For another moment she hesitated, brushed some wet strands of hair out of her face, and felt some primal sense of self-preservation creeping up on her. She was quick to put that thought aside as she straightened herself, determined not to show any signs of anxiety.
Carnivores tented to pounce when they sensed easy game, so while she needed to stay inconspicuous to not pose a threat of any kind and provoke aggression, she also had to establish herself as anything but a target; anything but prey.
She adjusted her gaze, staring perfectly straight ahead. Her chin not being too high as to give the impression of arrogance, yet also not directed downwards as a sign of submission. A position that was neither too protective of her neck, nor taunting by showing it off. A sort of neither hither nor tither that feigned her state of being as rather ambiguous and aloof.
She stepped into the lab before her mind found another reason to delay this encounter. For a brief moment, all eyes flew towards her, staring this new intruder down before recognizing her as one of their own and continuing their frantic work.
Everyone but one, everyone but the creature in question.
It had captivated her attention before she even had fully entered the room. It was grand, both in height and width, and the muscles were sculpted to such perfection that Greek gods themselves would be envious. Its body seemed overwhelmingly male, yet she didn't allow herself to make that presumption yet.
She briefly skimmed over the silvery armor it wore, covering basically nothing with most of its body being "concealed" by a mesh-like fabric that did absolutely zilch to hide its skin. A loincloth-like piece covered what she assumed to be its no-no square and she added to her mental list that its home planet must have been rather warm. She also noted the strange combination of futuristic and tribal aspects.
Had the circumstances been different she would have called this sort of apparel nothing more than fetish gear.
With how little of its body was left to the imagination she was quick to take in its other features.
Its skin seemed tough, but she couldn't tell whether it was scaly or leathery in texture from that distance. But one thing she knew; that it must have been able to masterfully camouflage itself amongst the thicket of any natural landscape. Its skin was mostly a brownish shade with dark umber patches, not unlike spots or large freckles, scattered on its shoulders and outer rims of arms and legs. Its stomach, chest and inner thighs were much lighter in coloration. A sort of dark creamy color, or perhaps the color of a particularly milky cup of coffee.
She also spotted a substantial amount of scars scattered on its skin. Some thin and fair, others ragged and prominent. Most definitely a carnivore, she decided, yet left to speculate about the origin of those scars.
The blonde paused for a second before allowing her gaze to move upwards towards its face. While its gaze seemed certainly transfixed on her just as much as hers was on it, it had yet to show any signs of hostility towards her, which Max supposed was a good thing and a sign that her decision to deliberately alter her behaviour bore fruit.
Its face was grotesque, so much she could tell as she had a hard time comparing it to anything. It possessed some strange mandibles around its mouth, with sharp teeth hidden between them.
For a split second, she felt her inner biology-nerd-fangirl slip out; her eyes slightly widening and teeth biting down on her lower lip, mind racing with wonder about its dental attributes. Crocodilians and their large, sturdy jaws and teeth came to mind first. She assumed the possibility unlikely since the creature's jaw resembled nothing like a crocodiles. Sharks and their multiple rows of blade-like teeth came to mind next. "Not unlikely" she thought. Lastly, her mind jumped to canine and feline teeth. While not impossible, especially with how little she was able to see of its teeth with several yards of distance between them, Max guessed it improbable due to the creature's reptilian-like skin. And while she didn't want to be a presumptuous little snob and assume the mix of mammalian and reptilian features impossible in an alien creature, for some reason the very notion seemed implausible.
She chastised herself, both for her lack of focus and for making any kind of assumption about the creature. For all she knew it could have a vast array of features from all kinds of animal classes united into one being, just as much as it could have none, boasting characteristics completely and utterly unfamiliar to anything on earth; alien.
She made a conscious effort to return to her aloof expression as she decided to move further into the room, all while vehemently paying attention to keeping the same distance between her and the alien.
Max skipped its eyes altogether, focusing her attention on the long, black dreadlocks. Well, that's what she could compare them to at least. They were adorned with beads and rings, making the young woman wonder if they were there for the sake of vanity or if they served another purpose.
Her eyes made their way up and down its body one more time to make sure she didn't skip anything of importance and she could not but admire the impressiveness of its physique one more time.
Christ, it was humanoid alright. Max was always a sucker for well-built men, yet she didn't expect her inner demon to be this interested in an alien that might or might not be male to begin with.
"Stay reserved" she chided in her mind when she caught herself staring a bit too intently for a bit too long.
