FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

TOP SECRET/NOFORN

CHRYSALID PROJECT

DEBRIEFING INTERVIEW #3

CLASSIFIED BY: Director, DIA

DECLASSIFY ON: N/A

EXTENDED BY: Director, DIA

REASON: 2-301-C (3)(6)

SUMMARY ANALYSIS

1. (S) This report documents a debriefing interview conducted by Commander [REDACTED] United States Air Force, with Dr. Drake Le Carde, MBChB, MD, DSc, lately of Project CHRYSALID, Subproject B, currently Professor of Entomology, University of Florida, Gainesville. The purpose of this was to supplement similar interviews of Drs. [LONG REDACTION] and of Captain [REDACTED], whom were part of the Subproject B team.

2. (S) Le Carde's testimony is provided as raw intelligence data and as such has not been subjected to any intermediate analysis, evaluation, or collation. Interpretation and use of the information provided is the responsibility of the requestor.

3. (S) The protocol used for corroboration of this and all other materials related to the incident of August 8, 1984 is detailed in the document CHRYSALID Aftermath Protocol, dated January 14, 1985.

-TRANSCRIPT-

INTERVIEW DEBRIEFING LECARDE

COMMANDER: Today is January 14, 1985. My name is Commander [redacted], US Army Intelligence, [long line of redaction]. This is Debriefing Interview number three. [pause] State your name for the record.

LECARDE: My naam is--

COMMANDER: In English, please.

LECARDE: Ah. Fine. My name is Drake Le Carde.

COMMANDER: And you were assigned to CHRYSALID Project, Subproject B, is that correct?

LECARDE: Correct.

Are you aware of why you are here, and what the purpose of this debriefing interview is?

LECARDE: [laughter] Because you called up what you cannot put down.

COMMANDER: [pause] I'd appreciate a serious response, Doctor Le Carde. A serious response for a serious matter.

LECARDE: I stand by my previous statement, though! [laughter] No matter. Yes. The destruction of Laboratory 2-A, Dulce Base, because of the actions of our team.

COMMANDER: Thank you. Describe the time and activities of that period.

LECARDE: Starting off strong, are we? Ah--well--under the direction of Dr. Elbert Kleinschmidt, we were to bioengineer an insect-human hybrid. Supersoldier work using mutagenic genomics. There were four teams: Subprojects A, B, and C. Subproject A was headed by Dr. Richmond Everett and Dr. Degory Chandler, and was assigned for Blatodea - cockroaches. Subproject B was termites. We were I term it that because the Soviets had

COMMANDER: Were you aware of what was going to take place?

LECARDE: [pause] Somewhat. The Soviets had attempted the same with bears in 1977, so--

COMMANDER: [interrupting] That's classified, doctor.

LECARDE: [sigh] Fine, but it's certainly nothing new, at least the supersoldier aspect of it. And I had been contacted while working for [REDACTED] that there was another project being undertaken at Dulce, because Dr. Kleinbauer--Elbert--had been contracted to do genomic work in post-nuclear environments after that--may I speak freely?

COMMANDER: By all means.

LECARDE: [clears throat] After that--cock-up in 1983--Able Archer--and I was the one he preferred co-author the study, given my background in advanced entomology. It had been a few years since I was granted immigration status, so there was some difficulty, at first. And the memo that we, the team, received, made it abundantly clear that something peculiar was about to take place. We were forbidden from consuming or carrying anything with coffee, rosemary, basil--there were a few other plants, too. Clove, perhaps? It was a long, list but I ignored it because other than coffee, none of those were important--simple dietary changes. Although one man did resign because of it, I heard--we were not told who, we never met him.

COMMANDER: Had you worked in mutagenics or transgenics before?

LECARDE: No. The first experiments I was aware of involved mammals--papers published about fifteen years ago--Jaenisch, and his team at MIT. But the technology got on right quick, I was told. I was--at the time I was--I suppose thrilled is the wrong word. But there was an electric-like surge of wonder to know that I could practice science without limit. That's how they got me--the pay was attractive, but gold is gold, Commander. The ability to do things on a scientific basis and be unfettered to do so--it felt godlike. [pause] And it was.

COMMANDER: Can you describe the facility?

LECARDE: The whole thing? [pause] Dulce Base?

COMMANDER: No--sorry, just your part of it. The parts of the facility which housed Subproject B.

LECARDE: Ah, yes. It was a five thousand square foot level--the other levels may have been smaller or larger, we were never told. An elevator took us--excuse me, but isn't this already known?

COMMANDER: It is. But this is for the record.

LECARDE: [long pause] You want to see if I'm telling the truth.

COMMANDER: [pause] Is that what I'm doing, Dr. Le Carde?

LECARDE: [long pause, slowly] The--entrance--was a special steel, I was told it was developed by reverse-engineering something discovered at Roswell. The work there had been undertaken by a Dr. [REDACTED], who, I'll have you know, I'd been in correspondence during what you Americans called the Bosoorlog--what we called Operation Repulse. The metallurgy was, actually, very unique--we commented on it more than once--bullet-proof, laser-proof, whatever-proof. It could only be opened with a computer punch card which was specially contracted out from IBM. The letter on the door was a big, nondescript 'B,' which split in half with the doorway as it opened, bottom and top into their respective gratings--

COMMANDER: Thank you Dr. Le Carde, it does appear you were telling the truth.

LECARDE: One would hope.

COMMANDER: No need for sarcasm.

LECARDE: Then why these questions? Doesn't the agency have--

COMMANDER: Dr. Le Carde, you of all people should know that whatever records we had are very few--what survived what Dr. Kleinbauer did.

LECARDE: [long pause] That--is unfortunate.

