Anthony DeCosmo - Parallels

"And that is?"

Omar went through the effort to pull the scarf entirely off his face so that he could be clearly heard. A stream of frosted air led the words from his mouth.

"Before the invasion, radiation such as this kind was found in trace amounts in areas of mass disappearances."

– A heavy door marked a choke point in the containment system of the underground facility. Anita Nehru slid a key card through the slot. A red light turned green then a heavy bolt retracted and the bulkhead slid open.

"This next area is focused on Hostile biology," she told the tour. "Here is where we try to gain a deeper understanding of our enemies by examining them on a molecular level."

President of the Senate-elect Evan Godfrey, standing at the front of the tour of three Senators and feeling a touch of claustrophobia from being far underground, asked, "What was this facility prior to the invasion?"

"Red Rock started as a Cold War storage and survival complex, primarily for records and artifacts. Apparently in the 1980s it changed to a black-box scientific research facility, mainly for dealing with bio weapons. In the days before the invasion, when the alien creatures started showing up, the government decided to convert it into a containment facility."

"Trevor finished the job?"

"It was discovered as part of 'Task Force Boom', the initiative to find and secure nuclear and biological weapons to use against the invaders. As you know, none of those weapons have worked, for reasons yet unknown. But with a little manpower we've been able to finish the conversion of this complex. I think you'll agree that the location is nearly ideal; we're surrounded top side by forest and wilderness yet only an hour drive from the estate."

Godfrey asked, "Is there any reason why this facility is being kept secret? I thought Trevor was convinced that the public supports the idea of killing off every last alien species."

Nehru showed the men along a tight passage that felt like a submarine corridor, albeit with higher ceilings and wider girth. They passed laboratory and office doors as they moved.

"We study these creatures in a variety of ways, Senators, including genetic testing, weapons research, physical tolerances…this is nasty, bloody business."

"Ahh," Godfrey thought he cornered her. "So you admit that if the public knew about what happens here they might not approve?"

"Senator, most people would be put off by what happens in a cattle slaughterhouse, but that doesn't stop us from loving hamburgers, does it?"

Senator Wasnieski, an older man from Delaware, asked, "You said this area is for Hostile biology. What exactly does that mean?"

"It is critical that we discover the building blocks of our enemies," she explained with the type of elegant tone that so eluded her husband. "By understanding their biology, we can better understand their needs, tendencies, and weaknesses."

Evan asked, "What about finding means to communicate? What about better understanding with the aim of coexistence?"

Anita smiled a polite smile the way she might at a child who wondered if the moon was made of green cheese. "Well, that’s not part of our charter."

"What is your charter?" New Jersey Senator Whitman wanted to know.

"It is our mission to find better, more expeditious means of killing our enemies and more effective means of protecting ourselves from their attacks. Furthermore, we are always looking for clues as to the greater nature of the invasion."

Evan pointed out, "Of course, beginning next year the budget for this operation will be approved on the Senate floor and not by direct edict."

"Is that so?" Again that tone of humoring a child, as if Evan told her he was going to be an astronaut when he grew up.

Whitman interrupted, "Well, I hope they make the things in here suffer real good. Do you have any Jabberwocks?"

"Not presently, no."

They went through a high security door to a catwalk encased in heavy glass above a series of chambers with transparent ceilings, each occupied by an alien creature.

"Here are holding pens for specimens awaiting dissection."

She led the group forward. The security glass muffled all sound from the pens below.

"Are they terminated in a humanly manner?" Evan asked as he eyed a Rat-Thing run headlong into its cell wall.

Anita answered, "Most are put down by draining the oxygen from their chambers. This ensures the cadavers are in the best possible physical condition."

Being in such proximity to alien monsters appeared to unnerve Wasnieski. His voice wavered as he looked down at a Giant Jellyfish in its cell. "Wh-what have you learned?"

"Our research has been quite fruitful. The troops in the field have the most up to date information on how to kill or disable our enemies."

Evan noted a bipedal, reptilian Hivvan in a holding cell. "There, that’s a very intelligent creature. Why is he caged like an animal?"

She told him, "Because it is scheduled for dissection tomorrow morning."

Godfrey's eyes widened. "Are we now torturing our enemies?"

Nehru answered, "No enemy hostiles who surrender are sent here as a matter of policy. This particular Hivvan was a slave pen overseer in Raleigh and was captured after being wounded. It is personally responsible for executing at least one hundred human beings."

Anita used her key card to open another bulkhead into a new section. The skywalk still looked down on specimens, but this time the holding pens spanned areas the size of small gymnasiums.

The first pen held a creature resembling a house-sized hermit crab with slimy, worm like appendages oozing from some kind of shell.

"If you'll look over here," Anita pointed, "you'll see our resident Shellsquid."

Parts of a second creature the size of an elephant with a big seal-like face, a soft fuzzy hide, and a jagged backbone shared the same pen. The Shellsquid held the remains of this "ChewCow" in its tendrils, puncturing its lifeless hide and slurping in chunks of flesh.

Whitman nearly vomited; the other Senators turned their heads.

"Sorry. I forgot it was feeding time."

Wasniewski repeated his earlier question, "What have you learned? What would be your, hmmm, biggest revelation so far?"

As they left the Shellsquid to its meal, Anita answered, "We’ve made some astounding discoveries in terms of the basic building blocks of life. That is, in relation to our existence."

Godfrey: "How so?"

"As you are no doubt aware, every living organism is built with a genetic code or DNA. It’s what makes us look the way we look; gives us big noses and green eyes or," Anita ran her hand through her hair, "beautiful, lovely long black hair for that matter."

"So? So what?" Senator Whitman ignored her attempt at levity.

"All life on Earth is built from DNA and, in general terms, it is structured in much the same manner. That’s why you may have heard that there is a great deal of similarity between, oh, human DNA and nematodes."

"Nematodes?" Wasniewski was not sure if he heard correctly.

"A type of worm. Anyway, all Earthly life forms have similar genetic structures. Evolutionists theorize that this proves life on this planet is descendant from one particular organism; that evolution, time, environment, and other factors resulted in the slow creation of a variety of animals, including humanity. In essence, every type of animal on Earth evolved from the same seed."

The next pen held a monster that had rolled itself into something like a fetal position alongside a big fake rock. The tour could see the thick legs, wiry black and silver hair, lizard tail, four arms, and crocodile-like snout of a Troll.

Nehru continued, "The aliens who have invaded our world have a very similar-if not identical-DNA structure. They look different, of course, but their basic biology is the same and they share a cell structure with us that we categorize as Eukaryota. That means the DNA is enclosed in separate membranes within the cell. You could say it makes us-and these invaders-complex organisms."