Chapter Text
Spite is a wonderful motivator.
Especially when one has been abducted by aliens.
Though was it really abduction if he was being taken away from other aliens that had kidnapped him in the first place?
… What was he talking about…?
Oh right!
Spite!
It’s literally the only thing keeping Skizz on his feet at this moment. He irritably tries to yank his upper arm out of the grip of the huge bear-like alien holding onto him. Which gets him nothing from them but an angry growl and a rough shake that would have rattled his teeth if it wasn’t for the muzzle-gag-thingy that had been fastened around his face and that had an attached squishy bit that settled between his teeth and rested on top of his tongue to prevent him from biting them.
He hates the restraints that what he can only assume are the alien equivalent of cops - judging from their matching uniforms and tinted helmets that shield their faces at least - put on him.
In addition to the muzzle on his face, they have his arms pinned behind his back with restraints that encircle around each of them from his elbows to his hand and then it feels like they’re magnetized together. There’s also a pair of weird tethered cuffs around his ankles that prevent him from moving at any pace faster than a shuffle. All of them are rubbing at his skin and he’s pretty sure that if his skin isn’t blistered, it’s at least rubbing him raw.
And he’s also like 70% sure that these guys are a part of the same group as the ones that had initially abducted him.
Anytime the previous aliens hurt him, they had fed him slices of the same golden apple-like fruit that dulled the pain and made him feel floaty like he’s been given a shot of morphine. Ever since he got rescued by the space-cops at varying intervals, these new guys remove the gag that they had put on him, force feed him spoonfuls of the sickly sweet fruit all cut up into itty-bitty chunks in a syrup so he can’t help but swallow it, and then replace the gag. They roughly change his bandages while he’s numb and clumsy and then leave him be until the numbness fades away at which point the cycle begins again.
Until now.
He blinks back to the present when they stop moving, making him stop moving too. He squints to see why they stopped and he freezes, instinctively trying to shuffle back a step.
A small satyr-like alien stands in front of him and as they reach out for him, Skizz-
He cried out in pain as electricity arced through his body, making him collapse onto his face.
Once he was on the ground, a rough hoof-like hand grabbed onto each of his wrists and yanked his arms back so they could restrain his arms behind him with space handcuffs that cut into his wrists.
The rough hands rolled him over and he blinked away tears of pain as an older looking satyr with sludge green and muddy brown fur and pitch black horns stood over him and looked down at him coldly with golden eyes.
They looked up at something out of his line of sight and said something to someone before they produced a leash that was then hooked onto the collar around his throat.
He choked as the satyr yanked on the leash, pulling him up onto his knees-
Skizz whimpers, and tries getting away from the little satyr standing before him.
He needed to get away! He knows what this kinda guy could do to him if he pissed them off. And it was very easy to piss aliens off apparently.
Some words are exchanged around him and the hand around his arm releases him so suddenly that he loses his balance and falls to the floor.
There’s an explosion of angry voices above him as soon as he hits the deck and he tries his best to curl up into a ball with a whine.
He flinches at the touch of a familiar hooved hand on his shoulder, but when he looks up at the satyr after he’s been rolled onto his back, he’s actually relieved that this satyr doesn’t look like his regular tormentor at all.
For one thing, this one looks like they are younger than the one he’s used to by a good decade or so. Not to mention rather than the color of a swamp, this one’s fur is a pretty gradient of soft butter yellow with patches of pale pink and pastel purple like a sunrise. They’re looking at him concerned with big rich purple eyes that sit below their warm wood brown horns.
Of course Skizz’s wary moment of peace is shattered by the appearance of them .
The moment Skizz registers craggy rocky skin and fiery hair, he screams as best he can with the gag in his mouth, rolls back over, and tries to crawl away from the dawn colored satyr and the threat looming behind them, even though with his legs and arms restrained as they are, he doesn’t get too far.
