Nameless

Cracks

The Diligent thing had finished taking inventory of his wounds (ooman-made and eschars), and approached his head by the left, staying at a safe distance.

"I'm going to put you under heavy anesthesia today, so you will be out for a while", it declared.

"Once you wake up, you will probably feel a bit sore, and the room will probably have a heavy scent of antiseptic and the plasters I usually apply on you", it said slowly. By then, she had already shown him those items (and many others). It's insistence on addressing him - reaching out to his rational side still irritated him, but not as much. It was starting to become background noise.

The critter knew he could understand the language, but it kept an even voice, with deliberate speech cadence and enunciation - it didn't know how fluent he was, no doubt it was trying to ensure he understood the message.

He didn't gave any signs of acknowledgement, so the girl went ahead and sharply tapped on the table. That grabbed his attention.

"You will also be placed in a different table, more like a bed" she made a small pause before continuing "some of your cuff's will be different", it pointed to his physical restraints with a nod.

The Girl fell silent, glancing in the general direction of his face, but not directly to his eyes.

The Hunter, on his part, stared down at it until the xenophysician shied away(all the weight of his hate imbued in his glare),  the ooman eyes turning down while it stood from its chair, retreating to a position behind his head.

He listened to the deliberate cadence of the xenophysician steps moving away, and after some minutes, returning.

A piece of his mind actually welcomed the prospect of being knocked out. Deep, uninterrupted and resting sleep was a luxury he could barely achieve these days.

***

The new equipment was a hybrid between a hispitar bed and an operating theater table. It also afforded to position the subject in different manners - like a standing position.

It would make it easy to turn him over. In the end, the final argument that seemed to finally convinced Dahle was the easy access to the spine and the torso region - that she could not analyze very well before.

Once the yautja was accommodated onto his new muzzle, the Girl plugged back the dripping access, and changed the anesthetics. She had also managed to convince Dahle to keep him in an induced coma for a small period (ten days, if everything went as planned).

It was the holiday's season, and it would surely improve the team's morale. Dahle had no interest on any of those festivities nonsense, but she could not afford to keep losing team members.

It was hindering her research - and angering the sponsors, who couldn't give two shits by whatever reason (valid or not) she gave for the high turnover rate. They couldn't keep losing team members (the cost of hiring efforts alone was astronomical already), and she better solve it soon.

The Girl had volunteered to stay behind and be the alien's babysitter.

"I'm single and orphan, I would rather skip the holidays, to be honest", were her reasons for stepping up, once questioned.  And her file confirmed.

The xenophysician had grown up in a boarding school after her parents passed away. No siblings, only distant relatives alive. No meaningful relationships within the facility walls - the Girl had reallocated to the planet for this job specifically.

Any suspicions of ulterior motives (other than securing the veterans favoritism) Dahle could have were quenched.