Page 3 of Heart’s Prisoner

“Yea.” Jacob’s face darkened. “Don’t even have a name for his kind yet, but he’s been...challenging.”

Lana tilted her head slightly. Strangely, a more Gyda gesture.

“Alright, more bluntly, he's a real pain in the ass. Made two other therapists quit in a span of two weeks. And he’s just straight evil-looking in my honest opinion, really off-putting. Not that there aren’t a few others there that would ever win beauty contests. But still, I know how stubborn you can be, how determined. I feared how this could affect you psychologically, you know?”

“This alien. Does he have a name?”

“From what they could render, he goes by Xerus.”

Lana went quiet for a moment, thinking. She took one last sip of her drink then offered it to Jacob who took it gladly, finishing off the rest.

“And he is...different from the rest?” she asked carefully.

Jacob grunted. “In a way, yes.”

Lana’s eyes traveled around the bar and over the crowd of people. If she could get through to this Xerus, if she could successfully gain his cooperation and integrate him into society just like the Gyda…

“I know it's a lot to think about, Lana. I’ll give you a week or two to decide if you think–”

“No need.” Lana looked back at him and smiled. “I’m in.”

Jacob raised his brows in surprise. “Seriously?”

Lana nodded, her smile growing wider. “Yea. I want this. In fact, I think Ineedthis.”

Jacob snorted. “I hate to say I knew I could count on you, Lana.” For a second Lana thought she caught a dark glint in his eyes until he smiled and it was gone. He offered his hand and Lana took it. “Welcome to the Lazris team, Dr. Hart.”

Chapter Two

It took Lana two months total to complete her transition from base L3Z to LV012. Despite having all her credentials and necessary “paperwork” in order, she still had to undergo several tests and background checks before she was approved for her transfer. Once complete, she had her personal things shipped to the base then waited several days at the flight port for the ship to take her to her new home away from home.

LV012 was only a system away from her old base but still far enough away she would have to go into a sleeper-unit for at least a few hours. She hated the things. But understood their necessity. She swallowed the sleeping pills a half hour before needing to enter the unit and took the little time she had beforehand to once again look over some of the data Jacob had sent to her from Lazris’ database. On her sleek laptop she pulled up the files for each ‘asset’. No pictures popped up so she still had no idea what they looked like. There was a short description as well as status, containment procedures, and threat levels but nothing too in-depth. She’d get the full files once she was secured at the base.

Her eyes traveled over the data, looking at each file carefully. The first asset seemed pretty commonplace:

LAZRIS Project 30001B

Asset C

Dog-like quadruped. Six feet, long sharp nails, whip-like tail

Status: active contained

Containment procedures: monitor regularly, keep in the secured cell. Only to be taken out for lab testing.

Threat status: medium

Nothing unusual. And the next three–though different in appearance–had nearly identical information save for one that needed to be fed before it could be taken out to be tested.

It was the next few that really caught her attention. They all had a high threat status. Their containment procedures were also longer and more descriptive. And they were only allowed out of their holdings for very special circumstances.

The first of these was a Raptor-like species as tall as her waist. One individual raptor only had a threat status of medium but all together they raised that to high. Lana theorized they were social creatures with a high pack mentality, bred to survive as a group.

After them came a creature that–based off the description–Lana could only imagine looking like a mix between a mangled werecat and the monster from The Thing. It walked on two legs but apparently ran on four. It was to be monitored frequently and only allowed out for special testing but must first be put under and kept in its cell for at least twenty minutes until deemed safe to move, otherwise–as the procedure specifically read–"it very well might not be asleep and will easily drag the nearest unfortunate soul into its cage and eat them alive. Slowly."

Then, lastly, came what she could only assume was her new patient.

Asset X

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