COMMANDER: This debriefing will, I'm afraid, have to provide us with a good many details we do not have.

LECARDE: Ah, well. [pause] You want to know what Elbert and Freeman--became?

COMMANDER: I would appreciate a physical description.

LECARDE: Very well then. Elbert Kleinbauer--through a proprietary process that he had been developing and studying through funding he had obtained via various grants, and then your government--turned himself into an insect-human hybrid. Termite. He then did the same to his assistant, and lover, Josiah Freeman. Both of them volunteered for this project and for the serum to be administered to them, personally. Everett and Chandler had had very limited success with their cockroach studies, and so the fear was nobody would volunteer for the termite study--what Subproject B ultimately strove for. So they tested it on themselves.

COMMANDER: Willingly, you say?

LECARDE: More than willingly. For Elbert, it was--it had actually been a personal dream of his for as long as I had known him, when he found out about the possibilities of altering DNA.

COMMANDER: Why?

LECARDE: He loved insects. He considered them superior to human beings, their structure, their society, their physiology. It was not by patriotism that he wanted this project, Commander--he wanted to fulfill a terrible dream.

COMMANDER: Quite the coincidence.

LECARDE: I don't believe in coincidences, Commander. Never have. But I can't quite explain this one, either.

COMMANDER: But you said the process was proprietary?

LECARDE: [pause] He was very eager to share his notes with me. All of his research was based on stuff done under the microscope, studying how cells mutated and so on, when they were exposed to that concoction he made. He had never done anything 'in situ,' certainly not another organism and certainly not a human.

COMMANDER: So when the process proved successful...

LECARDE: Ah, well, it was a joy unbounded. It took a full week, and I can't say that the process was altogether pleasant to look at. We were fascinated in the same way one--ah, what was the word he used, as a Texan? Rubberneck. Rubberneck! To stare at a car crash or something similar, and be totally unable to look away. [pause] Not that I would have. The whole thing was a scientific marvel. We had done something no other team had. Even the Soviets ultimately failed--

COMMANDER: [interrupting] Doctor, again, that's classified.

LECARDE: Oh stop that, will you? I have Q-Clearance.

COMMANDER: [sighs] Can we get back to the matter at hand?

LECARDE: Very well.

COMMANDER: Describe Elbert Kleinbauer's final form, and how he arrived there.

LECARDE: Ah, that, well. I remember it very clearly--I doubt any man who saw it would soon forget. Three hours after the serum was administered he experienced erectile dysfunction in his penis, then total numbness in it. Six hours after the serum was administered, he vomited a great deal, all his stomach contents. We feared the worst. Then six hours again, his--well if we're to be totally blunt, his rectum everted from his anus--outward. The flesh was a rubbery chitinous protein which fused to his buttocks, and then expanded, day by day, to create segments, until at the seventh day, he had eight segments, divided by fatty tergae--bands. The entire time he was overcome with sexual desire despite his genitals no longer working as they should. [pause] They were absorbed into his frontal exoskeleton around the same time his front legs mutated as well. They followed distinct, rapid patterns of ** ** endoreduplication of chitinous proteins replacing normal phenotypical mammalian tissue--physogastry, being the term...

[pause, sigh] What I mean is, they bulked up, muscle growth, which caused him a great deal of pain--the chitin replaced his dermal tissues, and we had several solid datasets on how rapidly--and when I say rapidly I mean hours, Commander--his muscles would grow, and the chitin would distend and then slough off--

COMMANDER: Shedding?

LECARDE: Molting, actually. The chitin would be white, that sickly white you see in insects--it's a common sight for those that know what it is. At that point his blood contained massive amounts of something extremely novel--absolutely not found in humans.

COMMANDER: Which was?

LECARDE: Bursicon. It's the hormone which causes the exoskeleton to darken and harden. Legs appeared on certain segments on wait became his abdomen, as well, such that he was though very large, now--2.9 meters with his new additions--he was actually quite nimble.

COMMANDER: So to summarize...

LECARDE: Imagine, Commander, if you will, a centaur, yes? But instead of a horse--a termite queen. And there you would have what Elbert turned into. [very long pause] I think I'd like a gebruiker, Commander.

COMMANDER: A what?

LECARDE: Cigarette. I'd like a cigarette.

COMMANDER: [pause] Very well.

LECARDE: Thank you. [sound of a lighter, then a puff] I'm disappointed in you Americans--thought you were more thorough than that.

COMMANDER: Doctor, if you'll remember--

LECARDE: That's part of the problem--I don't remember. The day of the--incident--it's all rather hazy. I was put into a coma, you know.

COMMANDER: Yes, I--

LECARDE: [blowing smoke] Nothing like a near-death experience to really put things in perspective--I ask myself all the time, what could we have done, had Elbert Kleinschmidt--my friend, whom I miss very much, you must know--had not gone insane? What could we have accomplished? [puff, smoke blown] The day in question, however, was unusual, I will say that. I knew that when I first got there. Elbert was in a--he was in a bad mood.

COMMANDER: He was in a bad mood? What do you mean?

LECARDE: Yes, a bad mood. He was distracted. He could not think clearly. He had to have things repeated to him. It was so unlike him--ever since his transformation he had been in the best mood I'd ever seen a man be in. But that day--well as I said, the repetition got bothersome quickly.

COMMANDER: Can you give me an example?

LECARDE: Datasets, as you know, had to be delivered through ARPANET, which was still in protocol at the time. But Elbert was careless. I remember two, maybe three, files that were ready to go, and at least one of them almost--but didn't--go out on MILNET.

COMMANDER: Unclassified.

LECARDE: Correct.

COMMANDER: Well, you may be glad to know that MILNET never received any such transmission from Dulce Base.

