Faer’s Command: Scifi Alien Abduction Romance (Science Fiction Alien Romance) (Survival Wars Book 3) (7 page)

            From there, she reverse engineered the strain
and ensured that each piece would cause the cancerous cells would detach and
die off from within, a process that she continued at until she felt her eyes
burning.   She hadn't realized how long she was at it, throwing herself at this
damnable disease until something gave, until Faer rested their hand gently on
her shoulder. She turned to face them, surprised at how close they were to her.

            “You are tired.” It wasn't a question, but she
was still yawning in response. “In my excitement, I failed to realize that it
was just how late at night it was for Earth. You require rest.” They lightly
stroked her hair away from her face. “Write down what I should be working on,
and I will take care of the rest of it for tonight. We will finish up together
in the morning.”

            “In the morning...” she nodded in agreement, her
eyelids feeling as though they were made of lead. How had she not realized that
she was so tired before?

            “Rest well, Anne Claire,” Faer pressed a kiss to
her forehead and shooed her out of the lab. “I will see you in the morning,
beloved.” Her heart felt light at the pet name, so light that she practically
floated down the stairs and into her, 'house.' Momo was there to greet her,
tail swishing happily as he meowed for more food. She tiredly fed him and made
sure he had water before changing into pajamas and crawling into bed. She
vaguely felt her faithful feline friend hop on the bed and nestle himself into
the curve of her waist, but she wasn't aware of much beyond that before she
drifted into a deep, dreamless slumber.

            When Anne Claire woke next, she managed to
suffuse out a couple of things through the haze of her half-sleep: she had
somehow managed to wake before the sun, and, perhaps in part because of that,
she could feel the beginnings of a migraine building behind her temple. In
spite of this, she forced her eyes open and practically tumbled out of bed. A
heavy hand scrubbed away the sleep out of her eyes as she stood in the muted
light of the sun that hadn't yet come up over the horizon just yet. She dressed
plainly, in a simple dress that was practically swallowed by a lab coat that
she rummaged out of her closet. She slipped on a pair of boots and made her way
out to the living room.

            She fed Momo, gave him a scratch behind the
ears, and stepped out into the hallway, heading back upstairs toward the lab.
She didn't even bother with her morning cup of tea; tea would be her reward for
actually managing to do this for Faer and their people, once all was said and
done. She pressed her hand against the same panel that Faer had used to access
the lab the day before, vaguely hoping that they had thought ahead to grant her
access. She hummed in relief when the panel turned green like it did yesterday,
and the door opened with a soft
hiss
of hydraulic hinges.

            As she stepped into the lab, she immediately
spotted Faer, their back turned to her, tapping away at the holo-screen
keyboard of the computer. From the looks of things on the digital display
beside them, they had made great strides under her instructions, and she felt
the hope that she had been working so hard to suppress swell inside of her as
she neared them.

            “Good morning, Faer,” she greeted with a warm
smile.

            “I am surprised that you are awake so early,
Anne Claire,” Faer replied without turning away from their work. “I do not
believe that the sun has even risen yet.”

            “I don't think my mind could let me sleep too
much, knowing you were going through all of this.” She stepped beside them,
peering over their shoulder to see which step they were on. “Shall I take it
from here? At the very least, you could take a seat and breathe for a moment.”
She gently ran a hand down their back. “Goodness knows that you could use it,
Faer.”

            “That is kind of you.” They gave her a small
smile. “I think I will take you up on that offer. I believe I can already feel
the strain on my eyes.” She could see it, too; their eyes had taken on a
magenta hue, and there was an air of tiredness about them that she wanted to do
everything she could to alleviate. “Allow me to finish this step, and I shall
happily hand it over to you.” She nodded, folding her arms over her chest as
she watched Faer complete their task. Their hands moved as though they were
water; their fingers danced across the keyboard, flicking screens of data and
queued instructions for the machine that was creating the cure that Anne Claire
had engineered around on the display to better organize them.

            Her gaze drifted over to the machine that was
acting out the commands that Faer was inputting into the computer attached to
it. Its nearly noiseless whirring sounded akin to a cat purring and vaguely
reminded her of Momo when he was getting his chin scratched. Its movements were
quick and precise, its needles and scanners splicing and monitoring everything
down to the molecular level. She took a quick glance at the steps and the
formula that she had left with them, and noticed that there were some changes.

            “There were a few variants that I had to correct
for,” Faer explained as they settled into a chair beside her so that she could
take over for the final stages. “They were merely variants present because of
the minor differences in bodily makeup between Hakimme and humans. Thankfully,
the computer compensated the rest of the formula's needed changes around those,
so we are still on the same trajectory.” She nodded and turned back to the
in-progress cure just as the machine stilled in its movements.

