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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5182384" data-attributes="member: 143">Each session represented about a week of game time, except when we broke in the middle of a mission. So 20 weeks +/- at this time. Session 21 (September 15, 2008)Chapter 86Stan White looked fully absorbed as he bent over the eyepiece of the microscope.  “This alien… its brain chemistry is… it’s incredible.”James grunted something, but his thoughts were elsewhere as he stared up at the image of the comatose alien on the huge wall screen.  The rest of the team assigned to HQX’s biological sciences research laboratory milled about excitedly, a quiet murmur of talk filling the room that James found himself tuning out by reflex. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Stan went on.  “Its brain is four times denser than a human’s.”That did catch James’s attention.  “Denser?  How is that possible?  Non-water based chemistry?”“I suspect that this creature is going to redefine a lot of our assumptions in the field of biology,” Stan said.  “I think I’m going to have them turn up the sedation, just to be safe.”“Yeah, don’t let that one regain full consciousness.  It… it did some nasty things to us, in the ship raid.”Stan looked at him with understanding.  “Rough one, I heard.”“We barely got out of there before the aliens came down on the site like a ton of bricks.  I think our new guest is important to them, Stan.”“Might want to talk to counselor Beauvois…”“I want to be in on the research team for this one, Stan.”The older doctor sighed and nodded.  “Of course.”In the lounge, the door to the barracks wing opened and Alyssa and Sveinn came in, the big Icelander stepping aside to let the smaller American woman through before him.  Catalina, Vasily, and Jane looked up from the table where they’d been sitting.  “How’s Perez?” Jane asked. “He’s got a concussion,” Alyssa said.  “Can you believe it?  After all that, Perez gets hit by a storage box that wasn’t secured properly.” “Oh well, as long as it hit his head, he going to be just fine,” Vasily said.Catalina let out a soft chuckle.  “Not going to be anything he’d use often,” she said.“Boring mission,” Sveinn said.  “Bring my best gun for nothing.  Ol’ gal, she gets lonely.”“I heard you kept a bunch of snakemen off our backs,” Alyssa said.“Not so many,” Vasily said.  After the horror of fighting the robed alien, the snakemen had almost been a relief for the Russian.  Their hides had been as tough as ever, but they’d had plenty of gas grenades, and the trees had offered at least some cover from the aliens’ plasma rifles.  They’d taken some wounds in the firefight, but had dished out far worse.  By the time that the aliens were all down, Beta had successfully extracted the research team and retired to Skyranger 2; Alpha made it to their ship a scant two minutes ahead of the alien cruisers, which had obliterated the entire site with a plasma barrage.  “How much Elerium did we get?” Catalina asked.  “Well, only one of the storage units was intact,” Alyssa began. “We lose some.  But I get impression cleanup crew took all that left?”“Hallorand said he hoped it might be enough to keep us going for a few months,” Alyssa said.  She leaned on the edge of the counter for a moment.  “For all the big guy’s bravado, it looked pretty dicey in there.  Glad you guys were there to take the brunt of it.”“Glad we could help,” Jane said.  “Say hi to Perez for us.”“Will do,” Alyssa said.  “Come on, Sveinn, I need you to bully the cook into giving us some real coffee.  Later, Alphas.  Vasily.”  They left, the outer door sliding shut behind them with a soft clang.  Vasily looked across the table at Catalina, whose gaze had lingered on him.  “What?”“Did I say anything?” Catalina asked, returning to her newspaper. * * *</blockquote>

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