Chapter 21
The crewmen looked at their Captain, clearly startled. She showed them the sketch, causing Crewman A to repeat the earlier phrase. Then he asked something that sounded like a question. She considered this a moment, and then shook her head, handed the sketch back to Spencer and started fiddling with the stretcher as Crewman A came over to help. It started making sounds in reply and after a few moments the top slid open.
Inside was the woman he'd been seeing.
She was unconscious, dressed in what had to be her underwear. He could see bruising on her arms, her legs, her neck, disappearing under her clothing. The Captain and Crewman A carefully lifted her off the stretcher and set her on the hospital bed, then the Captain drew the sheet over her while Crewman A did something that allowed them to stow the stretcher against the wall.
"Is that her Reid?" Emily asked over the comm.
"Yeah," Spencer replied, taking in the possibilities. "I think we need to run an experiment here. Ask them to set up for an EEG. Also…." The pattern of the bruises was familiar. "We need a trauma team in here."
"Trauma?" Emily asked. "How badly is she injured?"
"Not that kind of trauma." He sighed. "If she was human with these bruises I'd say we need to run a rape kit."
"Oh damn."
"Please." The woman in the corner said. "Please, I don't know how to fix this."
Spencer closed his eyes as the weight of her request fell upon him and sighed.
While Spencer started his experiment Emily suited up and went in with a team of medical personnel, all female. Somehow she managed to get across to the Captain that they wanted to try to help her friend.
As they eased the mystery woman out of her clothing Emily noted that she was built exactly like a human woman. Even when they started the kit she appeared to have the same external parts as everyone else. Because of that the damage was easy to recognize, she had indeed been raped. Emily indicated the bruises and made the breaking gesture, as if to ask if that was the injury the Captain had referred to. The Captain looked understandably upset but nodded. Emily tried to get to who and how, but those concepts were hard through gestures.
"What's this?" One of the nurses asked.
They looked over at a distinct circular bruise on the woman's thigh. "That's not from the rape." Emily said. She pointed to it and made a questioning gesture. The Captain replied with a gesture that mimed an injection. "Whoever raped her drugged her as well."
"If she was human I'd say they went right into the femoral artery." The doctor said. "That's not fooling around. I wonder if she's catatonic from the drug."
"It could be from the trauma." Emily pointed out. "Either way, it doesn't look like they take it lightly."
"No one does."
In the meantime Spencer had been lining up a random sample of volunteers for EEG tests, including himself. The scan measured electrical activity in the brain. "You have remarkable Gamma waves. Dr. Reid." The technician running the sample said.
"All right, I want you to run a second one on me." He said. Only this time he moved close enough to the observation window for the aliens to see. They had finished the exam on Crewman C, had tucked her into a hospital gown and then into bed, so Emily was free to try to explain. He didn't know how well she did, but the Captain was watching with interest. "Okay," She said when they were done. "Now we test them."
As he predicted the Captain assigned Crewman B, clearly the house guinea pig, the task of going first. His scan turned out to be human average. They were surprised when she allowed Crewman A to be tested, but his also turned out to be human normal. She then indicated that they should test her. They found her to have more active Gamma waves, but not as active as Spencer's.
Now for the tricky part. "Ask if we can test Crewman C." He said over the comm.
Emily gestured out the questions. The Captain clearly looked wary, but after a moment nodded. They carefully hooked the unconscious crewman up to the EEG machine and then started the scan.
The readings were instantaneous. If she had been asleep they would have expected her Theta waves to be dominant, if in a coma then her Alpha waves would have dominated the scan. But instead her Gamma waves were just going off the charts right from the get go, quickly followed by everything else.
Then the needles redlined.
Then the machine made a popping sound, sent out a shower of sparks, and started to smoke. They quickly unplugged her and got the machine out of the rooms. "What the hell does that mean?" Someone asked.
Spencer tapped on the window, getting everyone's attention. He looked at the Captain, pointed to Crewman C, made a talking motion with his fingers, and then pointed to his head. The Captain's shoulder's drooped in resignation, but after a moment she nodded.
"What does that mean?" The General asked.
Spencer looked from the body on the bed to the weeping woman in the corner. "I think Crewman C is a telepath."
"Why you?" Emily asked.
"I think that she might have lost the ability to control it after the trauma." Spencer replied. "She's asking for help, she might be broadcasting on all frequencies, but it's landing on the mind with the most closely similar Gamma wave pattern. He put up the scans showing Crewman C's, his and the Captains. They were all very similar, but his was notably closer. "She may not currently have the strength or control to reach anyone else."
"Reid, for the record, this is crazy." Emily said.
Spencer sighed. "It might be." He replied. "But it's also our best shot at communication so far. She might be thinking in her language but my mind is interpreting it as English. We might actually be able to get some information from her. Can someone set me up with an MRI scan? That way we can have a before and after." The scientist around them eagerly jumped to his request.
"True. But how much of this is a desire for data and how much of this is about her being a pretty girl who's also a victim who needs help."
Spencer swallowed. Right on the nerve, thank you Emily. "Isn't that what we do?" He murmured.
"How much of this is not being able to save Maeve?" He wasn't even going to touch that one. "What if this causes permanent brain damage or something?"
"At least it's for a worthwhile cause." The called out that the MRI was good to go and he headed in that direction. "If you really want to freak out over something, Emily, freak out of the fact that I'm about to break bio-containment protocol."
"Oh, that's just great!"
An hour later, wearing a full set of bio sensors but without the containment suit, Spencer walked into the alien's suite. For the first time he faced them head on, with nothing in between. Amazingly, they weren't the great unknown anymore. They were simply people, stuck in an impossible situation, and trying desperately to help a friend.
He smiled at the Captain, who smiled back, and gestured that his suit was gone. He nodded; it was a risk he had to take, although not an unfounded one. Their tests had so far shown that the aliens carried similar bacteria and similar antibodies to humans; as if somewhere in the distant past they had swapped bacteria loads. They would wait another two days to truly lift quarantine, but based on what they had Spencer was willing to take this risk. After all, he thought, I survived anthrax.
He pointed to her, made the gesture for talking, and then pointed to his mind again just to clarify: She talks with her mind? The Captain nodded yes.
He pointed to the Captain this time: Do you talk with your mind? No, she shook her head, then pointed to herself and her ear, then made the talking gesture and shook her head: I listen, I don't talk. Then she pointed to the other two and shook her head to both talking and listening. That confirmed his theory; you had to have a certain Gamma wave pattern for the telepathy to function.
He pointed to Crewman C, then made the talking gesture and pointed to himself: She talks to me. He reversed the gestures: I'm going to talk to her. The Captain took a deep breath…and nodded.
"Please help me," said the woman in the corner.
Spencer turned and for the first time acknowledged her. "Yes."
Emily watched this entire proceeding through the observation window. She watched Spencer enter the room, look at Crewman C, and then exchange gestures with the Captain. And then she watched as Spencer turned and looked at the corner. "Yes."
A heartbeat later, his Gamma waves started to spike as he collapsed to the floor.
Son of a bitch.