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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5031058" data-attributes="member: 143">Oh, don't worry, it gets better... or worse, depending on whether or not you're on Alpha Team. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />* * * * * Session 11 (June 23, 2008)Chapter 37“We are going to have to completely redo our alien containment protocols,” Stan was saying.  “Traditional sedation apparently has no effect upon the mental powers of the aliens.”The mood in the briefing room was tense, as the implications of what had happened in the medical bay continued to sink in.  In addition to the department heads and the members of Alpha Team, Inise Drake was there, a sour look on her face. “They seem to be able to influence humans from a distance,” James said.  He was balancing a thick briefing book on his knees; they were all still trying to assimilate the data they’d collected on the dead sectoid.  Stan hadn’t been able to find a reason for its sudden and unexpected death; ‘it just died,’ as the observing scientist had commented.  But none of them thought that its death at the same moment that Doctor Sandesh had recovered had been a coincidence.”“Wonderful, just wonderful,” Catalina said. “But you captured them,” Joan Beauvais pointed out. “Yes, apparently, they can be incapacitated with the stun rods.  But we can’t stun them twenty-four/seven.”“It seem to take time, too,” Vasily suggested.“How can we know that any of us are unaffected?” Agent Drake asked. “Are you hearing voices, Agent Drake?” Buzz asked.The FBI agent ignored him, and fixed her gaze on Stan.  “We believe that only the one sectoid had these abilities,” he said. “How can you know that?” she pressed.  “You seem to have missed a great deal, Doctor.  Almost as though you were deliberately missing key information…”Stan rose up out of his chair.  “What are you suggesting, agent?”“All right, that enough,” Director Garret said, interrupting the increasingly angry exchange.  After making sure that both Stan and Drake were done, he shifted his gaze to the far side of the table.  “Alpha, what about these new aliens?  Did you notice any unusual mental effects on your mission?”Catalina shook her head slowly.  “Nothing here.”“Preliminary examination revealed some unusual differences in the sectoid that died,” Stan said.  Now that his anger had passed, he just seemed drained.  “Specifically brain related.”Agent Drake was still bristling.  “How could you miss that before?”  Garret shot her a warning look, but Stan just shook his head.  “With all due respect, agent, we don’t know a lot about their physiology yet.”“This some kind of ‘leader’ sectoid?” Vasily ventured. “I was thinking that, Vas,” Catalina added. Stan nodded.  “That’s our theory,” he said, turning toward Vasily.  “Now that we have an example, we should be able to modify the VDU on your helmets to detect them in the future.”“What about the new aliens?” Joan asked.  “I saw your report, that they are… human?”“Not human any more,” Vasily said. Doctor Wagner turned away from her computer.  “Vasily is right.  They are not human.”  She pressed a button, and an image of one of the new floater aliens appeared.  “The aliens, they take bits and pieces,” she said.  “They appear to have advanced skills in the area of genetic manipulation.”“That’s terrible!” Joan exclaimed.  “Some part of them must remember what it was to be human…”“We sure they captured human?” Vasily asked.  “Maybe they grow these in tank, like clone.” “From what we’ve learned thus far,” Stan said, “We suspect that they have been experimenting with human prisoners, manipulating their DNA.  We’ll know more once we can research the captives you took.  Though I have to say I agree with Doctor Wagner.  From what we saw, there isn’t a lot left in them that could be considered human.”Garret looked to the end of the table.  “Commander Hallorand, what about those improvements to the containment lab?”“I saw the specs that Doctor White submitted.  Shouldn’t be too hard to modify our sensors, now that we know what to look for.  We were working on adding the hyperwave decoder to our radar array in any case.  We can just put a second generator in the lab.”“At least the rest of us our safe,” Catalina said. “None of us are safe, Miss De Farrago,” Agent Drake said.  “Do not forget that.  We live on the razor’s edge.”“Wait, you fitting this to the radar?  Spot brains on radar now?”Grace looked up from her notepad.  “Well, once an alien craft is detected, we can use it to scan for known alien types.  We thought it might help to know what you’re facing.”“What about the next time we encounter one of these telepathic sectoids on a mission?” Jane asked.  “So far we’ve been safe out in the field, at least as relates to telepathy,” James said.  “Maybe it takes a while for aliens to attenuate to humans and exert control over them.”“His mind power not save him from getting stun rod up ass,” Vasily said.  Buzz snickered. “The only thing we can really be sure of is that there’s a great deal we do not know about the alien capabilities,” Garret said.  “We still need to gain information,” Doctor Wagner agreed.  ”And maybe some of the alien fuel, if you can avoid blowing it up, next time,” Drake interjected. “The creature shot it deliberately,” Catalina observed. “I still think it would be good to have an offensive weapon that would disable their telepathy,” Buzz said. “A good idea,” Jane said.  “I’m curious about it, I hope we can learn more through your research.”“Agreed,” Doctor Wagner said.  “We will need to capture another live alien leader, I suspect,” Stan said.  “And make sure it cannot kill iteself.  I will work with Grace on redesigning the containment facility to keep it alive.”“What about rest of alien ship?” Vasily asked.  “What about kids?” “Well, at least we have some good news there,” Stan replied.  “The children are responding well to treatment.  Whatever the aliens injected them with, it appears to be temporary in its effects.”The members of Alpha nodded; good news was rare enough to savor, of late. The outer door opened, and a man dressed in the coveralls of one of the engineering staff came in.  “Sir, sorry to interrupt.”“We’re in the middle of a briefing,” Hallorand began.“Sir, yes, I know, but I thought you’d want to see this.” He handed over a small object to the chief. “Where was this found?” Hallorand asked. “It was attached to one of the garbage cannisters, sir.  We caught it as they were being loaded up for the weekly haul out.” Hallorand held the object in his hand, staring down at it. “Well, Commander, don’t keep us all in suspense,” Agent Drake said.  Hallorand tossed it onto the table.  It slid across the smooth surface, coming to rest directly between the department heads and the members of Alpha Team.  They recognized it from the plug on one end; it was a tiny USB flash drive. “Well… look at that,” Buzz said.</blockquote>

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