Norton, does the number three mean anything special to you? [Norton shakes his head] It sure meant something special to the aliens. Think about it. Their ships flew in groups of three; their optics were divided into three units. They attack their targets in three different directions. Even their weapons, the bolas, had three weighted ends. Three, Norton. Think three. I know the answer is there.
NortonNumber three. I'll think on it. What have we got to lose, huh?
General Wilson is taking care of the joint military forces board of inquiry. I'm told that, unofficially, of course, the board is predisposed to lay the blame on an unnamed terrorist organization.
Norton
A whole lot closer to the truth than they'll ever realize.
I'm just glad all of this is behind us.
Without tissue samples, most of this is just educated guessing, but I think I understand how an alien blends with whoever happens to be unfortunate enough to get in its way. It's a combination of osmosis and cell-phase matching. Watch. Through osmosis, alien cells invade the human body. These cells then spread out, seeking human cells that they can bond to. This bonding allows all the genetic information from the individual human cells to communicate to the alien cells.
Killing the human cells in the process?
Yes, but apparently not before it absorbs all of the intelligence of the human victim.
Norton
We're talking Night of the Living Dead here, folks. Not only do these guys get to pick our brains; they also get to use our bodies as a perfect disguise.
I don't call open sores and radiation sickness a perfect disguise. I mean, it's not exactly difficult to spot these things in a crowd.
For now, maybe. But it's only a matter of time until they figure out a better way to protect themselves, and conceal themselves.
If any more of them are still around.
GWGeneral Wilson
Mrs. Pennyworth sets a wonderful table, don't you think?
Yes. She and Mr. Kensington have made us all very comfortable.
GWGeneral Wilson
You never know it, but Mrs. Pennyworth was a very valuable asset in the American section of Berlin during the last war. Her husband did the same thing with the Brits! [chuckles] Rumor has it they met one night when they were both trying to infiltrate the Russian sector. Oh, that woman has seen a lot of history. Even helped brighten some of the two. And this house has had its own share of history as well. A few nuclear physicists lived here in the early days of the Manhattan Project. And just before you, we kept a KGB defector here. I wonder who the next occupants will be.
Norton
[laughs] Harrison, does that sound suspiciously like an eviction notice to you?
GWGeneral Wilson
I wouldn't look at it that way, Mr. Drake. All missions eventually come to an end, and that's why I'm here...to thank you all, personally, for a job well done.
I'm sorry, General, but the job isn't done!
GWGeneral Wilson
Well, I'm completely satisfied with everything you've accomplished.
We've hardly accomplished a thing.
Uncle Hank, I can't believe you're cutting us off!
GWGeneral Wilson
Suzanne, your own research suggests the aliens were susceptible to radiation poisoning.
How do you know that? I haven't released that data yet!
I don't think it takes a scientist to realize that any of those creatures that weren't blown up with their ships have died from radiation poisoning.
General, if you shut us down now, you're going to be repeating the same mistake that was made 35 years ago!
GWGeneral Wilson
On the contrary, the aliens are finished! And now, I suggest you all get on with the rest of your lives.
How much of this is your doing, Colonel?
The General asks me to make reports; I make reports. I'm just doing my job, Doctor.
I wish to God you would let me do mine!
Norton
Now, Colonel, what is it that has you so hot and bothered?
Washington just replied to an inquiry I made, Mr. Drake! It seems that since 1980, the good doctor has had a girlfriend no one knew about. I don't know how the hell we missed that in the security check!
Aren't you blowing this just a little out of proportions, Paul? I mean, if he's got a girlfriend, isn't that his business?
I'm not talking cheap thrills and Valentine's Day cards, Suzanne! This girlfriend is an important scientist! An important Russian scientist!
[talking to Norton Drake on the phone] Norton, crank it up, will you? We've got some work to do.
Norton
So what else is new?
Well, I need you to access any of Suzanne's research pertaining to the alien growth rate.
Which, I can tell you right now, amounts next to nothing.
I want you to calculate its effect on the human rate of physical development.
Norton
OK. You got it.
Norton
Listen, while I've got you both, I've been doing some checking of the police reports in the area and I scored. I came across a report, and I quote, of a strange doughnut-shaped corpse of the remains of a human being.
Is that the residue of an alien body transfer?
Norton
Yeah.
Where did they find that?
Norton
Well, that's the interesting thing. Less than a mile from the hospital. In fact, in the same shopping mall where the paramedics picked up Nancy Salvo.
So we've got an alien saboteur who, in order to avoid capture, takes over the nearest available body which, unfortunately for her, happens to be Nancy Salvo.
Norton
The very pregnant Nancy Salvo.
And this takeover creates so much physiological havoc that it triggers premature labor, and the result is the birth of–
Norton
A monster. Half-human, half-alien.
Norton
Okay. Here are some examples based on eyewitness reports of the aliens utilizing everyday items to make high-tech tools and devices. There's a report from Canada where kitchen appliances were jury-rigged to make radio receivers and locators. And a story from New Jersey where the aliens were seen using a vacuum cleaner-like device to locate an alien warship buried underground. They've even used their technology to create artwork unlike anything we've ever seen before. We also believe that they can communicate over light-years in a matter of seconds using their make-shift devices. So, as we've seen, the alien technology runs from the lethal to the sublime.
The closest that we've ever come to actually examining an alien artifact was in an automated power plant North of San Francisco. The aliens had taken over the facility, brutally killed every single member of the crew, and then had gone on to set up this bizarre device. When I finally found the aliens we'd been looking for, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a device using a logic system far unto ours in every way. It was fascinating. After they'd gone, Dr. McCullough and I went up to examine this strange alien handiwork. It worked like a distillery, reducing human brains to their very essence, and then one very potent drop of that extract would drip into the sick alien's mouth, curing it. But apparently they'd anticipated us, and the device was booby-trapped, and disintegrated immediately upon touch. Clearly, they do not want anyone to get ahold of their technology.
War of the Worlds · 63 quotes
