Saphira had not realized she had fallen asleep after a couple hours of waiting for the commander to return. She did not think it would be so difficult for him to find a blanket for her to use to keep her warm in the cell. But sleep overtook her while she remained curled on the floor in the corner of the cell, not knowing if it was night or not, but the ship was dark enough that she was able to sleep as soundly as she could while she shivered in the cold of the cell. She did not hear footsteps coming towards the cell several hours later as she was in a very deep sleep.

"Saphira?" A voice called out to her. "I am sorry for being late, the queen held me up longer than I had thought. She wants to talk to you." There was silence as Saphira does not respond to him. "Saphira?" The cell opened and footsteps walked closer to her, and a hand gently grabbed her shoulder. "Oh you are cold!"

"Vladimir, is she not coming?" Another voice asked the person in the cell.

"She feels very cold," Vladimir responds in a concerned tone. "I promised her a blanket, and I got held up."

"Should I get a healer?"

"No, I'll take her to him." Saphira felt a strong pair of arms lift her up, causing her to stir and groan. "Saphira? You're waking up."

"Huh?" Saphira mumbled sleepily, opening her eyes slightly and saw the commander's face. She closed them as she thought his face was close to hers and rubbed her eyes. "Where am I?"

"You're on the hive ship," He responds, confused by her question. "I'm taking you to a healer, I am sorry for taking too long with a blanket."

"Blanket?" Saphira mumbled and sniffled, opening her eyes some more and she finally realized the commander was carrying her. "Oh! When did I fall asleep?"

"I do not know, but you are cold and I forgot to bring a blanket," He stated as he carried her down the hallway.

Saphira noticed the junior commander following them and she frowned. "Put me down, I can walk. I am cold, not crippled. It will help to warm my body by walking."

"I would, but the queen has told me to carry you," The commander said with a sigh.

"She told you? How? She is not here." Saphira looked around to see if the queen was nearby. She saw the wraith was not there, and she realized for a moment. "Do you have telepathy?"

"Yes we do, which is how we communicate majority of the time," The commander smiled at her.

Saphira chuckled a little, it was nice to learn these things. "I don't see how that is funny." Saphira glanced at the green wraith, he was still grumpy it would seem and he was not liking that the commander was telling her things about them. "I agree with you though, you should be walking on your own. But the queen's orders cannot be questioned."

"It sounds to me you are questioning them," The commander said, glancing back at him with a mocking smile. The junior commander growled and looked away. "Stop being so angry, or you will have to be punished."

"Yes commander. May I take my leave?"

"Yes you may, I can take Saphira to the healer and the queen just fine." The wraith bowed heads to each other respectfully and the green wraith walks away.

Saphira waited for him to go before she whispered to the commander. "I overheard the name Vladimir, is that your name?"

The commander looked at her with a startled expression. "I do not think you heard right."

She giggled at him. "It's okay, I won't say anything. It's a nice name, never thought it would suit a wraith."

The commander was not sure how to respond. Saphira decided to at least refer to him as Vladimir from now on, she knew she had to wait until she was actually allowed to know their names, so she was going to keep quiet about it. Vladimir made a right and a door opened automatically for them, and it was here Saphira got to see the healer's room. It was not a huge room, but it had an examination table, a hospital bed and numerous equipment meant for checking an ill or injured person, and there was another door to which she assumed might be a surgery room. Vladimir sat Saphira on the examination table and a wraith with pale green skin, and to her surprise, black dreads walked into the room. He wore a grey outfit compared to the black outfit Vladimir was wearing. He had tattoos on his face as well, they looked like scribbles to her though, but she said nothing about them.

"I heard you were quite cold Saphira," He said politely as he walked over to her. "I am the hive's healer, it is a pleasure to meet you. If you don't mind, I just want to make sure you are not sick."

"I don't feel sick, but you got to do your duty," Saphira said with a shrug. "And I must say, I don't think I've seen a wraith with black hair before. Is it rare?"

