So Far Away Ch. 04

The first shock came when he saw her through the door window in the corridor being escorted by a trio of Farronds. He knew that it was her, Jensen. She was the woman who was on the other side of the wall of his cell. What was surprising to him was her bright red hair.

Yes, red, there was no mistaking it when she gave the Farronds the slip and burst into the room. Her red hair flew around her as she came for him.

Her lips on his were the second surprise. Not that kissing was unknown to him. It was the intensity of it, the desperation and emotion behind it. Her physical contact was overwhelming. Her emotional exchange nearly made him cry out.

When he first made contact with her through the vent in their cells, he thought that maybe she had always been on the ship. That would explain why her language was not being translated by his speech adaption sensors (SAS). Both parties needed to have the SAS in order for their language to be translated.

When he realized he wouldn't be able to verbally communicate with her, he extended his emotions towards her though their touch. He tried to calm and console her, but he also pushed in the will to fight and to survive.

His goal was to get her to survive until one of the Spatial Abduction Recovery and Control Unit (SARCU) ships found him. This would mean freedom for most of the races on the ship or at least protection and a comfortable life, if no home for them was known.

Once he saw her though, through the transparent pane on the door, he knew that she wasn't Ahl'kia. There was no way she came from Jyasant, his home planet. All of his people had dark hair and dark eyes. But her, no, her eyes were the third shock, they were blue. Her eyes were as blue as the oceans on Jyasant. He could tell they were blue even from the distance they were from each other.

It momentarily occurred to him that she might be Ahl'kia, but severely genetically altered. Altered so greatly that her hair was red and her eyes blue. Although, that would mean that she would have to have been bred several generations down in order to have these traits so prominently.

She was stunning though. With long, loosely curled, flame colored hair, and ocean blue eyes. Her skin was very pale, paler than his. This could be contributed to her time on the ship and lack of natural light to darken her skin's pigment. Her eyes, turned slightly upward at the corners, had dark circles surrounding them, her cheeks were slightly sunk in and her lips were much too pale.

These distinguishing features were common among the Farrond's abductees. She was malnourished and weak, once he got her to his planet she would be taken care of.

He sat next to her on a reclined chair and gently pushing some of her soft, red hair out of her face. They had bonded, he knew it. He could feel it. This would be hard to break. It wasn't safe, or suitable, for someone like him to be bonded with another. Once they were back on Jyasant, she would be safe.

After she had lost consciousness from the energy blast, he managed to kill the five Farronds. They were the only ones the ship, which was typical for this type of vessel, two scientists and three enforcers. The harvesting ships were usually small, like this one.

They would gather specimens and would then perform their brutal experiments on them, to catalog their genes, hormone levels, chemical composition and so forth. Then either deposit them back on their home planet or kill them.

He was actually surprised to discover that she was so malnourished. The Farronds usually did what they had to do, and then got rid of them. There must be something special about her for them to keep her for as long as they did.

He knew that the doctors on Jyasant would be able to give her a complete profile. Hopefully they'd figure out her mystery. Was she an Ahl'kia? Why did the Farronds have her for so long? Where did her red hair and blue eyes come from?

Yet another questioned pressed on his mind as well. How did she open the binding on his wrist? He had to manually open them, but she hadn't. She yelled at it and it opened. He made a mental note that he would ask the doctor that performed the scans on her about the incident.

He did hope that the doctors could, and were willing to, install the SAS in her so that they could communicate. He knew that it was a selfish desire on his part but he couldn't help it. He wanted to be able to talk to her and understand each other.

He carried Jensen from the lab to the control center of the small ship and set the navigation course to Jyasant. He made communication with the closest SARCU ship informing them of what had happened and what his plans were at this point. He then contacted the SARCU base on Jyasant to update them on his mission and that he would be arriving on base shortly.

When the ship finally landed, he made Jensen his first priority. She was still unconscious when he carried her into the medical bay of the SARCU base. As he waited for a doctor to scan and examine her, she seemed to lapse in and out of consciousness. At one point, she opened her eyes and looked at him. She gave him a weak smile and pulled herself closer to his chest, just under his chin. Her pheromones weren't as strong right now as they had been earlier, but it was enough to make his heart ache slightly.

Breaking the bond with her was going to be hard not only on her but on him as well. Breaking a bond was always hard.

He entered into the medical room he was guided to, placing Jensen gently on the scan table. The doctor arrived shortly thereafter. Dānoar noted that the doctor paused when he first laid eyes on Jensen.

The doctor frowned, "Was she one of their genetic mutations?"

"I am not sure." Dānoar told him, "She does not have the SAS, and we were unable to verbally communicate, she does not speak our language or the language of the Farronds."

Again, the doctor frowned as he began to set up the scanning devices, "How unusual, this could mean many things. It's always hard to determine what they do to our people."

Dānoar nodded his agreement with the doctor, he knew all too well what monsters the Farronds produced.

"I will make sure to have the SAS put in." he told Dānoar, "If she did not have the SAS there may be other things that she may not have as well."

"Dānoar, you should go and be examined as well." The doctor told him, "You don't want the Farrond toxins or anything else they could have injected into you taking effect or having long term consequences."

Dānoar didn't respond at first, he didn't want to leave Jensen. He felt responsible for her. If she regained consciousness he didn't want her to panic.

The doctor must have sensed his apprehension, "Go into the scan room adjoining this one, that way you will still be close to her."

"When she regains consciousness or you find out what she is to the Farronds in her scan, let me know." Dānoar wanted to be with her when everything was explained, to help her understand and comfort her. He knew a lot of this would be hard for her to accept, he hoped maybe he could help soften the blow.

He went into the next room where another doctor was waiting for him, "How are you feeling, Dānoar?"

