Chapter 3
Secrets
Marc woke up the next day happy. He had a friend. He didn't care what she was. He liked her and she liked him. Yes. She wasn't a human. Neither she was an animal. She was an alien. Nobody knew about their friendship. Marc hadn't known her ability to speak, kind of, before yesterday. Still they were friends immediately. When thinking this, he already felt her trying to make a contact with him. He stood up, dressed up and left his room. She was waiting for him. When he got to the observation room, she was leaning on the glass. "Morning Zahira. Hope you had a good night." He said, smiling. "Believe me, it's good as long as I know you will be here tomorrow. You are my only friend." She said and smiled. "Well, I'm sorry to say this, but I need to do tests on you. If I don't, I may get kicked out. Meaning you will not see me again." He said, sounding sorry and remorseful. "But you don't need to. How are they going to find out if you don't do the tests? They can't see here can they?" She said hopefully. "Ok, let me explain this to you. We, my kind, are eager to find what you are and how you work. That's why we do testes. Now, every week I need to make a report of what I have learned about you. If there's nothing on the report they get suspicious and come here to ask questions. Same thing if there's too small report." Marc explained. "But what if I tell you the things you need to know? I know everything about my own specie. There would be no need for tests." She said. "That... may even work actually. We would even have more time for each other!" He said. "Oh wait, I still need to do some tests... But they are not going to hurt you."
"Ok, first I need to know your running speed. Just wait a minute and i'll get you a treadmill." "Treadmill? What's that?" She asked. "It's... well you see then." Then Marc pressed a button and part of the wall lowered down, until there was a black stripe on the floor. "That, Zahira, is a treadmill. Don't worry. It's safe. I need you to step on it and try to stay on it." She looked at the treadmill like thinking what it was going to do, and then step on it. Suddenly the treadmill started to work. "Marc, what is this thing?" She asked sounding scared. "Don't worry, you just need to walk forwards as with such speed that you don't actually move anywhere. I increase the speed of the treadmill until you can't keep up with it. OK?" He said comforting her. "Ok." She said still a bit nervous, but started to walk. After a while she was already running. "This is fun! I don't feel exhausted at all! How fast this thing can go?" She asked. "So fast that you can't keep up. But if you want, I can set it up into about 100km/h. If you can keep up with that you certainly are faster than any land species we know." "Bring it on!" She almost screamed at him. He got back to the control panel, pressed few times a button and the treadmill started to go faster and faster. Now he saw that Zahira had problems to keep up. "Is this too fast for you?" He asked. "No! make it go faster!" She shouted to him from adrenaline. He rose the speed by two points. Then she fell. She flew from the treadmill and hit the wall behind him with a very loud "Thump". "Zahira!" Marc cried to her. No answer. He ran to the door, opened it and went to her. She was lying on the floor, not moving, not even twitching.
She woke up bound to something hard and cold. What happened? She remembered how she was flying and then- nothing. And where's Marc? She looked around. She was in a white room, with only one door. Then she sensed people behind a wall next to him. They were... looking at her. Somehow, they could see her through the wall! She started to swing her body to get herself loose, but whatever was keeping her still, didn't loose its grip. She tried to search for Marc's heart, and sensed it behind the wall, with the others who were looking at her. She tried to feel his mind. It was full of desperateness, anxiousness and remorse. When she fixed her eyes to him, she could feel his tension erupt and now he felt just happiness, relief and the desire to come to her. Now she felt how somebody told something to Marc, and immediately Marc started running towards the door for the room she was in. Marc opened the door and Zahira hissed happily to see him again. He fell to his knees next to hi so his head was in the same level with hers and then started to stroke her slowly, making her purr out of joy see him again and of the good feeling stroking gave her. "You understand that now those people there know about our little relationship?" She asked Marc. "Yes, but I was so worried that something bad happened to you." He said in his mind. "I'm fine. See? I would just like to move again..." She said meaningfully. "I can't unbind you, even though I want to. Those people out there are scared of you. They think that if I let you loose, you'll kill them." He said sadly. "Then when do I get back?" She asked. "They'll just do the final checks so you don't have any injuries, and then they'll make you sleep and when you wake up, you'll be back in your room." He said. Then she heard a voice: "Ok, you have now had your time. Come back and then you need to explain many things to us." Marc rose and walked to the door. He opened it, but before he close it, he said: "See you soon, Zahira"
After that it took some minutes until she started to smell something funny. It was a sweet smell, and the more she smelled it, the more she wanted to sleep. Finally, fell asleep. When she next time woke up, she was again in the white room which was his "Home". When her mind was cleared enough, she felt somebody next to her. It was Marc. He had fell asleep next to her. He was in a curled, fetus-like position. It was very cute to see him next to her. She fell her tail on him on a protecting manner. She didn't want to get separated from him ever again. From more like an instinct than actual decision, she hugged him. And he hugged back half asleep. And so, they both finally fell asleep.
