Faux Realm Ch. 01

"StOpRiGhThErE!!!!" Voice yelled across the room.

It was intelligible gargled sound that no living person should make. She moved to a better position and what she saw made her weak in the knees, almost retching all over the floor.

***

*Can't fall asleep. They are coming!* He thought to himself as he held the man close to his body.

"Stop right there!" He tried to yell but he almost had no voice.

Gargle of noise escaped his lips as he let his hostage go and grabbed his throat in utter disbelief. 'What have they done to me?' It was his only thought.

The man that was moments choked almost to death now shimmied across the floor standing next to the graceful looking woman.

He was still holding his throat and making silent moans and gasps.

"Who are you?!" Noise again, made words into sounds that were not his voice but something not human.

He had tears in his eyes after seeing how that woman was looking at him. Pure look of shock, awe and obviously holding back from vomiting. He knew that he was no pure specimen but he never thought that he was that ugly. It made him even more depressed.

While he moved his arms he noticed a wretched creature glancing back at him from glass pane on the medicinal table next to where he was strapped moments before. He moved slowly picking up the object that reflected his image. He looked, inhuman.

Scars and lesions were stretched across his face which in turn rounded perfectly around his skull making him look like a vivid picture of death. Bones and muscles could be seen here and there and it made him shudder in fear and revulsion. His arms were so skinny. It was easily visible how bone was shaped beneath. Muscle density and every ounce of fat was gone from his body. Making him look like a walking skeleton.

He could not stop himself from laughing and dropping to the floor. He could feel his bones move and jar with him as he dropped down to his knees. Morbidly laughing at the irony where he lost all that weight; women would kill for this kind of result.

As his morbid humor started ebbing and he started to cry. Heavy sobs laden with tears that no one could stop. He saw her with corner of his eye when she approached him and gently cupped his head between her chests. Her smell was enchanting. Rocking back and forth, as he eventually started to calm down and two people slowly and gently helped him up and tucked him in his bed.

"WhAtHaPpEnEdToMe?!" He asked.

Both man and the woman looked at each other for few moments, their gazes heavy and loaded with grief and worry.

"Sleep for now, we will talk when you are better." The woman calmly stated as the male nurse gave his neck a prick with a device.

He started drifting into sleep shortly after.

***

"Are you ok?" She asked the doctor that was slowly writing detailed report into his notes.

"I'm divine. He just caught me off guard. I could have solved that in a second. His muscle mass and bone density are almost all gone. I'm surprised he even has the energy to be awake." His voice was sad and filled with dread.

Settling his Pad on the table next to the patient he stared at him, "The way they treated him was horrific. It will take me weeks to figure what happened to him. I don't think he ever had decent essential nutrient while he was there. Another week and I think he would be dead."

A quiet calm was washed over the two people as they got interrupted. "Fine morning we have here."

Booming melodic voice over the partition made them smile even while they watched at the deathly visage in front of them.

"Doc, you here?!" The voice boomed again.

"Behind the screen." The doctor simply said.

A mountain of a man approached them and stopped when he saw that they were in the company of senior officer, "Oh Captain. My apologies. The Divine has blessed me this fine day and I wanted to share it around. I thought starting with my friend over here."

As she laughed she reminded herself how tough Prex can really be, huge biceps complimented his bulky frame perfectly. Few men were tougher than him on this ship and around Star Republic but all of them offered respect to this mountain.

"By the Gods, what is that thing?" Prex gasped out as he watched the mutilated form on the hospital bed, his face filled with worry.

"It's a slave we saved from the mines. I've never seen any slaves this badly treated." Doctor offered his point of view.

He turned towards his patient and took a white DataPad. He was absorbed for few moments when he finally said, "Skin lesions over 80% of his face commonly caused by high temperature, but blister count and size is something I haven't seen even when I dealt with plasma burns. Scars to the deep tissue were caused by some type of weapon, all I can see about the said weapon that it was pointed and it probably hurt unlike anything we could think of. The skin on his face seems to be sawed off with serrated edge. The wounds show no hesitation marks, and I can see that they took their time with every slice."

