They glowed like jellyfish when they spoke in a lyrical voice, the ear that didn’t have my translator heard singing, like how a whale would communicate, only without a mouth.
“I am Inaeh. You may call me Healer if that is easier to pronounce in your tongue. Your body has taken very serious damage, Nin At’ens. I am going to heal you. You may feel mild discomfort,” they said, and their jellyfish glow spread down their arm and onto me. It spread over my body and a strange tingling sensation started wherever the glow touched. It didn’t hurt, but it was weird as hell. I looked at Ohem and he was watching me, my hand engulfed in his. The pain that had been constant since my berserker shift faded into an ache, and then it was gone entirely.
I smiled at him in shocked relief. “I feel better.” I shifted my smile to the doctor and thanked them, too. Ohem’s Izi lit up in a slow flowing pattern that started at his head and drifted down his body.
He breathed a sigh. “Thank you, Inaeh,” he said to the healer.
The alien pulled their glow back from my body. “It was my pleasure, General.” They turned to me and bowed. “Nin At’ens.” They made their way over to the girls and checked them over, only having to glow over Callie. Her nanos must have still been healing her. We were very lucky she was alive.
The healer left the room, Ohem pulled more red clothing from inside a compartment on the wall and handed them to the girls.
“Rema, will you show them where the changing rooms are?” Ohem asked. Rema nodded and led the girls through the glass door the healer had just left through.
Ohem picked me up and hitched me high on his stomach, my legs wrapping around him automatically. I hugged my arms around his neck. “Happy to be back?” I asked him. He didn’t answer me, just pressed his mouth to mine and slipped his tongue past my lips to stroke inside. I hummed in appreciation and kissed him back, tightening my hold.
He broke the kiss to lick along my neck and around my ear. “I feared for you, Jack. I have never been so happy to see the medical labs in my long life. Are you truly better?” He asked, lifting his head to look into my eyes.
“Yes, Ohem. I’m good as new. I promise.” He nodded and gave me a tight squeeze before setting me down.
I frowned at him in disappointment and he chuckled. “The others are coming back.”
Rema opened the door and led the girls back into the room. They were all dressed in the red outfits of most of the crew and myself. The red cargo/combat pants were snug and comfortable and the long sleeve shirt was a thick material that tightened across my chest and theirs to provide support for breasts. Was that by design or just happenstance? The girls had been given the same red leather flats that I had been. They were comfortable, like everything we’d been provided so far. I smiled at the girl’s looks of satisfaction and relief at finally being properly clothed.
Patty had a satisfied, smug look on her face and Rema looked flushed. I gave her a questioning look, and she mouthed “later” at me.
Ohem stared at Rema with amused eyes and the elf blushed darker. The tips of his ears turning pink again. Oh yeah, Patty had made some type of move alright. I looked at Callie and Sam. Sam grinned at me while Callie rolled her eyes. Girl was a stick in the mud sometimes.
“Rema can show you to your rooms. I need to have Jack see one of our scientists for a few moments,” Ohem said, and reached for my hand.
Sam chewed her lip and stepped forward. “Can I come? I’d really like to see the science department.”
Ohem stared at her and then nodded. “Yes, you can come. I must warn you, it may be dull. I am giving Jack our armor and having some samples taken to help explain why her body is rejecting some of our technology. Don’t think I hadn’t noticed you scratching at your ear,ursang,” he said.
I had? I hadn’t even noticed, but now that he had so kindly pointed it out to me, my ear was a little itchy. Dang. I couldn’t even have external tech? Learning Ohem’s language the hard way was a sucky prospect. His mouth was shaped a lot different from mine. The language was guttural. I couldn’t even roll my Rs for Spanish.
Ohem’s fingers pinching my chin pulled me from my thoughts, and I looked up at him.
“We will discover something that works better for you, Jack. We also have ways of giving you information directly to your mind, though the process is painful and I would like to avoid it, as it can sometimes cause complications and confusion.”
I shrugged. Bring it on.
“Well, we’d still like to come,” Callie said, and Ohem sighed but nodded and led the way out of the medical room and back down the hallway to the room where the mannequin had been blown up. I was disappointed to see that it had been cleared away. The room bore no evidence of a live fire test. It was exactly how I pictured a science lab would look like. Lots of equipment and desks spread around in the large room with testing areas that resembled indoor firing ranges to the back.
The same spider alien that had been testing the weapon was still in the room. He turned from his work at a desk when we entered and gave Ohem the fist over chest salute and bowed his head to me. He had a friendly face if you ignored the six black eyes and the sharp teeth that he had bared in a welcoming smile. His upper body was almost entirely human. He was a handsome male for one with spider parts. He was dark-skinned and had his hair in many braids, with gold pieces woven into them. He had the typical eight legs of a spider and what looked like claspers that extended from the side where his spider half met the human skin of his upper body.
His spider body was almost the same deep brown as his skin and segmented with hard plates with brown fuzzy fibers on his legs that made me cringe when I looked at them. Sam was staring at him with shy curiosity, her eyes roaming over his body in a way that surprised me. Or maybe it shouldn’t have, since she had enjoyed watching Ohem and me back on the shithole planet. Our little doctor was a closet freak. I would bet my life on it. The quiet ones always were. Someone just needed to coax it out of her.
The spider doctor shifted his bulk to the side and waved at the girls. “Hello.” He bowed at the waist at us. “I’m Dr. Ghix. How may I help you?” He said. His language in my untranslated ear was all clicks and bird songs. How pretty for such a menacing looking alien.
Ohem saluted him back. “I ask if you’d perform some tests on my wife. Her body isn’t taking to technology well.” Ohem narrowed his eyes at the doctor. “What you find about her in this room stays with you. Do I make myself clear?” His voice was filled with menace.
Dr. Ghix saluted again and took a little shuffle step back away from my mate. “Yes, of course, General.”
Ohem sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. “Jack is a Rijitera.”
The doctor didn’t get scared, but he vibrated a little in place. I don’t think it was from fear. He had that ‘Holy shit, once in a lifetime discovery’ look on his face that I sometimes saw on the history channel when archaeologists found a new tomb.
Ohem’s eyes narrowed until they were glowing yellow slits. “You will be the only one taking samples. No talking about your findings with your peers. No talking to anyone about it. After you have the data you need, all samples are to be destroyed. Do you understand?” Ohem said, his tone sharp enough to cut.
