ONCE LOST
Chapter 2
Three aliens crowded around the table, poking and prodding at the human woman who lay on the hard surface. Her red hair seemed dull, the auburn locks knotted and tangled, and her normally pale skin was stark white. One of the men lifted an eyelid to reveal a circle of brilliant blue, staring lifelessly at the ceiling. They finally stopped their examination and pressed a hypospray-like instrument to her neck. Any wounds sustained from the close-range discharge of the decimater gun now instantly healed. A second was administered, and then a third and a fourth. The first of the three went to work wiping her memory and installing new ones; the second began changing her DNA; and the last of the trio was an injection of modified human DNA, taken secretly from the dark-haired man with the strange marking on his forehead. He had seemed to be the most logical choice, as he had been very protective over the woman and watchful of the woman, though he had not made this fact obvious to her. The alien formed an expression which could only be described as a grin, and then left the lab. An hour later, he reentered the room and stood beside her, observing the results of his earlier treatments. Her face was no longer perfectly smooth. Delicate ridges arced from eye to temple, and three raised lines ran across each high cheekbone. He turned her head slightly to the side, satisfaction complete when he saw the ridged line leading from the base of her lower jaw, down her swan-like neck, across her pale shoulder, and all the way down her arm. The line on her arm continued down past her wrist, separating into two tines, and creating a circle on the back of her hand. Her other side matched this one. He removed a small scanning device from the tray at his side, running it down her body and smiling at he results. She was pregnant. Good. The modified DNA had worked perfectly, much to his delight. He injected her once more, this time with a solution that would speed up her gestation time to the point of the human equivalent of seven months. Her belly was now round and full with child—a daughter, to be precise. Now they could study her, and, if anyone from her crew should happen to come across her, they would not recognize her—no one would be looking for a seven months pregnant woman.
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