Page 11 of Leviathan

It wasn't a small thing to me.

"You wanted to know something about the food?" I probed, trying to restart the conversation.

"Yes," Lyrien said. "The tray has a large selection of different fresh foods that I can produce on board that are safe for you to eat. They are currently separated and prepared individually, as I wanted to know which flavors or combinations you enjoy so I can prepare a variety of meals for you. I also have a selection of stored foods for you to try, but I wanted to start with what I could sustainably produce first."

"I like this one," I said, pointing at the spicy egg. "Did you add any spice to it?"

"None of the flavors have been altered or adjusted as I wanted to get your reactions to each individual item," he said. "That is the way it tastes. Is there anything else you enjoy?"

"Let's go through each one by one, and I'll give a detailed description of how it tastes and how much I enjoy it," I said. "Better to do this scientifically. Do you have something I can take notes with?"

"I can do that and provide a formatted report afterward," Lyrien said.

A spike of joy, warm like a ray of sun on a face trapped in darkness, pleasant and painful at the same time.

"Since I'm going to be here a while and you mentioned I could set up rooms for specific uses," I said, reformatting my thoughts around the disruptive moment of sudden happiness at the prospect of doing something, learning something, and producing information that other people could eventually use. "I would like a kitchen as well. I'm happy to try things you create, but I enjoy cooking. Maybe we could cook together?"

"Yes," Lyrien said, surprise in his voice. "I would enjoy that."

I went through the meal, tasting each offering one by one and providing detailed information about each experience, including levels of salt, sweetness, umami, etc. By the end of it I had a large number of flavors I enjoyed, a few combinations I knew were lovely, and a few that were terrible.

Finally, I couldn't eat anymore, and it was time to explore. I stood and went to the door. It slid open as I approached, and a drone was waiting for me in the hallway.

It was time to take care of the one thing I didn't want to do.

"I'm ready for my medical scan," I said, trying to smother the rising fear in my heart at the thought of being subjected to more tests.

I could push through.

I needed to know what they did to me.

FOUR

LYRIEN

The readings said Maria was about to attack me.

But all she was doing was lying flat on the medical platform.

If I had been relying solely on her expression, I might have believed she was calm. She had agreed to the scan without argument and climbed onto the platform. Not once has she voiced hesitation or concern.

Her body told a different story.

The scanner displayed a steady stream of data across my screen. Elevated heart rate, increased cortisol production, muscle tension far above baseline. Even lying motionless on the scanner, every system in her body was preparing for danger.

I focused on the human stretched out on the platform, enhancing the input from my optics to see more minute details.

She wasn’t shaking enough for most species to notice, but I could see the faint tremor running through her muscles. Her hands were clenched at her sides. Her breathing remained controlled, yet each breath was fractionally shallower than the last.

Whatever fear she carried, she was fighting it with everything she had.

The fact that she was succeeding well enough that I didn’t notice without the scanner was almost more concerning than the fear itself.

My fury rose, but I kept it quiet, as this moment was not about my anger.

It was about her bravery.

Bravery was feeling fear and taking action despite it, and from the signs of her fear and the growing mountain of evidence of what caused it, just by being willing to lie down on the scanning table, Maria was the bravest person I knew.