And with him distracted, it’s easy for someone - he thinks it’s the bear-like alien that brought him here - to push his head down, pressing his cheek down hard against the cold but oddly clean floor, as they jab him in the jugular with a cold, cold, cold needle.
He whimpers as his body goes limp and the darkness finally creeps in…
Stardate XX-XX-XXXX
Observational Report of Subject US-K-155, Report #1
Recorded by Zedaph Pleighs, Head Scientist of the Delta Station of the Galactic Council Sapience Outreach Specialists (GC-SOS)
Report Begins…
Hello, hello, hello! And welcome to whomever reads these reports!
Man, I've done so many of these, I could probably make a report in my sleep!
Though Tango would probably get mad at me for including bits of my dreams in the reports if I did. I mean he gets tetchy over me doing this as is.
Oh! For the reader(s) of these reports, I have found that I generally speak faster than I can type so I have taken to using a Speech To Text (STT) generator to transcribe everything I say into a text document.
So when I said this, I made a gesture towards my computer and its running STT generator.
Tangent done with, I need to introduce myself and my colleagues!
My name is Dr. Zedaph Pleighs, Head Scientist of the Delta Station for the Galactic Council Sapience Outreach Specialists (GC-SOS). I have 5 degrees in Biology, Psychology, Chemical Engineering, Veterinary Science, and Geology.
My colleagues are Dr. Tango of the Tek Clan, who has 3 degrees in Biomedical Engineering, Archeology, and Art History and Mr. ImpulseSV, who has 4 degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Botany, Musicology, and Architecture.
As part of the GC-SOS, our job is to confirm the level of sentience of beings brought to us and, from there, we assess their levels of sapience to judge if their race(s) are advanced enough to be allowed to join the Galactic Council (GC).
The goals of these particular reports is to detail the physical recovery and subsequent sentience/sapience assessment of Subject US-K-155.
As a brief summary, Subject US-K-155 is a Terran, a race whose species has not been into space far enough or long enough to warrant a sapience assessment previously. Due to this, the GC has declared that the Terran home planet, Terra, is strictly off-limits until the Council deems them ready for contact. Unfortunately, this particular subject was illegally abducted from Terra and suffered both imprisonment and abuse at the hands of a crew of scientists that defected from the Galactic Council’s Scientific Division (GC-SD).
As of this first report, Subject US-K-155 is currently in transit to the station via Galactic Council Enforcers (GC-E). Hopefully, the subject’s physical state will not be so severe that we cannot begin with sentience testing right away.
Well, I think that’s everything! Thank you for reading and until next time, ah-good, ah-bye!
Report Ends
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Stardate XX-XX-XXXX
Observational Report of Subject US-K-155, Report #2
Recorded by Zedaph Pleighs, Head Scientist of the Delta Station of the Galactic Council Sapience Outreach Specialists (GC-SOS)
Report Begins…
Hello, hello, hello! And welcome to whomever reads these reports!
Dr. Zedaph here and… Well that first impression to Subject US-K-155 certainly could have gone better.
At least we know they have an animal's level of sentience at least.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Now where to begin…?
Ah! A brief physical description of the subject!
Subject US-K-155 is a bipedal being with only 4 limbs that is about 2 meters in height with a multitude of scars that mar nearly every inch of the subject’s bare skin. The subject has dark hair that on their head is cut incredibly close to the scalp, at a length of approximately 5 millimeters long to be exact. The subject also has the same hair covering most of their body, but the density is the thickest on the subject's head, underneath the subject's arms where they join with their torso, and around the subject's genitalia between their legs. Further research is required to try and determine the biological gender of the subject, so where applicable I will use the terms "the subject", and "the Terran" as well as use they-them pronouns in an effort to remain as neutral as possible until that time comes that we know what gender they are- if it transpires that Terrans have concepts like ‘gender’ at all.