After being done with objectifying the living daylights out of the creature (and mentally bitch-slapping herself for these unruly notions), she made notice of the chains binding the alien.
It wore a thick, and most definitely heavy, metal collar around its neck with four chains extending in each direction that were bolted to the metal floor it was kneeling on. Its arms were also cuffed to the ground, its wrists held together by certainly more than one set of chains that were also fixated to the ground to restrict motion as much as possible.
"Holy hell" she almost hissed, yet prevented any sound from leaving her mouth by briefly sinking her teeth into her tongue. The revelation that the creature was kneeling for what must have been days hit her like a brick and made her cringe just as much as would she have actually been hit by one. The very notion that the poor thing must have been sore to the very bones, if not in actual pain by now, left a bitter taste in her mouth and churned her stomach with pity.
Suddenly she found herself empathizing with it. Had she been in its position, she probably would have raised hell too.
"Dr. Swan" she heard someone call out from a "room" created by partition walls. Her gaze followed the call, identifying a man in his mid-thirties making the "come here" gesture at her.
Max was quick to follow the instruction, dipping behind the cover and being met by two men, one of whom extended his hand to her.
"I'm Dr. Steven Gibson. A pleasure to be meeting you" he said as Max took hold of his hand "You're Dr. Swan if I'm not mistaken. I've read your paper about affection in reptiles, fantastic work!" he added, shaking her hand with nervous enthusiasm. "Thank you. It was the thesis for my doctorate. You've majored in genealogy from what I've heard," she replied, receiving a nod.
"Me and my assistant, Tony Hearth, both did," said Gibson, waiting for Max and said assistant to exchange the usual pleasantries before continuing: "We've been trying to sample the subject for a while now, butfailed, and fantastically at that, as you can probably imagine."
Max gulped as the image of the man from earlier crept its way into her mind. She was no stranger to wounds and violence. In fact, she was quite accustomed to it due to having served the military for a brief time and having dealt with aggressive animals before. Yet she could not say that the sight of such gruesome wounds left her cold. Sometimes she could feel phantom pain swell up in her skin when confronted with particularly grisly wounds.
"Commander Cliffton spoke highly of you and your expertise. We hope you'll be able to find a way to… alleviate the tension?" said Gibson, clearly at a loss for words as to how to describe this peculiar situation. Max let out a quiet sigh as she lifted her hand to rub her forehead in slight annoyance, "I'm sure he did. I've told him already that my knowledge of humanoids is limited. Anthropologists would be of greater aid. Rest assured that I will try my best though" she asserted, sensing something not unlike disappointment in both men.
"What have you gathered so far? Has it spoken? Does it show signs of comprehension?" she asked, taking a look at the papers lying atop the desks. "It has not spoken yet. Or, well. If it has, it's not something that we were able to pick up on. We can't be sure if it understands our language, but it understands when it is spoken to and has a concept of tone and volume. When the men that restrained it started throwing around rather colorful terms, they did so in a rather unhinged manner and tone which seemed to aggravate it further" answered Gibson as he picked up a clipboard with his notes before handing it to her. "The staff has written down everything that seemed of importance when it came to its behavior" he then added.
A growl came from the other side of the partition walls that had all three scientists tense up.
"Has it eaten? Has it had something to drink yet?" asked Max, this time not in jest but in earnest.
Both men shifted, their body language clearly displaying their discomfort. "An attempt has been made," said the assistant "for it to acquire sustenance we either have to allow it to move its arms to eat and drink, which is a bad idea for obvious reasons, or get close enough to assist with ingestion. Latter was attempted, and cost Dr. Lerch an arm... and a hand."
Max bit down on her lower lip, mind taking in the information and stomach turning at the image of said event. "We haven't tried again, deeming it too risky. It has gone for at least three days without sustenance" continued Hearth, his expression a mix of fear and horror due to the previous incident, and guilt due to basically starving a creature under his care. Dr. Gibson, however, seemed far less bothered by that idea than either Max or Hearth.
"Despite the fact that it should be, by all human measures, showing signs of starvation and dehydration, it does not display any hints of weakness. It has also retained all of its strength," said Gibson.
"See what you've gotten yourself into" mocked her inner voice, regret settling into her chest much like a lion would in its den. She slightly shook her head in an attempt to rid herself of those uncertainties. She decided to not allow her mind to wander to those cowardly places anymore and asked instead: "why the partition walls?"