"I do not believe they had enough time to subject me to any of their more harmful experiments." He told her as he lay on the padded scan table. She nodded to him then turned her attention to her Patient Analysis Reader (PAR) to start his exam.

The scanner arms came from under the padded scan table and locked above his head with a quiet click. They ran the length of his body and then back up.

The doctor watched her screen intently as the reading began to appear, "You are very lucky, Dānoar. You were kept very healthy. There are no readings of any toxins or device debilitatiors in your system. Not all of our infiltrators are as lucky as you are."

"My luck might run out some day, Doctor." He said to her as he swung his feet onto the floor, "Until then, I will do my part to bring the Farronds down."

"Your officials are on their way here to see you." She said, as she read the message on her PAR. "Food has been ordered for you, you need nutrition in you and there is fresh clothing in the lavatory for you to change into after bathing. I'm sure you are in a hurry to remove the Farrond stink."

He nodded to her, "Thank you, Doctor." She nodded to him as she left the room.

He did not waste time removing the smell of the ship from his body. The hot water and the steam seemed to reach into his very core. He couldn't help but smile as he started to feel like himself again. He dressed in the green shirt and pants that were folded neatly on a shelf for him. As soon as he stepped out of the lavatory he was met by the doctor that was tending to Jensen. Dānoar immediately noticed his troubled, solemn look.

"Is she well?" Dānoar asked him, immediately concerned for her.

"Come with me Dānoar, there are things we must discuss."

She was still unconscious on the padded scan table, her flame colored hair fanned out around her head. He stood closely by her, taking her slender hand.

"Dānoar, she is pure." the doctor said.

Dānoar stroked her soft, slightly dry hand with its long, graceful fingers. He did not look up as he spoke to her doctor, "Pure? You mean completely untouched by advancements?"

"Yes..." the doctor paused momentarily. Dānoar had a feeling that this was the least of the news about Jensen. "She is also not Ahl'kia. Her genetic makeup is strikingly similar but she is not from this planet. Her ancestors might have been our ancestors thousands of years ago in order for these types of genetic similarities and differences. There is something else in her reading that should be noted."

The doctor paused for a moment but began to speak as soon as Dānoar looked up at him. "The scanner found traces of Farrond DNA in her. It's not much, really, a very small amount. I would assume that very little of their DNA would connect with her genetic structure. So the Farronds probably only used the DNA of theirs that would mesh with her race."

"So, she is part Farrond?" Dānoar was shocked.

The doctor shook his head, "No, not really. She is more like us than anything else, the Farrond DNA is minute."

Dānoar continued to examine her with his eyes. They were so strikingly similar in appearance, except for her flame colored hair and blue eyes. He wondered what else was different.

Dānoar remembered how Jensen opened one of the bindings on his wrists on the ship, "Doctor, when we were on the ship, it was Jensen that freed me. There could be no way she would have known how to manually release them."

The doctor furrowed his brow, "You think that maybe she was able to release the binding because of the Farrond DNA?"

Dānoar shrugged, "Is it possible?"

The doctor was quiet for a moment, "It might be. We've never really encountered anything like her before. We'll run her DNA through the data banks and compare her to all of the other alien DNA on file. We might find more out about her, some of the other alien races and even the Farronds. We'll also have her universal aura read to see if we can determine where her home planet is. That is, if she has a home planet and was not bred and kept on their ship."

Dānoar sighed; he had a feeling that things weren't going to be as easy for her as he hoped they would be.

"How are her organs and her brain and chemical makeup?" Dānoar asked the doctor about the rest of her scans.

"It's astounding, really." the doctor commented, "We have the same organs, hers are not all in the same places as ours, probably due to evolution, but they are basically the same. Her sense of smell is not as keen. Also, certain parts of her brain are not as developed, but parts of some areas of her brain are more developed than ours."

"Her scans are still being analyzed to get a more in depth reading?" Dānoar wanted to know if they were going to do a full read out on Jensen.

"Yes." The doctor paused again. "We would like to study her readings more thoroughly."

Dānoar knew some of what they would be looking for in her DNA. "The Farronds have been tampering with our species longer than we expected, her kind may be a branch of one of our abducted ancestors."

"Yes." The doctor agreed, "This is going to open many new questions for the SARCU."

Dānoar nodded, "How is her overall health?"

"She is malnourished, which as we know is not uncommon while being held in captivity. She is also dehydrated. The system has already ordered food and hydration for her, it will be arriving shortly. She has a few minor cuts and bruises, nothing time won't heal. Someone will come to clean on of the scratches on her side, though. It looks like a Farrond took a good swing at her and caught her on the ribs. There is no poison in her system from the scratch so she is safe."

Dānoar nodded, "Good. Is there anything else?"

"No. She is in surprisingly good health." The doctor confirmed. This news relieved Dānoar.

"Did you install the SAS?"

"No, not as of yet, I wanted to give you the diagnosis first before I installed them." The doctor told him, "I thought you'd want to be here so you could be the first person she sees and talks to."

Dānoar nodded, "Do it now so that when she wakes I can explain things to her."

Dānoar watched as the doctor inserted a needle under her skin and released the SAS. They would automatically go to the speech comprehension area of her brain. Then, when activated, they will start the process of translating. He knew it would be painful for her for the first few moments, but he would help her though it.

The doctor pressed a few pads on his PAR, and an orange light projected onto Jensen's pale face. The beam activates the chemicals in her brain so she could regain consciousness. This would also induce a peaceful feeling so she wouldn't panic and go into shock.

Her eyes fluttered and then she blinked several times. Dānoar made sure to squeeze her hand. She instantly turned her head and gazed into his eyes.

He still could not believe how blue her eyes were.