Specimen
The aliens had arrived last Wednesday, at least they did if you believe what everyone was saying. That was when NASA had announced possible contact with alien life.
Kaylee Hunter had been drinking coffee and sitting on a couch when the broadcast aired. Kaylee, a young single woman of 28 was too busy with mundane things such as her work and repaying her student loans to be bothered with fantastical ideas of alien life. These may have been the reasons why she was surprised at one of the broadcasts that she was watching.
Next, a team of well-dressed scientists had stepped onto the screen. The reporter turned to a tall woman that had an aura about her that made it clear that she was in charge. The reporter asked, “Sarah Carrick, your group believes that it has found definitive evidence of alien life. Are you and your team positive?”
Dr. Carrick replied calmly. “Yes, we’ve received what we believe to be an alien transmission of strange noises along with what we believe to be an encoded translation of the first few numbers in Pi. Our linguist, Derek, is trying to discern the meaning of the message. The thing that makes us so sure of its alien origin, is an asteroid impact two days later directly near our headquarters. It contained some specimens that seemed neither man-made nor biological. The structures were akin to nothing that we had seen prior on earth. Though nothing is for certain we-”
Then, with the press of a button, the T.V. turned off. Kaylee sat on her couch, gripping the remote. She was tired of all of the talking on T.V. It was too stressful that late at night. Kaylee rubbed her bleary eyes and headed upstairs to bed, telling herself that all would be better in the morning. Besides, she told herself that she would need to be well-rested to perform well at the hospital. Kaylee was sure that one day she would make an important medical discovery. Until then, she would be stuck with her mundane everyday work. She would just have to focus and work harder. Kaylee gave a small smile as she slipped into bed.
However, Sarah Hunter didn’t go to bed that night. She was up far into the night examining the specimens.
“Ms. Hunter?” asked a scientist as he sidled up to her.
“Yes, Alex?”
“Reports have arrived from the lab. It seems that our specimens respond to external stimuli. While working in the lab the…. Things seemed to shy away from my glove when I touched them. Not much, but most of the other scientists agreed that it did move.”
“This means that the specimens may be alive?”
“That’s how it appears, I’d better get back to the lab”
Alex then turned and left, leaving Sarah with an expression of growing horror as she saw a hole on the palm of his glove.
The next morning, Kaylee yawned and got out of her bed. She ate a quick breakfast, barely glancing at the news which showed more reports on possible alien life. Kaylee stopped briefly at the door before dashing back inside for a cup of coffee. ‘She would surely need it that day, she told herself.
Then, as Kaylee drove down the street she began to feel strangely lonely. She hadn’t seen her mother in a month. She hasn’t interacted with her friends much. With a pang of melancholy, Kaylee was filled with a desire to be near other people. She shook it off. She needed to focus. After all, one day she’d discover or do something important. That was why she’d become a doctor, after all, to do something. Her student debt had to be worth it.
Derek, the head linguist at NASA was working alone in a secluded section of the office. His job wasn’t as flashy as the others and so his co-workers at NASA paid him no leave. That wasn’t a bother though, as his work was incredibly important and delicate. Studying and trying to decipher what appeared to be alien writing was hard work.
However, a grim look on Derek’s face persuaded his assistant to go and check on him.
Sidling up to him she quietly asked “What’s wrong? Have you translated any of it?”
“Well, it’s mainly a pictographic language as far as I can tell. The writings are made up of certain symbols that are interlocked. What they describe appears to be foreign so I cannot say for certain their meaning. However it could also refer to time based on its use in this formation-”
“So this is a warning?” His assistant cut him off.
“Yes, this is a warning and we had better prepare.”
The hospital was crowded that day. Many people had shown up each with a different set of symptoms. Kaylee was cautious, excited as she was to one day discover a deadly virus she knew not to jump to conclusions. It was highly unlikely, and besides, a deadly virus wouldn’t do any good.
As Kaylee gave each patient a check-up she was told about numerous symptoms. From nausea to headaches to bumps to itches, almost every type of malady was acclaimed. The one constant across patients was that all of them claimed that they felt extremely lonely and a growing sense of loss. However, when checking out her patients she couldn’t see any signs of the symptoms that they claimed to have had. She even did blood draws on her patients and found nothing. Everything was normal. In the end, she diagnosed her patient as having self-induced symptoms due to the placebo effect. Their fears of an alien virus had manifested in perceived illnesses.