"Obvious" said the assistant, crooking an eyebrow at her "we don't want it to see what we're doing here"
Max squinted her eyes at the two, brows furrowing and lips pressing together into a thin line before she asked in a low voice "you are aware that it is able to sense us anyway, right? "
Idiots.
"What makes you think that?" asked Gibson, his voice skeptical yet curious and slightly worried by the notion that the creature had yet another advantage over them. "It seemed to have no problems following my movements behind the one-way glass" she answered, somewhat unnerved by the idea.
The two men shared a nervous glance before the assistant meekly declared that it would explain a lot of things that occurred previously.
After a few more awkward questions, Gibson asked how Max would like to proceed.
"Observation is usually my first step. If you would kindly go about your day as if I'm not here, that would do a bunch for me already" she said. Max was far from confident in her ability to read and predict this alien visitor, so she was desperate for any and all information she could gather on it.
"Fair enough. We were hoping to do a couple scans today. If we are lucky we'll be sent some of the stuff it arrived with as well" declared Gibson, instantly earning a bewildered look from Max.
"Its things are not here in this facility?" she asked, clearly dumbfounded by such incompetence. Despite not being an Anthropologist herself, even she knew that the creatures' belongings could be of immeasurable value in trying to understand it.
"From what I've heard in passing, the vessel it arrived in and any other assets are stored in another facility a few miles south. Some vague department I've never heard of is taking care of it," answered Gibson, watching the woman's expression change into a sour one. "I know what you're thinking, but those are the cards we've been dealt" he said.
Fucking glorious.
"The devices are booting up. We'll be able to start with the scans in a few minutes," declared someone from outside the makeshift room, sending the two men into action. They walked past Max and proceeded to the other side of the room with yet more desks, both usual and unusual lab equipment, as well as some sort of control panel.
Max followed the men outside of the provisional room, but dared not follow them across the room. She instead decided to settle behind a desk that gave her a good view of the other scientists and the creature.
Her eyes once again transfixed on the creature that seemed to have shifted its attention to the other scientists. The alien seemed to be even more unsettled than it was before. It snarled and growled and somewhere in between those sounds, Max noticed something not unlike words, though nothing she could hope to understand.
She decided to have a quick once-over of the notes handed to her while the researchers prepared the scans.
"At a distance of ten feet, it's display of aggression is adequate for its situation. Anything closer aggravates it further. A distance less than 4 foot has proven to be dangerous to personnel" read the first section of the document. "Makes sense," thought Max, proceeding with her silent reading:
"It ignores staff that doesn't seek interaction with it. Also Dr. Lennert is subject to much less aggression than other personnel. We assume that his stature (5'2 ft) plays a part in this"
Now this was something. Max rested her chin on her hand, kind of adapting Auguste Rodins "The Thinker" pose as her attention went back to the creature.
It watched the men intently, muscles flexing and tightening in its ceaseless attempts to free itself as it began snarling and growling at the scientists approaching it with gear that Max assumed to be needed for the scans.
"Less aggression towards someone shorter than average. Perhaps because the man posed less of a threat toward the alien?" wondered Max, trying to think of animals that exhibited similar behavior.
The researchers inched closer, earning more roars from the alien as they approached. It became increasingly irate and Max felt herself tense up at the thought of more casualties. The chains whined under the immense amount of stress they were being put through, but to everyone's delight, they refused to relent.
The two men reached the invisible border that was four feet from the creature before putting the strange contraptions down and proceeding with the planned scans, much to the dismay of said creature.
After an agonizingly long minute or two, someone sitting behind the control panel declared: "Inconclusive. We need to get closer to get anything of use"
"Closer?" asked a man in an exasperated tone, understanding the danger very well. Gibson shot a glance up to Max, the look in his eyes enough to make her understand the question " What do you think?". Max thought the answer more than obvious and shook her head slightly. The man gave her a nod before announcing "We're not risking it."
When the creature shifted its gaze towards Max, she swore her heart skipped a few beats. It seemed to have followed the interaction between Gibson and Swan, and was now eyeing the blonde both curiously and suspiciously. Its tusks clicked as it checked her out much like Max had done earlier, the only difference being that it showed no apprehension in observing her face and eyes.
Their eyes met momentarily, blue human ones with deep orange alien orbs. Max felt her breath hitch, her hair stand up on the back of her neck as she felt put on the spot. To her greatest chagrin though, she felt her inner demon taking over, the walking shitpost tumblr troll, that shot a wink at the alien without considering the ramifications.