Page 15 of Scales of Time

She shrugged and opened the shoulder closure, peeling it down and off. When it was off, she made sure it was turned out correctly before she set it on a chair.

She pointed at the analyzer while Essan covered his smile with his fingers. He lifted his chin. “Yes, that one.”

She moved and settled into the machine, pulling it closed and gripping the handrails. Analysis hurt.

“Deep breaths, and stay as still as you can.”

She said, “Yup. Start it up.”

The pain was immediate. Tissue, bone, and skin samples were taken immediately. There was a numbing injection, but her body didn’t like it, so she had to breathe shallowly until it was over.

When a needle entered her ear, she tried to scream, but only a choking sound came out, and then the pain was over. Brain tissue. This was a thorough exam. Just as she was thinking that she was invaded from below, and tears seeped from her eyes as the ovarian sample was withdrawn via a needle through her vagina. Tears were flowing freely when the unit released her from hell a minute later. It had taken everything.

Essan wasn’t looking at her. He was facing the display. “That wasn’t so bad now, was it?”

She moved slowly and didn’t answer. There was a stack of what looked like medical wraps that she headed toward. Essan hadn’t turned to look at her but chuckled. “Look, you are resistant to painkillers. Oh.”

As he looked at her, she was pulling on a robe with shaking hands, bent over as her abdomen cramped wildly. “No shit.”

Tears were still falling, and he said, “Get into the repair unit.”

She tied the sash and said, “I can’t. I can’t lie flat. My body is going to be cramped up for the next half hour, minimum.”

“What is causing the problem?”

“It took a sample of my ovary. That involved a very long needle, some aspiration, and puncturing a lot of soft tissue. Well, they have everything except my teeth, and if they try getting those, I am going to fight.”

He frowned. “The analgesic gas and numbing agent should have taken care of it.”

“Don’t work on me. Whatever they mixed me with has a lot of resistance.”

“You should have said.”

“I didn’t know what kind of analyzer it was. By the time I figured it out, pain was firmly in control.”

“You should have called out.”

“I couldn’t.” She waddled over to the chair where her suit was and slowly got herself onto the seat. She let out a low groan and sighed as her body stopped clenching when her legs weren’t in use.

“This isn’t a situation that I have been in, and I have been in the world for quite some time.”

“Yay, you.” She closed her eyes as a wave of pain went through her. The cramps were lessening, but they made her so happy that she had gotten an implant to stop her periods. They had been brutal.

He crouched in front of her. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Does Kifessan have laws against hitting a Hmrain?”

He smirked. “It does.”

“What about lighting one on fire?”

“That comes under the bodily harm laws. Sorry.”

“Then, you are useless right now.”

He paused, nodded, then got up, and went into some kind of cubicle. He came back with a hypo gun and walked up to her. He pressed it against the back of her neck, and the heat in the injection startled her.

“What was that?”

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