LECARDE: [long pause] That is--lekker. Lekker. And which, I'll be honest, surprises me. Because of what happened next.

COMMANDER: The incident.

LECARDE: Yes.

COMMANDER: His deliberate destruction of the facility with his associate.

LECARDE: [pause] If you want to call it that..

COMMANDER: Well as you probably guessed, Doctor, I'll need you to describe all that in detail, what would led up to it and what you can remember taking place.

LECARDE: Of course you do. [sigh, pause] Well--as I said, he'd been having measurable hormonal imbalances which we concluded were in fact estrus cycles. Now at the time, he'd laugh it off, he'd try to be professional--he would valiantly pretended it would not bother him. Eventually, though, he would reach a point where he was firm in needing to ease these urges--

COMMANDER: And by ease them, you mean have intercourse?

LECARDE: [pause] We're not being squeamish about this, are we?

COMMANDER: Doctor this is strictly Top Secret and of the highest national security concern. I would forget being squeamish and tell me the truth.

LECARDE: Yes, then. [pause] Intercourse. With Freeman.

COMMANDER: Freeman. Josiah Freeman.

LECARDE: Correct.

COMMANDER: And how was this achieved?

LECARDE: There was no modesty to it, nothing ever hidden--Freeman would position himself on top of Elbert's egg sac, thrusting into the opening with his own abdomen--sometimes he would crawl over, sometimes hover, or fly, but each time he would get atop Elbert, settling on his egg sac, and then his own abdomen would curve downward-- [long pause, a shudder] Pardon me.

COMMANDER: Take your time.

LECARDE: Ah--yes, Freeman's abdomen would curve downward, to meet Elbert's opening. They would engage in coitus for however long--several minutes--until Freeman orgasmed, whereupon the--release of fluid--would, somehow, bring Elbert relief from the needs of his estrus urges.

COMMANDER: [pause] Thank you. Those were some--very vivid images.

LECARDE: You weren't the one watching it, Commander.

COMMANDER: Fair enough. [unintelligible] this homosexual intercourse--

LECARDE: If I may beg your pardon, Commander, but it would only be homosexual if the two people were fully male. At that point--at that point Elbert was outwardly male from the waist up, and his--ah, pronouns, I believe they're called--were all the usual, he and him and so forth. But his body was functionally female. It absorbed sperm and produced eggs, which rather fits the definition for female.

COMMANDER: So he was some sort of hermaphrodite?

LECARDE: I don't-- [pause] I don't think that's the right word. What he had become was indeed extraordinary, and part of the extraordinariness of it was that he was no longer male, nor female. Or a hermaphrodite. He was something else--something else entirely.

COMMANDER: Neither human, nor--

LECARDE: Correct.

COMMANDER: How did the team react to this? How did the team--react to him?

LECARDE: [long pause] We were scientists, first and foremost. Whatever morals or ethics or--or notions of how nature should be, we had to put those aside in the face of this enormous, enormous discovery. But--a good many of us were disgusted. It was difficult for them. I saw good men who you'd think were hard as stone have to vomit after some hours of observation. Still others, of course--well, they had their worst fears realized, you must understand, a phobia from childhood now suddenly come to life.

COMMANDER: Giant insects.

LECARDE: Bluntly, yes. Dr. [REDACTED] was especially affected--that's why after the fifth day, he resigned. Flou, that man--flou.

COMMANDER: And now this insect--a man--was once a man--now this half-man, half-insect, creature, what-have-you, now he was demanding to mate.

LECARDE: Well, they had mated before, but--ha, I'm reminded of that movie, 'Bride of Frankenstein'--you know, the monster demands a mate? [short laugh] I shouldn't joke. [pause] It is a sight seared into my brain.

COMMANDER: As you mentioned, you seemed to have witnessed it personally.

LECARDE: Many times. I was the chief observer. Everything had to be videotaped, transcribed, monitored--even that, all that. I forget the exact figure, but you see he only attained what we determined was his final form for roughly a month. Thirty-five days. And every week these urges of his grew worse. Everything did--everything got worse. The gulf, if I may use a more poetic term, separating him and humanity--wider, wider every day. [pause] In fact the--second--day, he had not been able to keep any food down. He vomited a great deal, such that there were concerns about dehydration.

COMMANDER: We were aware of that. Evidently-- [papers rustle] There was ordered a shipment of--

LECARDE: [interrupting] We didn't use it. We didn't have to. It was his idea--measuring his own stomach acids and analyzing x-rays--we quickly determined he had lost his human gastrointestinal tract, it had very rapidly undergone irreversible mutation.

COMMANDER: My God.

LECARDE: He would have to eat, from now then on, as a termite would. He'd attained the queen phenotype in more ways than one, Commander. You see both and he and Freeman had developed Malpighian tubules in place of a proper--or I guess I should say mammalian--digestive and urinary systems. We had an endocrinologist come down from upstairs, Level [redacted], and what he saw made him turn pale as a ghost.

COMMANDER: And they were--fine with this?

LECARDE: Oh, more than fine, they were overjoyed. Did I not tell you? Elbert had talked for years about how superior insects were to humans, the eusocial hive and the way they were structured and all this, so to actually attain that form, why I'd say he could barely contain his euphoria. [pause] It was as though he had been born in the wrong body, and-- [long pause] But I shouldn't speculate. He never told me that much, that far. Freeman was very pleased, too. He wasn't quite as enthusiastic, but he was--well in many ways he was more fascinated by his bodily changes than we were. [pause] Although for both of them, they veered into strange territory. You see, after Elbert injected himself with the gut flora that would allow him to begin the saproxylic diet he'd need for the rest of his life--

COMMANDER: [interrupting] Sapro--?

