Excerpts from Mona Lisa Research Reports

Experiment #ML-0001

Name: Major John Smith, with Dr. ███████ and Dr. █████ assisting.

Date: 10/█/2552

Subject: Prisoner #582378, male, 34; 2 counts armed robbery, 3 counts murder, 1 count murder of a law enforcement officer.

Procedure: Prisoner 582378 placed inside a large cell converted into a secure test chamber. One instance of ██████ █████████ organism, Specimen ML-A-1, introduced into test chamber.

Result: Prisoner 582378 expresses distress. Organism immediately moves toward Prisoner 582378, who retreats to far wall. Upon nearing Prisoner 582378, organism leaps roughly 1.4 meters and attaches to Prisoner 582378’s chest. Organism proceeds to penetrate Prisoner 582378’s skin with several of its tentacle-like limbs. Prisoner 582378’s distress immediately intensifies and continues as flesh discolors and bloats, attempting to remove organism without success. Five seconds after initial contact with organism, Prisoner 582378’s distress and resistance ceases as morphing covers entire body. Resulting subject reclassified as Specimen ML-B-1. ML-B-1 appears to search for exit from test chamber until subdued using extreme cold via cryogenic weapons. After containment and removal, test chamber sterilized with incendiaries.

Notes: Starting small. Behavior of ML-A-1 in keeping with contact reports from █████ ████, basic interaction with human subjects now documented. As ML-A organisms possess no visible sensory organs, subsequent trials under variable conditions will be necessary; heat, light, etc. I wonder if the jumping behavior of ML-A is intended to avoid defensive measures from its intended prey or to reach vital areas and hasten the conversion. Comparing contact sites to conversion rates in subsequent trials should give us an idea. Fortunately, the Mona Lisa is giving us no shortage of subjects.

Experiment #ML-0008

Name: Major John Smith, with Dr. ███████ and Dr. █████ assisting.

Date: 10/██/2552

Subject: Prisoner 586129, male, 19; 1 count possession of illegal firearm, 17 counts murder.

Procedure: Prisoner 586129 placed inside secure test chamber, with one leg extending through gap in test chamber divider. Specimen ML-A-8 introduced on opposite side of divider.

Result: ML-A-14 attaches itself to Prisoner 586129’s limb, just below exposed knee. Conversion process is completed in approximately 9 seconds. Resulting Specimen ML-B-8 struggles to free distended limb from gap in test chamber divider, eventually tears free of limb. After containment and removal, test chamber sterilized with incendiaries.

Notes: I think that does it for the preliminaries. We have established ML-A conversion process takes nearly double the time to complete when contact site is on extremities, but remains very rapid, with direct contact with vital organs entirely unnecessary for complete conversion. Identification of prey is based at least partially on heat, as extreme cold also slows specimens in both movement and detection, but it can also sense through other unknown means. So far, all trials of ██████ █████████ conversion have resulted in immature ML-B organisms, without a single instance of ██████ forms yet recorded. Dr. ███████ and I have concurred this likely means ML-A organisms are prone to creating ML-B instances, which are capable of replicating ML-A, in the earliest stages of an outbreak. I believe ML-A specimens might be encouraged to create what we’re expecting if subjects with larger individual mass are selected.

Experiment #ML-0010

Name: Major John Smith, with Dr. ███████ and Dr. █████ assisting.

Date: 10/██/2552

Subject: Prisoner 584593, male, 33; 14 counts assault with a deadly weapon, 9 counts extortion, [TRUNCATED]

Procedure: Prisoner 584593 is placed inside secure test chamber. Specimen ML-A-10 is introduced into chamber.

Results: Prisoner 584593 attempts to kick ML-A-10. ML-A-10 attaches to subject’s leg and begins conversion process, taking place over an extended 13-second period. Additional morphing of subject begins to take place, with tentacle-like appendages sprouting from Prisoner 584593’s right arm. Given limpness of Prisoner 584593’s remaining arm, these appendages are suspected to be mutated bone, pending confirmation by autopsy. Resulting subject reclassified as Specimen ML-C-1. ML-C-1 applies force to wall of test chamber, attempting to break containment. ML-C-1 takes twenty-five seconds longer than ML-B specimens to be subdued using extreme cold via cryogenic weapons. After containment and removal, test chamber sterilized with incendiaries.

Notes: Success, within two attempts. I should perhaps have kept subject masses more consistent to be sure, but the initial finding places creation of ML-C instances at 10%. Subsequent tests of such rates would have to be conducted in entirely separate lab facilities anyway given organism’s suspected group awareness capabilities. With certain basic facts established, I believe we can begin testing with our much smaller pool of prisoners of war.

Experiment #ML-0011

Name: Major John Smith, with Dr. ███████ and Dr. █████ assisting.

Date: 10/██/2552

Subject: SUBJECT 1085, adult male Macto cognatus

Procedure: SUBJECT 1085 placed in secure test chamber. Specimen ML-A-16 introduced to test chamber.

Results: SUBJECT 1085 apparently recognizes nature of Specimen ML-A-16 and reacts with horror. SUBJECT 1085 attempts destruction of ML-A-16, manages to burst ML-A-16’s balloon-like body pod, releasing spores of ML organism in test chamber. ML-A-16’s tentacles remain animated, piercing SUBJECT 1085’s skin and beginning conversion process, which completes 6 seconds later. Resulting Specimen ML-C-2 attempts to break down test chamber’s walls in the same place as ML-C-1, resisting subdual by cryogenic weapons. After 60 seconds, Major Smith and Doctors ███████ and █████ concur high concentration of released spores make total sterilization by incendiaries a safer course of action than further subdual attempts. Incendiaries applied, and ML-C-2 is completely destroyed.