"What makes you say that?" Prex asked.

"It's like eating peracosta fruit. The smell makes you ravish the skin almost until the seed and your goal is to get to the seed without doing much damage to it; otherwise you might make seeds inside it taste bad. You do not question it you just do what its necessary. It takes a good hand to do that kind of work. I see the same marks on his face. Whoever did this was enjoying it. And not just that they were skilled at it, this was not their first time doing this kind of damage." Doctor's voice was grim and filled with compassion towards the man on his bed.

"How much pain do you think he was in when it was done to him?" She could not recognize her voice filled with sympathy.

Usually emotionally detached from every aspect of commanding the ship, the man here took her by surprise by his emotional display after seeing his ungodly sight. Skin and bones. Afraid to even breathe in his direction she turned her head to stare directly at doctors' eyes waiting for his answer.

"Gods only know. I'm surprised he's even sane now. I hate to speculate on his level of misery. We can only ask him." He turned and took an unusual device.

The same device that lulled him to sleep was now lying in doctors hands and with his expert hands replaced its contents within seconds injecting his patient with something else.

"HealthStim. It'll boost his immune system. For the time being I'll inject him a double dose every 8 hours and hope that his body fights of everything until I get a better diagnose for more lethal diseases. I suspect that he's loaded with harmful bacteria and he'll need all the help we might provide him to heal. His face is another story. It will take weeks if not months for his tissue to normally grow back when I inject him with tissue regenerators."

As he turned to make his rounds his patient started to violently buck and shake. His gaze went wild and in moments his hands were on the DataPad.

"He's not Botean. By these scans." He tapped the screen in his palm few times until he was sure.

"He looks like us." Captain stated.

"I know. I know. I failed to check his background. I thought that he was like us, but by these scans the results are obvious he's not us, I need to repair this I injected him with concoction fit for our species. There is no telling what it could do to him." He was frantically working as he talked.

The scene looked extremely tense for few moments while doctor started to tap on his screen and derive a cure to combat his own medical injection that was coursing through the man's body. Within seconds he used another injector and push its contents into man's veins.

"God damn, I injected him with antigens fit for Botean's life cycle, I did not feel the need to recheck his chart or scan him. It's entirely my fault here. I neglected important steps in medical procedure. I managed to inject him with Antigens that I have in my database fit for his people but I think I did some damage to his system." Doctor's voice was defeated.

After few seconds the man on his bed calmed down and stopped having seizures. People in room breathed a sigh of relief. "Doctor I want to talk to you in my ready room after this, I want you to call me after he's woken from his sleep and I want to see what you will do to make him better. That includes his dietary supplements and everything revolved around rest and relaxation."

"Yes Ma'am." The man's voice was defeated as he started to tap on side of the bed and with few clicks a strapped man's body was displayed in front of everyone.

"Captain, we need you on the bridge." A man's authoritative voice drew their attention and they started to file out of behind screen to go to their own duties.

***

She managed to get to her seat waiting for doctor's arrival. Chime on the door managed to announce someone's arrival she was sure who it was and with one finger unlocked the door to let the visitor in.

"Captain, you wanted to see me." Doctor simply said standing still and waiting for further orders.

"Relax doctor I want to make sure that you were all right. That mistake was not your fault. You made wrong assumptions that I'm sure you will not repeat in the future."

"Yes ma'am. I've learnt from my mistakes. It was very weird, but still I made a rookie mistake. Will never happen again." He stated with conviction.

"That is all. I will expect your call after he wakes up." She said dismissing the doctor.

"Yes ma'am. I'll start working right now and figure out his rehabilitation." He said and left.

