Two months later

Nathan stared at the small organic form gaining shape inside the glass container filled with a green translucid amniotic liquid. Unlike all the other times, this prototype had held together. It was growing fast, way faster than anything he might have expected during the planning stages. At that rate, the project would be completed in just a few months, and not the two years that he had initially estimated. His only concern, though, was the activation. It had not yet shown any signs of it, and on the stage it had reached it should be already active.

"This wait is killing me. Soon those morons from the GTI will be breathing on my back again" - said the Professor, speaking to himself. He knew that they were never happy with the results, everything could get ready faster and perform better.

"No sense of reality. Not at all", he mumbled again. After all that time he had come to know the real purpose of his research, and he was not happy about it. He was having dreams, strange dreams that showed him desolate landscapes covered with the reamains of what appeared to once have been human bodies and other lifeforms. Strange thougths started to run through his mind. He went back to his quarters, and spent a few hours contemplating the books on the shelf. He was doing that a lot more than the usual lately. The Holy Bible was no longer there.

The next day, Nathan awoke with a scream from Laz through the intercom, calling him to the main lab as soon as possible. He didn't even wait to hear what had happened, he just knew it. The prototype had initiated activation. He ran through those corridors like never before.

When he arrived at the lab, he found that almost everyone was already there - a few weeks ago he had switched his personal quarters to one of the accomodations on the outer ring, a way to try to liberate himself from the agony the project was causing him. They were surrounding the development chamber, and a weird glow reflected on their faces. He approached the circle of people slowly, and was amazed by the view of the once so familiar glass cylinder.

A set of particles swirled around the chamber, emanating a pale light. Strong flashed happened in regular intervals, coming from the prototype itself. It looked like... magic.

For five more minutes the lights rotated around the cylindric container, and then it was over. Everything seemed to be back to normal, but they knew they had just changed the future. The prototype was now active and, unknown to everyone working on that remote laboratory, it had already started to spread chaos throughout Galactic Terran Alliance space.

Everyone tried to get back to their assigned duties - record the prototype's advances, monitor it's current stage, control the proportions of each chemical element on the amniotic fluid that held it during it's sleep - but it was simply not possible. A flare of amazement could be seen on each of their eyes, realizing the magnitude of their achievment. This same light, though, created a shadow of fear - for if the technology they had just perfected was used by the wrong minds it could become a weapon that would bring down the whole human race.

"...and we all can be sure that the GTI will not rest until they find a way to make the worst possible use for the technology that this prototype will enable."

Lazarus finished the sentence, and just about everyone agreed. A few days had passed since the activation, and the whole team was starting to get worried. The GTI hadn't shown any signs of knowing about the breakthrough, and that's what worried them the most. They always seemed to know about any failure almost immediately, how could them not be aware that the one true goal of the project had been reached? Something was very wrong.

Most of the researchers had been almost forced to work on that project, and the few ones that volunteered were deeply regretting their decision. Now that the team had reached it's objective - and all tests conducted proved it - they realized that the project could go no further, but they knew that the Intelligence had different intentions. For a few seconds, everyone was completely silent, pondering the complex scenario forming before their eyes. Almost hidden in the shadows, merging to the myriad of technological gadgets arranged on the wall behind them, the prototype rested inside it's support chamber, floating on a viscous amniotic liquid. It was visibly growing.

"They're still pressing us for results, and in very little time our opinion won't matter anymore." Nathan broke the silence. He was a scientist, not a warrior - and he was as scared as everyone else there. The right decision would be to destroy everything, but that would also mean their deaths. The only alternative was to wait, and try to keep the GTI unaware of their progress for as long as possible.

"That sanitation team will arrive soon. You all know how they are..." stated one of the technicians. Those few days after the activation were proving to be the most stressful in their lives. A technology they had created but couldn't fully understand. The constant pushing for results, results that they couldn't show for the very sake of mankind. And the possibility of a group of marines bursting through the door and killing everyone. This was too much for them. They had to do something, but they knew the installation was being monitored, and any attempt to escape would lead to disaster.

As was becoming usual, though, Laz had the answer. With that smile only he had when an brilliant idea struck him, John moved towards one of the computer terminals, cleared the junk that covered the whole table, and started to type some commands. Soon a representation of their solar system was visible on the screen, along several dots - one for each Intelligence ship in-system. After some time, he had intercepted all their identification codes, and could filter their communication signals. He knew what to do.

"Just what in hell are you planning, John Lazarus Elliot?" said Jude, almost screaming. She sounded as she was his mother.

"Nothing major, just monitoring some GTI comms. We have their codes, we have their transmissions, and we have a shuttle. If we can reverse-engineer their encryption scheme, we can just slip through that little blockade and get to a safe place." he replied. He made it all sound easy, too easy to be true. And indeed, it wasn't easy at all, but it was doable - and it was their best chance.

"It will take some time, though..." finished Laz, but everyone laready had their hopes set higher. And everyone got to work.

Far from the reach of their eyes, though, on the coldness of space, a chain of events had been put in motion. Events that would mean their total destruction or their only hope of salvation.

"Damn, this thing is undecypherable!" screamed Laz, giving up on the transmissions after seventeen hours straight working on them. Their technique was too advanced for him to break in so little time, and he had tried everything he knew. The rest of the team was asleep, all of them but Jude. She just stared at Laz, wondering what exactly he was doing with those computers. She knew he was tired, and wanted to help, but didn't know what to do. Then she noticed it.

The main display on that lab was a large two-dimensional screen, occupying almost half of the wall where it was positioned. It usually showed several different sets of information at once, but this time it was filled with a single image: a representation of all significant astronomical bodies on the system, where the positions of all GTI craft were displayed. It remembered the same screen that Laz had brought up on his own terminal hours before, but something called Jude's attention. All ships were moving, and fast. Communications traffic on their frequencies had increased dramatically, and some of the messages were not even encrypted. Hope flared on her mind. Most of the dots on the screen ran towards one of the jump nodes. She couldn't know, though, that a single craft had been moving in a different direction. An atmospheric capable troop transport, that had just arrived in-system, entered the planet's atmosphere a few minutes earlier.

"They're leaving... God, they're leaving. This is our chance..."

But it was too late. Suddenly, all intruder alarms went off.

On one of the outer perimeter external cameras, three or four dark figures could be seen moving through the shadows. They had been able to get too close to the facility before activating any alarm, so they were obviously using some advanced stealth or ECM package. Intelligence people. Recalibrating the external sensors, Laz was able to get a lock on them, and switched the cameras to the apropriate spectrum. Eighteen heavily armored marines apporached the laboratory, moving directly towards the main entrance.

"Seems like they already knew we were done", spoke Laz on a much more severe tone than the usual.

The sanitation team had arrived. In very little time, they would be inside the research complex.