Mira's companions were at the habitat when she arrived. Sirena, being the closest as she approached, was the first to notice her, "where have you been, we worried about you ... Ah, but you found something," she exclaimed.
Mira retrieved the human from her specimen pouch and showed him to her her companion. Sirena's eyes opened wide with interest, she brought her hands up, her left under Mira's, the other reaching into her palm as if to touch him.
The sudden appearance of Sirena and her two long fingers reaching towards him caused the human to cringe and shrink back from the probing digits. Sirena realized she had startled the little creature and immediately pulled her hand back.
"He is very timid," said Mira.
"Is it what I think it is?"replied Sirena.
"Yes, a human," remarked Mira excitedly.
"A human," grumbled Otead who abruptly joined the group. Otead was a Geotechnical Researcher who viewed what he considered the less developed warm blooded life forms with contempt. He believed their wasteful abuse of natural resources to be the primary cause of decay in many planets.
Otead glared down at the tiny human who cowered in Mira's hands. "This was the indigenous species declared culpable for this planets deteriorated state by the Council. This also means there must be more!"
Mira sensed her charges sudden anxiety due to Oteads presence and held him close to her. "I know you all want to study him but he is frightened and needs to be calmed down," she declared.
Mira hurried off to the transport research lab with Sirena close behind her. Sirena's expertise lay in collecting and cataloging biological organisms for study and was familiar with the protocols for handling agitated specimens. Upon entering the lab she picked up a small narrow tubular device and directed the nozzle at the human's face. She slid her finger over an orifice and a light touched the humans body. A reading displayed in the air above the instrument followed by a soft spray that encompassed his head immediately putting him to sleep.
Mira placed the human on an examination tray and activated the optical scanner. Sirena joined Mira and together they reviewed the data on the scanner's register. A holographic image shown above an instrument panel they would use to access the various data streams regarding the physiology of the specimen. The register had stored in its crystalline memory supplementary information on the human anatomy gathered before the terraforming and Mira was anxious to compare that archived data to her live specimen.
Several items of particular note caught Sirena's attention. The human speech mechanism was located in the throat below his mouth. Sounds were produced by the passing of air from it's two paired lungs through the rhythmic opening and closing of muscle and folded tissue. A process that had the potential of generating sound rich in harmonics and tone.
Conversely, the Miorpean speech center is located in their chest. Speech was created by modulating the intensity of air as it passed through a cavity above a single lung. By manipulating the amplitude of air passing through the chamber Miorpeans could form an infinite variety of pitched sounds, many of which are inaudible to the human ear.
Now Mira understood why her attempt to calm him verbally only caused to increase his distress. Her voice would have sounded like the rush of wind intermixed with high pitch squeals and squeaks. Sadly, she recognized that their vastly dissimilar vocal faculties coupled with his lack of psychic abilities made direct communication with the human all but impossible.
The examination also served to reinforce much of the data already in the central memory core. Mira concluded that Miorpean internal structure had more in common with the plant life on this world than this tiny creature with warm fluids coursing throughout his body. Additionally, Sirena identified several parasites, lesions and other abnormal tissue growths that were easily removed and sterilized. She also repaired some old injuries, a fractured finger and a torn ligament in his shoulder.
Using the planets cyclical orbit as a base, Sirena determined his age to be just slightly more than nineteen complete orbits of the planet around its sun. The readouts indicated that his total life span might reach fifty such orbits. In comparison her age exceeded more than two thousand such sequences with many thousands still ahead of her.
They wrapped up the examination and Mira placed the still unconscious human into a specimen container that automatically enclosed him in an invisible field as she pulled her hands away. Otead entered the lab and without acknowledging his co-researchers brought up the readouts. Mira and Sirena exchanged nervous glances as they both sensed his disdain towards the human.
A soft whirring sound indicated a communication had been transmitted to their location. Mira swept her hand across a blinking node and read the message with Otead. The Counsel of Planet Restoration and Reclamation had been automatically notified of the humans existence the moment Mira placed his body on the exam tray.
The directive instructed the group to determine the extent of the contamination. Collect additional specimens of varying age and gender if available and to preserve all specimens for future research and dispensation. Mira stood silently next to Otead for several moments.
