Chapter 1

Doctor Stanley Wilson is a very successful scientist. His research has opened the doors for many cures and preventative medicine. He is so successful that he never has a hard time obtaining grant money. In fact, with all the grant money he has gained, he was able to buy and entire six story building in the heart of downtown and turn it into a laboratory.

For Stanley it has never been about making money, only helping mankind. So instead of turning his success and laboratory into a business, he keeps it strictly research while continuously accepting grants to keep the research going. He hires only the best minds in not only the country, but the world.

Unfortunately, even success can end in failure. Through his Space and Observation department is where failure has begun. The team tracked a fallen meteorite travelling from deep space until it crashed into the Earth. Upon recovering the rock, they discovered alien life. At first, this alien life doesn’t seem intelligent nor anything really too spectacular. However, it does eventually prove this wrong to the team.

“It seems to respond to stimuli,” Evony Richards, his team leader explains to Stanley.

“Has it taken any kind of form?” Stanley asks.

“Nothing other than the gelatinous form you see now,” Evony says. “But it does seem to be able to move from place to place in this form.”

“What are we calling it?”

“A Xenobiote.”

“Excellent,” he says smiling. “Has anyone gone in yet?”

Kathy shakes her head. “As per your orders no one has.”

“Good,” he says smiling. “Get me a suit, I’m going in there.”

“Are you sure that is a good idea Doctor Wilson?” Evony asks. “We should send in a monkey or something first to see how it reacts.”

Stanley looks at the woman with intent eyes. “We don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines Doctor Richards.”

“Then as a friend Stanley, take precautions,” the woman says.

“That I am,” he says with a smile. “I do take your caution under advisory.”

“I’ll be pissed if anything happens to you,” she says with a frown. “I haven’t been your best friend all our lives just to see you do something stupid that gets you killed.”

“Don’t worry Evony,” he says soothingly. “Everything will be just fine.”

Evony doesn’t like it, but he is the boss. Stanley has always taken Evony’s advice into consideration every time she has given it. Though it has kept his ass out of the fire, so to speak, many times, it could have also kept him from making the breakthroughs that he has made.

Evony is smart, sophisticated, beautiful—even behind her black rimmed glasses. She’s tall and with a great figure and long light brown hair that would instantly grab the attention of any man. Her down fall and greatest assets are that she is overly shy with a big open heart.

It is those two things that have been what has given both caution and the push to Stanley. Unfortunately for him, his work has always come first which has out him last in ever becoming more than just best friends. Her fiancé Matthew beat him to the punch on this one.

Suited up, Stanley gives the team a thumbs-up as he heads into the chamber where the alien is being kept. He goes through the process of decontamination and the cycling of doors before he is finally able to step into the same room as the alien.

His heart is racing as his excitement builds up. It’s too bad he has to where this suit. Given more time to study the alien he might eventually get to touch it, but for now, even he has to follow procedure. He moves slowly toward it, waiting for a reaction from it. It isn’t until almost upon it does it finally react to his presence.

The alien mass arches and expands. Tiny tentacles shoot out as if seeking him, trying to get a sense of the man, trying to feel him. Stanley tentatively sticks his own hand out toward the black mass. It touches his glove, slithering slowly onto it as if getting a feel itself. From behind the faceplate Stanley smiles and turns to look at his team on the other side of the glass wall.

Then it strikes.

The black form stretches completely over Stanley’s lower arm. The protective gear doesn’t feel so protective a second later when what feels like teeth dig in. Stanley yells as he starts shaking his arm in a vain attempt to free it.

“Get it off! Get it off!”

The suppression/decontamination system kicks on in the small chamber as the door seals and locks. Team members rush in trying to get past the door, but the building’s security won’t release the lock until the threat is gone. So far the black alien mass is unaffected.

The mass continues crawling up Stanley’s arm and over his shoulder. From the other side of the glass Evony gives out orders but mostly stares transfixed through the glass at her best friend. She feels helpless as the alien covers his body, moving seamlessly like a flowing body of water.

Then the scariest thing happens and Evony can’t believe it is happening. From the mass of black a head appears. It is smooth like the rest of the mass, but it has two large white eyes encompassing it and a jaw full of razor teeth. It seems to look over Stanley as if he were food. Instead of devouring the man, however, it grows even larger and begins to tear at his protective gear and the clothing beneath it before disappearing.

Stanley claws at the alien’s form, ripping and tearing at it but it just seems to reform itself, not showing any signs of damage or injury. Eventually, whether because the alien mass is tired of the man fighting or because it is simply the easiest thing to do, it wraps Stanley’s limbs and restricts his movements. The man becomes totally helpless, not even being left with the ability to fight back and protect himself.