***

He slowly woke from his dreamy stupor. Nothing was working for him, his limbs were not responding to his commands as he had an itchy nose and failed to produce the required result. It was impossible scratching it and he gave up after few minutes of trying to work his aching bones and deteriorated muscles. He managed to see people behind screen that was in front of him, working and doing their jobs. Droves of medical personnel and their patients were busy in their own worlds, too busy to notice his pathetic existence and what he craved the most at this time. A hand to scratch his nose.

Funny thing that after everything that has happened he craved for a simple touch of a human being. A kingdom for a hand. He noticed his limbs were tied down with a surgical-looking tape as it did not do anything too abrasive. His voice was still gone, he felt pain whenever he would swallow his spit, when and if he had any to do so, he noticed no IV's or other medical instruments to help him replenish his nutrients so he figured they were not making any attempts to make him get better. For a brief second it actually emotionally hurt him when he figured out that nothing was done to alleviate his present condition. But that was soon forgotten. Who in their right mind would waste precious resources to help him?

A woman slowly crept inside his small area he called kingdom. He wanted to rally his knights and go to war, but silent chuckle was everything that he offered as a silent protest. Noticing his condition the lines on her face wrinkled in disgust, as he gasped in wonder. The woman that stood in front of him was not human but of different species entirely.

Blue skinned, pointy eared beauty. He gazed at her feminine features and managed to offer a kind smile as she smiled back. Evidently offering a pity smile, he wanted to be of some service, but managed to stay silent, and leave her to her job. Her green uniform and black knee high skirt was simple yet revealing all of her feminine charms. Elegant, pretty and clean. Those were the only descriptive thoughts that he could come up with. He was no poet and he wasn't a man that bedded a 1000 women, but he knew that she looked pretty.

He suddenly remembered his face and the ghastly look that he currently had as he tried to bury it behind his pillow. He was not successful, and he was left to just hang his head low and away from the woman. Many minutes passed as she was busy doing something around his bed, first thoughts that came to him were of sexual nature as he left her silently working on her duties.

He figured she was doing something to make him as comfy as possible and making sure how much time he had left on this plane.

"How is our patient doing?" Pleasant womanly voice came over the screen that still separated him from the rest of the world.

"I just managed to replace his fluids and empty his eliminations." The woman that worked around his bed said.

His face burned bright and he was sure that it turned several shades of red.

He tried to make some voices but nothing was coming out. Raspy sound game from his larynx while people got wind of what was making it the woman rushed in front of the screen, "Stop, stop. You have severely damaged vocal cords and you need to stop using them."

She wore a similar uniform to the woman that worked around the bed but he noticed several yellow marks around her shoulders. Circles or stars from his vintage point he could not be sure. But the air around them changed slightly.

"You will not use your voice for the foreseeable future." She stated.

She had blue hair and black lipstick. Pretty extravagant. Not noticing a device on his table she pointed it with his finger, "Use that if you want to talk, if you have any questions you can simply type and we will come from anywhere on the ship. Also you can use it to access our Data library and see what you missed."

They took their time, releasing his arms after several seconds of working bed side panels. Whir of cloth going in the bed made him flinch, afraid that the cloth would leave marks on his skin. Genuinely surprised that the cloth was soft as a silk. He used his unsteady arms to grab the strange device. It was medium sized and made out of some strange crystal. At first he was afraid that it might brake under his fingers, but after he grasped his fingers around it he discovered it was fairly strong.

He gazed at the transparent crystal as words managed to snake towards his eyes, typing several words and stumbling with his fingers, as he lost the joint manipulation he had usually. Making a fumble and momentarily losing the grip on his precious device he saw it falling over and to the ground. Expecting to hear a loud crack of glass, he was confused when nothing happened and smiling alien woman bent over to retrieve it leaving with an amazing smile in the process.

Taking few seconds, handing the device back to the confused man on the bed. Thinking they would read it he was left in awe after the other woman explained, "You do not need to hand me the Pad. I will read everything that you write."

