorder was still in Ella's jacket pocket.
"Day ninety three." His voice spoke full of life. The passion and love for his job was obvious in his tone. "We've been given a classified mission. The four of us are just glad to have something to do that isn't poker and exercise. We'll approach our target area in a few hours, to grab specimens of whatever we find there....."
"Day ninety four." This time his voice was a whisper "We recovered some kind of glow worm. Five of them are showing signs of aggression. They are quite strong for such tiny creatures. They are an amazing species to be able to survive outside of an atmosphere, I'm excited to see what their physiology is like, but that will take a long time to discover, and more than just six specimens..."
"Day ninety five. George has 'misplaced' a specimen. One of the jars smashed and it is now loose aboard the station. George has been tasked with finding it." There was a knock. "Oh, you found it?" Then the recording went silent.
The following day, she was back on the station.
"What do you think happened here?" A colleague asked in passing.
"No idea." Ella replied, "But there is a specimen jar missing."
"How do you know?"
"Crap!" Ella thought. "Erm, they usually carry six, but there were only five on board yesterday." She didn't know how convincing she sounded, but Ella screwed her eyes tight and cursed her carelessness in the situation.
Nobody questioned her further. The team of volunteers went about their work in low mumbles once again.
"Ella Weston!" A voice boomed throughout the station's walls. The American accent was something Ella couldn't get used to hearing. "Where is Ella Weston?"
She rose unsteadily, staring into the eyes of this beast of man in a green military uniform that looked three sizes too small. "Yes?" she said, like a four year old schoolgirl in trouble for something she thought nobody had seen her do.
"Come with me."
"Uh oh. Do they know about the recorder?"
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"Miss Weston; welcome to area 51!"
The bag was raised off her head as she was helped down from the van where she had spent the last few hours. The sun was blinding and a lot hotter here. Ella was escorted through the desert to a facility, that looked somewhat like a world war two bunker from the outside, by two men in black suits and this military guy who took her from NASA General Headquarters. Inside the bunker was air conditioned, but it didn't stop the cramped conditions and three big men making Ella sweat away all her own weight.
The floor wobbled, Ella nearly fell, and would have if this suited guy wasn't right next to her. The floor wobbled again, more violently this time, and the walls started to move up. The ground gave out to a room of white walls and lab coats.
"Why bring me here?" Ella asked.
"Because we think you may be able help." Something appeared in this guys voice. A dark, creepy sense of humour perhaps?
Ella was sat in what appeared to be an interview room on a police programme, they even had the one-way mirror. The only thing missing was a tape recorder.
Ella asked the first question, "So what could I possibly help you with?"
"We know that you know about the specimens recovered. Do you know what we do humans?"
"They kill us." She answered. "Did he say 'We'?"
"We use their blood for our eggs and their brain for food. When they're obsolete, we dispose of them. You seem like an interesting one." That tone returned. It was more playful.
Ella was held by the men in suits. The military officer who was talking to her brought out the missing specimen jar. Inside was a worm glowing green.
"You see, we are a simple species. We survive however we can. Sometimes we enjoy some fun. We implant into the brain so we have control of our host. Naive humans always want to experiment, but we bite back." He sniggered, the jar was open now. "Open wide."
Ella was let go. She was loose in the desert. She didn't feel different. She was aware, that was a good sign. "Five of them are showing signs of aggression." But one wasn't. Why not? Was it this one? It came in a specimen jar.
Ella walked until it was late, a bus was driving from behind her. Tourist bus by the looks of it. Ella signaled, and the driver pulled over.
"Ye al'right lov'?" He asked with a toothless smile.
"Could you take me into the city please? I got lost." Ella didn't dare say anything about her work or her day. She paid the driver, and quietly took a vacant seat at the back. She hoped to be left alone with her thoughts, or its thoughts...
She finally got home in the later hours of the following morning. She apologised to her mother who was watching the children. Ella seen her mother out, and crashed on the sofa in front of the news. She was disturbed an hour later.
"Mummy! Mummy, wake up!" Kate was saying "Mummy, Jim is in the fridge."
Ella raised, her head thumping. "He's where, dear?" She asked paying little attention.
"In the fridge."
"Tell him to get out of there, hunny. Mummy needs sleep."
"But, Mummy, he is playing with the worms."
Ella darted up with energy she never knew she was able to muster. In the fridge was hundreds of the green glowing worms.
"We are harmless if we want to be." She thought. "Or we are deadly."
'We.' Why was she thinking 'we'? The Ella realised, it was her own specimen communicating with her.
"Are these your offspring?" she asked aloud. Kate and Jim stared at her.
"They have free will. I cannot speak for them. My brothers will take this world if they are left uncontrolled."
"How do I control a biologically implanted neurologically dominating extraterrestrial specimen?"
"Who are you talking to, Mummy?" Jim asked.
The specimen ignored Ella, and she ignored the children. She used a bin bag and shovelled the worms in, intending to destroy them, but instead she threw the bag out of her garden and into the field overlooking the back of her house. The worms were free once again.
"I will not let you destroy us."
"So what can I do?" Ella was really frustrated and wanted to punch something.
The grass was fresh in the morning dew. But Ella was not at home. This didn't even look like the right state.
"I must apologise. I've made arrangements for your children until we return. You need not worry."
"Where are we?" Ella asked herself.
"Yellowstone national park. This is where our brethren are residing. Tourist attraction and easy to acclimatise to."
"So how do I stop them?"
"You're the physicist."
Ella's specimen went silent. Where does it go? What does it do? Sleep? No! Focus.
Ella considered possibilities, but they all ended in the eradication of these specimens. "But if they don't want eradicating, they must have a self preservation instinct..." Ella had gained an idea.
The day had gone from dawn to dusk in a blink of an eye, and she had all the geographical equipment she needed for her idea. Her specimen had taken over her again. Ella did wonder how all this equipment was carried here. Richter graph, sound system, several meters of iron rods; all of it quite heavy and bulky. Ella's next problem was getting these rods in the ground around the geysers, without being killed. The ground was soft and moist, making it easy to push the rods through, but the jets of steam and water are unpredictable.
"Throw them," The Specimen suggested, "Like a... javelin?"
Ella picked up one of the bars, it was quite heavy, but she managed. Without thinking, she had thrown it 10 meters into the geyser field.
"It isn't attached to the sound system." Ella told the specimen.
She blacked out. When she regained control of her body, the night had taken hold, with stars lighting the park.
"You should watch this." The specimen told her. The sound system was playing a pulse of vibrations at two minute intervals. The pulses started to quicken and mimic tectonic movement. When the pulse was reading a constant eight on the Richter scale, a geyser burst with water, which quickly turned green as the specimens residing there shot into the atmosphere. Ella felt her ear go wet. She was bleeding.
Ella woke up on her sofa. Her children were playing with toys in front of her sofa. It was a bright morning, and birds tweeted to the sun.