They must have looked incongruous, two giant males pinching the spindly limbs of the sleeping alien. However, having tangled with a fully-grown one, and his hands phantom throbbing at the sight of the razor-sharp teeth in the jaw Leila pried open to run a swab for saliva collection, had him leery. Grayson didn’t realize he’d stopped breathing until Leila took her hands away from the creature’s mouth.
“Why does it have nostrils if it doesn’t inhale air?” Asterion asked. A good question.
“Most likely to scent for sustenance.”
“Didn’t the blob find food before it got a nose, though?” Grayson didn’t mean to be contrary, but his brain struggled to understand.
“It did, meaning it must have more than one sense it relies on for hunting, or could be I’d fed it enough that, before limbs and other things, it developed an olfactory receptor.”
Fancy sentence to say, it grew a nose first.
“And how did it propel?” Asterion’s turn to ask a question.
“Probably slid like a snail, inching its way. Or maybe the flesh formed a tiny limb underneath that I didn’t notice. If I do grow another piece, I’ll have a camera recording to catch what itactually does.” She sounded excited, whereas Grayson eyed the alien and wondered if keeping it alive was the right thing to do.
After the mouth swab, she scraped the alien’s outer layer of skin, clipped its claws, and then took out a scalpel to excise some tissue. She took three pieces, none of them larger than a pea, from the tail, an arm, and its back.
“Why the different spots?” Grayson knew nothing of research and biology yet found it fascinating—and not just because Leila was super-hot.
“In reptiles, the tails have more connective tissue and less muscle. The difference is especially marked in lizards that can shed their tail to escape predators. Given their appearance, I wonder if the aliens are somewhat the same.”
Made sense. It did look like a mini dinosaur without the leathery skin.
“I’ve got all the samples I need,” Leila announced. “If you’re both comfortable with it, I’d like to take some measurements now.”
“Go for it,” Grayson breezily replied, and Asterion nodded in agreement.
She measured it, tail tip to head, limb length, and weight, then palpated its belly. Tugged its tail, which remained firmly attached. Tried to pry open its eyes, but the lids remained firmly shut. Odd.
“Okay, I think that’s enough for now,” she stated, standing up and retreating. “You can put it back in the cage.”
“I’ve got it,” Grayson stated, and Asterion released the tiny arms he held. Grayson cradled the body in his palm so as to not crush it. As he put the alien inside the cage, it woke so suddenly he didn’t have time to react.
It attacked his thumb, teeth biting hard into the thick glove while the four limbs wrapped around so it could gnaw. It didn’thurt, but caused a dilemma since no amount of shaking loosened it.
“Hold on,” Leila yelled, leaning over to grab a syringe she’d had stuffed in her lab coat pocket. She stabbed the alien and pushed the plunger, injecting it with a sleeping agent that turned it from rabid to sleeping.
Grayson pried it off his thumb, lay it in the cage, and slammed the hatch shut before securing the lock.
“It is quite vicious,” Asterion observed as they exited the chamber.
“I’m thinking hungry,” Leila replied. “During its growth phase, I imagine it wants to eat often.”
“You going to keep feeding it?” Grayson couldn’t hold back a note of disapproval. While he understood why she would, he worried about her safety.
“Yes. I’ll want to measure if the amount or type of sustenance correlates to how rapidly it evolves. Do certain meat proteins energize it more than others? Does the quantity matter more than quality?”
“May I assist you?” Asterion inquired. “This is all quite new and intriguing.”
“Only if you’ll obey my every instruction.” Leila’s firm counter.
“But of course. You are the scientist. I am merely your pupil.”
Lucky bastard. Grayson kind of wished he’d offered, but then again, he’d not been brought here to play scientist, but warrior.
Speaking of which… The lights in the room flashed before Aries’ voice came out of nowhere.
“Libra, please report to the training room.”
