The conference attendees stared in wonder at the presentation being delivered by the confident, enthusiastic U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Surgeon, Col. Janet Plant. The urgent, mysterious, invitation-only event had been called with almost no details or advance notice by TRADOC, which had insisted that guests keep all details of the event top secret and comply with a massive list of security precautions. The guests to the all-day conference represented all of the service branches and several other Western militaries, and their reaction to Col. Plant's presentation seemed universally disbelieving. As even she acknowledged, what she was telling them seemed unbelievable... but was 100% true.

Plant was briefing attendees about a secret new fitness regimen and clinical trial of a classified performance-enhancing drug. The punchline: performance had been enhanced dramatically. At Fort Sill, for example, the prior record for the Army Combat Fitness Test had been broken by the trainees participating in the trial..."trainees" plural, Plant emphasized: A fitness course record that had stood unbroken at Ft. Sill since 1973 had been broken not by a single trainee, but by all of the trainees who were participating in the trial. In addition, Plant said the trainees' scores for 5RM, V02 Max, lean mass scans, resting heart rate and heart-rate recovery all showed huge and statistically-significant improvements over the course of the training regimen.

After a period of stunned silence at the completion of the presentation, the audience erupted into raucous pandemonium. While Plant answered most of the questions with charm and candor, she steadfastly refused to answer any questions about the newly-developed drug. "All of you will be meeting a representative of the drug's developer in this evening's session. You will be able to ask any questions you may still have then," she said, raising her hands apologetically. "But first we are going to take you on a field trip to meet our trainees... they can answer any questions you might have about the unclassified portion of the fitness regimen. Please follow the lab staff to the bus the Army has provided."

She began to put down the microphone, but gave an embarrassed sigh before continuing to address the visitors: "Oh, and as those of you who took the bus in from the airport earlier already know, the air conditioning on the bus is not up to handling today's triple-digit temperatures, so make sure you grab plenty of water bottles as you board the bus. I'll join you and continue to take questions during our two-hour drive."

Plant took a deep swig from her insulated water bottle as the bus droned down the dusty rural highway. After being peppered nearly non-stop for the first hour of the drive, the assembled experts had either run out of questions or gotten all of the unclassified information she was able to give. As she had warned, the bus was oppressively hot and nearly all the passengers seemed to have been drained by the continuing heat. One of Plant's assistants walked up and down the aisle of the bus passing out water and making sure their guests had plenty to drink. Plant caught the eye of her assistant and pointedly directed her attention to the Swedish Army's Surgeon-in-Chief, who seemed increasingly dehydrated. As the assistant pushed the struggling Swede to drink more water, Janet was pleased to note that most of the other delegates were drinking plenty.

The tight security precautions of the event had forced delegates to surrender their own beverages and communication devices, so all of them except the struggling Swede had already consumed at least one of the provided bottles of water. Because of the variation in age and body type of the delegates, Janet and her staff had debated the right amount of the alien serum to put in the bottles they had distributed. It had been exceptionally difficult to ensure that all the delegates received enough of the serum to produce the desired level of compliance and receptivity, but not have lighter or older delegates alarm the remaining delegates by becoming prematurely unresponsive or catatonic.

Madison--Plant's assistant--had suggested a clever solution: preparing two different dosages easily distinguishable by the brand of water. Then the staff could unobtrusively select either a higher- or lower-dose bottle to each delegate based on their likely sensitivity to the serum. The original plan had been to include a long walk as part of the site visit, but when they saw the forecast coincidentally predicted a heat wave, disabling the bus' air conditioning was an elegant way to ensure the thirsty passengers would be adequately dosed.

Other than the Swede, who was dehydrated but otherwise in full control of his faculties, all of the delegates were now placid and compliant. In addition to passing out water bottles, Plant's staff had been subtly monitoring the delegates' mental states. Initially, the tests had been as mild as gauging the reaction when they "accidentally" brushed cold water bottles against their skin, but the tests soon escalated to stepping on their feet, or--when she was fairly confident they were under control--poking their skin with a pin Madison had concealed in her jewelry.

Unfortunately, Plant's staff were not the only people who had noticed the change in the delegates' mental state: The Swedish delegate was getting increasingly agitated as--even in his confused mental state--he began to notice that all of his colleagues had gone completely silent and unresponsive. Plant grabbed her insulated water bottle and hurried down the aisle, where Madison was trying to calm the increasingly belligerent delegate.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU?" he bellowed. "Can't you see that SOMETHING IS..." The Swede trailed off as he stared at the syringe Plant had stuck into his shoulder. As she finished injecting the full strength alien serum into his bloodstream, the Swede angrily raised his hand to pull out the syringe. Plant and her assistant stood calmly in the aisle as two MPs approached from the front of the bus...and stopped as Plant gave a curt wave of her hand.

The Swedish delegate stared at Plant incredulously and stammered, "Vad har du gjort med mig?" then shook his head and shook the syringe at Plant accusingly. "What have you...You... you did not... my consent...vad..."

The Swede gradually trailed off and stood motionless as his face drained of all emotion. Plant carefully took the syringe from his unresisting fingers, capped it, and put it back into her pocket, then pulled the Swede's eyelid up to examine his rapidly dilating pupils. Janet looked at him sympathetically and nodded. "Your fully-informed consent is very important. You will be giving it soon enough. In the meantime, sit quietly and drink this so you don't get more dehydrated," she said, handing him her own insulated water bottle.

The delegate limply dropped back into his seat and did as she ordered. Plant looked at the faces of the other nearby delegates and was pleased to note that none of them had shown any initiative or evidence of willful behavior in response to the altercation. She briefly wondered what would have happened if the Swede would have commanded them to assist him, but put the thought aside as she looked at her watch.

"Looks like we're ready to proceed, right on schedule" she said quietly to her team, then snapped her fingers and commanded the docile delegates, "Give me your full attention please: I promised earlier that each of you would get your chance to meet the developers of the new drug and ask any questions you might have. Now that you have now experienced the first part of the treatment yourselves, remove your shirts and expose your navel so we can complete it," Plant said firmly as her staff carefully pulled metal cases from the overhead bins and carried them up the aisle.

Plant nodded as an MP handed her a case. She carefully opened it and gently pulled out one of the spindly, squirming alien insectoids and held it above her head. "Here is one of the developers of the drug and training. You will soon be sharing these wonderful creatures with all of the staff and soldiers in your own organizations. Once the alien parasite has entered your body and taken control of your mind and body, all of your questions will be answered... by your new master."