Chapter 16

Sam had no idea how long she was in her black hell before she got her hearing back.  It was faint but then she realized she could hear the beeping of a heart monitor.  She was excited!  She was healing finally!  Trying to move a few things or open her eyes proved to be fruitless, though.  Nothing happened.  She could just hear the incessant beep of the heart monitor.  At least she was alive, but now she was a vegetable.  This wasn’t what she wanted.  Not at all!

“She is doing better, Terry, but we don’t know if she will ever come out of this.  She had enough of that toxin pumped into her to kill a blue whale!  All of her nerves are completely destroyed as far as we can tell.  It would be nice if we could do an actual biopsy but we can’t get through her subdermal layer.  Not even with a scalpel.  Her body at least expelled the toxin as far as we can tell by that cyst she expelled though.”

“Sam is a fighter.  I don’t think this will keep her down.  Nerves heal, I just don’t know when hers will.  As far as your tests show, her neural activity is still unaffected.”

“True.  She still shows all signs of being alive and not a vegetable.  I will grant your wish for now.  I wish we could open the bed for someone else but if you think it is important then we will keep her monitored.”

“She is off life support.  We could move her to an apartment and just have a nurse come twice a day to change the drips.  She doesn’t need to stay here any more.  There isn’t anything that you can do for her anyways.”

“That can be arranged if you acquire the room.”

“Consider it done.”

Well that was interesting.  She may not be able to see or move but hearing had its benefits for now.  She “expelled” a cyst before full of nanites and a few times after when she’d eaten things that had indigestible bits in it.  It was weird when that was the only time she pooped.  Not that it really mattered, but it was something to think about besides the inky blackness.

It was silent for a long while aside from the heart monitor before she heard people come in again.  They didn’t say much of anything of importance,  just unhooked her from most of the machines and swapped her to a smaller gurney so they could cart her around easier.  Not that she could feel any of this, but it was at least nice to know what was going on.

They moved her to the back of what sounded like an electric cart once it got moving and traveled for a good while before coming to a stop. This time, instead of sliding doors, she heard the click of a door handle as they wheeled her into an actual apartment.  They didn’t move far so she figured it was probably more the size of a dorm or studio but that was fine with her.  It would be better to come around in than a hospital bed, assuming she did.

As Terry and the other person agreed, a person came once in a while to give Sam new bags.  They didn’t say anything, just changed the bags and moved on.  It was a bit depressing, really, but Sam couldn’t expect much when technically they were changing bags for a vegetable.  On probably the seventh time they came in, she felt a tickle on her eyelids.  As a curiosity, she tried opening them, rewarding her with a room full of life, and no longer a black inkyness.  She looked around what she could and saw it was a dorm style room and the person changing her bags was a human nurse.  There weren’t really any furnishings or any places to put furnishings in her view so she figured it was more of a temporary housing meant for people who were not staying long.

The nurse finally looked over and saw Sam looking at her and screamed.  She obviously wasn’t expecting to be stared at.  Sam, for her part, just looked away.  She really wasn’t expecting the woman to scream just because she was staring.  It was a bit rude.  Not like Sam could say anything about it.

“Oh god it’s awake!”  She ran out of the room and left the door open and everything.  It was very peculiar.  Why would she be afraid of Sam?  It’s not like she could do anything in her current state.  She returned a short while later with a couple guards.

“I thought you said it was awake?”

“It is! It was staring at me!”

The guard walked in and picked up Sam’s arm and dropped it.  He repeated the gesture while Same stared at him.

“Big deal, it’s eyes work.  What are you afraid of?  You think it’s going to rape you with its eyes?  Give me a break.  Just keep doing what Terry said and if you have a complaint you can lodge it with him.”

“But—“

“No buts!  Just because it can look around doesn’t mean it’s dangerous.  Terry has plans for it, he just has a lot on his plate and can’t be here all the time.  Just keep changing the bags.”

The guards walked out, leaving the nurse standing there alone.  She sputtered for a bit before storming out herself as well.  “It”.  How fucking rude.  When she got her voice back she was giving them a piece of her mind.  She just needed to keep trying to speak until it worked.

It took a few days but she was able to start making small noises and control her breathing.  A small victory in a long line of small victories to come but a welcome one.  Sam limited her practice to when she was alone because she didn’t need the nurse freaking out any more than she already did and causing another scene.  No, she would wait until she could give the nurse a piece of her mind unhindered.  She was getting close to that point as well.

By the time she was able to speak mostly clear, she was also able to move her head around.  The nurse came in that day, grumpy as always, and started changing the bags.  That was when Sam decided to give her a talking to and turned her head to look at the woman.

