CHAPTER 16: Mother
Cornelius and David didn't say a word as they ate breakfast. Today was a big day: The descent to the lowest levels of the secret laboratory. They had the protective suits, they had a plan in place to explore those depths and now was the moment of truth, the final search for answers.
After they had eaten and cleared away the dishes, they packed the HAZMAT suits into hold all bags and gathered any other useful items for the trip. Before they stepped out the door, Cornelius turned to David.
"Are you ready for this expedition?" Cornelius asked David.
"Primed and ready to go, Cornelius." he replied.
Cornelius nodded. "Then there's no time to delay" he said as he picked up the car keys and headed to the door.
They left the house and locked up before heading to a parked Ford Bronco that belonged to the DPR. However, the two men noticed that the skies above Strangerville were a particularly sickly green colour, more so than in recent days.
"I have to agree with you, David. I see the changes every day now...and not all of them are of an extra-terrestrial nature..."
"What do you mean?" David asked.
"Have you noticed some new arrivals in town? They wear black suits, sunglasses and keep tapping their ears whenever they speak." said Cornelius, pointing to a couple of women who matched Cornelius' description.
"Government spooks, Cornelius. I can spot them a mile away..." David replied.
"The question is, are they here to observe the town or us?" Cornelius mused.
"As long as they don't get in our way" said David.
And with that they put their gear in the Bronco and headed off to the Laboratory.
Cornelius and David were joined by Peggy and Dr Kaden Sands from the DPR. They gathered outside the lab where Cornelius briefed his team about what was going to happen.
"My intention on this expedition is to get past the dense spore cloud and see what lies beyond; hoping to get to the lowest levels of the laboratory and see if we can locate the source of the infection. David will accompany me there, Peggy you will be monitoring our progress from the cameras and computers located on the lower level and Dr Sands, you will remain on the upper level with the support equipment. If things go badly and our suits are compromised, you will initiate quarantine procedures."
"Understood, Cornelius" said Dr Sands.
"And if things go very badly..." began Cornelius. "...and it looks like the virus or the plants look like escaping this facility then you are to seal this facility even if that means sealing David and I in it."
"But Cornelius!" interjected Peggy, her face looking horrified.
"Peggy, there's no room for sentimentality in science! We must think about protecting the citizens of Strangerville. Our lives are expendable in this matter."
"Peggy, I'm with Cornelius on this one. You must be prepared for the worst as we are." said David, trying to reassure her.
"Well, let us go forth and hope it won't come to that..." said Cornelius to his team.
Cornelius and David found one of the abandoned staff changing rooms and proceeded to change into their HAZMAT suits. The first layer was the thermal undergarment: A one piece bodysuit that regulated body temperature so they wouldn't overheat nor freeze down there.
Then they helped each other put on the bulky HAZMAT suits and checked the seals to ensure they were on properly and that the oxygen system was functioning.
Then, along with Peggy, they made their way to the electronic door where Cornelius used his keycard to open it.
When they made their way down to the lower level control room, Cornelius gave Peggy her instructions.
"You can observe us from these television monitors they have here. These other screens display...."
"...lighting, air quality and environmental conditions. I know, Cornelius, I've studied the schematics. And the radio's here so let's set it to channel 7 and we can communicate." interjected Peggy, confidently.
"I am feeling no ill effects..." said Cornelius.
"Neither am I" said David.
"Copy that" Peggy replied.
"The spore cloud is really intense here, Cornelius. Which way are we headed?" said David.
"I can just about make out a door ahead...it's electronically operated and I wonder if the keycard works on it as well."
As Cornelius approached the door, he reached for the keycard which was in a sleeve pocket on his suit.
"I am trying the keycard on the lock....now...it seems to be responding" said Cornelius.
"Roger that" replied Peggy, over the radio.
The door slid open and Cornelius could see that the spore cloud dissipated leaving a clear vision of more corridors and stairs straight ahead.
"Onwards and downwards..." he said.
