This story contains mild language. You have been warned. Now read anyway, cause warnings are for chumps...you know I'm kidding, right? Always respect warnings. Ok.
Kate eyed the body of the young woman now resting on the operating table. She had known this girl. Sarah Skinner, a fellow medical officer. She, along with three other squad-mates, had been sent on a mission to investigate the colony of Jacob's Rest. Of the four marines that went, only two returned, bearing the body of the now deceased Sarah, and news of what happened at the colony. According to the two survivors, Jacob's Rest had been overrun by the Swarm, an alien species that humanity had been trying to fight for the past few years. Try as humanity might, however, the Swarm was proving much tougher than first anticipated.
Kate reached for the small tape recorder in her coat pocket. She preferred to record her thoughts on a tape rather than the computer. Tapes couldn't get corrupted or deleted accidentally. "Subject's name is Sarah Skinner, a medical officer and trained marine." Kate paused, glancing at the body of the girl. "According to her squad-mates," Kate continued. "Everything was fine until Sarah began screaming 'Get it off me!' over and over again. After several moments of screaming, Sarah fell dead. According to the survivors, the squad's weapon specialist also began screaming and yelling. The other marines tried to calm him down, but to no avail. The weapon specialist ran away from the other two, babbling incoherently." Kate set the tape recorder down and began to examine the corpse. Sarah's eyes had glazed over and her skin was pale, traits common with death. But other than that, Sarah appeared fine. She had no bruises to suggest broken bones. No type of cut or laceration to suggest she bled out.
Kate turned her tape recorder on. "Sarah, physically, appears fine. What could have killed her then?" Kate set her tape down and gently turned Sarah on her stomach. "Sarah, what killed you?" Kate asked herself. As Kate began examining the body's backside, she noticed an unusual wound at the base of Sarah's neck. "Got something." Kate whispered to herself. The wound looked like a small hole, almost like something had tunneled underneath Sarah's flesh. "What the hell?" There was something poking out of Sarah's wound. Kate grabbed her tape again. "I found a rather unusual wound at the base of Sarah's neck. The wound itself doesn't appear fatal, so it wasn't the C.O.D. However, I can see something inside the wound. I'm going to begin my autopsy there." Kate set the tape down and reached for her scalpel. She began to carefully cut the base of Sarah's neck open. What she saw next shocked her.
"Dear God..." Kate breathed. What Kate had seen sticking out of Sarah's wound was the tail of a small Swarm alien. Kate reached for her tape again. "I, uh...I think I found the C.O.D." Kate couldn't help but stare at the creature wrapped around Sarah's spine. "Death was caused by...by a Swarm alien wrapping itself around Sarah's spine. The alien appears dead. I'm gonna try and remove it." Kate grabbed the small Swarm and began to tenatively unwrap the creature from the corpse. Each leg disconnected with a sickening crack. Once all six legs had been disconnected, Kate pulled the creature from the corpse. She had seen Swarm before, but none like this. This Swarm was much smaller then the drones, and unlike most Swarm, this particular one had six legs instead of five.
As soon as the Swarm had been disconnected from the body, however, it screeched. Kate, in her surprise, dropped the creature on the operating table. "Holy shit!" she cried, falling back against the wall. The Swarm continued to writhe and squirm on the table, screeching all the while. Suddenly, the screeching ended, and the Swarm stopped moving. Kate cautiously approached the operating table. "The Swarm wasn't fully dead yet." Kate said into her tape recorder. "But it is now. I've never seen a Swarm quite like this. It might be a variety that we have never encountered before. But why would it want to burrow into Sarah's neck?" Kate set her recorder down. "Computer?" Kate asked. "Yes?" came a synthezied reply. "Can you show me a magnified image of this Swarm?" "Processing..." A holographic image of the dead Swarm suddenly appeared before Kate.
"Zoom in on the creature's legs." The computer obeyed, focusing and zooming in on the creature's legs. "Fascinating..." Kate thought to herself. The alien's legs were covered in tiny feelers that looked similar to nerve endings. "It was wrapped around the spine..." Kate thought aloud. "Could it have been trying to bond with Sarah somehow?" "That would seem likely." The computer said. "The 'feelers' that we are seeing are used to likely interact with a host's nervous system, creating a type of symbiotic bond." "Symbiosis?" Kate repeated. "What shall we name it?" The computer asked suddenly. "Huh?" Kate asked, somewhat off-guard by the computer's question. "This type of Swarm is not in my system files. What shall I address it by?" Kate thought for a moment. "Swarm Parasite." she said.
*****
Later that night, Kate lay awake in her bed. She couldn't sleep. She kept having nightmares about that Swarm Parasite from the autopsy. She had a sickening feeling that she hadn't seen the last of it, though.