“Look, you.  I don’t appreciate being called an ‘It’ and-- hey! Get back here when I’m yelling at you!”  The woman had looked at Sam aghast and quickly turned tail to walk out.  Sam didn’t even get a chance to get started with her tirade.  It took a little while but the woman finally came back and with the two same guards as before.  What worried Sam was she had a needle in her hand.

“Someone will likely be alerted I grabbed this.  Watch the door for me!  This thing needs to die before it heals any further!”

“You!  Now you’re going to try to kill me?  Do you have any idea what Terry is going to do to you for this?  I’m likely going to survive whatever you pump into me, then I’m going to heal while they deal with you, and then I’m going to rip out your spine and shove it up your ass for fucking with me!  I did not survive getting shot with neurotoxin twice to get killed by some cranky ass nurse who doesn’t like me!”

All three sets of eyes were on Sam at that moment.  They were having second thoughts about this but the nurse was determined. She grabbed Sam’s IV line and aimed the syringe for the port.  She was about to stick it in when her hand stopped.  She tried to push forward but her arm wasn’t cooperating.  She started to cry and kept trying before finally looking up and seeing Terry standing in the doorway.  He definitely did not look happy.

“I know why you are doing this.  You had been warned and told to read Sam’s file.  She is not a Vey’Ral like you think.  I can prove it here pretty quickly.  Sam, you mind if I take off the blanket?”

“Sure.  Not like I feel cold or have anything that shows through the fur anyways.  Or feel anything below the neck for that matter.”

Terry pulled back the blanket to show Sam’s thin body and very female features.  The nurse looked down and back to Terry.

“What am I looking at?  I just see the same fur as a Vey’Ral.”

“Well actually Sam does not have the same fur.  She actually has the same fur as a Drakorna with some feathers mixed in.  No, what you’re looking at are a pair of breasts and a vagina.  AKA, female attributes.  Something that no Vey’Ral would ever have.  If you paid attention in your history classes you would know why.”

“No!  It is a new variant!  It is there to trick you into trust!  It has to be!”  The nurse now abandoned the syringe that dropped to the ground with a crack as she bent over Sam and spread her labia to look inside.  All she was met with was female genitalia.  Sam on the other hand was not impressed.

“Okay, now I am going to rip out your spine when I get mobility back.”

The nurse had been ignoring Sam’s threats so far looked to Terry, “can it actually do that?”

“SHE likely can.  She can throw a three hundred pound man a hundred yards if she feels like it.  She is extremely strong when she isn’t paralyzed.  I would tread very lightly right now.  If she rips out your spine, she just gets sent off world, which is what was going to happen anyways and if I remember correctly, she is extremely fast and quiet.  Good luck watching your own back, you won’t even hear her coming”

“Oh god this is worse than a Vey’Ral!  Why can’t we kill it!”

“Because from what I’ve gleaned from the Admins, she is a high priority VIP.  That is typically reserved for admin family.  Considering she has Drakorna blood, I’m willing to bet she is high ranking in their society as well.”

Sam spoke up about something she learned up in the Himalayas that couldn’t be discussed with normies, “from what I understand, I have a powerlevel of nine.  And on the high end of that scale as well.  My mentor did mention that it was still developing as well so maybe I’ll become even stronger over time.”

Terry stared at Sam in shock, “a nine!?  That would put you in the second highest tier and amongst the top 20 most powerful beings in known existence.  Ten of which are Drakorna.  The other ten are the Dragons.  Well, I guess all of them are dragons of one type or another.  Anyways, this is momentous.  I need to let the Admins know immediately.  You, give me the key. You two are on suspension for aiding and abetting.  Two weeks, no pay.  Go back to your apartments.  You, you are fired and will be sent through the portal to Trenton tomorrow.  You are no longer welcome here.  Admin will deal with you.”

The two guards grumbled and left while the nurse handed over the key and left as well.  Sam watched her go and saw a couple other guards outside grab her and haul her off.  This was all rather interesting and all but what was going to happen now?  There just went Sam’s nurse.  She looked up at Terry with a raised eyebrow.

“Sorry, Sam.  I’ll have a new nurse assigned for you.  I’ll personally vet them once I speak with Admin about the situation.  They will be excited to hear about this new news and that you are on the mend.”

“Well I guess I can’t ask for anything else.  I may be able to actually eat and drink now though, so there is that.  I just can’t feed myself because paraplegic.”

“I will see what we can do.  For now I need to speak to admin.  I had a meeting scheduled for now, anyways, but they will excuse my delay for this matter.  I will be back later.”

Terry headed out, locking the door behind him and leaving Sam to her own devices.  She looked up and realized the nurse never did change the sustenance bag out, just the saline, so that was possibly going to be a problem.  At least she wouldn’t go thirsty.  After all that excitement, she was at a loss for what to do now, though.  There was a lot to think on, particularly with the mentioning of the Admins.  Who were they and what sort of power or sway did they hold?  Were they just part of this alien relocation program or did they have a greater purpose?  So much to know, so many questions.

