Chase froze momentarily, the implications of what he’d just heard crashing over him. Implanting younger subjects, younger like college students. Refining the process to be less Stepford scientist and more sleeper agent, carrying the infection to an unsuspecting populace. And the final juicy tidbit, the source of hope and terror in equal measure, something called a dimensional docking. Presumably some way to reattach this isolated lab back onto Earth, and bring with it a new species, one with less than friendly intentions.
This was even bigger than he could’ve thought. He hadn’t dared to hope for a real way back to the wider world, not seriously. Ever since the aurora dome had closed around them it had felt final, even with all the work supposedly being done to reverse the accident. Now he’d seen that work and had his doubts that it had been an accident at all. The discovery of the blank 34 and the near-constant stream of reality-shaking revelations since had just driven the hope of everything going back to normal on Earth further and further from Chase’s mind.
Now he’d heard straight from who he assumed was Bright that there was a plan in the works, and the only delay was in perfecting the parasitized humans to serve as better infiltration and infection vectors. More than anything else he’d learned in the past few days, this was too much. Icy fear warred with red-hot rage inside his mind as he simultaneously wanted to throw open the door and beat Bright’s host within an inch of their life and turn tail and run, never looking back. Only one thought cut through the emotional haze with startling clarity: I need to tell the others about this. We’re all in danger.
Mind made up, Chase quietly padded away from the door followed by Kayla and Jess. They had been too far away to hear the conversation that he had, but both girls had dropped into deadly serious expressions when they saw how grim Chase looked. He was the kind of guy who could joke in the face of crisis, so to see him looking so serious was a definite wake-up call.
“Remember this hallway,” Chase murmured as soon as he was sure they were out of earshot. “I’m pretty sure that was Bright.”
Kayla stole a glance over her shoulder, eyes drinking in the details of the corridor. Jess’s mouth fell open in surprise, but she tore her gaze away from Chase’s face and tried to focus on where they were. After a moment she reached into her pocket, pulling out a pen and drawing three quick lines on the wall. Chase nodded in approval. Sure, it might get them caught, but that was only a matter of time at this point. Bright would be coming after them as the youngest ones trapped in the lab, they couldn’t afford the slow route any longer.
Chase faded into a kind of walking trance as the three of them steadily made their way out of the central labs. Once they had crossed the threshold to the outer areas and began navigating back to the dorm, both Jess and Kayla tried to strike up a conversation or get some kind of explanation, but he brushed them off. This was yet another thing they needed the whole group to hear, provided they all came back to the dorm without any extra passengers today. Chase shook his head violently to clear it of that intrusive thought. Echo’s devices would protect them. They had to.
Finally reaching the dorm, Chase immediately collapsed face-first onto one of the couches and screamed into the cushions. If he’d been watching, he could have seen Kayla jump in shock, but both of his eyes were full of brown fabric and a hint of tears. The scream tapered off into a groan, and he turned his head to face the two pale women now looking at him with concern etched onto their faces.
“We might be fucked.” He said succinctly.
“Chase? We’re gonna need a little more to go on than that.” Jess gently coaxed, and Kayla nodded behind her. “We’re on your side, we’re gonna help, but we can’t do anything without knowing what you know. What did you hear?”
Chase heaved a sigh. “Like I said, I’m pretty sure that was Bright. And I’m pretty sure they were getting a report on their experimental results, those being the people we saw earlier.” Kayla’s expression darkened at that, and Chase gave a humorless laugh. “You know what’s really fucked up? From what Bright was saying, that might be the best possible fate we can hope for.”
Jess had gone even paler, and Kayla’s fists were clenched tight. “Keep talking.” Kayla gritted out.
“Those were apparently labor stock, not useful for critical thinking.” Chase’s voice was distant, detached. “Not useful for blending in, for infiltration. Because that’s the next step. Bright has a way to pop the aurora bubble, to get us all back to the wider world. They just need their disguised infection vectors to be ready first. Oh, and they’re coming for us next. Apparently they think age is a factor in the process, and we young uns stand the best chance of becoming parasite sleeper agents.”
“Oh, is that all?” Jess asked with forced nonchalance, and Chase turned to stare uncomprehendingly at her. “We knew things weren’t exactly gonna be sunshine and rainbows in there, Chase. Yes, this is a bit beyond what I expected to find, but so has everything since this whole mess started! It’s a miracle we’re still here now, knowing what we do. So are you gonna lie there and mope about how hopeless it is, or are you gonna be the guy who laughs in the face of danger and taunts fate?”
“She’s right, you know.” Kayla added with uncharacteristic gentleness. “It’s been one thing after another these past few days, but if what you’re saying is true, we’d have been blindsided sooner or later without your relentless curiosity and drive dragging us around. You gonna give up just cause the next hurdle is a little taller?”