Otead walked over to the examination table and looked down on the human, "It will be dark soon," he stated. "Sirena, go ahead and preserve this ... creature for research. Mira, we will inspect the site when the sun rises."
Mira sadly nodded in affirmation as he turned and left the research center.
Sirena placed a hand on Mira's arm, "be careful my friend, I sense that you are becoming enamored with this human. Remember your training, this is a specimen, nothing more." Mira sighed and dismissed Sirena stating that she would take care of preparing the human.
She was right Mira thought, but there was something about him that captivated her. While she did not connect with him psychically she did sense that the human believed her to be special. To him she was not an alien being but someone far greater than he, she sensed he perceived her to be a god.
Mira returned to the specimen container to see that the human had revived and was on his knees. He had a perplexed expression on his face as his small hands pressed against the invisible walls that imprisoned him. Mira waved a finger over a nodule removing the barrier causing the human to fall forward tumbling head first off the tray onto the table. Mira repressed the urge to laugh fearing she might unintentionally terrify the human.
He gathered himself and got up on his knees, he sheepishly glanced up at Mira, then looked around the research center in amazement. His gaze eventually fell upon the holographic image suspended in the air above the examination tray. He knew it was some sort of a representation of him, one that he could see through; his bones, heart, lungs, brain, all open to view.
He brought his hand down and touched the finger Sirena had repaired and slid his hand up to the shoulder that had been giving him trouble for so many years. He looked up as Mira lowered herself into a chair near the specimen table. He knelt, placed his hands on his thighs and lowered his head.
Mira looked at the position the human had taken as she sat down. She understood that a primitive creature such as this would perceive her to be a superior being thus requiring a demonstration of his respect. For the time being she saw no reason to dissuade him from his implied worship of her. What she really desired was to communicate with him.
The physiological examination was interesting however there was nothing new in her analysis that was not already in the archives. This human must be part of a larger society that had developed in a unique and isolated environment. She wanted to learn about his thoughts, perceptions, beliefs and feelings.
She focused, took in a deep breath and exhaled making a sound, an attempt at speech that might in some way be understood as such by him. He reacted by verbalizing a response which had little in comparison of what to her was language. She presented a written version of her language which he gazed at incoherently. She showed him how to write on a view screen using his finger, he responded with characters that even the labs complex discourse program struggled to decipher.
There were more attempts to make sounds that either might understand but the effort proved to be futile. She tried again to communicate telepathically with him but as before her overture was not returned. Sighing Mira glanced back at the message on the screen, contamination, collect specimens, future research and dispensation, It was what the message did not say that troubled her.
She looked down at the human, he smiled in what seemed to her a simplistic and trusting manner. Mira felt responsible for him. She had brought him to the camp so that she might study and learn about his culture. Now her curiosity was going to be the cause of his death and perhaps many others of his kind. "If only you knew what was planned for you," she spoke more to herself knowing the human would not comprehend the implication.
Mira sighed, she tried to view the human as nothing more than a specimen but it did little to ease the emotional attachment she was beginning to feel for him. She buried her face in her hands, she had developed a fondness for the human and when the time came to prepare and preserve him for clinical study she would need to be more stoic.
Mira took in a deep breath and sighed, then she felt a slight tug on her blouse sleeve. She looked down and saw that it was the human trying to get her attention. He began to move his hands in a specific pattern then pointed to the chair she sat on. He repeated this exact movement several times.
Her eyes focused on his hands as the two fingers on his right hooked over the two straight fingers on his left. He made another gesture, both hands in front of his chest, palms down, one directly above the other, then he pointed to the table. Mira watched intently, her meticulous observance recorded every movement and sign as he used his hands to represent objects actions and words. She mimicked him as best she could with her three fingered hands.
As the evening wore on Mira developed a strong appreciation for what initially appeared to her as a crude form of communication. She quickly learned the complex nuances of the human's sign language using her telepathic abilities to probe the his mind while he demonstrated the hand movements. She thought it interesting that his mind would present representative pictures and symbols as he worked through the various signs.
Excited as she was to have broached the communication barrier, Mira fretted that she would not have enough time with the human to answer the many questions that flooded her mind. Her interactions so far had not revealed anything she felt as threatening or hostile. However, he was just one and may not be representative of the whole. She decided that more data was needed so as to formulate a complete study on the humans and their connection with this world.