"No, it is not, in fact it is gold, red and true white is rare," The healer responds with a smile as he opened a drawer to pull out a thermomotor, stethoscope and a few other tools she did not recognize. "I admire your honesty, most humans say nothing when they encounter us. But I do not particularly blame them."

Saphira looked at him in surprise. "I don't think I've heard a wraith sympathise with humans either."

"You would be surprised how many do, but we do what is needed as a predator. Now, I just need to take your temperature, you feeling cold could be masking a fever," The healer said, and Saphira opened her mouth to allow him to put the thermomotor on her tongue. She waited a few minutes. "Thirty seven degrees Celsius, that is good, you had no fever. Does your nose feel stuffy at all?"

The healer removed the thermomotor and Saphira nods to him. "It does a bit, but that usually happens when the temperature is cooler and I am not wearing warm clothes. I could catch a cold if I am not warm enough."

The healer glanced at Vladimir who nods at him. Saphira wondered what was said as she wished she had telepathic abilities. "That will be arranged, it should have been right after the queen allowed for you to be taken to a cell." He put the stethoscope ear buds into his ears and placed the end gently on her chest. "I am a bit concerned about the wounds on your chest, the bruise will healer, but your wounds are still open." He listened to her heartbeat for a couple minutes and removed the stethoscope. "You seem to be fine, I'll apply some ointment to the wounds. We can be very rough when we feed, but as you're immune, I'd rather you do not get sick from an infection."

"That would be good to me, it hurts a bit to breath, but I think that's due to the bruising," Saphira said with a smile.

"Oh does it? And you're right, it would be the bruise and it should clear quickly," The healer said, opening a jar with blue gel. "This might sting a little." Saphira watched him scoop some of the gel on his finger and rubbed it gently onto her wounds. She winced as he wasn't wrong, it stung a bit and made her wounds itch. "If you do not mind, I would like to take a blood sample as I would like to know how a human becomes immune."

"Why?" Saphira asked with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you already knew."

"We do not know everything about it," The healer said, glancing at Vladimir as he clearly didn't approve of her being told misguided information. "You also told the commander and queen that the Hoffans are trying to recreate the immunity to wraith from cells of an ancestor right?"

"That is correct, and I am glad I did not know or I might be in a cage there right now," Saphira said with a sigh. "I honestly do nothing think the immunity can be replicated and injected into other humans. It could be something to do with our blood type perhaps."

The healer chuckled as he finished applying the ointment and walked away to wash his hands. "It is not I am afraid, I think it is more to do with your genes rather than your blood type. I am afraid you are a little off on that, but good suggestion. We did check to see if it was due to blood types long ago, and it is not." He grabbed a syringe and tape, Saphira sighed as she held her arm out. "I won't draw anymore blood than once, so you do not need to worry about being a guinea pig for us."

"That is a relief," Saphira said with a smile. She glanced to Vladimir. "Why did the queen want to see me anyway?"

"Oh, she wanted to share a meal with you," Vladimir said with a smile. "Believe it or not, we do enjoy food as a treat. Plus, you have not eaten since coming here and we do know a thing or two about cooking."

Saphira was surprised, she felt the healer wrap the tape around her arm just above her elbow. "I am surprised, does she want to discuss something else with me?"

Vladimir thought for a moment before asking the question telepathically to the queen. He waited before shrugging. "I do not think so, the queen is not telling me. However, it is better then eating a meal alone in the cell. You are not a prisoner, and you will not be treated as such. We do not have a room properly prepared for you right now and won't be until it is decided on your fate."

That made sense. Saphira flinched as she felt a pinch in her arm and looked down to see the syringe fill with her blood before being pulled away and a small band aid is placed over the needle site. She did wonder how worshippers were treated and if they had their own rooms as they often lived on the hive ships as well. Even if it was for a different reason to her.

"Will it be the same kind of living situation as your worshippers?" Saphira asked curiously.