Eventually, Kaylee had to leave. As she departed there was no sense of satisfaction. It had been a long, tiring day, and nothing truly important had come up. She packed up her bag and headed out of her office. While on her way out the door, Kaylee stopped before turning back to grab a cup of coffee. Normally she only had 2 cups a day. This day, however, Kaylee had just now grabbed her 4th cup. When she got to the coffee pot she noticed that it was empty.
‘Strange’ she thought to herself. It was usually only ever half empty. Kaylee quickly turned and headed back towards her car.
Things were busy in the containment lab at NASA. A brisk woman was overseeing operations as the rest of the scientists scurried around, performing various tests. The woman walked around the lab stations. Upon one of her assistants walking up to her and giving her an update, the woman in charge called in a commanding voice, “Initiate protocol 37 G, we will soon begin testing our specimens via organic matter.”
A small cup containing apples was carefully placed into the container with the specimens. Soon after the apple was placed the specimen drifted towards it. Slowly, after moving imperceptibly slowly the specimen came into contact with the apple. The apple started to dissolve, and, while dissolving, began to turn a sickly yellow color.
The women called on the walkie-talkie “Sarah, we have 89% confirmation that our specimens are alive. It’s adapting to and altering its environment.”
The next morning when Kaylee entered the hospital, it seemed as if it was deserted. Upon closer inspection Kaylee discovered that people were there, they just weren’t moving. They’d almost started to blend in with their surroundings. Kaylee walked to the receptionist counter where the usual chipper receptionist sat. Kaylee was greeted with a noncommittal grunt and began to feel even more lonely than usual.
When she reached the waiting room by her office, Kaylee was met with a dozen pairs of mournful eyes boring into hers. One patient who seemed alert was seated on the opposite side of the room and was regarding the other patients warily.
In her office, Kaylee looked at the stupefied patients and tried to diagnose them. All of them attested to feeling strangely tired. And as one man put it, “It felt as if all my energy was slowly being drained away.”
Kaylee tried to diagnose him but ended up again chalking it up to the placebo effect. ‘This was what she’d wanted’ she told herself. ‘To do something new and exciting’. “Not like this,” she whispered, “not like this.”
Kaylee was frantic. ‘What’s going on’, she asked herself time and time again. She couldn’t detect anything wrong with the patients. ‘This is impossible. It was a strange, almost alien sickness. Kaylee didn’t know what to do’ Things were going very wrong. Eventually, Kaylee had to call it in for the night without any success. Kaylee was really tired that night as she drove home. Even her 7th cup of coffee couldn’t keep her awake. In the end, Kaylee collapsed onto her bed and fell asleep.
Alex lay on an operating room table, breathing heavily, heart beating slowly. Sarah stood over him, a worried expression on her face “It’s going to be ok, We’ll be able to save you from the alien sickness,” she said. Prestigious doctors and head scientists operated on Alex, trying to find out what ailed him and how it was connected to the specimen. Nothing worked. At 2 AM Alex breathed his last breath.
The lead director at NASA was talking to a doctor. “When will we be able to perform an autopsy? We need to know what killed him. Everything depends on it.”
The doctor sadly shook his head. “We’ll get nothing. Several experiments have changed his body. I don’t know what the autopsy will help with. We won’t be able to find anything specific.”
Two were people in Kaylee’s house that night. Two people were in Kaylee’s room at night. Two people were in her bed. While Kaylee slept the other being lurked, unseen, a strange alien sickness. It was something that would destroy Kaylee. Something that, had she been told about it, she would never have believed. Something dark, something truly devious, something that had infiltrated Kaylee’s mind, something that took Kaylee’s life.
The director turned to Sarah. “Another has succumbed to a similar alien sickness, living not 12 blocks from here. She stipulated that her body was to be left to science in her will. We’ll use her for the autopsy. She’ll save many lives”
Had Kaylee known that she would change the world, she would probably have been pleased.
For more science fiction short stories, check out The Press of a Button.
For fantasy short stories, check out A King Apart and The Ivory Tower.
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