David followed behind as they went down another level. At the base of the staircase they noticed there were no clouds of spores anymore.
"The environment is clearer but we shouldn't remove our suits" said Cornelius.
"I'm with you on that one!" said David. "This isn't coming off until I'm back up top."
The two men looked around for a clue as to which way they should go and just up ahead were a pair of double doors, but ones that didn't require a key.
"Now this looks promising" said Cornelius as he pushed the doors open.
They went through the doors to find another laboratory like the one upstairs but there were some key differences. First, the lighting was more subdued and then the types of plants contained in the glass booths were even stranger than the ones seen around the town.
"It's similar to the ones we've seen but the colouring is different" remarked David.
"I can't tell if it's thriving or dying in there" Cornelius replied. "But look over there at the specimen in that booth"
They both turned to a single booth that contained a plant specimen that didn't resemble anything like what they had seen before. Moreover, the walls at this end of the laboratory were lined with creeping vines of purple and pink that throbbed and pulsated.
"This looks like a completely new species right here, Cornelius"
"It could be. I'd love to get a sample but I won't smash the booth to do it. But these vines...they seem to be emanating from that door down the end of that corridor" Cornelius replied.
"I'll take a sample from these vines...here goes..." David produced a set of secateurs from a thigh pocket in his suit and snipped off a creeper leaf. The vine twitched as if it had been hurt and tendrils detached from the wall and attempted to wrap themselves around David's legs...fortunately, he was able to jump back in time and put the sample in a zip lock bag.
"It's alive and seems aware of us" David said to Cornelius.
"It certainly displays a rudimentary intelligence. It reacted in self defence when you took that sample. This backs up my theory that what we're dealing with is part plant and part animal."
"Whatever it is, the vines lead to those doors down there" said David.
"Well, that's where we'll go next. After you, old chap"
"No, no, Cornelius...I insist you go first"
"Spoken like a true gentleman. Well, whatever lies down there it'll probably try to kill us at the same time."
It resembled the alien plants he had already seen but on a scale that dwarfed a human being like himself. It's massive stem soared upwards towards a distant ceiling and each of its petals was about the height of a man. Pink tendrils sprouted from the base of the plant and writhed in a chaotic manner as if seeking out something it couldn't see but desperately desired. At the apex of the plant the unsprouted pod was glowing a bright orange colour, and it looked like something was inside of it.
There were steps that led up to a glass and steel dais and Cornelius ascended them. He peered downwards to see that the roots of the plant extended to a level even further down than this one and that the roots themselves extended out like tentacles and had become embedded in some ducts and small passageways. At the level of the leaves, where the tendrils began, was a ring of electric fence posts that were switched on and created lines of crackling purple electricity to try to keep the plant in. Cornelius made some mental notes about how this plant might function.
The plant seemed aware of Cornelius' presence and the pod and tendrils moved and pointed themselves at him.
"Mother, I presume?" asked Cornelius after he had turned on the loudspeaker function on his suit. The plant writhed when hearing his voice and a trendril lashed at him, narrowly missing him.
"My name is Cornelius, I am a human from this planet. Can you understand me?"
He could hear a raspy voice that boomed across the cavernous laboratory and which seemed to come from the plant.
"InFeCtIoN...iNfEcTiOn..." said the voice.
"Infection? Infect who? Are you infected?" replied Cornelius, trying to figure out what this plant meant.
"InVaSiOn...InFeCtIoN...cOnQuEst"
"This planet is not yours to invade or conquer. Already we are devising ways to stop you." Cornelius replied, defiantly.
The plant did not like what it heard and the pod opened to reveal itself as a massive three petal flower with a brightly glowing stigma in the middle that looked down at Cornelius before trying to spray him with a sticky, nectar like substance. Fortunately, Cornelius managed to swiftly evade the nectar.
The tendrils all around the plant writhed and gibbered as the plant became more agitated. David had, by now, joined his colleague and was shocked by what he saw.
"I know, David, big isn't it?"
"That's putting it mildly. Does it seem hostile?"
