“I’m going to hover this over your body to see if you have any diseases. It will give me all sorts of information. This won’t hurt at all but I need you to keep still,” Yamal tells me. “You can answer my questions, though.”
Fascinated, I watch as he starts moving the wand slowly from my foot all the way up to my head.
“How did that work for you? Did you miss those vaccinations?” Yamal asks.
“No, I got them.” Tears pool in my eyes.
“How?” Daddy asks.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I mumble.
“I need to know,” Yamal explains. “It’s important as your doctor to know these things. Do you remember what they were?”
“I don’t remember what they were,” I reply honestly.
We were never given that information. On the space station, we were just told to go to the medical bay and get the pills and shots before heading back to our room to rest the remainder of the day. Some of us asked regularly what it was, but we were told by Headmistress Helena that it was to keep us healthy and not everyone got the same thing.
“And how did you get given them?” Daddy asks once again.
“I really don’t want to talk about it.” I look over my shoulder at him.
“But Yamal needs this information,” Daddy reminds me. “We aren’t going to get angry. You just need to tell us so we can understand.”
I take a deep breath in and slowly let it out. “Usually, I threw up a lot and passed out. That’s when they would give me the shots all at once while I was out and couldn’t remember anything.”
I close my eyes and try to curl up.
“They did what?” Daddy’s voice is calm.
I shake my head, wrapping my arms around my waist.
“Pull your hands out. I need to run the device over them,” Yamal gently tells me.
He grabs my wrists and helps pull my arms away from my waist. The one thing that was comforting me I can no longer do.
“I’m going to kill them,” Daddy growls.
My eyes go wide, and I lift my head to look at him.
“What?” I whisper.
“They should not have done that,” he tells me. “They should have figured something out or not given you the shots.”
I shrug and look forward again. Yamal is still slowly moving the wand over my body.
“Does it really get everything inside me?” I ask.
“It shows me all your blood vessels, bones, and organs. It will show me if you have any illness on a superficial level. Then we are going to have to take your temperature and check your other vitals,” Yamal explains.
“No taking blood to see if I’m low on anything?” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “When we take your temperature, it will give us that data.”
“How?” I wrinkle my nose as he lifts the wand over my head.
“Our technology is much advanced than humans’. This is how we examine to see if there is anything wrong. Saves a lot of time and recourses.” Yamal chuckles. “And it’s better for people who are afraid of needles.”
“Is there anyone else like me?” I lean forward as I look at him.