In any case, the subject also has surprisingly bright blue eyes of a hue that I have only previously seen in Avians. The subject is also very pale and thin enough to see their bones, which at a glance also appear very similar to an Avian's if one ignores the lack of talons on their feet and wings on their back, but it wasn’t clear upon initially meeting the Terran if their paleness and thinness was the natural coloration and weight of the subject or if it was the result of the abuse and neglect that the subject has suffered. The subject appears to be easily capable of bipedal movement as when GC-E Major Ursa disembarked with Subject US-K-155 from their ship, they had the subject’s upper forearm in their grasp, forcing the subject to shuffle along with them.
I… I understand that the subject was restrained for the safety of the Terran as much as the safety of me and my colleagues.
However, for the record, I want it to be known that the choice in the restraints that were used on them very obviously caused the subject a great deal of both physical and mental distress.
The restraints in question consisted of the following:
- A pair of standard issue netherite forearm restraints that magnetically lock together behind the restrained individual's back in order to make it difficult for the restrained individual to move their arms apart. The usage of these cuffs appeared to have messed with the Terran's sense of balance because as soon as GC-E Major Ursa released the subject's arm, they overbalanced and collapsed to the ground.
- A standard set of adjustable tethered netherite ankle cuffs that can be programmed to allow the restrained individual a set-upon level of movement. The tether upon initial meeting was drawn so tight that the subject could barely move their feet apart, resulting in GC-E Major Ursa borderline dragging the Terran across the floor with them.
- A standard issue netherite muzzle that is adjustable and covers the whole lower face and comes with a built in rubber bit that slides between the teeth and pins down the tongue(s) of a restrained individual to prevent them from biting others as well as themself. This is the restraint that seemed to be causing the subject the most physical and mental distress. The tissues in and around their mouth are very delicate, easily irritated, and there was evidence suggesting that the Terran had the gag removed and then replaced multiple times, hence the subject's distress. Whether it was removed so frequently by the GC-E or not, has yet to be established. We won't know until we get a copy of the GC-E's report in.
Moving onto the initial contact!
The subject's initial reaction upon seeing me was…
Fear.
It was… alarming and disheartening to say the least. But as soon as the subject saw me, they dug their feet into the ground and actually tried moving away from me. As soon as I recognized the behaviors of a fear response, I asked GC-E Major Ursa to release the subject. What I had intended was to let the subject distance themself from me as we were in the quarantine room, and therefore there was no chance of the Terran escaping custody.
This is when I was made aware of how tight the tether between their ankles was as well as how much of their ability to stand up straight was reliant on GC-E Major Ursa as the subject collapsed to the floor almost immediately afterwards, and as my colleague who was with me at the time, Dr. Tango, chastised GC-E Major Ursa for treating the Terran so callously, I carefully approached the subject.
After the initial impact with the floor, the subject had curled up, bringing their knees as close to their chest as they could manage. While doing so, the subject also tried to place their head between their knees. Due to the lack of any sort of natural armor on their body like how my other colleague, Mr. ImpulseSV, has scales as an Inferni, this is likely a maneuver that Terrans perform to protect their vulnerable ventral side (physical examinations have confirmed that their stomach area in particular is especially soft) and their head from serious damage.
They panicked briefly when I rolled them into their back, their legs falling open to either side of them as they didn't have the physical strength to fight against gravity to keep them up against their chest. They had markings on their skin indicative of having lost a lot of weight and even a preliminary glance was enough to tell that the subject must have been confined or restrained in a single location as well as starved because their muscles showed obvious signs of atrophy.
The subject stared at me with eyes so wide I could see practically all of their white scleras surrounding their incredibly blue irises. After a few moments of staring, the subject… relaxed minutely. If I hadn't been watching for a reaction, I wouldn't have noticed it.
It really is… such a pity to see them in such a broken state. They probably would’ve been so incredible to see if the Terran was at peak health. The subject’s frame suggests that they probably would have had a lot of bulk if they were not so starved and abused by those careless, heartless-!
Ah.
Sorry about that. Let me get back on track.
