Chapter 14 #3
With much reluctance, we stopped before passion would run away with us. While I doubted they were spying on us, our intimacy wasn’t something for prying eyes to witness or stumble in on. My mate snuggled against me and rubbed her face on the crook of my neck. Fuck, how I loved when she did that!
“For what it’s worth, Isobel helped a lot as well,” Linsea said wistfully.
My chest immediately warmed for my human friend as my mate recounted how she intervened, using her priestess status to help Linsea in her effort to protect me.
Isobel vouching for me with Colin, the Enforcers, and the UPO as a whole further appeased some of their concerns.
In fact, her words weighed more than Linsea’s, to the extent that she had known me for years.
As my spiritual advisor and meditation mentor, she was able to provide an extensive track record of all the ways in which I showed restraint and no propensity to violence.
“She truly is the sister of my heart,” I said affectionately. “Where is she now?”
“Isobel has taken a temporary assignment in a refugee shelter nearby so that she could be here for you. She’s an amazing woman. You were blessed the day she entered your life,” Linsea said warmly.
“I was indeed. Just like when you entered my life,” I said with adoration. “But what of you?”
She scrunched her face. “I’m working for the UPO. Although that had always been my goal, I’ll be happy when I can change positions.”
“Oh?” I asked, worried. “Things aren’t working out how you hoped?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that,” Linsea said in a reassuring tone. “I settled for a desk job so that I could stay close to you, right here in the research center. For now, I provide advice on various conflicts.”
“And you don’t like it?” I asked carefully.
“I don’t mind it,” she replied with a shrug.
“In truth, it’s an excellent learning experience.
But I would prefer to be the one negotiating rather than just reading about the conflicts and providing talking points and potential solutions.
Working with text isn’t the same as direct interaction with people.
Written words can be so easily misinterpreted… ”
I nodded with sympathy. “Believe me, my mate. I know exactly what you mean.”
“I bet you do,” she said with a smile. “But for now, we need to feed you. You’ve been fed intravenously for far too long. And then, I’m sorry to say that a highly unpleasant amount of tests awaits you with Arafin and Ellen, your two doctors.”
My shoulders slumped. Naturally, it made sense.
In fact, I would have expected them to drag me directly into it.
So this short reprieve with my dove meant a lot.
It also struck me as their way of saying that—as inevitable as it would be for me to be somewhat treated as a lab rat—they would make it as comfortable an experience as possible.
I hated that it was necessary, but the incommensurable gift of peace they had given me warranted any test they wanted to subject me to.
Lunch went by too fast. At least, Linsea was able to give me an update about everyone.
Mares and Tala both graduated and were each participating in a different internship.
To my delight, Mares had taken on the mantle of protecting the Syllens and joined a team dedicated to presenting a detailed plan for the slow phasing out of off-worlder presence and touristic installations in their ancestral lands.
It didn’t guarantee that their plan would be adopted, but he wisely involved the Edocit government in the whole process.
Their obvious kinship with this primitive species had his people fervent about keeping them safe.
Tala took on a similar internship to the one my mate had just completed before joining us at the university.
As for the band, they initially wanted to wait for me to come back, but Linsea made it clear that it would be unlikely.
The Enforcers spun quite the tale as to why I never returned to school, claiming I sustained grievous cerebral injury following the explosion.
And although I would make a complete recovery, it would take many months followed by even more time in physiotherapy and readaptation.
In the end, they took on a new lead singer and ended up signing with a label.
As much as I rejoiced for them, it stung my ego a little that they replaced me so quickly.
Granted, it took them over four months with countless rejections among the hundreds of applicants.
However, learning that they shot down any requests from Temerns did something funny to me.
According to Linsea, Ben declared that Echoes of Madness only had one Temern, and it was me. No one else would ever hold that title.
Did that stroke my ego? Absolutely.
At the same time, it struck me as a wise decision.
Having another Temern lead singer would only have him constantly compared to me.
By choosing someone from another species, they could make the role their own, bring in their own flavor and style without people having unrealistic expectations purely based on race.
Once our meal completed, I subjected myself to a never-ending string of tests.
It sucked even more that Linsea couldn’t stay with me through it all.
Anyway, she had work to do. But my dismay hit a whole new level once they informed me that I would spend the night in observation in my medical room.
Obviously, I hadn’t expected to be allowed to return home.
However, I foolishly thought I could stay with Linsea in the apartment they had temporarily assigned to her while she worked the advisor role for the UPO.
I shamelessly tried to convince them to let her stay the night with me, but the reason for their refusal quickly became apparent.
By the time they were done setting me up, I had lost count of the number of wires, magnetic monitoring patches, sensors, and other devices attached to me in one form or another.
It was a good thing I’d never been the toss and turn type or they would have had to strap me to the bed to avoid all this shit flying off the minute I attempted to move.
The second day started off with a few more tests before thankfully switching to a far more interesting one. Arafin led me to a lower floor of the building and introduced me to a Raithean male named Yinric.
Like all the members of his species, he didn’t possess legs but a set of eight tentacles, only four of which boasted suction cups.
His torso was muscular and well-defined, with two arms and five fingers like me.
Where soft down feathers covered my torso, from a distance, his chest might have passed off for that of a human with dark-gray skin.
But on closer inspection, one could see that his skin was a bit more akin to that of a sea mammal like a dolphin, and discreet scales were scattered along his shoulders, arms, and sides.
He extended a hand for me to shake in a traditional human greeting. Although I reciprocated, that took me aback. Neither his species nor mine normally shook hands. I could only speculate that frequent interactions with humans had turned this into an instinctive response when meeting strangers.
He smiled warmly, the tips of the shorter and narrower tentacles that graced his head almost like hair slightly curled in a way that expressed excitement.
It should bother me that the prospect of running tests on me triggered this thrilled reaction.
But there was something so innocent and enthusiastic about him that made his responses somewhat contagious.
“I leave you in Yinric’s capable hands,” Arafin said, the amusement in his voice hinting that he, too, had perceived the Raithean’s eagerness.
“Once you’re done, please go see Ellen to make sure all is well.
Do not let him overexert himself,” Arafin added in a stern voice while eyeing his colleague.
By the sheepish expression Yinric gave him, I realized the warning was actually meant for the Raithean, not me. I suspected him to be the type to easily get carried away by a project of passion.
As the Temern doctor exited the immense room, Yinric waved for me to follow him.
He walked to what resembled a crescent moon-shaped reception desk.
A quick glance at it indicated that it was in fact some sort of elaborate control board.
I suspected it could activate various apparatus throughout the space.
About five meters ahead of us, a large table with enough seats for eight sat in front of a theater-sized screen that spread over nearly half of the back wall. Currently, it displayed an idle animation of a luminous beam with shimmering pastel colors crawling lazily over the screen.
“My role is to help assess and train both your physical and kinetic abilities,” Yinric said with a thrill in his voice as he stopped next to the control panel in the central area.
“First, we’re going to run you through some basic warmups and then cardio and strength exercises.
The scans and tests your doctors performed indicate that you haven’t suffered any atrophy while in stasis.
However, you used to be a top athlete, and we want to be sure to bring you back at least to the same level you were before the incident and hopefully make you even better. ”
I gladly complied. My eyes widened when the Raithean tapped a button on the control console, and the floor parted in four different locations on the left side of the room, as did a couple sections of the wall behind it.
The best training equipment available anywhere in the galaxy rose from the floor.