LECARDE: Saproxylic. Dead wood.

COMMANDER: He ate dead wood?

LECARDE: Starting the third day, yes. It was delivered into the facility for his, and Freeman's, strict dietary requirements. It was mesquite, actually--I was unsure on the precise botanical species, but I did know that. He recorded that and everything else--more lost data.

COMMANDER: [papers rustling] Actually, yes, we do have invoices for that.

LECARDE: Wonders never cease.

COMMANDER: You were going to say something, though, Doctor?

LECARDE: Ah, yes. When he would get hungry, or when he would go into what we will call--estrus--his stomach, which was sizable already, would emit loud sounds, gurgles and rumbles and so on. The technical term is borborgymus, and--I wouldn't have noted it, except it occurred when both he needed to eat, and when he would have those involuntary sexual urges.

COMMANDER: Which you've called estrus.

LECARDE: Correct.

COMMANDER: What exactly would happen, then?

LECARDE: [pause, hesitation] He would start to take deep breaths, and we--the team--could see his egg sac-abdomen quiver, or shiver--he would, always, always, try to last for as long as he could before he gave in. As I said before, he would joke about it--some jovial thing about it happening again, or laughing it off, but you could tell--you could tell it was a façade.

COMMANDER: Did he describe them? These--urges?

LECARDE: He did. It was a burning, an emptiness, an orneriness--you get the picture. Again, he left more detailed notes, but--well, I feel this conversation will have a constant reminder they're all gone. Anyway, we were scientists, and so was he, a scientist too, so naturally he'd document what he was feeling, how his new body was reacting--I have to say he was professional. The copulation with Freeman soothed him, and as soon as it was over, he was fine--I remember him with his head back, sighing deep, as though a great weight had been lifted, each and every time. He understood that this was new--but from what we could collectively ascertain it was similar to the estrus of a more advanced animal then, say, a termite--a heat, if you would, internal ovulation that created a need for sexual copulation and the fertilization, and also in his case oogenesis. And that's what we called it, an estrus.

COMMANDER: What is 'oogenesis' ?

LECARDE: The creation of eggs - 'oo' meaning egg, and then of course 'genesis.'

COMMANDER: Right--but you mentioned 'heat,' and 'estrus,' so here, you're comparing it to like a cat, or--

LECARDE: A larger mammal, yes. We never did figure out how--the hypothesis put forward by Everett was that, to put it in laymen's terms, some 'circuits got crossed,' and his normal mammalian biology and the new, insectoid phenotype interlocked together. It happened with Freeman, certainly--

COMMANDER: Let me stop you a moment, Doctor, because--did you say he actually made eggs?

LECARDE: He--yes. After he and Freeman were together, we could reliably wait an hour, no more, and he would become very ill, clutching his stomach--we didn't have time to figure out what the connection was between that, and his egg sac, [REDACTED] was putting together something about a complete nerve that connected the two. [pause] Come to think of it, perhaps something similar to those Malpighian tubules he had already developed, but in his nervous system? I do not know--he definitely did have those, I told you. But--at any rate--his abdomen-egg sac would vibrate, squirm, once, twice, several times, and then he would crawl to the small annex which had been--well sort of hastily built, and expel--push out, lay--an egg. They would be very large, usually measured at about a half-meter wide by a half-meter tall. [pause] I'm sorry to ballpark it, but my notes had the exact figures--ah, anyway, at first it was once a day--then twice--then by the end of that week, three times, three eggs. It remained that way until the--final week.

COMMANDER: The report did mention oviposition, but nothing further. Did the eggs--hatch?

LECARDE: No, they did not. At first we guessed they were not eggs at all, but spermatophores.

COMMANDER: [interrupting] Would you explain that? Doctor if you can't use layman's terms--

LECARDE: [sigh] It means a clump of sperm to be dropped off and picked up for fertilization. But that wasn't it. What Elbert was doing was functionally the behavior of a female, and at any rate chemical analysis proved it was comprised of proteins that were consistent with eggs, and nothing else. But no, they never hatched, there were no embryos in them or any some-such thing, and we never determined their function, if they had any--my own theory, which I believe to be the most manifestly correct one, is that they were priming him for either oviposition, the actual laying of eggs, or the live birth he... [pause] But we will get to that, I'm sure. But if I may--I'm not surprised the report didn't mention much else--it all happened so soon. You have to understand, and let me say again, after his transformation, he and Freeman's, we had all of thirty-five days, and it passed rather very quickly, and I--well, with all due respect, I think you counted on us to fill in the gaps.

COMMANDER: [pause]: Doctor--there weren't supposed to--be--any gaps.

LECARDE: Well there are now.

COMMANDER: Once again, Doctor, no need for sarcasm.

LECARDE: We all deal with horror in our own way, Commander--that one who worked with Everett--Chandler, was it? He dealt with it poorly. [pause, laugh] Me, personally--I deal with it with sarcasm.

COMMANDER: I'm afraid I have little time for that, doctor.

LECARDE: What do you have time for, Commander?

COMMANDER: [pause, papers shuffling] Freeman. Tell me about him.

LECARDE: We've discussed him, have we not?

COMMANDER: We have some data on him, yes. But what happened to him in the lab--

LECARDE: Ah, that. Yes. He was also given exposure to the mutagenic serum, Elixir B. The first day he experienced enhanced strength, ah... [pause] There were specific data sets which demonstrated how much he could bench press, his sustained cardiac tests, and how all of these went up exponentially within eighteen hours. It was the--second day that things took something of a turn. His sex drive went up to a point where we thought he would have to be medicated--he was recorded masturbating so hard and so often, the skin on his penis began to chafe and crack for days three, four, and five. And that of course was with the alien growths in his back, what eventually became his wings--I'll get to that in a moment, I suppose.