I don't… hmmm…
I don't know for certain, but I believe former Dr. Omnitheta Sehings (Biology, Anatomy) was amongst the scientists that defected from the GC-SD. If this is true, then the subject likely had an initial terror response to my presence due to us both being Fulgar Ovium, though once they realized that we weren't the same person, the Terran relaxed.
Well, for a few moments.
Until the subject looked past me and then they proceeded to scream as best they could with the gag on and rolled over as they attempted to crawl away from me.
Or more specifically, away from Dr. Tango, who had come up behind me to observe the subject more closely as well.
I…
The following is mostly speculation at this point because the GC has been very tightlipped over how many and the exact identities of the scientists that defected from the GC-SD after the announcement that Terra was illegal to visit.
But I believe Dr. Denamont of the Dak clan (Zoology, Biology, Anatomy) was not only one of the scientists that defected, but ze were the one to spearhead the mass defection amongst the GC-SD.
It would certainly explain the severe level of the subject’s terror response to Dr. Tango as both him and zey are Ignis Petra and therefore look nearly identical aside from their choices in clothing and Tango’s biomechanical left arm.
To avoid stressing the subject out more, GS-E Major Ursa proceeded to sedate the subject with a standard tranquilizer formulated for Avians. Why they didn’t use it sooner, is a bewildering choice to me, but oh well. Point is that the subject fell unconscious within moments of the sedative being administered so we are currently working on the tentative grounds that Terrans are biologically similar to Avians.
… I really feel bad for them.
Even though they’re taller than both me and Dr. Tango, though not nearly as tall as Mr. ImpulseSV, the subject seems so… fragile?
Like an Enderian’s pearl or a Starborne’s core, they’re so beautiful but also so very easily broken…
… Moving on.
We currently have the subject under sedation, via an IV line in their left arm. A pair of small tubes have been inserted through their mouth, down their esophagus to feed them a mixture of regeneration & healing potions directly into their stomach. No tubes to assist breathing were inserted because the subject has been breathing perfectly well on their own.
Dr. Tango believes, based on the scans we performed on the subject, that the subject is unlikely to have had any solid food for a while outside of gapples to superficially heal them from damage that was inflicted upon them. With the introduction of healing and regen potions to their system, we hope that we can get them physically restored to the point where they’ll be able to consume solid foods after awakening from sedation.
An examination of their genital region revealed that they have a pair of gonads that are stored externally while their bladder is located internally between their hips. I bring this up because the subject’s organs internally connect together and the contents of all 3 organs emerge from the same egress point of their genitalia. As such we have taken great care in inserting a catheter into their urethra to take care of any urine that they may produce while under sedation.
Kinda expecting a lot since Dr. Tango is insisting that we give them nothing but fluids while they are under sedation while their body recovers.
Speaking of eating solids, after a thorough dental inspection, Dr. Tango has determined that upon awakening, the subject will likely require a mixed diet of meats, vegetables, and fruits as they have both the sharpened teeth of a carnivore at the front of their jaw as well as the flatter teeth of an herbivore at the back. We’ll have to see if they prefer their food raw or cooked.
During his inspection, Dr. Tango also noted that there was old scarring from before they were likely abducted where they had the farthest teeth at the rear of both their upper and lower jaws removed. I suspect that this indicates there is some kind of being with a high level of sapience that exists on Terra. The possibility that it was other Terrans that did such an extraction to them is merely circumstantial evidence at the moment however, as we have no evidence of how Terrans interact with each other.
And of course those missing teeth are just the tip of the iceberg regarding the physical state of the subject.
The extent of physical damage caused to them is… intense to say the least.
The scans of the Terran’s skeletal structure - which is indeed very close to an Avian’s aside from their bone density which suggests that their muscle mass is supposed to be much, much denser than it currently is - resulted in notices of multiple broken bones that either didn’t heal all the way or were poorly reset. The hardest hit areas are their ribs, their legs, their feet, their arms and hands as well as evidence of a fractured jaw and skull. All these places, especially the hands and feet, are in easily accessed spots and the subject's hands and feet in particular are surprisingly delicate despite their size and are full of dozens of tiny bones.
