Species II by Yvonne Navarro Read Free Book Online Page A

stood there, rosy-skinned and perfect, blinking but seemingly unsurprised at her own metamorphosis, completely at home in her own skin despite the blatant display of her nudity. She was healed; she was whole.
    She was Eve.
    When Laura glanced up at the viewing booth, she saw all four men staring down, their expressions frozen with disbelief. She cocked an eyebrow and broke the spell. “Now you understand what we’re up against here. Every toxic chemical agent that we’ve come up with has had the same result: as an offense, whatever we employ against her works only once, and only very briefly. The alien’s biology immediately adapts and renders the weapon useless.”
    For the first time, the speaker on her console came to life and she heard Colonel Burgess address the others in the booth with him: “Simply put, this is it. Nothing we’ve found so far works, and we still haven’t figured out an efficient way to deep-six these alien bastards.”
    Wow, Laura thought with a roll of her eyes that thankfully couldn’t be seen from above. A man of eloquence. Still, she felt compelled to add her own measure of important information. “There’s another extremely important thing. The species displays a very measurable sixth sense—a form of telepathy. We believe it’s essentially a Darwinian survival mechanism that enables it to communicate with others of its kind in what it perceives to be hostile environments.”
    For a long moment there was no response, and Laura could imagine the Pentagon Three considering this new bit of information, turning their strategy-oriented thinking toward the concept of a savage being capable of communicating without their knowing it. When the response finally came, it was short and to the point.
    “Continue the testing, Dr. Baker.”
    Was there ever any doubt?
    Laura gave the three figures in the viewing room a brisk nod, snapped on the control that would drop Eve’s glass capsule back to the lower level for unloading, then climbed out of the control pod and went back to work.
    I t took only a few minutes to store the notes from the experiment and make backup copies for the data banks, but in that short time Eve had already been released into her habitat by the safety crew on the main floor. Laura found her getting dressed in one of the simple-patterned jumpers that made up her wardrobe, anger sparking from her clear blue eyes as she yanked the cotton fabric down and over her head, then jammed her feet into a pair of white canvas flats. Eve stood when she saw Laura, then backed up a step and folded her arms defiantly, like a schoolgirl standing up to a teacher. “Why did you do that to me?” she demanded.
    For a moment, Laura couldn’t answer. Guilt suffused her, robbing her of the scientific reasons that she knew would justify her actions; all she could see was this blond-haired, fresh-faced young woman standing in front of her, all she could hear was Eve’s righteous indignation. This was the image that stayed with her at the end of the day and the reason she sometimes had to forcibly remind herself that the being in front of her was an alien creature, not the exploited woman she appeared to be now.
    “I-I’m sorry, Eve,” she managed to say. “We lowered the dosage as far as possible, but the purpose of the test was to show the toxin’s effect. It could have been so much more painful . . .” Her voice faltered as she belatedly realized that her words sounded like nothing less than a threat. “I’ve explained why we have to do this,” she said at last, her voice low and as reassuring as she could make it. Eve said nothing, just continued to stare at her. “What happened with Sil—”
    “—and why you have to be prepared,” Eve cut in bitterly. “Survival of the fittest and all that. Right.” Her voice softened and she looked away from Laura, gazing longingly at the color television, now dark, built into one wall of her living area. “I suppose that one must be cruel in