COMMANDER: [pause] What did you do?

LECARDE: Nothing. He was under observation the whole time--on the third day Elbert decided that he should be put in the same room with him, as they had both been exposed to the serum and were, after all, meant to be the 'mating pair.'

COMMANDER: And mate they did.

LECARDE: Correct. At that stage Elbert had developed mutations around his anus and rectum, which made anal intercourse exceptionally facile and, evidently, extremely pleasurable. And Freeman was all too eager, as well--we recorded eighteen sessions between the two, all extemporaneous, between zero-two-hundred and zero-eight hundred hours. Eventually it became far more of a need for Freeman, than Elbert, who enjoyed it, but seemed to expect it--anticipate it. The introduction of Freeman's sperm, which had several identified mutagens in it, accelerated Elbert's own physogastrism--without question.

COMMANDER: You say Freeman developed mutations even then?

LECARDE: Correct.

COMMANDER: What were they?

LECARDE: The legs, same as Elbert.

COMMANDER: He was already--

LECARDE: The effectiveness of the serum on a sixty-one year old man was far beyond what we thought was capable. Keep in mind, Commander, we thought it would kill him--he made his affairs up before he departed Austin, donated papers and made arrangements in a will. Everett's work, the cockroaches, killed eleven of your Army privates, the average of age of whom--if he was telling the truth--was all of two-and-twenty. It worked on Elbert very well, but the results with Freeman were--they were far beyond what anyone could have foreseen. It was thrilling, as a scientist, to watch your work come to such fruition.

COMMANDER: So his legs--

LECARDE: Vastly accelerated muscle growth--they were as tree-trunks, bigger than that Schwarzenegger fellow. That was when the chitin starting growing underneath, and the flesh than sloughed off, as it did with Elbert, but far more rapidly. There were alien structures present in his back, which broke through the skin at an angle--wings. The venation was painful for him, several hours worth, but it, too, was rapid. Following that was--everything else. The spread of the chitin all over his lower body, the claws developing where his feet had been, the toes fusing and hooking--

COMMANDER: And what did that final form look like?

LECARDE: [long pause] If you can imagine a termite drone from the bottom half, a centaur of sorts, with wings. They were powerful enough that he could hover without aid for a few minutes--the week of the incident he could actually push himself off the ground and steer around the room with him. That's how he reached Elbert not a few times to mate. [pause] The venation in his wings got more and more powerful--stronger. And to that end, Commander, there is the matter of the fact that he was a remarkable specimen of physical fitness. Not just bodily, either--his sperm count was originally 198 million--exceptional, in the top very percent. Of course I--[pause] I don't--[pause, hesitant] I don't know this--it is probably bad for me to guess--

COMMANDER: Doctor?

LECARDE: If I didn't know any better, I think Dr. Kleinbauer--Elbert--I think he was aware of that. Freeman's--fertility. I cannot prove it--

COMMANDER: This is conjecture about his activities at the University of Texas?

LECARDE: Correct. I recall going over some datasets he had collected before--they were human, not insect. Sperm samples taken from a facility in Travis County--

COMMANDER: You think he took those samples to determine the most fertile of his students?

LECARDE: [pause] Why are you asking me?

COMMANDER: Because we thought the same thing. Couldn't prove it. It was a major ethical violation--

LECARDE: [laughter] After everything we did--that was your ethical concern?

COMMANDER: [pause] I can understand the irony of the situation, Doctor.

LECARDE: It would have to be a very lucky thing, Commander, to have not only picked out the student he desired most, but who possessed--ah, well-- [laughs] that which he desired most, too. And who desired him. Elbert must have thought himself the luckiest man on Earth...

COMMANDER: But your statement corroborates our theory.

LECARDE: I suppose it does. Although I do find it ironic--by day four, that sperm count number had been reduced to no more than 15,000.

COMMANDER: [pause] I'm sorry, can you repeat that.

LECARDE: [clears throat] Certainly. Fifteen. Thousand.

COMMANDER: Surely you don't mean million?

LECARDE: I don't.

COMMANDER: [pause, hesitant] How in God's name--

LECARDE: [laughs] Oh God's not a factor here, Commander. You see it was 15,000 because that is the maximum load for termites. His testes even before he underwent the dramatic metamorphoses that he did--his testes were producing termite sperm. All the human sperm was spent. That--that is why he had to masturbate so much. Through some--well I wouldn't say miracle, by any means, but it was fitting that his body had it so that the easiest and best way to expel his old semen for the new was to make him so enslaved to his sex drive. He masturbated it all out through ejaculation. [pause] If he was remarkably fertile for a human, he was explosively so for a termite. [long pause] And--as you say--perhaps that was Elbert's plan all along... [pause] I can't help but think... [shudder] Another gebruiker, Commander.

COMMANDER: A--what, what now?

LECARDE: Cigarette--another.

COMMANDER: [pause, mumbling] Certainly.

LECARDE: Good, thank you. [sound of a lighter, then a puff] The things we do for science--unshackled from the nonsense of ethics, scruples. I saw those two men fuck, Commander--a burly bear of a man who could pass as a bald Santa Claus getting plowed like a cornfield by a twenty-four year old who should have had a career in the pornographic film industry out in your Hollywood, as part of a way to push the boundaries of science far past which any rational person would seem feasible or ethical--that not even the Ol Gipper knew about. [a cigarette drag] God seën Amerika.

COMMANDER: [pause, some papers shuffling] Tell me--more about Freeman.

LECARDE: Where's your file on him?

COMMANDER: I think you know, Doctor.

LECARDE: [a cigarette drag] That too, eh? Shame. Does the family know?

