Page 85 of Homebound
“That one time was a lucky accident. A damaged Rix ship landed here at the docks several years ago. It never asked permission to land, never sent a distress signal, or gave any warning at all - it just fell out of the sky. The ship was in bad shape but the crew was spunky. In what we now know as a typical Rix fashion, they refused to come out and play nice, provoking a military stand-off. Even dock workers couldn't approach their spacecraft. Rix attempted to perform repairs themselves but they never finished.”
Gemma shivered. “What happened?”
“What do you think happened? The people of this City didn’t care for Rix’s display of attitude. The magistrate mounted a militant suppression with orders to kill the unfriendly crew. Outnumbered and in disrepair, Rix attempted to leave but the ship blew up at takeoff. Its pieces are now on the bottom of the bay.”
“And this was the only survivor?” Gemma pointed at the picture.
Dr. Delano nodded. “He wasn’t on the ship. He stayed behind to provide cover.”
“Alone?”
Dr. Delano chuckled. “He, alone, wiped out half of the City’s militant force before they finally cut him down.”
“He sacrificed himself.” Gemma’s heart ached at the thought.
“I can’t say if he sacrificed himself or was ordered to stay behind. Either way, he hadn’t expected to survive.”
Oh, Simon.
“From the first time I saw him,” Dr. Delano continued, “I was intrigued. He should’ve died ten times over from the wounds he had sustained, yet he was still breathing when we got to him. That’s when I realized that Rix's physical attributes far surpass ours. I hadn’t known such species existed.”
“You admit they are superior to humans.”
He scoffed. “Superior? No. They’re aliens. They can’t compare to us in cognitive development or societal complexity. But they have traits we could benefit from.”
Gemma frowned but Dr. Delano didn’t pay attention to her changing expression as he continued, “Besides being immune to most human diseases, they have a phenomenal tolerance for pain. They require a ridiculously small amount of food to survive. They regenerate tissues we don’t.”
“They’re simply different,” she said rather sharply, “What is the point of all this?”
“Genes! If only I had another chance to study a Rix, I could then isolate their genetic sequences and work to implant them in humans. Did you know that their natural lifespan is over two hundred years?”
“No, I did not.” She never asked Simon how old he was.
Dr. Delano became ecstatic. “Imagine living that long! This alone is worth everything, Gemma. Everything!”
Oblivious to Gemma’s hard stare, Dr. Delano kept rambling about genes and lifespans, waxing poetic about the future of humankind if only Simon’s bone marrow could be harvested and re-planted to grow in a Petri dish.
Gemma stopped listening repelled by his absolute lack of concern for Simon. To Dr. Delano, he amounted to no more than a lab rat. The doctor believed he found a fountain of youth in the face of a Rix alien with his strong body and long lifespan. He’d become consumed with the desire to take Simon apart to the molecular level in hopes of appropriating that what he was never meant to have.
“What happened to this Rix?” Gemma pointed at the illustration.
Dr. Delano folded his arms across his chest and his expression became guarded. “We couldn’t cure him.”
“Cure him from what?”
“Wounds. Deep wounds.”
“All’s ready for you, doctor.” The nurse approached them holding a new set of gloves. “The patient’s up and waiting.”
Uncle Drexel was indeed sitting up, eyes open and alert, lips tight and pale, and, thank God, silent.
Dr. Delano snapped the new pair of gloves onto his hands and turned to finish Uncle Drexel’s procedure with Gemma standing sentinel under the reproduction of Simon.
“There are no Rix aliens in the prison, you said?” Delano asked casually when she and Uncle Drexel were on their way out of the door.
“Not that I know of,” Gemma said with restraint.
“The marks on Perali bodies are indeed unusual…”
