Page 22 of Rebirth

“She has been here for many cycles, and though her wounds have all healed, she remains unresponsive.”

I glance up at the tall alien behind me, gaze searching his as he continues. “Between developing the weapon we needed to win this war, she has been my other…preoccupation.”

The way he says it, as if she’s more of a science experiment than anything else, sends a strange chill through me.

“Utterly pale and thin…her flesh has only recently begun to hide the skeleton underneath…Humans require a variety of nutrients for survival, and this one…she had been at the brink of death.”

Turning back to face the cylinder, my gaze flicks over the woman’s face.

“I have looked at her many times. Watched her for countless hours.” He’rox pauses. “It always remains the same.”

I stand staring at her too, his words giving me more information than he’s revealed. Her state confuses him and that alone is a bad thing. With all this technology, if he doesn’t know why she appears to be in a coma…

As her body turns slowly, the dark veins embedded underneath her skin come back into view and I resist the urge to look away.

“Those veins are the same as the ones I saw out there.” I turn to face He’rox and inhale slightly at how close he is to me. So big, yet he moves so silently. Tilting my head back, I meet the icy gaze of the alien I’m beginning to know.

“Not many of your kind know of the existence of these two specimen,” he says, still not giving me answers but giving me necessary information anyway.

“But you brought me here. Showed me this when I only just arrived. Why?”

“You are like me.”

I push down the lump in my throat one more time as he slides his gaze to the cylinder now at my back.

“You have discovered the cancer,” he says. “An anomaly that should be dead, yet persists.”

“What…what are you saying?” His gaze slides to mine, and I try to read the depth of information in those eyes. “That thing out there…it’s some sort of disease?”

No response.

“You helped us drive away the Gryken, but they left that thing behind.” I press. “And now you’re realizing something. Aren’t you?”

He nods so slightly, I almost miss it, and there in those cold eyes, something sparkles. Almost as if he is enjoying this exchange. My curiosity. My questions.

“They’re not supposed to be there,” I whisper, not that I needed any confirmation of the fact. What I saw was strange. Inhuman. Unearthly.

He’rox shakes his head just as slightly as his nod.

“What does it mean?”

For a moment, he stares at me but I sense he is no longer seeing me but looking past me. And then his gaze adjusts to the female floating at my back while mine shifts to the evil in the room with us.

“It means…possibly…my work here is not done.”

I gulp again. “And if it’s not?”

“I will have to sacrifice once again.”

His words seem to have more weight, more meaning than they seem and I let them settle for a little bit before turning to face the woman living in suspended animation.

It’s an easy decision. One I don’t even have to consider.

“Then I will sacrifice too.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

HE’ROX

---