            Taking a glance at what step was next, she was
surprised to find that there were only three more steps to go before they needed
to run a simulation of the end result to see how effective it was at ridding
the body of the disease. As she readied the machine to splice in the genetic
data needed to override the cancerous cells, she wondered how Faer had managed
to fly through so many steps in so little time. Perhaps they were just a fast
worker, but it was still alarming just how much they had gotten done in a scant
few hours.

            Still, it made the next steps significantly
easier for her, so she supposed that she shouldn't complain; the quicker they
got this cure synthesized, the sooner they could end the suffering of Faer's
people. When the injection was successfully spliced, she commanded the
machine's claw to ease the vial through the finalization and sterilization
process, the last steps before running the simulation of how the completed cure
would affect the Hakimme's body. As she stared at the sterilization device
whirring and wheezing as it worked to purify the cure, her fears and anxieties
about this cure began to surface.

            In a failure state for this version of the cure,
best case scenario is that they run the simulation, and it shows that it does
nothing to help the situation, and they're back at square one. Worst case
scenario, they run the simulation, the simulation turns out fine, but then when
they actually
use
it, some factor that both they and the simulation
couldn't anticipate winds up creating some horrific, painful consequence for
the Hakimme that made Anne Claire's stomach churn. She did her best to block it
out – she saw, in the amalgamation of information that Faer had shared with
her, that the computer that was going to process the simulation was near
perfect, and the margin for error was almost a billionth of a percent – but it
did little to soothe her worries.

            It took almost an hour, but the sterilization
and finalization of the cure's creation was complete, showing no errors and its
end state was exactly as projected. Still, as she stared at the synthesized
cure as the computer ran a simulation on Faer's saved genetic data and what the
cure would do to them, she felt fear choking her throat; what if,
what if
,
that billionth of a percent chance of failure happened? What if it cost her
Faer, or if it cost Faer his people? The thought made her insides twist.

            “For someone who has just produced a cure, you
look rather unsettled.” She was startled out of her dark reverie when Faer
stepped behind her, draping long, spindly arms around her and resting their
chin on her shoulder. “I would think that you would feel more joyous.”

            “Still testing its outcome,” Anne Claire
chuckled nervously. “Who knows if this is going to work, still. I mean, the
simulation isn't finished-” the computer beeping cut her off, having completed
the test run in the system. They watched as the holographic projection of
Faer's body was injected with the cure, and how that cure spread through them,
wiping out all of the masses formed by the illness and completely eradicating
it from their body.

            “It would appear,” they said lightly. “That it
works.” She was astonished that they were still speaking so candidly about
this, about the end of the line for everything; no matter which way that the
pendulum swung, it would still
swing
, and it would be all over.

            “Are you sure that we shouldn't run the test
again?” She turned in their arms. “What if there's something that we missed?
What if-”

            “Anne Claire.” She shut her mouth with an
audible
click
of her teeth at their gentle reprimand. “You know how
accurate that computer is, and I know how brilliant the both of us are. It will
work.” They held out their arm. “And I want you to test it on me to be sure.”

            “I – what –” She was sure, absolutely sure that
her heart stopped in her chest. Did they have a defibrillator here? She was positive
that she needed it. “Faer...” she struggled to find the words that properly
articulated her fear, her trepidation at things going wrong.

            “It is alright,” they soothed as they ran a
program for the computer to duplicate the cure. “I have complete faith in you –
in us – and it seems only fair that I be the one to go first. If it goes wrong,
no one will have to suffer but the Hakimme that created it.”

            “I don't want you to suffer!” She flailed her
arms. “You're in enough pain as it is!”

            “Anne Claire,” they said softly, patient as
ever. She had almost never seem them so calm. “I am prepared for this. It warms
my heart that you care so much for me, that you worry so much about what could
happen, but I assure you, I signed up for this. I am ready.” They emphasized,
taking her hand and placing the syringe in her upturned palm.

            “...Alright,” she conceded begrudgingly. “But if
you're going to put your life on the line like this, then I'm going to treat
you like a patient, and you're going to be monitored for every second of this,”
she said firmly. “On the table, Faer, and prepare the scanners. I want a visual
on every single things that I can as we do this.” They smiled affectionately
and nodded, wordlessly prepping the medical scanners and perching on the cold
steel of the medical table. She started an IV on them, and checked to ensure
that all of their vitals were displayed.

            “Everything is prepared,” Faer said, even though
she could see that the stage was set for their final act: the holo-screens were
alight and filled with information on everything from their blood pressure to
x-ray scans of their internal organs and the pre-existing growths therein.
Still, she couldn't help but feel like she was the executioner stepping up to
the guillotine as she came to a stop at Faer's bedside.

            “Alright, insertion of test cure at...” her gaze
flicked over to the clock. “thirteen hundred hours. Time is marked, site is
prepped and sterilized.” She took a deep breath. “Injecting...now.” As gently
as she could, she punctured Faer's skin and injected the green liquid, the end
result of their collective labors, the embodiment of their hopes and dreams.
“Symptoms?” She asked as clinically as she was able, knowing who her patient
was.