Not that she was getting any of them answered any time soon.  That just didn’t happen.  Lillyanne didn’t even give her many answers to her questions and she had a lot of them.  What she did do, however, was train her.  She said it was more important to be able to fight and control her abilities than it was to know about what was to come.  So she was taught how to fight, how to let go, and now to restrain herself.  She would need to exercise all of it, that much she did know.  For now she was trapped in bed.

She didn’t know how long she was in bed thinking about things when the door clicked open again.  In walked Terry with a few other people in scrubs.  One of them immediately cringed with a frown and Terry looked at Sam’s frown in their direction.

“Alright, you can go.  You three are doing good so far.  Come meet Sam.”  Terry guided them to the bedside and stood across from the three nurses that made the cut so far.  Sam looked at each of them and wondered what Terry was doing.  “Alright, you can go.  She is not a Vey’Ral and you were briefed on such.  I don’t need another incident while she is healing.”  Well that answered that as the middle one left.  The other two glanced nervously at each other before looking back down at Sam.

“So what do you want us to do, Sir?”

“Yeah, Terry.  What are you planning?  While I don’t mind the company, I don’t appreciate being a guinea pig.”

“Shush, let me work, Sam.”

“Fine, fine.  Do what you need to do, oh great one!”

Terry rolled his eyes and the other two looked at him with wide eyes, “alright.  So you don’t think she’s disgusting and you don’t think she is a Vey’Ral so this is a good start.  Now she has a lot of sass and commands respect so I’m hoping you can handle her.  If either of you want to concede, now is your chance.  She is not easy to get along with.”

“Hey! I take offence to that!  I’m plenty easy to get along with!  Just don’t piss me off.”

“So what would you do if one of us say… roughly grabbed you to check your throat?”

“Probably bite you.  Depending on how rough I might eat your finger.”

“Sir, she is joking, right?”

Terry just stayed silent and watched the two.  The one who made the comment about being rough looked like he wanted to test his theory.  Terry was about to tell him not to try it but he reached over and did it anyways.  

“What the--NYAH!”  The guy grabbed Sam’s face roughly and opened her mouth to look in her mouth.  Unfortunately he paused quickly once he did that and saw that Sam had the teeth of a large cat and not just slightly larger canines like most of the creatures they capture.  Sam shot out her tongue like a tentacle, mainly because it practically was, wrapped it around his finger, and yanked his hand into her mouth.  She swiftly bit down and hard enough to send said large canines piercing through his hand and cracking some of the bones.  He screamed in pain and Sam let go before he could rip her off the bed, laughing to herself as he ran out of the room screaming and clutching his hand.

The last of the four reached over and readjusted Sam on the bed and wiped up some of the blood that had dripped on her chest.  This one, a younger girl, looked a little pale and not from lack of sun.

“Don’t worry, I don’t usually bite.  Like I said, just don’t piss me off.  Be rude, crass, bump me around.  That’s fine.  But he crossed a line and tried to manhandle me to prove a point so I proved him wrong very quickly.  I didn’t avoid capture for five years for no reason.  I’d shake your hand but… well… I can’t lift my arm.”

“Well, here.”  She reached down and grabbed Sam’s hand to shake it, “Claire.  Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Sam, Sam Pedersen.  And there is one thing I would really love if you could.  Well several of them.  Electric eels.  If you could get me a few of them, dead preferably and raw I would be ecstatic.”

Terry looked at Sam curiously, “what do you want those for?”

“So funny story, I flew into some high tension wires on a coast once.  It knocked out the use of my leg and I fell into the water.  Low and behold I found an electric eel right there that I spooked and it tried to attack me.  Weird, right?  Anyways, I was feeling sushi so I grabbed it and brought it to the surface with me.  It actually helped heal the nerves faster.”

Terry nodded and Sam could see some gears spinning in his head, “interesting.  I am curious now if that would help with other races or even humans.  I should put some researchers on this.  It might be beneficial.”

Sam just shrugged the best she could for not having control of most of the muscles below her neck, “well it works for me.  If I could get a few of those it may help me heal a bit faster, which I would be grateful for.”

Claire chimed in, “I can see what I can do.  No guarantees but I’ll see if I can get something ordered.  Might take a few days to come in though.”

“That’s fine.  I haven’t been able to keep track of time in here anyways aside from when I get visits from the nurse so I won’t even notice.”

“Well I will be visiting you more often than the other nurse was.  She was scheduled for once a day visits.  I will be coming three times a day since you will be removed from the drips and given actual food and drink now.”

“Once a day?  You mean I’ve been here for two weeks already?”