COMMANDER: I--also--think you know that's classified--Doctor.

LECARDE: [smoke blown] Fair enough--ashtray?

COMMANDER: Here.

LECARDE: Thank you. Well, Josiah Freeman--he held a BA in Biology from Texas, Austin--he was twenty-four. Athlete--played football for the Longhorns--handsome lad, very well-built. His father was Colored, mother White--he apparently had been Elbert's star pupil. [pause] You can probably imagine why.

COMMANDER: I believe we've established they were previously involved.

LECARDE: Correct. I knew Elbert was a homosexual, but I am a scientist and I, personally, have no moral qualms about it. Why would I? But I don't know if Elbert initiated the boy--well he wasn't a boy, of course, but he certainly was in a room of men double or triple his age--but I doubt it, because his enthusiasm, sexually, with Elbert squarely put him as to have been born a giyn--a pervert. Let us dispense with the speculation and just say, Commander, that Elbert had set that up from the beginning--pairing himself with his young lover. It may well have been immoral, unethical, but really, after everything else, that was the least of our problems. [pause] Let me be clear--he was surprised that things played out the way they did, Elbert was--we all were, but the research was to see if a nuclear-resistant man-insect hybrid could be created, and if such a hybrid could maintain viable offspring for military purposes. The first was successful, that's what Freeman was. But as for the other, that required two people--what Everett was doing, the cockroach research, that required only one person. This wasn't. Again, I say--two people. Freeman was his only choice. [laughs] You can probably imagine his reaction when he met me.

COMMANDER: But your background was classified.

LECARDE: The accent gave it away--we never got along. Chandler didn't like me either, and told me so, but Freeman was too young, too green, to make his true feelings known. So be it, I suppose. Whatever I could begrudge him for--that--was less important than his attachment--his shielding behind Elbert. Insufferable. [clears throat] But--yes. He and Freeman were the two subjects so, it follows they would be the ones--copulating. And they were, as you say, previously involved, so--it fit. [long pause, several fits of hesitation] Can it be said that it was something else Elbert was feeling? Not animal lust, but love--admiration--not to be cheap or tawdry but that certainly transcends mere science. Their connection was genuine, I'd say, even if Elbert pushed it. [pause] And if Elbert loved that lad, too--who's to say he didn't? If he loved that lad, and knew there was a way to carry his offspring, in a manner not--not otherwise natural...

COMMANDER: [pause, confused] Are you suggesting Kleinbaeur had a homosexual love for his assistant, Josiah Freeman, so powerful he groomed him to be enthusiastic for this project, because this would be the only real chance ever for him to breed with him, and produce offspring?

LECARDE: [long pause] I believe I am suggesting that, yes.

COMMANDER: [papers shuffling, sigh] I--alright--that's enough of that--

LECARDE: You asked, Commander. But I will say this, too: to reiterate, Elbert adored insects beyond the usual way that scientists adored their subject. Perhaps it was a Freudian thing--I don't know. But going deeper, like a day by day diary of his--if there is one, I don't have it. All he said was much he admired insects, and it's no surprise to me that if the chance arose for him to become, he would. [pause] I doubt he left anything behind, but even if he did... [pause] We were supposed to be informed, but you'll recall that his rampage, as you call it, caused a lockdown in that laboratory, and then when they re-opened it, there was nothing left--all trashed. [long pause] Imagine, Commander--imagine you achieve your dream. You have become more than human. You consider yourself superior to your fellows. But the dream--turns into a nightmare. Because the way you have attained this goal is through science that you barely understand--a genie that grants wishes, Commander, but they are terrible, terrible wishes. [long pause] I knew what was going to come. I sensed it.

COMMANDER: [long pause] That's an awful lot to take in. But I did hear--if I heard correctly? Are you saying you had advanced knowledge he would sabotage the project, Doctor?

LECARDE: No. Far from it. I had no idea he would do what he did--you think if I did I would have gone to work that day and get slammed into a steel wall?

[long pause] If you had some idea that things would go wrong--

LECARDE: An idea and empirical evidence are too entirely different things. [pause] But science is a harsh mistress.

COMMANDER: [papers rustling] I think this would be a good time to come to the--we should then arrive at the day of the incident.

LECARDE: Yes, the Eighth of August, 1985.

COMMANDER: You mentioned he was in a bad mood, and distracted--what else?

LECARDE: Angry. Nothing suited him. Freeman was trying to run blood tests but he, on Elbert's command, kept copulating with him. Evidently the estrus was exceptionally painful that day. So Freeman never ran any blood tests, too occupied as he was. Elbert called him over four times that I know of, and then I think a fifth, sixth time of Freeman's own volition, out of worry for him, he said. Of note--and we recorded this at the time, but without interacting with Elbert who, and I cannot stress this enough, we to a one sought to avoid that day--there were no eggs produced after those sessions, quick in sequence though they, you know, were. And quite for that matter, Freeman was of no use that day either, always fussing about Elbert--that day he was worse than useless--right in our way, then over to Elbert, back again.

COMMANDER: It was never this difficult?

LECARDE: [pause] Some days were more--well, shall we say, sexual than others. But nothing like this, no. [long pause] I should mention the smell.

COMMANDER: There was a smell?

LECARDE: The facility was airtight, and there was a very advanced mechanism--solar-powered--which filtered air from the surface into where we working. There were--I wasn't told how many levels above us, or beneath us, but everything was underground. So smells carried. Most of the time it was--not pleasant, but like being on an aeroplane--recycled air. But you could still smell them--both of them.

COMMANDER: [long pause, hesitant] What--did they smell like?

