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When Phil arrived at the random location on the side of the road, all he could see was scorched section of forest surrounded by a yellow caution tape perimeter. As he exited his car, an agent quickly made eye contact. "Mr. Upson, thank you for coming on such short notice. I'm Agent Reynolds. We're waiting for one more scientist, and then I'll explain what we have you here to do. Ahh, it looks like she's pulling up now." Phil turned to see a little compact purple hatchback pull up, looking totally out of place among the large dark sedans. Not as out of place, however, as the beauty who emerged out of it. 

Her hair was brown with highlights, and blown out in lucious soft curls. She wore a sharp black blouse that was open all the way down the front, and lacked the buttons to be worn any more modestly. Below that, a hip-hugging white skirt drew contrast, with horizontal folds texturing every move of her body as she walked towards them. Gold and white earrings dangled from her ears, and her eyes wore a look that could kill. Phil was mezmerized watching her, right up until the moment she shook the agent's hand with recognition, "Agent Reynolds." 

"Ms. Stugart. This is Phil Upson, a veteran NASA propulsion scientist. Phil, this is Dr. Nancy Stugart, she's our field exobiologist." Phil barely managed to get his hand out to meet hers, with his brain in a near catatonic state of rewiring it's expectations. This woman looked like a model, not a scientist, and what was she doing dressed like this at a field site? As he shook her hand, his eyes drifted down to the prominent cleavage her blouse was obviously designed to show off. The cut was so low, he noted she wasn't wearing a bra before he realized he was rudely staring down her shirt. He abruptly looked up. 

"You're an exobiologist!?" As soon as Phil voiced his shock, he realized how awkward he sounded. Flecks of green surrounded by dark eyeliner, winced in disapproval, giving Phil a look like she owned him. She probably could have. 

"Ph.D. in biological sciences from Berkeley, head of the DARPA west-coast exobiology field team." Her hand tugged, and Phill realized he was still awkwardly holding it, their handshake having completed moments ago. As he let go, his mind demanded another inappropriately long glance at the opening in her shirt, where the inside sliver of each of her breasts was still clearly visible. "Maybe we could get past the part where you two awkwardly stare down my shirt and move onto the science?" 

Phil looked to Agent Reynolds, finding he was equally distracted by her. The agent stammered a bit, "uhh. i wasn't.. of course. You are standing at site Zeta-Episilon-Five-Seven-Two. We believe an extraterrestrial object landed here just three hours ago. I say *landed*, because the object we tracked slowed markedly before it made final touchdown." The agent started to walk towards the forest, "Plus, a meteorite the size of the object we tracked would have left a crater the size of a city block when it impacted, and you can see this site is much smaller." 

"Excuse me," Nancy interrupted. "If you're going to pull me off a date to go tromping in the woods, I'll need boots and a field kit. Can you point me to the supply van?" Agent Reynolds startled, as if he should have anticipated her need sooner. He pointed her towards a non-descript black truck, and the men, both in their fifties, stood in awkward silence, watching the sexy young scientist saunter away. A couple minutes later, she returned, holding a large but obviously lightweight duffel, and wearing a set of dirty oversize field boots that looked ridiculous below her sexy outfit.

Agent Reynolds quickly motioned them towards the caution tape. "This way." 

About a hundred feet into the forest, the trees went from a black scorching, to burnt to their trunks. A few more feet, and Phil saw it. The smooth curved edge of an obviously manufactured object. He accepted a pair of gloves from Agent Reynolds, before brushing coal black dirt away from the edge of the mostly buried object. "This is truly remarkable. The dirt around it is fused, as if contacted melted the soil." He gestured wide with his arms. "From the curve, this part looks to be just eight feet in diameter. Is there more of it?" 

"This is the entire object, Mr Upson. We've used metal and x-ray scanners on the surrounding soil, and what you see is the top of the only object that landed here. It agrees with the size of the falling object we tracked. Hard to believe something so small is an interstellar craft, isn't it?" Phil nodded, looking back to the object for more information.

