When they were suited up, the team filed through the airlock security doors that were sealed behind them. This had only happened once so far and there wasn’t a one of them who didn’t feel discomfited by it. Nobody, no

matter how professional, likes to be reminded that, ultimately, they’re expendable.

“All right, people,” Dr. Butler said, getting them on track with familiar gruffness. “Let’s open them up.”

So they broke the seals and worked the locks and clasps, and finally carefully, very, very carefully, lifted the lid off the first box. It took a while to transfer the contents from the container to the autopsy table. The body was surprisingly heavy for being so small, and almost completely doubled over in a tight ball of ruined tissue. It was blackened, crumbly, and parts of the sooty film that covered it flaked off when their gloved hands touched it.

“Weird texture,” Dr. Rogner observed, lifting a broken-off piece of what looked like a finger out of the crate and examining it carefully. “Is this metal?”

It did sound like metal when he put it on the table next to the body, and it clunked down with notably more emphasis than charred flesh or bone. Then it fell apart.

They all looked as one at the pitiful heap of crusty material and then at the corpse, half expecting it to follow suit. When it didn’t, they breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“New orders,” Dr. Butler stated flatly. “Touch very fucking carefully.

Next box.”

Nobody had a clue what, exactly, they were dealing with here, except for the very real possibility that it was a bona fide extraterrestrial being.

Which was admittedly exciting, but it also meant they were flying blind.

They’d discussed potential procedural methods beforehand; among other things, whether it was smarter to examine the bodies one at a time or together. Dr. Rogner insisted it might’ve been safer to keep two in their boxes while working on the third, for preservation purposes if nothing else, but fact was they didn’t know how well the hazmat containers would keep the remains. In the end, they’d decided to get them all out, put them on display so they’d be able to draw comparisons, get pictures and video footage of all of them next to each other. Actually, the carefully regulated environment of the lab was probably better suited to conserve the corpses than the containers. It was the transfer from A to B that was the tricky part, but the team was well rehearsed and heaved the brittle treasure into the light with tremendous caution and skill.

The second body very much resembled the first: small, curled in on itself, and heavy. They set it down like a raw egg, holding their breath until they were reasonably sure it wouldn’t break apart and turn to ash. It came to rest on its side, and Dr. Butler leaned closer in fascination when she saw the back wasn’t quite as badly destroyed as the rest of the creature.