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I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. All their preparation for alien species, and they hadn’t planned on one they couldn’t experiment on right away. It gave me hope that Q’on at least had a few days’ reprieve from the torture while they brainstormed ways to get under his skin.
The problem with that was that it only gave us a few days to find a way out of here.
Chapter 17
Q’on
Despite my objections, Amber slept on the floor next to the wall separating us. She stole the thin blanket from the crude bed in the corner and wrapped herself in it, dozing propped up against the clear material. I wished she would get some proper rest, but she insisted on being as close to me as possible.
I sat on the floor next to her, my body just on the other side of the wall, but I did not sleep. How could I when they would be coming to take Amber’s blood for tests? I knew I couldn’t protect her from my prison, but I still wanted to be awake when they came.
I did not like the clothes given by the government men. They were stiff and coarse, and the socks were ridiculous. What was the purpose of the texture on the tops and bottoms of them?
Amber was given the same clothing, it seemed, down to the feet. I disliked that even more than my own discomfort. A part of me understood my own mistreatment from these men, but why make her uncomfortable? She was human, one of their own; she deserved nice things. Warm clothes. Soft blankets. Not these thin, coarse things.
Seeing her shiver in her sleep agonized me. I wanted to wrap her in my arms and protect her from the chill in the room. My extra layers would surely help more than the meager blanket the agents provided.
Two gunmen and a woman in a white lab coat arrived in the middle of the night, bringing with them a metal tray loaded with equipment. Amber stirred and groaned as they flipped a switch near the door, turning on the lights. She cursed and rubbed her eyes. “It must be three o’clock,” she muttered as the guards opened the door to her cell and escorted the woman in.
The guards sneered at Amber with scorn in their beady human eyes, but the woman maintained an air of detached indifference. She cleaned the crook of Amber’s arm and slid a needle into the vein there. Red blood pumped into a vial on the other end of the needle. The woman changed out the vial several times—too many times, in my opinion. Why did they need so much blood?
I sat patiently waiting for my turn with a needle—perhaps they had found stronger ones—but instead the woman merely swabbed the inside of my cheek when she came to my cell. Amber kept her palm to the glass, which had a calming effect on me. I dared not strike at the armed men or the scientist while Amber was there.
I took a small measure of satisfaction at the guards’ reflexive steps back when I opened my mouth and exposed my fangs. It was almost enough to make me laugh.
Poor Amber did not sleep again after that. She sat quietly rubbing the bandage they had put over her needle wound, and I wondered what was troubling her. After some hours, I asked if she was okay.
“I’m fine. Just wondering what tests they’re going to run on that blood.”
“What can they test with it?”
“Just about everything. They can do genetic testing. Check my general health.” She sighed and let go of her arm. “They can check to see if I’m pregnant.”
A Xalanite and a human … was it even possible? “And my cheek skin?”
She shrugged. “There’s less they can do with that. They probably will run DNA tests. Maybe test for alien viruses. I don’t know much about that stuff, though. Mostly I’m just guessing.”
“Do you think I have any of these viruses they’re looking for?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t gotten sick yet, but I suppose it’s possible. It’s a valid concern, honestly, because any illnesses you carry, even ones that are dormant in your system, could be devastating to us. Think about it: Anything you might have in you is completely foreign to us. Our immune systems wouldn’t have had a chance to develop defenses against it.”
This thought sobered me. It didn’t seem to bother Amber, but I realized that simply by being around her I could have exposed her to something dangerous. I had not considered that before. “Do you think I have made you sick?”
She smiled, but the expression did not reach her eyes. “Maybe? Like I said, I haven’t gotten sick yet. Maybe we got lucky, or maybe whatever you have in you takes time to incubate.”
I stroked my side of the glass, across from where her cheek rested. “Does it worry you?”
Amber shook her head. “Not really. If I get sick, then my body will either fight off the infection or not, just like with human illnesses. We had a pandemic here a few years ago, and I got pretty sick then. My body had never experienced that particular virus before, but I fought it off. If you’re carrying something that infects me, then I guess I’ll just do the same thing.”
“I have put you at risk.”
“No more than I’ve putyouat risk. Look at it this way: I could easily be carrying human viruses that you’re susceptible to. It works both ways.”
I had not considered that, either. “Oh.”
She splayed her fingers on the glass. “It’ll be okay, Q’on. Sick or not, we’ll figure something out.”
I tried to take comfort in her confidence, but something was still bothering her. It may not be alien viruses, but something. “Amber?”
