Mimicry

Chapter 6 - Radication

Navigating the corridors, Faith made it to her microbiology lab. This was her domain, and certainly bore the mark of years of scientific expertise. One wall was lined with high-powered microscopes, their lenses gleaming under the sterile, white light, all connected to the primary computer. Adjacent to this, a large, temperature-controlled incubator hummed quietly. It housed a variety of Petri dishes teeming with cultures that Faith meticulously nurtured and observed. A stainless steel workbench stood in the centre of the room, with various drawers underneath housing an array of equipment - pipettes, test tubes, centrifuges, and spectrophotometer, all crucial in her research. A corkboard hung on one wall, adorned with photographs of her team, snippets of interesting research papers, and even a few images of particularly intriguing viral structures. A bookshelf held a collection of well-thumbed reference books and the latest journals, evidence of Faith's relentless pursuit of knowledge.

Faith set the alien sample on her sterile steel workbench and decided to sit down for a second at her desk. Analysis can wait for a couple of minutes. She stared up at the ceiling for a second before booting up the analysis software on her computer. Maybe there has been something discovered like this before, dismissed as the ramblings of a conspiracy theorist.

She typed in multiple variations of the material she'd discovered, describing it in one way or another, however most search results simply came up with odd-looking websites talking about 'greys' and probing. 'How scientific,' she muttered to herself sarcastically. 'Guess that's not worth a look into.' She was on her own with this one.

She soon realised she was continuing to procrastinate, perhaps out of fear or out of the human tendency to prolong the inevitable. Enough was enough, she thought to herself, and she stood up, almost performatively, from her desk. A little shiver of anticipation coursed through her. 

She gently pried open the casing, revealing the gelatinous specimen. It seemingly hadn't changed since its collection. She leant over slightly and continued staring. It shimmered iridescently under the lab lights, an undeniably extraterrestrial entity on her workbench. Its silvery exterior still lay there silently, its oddly tough exterior glinting under the chalk-coloured lab lights. She collected her thoughts and methodically began her process, keeping her notebook close. She started jotting:

Colour unchanged since collection. Silvery exterior, slightly hard to the touch, seemingly viscous liquid with solid properties. Shows properties of a chemical reaction when exposed to latex, i.e., my gloves - created an exothermic reaction which burned them, but seemingly not able to affect skin. Will use nitrile gloves instead.

She slipped on her synthetic nitrile gloves and, taking a scalpel, she delicately sliced a thin section off the specimen and placed it onto a glass slide, securing a cover slip over it. The specimen did not move. Material unresponsive after scalpel cut, likely to be either a secretion from the alien piloting the ship or a material used in its building. Seemingly harmless. NO LATEX!! 

She moved to her most powerful microscope, a top-of-the-line Kidsonscope, custom fitted with a variety of filters and lenses that allowed for an array of imaging techniques. She gently inserted the slide and adjusted the focus. The alien substance took form under her gaze, a complex tangle of structures, unlike anything she had seen before. It was an intricate labyrinth of threads, akin to Earthly cellular structures yet fundamentally different. She detected no movement, though, indicating that this was likely a dormant sample.

Initial microscopic analysis determines the substance to be of biological origin - whatever that means on this alien's world. Much more complicated than any cell structures seen in any bacterial or virological sample I've seen.

She decided to perform a stain test. She wasn't sure if this was a bacteria, but it was certainly a good place to start. At the very least, she'd be able to make an educated guess on what kind of cells these were. Opening a drawer, she fetched a dropper, and a small bottle of Gram stain, a standard test she hoped would reveal more about the molecular structure of the entity. As she dropped the purplish solution onto the slide and slotted it back into the microscope, she observed the sample keenly.

Unlike the clearly defined organelles of terrestrial cells, the inside of these threads appeared more fluid, more versatile. 'Wait- it's moving now??' she exclaimed suddenly. Indeed it was - structures began to morph and shift in real-time, flexing and realigning in a manner suggestive of a level of adaptability far beyond what terrestrial biology could offer. Each filament seemed to pulsate with a strange internal rhythm, vibrating and flowing synchronously. It was like watching an orchestrated dance on a microscopic scale.

The substance seemed to contain no nuclei, yet, the entire structure exhibited control and order, implying some form of decentralized command system. How an organism could coordinate itself in such a way was utterly fascinating and yet incomprehensible to Faith's understanding. It's almost as if they were acting like a civilisation.

The substance appears to have come alive, as it were, upon adding Gram stain. Most likely to be the iodine or ethanol in the Gram stain. Cells appear to act independently of each other, yet exhibit an almost organised chaos. Perhaps these are living cells that form some sort of bigger cell mass blob thing or something.

Faith's excitement continued growing as she witnessed these alien biological processes, barely able to keep her handwriting from devolving into more excited scribbles. She was entering a vast, new uncharted scientific territory, observing lifeforms that defied the very definitions she had been trained to understand.

The longer she studied the specimen, the more it seemed to activate, buzzing increasingly into life. The tangled structures began to increasingly pulse, shimmer, and change colour. Faith watched in cautious awe, her breath hitching in her throat. She picked up her pen again.

Specimen increasingly active since addition of the Gram stain. Might consider doing a virological FA stain to determine if-

Suddenly, with almost explosive energy, the substance burst from the confines of the slide. Faith yelped, instinctively pulling back, launching her notebook and pen across the room towards her desk. The strange slime, still dyed in its purplish hue, formed a large splat on the metal worktable, landing on several microscopes. It continued to bubble menacingly. Faith had mostly managed to avoid this explosion, except for the droplets that landed on her lab coat. Faith sighed, "That'll leave a hell of a stain".

Shaken but undeterred, Faith contained the rest of the sample and treated her coat with a quick antiseptic wipe and rinse, throwing it into her wash basket off to the side of her desk. She also wiped down the spilt slime, which seemed to calm down after wiping, until the surface was clean, and set it on fire before tossing it in her waste bin. 

After all that, she landed in her seat in front of her computer and took stock of the situation. 'What the hell just happened?' she thought to herself, the incredulity of the whole situation still not fully settling in. Reaching for a secret vodka bottle hidden in her cupboard, she poured out a shot for herself and gulped it down. At the very least, the awful taste of the shot could distract her from the events that transpired. Grabbing her notebook and pen lying beside the chair on the floor, she finished off her report.

Substance reaction to microscopic solution turned volatile - still need to figure out what makes it tick. Going to freeze the rest of the slime for now - better for it to remain dormant. Wiped down the surfaces with antiseptic spray - hopefully that does the job. Calmed my nerves with a shot - all I need is a break right now. I wonder what the Wellman Institute would say about this. Will write more later.

She put her pen down, feeling that her fingers started to tingle strangely, but she put it down to her shock. She decided to call it a night, her mind buzzing with questions about the bizarre encounter. Turning off the lights and locking the door behind her, she set off to join the others in the common room again.