When she woke up, it was a different kind of place. It was a small room, with a bed in it and on the bed, a woman, sick by the smell of her, lied dying. Next to her was a man, about 20 human-years old by the look. He was back towards Zahira. She crept closer, only to see that the man was crying. She looked at the scene for a minute, and then he heard a long beeping sound. It had been made by some kind of a box next to the bed. It had a green line on it with a black background. When the man heard the voice and looked at the box, he started to cry even louder. Then Zahira felt why. The woman's heart had stopped. Zahira finally build her courage and went next to the man. Man immediately noticed her and now she finally saw his face. He was Marc! Marc only managed to say "Who..." Before everything went black. When she again saw, she saw a lot of humans, all in a straight line, wearing some kind of green-and-brown uniforms. She looked around and saw a white box, and all those humans looked at it. then she saw that there was people around the white box. there was a woman who she didn't recognize, a man with a egg-like hat dressed in white and Marc! She didn't dare to go to Marc, as the humans would see her, so she stand where she was. The man with the egg-hat said something, but Zahira didn't hear what. After that, Marc and the woman put some flowers on the box and all the other humans rose their arms right arm and pressed them on their forehead. Then everything went black again.
She woke up next to Marc, who was squirming in his dreams. "Wake up Marc! What's wrong?" She said as she shook him. Finally he woke up "What... Zahira? Oh I just had a very weird and bad nightmare." He said and rose in a sitting position. "What kind of nightmare?" She asked. She wanted to comfort him, so he didn't feel bad. "It was a dream where I went again through my worst memories and... You, Zahira, were there." He said, making a breakin the end. "Really? I just saw a dream where I saw you crying next to a dying woman. Was she your mother? Or your sister? Or even your mate? She asked, making the word "mate" sound like poison. "What? That was the dream I saw! She was my mother!" He cried, and started to whimper because of the memory of the dream. "Please don't cry, I don't want to see you cry." She said. "I- I'm sorry." He said and wiped his eyes with his hand. "You don't need to be. You lost your mother and that is a great loss. Anybody could cry for that." And like to power her words, she began crying the way her cries: making bubbling voice in her throat. "How did your mother die?" She asked quietly. "She died to a cancer. There was no way curing her." He said, sobbing a little between his words. "Did you... Did you see anything else?" He asked slowly. "Yes. I saw you next to a white box, surrounded by a lot of people. And you put flowers on top of the box." She said, afraid of what it was about. "Yes, I thought that I saw you there too. It was the funeral of my brother. He was lost in unknown circumstances, on an alien planet. His body was never found." He said. As Zahira wondered what was funeral, Marc said: "I wonder, how were you able to see my dreams? Was it because of your abilities?" he asked. "I don't know. This was new to me too." After that, they both just sat there, thinking what all this meant. Then they heard a door opening. in came three soldiers and their weapons pointed at them. When they did this, Zahira hissed at them and shielded Marc with her body. Then there came one more man. But this one wasn't a soldier. He wore a grey suit and his hair was combed backwards. His steps echoed in the room as he walked towards Marc and Zahira. "Well well well, look what we have here. A man, and his loyal alien. How touching. So Marc, you have been busy, my boy?" He asked, his voice almost dripping with poison. "Marc, I don't know what it is, but this man is wrong. I can feel it." She said to Marc before Marc started talking: "Excuse me, sir, but who are you?" He asked. "What? You don't know me? A scientist doesn't know his own employer?" He asked amused. There was a moment of realization on Marc's face: "Mr. Weyland?"
Author's notes:That's it! Chapter 3 done! Now that there's more action happening, I find it easier to write this story. Again, reviews are appreciated. PM if anything came in mind what you want to ask. Next chapter is going to be more about the progress of the relationship of Marc and Zahira. Till then!