LECARDE: Sugar--sickly-sweet. Sometimes like a burnt sugar, other times a wet--sugar. It wasn't unpleasant--frankly it could have been far worse. I recall Everett--he, he and--and the cockroaches-- [shudder] But that day, the smell was stifling.

COMMANDER: [pause] You're sweating, Doctor.

LECARDE: The memories are yet still fresh, Commander. Surely if you had them, you'd perspire too.

COMMANDER: There's that sarcasm.

LECARDE: Truly the only thing keeping me sane. [hesitation] Another cig--?

COMMANDER: [interrupting] I'm afraid not, Doctor. We should just get this over with.

LECARDE: [long pause, deep breaths] Very well. You see that day--something was different. Something that we never got to tell Elbert, or transmit, until it was too late. You see Reese--Smith, the phlebotomist--

COMMANDER [interrupting]: Howard Reese-Smith, the deceased?

LECARDE: Yes, him. Brilliant man, decent man. If he hadn't been involved with this I think he could have cured leukemia--it was his job to analyze blood, hormones, possible carcinogens, on-site. He was the only good one, Commander--not a predator like me, or a pervert like Elbert, or [several lines of redaction]. No, Reese-Smith had a conscience, and no good reason being there. LECARDE: And yet he was...

COMMANDER: [anticipatory pause] Doctor?

LECARDE: Yes--right. Reese-Smith had detected something in Freeman's semen. I told you that Freeman was supposed to run blood tests, yes? But he never did them. But it was probably in the blood too. Certainly in the seminal fluid--something unusual, a new protein or enzyme or--something--forgive me Commander, my memory is still...

COMMANDER: [pause] Take your time.

LECARDE: It...was something obscure, but novel. It only took us a half hour, he and I, to realize that it was a new mutagen. Something that, when Elbert exposed to it, changed him further.

COMMANDER: Further?

LECARDE: Yes. I saw it. I made note of it...all my notes now gone. But it seemed that the mutagen was factoring by their relationship--Freeman the active, the male if you will, and Elbert the receptive, though I'm--still don't think the term 'female' is accurate...

COMMANDER: What were these--further changes?

LECARDE: [long pause, hesitation] All day long he had been rubbing his chest, then his nipples. As though they were tender, or it was pleasurable to him. I noticed they seemed swollen, and I made a small note of it to interview him about it, but--later, given his mood. About an hour before everything happened, they were definitely swollen. And... [shudder] Knowing what I do now, I know what it was.

COMMANDER: [pause] Are you going to tell us, Doctor?

LECARDE: [long pause] Mastisis. Swelling of the breasts--for lactation.

COMMANDER: He was making milk?

LECARDE: Not milk, no. I suspect it was some sort of sucrose, or a protein slurry with a sucrose base, which--would explain, now that I'm considering it, why the sickly-sweet smell was so very strong that day. But I have to tell you this was a matter of--hours? Two, at the most. It was a rapid development, one which I think was accelerated by how much he and Freeman were copulating. [pause] His nipples had gotten so distended and swollen, they resembled a healthy set of breasts on a woman--save for having the same hirsuteness as the rest of him. [long pause] A freakish sight, to say the least. Can you quite imagine well-shaped, female-looking mammaries on such a man?

COMMANDER: [long pause] Dear...God.

LECARDE: I must remind you again, sir, that God was never a factor here. God did not make this--he did, we did. You know it grows tiresome to think in gendered terms, particularly when-- [pause] Anyway.

COMMANDER: We should continue.

LECARDE: Yes. As I said, gendered terms do us no good. It was Reese-Smith who said something, something about the female hormones from the termite serum getting crossed, again, with the human, but--it was worse. It was so much worse.

COMMANDER: How do you know?

LECARDE: Because of what I saw at the end--the very, very end. [shudders, cries aloud]

COMMANDER: [long pause] We have all day, Doctor. Go at your own pace. This is important.

LECARDE: It was him--Reese-Smith--poor man--he--he took a stack of papers and as he turned to address Elbert, and then--[pause] Freeman was away--he was in the annex, which is where they went to relieve themselves, as they did, yet again, from another estrus cycle. So he wasn't there. And then Elbert just started--[long pause, shudder] Screaming. Screaming. Screaming.

COMMANDER: Screaming?

LECARDE: It was--it was--this--oh, it was awful--this desperate, desperate cry. Begging, pleading for Freeman, and then when he couldn't find him--the other door being shut, of course--he made his way, huge bulk and all, to the semen storage samples--the refrigeration unit. He smashed it open, his upper body strength had increased too, without gaining any muscle mass--he grabbed for the jars, absolutely helpless to try and get them open. He was tearful--anyone who would listen, it seemed like--he needed to mate, he needed semen. He wanted it inside him, no matter what. No other heat had ever been this intense--never. His voice-- [long pause] Beggars description, even now. Loud, shrill, like he was bargaining with the Devil himself not to take his own soul. Reese-Smith attempted to calm him down, saying that he could inject the semen samples into his rear, but as he was handling them-- [long pause, shudder, voice breaks] Elbert shoved him, and Reese-Smith, he--poor, poor man, he dropped the jars. All of them. All that spent seminal fluid--gone. [long pause] I knew what was going to happen--I tried to stop it. But I was too late. Elbert looked down at the containers, the shards of glass and the ruined fluid there on the floor, and he took his hands and pulled on his beard. Then, he threw out his arms, let out a roar--called Reese-Smith, one of his oldest friends after myself, called him something I cannot repeat--and then beat his head with his bare fists into meat fit for a braai. [long pause, throat clearing] He scuttled about the room, clutching his stomach, his abdomen quivering, shaking the whole time, his nipples leaking constantly with that fluid. At one point he stopped, and then he--he vomited all over himself, white bile--the sobbing and the screaming reached a pitch I didn't think possible. [pause] Screaming, Commander--screaming until surely he was going hoarse. Then--then-- [a full minute of heavy breathing and shuddering]

COMMANDER: Go on, Doctor.