There is bruising of varying levels of healing, primarily located around their wrists, ankles, knees, along their ribs, around one eye, encircling their neck, and almost the entirety of the backside of their left calf though most of the bruising there seems localized to close to the back of their knee joint. The newer bruises on their skin appear to be dark purple to black in color while the oldest ones are a faint sickly greenish-yellow. Judging from the size, age, and severity of the bruising on the back of their left calf in particular in combination with the recent bruising on their knees, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the subject's leg had been repeatedly kicked in order to force them to fall to their knees.
Fortunately, or maybe it's unfortunately? I'm not too sure about this one as a closer examination of the subject's behavior after they awaken will be needed to confirm or deny this observation. Point is that there is no physical evidence to suggest that the Terran was forced into any sort of physical congress with their captors for the gratification of their captors. I personally doubted any such actions but well… while assessing other beings one needs to be thorough and keep in mind that some people out there?
They’re really that sick.
In any case, the most dire of the injuries that had been inflicted on the subject was the beginnings of a dissection incision that stretches in a horizontal line that follows the lines of what we believe to be the subject’s collarbone and the cross started to be made vertically down their sternum. Judging from how the cut gets shallower and veers off to the subject’s right side once it clears the space between the subject's pectoral muscles, one can only assume that the person that was doing the deed was in the process of dissecting them alive when the GC-E interrupted.
Probably the only competent thing the GC-E has done so far…
Ah. Sorry for showing off my biases there. The GC-E and I have a… tremulous relationship at best. They don’t approve of my methods of assessing subjects with minimal physical and mental harm and I in turn disapprove of their own methods of subduing and interrogating individuals.
That said, I will… try to keep any more biases out of these reports.
No promises though!
In any case, in summary: the subject is currently under sedation and will remain that way until their muscles have regenerated enough that me and my colleagues feel confident enough that they can not only be able to handle solid foods, but also move around on their own without collapsing.
Aaaand that’s it for this report!
Thank you for reading and until next time, ah-good, ah-bye!
Report Ends
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Stardate XX-XX-XXXX
Observational Report of Subject US-K-155, Report #4
Recorded by Zedaph Pleighs, Head Scientist of the Delta Station of the Galactic Council Sapience Outreach Specialists (GCSOS)
Report Begins…
Hello, hello, hello! And welcome to whoever reads these reports!
Dr. Zedaph here with… mixed news!
Excellent news! The subject is stable and is responding very positively to the regen and health potion mixture that they have been fed! Their body mass has increased by 2% which may not seem like much I assure you, but considering that as of writing this report, we have only had the subject for approximately two Standard Weeks, this is very impressive! Terrans it seems already have a pretty fast healing rate compared to most species, and the regen we’re giving them is absolutely making that healing rate skyrocket!
Sorta-bad news! As the subject has been regaining mass thanks to the regen boosting the regeneration rate of their cells and the health potion providing much needed nutrients into their body, we have been forced to dose them with higher and higher levels of the Avian sedation solution to keep them in an unconscious state. Mr. ImpulseSV theorizes that this is because the Terran, when we initially received them, was in a weight and mass range similar to Avians and therefore was able to be affected easier by the sedatives. Now that their body is returning to a semi-healthy baseline level of weight for their kind, it's getting easier for their body to throw off the effects of the sedatives. We don't want to risk using a sedative meant for another stronger race quite yet because we aren't sure what side effects may occur, not to mention there are doubts about another type even working at all! So unfortunately higher levels of the Avian sedative have to be administered until either it’s time to let them wake up naturally or we feel too uneasy about the doses we have to give them to keep them under.