"Very much so. I'd stay back if I were you...it's spitting some kind of goo which I don't think is meant to be beneficial to us."
A voice came over the radio; it was Peggy. "Warning...you've reached 25% oxygen. You should return to the surface."
"Roger that. We're on our way" said David. "You heard the lady...let's scram"
"Yes...yes...I think we'd better go before it decides to attack again. But wait, get out a sample bottle and let's gather up some of that goo first." Cornelius replied.
They quickly gathered up what they needed and left the chamber, with the mother plant still writhing and attempting to lash at them.
"I can't believe how big that thing is!" said David. "It almost fills that chamber!"
"Maybe it was nurtured so it could fill that chamber" Cornelius replied, sombrely.
They made their way back upstairs to where Peggy was waiting; she had been monitoring their progress and vital signs all the time and was relieved when they made it back to her seemingly well and in one piece.
"Don't touch these garments, they may be contaminated." said Cornelius.
"We could put them in one of those glass containers and then bring that back to Dr Sands. We can decontaminate them back at DPR headquarters" said Peggy.
"A good idea" replied Cornelius.
Peggy stood well back as Cornelius and David took off the bulky HAZMAT suits. As discussed they placed them in an empty glass plant specimen container and sealed it, making sure not to touch any part of the suits that had nectar sprayed on them.
"The case detaches from the base so we should be able to carry it back up to the surface" said David.
Peggy was momentarily distracted by the sight of Cornelius' butt which looked cute in his skin tight outfit. "Nice underwear, boys" she said with a smile.
"Peggy! Can we be serious here?" said an annoyed David. "We need to carry this case upstairs without breaking it."
"Absolutely" she said whilst checking out David "You two go on ahead and I'll....follow behind" she added in a saucy tone.
The two men lifted the glass case and slowly made their way back upstairs where they set it down by the first set of electronic doors. Then it was back to the changing room to get back into their everyday clothes. Then it was back to Dr Sands to let him know what they found down there.
"What news, Cornelius? What did you find down there?" asked Kaden.
"The source of the problem. A massive alien plant: Part vegetable and part animal. Intelligent it seems and very, very malevolent." Cornelius replied.
"By malevolent you mean?"
"As in wanting to take over the Earth, infecting everyone and getting angry when defied." deadpanned Cornelius.
"So what do we do now?" Kaden asked.
"Return to DPR HQ, analyse these fresh samples and come up with a plan to defeat that thing. So far it remains confined to the chamber these foolish scientists and their army backers built. My worry is that it's still growing and it'll soon burst out of its cage."
"We'd better act quickly then...back to HQ it is!" said Sands, not wanting to waste time in leaving this place.
The team moved efficiently. The HAZMAT suits in their sealed container was loaded into the back of the Bronco, all samples were placed in a metal strongbox and the they left without delay, making the drive back to DPR HQ. Moira and Gene were already there to place the samples in safe storage, ready for analysis at a future date and Sands put the HAZMAT suits through decontamination.
By the early evening both Cornelius and David had returned to Strangerville and there was much to discuss.
"That chamber was built to contain that plant." said David, sombrely.
"Not just to contain it, to nurture it. I imagine the scientific team found one of those seeds, grew it until it became the size of one of those plants we see dotted around the town and then found that it kept growing and growing until it reached the stage where it could infect people with its pollen and nectar."
"You said you think it is intelligent. How intelligent?"
"It has a plan and is carrying it out. Plant seed, grow and infect the humans who come into contact with it with the eventual aim of subjugating the Earth."
"But how does infecting people help it?"
"It turns humans into drones, like bees. They call it "Mother" and they are its loyal servants, probably spreading more pollen around to alter the land and its inhabitants. If those other plants around town become the size of Mother, each with its own set of drones...well, we could see the end of civilisation as we know it!"
The two men looked around and up into the sky...they noticed it had turned from the sickly green they had experienced these last few days into a shade of purple that resembled the colour of Mother...
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