LECARDE: He--I told you. I told you I saw something. Well now I will tell you what. His nipples flared and poured out that sugary liquid substance, and his abdomen pulsed and moved as though he were going to lay an egg. The rest of the men had fled, so I alone was there to-- [voice breaks] to witness it.

COMMANDER: Witness what?

LECARDE: Something came out of it, Commander. He pushed--something out of it. Out of his abdomen! Not an egg, like before--something that moved! A living thing! It wriggled and wiggled and moved with his pulsations, like labor, like...

COMMANDER [slowly]: What was it?

LECARDE: It--could have been a great larva. It could have been a larva from the waist down, and a human--human--ah, kak, kak--human above, like him. A humanoid thing that resembled him, that way. I don't know. It was one, or the other. And I think I went mad seeing it. I must have. [longer pause, voice cracks] The project was a success, Commander. The [unintelligible] project--

COMMANDER: He gave birth. A viable human-hybrid that would, presumably, survive radioactive fallout.

LECARDE: Yes! And then--no sooner--he look at the thing, his face crumpled into a sob but it was like joy, I think--I can see why, I can understand why, but Jesus Christus do I not want to think about it. [pause] Then he noticed me. [shudder] He saw me as an intruder. His mind was gone, it had to be! And he roared as like a lion--his abdomen was surprisingly agile and nimble, and when he swung it at me, it struck me with such force it blew me back several feet. I couldn't breathe--dazedness was uppermost. I was thrown against a wall--I could feel the cold steel against my back. And then the other way--another swing--up--up against the wall I went. [long pause, deep shiver] I slid down, down to the floor. I remember nothing--I awoke in the medic unit. [pause] So many of my bones had been shattered they'd induced a coma... [shudder, voice breaks] He must have thought I was dead. That's why he spared me. Four of my colleagues, the smartest men I've ever met--Reese-Smith [line redacted]. Only two others lived--how are they?

COMMANDER: Not as good as you, I'm afraid.

LECARDE: [weeps] Oh, fok! Fokoll!

[longest pause in the session, the sound of papers shuffling, heavy breathing, footsteps]

COMMANDER: Thank you for your time, Doctor Le Carde. You've been very helpful. The United States certainly thanks you for--

LECARDE: I am not done, Commander.COMMANDER: Oh? Is there more?

LECARDE: There's something you should know--remember how I told you, I knew what was going to happen?

COMMANDER: [pause] Yes. Explain.

LECARDE: [longer pause, throat clearing] One plays with fire, Commander, one gets burned. As smart a man as he was, Elbert Kleinbauer, whom I liked and admired, must have known that the science was untested. The boys at the CIA didn't care, they just wanted their monsters. And who--who paid the price? He did--Elbert did. An ultimate, foul price for his obsessions--what else can you call them? Scientific, sexual--obsessions. [pause] But also too, the recklessness of you people and your desire to beat the Soviet Union. And I despise the communists as much as anyone else, but--what did we accomplish? All to push the boundaries of human knowledge, and to develop a weapon that could win a war against an enemy we know so little about. [pause] He is a mother now. That creature, whether larva or human-larva or whatever it was, was moving--viable. I said that, and stand by it. And I saw the joy on his face...

COMMANDER: Quite the thoughtful statement, Doctor.

LECARDE: [sniff, chuckle] I'm not always sarcastic, Commander. Sometimes I have to deal with my feelings in--less logical ways.

COMMANDER: Thank you for your time, Doctor. We'll get back to you when we have a better--

LECARDE: [interrupting] You're not--going back there, are you?

COMMANDER: That's classified.

LECARDE: Oh I'm sure it is, sir. But I have Q-Clearance--or did you forget? I told you! We all did. It doesn't expire until January the 1st, 1986. I know we can't talk about what went on with the bear-boys at Arzamas-16, but surely we can talk about the men-bugs here at Dulce Base. [pause] I ask you again, Commander. Are you going back there?

COMMANDER: [long pause] Yes, Doctor. We are planning a--

LECARDE: [interrupting] I absolutely would not do that, Commander. Why did you even cancel Project CHRYSALID? Waste of money? Time? Neither of those are true--we both know it succeeded beyond anything we could have ever expected. No--you put us all out of jobs because of poor Reese-Smith and [line redacted] and all the others who died because of this insanity, that you didn't have the courage to tell your own president about. That old dotard will go to his grave never once knowing what horrors we called forth! [weeps] Ah, what did Marais say? I can only think of it in English. 'You will become the feeling, the thinking, the seeing, of a life a thousand times greater and more important than yours could ever have become.' And that's him! The white ant, the terror below!

COMMANDER: That's quite enough, Doctor Le Carde!

LECARDE: It will never be enough--don't you get that? You called up something you can't put down! The very first thing I said to you, and it is completely true. He's still down there, Commander. Still in that state, a great insect-centaur, he and that lad, Josiah. They're making something. Breeding. Who's to say he hasn't changed more? Who's to say he isn't something--else?

COMMANDER: Doctor Le Carde, I strongly advise you--

LECARDE: You weren't there, Commander! I was! [shudder] I still see him sometimes--in my dreams. I hear the screams, I smell that wretched damned sticky-sweet sucrose. And he is still down there, you know--still, still, still. We created a monster. He wanted to be a monster and we created it for him. If you were anything close to less of being the fool I take you for, you'll leave him alone.

COMMANDER: [long pause] We'll take it under advisement, Doctor. Thank you.

-END TRANSCRIPT-