Notes: An unfortunate waste of resources; in future, Macto cognatus specimens should be restrained to give us time to subdue the resulting subject. ML-A organism has no more trouble converting specimens of Macto cognatus than humans. I’m eager to see if there’s any difference with methane-breathing Monachus frigis, and I feel it unfortunate at present we have no silicone-based subjects from the ██████ ████████ species discovered on ███████. I will submit a request for transfer of such a subject shortly. Now to see about the rest of our menagerie.

Addendum: Capt. Gates has become increasingly belligerent about our work’s timetable, and there is increased agitation among the Mona Lisa’s passengers. I believe one of the guards may have leaked information to the crew. I have deemed it necessary for operational security to remove Capt. Gates from command and forbid all outside communication with the Mona Lisa for the time being.

Experiment #ML-0016

Name: Major John Smith, with Dr. ███████ and Dr. █████ assisting.

Date: 10/██/2552

Subject: ████. ██████ █████, female, 46; SUBJECT 1207, young adult male Monachus frigis

Procedure: ████. █████ armed with one unloaded standard-issue M6 sidearm and told it should be used to keep SUBJECT 1207 at bay. ████. █████ and SUBJECT 1207 placed inside secure test chamber. Specimen ML-C-1 introduced into test chamber.

Results: After expressing dislike of research staff, ████. █████ swears and turns weapon upon ML-C-1’s introduction. SUBJECT 1207 attempts to flee, scratching at test chamber door. ████. █████ backs into further corner, threatening ML-C-1 and demanding of research staff “what is that thing?” ML-C-1 sprints toward ████. █████, ignoring SUBJECT 1207. ████. █████ fires four times, landing each shot in ML-C-1’s right leg, torso, and former head, none of which appears to have any effect. After bludgeoning ████. █████ with arm tentacles, killing her, ML-C-1 approaches SUBJECT 1207, who has backed into a corner, and kills it by the same means. ML-C-1 grasps SUBJECT 1207’s corpse with tentacles and drags it on top of ████. █████’s body, appearing passive thereafter for forty minutes until subdued using cryogenic weapons and test chamber, including bodies of ████. █████ and SUBJECT 1207, sterilized with incendiaries.

Notes: Fascinating behavioral study. ██████ █████████ appears to prioritize threats over easy prey, completely contrary to its own survival. Further testing definitely required in this regard.

Addendum: All ██████ █████████ subjects aboard Mona Lisa not currently in cryogenic containment exhibited distress upon incineration of test chamber. I think a process we’ve previously had to only hypothesize is ready to begin. Doctor ███████ has agreed to begin containment of several subjects together for prolonged observation in secure test chamber.

Update, Experiment #ML-0020

Name: Major John Smith, with Dr. ███████ and Dr. █████ assisting.

Date: 10/██/2552

Subject: ML-B-1, ML-B-2, ML-B-4, ML-B-5, ML-C-1; ML-Z

Update: The hypothesis has finally been confirmed. After 83 hours in joint containment, ML-B instances which had begun clustering together over the previous 50 hours exhibited first signs of physical joining. ML-C-1 exhibited behavior not unlike royal guards in an ant colony, tending to ML-B instances and helping lift ML-B-2 on top of other subjects before becoming dormant in physical contact with ML-B cluster, eventually integrating its flesh with cluster itself. Redesignating all subjects as ML-Z.

Experiment #ML-0027

Name: Major John Smith, with Dr. █████ assisting.

Date: 10/██/2552

Subject: ██████████████████████████████████████

Procedure: ██████████ placed in secure test chamber. One instance of ██████████, ██-█, ████████████ ███████████ and introduced to test chamber.

Result: ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████, causing all other subjects to ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████. ███████ placed under arrest and, as no pertinent facilities remained available, █████████████████. Remains were ██████████████████████████████████████████████████.

Notes: This was rashly done, but I can’t be too harsh on my staff. All remain on edge. Doctor ███████ has not been granted permission to resume active duty since, if anything, the rest appears to be making him more erratic than before. Panic has ensued among the Mona Lisa’s passengers, fearing the claims they make up about our work, and claiming to be plagued by bad dreams. I haven’t been sleeping so well myself, but that’s no excuse for allowing my work to suffer.

███████████ ML, Final Report

Name: Major John Smith

Date: 10/██/2552

Contents: █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████. Doctor █████ ██████████████████████████. Assuming its memory-retaining properties are as potent or greater than feared, I ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████. He may be one of the lucky ones. After recording this log, I will set off the beacon as per the emergency protocols set in place from the experiment’s inception and retreat to the safe room. I can only hope Doctor ███████’s memories don’t provide ███████████████████████ with a way in when they find him.

Addendum: I won’t make apologies for the work that was done here. If humanity hopes to face its threats, it must know them. The nature of the organism has led me to wonder, though. When converted, an organism’s memories are retained. If our personalities are a gestalt of memory, in part or in entirety, is the soul released? Does destruction of the tissue which once made us up free us? Or does our immortal consciousness undergo mutation, absorbed the same as our bodies? None aboard this vessel were saints in the first place, but would even hell accept such a corrupted monstrosity, fit only for complete oblivion? All I feel qualified to say is this: may God have mercy on all our souls.