Nancy was already around the other side of the buried object. She sat down her duffel, put on some gloves, and brushed dirt off the top surface. Dozens of ridges became apparent. Contours of something. As her eyes followed them, she noticed a tiny gap, where the surface plates don't quite fit together. She fished into her duffel for something to test the gap, finding a hand-sized metal wedge. She slipped it into the gap, and found the panel popped open quite easily, a slight hissing sound emerging. "Stop! What are you doing?" Phil shouted from the other side of the object. 

It was only seconds before she noticed the first one emerge. A large red and yellow beetle-like insect crawled out of the opening, right towards her. She ignored Phil, grabbing a specimen container from her duffel. She eyed it carefully, slipping the container over it, sliding it towards the edge of the surface, where she had the lid ready. Thirty seconds later, she had the strange, presumably alien, bug in her hands. She was astounded. It would be the find of the century, and she was here to see and capture the first one. She turned to the men, stating the obvious, "they're insects." 

It wasn't until a moment later that she noticed the concern on their faces. She looked down to see dozens of similar red beetles had emerged, and they all seemed to be looking right at her. It wasn't until a moment later that she noticed one was on her leg. She quickly reached for another specamin jar. She barely slipped it against her leg when she felt a pinch at her spine, and then the world went black.

Agent Reynolds moved quickly, digging into her bag, grabbing using the remaining containers and enlisting Phil to help gather the remaining beetles off the ship. Surprisingly, they didn't seem to run or move. They just stood there, facing Nancy as she lie on the ground. Once the foreign insects were contained, Agent Reynolds turned to Nancy, first checking her pulse, then lifting her head. "Dr. Stugart. Are you all right? Dr. Stugart." Fortunately, she was quickly coming to. Even though her safety was their priority, it wasn't lost on either man that the fall had tugged her blouse, indecently exposing part of her right breast.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. I must have fainted." She righted herself, then used Agent Reynold's assistance to stand up. "That'll teach me to rush into the field after cocktails and before dinner." On her feet, she fixed her shirt, and started brushing dirt off herself, failing to do anything about a large dark stain up the side and back of her skirt. "...or wear white when I'm on call." 

"Dr. Stugart, we contained all the life-forms. Now, we really should get you to the field medic. To make sure you were not bitten, and that you didn't hurt yourself in the fall." 

"What? No. I'm not leaving the find of the century because I fainted. Tell you what, I'll go get checked out if both of you do. You came in just as close contact with these insects as I did." She looked at the both, challenging them, before picking up one of the specamin containers. "These could be extraterrestrial insects. I've certainly never seen anything like this on Earth. They resemble beetles from the order Coleoptera, but they have much more articulated limbs." 

"Agent Reynolds, can you go get something to seal that opening, in case there are any more inside?" He nodded, heading off towards the supply truck. "Mr. Upson?" She waved him closer with her hand. "Come take a look at the edge of this panel. The layering of nano-materials is astounding." 

"I thought you were an exobiologist? What do you know about nano-materials?" She didn't know anything about them, she just knew what she had to do. She touched him as he came closer, trying to lower his guard. Then she pointed to where the alien beetles had emerged from, coaxing his attention away from her. She opened one of the specimen containers, and as Phil knelt down onto the spacecraft, she carefully set it onto the collar of his jacket. It crawled up onto his neck, reared it's legs, and dove small sharp appendages into his skin, pulling and buring itself into his neck.

"Owww!" Phil briefly called out, before he lost conciousness. A minute later, he came to, righting himself. He turned to Nancy, looking her straight in the eye for the first time since he met her. "We are two. This one strongly wants to mate with your host." 

"Perhaps later. Right now we need to secure our ship. Those men dressed in black are going to take it to a secure facility. Their males seem to find my host distracting. I'll get their attention while you implant our workers." 

Just then, Agent Reynolds yelled from nearby. "Dr. Stugart, Mr Upson, a call just came over the radio that you're not going to believe. Something about a fifty foot tall girl destroying a nearby school building. We have to get this ship out of here, and figure out what's going on. Grab your stuff and hurry." Then he turned away turned, giving his agents instructions.

Nancy turned to Phil, "they have the reconstructor."

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