Thus reassured, Butler relaxed a little. “We’ve done a full autopsy on two of the bodies,” she said, gesturing at the folder in front of him, “and a partial on the third. As far as we were able to determine, given the overall bad condition of the cadavers, we’re looking at five beings instead of three as we assumed.”

Not good, that, but Young had come prepared for bad news, so he merely nodded.

“Two of the bodies,” Butler continued smoothly, “are saturated with an unknown metal compound. Most of it close to the surface, reinforcing the epidermis, the skin, from the outside and inside, but there is also a very thin coating around organs and bones.” She tipped her head at the doctor seated midway between her and Young. “With Dr. Weston’s permission, this was where we consulted Captain Brennan, who was leading the units that made first contact and observed the creatures in combat.”

Young had listened to the recordings of those debriefings and fully intended to talk to Brennan himself as soon as he had a better idea about what questions to ask. “So did you come to any conclusion about what we’re dealing with here?”

THIRTEEN

“Yes, actually.” Butler smiled for the first time, a miniscule curling of her lips that eased some of the severity of her face, betrayed a little of her excitement. “It seems very much possible these are in fact extraterrestrial beings. Also, we believe the metal parts of the bodies to be some sort of highly developed armor system with rudimentary weapons capacities.”

“Rudimentary?” According to the reports, the three aliens who’d engaged the troops had damn near annihilated their opponents.

“No projectile or energy weapons,” Butler specified. “Various forms of edged weapons only. The way Captain Brennan described it, the metal flexed. It expanded and retracted as necessary, adapting to the external threats, but it did not separate.”

“Except for when Captain Brennan and his men hit it with antitank missiles,” Young said dryly.

Butler cleared her throat, shook her head. “To be precise… no, sir. Not even then. They held. They died and their hosts died, but they kept it together. We think they tried to absorb the energy of the explosion, maybe process it somehow, but it was simply too much.”

Well, as long as they were dead. Young frowned.

“They are dead, right? They’re not going to get up off their slabs and kill their way topside?”

“Dead as can be,” Butler confirmed. “No regeneration at all. We’ve stored the parts separately, just in case, and we did full body scans and autopsies on the victims. All of them.” She grimaced delicately. “We’ve seen the movies too, sir. Believe me, we’re taking every precaution.”

Sore point there.