Day 8 - Breeding - XCOM

“In light of advancements with juvenile sectoids, my operative theory of the invading forces has changed from the conventional belief that they are inherently or naturally hostile to mankind, and I have now come to embrace the idea some of the technicians forwarded that they simply do not understand human life and could be socialized to develop alongside us. Obviously the benefits of this would completely justify any and all risks present in testing, to say nothing of the ethical concerns of experimentation on living (clearly sapient) beings. These are not the times to let conventional scientific ethics get in the way of possibly saving thousands if not millions of lives.”

“Of course, present in this is the inherent problem of sufficiently socializing the sectoids from young enough age to negate their hostility toward us. All studies of X-Ray society and “culture” demonstrate a limitation of memetic inheritance to go along with their decreased genetic variability. The average sectoid is similar to the average worker ant, and when deprived of contact with others of its own species for long enough, they have been shown to become hostile to them. In this way, the sectoids, while fully sapient, are almost impressively animal at the same time. They have no natural predators to test herd knowledge on, and we lack the understanding to see if they behave like the Dresden Beavers and begin building dams, so to speak. These are things that could be studied in time, but the problem remains in human socialization. It seems a great deal of maturation happens when the sectoid is still in the egg, and the period immediately after hatching is the most vital to mental development. A sectoid who is kept in isolation from hatching will attack anything it sees. A sectoid who hatches in proximity to rabbits will avoid attacking the rabbits, though it shows no urge to protect them either. We have been unable to test proximity to humans after hatching out of safety concerns, but in the interest of advancing my theory, I am willing to put myself at risk here.”

“A word then, on sectoid reproduction, since the most realistic method I have conceived for this plan will involve becoming intimately familiar with it. Upon death of the sectoid body, either through physical harm or advancing to the death age of a several months (if our early soldiers had known they were dying fighting intergalactic mayflies, I wonder if any would have re-considered enlisting) the spinal column and underdeveloped brain detaches from the rest of the body and becomes motile through manipulation of neuro-skeletal ganglia. In this form it is effectively defenseless, hence why combat training has focused on prioritizing “double-tapping” when the sectoid is killed in a way which does not damage or disable the brain. However, this form also holds the key to the question of how they reproduce, being as the sectoids lack exterior genitalia. Both an orifice on the brain and the tip of the tail can be used to deliver eggs. Our leading theory is that these “crawlers” seek some kind of sectoid queen, though they have been shown to go after both human and other mammalians that they may find along the way. They seek to lay their eggs in an acid-rich environment, at which point they grow large enough to out-size the host and kill them before hatching into one or more fully-grown sectoids.”

“These things outlined, I was presented with two problems which I believe share a solution. Firstly, being that to socialize a sectoid with a human from early on, the human will need to be present the moment the egg hatches. Secondly, being that a human cannot survive carrying an egg in the way that the crawler desires, the alien must be baited in some way into laying its eggs in a non-acidic environment. I hypothesize that, with the proper cajoling, a sectoid may be baited into using the human reproductive system as an egg-laying ground, at which point the eggs could be safely extracted and introduced to lab-grade acid, developing them outside of any potential victim and allowing for a human to demonstrate the sort of “maternal proximity” which may act to properly socialize the sectoids to humanity.”

“This is, of course, not something I can reasonably ask any lab assistant or volunteer to give informed consent to. That is why these observations have been recorded and stored within the X-Com databases. Should the quarantine on my quarters fail to lift within a day of my imposing them, purge protocol should be initiated without hesitation. With that order in mind, I intend to leave the feed recording without regard to my privacy so that any errors in my methodology might be recorded. If the failure point is a genuine inability of the sectoids to be socialized to our species, the recordings will serve as a testament to my incorrectness. If there is a problem purely in my approach, somebody else should use them to continue pursuing my line of interrogation.”

“Research Process: One crawler specimen (CRA10) has been unlawfully obtained in a sealed containment cell from live storage and is currently within my quarters. Before freeing it, I will have undressed and applied both an appropriate gag and nose clip and sufficiently plugged my rectum so as to leave my vaginal cavity as the only means of egress into my body. Having also unlawfully obtained a quantity of hydrochloric acid from our chemical labs, I am prepared to apply it to my body as a lure should the crawler initially prove unresponsive to the cavity presented to it. In the state of complete failure, I will both re-seal the crawler and tender my resignation. However, should I properly induce breeding with the crawler, an internal condom with substantial acid and duress resistance will be worn inside. At such a point that the crawler has disengaged from my body and been resecured, the condom will be removed and filled with hydrochloric acid. Given the gestational period of a sectoid egg is roughly three to four hours, this will allow me time to set up an isolated containment field which will prevent them from escaping into the facility as I spend their first few hours with them. Should my theory prove correct, I can then walk out with them all but hand in hand. If, at any point, something goes wrong in this process, I am capable of performing an isolated purge within the containment field. Additionally, should the problem be more serious than that, this shall form as my written consent and statement of intent to activate the purge protocol for my quarters from within.”

May the risk be worth the reward,

Dr Moira Vahlen.

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