Visitor's Blood Series [Book 1 + Preview of Book 2]

Chapter 11: Malook

Even though I was the one being practiced on, I found myself amused by these people's procedures. I had wondered how similarly to Galdelierian protocol that they would handle this situation. And the answer was...less aggressive. Though, I suppose they had to be mostly improvising, considering until tonight, they weren't aware that there was any other intelligent lifeforms in the universe besides themselves.

Well, some apparently theorized it, but it didn't go much further than that. Not that I was holding it to their degradation. Not really. We had only recently discovered other galaxies ourselves, and Earth would be the first with sentient life on or near our level. It was a drone that first reported the planet to us. It was a simple device which only shared that the planet was of a chemical makeup close to that of Galdelier.

I remember when I heard the news. As General, I was one of the first to be informed of such discoveries. To actually come here myself and see there were creatures of similar understanding was extraordinary, albeit unsettling that I was forced to meet them directly and unprepared.

"What is your purpose here?" the man sitting across from me repeated himself.

After leaving the kind doctor, their soldiers had brought me to a room smaller than the medical facility; it was also more bare. There was nothing within, except for a steel table in the middle, along with two cheaply constructed chairs.

It was extremely cold too; more so, I felt, than it had been traveling through the stars. The uncomfortable temperature, coupling the echo with even the slightest sound, made one feel paranoid. Though this might have been the reasoning behind the atmosphere.

"I thought I had already answered that," I stated plainly.

The man looked up from the portable computer which he had been inputting information into as we talked, "You told me you were waiting for your ship to repair, but why were you here, at our planet, in the first place?" he clarified, both his words and his face emotionless.

I sighed inwardly. I had known what he meant from the beginning, what he wanted to know, but I wouldn't tell. I couldn't. Official business or not, I'd never reveal whether my people were a threat to them. Not that I thought it mattered what I said. It was my sense that they, speaking generally, would feel intimidated either way.

Such a feeling may be warranted despite that we weren't terribly far above them on a technical level. We had had our fair share of lucky breaks, I suppose. I had already defied law enough by even being here without a direct order from the Empress; I wasn't going to screw myself and my family over more with acting as anything other than a reserved soldier...even if some things these Earthlings wanted to know were harmless curiosities.

I glanced down at the wires leading from his machine to my fingertips. When I had been placed in one of the chairs across from him, I was ordered to remain calm and sit straight while two bands were stretched around my chest. These were also attached to the computer.

I hadn't asked what it was, but was told anyway. They called it a polygraph and it was used for monitoring physical shifts in a person's breathing and heart rate to determine when they were lying or being honest.

We didn't have anything like this 'lie detector' back home. There was only so much that could be picked up through radio and other invisible frequencies from the ship. Fortunately, we'd been able to learn enough of the Earth's language to put together a strong enough data base before the actually landing. We had done well to process that this one, English, was the most widely spoken.

"What is your purpose here?" my interrogator asked again.

Even through his stoic demeanor, I could tell he was aggravated with having to repeat himself so frequently. I cut my vision to peer behind me while turning my head to the side. The two men who had brought me here, now stood a few feet back with their version of rifles ready, not directly aimed at me, just on standby.