I hadn't expected to wake up, so when my eyes opened and the procedure room was visible around me, I immediately began to cry.
Looking around, there was no sign of Zeni or the doctor. There were just a few of the doctor’s team huddled around a tablet, discussing something with each other.
I tried to move quietly, taking inventory of how my body was feeling. They hadn't explained the procedure to me, so I wasn't sure how they put the Vepar fetus in, if it was like how humans did IVF, or if it was put in another way.
Besides my head hurting, I didn't feel too different. Maybe they experienced a change of heart?
Remembering the look on Zeni's face and the fervor in her voice when she had ordered them to start the procedure, I didn't think that they would have been able to get around it with her in the room.
Dr. Cryon suddenly walked into the room with her male companion that had been introduced to me.
She looked very focused on me, and I expected her to start asking questions about how I was feeling. Instead, she turned to the two Vepar that had been talking on the other side of the room.
"You’re needed in the east building," she said to them.
They immediately nodded and left the room, not even glancing over to where I was strapped in.
The doctor waited for a long minute. She seemed to be listening to their footsteps as they faded down the hall. I wondered what was going on.
Suddenly her companion was by the table, unbuckling the straps that had me trapped to the table.
I looked over at them confused. "What's going on?" I asked, wondering if I would now be allowed more freedom because the procedure had been done.
They didn't answer any of my questions, not even when all of the straps had been released, and I was sitting up. Dr. Cryon carefully helped me off the table since I was feeling weak after laying down for who knows how long.
"Can you walk?" she asked, a hint of urgency in her voice.
"I think so," I croaked, my voice groggy from my latest blackout session. Hopefully, there wouldn't be long term damage from being knocked out so many times. I wondered how much the effect of Vepar medicine on the human system had been studied. I was doubting very much based on their attitude towards the human race as a whole.
I wasn't sure why I was thinking of that at the moment. I really should just be excited that I seemed to be alive. Unless this was the afterlife and I had been doomed to hell, the hell where I was the Vepar puppet for eternity.
Now I was just being dramatic.
"We need to go," the doctor’s male companion said fiercely to her.
I was so confused.
Dr. Cryon began to quickly walk towards the door. Her companion nudged me to follow them. I began to walk, my gait unsteady as we went along.
The doctor looked back. "We’re going to need to go quicker than this," she ordered.
Nodding, the male Vepar picked me up in his arms and began trotting behind the doctor who had left the room.
“What’s going on? What’s the rush?” I asked, but he kept his focus dead ahead. “Please just tell me where you’re taking me.” Fear slid down my spine, and I began to jerk in his arms, trying to get away.
"Keep still," he muttered under his breath. “We’re helping you.”
I stopped struggling immediately. Helping me? “How?”
All of a sudden, one of the doctor’s team members came out into the hall. A younger woman with short cropped orange hair and matching irises. She stopped short, looking at us confused. "Isn't she supposed to remain laying down for at least a few hours after the procedure? What's going on?" she asked him.
Dr. Cryon stepped forward. “It’s okay, Teky, We’re transferring her to the lab. We received instructions for additional tests.”
Teky’s wide nostrils flared, her fierce gaze meeting mine, and I could have sworn somewhere behind that gaze, she held pity for me. My head spun with confusion and I wanted to scream, to run. But the man’s arms tightened against me like he sensed me panicking. I had to believe him and the doctor were helping me, had to trust these strangers who experimented on me at Zeni’s command. I had no plan B to escape aside from my three Vepar coming to rescue me.
Teky stepped aside, and I was rushed forward, bouncing in the man’s arms. I let myself cradle against him, my head resting on his shoulder as I prayed for once that something was going to go in my favor.
It wasn’t long before we stepped outside, bright sunlight beaming down on us. I lifted my head, squinting my eyes to find that we stood behind a building made of a kind of plexiglass… or maybe it was glass, minus the transparency. Wide open land spread out before us... all green grass and trees of varied colors in the distance.
A small gray space cruiser sat a few feet away.
The man set me on my feet. I wobbled at first before I caught my balance. “You’re free,” his rushed words whispered as he pointed to the ship. “That ship will take you from here and back to Corran.”
“You’re letting me go?” I faced him and the doctor. I knew the looks on their faces. Something terrible was going to happen to me and they wanted no part of it.
“Is Corran on that ship?” I asked as I stared at the vessel.
“It’s a friend. He’ll help take you to Corran. Now go, stop wasting time.” Dr. Cryon gave a shove to my back, and I stumbled forward.
My heart sank to my feet as I stared at them over my shoulder, tears pooling in my eyes. “Thank you.” Both of them met my gaze for a sliver of time, worry pulling their expressions taut, then they turned and rushed back into the building.
They risked too much to release me, to not follow Zeni’s orders, and I didn’t blame them. She was a massive bitch and I was sure there would be repercussions.
Wasting no time, I burst across the field, moving as fast as my exhaustion allowed, my sights set on the ship. Each step shot pain through my body, but I wouldn’t stop. Not when it meant seeing my guys again and stopping the experiments. Corran would help me, he’d fix whatever they did in that lab.
Vibrations suddenly traveled up my legs from the ground, and I glanced down and around me, seeing nothing. I turned to stare at the building, expecting to find guards chasing me down.
Except, a long ship with upward bent wings hovered in the air between me and the lab. My breaths were barreling out of me as panic lashed over my chest.
They’d found me!
I spun and ran, my feet punching the ground.
My teeth chattered, and I sprinted madly. Adrenaline pushed me, numbing all pain. But the closer I got to the gray cruiser, the more something looked wrong.
The side of the vessel came into view and it had a gaping hole across the back half, its edges charred black. Someone had shot the vessel. My brain wasn’t catching up with the sight fast enough or I might have burst out crying.
Ice-cold fingers gripped my arm, and I jumped at the touch, but they swung me around with such force, I tripped over my own feet.
Stumbling, I fell to my knees and looked up to an alien wearing a black body-hugging suit that glinted in the sun. Dark oily hair was slicked off his face, and his cheeks were hauntingly gaunt. Black eyes blinked down at me.
“Khonsu!” I whimpered, punching his grip with my free hand, trying to scramble backward. “Leave me alone!”
“So, this one can talk. She’ll be popular.” He wrenched me to my feet and tossed me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing, and in two flashes, the darkness stole the sunlight.
I glanced up to find myself inside a ship… the enemy’s ship. He tossed me onto the floor, and I landed so hard, all the air was knocked out of my lungs. I gasped for air, when the forcefield shot up in front of me, trapping me inside a confined corner of the ship.
Jolting to my feet, I cried out, “Release me now.”
But the two Khonsu settled into the seats at the front of the vessel and the shuttle trembled before we lurched forward. Unlike Corran’s ship, this thing shook like a rust bucket.
“Let me go!” I continued to scream while searching the area for any weapons, but the place was barren. Just black walls closing me in.