Terry shook his head, “actually you’ve been here for over a month now.  About six weeks so far.  You were on life support for about three weeks of that.”

“Shit!  That’s a long time!  I’m surprised I don’t have bed sores!  Oh wait, do I?  I can’t exactly  check to see.”

“No.  We checked while moving you into here.  Your body is made of some tough stuff.  You could probably lay on pumice for a year and be fine.  It helps you barely weigh anything.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Terry excused himself so Sam and Claire could talk more.  They chatted for a bit longer before Claire had to leave to get to other obligations.  Sam knew this was going to be the start of an interesting relationship.  A few days later the eels came in and Sam was excited and salivating.  Hospital food just didn’t cut it.  Not after you have sampled cuisine from around the world.  The eel on the other hand had been dead for a little while and were a bit chewy but that wasn’t an issue for Sam.  She chomped down on the eel like it was a piece of candy.  Claire was surprised at how fast Sam ate, urging her to slow down but she insisted it was normal for her.  The eel did do the trick, though, and Sam started healing faster at regenerating her nerves.  Within a week she could move her arms again and was having fun with them.  Her favorite part was being able to eat food on her own again though she still liked her visits with Claire.

Three weeks later and Sam was finally at a point she could start climbing out of the bed.  There was still nerve damage in her legs and she couldn’t feel anything from about mid calf down but it was a blessing to be mobile again, if with a cane for now.  She wobbled around the room a bit with the help of the cane and Claire standing dutifully near by.  At Sam’s request, they walked to the most open area of the whole facility.  That just happened to be the ship docking bay which was the size of a mountain and looked to be actually carved out of one.  It was fascinating to Sam but she had a purpose for being here.

“Here, hold this.”  She handed the cane to Claire who sputtered for a second before Sam took off running into the middle of the cavernous room.  Sam jumped into the air and started flying around the room.  She did some acrobatics but really just wanted to stretch her wings and get some freedom and air time.  It was relaxing and invigorating at the same time.  After about fifteen minutes, Sam glided back down to Claire who was watching with fascination.  She could see the huge grin on Sam’s face but Sam still stumbled a bit on her landing since her legs hadn’t healed fully yet.  She was happy to be up though.

Now that Sam was up and about and not bedridden, Terry gave her the option of having some friends visit her before she was sent off world since that would be happening once she was declared fit.  Sam really wanted to see Kyle and Anna again in particular and asked to send for them.  Not surprising to Sam, they came as a pair and holding hands.  It seemed they really did take a liking to each other!

“Ah hah!  I knew it was going to happen!”

“Nice to see you again too, Sam.  So what is the deal with this whole agency secrecy and frisking thing we had to go through to see you?”

“Ah.  Well we are currently at the main Fed base as far as I know and aliens are here and such.  It is more a precaution than anything.  Anyways, it’s been a few months, how you two been?  Move in together?  Making art love?”

Anna couldn’t help but laugh, “we’ve been great, thank you for introducing us.  Yes we moved in together and we make art love all the time.  You should see some of the things we’ve made!  Kyle is making more money than ever now that he doesn’t have to edit his own photos!  It’s fantastic!  But he still doesn’t want to move into a bigger place.  Says he doesn’t need it.”

“Hey, save up, keep the money until you need it.  Or buy a fursuit.  Up to you.  Either way, he didn’t get to where he is by making rash decisions.  He’s a smart kid.  Trust him.”

“You know, Sam, I’m right here.  What ever did happen to you anyways?  You limped out of the convention in a hurry and then, poof, gone!”

Sam recounted the story of her escape and told them about fighting with the terrorists before running into them as well.  She also filled them in on the happenings of the past few months which consisted of a lot of bed time and healing her broken nervous system.  She technically wasn’t 100% yet either but she was well enough to walk around without a cane at least.  She couldn’t feel her feet right now.  Considering where she started it wasn’t that bad, just annoying.

After a while they said their goodbyes and Terry talked with Sam about a few things that would need to be done before she left.  She was outfitted with a new bag that was bulletproof and flame retardant so that her belongings stayed in relatively good condition on her travels and so she had some protection on her back.  She was also given some new clothes that fit a bit better than the golden robes she had been wearing before.  These at least covered the bits and weren’t so flowy.  You didn’t want to be provocative off world.  Best to not attract attention to one self.  Not that her wings weren’t going to do that already.

Finally a couple weeks later, Sam was deemed fit to fly, in a manner of speaking.  Terry was guiding her down a hallway that seemed a bit heavily fortified.  The walls were thick and doors had heavy hinges and large locks on them.  This was definitely an area well guarded.  Finally they came to a set of big doors that were fifteen feet tall and ten feet wide.  It was quite intimidating, but this is where Terry stopped.  He handed Sam a folder and gestured to the doors.