            “My abdomen is tingling.” Faer stared down at
their stomach. “It is not painful, but it is there all the-” they drew in a
sharp gasp as the monitors surrounding them began to beep wildly.

            “Faer-!” She looked at the monitors, informing
her that their blood pressure was skyrocketing due to the effects of the shot.

            “It is only pain, nothing more.” Faer grit their
teeth. “It will pass.”

            “I'm administering 5ccs of numbing agent,” she
said while doing her best not to panic. With hands far steadier than her nerves
she tapped at the release button for the numbing medication that would help
with the pain. She watched as the cure took hold in Faer's body, watched the
screen displaying what was going on inside of them as the masses shrunk, the
same as they did in the simulation. “Pain level?”

            “Lowering,” Faer panted, their chest heaving
with each breath. “It is manageable now.”

            “Any other symptoms?”

            “None.” Faer shook their head. “How is the cure
progressing? Is it working?” They looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes.

            “Just as projected.” She nodded. “The growths in
your body are shrinking, and the cells in your body that were coded to make
more growths are being recoded to function normally.”

            “Then this is worth any pain.” They nodded and
let their head fall back against the table in relief.

            “All the same, no sense in making anyone else go
through it, too.” Already, she was tapping to add a notation with the cure's
notes. “I'm prescribing a local anesthetic to be prepped
before
the
cure's injection.”

            “Most wise,” they wheezed a chuckle. Anne
Claire's eyes bore holes into the holo-screen until the growths disappeared
completely, and scans of Faer's body revealed the there were no traces of the
illness in their system. It was only then that she breathed a sigh of relief
and sagged against the table.

They had done it.

            “You're cured,” she breathed, righting herself
into standing upright. “It's over.” Faer was standing up before she could even
think to stop them. “Faer-”

            “I must get this to the other laboratories!”
They insisted, their fingers wildly sending copies off to other people that she
could only assume were fellow scientists that could replicate their results.
“This must be distributed, my people must be saved!” They sent off the
messages, and it was a mere few minutes before the other laboratories were
reporting success rates with the immediate patients that they could treat.

            “It worked!” With the swell of pride and relief
that bloomed in her chest came the bittersweet realization that her whole
purpose of being here was done. She would simply go back to her boring old life
in Bloomington with Momo and live out the rest of her days pretending that she
had never seen a lavender sky in her life. The thought made her feel
melancholy, and she found it hard to smile in spite of the way that she felt
knowing that she helped so many more people.

            “I feel no pain, even with the anesthetic gone
from my system,” Faer said in wonder as they looked down at themselves. “I had
almost forgotten what this felt like.” The awe in their voice, the appreciation
of their body all over again made her heart ache. “This is thanks to you, Anne
Claire.” They looked up at her with the wides smile she had seen from them yet.

            “My parting gift, then,” she said, alarmed at
the tears that sprang from her eyes. She clapped a hand over her mouth in
surprise. Faer flinched, reaching a hand out to her.

            “'Your parting gift?' Would you never want to be
here again, then?” She blinked owlishly at them, tears escaping her eyes.

            “I would be allowed to?” She felt her head swim
at the idea. “But how would I do it without either of our lives being
disrupted? I care for you so, so much, but I don't understand how we could be
together...” Faer laughed, and the sound alarmed and slightly angered her.
This
was what they chose to laugh at, now that she had helped them?

            “There is absolutely a way, if that is what you
want,” they said with a happy sigh. “It is something that I
absolutely
desire, but you need to want it, too.”

            “What even is, 'it?'”

            “A quantum teleporter,” they said, their smile
taking on a hint of pride. “I have a few friends in the engineering community,
and was given a set of teleporter pads that were connected. I would merely have
to install one end at your home on Earth, and one here, and we would be able to
visit one another in the blink of an eye.” They grew sheepish. “I would want
you to be comfortable with that, though.”

            “How would that work?” She tilted her head. “I
want that, I want that for us more than anything, but where would I even conceal
such a thing?”

            “I shall show you.” Faer took her hand and led
her out of the lab, leading her down the stairs and back to where the duplicate
of her house was. “I confess, I told a partial truth when I told you that I
created a copy of your home.”

            “It's been my home this entire time?!” She
stared at them wide eyed.

            “Not entirely,” they shrugged. “At first, it was
genuinely just a projection in the space. But it was imperfect, and I thought
it logical to install a gateway between your world and mine, in the event that
we needed your help or advice again at a later date.” They scratched at the
back of their neck nervously. “So when I retrieved Momo, I installed the first
pad. Then, when you slept here your first night, I connected and activated the
other one. You've been living in your home since your first morning here, Anne
Claire.” They walked through the door into her house together and shut it once
they were both inside. “Watch,” they said, holding up a finger. They pulled up
a display watch on their wrist and tapped out a sequence of button presses on
the screen.