Frustrating news! We finally got the report about the rescue of the subject from the GC-E and it is… less than stellar. While most of the injuries inflicted on them happened prior to the GC-E’s intervention, the markings from the gag being removed and then replaced multiple times is in fact because the GC-E were force feeding the Terran gapples, cut into small 3 millimeter chunks suspended in a thick syrup. This meant that the grapple chunks were small and slick enough that they didn’t need to chew and could just swallow the mush down. While this did admittedly stabilize the subject’s condition for safe transportation to our station, it also resulted in almost giving me and my colleagues aneurysms from how void damned stupid it was to give someone that has been starved for an extended amount of time, solid food!
Ahem.
Apologies. My biases are showing again.
Okay what else is there to say so I don’t get pissed off all over again…
Ah yes!
On a brighter note, Mr. ImpulseSV has finished the initial set-up for the subject’s enclosure!
Scans of their skeleton suggests that Terrans were once arboreal but have since evolved to be able to stride across the land on two legs as well. So we are making the assumption that Terrans require a lot of space to move around in. Therefore, we have allocated a space on the station that is 10,702.4302 square meters and about two-thirds of that area will be redone into a large flat grasslands area with the occasional pile of boulders for them to climb on and large hollowed out logs for them to both crawl through and climb on top of. The remaining third of the room will be filled with a small forest of a variety of trees with appropriate vegetation and deadfall. Within that tree grove will be an artificial pond filled with 20°C (room temperature) water that drains into an equally artificial brook that will flow directly into the waste system for the station that we hope the subject will use as a source of drinking water and/or a place to bathe in. The air temperature within the enclosure is to be kept at a steady 23°C (a little warmer than room temperature) as a baseline temperature. The temperature of both the air in the room as well as the water in the pond will be raised and/or lowered as the subject’s needs and health require it.
The wall of the enclosure opposite to the forest will have a hidden observation room, mostly disguised as a rocky outcropping. I say mostly because we have plans to put in a one-way reinforced glass window which will be the first of our sapience tests: seeing if the subject is capable of self-recognition. If the Terran is capable of looking at their reflection and not attacking it, then we will know they have a basic level of sapience as sapient beings can look at their reflections and register them as the individual looking in the mirror.
The remaining two walls… Well hopefully we’ll figure out what to do with them quickly. At the rate that the subject is regenerating their muscle mass, it shouldn’t be too long before we can settle them in the enclosure and let them wake up naturally! I’m so excited!
So uhhh I guess that’s everything!
So until next time, ah-good, ah-bye!
Report Ends
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Stardate XX-XX-XXXX
Observational Report of Subject US-K-155, Report #9
Recorded by Zedaph Pleighs, Head Scientist of the Delta Station of the Galactic Council Sapience Outreach Specialists (GCSOS)
Report Begins…
Hello, hello, hello! And welcome to whoever reads these reports!
Dr. Zedaph here with exciting news!
Subject US-K-155 has recovered enough that my colleagues and I have deemed it safe to place them in their finished enclosure and let them wake up naturally!
Dr. Tango has been setting up an introductory tray of foods for them to try. Depending on what they seem to enjoy, he’ll then start planning their meals in earnest. Due to their, ah, past negative reactions to both Dr. Tango and myself, it has been decided that Mr. ImpulseSV is the one that will take the Terran their meals.
As of now we only plan on-
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“Zed?”
Zed turns off the STT program as he looks up from his notes at Impulse whose wings spread slightly behind him before closing a few times, betraying his excitement.
“Yes Impulse? What is it?”
Impulse grins, flashing a mouthful of razor sharp teeth at him.
If Zed hadn’t been used to the sight after working with him for almost 10 Standard Cycles, he probably would have thought the expression was a threat. He knows that teeth being shown for Inferni is a show of trust. It’s sort of like saying “I’m showing you that I am armed and dangerous, so that you know that you are safe with me” or something like that.
“Subject US-K-155 is waking up in their enclosure!”
Zed quickly abandons his computer and grabs his notepad and pen as he hurries out of his office after Impulse to the observation area looking into their subject’s new enclosure…