Xenomorph Egg

The sun lamps against the walls began to heat up. Lois worried for a moment, but suddenly felt...good. All the aches, nausea, and fever she'd been experiencing vanished in moments as she soaked up the rays. It was comfortable to be there, naked as she was.

There was a hum beneath her feet, and a high-pitched noise, like power lines during a storm. The floor rumbled...and Lois jumped, a little, when she heard the quiet hiss from behind her. The reporter turned to see a portion of the wall shift away, and a flat white pallet rolled out on a track set in the floor.

The object on it was like a gigantic egg set on end, about two and a half feet high, greenish-grey, with a mass of mossy, fibrous tendrils at its base. A kind of cruciform orifice, tightly sealed. The smooth puckered lips reminded her eerily of labia, and the smell...it was somewhat sweet, like honey, but there was an aftertaste like camphor that almost seemed to burn her throat.

Lois backed away as the pallet moved toward the center of the room, and idly circled it.

"Don't get too close," a voice hummed from hidden speakers. The reporter recognized it.

"Lex?" she said aloud.

"Yes. You should not have come here, Miss Lane. You have trespassed on a very sensitive experiment, and I'm afraid your life is currently in danger."

"What kind of danger?" She said. The room wasn't getting warmer, but she felt herself begin to sweat.

The screens flickered to life. Shaky bodycamera footage. Some kind of hallway. A woman on the floor. Cafe au lait skin, cornrows. Some kind of labcoat, the flash of a LexCorp badge. The coat was open to reveal a pale white blouse, buttons opened, no bra, just about eight inches of pale sternum exposed. There was a lump on her chest...but it was moving. She coughed, expelled blood. Grimaced in the primal face of pain. Convulsed twice, breasts flopping as her back arched...and then it broke through, in a bloody shower, something pale, white, almost phallic, but Lois could see the teeth...

The camera angle switched. Another scenes. Dead bodies. Men, women. Gaping holes in their chests, bits of white bone. Bites where something had been...eating them.

"Wh-what..." She said. Her own chest hurt to look at that. It was like the worst nightmare of pregnancy, having a living parasite, eating you from the inside...

"An extraterrestrial species. Your favorite alien had an encounter with them a few years ago - but chose not to exterminate the species. They gestate their young inside host organisms, like certain species of parasitic wasps." He narrated dryly. "The hosts do not survive the process."

"What are they doing here?" Lois had to look away from the screens, and turned her attention to the egg. Was it her, or was it starting to rock, gently? The smell was certainly thicker. The back of her throat burned.

"A...competitor of mine believed they had value as biological weapons. My agents intercepted the shipment, but as you can see, we weren't quite prepared for what we faced. Had to exterminate them all. This is the last remaining ovomorph."

"Why is it here? Why haven't you destroyed it?" She demanded.

"While I don't condone their use as weapons, the xenomorphs represent a unique resource. Byproducts from the study of their biology could lead to huge advances in medicine and chemistry. This was going to be a controlled breeding experiment..."

"Is that what happened to the missing women, Lex?" Lois said aloud, staring accusingly at the screens.

"It is what is going to happen to you, unless you follow my instructions exactly." Luthor replied. "Your life depends on it."

The screens changed again. The...eggs were open, split along that orifice, like an obscene flower. A woman lay on the ground nearby, a strange, six-fingered hand clamped around her face, a bony tail wrapped around her neck.

"The ovoform releases an ambulatory reproductive organ, which latches onto its prey, and attempts to insert its ovipositor into any orifice. Once accomplished, it injects an embryo. This parasite grows relatively rapidly, drawing on nutrients in the host's body, growing connections into their circulatory system. The rather tight confines of the digestive and respiratory system, and these parasitic arteries, are what cause the rather...traumatic expulsion when this phase of its incubation is complete."

"Like being the shell of an egg when the chick is ready to hatch." Lois wanted to vomit.

"Exactly. However, there is an alternative." The screen shifted to show Lex's face. He looked, in Lois' opinion, to be very serious and very worried.

"Yeah, let me out before this thing hatches!" She yelled.

"I cannot do that, Lois. The room is on lockdown—automatically sealed. The creature is too dangerous to countenance even the slight possibility of a break out."

Lois bit her lip. There was nothing in the room to use as a weapon. Nowhere to run, either.

"What do I do?" She said aloud.

"The creature is dangerous, but it is still an animal—ruled by instinct. Its natural responses can be subverted if it offered easy access to another orifice."

Lois' eyes widened. "My ass?" she said, one hand touching the hard base of the plug.

"Try again."

"No." Lois said, emphatic. "You want me to bend over and...let this thing latch on to me and...inject me with its embryo? So a little alien can burst out of my stomach? All for your little science project?"

"The human womb is naturally designed to host, feed, and expel a parasite." Lex said, still very serious. "And the...preparation you had earlier will make it easier for you. The material in your enema contains nutrients to offset what the parasite will feed from you, and help relax your vaginal canal..."

"You planned this," she said, a bitter tone in her voice. "You set me up and you planned this, the whole thing. Bastard." She spat the word. Lex set his mouth in a firm line.

"You chose to walk into this room. Now, there are only two ways out of it. If you do as I say, you will live—and nothing will be hurt except your pride. I guarantee you, however, that if you do not do what I say—if you panic, or try to fight, this thing will kill you. And I will be very sad," the stern mask seemed to slip from his face for a moment, "but there will be nothing I can do."

Lois grit her teeth. A white hot flair of anger pulsed in her temples. "When I get out of her, Lex, I'm going to rip your balls off." She said, with vehemence. "Tell me what to do."