Chasse huffed. “Feels like I dislocated my knee with this one.”
Kayla snorted. “Rub some dirt on it and walk it off.”
Chase gave a weak smile and pushed himself up into a sitting position. “Thanks, you two.” He sighed. “I… I don’t have a quip for this. Never imagined I’d be in the hero’s chair for a crisis moment like this. I’m plucky comic relief sidekick material at best.”
“Trust me, we know.” Jess said with a smile. “But you’re the best we’ve got, and we’re kinda stuck with you.”
“I knew it, you’re just waiting to trade me in for a newer model.”
“Your gas mileage is a little lackluster, but you’ve got character.”
“Ugh, it’s got character. That’s something your uncle says about his push-mower or something.”
“Well you are a huge tool.” Kayla joined the snarking, and Chase couldn’t help but bark a laugh.
“Kick a man while he’s down, why don’t you.”
Kayla nodded sagely. “It’s when I do my best kicking, the foot angle is so much better when they’re already down.”
The conversation devolved from there, but Chase could at least keep smiling this time as he traded half-baked banter with Jess and Kayla. They were probably all doomed, but letting Bright pare away their joy before they’d even been infected with a parasite was a bridge too far. No sense in doing the villain’s work for them. By the time Tom, Miles, and Ellie walked through the door, the conversation had migrated to some truly strange arenas.
“I’m just saying, black cats get a bad rap. Gray striped ones are clearly evil, but every black cat I’ve ever known has been chill as fuck.” Chase insisted.
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“You’ve just been bamboozled by their witchy owners, clearly.” Jess retorted.
Chase raised an eyebrow. “Are you calling my mom a witch?”
“Damn straight, you son of a witch.”
Miles looked over the trio, brow furrowing. “Did we miss something?”
“Probably, you should try investing in a laser sight. Much better for aiming, you won’t miss as much.”
Tom turned to Kayla. “How’d they rope you into their weird banter?”
Kayla shrugged. “Stockholm syndrome, most likely. Save me.” She said in monotone.
“I will admit, I was not expecting this when we returned.” Ellie commented, sitting herself down next to Jess. “What have you found that has you in such spirits?”
“Oh, nothing big.” Chase waved a hand dismissively. “Found some neat electronics, most of the scientists have been converted into labor automatons, overheard an interesting conversation about designing parasite infiltrators indistinguishable from real people for when the lab dimensionally docks back with the Earth at large, and Kayla thinks pineapple and anchovy is an acceptable combination on pizza.”
“What?!” Miles shouted.
“I know! Pineapple alone I could almost accept, but with anchovy? Blegh!”
“Not that! The other thing!”
“Weird electronics? Yeah, I dunno exactly what to call it. Looks kinda like a mini radar gun, to catch all those speeding toy cars.”
Miles didn’t respond, just continued staring incredulously. Coupled with Ellie’s elegantly arched eyebrow and Tom’s slack jawed expression halfway between bafflement and anger, Chase found his front faltering.
“Fine! I discovered another existentially terrifying thing that we’re somehow going to have to stop soon, and it’s worse than all the other ones before this, and I’ve been trying to distract myself with inane arguments! And-” A gentle hand on his shoulder brought Chase’s rant up short, and he looked up to meet Jess’s gentle smile.
“And we’re going to figure out how to face it together, now. Alone any of us can be overwhelmed, but we can lean on each other to stay strong.” Her voice was soft but full of conviction, velvet wrapped around an iron core. “Chase, can you summarize what you heard?”
Chase nodded and launched into a much more coherent explanation. By the time he’d finished recounting their infiltration into the central labs and the ominous conversation he’d overheard, he was feeling much calmer at the expense of the three newcomers. Tom looked shell shocked, Miles was cradling his head in his hands, and Ellie had developed an ashy, sickly pallor. He couldn’t find any fault with those sorts of reactions - he’d nearly shut down after they made it to safety and had to be pulled out of his funk by Jess and Kayla. Shoe was on the other foot now, he supposed.
“I know it seems hopeless.” Chase said.
“...but?” Miles asked, a shred of hope entering his voice.
“That’s it. No buts.”
Tom glared. “Well fuck you, bro. I’m not just gonna let some parasites use me to fuck up the rest of the planet.” He said heatedly.
“Yeah! That’s global warming’s job!” Chase enthusiastically agreed, drawing a groan from Kayla.
“I honestly don’t know if this is an improvement over your moping earlier.” She mused, and Chase shot her a thumbs-up.
“You’ve only got yourself to blame! We’re back to the version of Chase that stubbornly makes dumb jokes in the face of death. Accept no substitutes!”
