Page 3 of Fourth

THE SHIP’Scontainment chamber lights pulsed slowly, recalibrating for a new biological presence. Cold and sterile, the chamber adjusted its systems without hesitation—air composition, temperature, ambient noise. Everything shifted to accommodate the unconscious female on the diagnostic table.

Faint containment fields shimmered along the walls, while overhead sensors whispered to life, feeding biometric data into the ship’s core. She hadn’t moved since arrival, but already the ship had begun its scan: neural activity, oxygen saturation, residual atmospheric traces. She was triggering protocols Riv’En had never seen activate.

He stood still, watching.

Restraints kept her in place. Minimal force, just enough to prevent damage if she jerked awake. Below the table, magnetic clamps hissed. The chamber sealed, lights dimmed, quarantine confirmed.

His fingers lingered longer than they should have on the restraints. Not to secure her. She wasn’t a threat. At least, not physically. But his thoughts had slipped, disrupted by the scent of her skin, the echo of her scream. Something about her proximity bent the silence between them into tension.

It wasn’t want. It wasn’t even curiosity. It was something older, sensitive and unprocessed. Akind of pressure behind his sternum that logic could not filterout.

She shouldn’t matter. Dozens before her hadn’t. He’d trained for humans. Simulated them. Studied their biology, their weaknesses, their unpredictability. He’d never come into contact with one until now. But this one—

He studied her face. Still, pale, but not weak. Even sedated, she looked like she might wake ready to fight.

The data streamed in: elevated neural activity, tension in her muscles, rapid eye movement behind closed lids. Scans showed nothing anomalous. No implants. No contamination. But something in her profile didn’t sit right.

She read as human.

But her presence disrupted every metric, like noise in a system calibrated for silence.

Her genetic scan was incomplete. Mostly normal, but laced with inconsistencies—weak hybrid signals, minor anomalies. Not enough to flag her as non-human. But enough to suggest she’d been exposed to something.

Selyr’s experiments, maybe.

She could be a carrier. Asleeper. Even unaware.

Containment remained mandatory.

Still, he couldn’t look away. The holographic shell cloaking him in a human disguise hummed softly against his skin, masking every alien edge, every inhuman contour. It wasn’t malfunctioning. It was flawless. And yet, he had the urge to deactivate it. To let her see him—truly see him. Not as camouflage. Not as simulation. But as the being who stood before her, long, dark hair and black eyes, inverted brows, shimmering skin, and through human perception, alien.

Honesty. Efficiency. Aclean reveal, guarded and unemotional. No misdirection. No deception.

And yet, something in him hesitated.

She would wake disoriented and terrified.And her fear, for reasons he didn’t want to examine, mattered.That was the flaw. The warning.

She stirred, asoft sound escaping her lips, her breath ragged as her eyes flickered open. Her pupils contracted rapidly, automatically adjusting to the harsh light overhead. He noted the spike in her heart rate, the erratic rhythm of her pulse. It was pure fear. Understandable, given her situation. But it wasn’t panic. Notyet.

She was still processing, still fighting to make sense of the reality she had been thrust into. Her body tensed as she tried to move, but her limbs were sluggish, uncooperative, restrained. The fear was there, but so was something else. Aspark. Resistance. It would make this process far more complicated than expected.

A soft sound. Atwitch.

Riv’En went still as her breath stuttered, her eyes fluttering. Pupils dilated as she blinked against the light, chest rising and falling too fast for sedation, not fast enough for panic.

He moved closer.

He prepared the communication implant, exact placement required. No margin for error. And just to be on the safe side, the recipient should be conscious to avoid potentially disrupting archaic brains. He’d know immediately if such were the case and reverse the process before any real harm occurred.

His hand found the correct nerve cluster. Aquick insertion behind her ear. She gasped, cried out, body jerking. Then went still, gasping.

He stepped back, pulse steady. Mostly.

She opened her eyes fully. Looked athim.

And something in the space between them changed.

Not logically. Not measurably.

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