"Oh no, they get small rooms with bunk beds or they are put into pods to be used as bait," Vladimir said with a shake of his head. "There are a number of empty rooms in the hive ship, some have their own bathrooms that could be used by you. You won't get to pick, but I can assure you that you will be comfortable."

"That is good, anyway, I think you should get me something warm to wear," Saphira said as she began to shiver again. "I am sure the food being served will be hot, but I would like to cover my skin."

"You better get to it," The healer said firmly. Vladimir nods and turned to leave for a short while. "I have a little power over the commanders over this stuff, it is nice honestly."

Saphira chuckled at him. "How many scientists are there on here?"

"There is a lot, most are sleeping so there is only one at the moment," The healer responds as he put the tools away and placed a tip to cover the needle of the syringe. "He is going over the details you have written regarding the pilotless dart. You will likely meet him after you are allowed to work with us."

"And do you think I will?" Saphira asked curiously. "I'd rather be useful then dead."

He breathed deeply. "If you want my honest opinion, I think you will. There will only be at least four or six hive ships that will reject you, but there will be fifty queens and hive commanders meeting and over half must vote against you. The ones who will likely reject you are those who have runners, enjoy tormenting humans and think they're superior, and they're usually the commanders of the ships that have either lost queens or have no queen. And that number is small compared to the rest of the hives. However, I will say you should not hold your breath in case I am wrong. This hive wants you to stay alive, but we cannot protect you if the vote does not go in our favour. I can promise that if they vote to have you killed, it will be as painless as possible."

Saphira was happy that the healer felt she would be okay. But she understood that the risk was still there, she was not sure if she felt very reassured that if she was to be put to death that it would be painless. She did believe them on that, but she really did not want to die as she felt she could be especially useful, and this might actually be her new purpose in life. Saphira was in deep thought when Vladimir returned with a long, silver robe.

"Unfortunately, we only have wraith attire as our worshippers are not here at this time," He said, holding up the robe to Saphira's body. "It might be a bit big."

"I'd rather that then nothing," Saphira said with a smile. "Thank you, I'll just slip it on now over my dress."

She grabbed the robe and was surprised that the fabric was soft and thick, she expected it to be of leather like the robe Vladimir was wearing. She shrugged and stood up to put it on. He was right, it was long, and it went down to her feet. The sleeves would cover her hands, but she pulled them up so she could use her hands without hindrance.

"If there a way to pin the helm up?" Saphira asked, looking at the two wraith.

"There is," The healer said, kneeling to roll up the helm. There were tiny buttons that she could not see, and he fixed it up for her. "Now you can walk without tripping, the last thing we need is you dealing with a twisted ankle."

"Thank you healer," Saphira said with a smile before looking to Vladimir. "This feels a lot better, I may not need the blanket."

"I will still get you one, but for now walk with me," He said with a smile, gesturing to the door.

"You are not going to grab me by the arm?" Saphira questions.

"It is not needed, if you try to escape, I have me weapon in my pocket," Vladimir said, showing her the hand stunner fastened to his robe. She chuckled as she had not seen that before. "I am glad you understand, let's go."

Saphira followed Vladimir happily, she did not feel unsafe with the wraith at the moment. She knew it was a privilege to be among them without the fear of being fed upon, it was a very rare privilege. And the wraith seem to like her, except for the junior commander, though she did think he will warm up to her. She was curious to know what the queen wanted to talk about, oh how she wished she could know their true names. She was certain the commander's name is Vladimir as he did not really deny it very well. And she was sure he was okay with her knowing, but he had to be sure that the queen did not find out. It was an accident that she heard his name anyway as she was asleep and heard the voices echoing in her ear while she slept. Nonetheless, she would have to be careful not to get anyone into trouble, including herself. She did look forward to having food though, her stomach growled in anticipation and she was not sure what peculiar food the wraith liked to eat. It was nice that the did enjoy food, even if it was a treat rather thana actual sustenance for their bodies.