“This is certainly troubling.” Ellie said thoughtfully, voice only shaking slightly. “It does dovetail with certain things that Miles and I were helping out with today.”
Miles gave her a sidelong glance. “You must have picked up something I didn’t see in those data sets if you think they were related to parasitic black ops.”
Ellie nodded. “I am not certain, so I did not wish to mention it earlier. But I was reminded of last summer, when I was interning at my father's company. One of my tasks was to help assess new hires, looking at performance metrics. The data sets we examined today reminded me of those sorts of metrics, though involving terms I have never encountered before.”
“Hm.” Jess hummed. “It’s strange they would have you looking at that, they must know exactly what each parasite is capable of.”
“Not necessarily.” Chase said. “From what Echo showed me, the way they’re born has a huge influence on how they live and function. You might say they never really mature from whatever core concept births them. So what you were looking at was probably different emotional cores or concepts that they were born from and how efficiently they performed. From what I overheard, they’re having problems with complexity and lateral thinking.”
“That would make sense. If each of them embodies a single concept, creative solutions would not come naturally. They would always default to the most expedient solution that has worked in the past and is in line with their core concept. One born of stubbornness might even try the exact same thing over and over until it worked.”
Chase snapped his fingers. “Exactly! And if they want their infiltrators to go unnoticed, well, that sort of behavior would give them away pretty quick. Especially if time has passed normally to the rest of Earth, they’d definitely quarantine us and bring in people who know us to see if we’re still sane. Even if barely any time has passed, people are pretty good about picking up on the uncanny valley. Something that’s almost human but not quite sets off all kinds of alarm bells.”
Tom frowned. “But they’d still be out there. What do they stand to gain from trying to act like regular people?”
“Access.” Kayla said. “There are billions of people on the planet, and presumably not that many parasites; we’d have already been fucked over if there were more than a hundred here with us. They want to keep themselves from coming under scrutiny until they’re entrenched in our world, moving up the ranks of power until even if they’re discovered, they can’t be dislodged.”
“And presumably, they can’t stuff a bunch of themselves into one person so that each one can control a specific impulse or interaction like some kind of parasite pinata.” The rest of the room turned to stare at Chase, who looked back innocently. “What?”
“Chase.” Jess said seriously. “I never wanted to hear the phrase ‘parasite pinata’ and now I am cursed with knowledge and a very disturbing mental image. I will get you back for this.”
“You’re welcome!”
Jess sighed. “As per usual, his phrasing could use work, but he’s right. Which makes me wonder about the voices you heard, Chase. It certainly sounded like they were a lot closer to human behavior than the scientist drones we were following earlier.”
“One of them was, yeah.” Chase thought back to the monotone man and the cultured woman. “I’m pretty sure one of them was Bright puppeting Dr. Redmond, though it certainly sounded like she was a real person. A real person with a grasp of scientific ethics that would make Dr. Mengele blush, but not a mindless automaton driven by a single concept.”
“Unless that concept was complex in and of itself.” Ellie mused. “A leader for their kind would have to embody something powerful, something with inherent leadership qualities. From what we know of them, there would be a kind of instinctive drive to embody that concept as fully as possible, and others of their kind would recognize this and fall into subservient positions. You said she referred to herself as a queen. What if what we are dealing with is a concept along the lines of domination or conquest?”
Chase sighed. “Yeah, that honestly sounds like our luck. Concept like that would be able to think strategically and hold long-term ambitions. Probably wouldn’t cause too much dissonance with a personality like Dr. Redmond’s, either. I only know the broad strokes of her biography, but she seems like a major control freak with a bit of a ruthless streak.”
Ellie bristled. “Dr. Redmond is a brilliant, world-renowned researcher and innovator and an inspiration to all women of science!”
Kayla snorted. “Yeah, but she can be all of those things and still be a cold-hearted bitch. Probably helped her career, showed she wouldn’t get pushed around.”
“And now all of that brilliance is being turned against us.” Miles slumped. “I was so excited for the chance to meet her when we went on this tour. Now I’d die happy if we never see her.” Tom rubbed Miles’s back consolingly.
“Hey, cheer up! It’s not all bad news!” Chase said.
Tom leveled a skeptical gaze. “What’s the good news in a situation like this?”
“Well,” Chase explained. “If I was Bright and wanted to grab some new experimentation subjects when they couldn’t put up a fight, what time would I pick to do it?”
Tom’s eyes widened. “The blank 34.”
“Exactly!”
“How is that good news?!”
“We know exactly when they’ll be coming for us, and with Echo’s help we can set a trap!” Chase swallowed. “And if that fails, well, at least we won’t suffer for long.”
Jess sighed. “Chase, you really need to learn to quit when you’re ahead.”
The rest of the room nodded emphatically.