He smiled and nodded as she focused her lovely gaze towards her own crystal, written down, "Hello, how are you?"

She smiled kindheartedly, "I'm fine thank you."

Elation on his face made both women cringe with worry since it made his face even more ghastly. He started typing down when a voice interrupted him, "You should wait for when our Captain arrives. She is on her way right now."

Nodding he turned his head down to his Pad trying to hide it, since it was transparent it was apparent what he wanted to do, making both women gently smile.

Everything behind the screen went quiet as a womanly figure moved towards them. Both women stood in silent awe as she moved across the floor towards him. Standing silently, he started silently scrolling and tapping the screen.

She took her own Pad from her hip and patiently waited for him to finish, the moment he lifted his mutilated face towards her; she saw his written words.

"How long was I out? Where am I? Why did you take me from my planet?!?!?!"

Mass of words flooded her screen, "Calm down, I'll answer every one of your questions. But first; my name is Ericha and I am Captain of Star Republic currently in charge of ship Pretoria. A transport vessel."

She waited for any interruption on his part but his stare was deep and unyielding. She took a deep breath.

"You were out for a full cycle. As for your other question, we had no participation in your enslavement. Did you see who kidnaped you?"

He nodded and started writing as fast as his skinny arms would let him. "Scales, black eyes of death."

She paused for several seconds, her mannerisms showed that she was about to hand him a bombshell. "We did not know that you were taken, we went in to save our own people. But what you saw were probably lizard people. They have several names among different races."

He felt heartbroken. Typing on his screen again he managed to write few string out words, his eyes ached since he could produce no more tears.

"My family, did you find any more of my people? Can you tell me where my family is?"

"We managed to scan other slaves that we rescued and we found no others that were like you. Are you sure there were more?"

"What is a cycle?" He asked.

"Full rotation of our planet's axis. We call it a cycle." He nodded his head after the brief explanation.

She waited as he wrote down his answers after few moments she finally saw, "They came with several large ships, started massacring people in cold blood. I do not know what happened after I got caught."

"It's what drives their need to enslave lesser species. The thrill of the hunt. There is no prey that they will not go after. The easier it is to hunt, the more exited they get. I guess they made chirping sounds when they started hunting?"

He nodded.

"Yes. They thrive and love when their prey manages to give them a good chase. Usually several get killed. If they are lucky. The unlucky ones get dragged to their ships. They make them mine ketracyil. What happened to your face?"

Her voice was full of compassion. He could understand that much even if they did not share the same DNA pool. Managing the few moments that she gave him to compose himself he told her, "I do not remember anything that happened when I was a slave. I saw the way I look. How much time do I have before I die?"

Her horrified look made him flinch, "What do you mean?"

"You aren't feeding me, I hope I do not take too much of your time." The woman's face distorted. She managed to compose herself and look him straight into his eyes.

"We will NEVER leave you to die. You are lacking nutrition and you need special help. Our doctor is doing his best to help you stay alive."

He typed again faster and she saw following, "I apologize for making assumptions. I just did not see any medicinal technology that I remember. So I just wanted to make sure."

She smiled at him when he started to ask various questions, looking like a kid who just discovered a new toy. He wanted to know everything from the different kinds of aliens to her home world and her family. While she was reluctant to speak about her family she indulged somewhat to ease his heart.

"This device is like a storage library. It will inform you about everything you want to know. About this part of space or our worlds. You just need to make the correct question in your searches."

He eagerly nodded and left her alone for a while to stand near his bed, while he was busy searching different terms and meanings.

"What is your name?" She politely asked.

"Lucian Deca." He wrote down on his Pad.

Smiling up from her own instrument of communication she managed to say "That's a lovely name. If you do not mind Lucian I will have to go I'm needed on bridge."

He stopped her with his raised hand and then started to frantically write, "Can I sometimes come with you please?"

"It will be my pleasure, but not until you get better. Goodbye for now." She left him alone with his thoughts.