For Alice
Log Entry 387 We found her a few days ago. We'd almost given up hope when the team reported her missing – slipping off the cliff to plummet into the alien jungle below, swallowed up by the canopy beneath. So we were delighted when one of the recovery teams found her body – and shocked at what we saw had latched onto her back. So all we can do is isolate her, keep her locked in a tube until we know what to do…
Alice's initial horror faded once the team got her back to the lab. She looked so peaceful – as if in a pleasant dream. Whatever was attached to her back was not a parasite, that's for sure. Some kind of symbiote that is sharing her nutrients – thirsting for something, but she couldn't figure out what. Pressing her hand to the glass, it fogs up where her breath kisses the tube. "Maybe today's the day you wake up, Ash." Turning away to tend to the machines, she doesn't see the movement inside the glass tube…