Games - StarCraft: Hybrid

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	Games - StarCraft: Hybrid

:This article is concerned with a short story in the StarCraft universe
; for other uses of the term see Hybrid (StarCraft)
and Infested Terran
.

StarCraft: Hybrid is a short story set in the StarCraft universe
. It was published in Amazing Stories magazine, issue 601.

The protagonist, Amanda Haley, is a nurse and psychic. She and her crew served onboard a Terran
orbital platform, similar to the one she was on now. She is sitting in a dimly-lit cell, concentrating mentally on its lock. She has been there for the past week.

The door to her cell - and of the other cells - don't open the way one would expect. They phase open with a crackling, electrical sound. The creatures who have taken her captive - the Zerg
- won't disengage their locks with a finger the way a Terran would.

Despite repeated attempts, Haley could not disengage the lock with her mind. The Zerg were somehow interfering with her psionic powers.

During the past week, Haley had noticed people had been removed, screaming and crying, from nearby cells. This wasn't a random process... the cells being opened were getting closer to her own cell.
Genetic Engineering
Infested Kerrigan walked through a desolate corridor to the light at the end of the tunnel. It led to a catwalk in another part of the facility. The orbital platform still had electricity and artificial gravity, the latter something the Zerg
had little use for.

She and a Zerg Cerebrate
were conferring telepathically about the contents of a cocoon suspended from the ceiling and attached to three walls by pulsing organic cords. The cords were wrapped around a human host, who was being fed the Zerg
hyperevolutionary virus through his mouth and nostrils.

To her left, a number of monitors hung from the ceiling. Through it, Kerrigan could see Amanda Haley, concentrating on something. Somehow, this prompted memories from earlier times.
First Memories
Sarah Kerrigan
sat at a desk as Lieutenant Rumm shouted at her. He told her that remorse and compunction are forbidden, and that it was his job to break her. The Terran Confederacy
wanted to influence the way she would use her powers. To do so, he needed to overcome her ability to distinguish between right and wrong (from her original point of view).

Sarah Kerrigan had scored highly on all phases of the psi-evals, although she was eight years old. She had displayed her power once, however, on Tarsonis, which had killed her mother and damaged her father's brain. Now she sat in this facility with the number "24" stamped on her arm.

She refused to use her power again. Now Rumm was trying another way to prompt her to use her power. He presented her with a kitten that Sarah had been allowed to play with for three weeks. Now it was suffering from a large tumor, and it was clearly weak and suffering.

Rumm told Sarah that only she could end its suffering, and trying to hide her psychic abilities was senseless. He was interrupted by a scream from somewhere out of the room, which was suddenly cut off.

Sarah refused the order, so Rumm drew his standard-issue repeating pistol and pointed it at the cat's head. He told her to end the animal's life now, or he would do it for her.

Sarah remained defiant, and Rumm wondered if he had felt an odd tremor in his pistol. He told her they were through for the day, and allowed her to leave the room.

A tech asked if they should recommend a neuro-adjuster
. Rumm said no - the science was not exact, and the scientists' methods were questionable. It might even kill the girl.

In his room, Rumm ritually checked his uniform and pistol. The triggering mechanism had completely melted.
Genetic Engineering Part II
The metamorphosis of the new Infested Terran
took only two days, much less time than Infested Kerrigan's own metamorphosis. It was a failure, however. More adjustments to the infestation formula had to be made. While collecting test subjects was easy for Kerrigan, it still took time.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for StarCraft: Hybrid ]

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