Heart of Gold

Chapter Six - The Barn

Sunny watched from the sidelines, the tight shackles around her ankles connected to a bolt in the ground, effectively keeping her from moving. Earlier, Kilnor had motioned for her to be quiet, and so despite the urge Sunny had to wail and sob, she resolutely kept her mouth shut, only the most determined of whimpers escaping.

Kilnor had taken up the role of her protector throughout this whole mess, and to see him there, thick metal cuffs holding his restrained to an examination table whilst yet another alien species hovered around him, a variety of needles and odd instruments in her hands was almost more than Sunny could bear. Worse still, Sunny would be next, and what had been done to Kilnor would surely be done to her.

This was worse than the Olcen ship. Sunny had thought the beating she had received there had enlightened her to the realities of her situation, but this looked to be more unpleasant still.

Even as that thought flitted through Sunny's mind, the shiny black creature injected something into the back of Kilnor's neck, before reattaching his original shackles. With a flick of her six-fingered hands - Sunny shuddered internally at the extra digit - the restraints that had so unceremoniously sprung from the bench clicked open and smoothly disappeared.

This was it. It was now Sunny's turn.

Calm, Sunny told herself. There was absolutely no benefit to be found in going to pieces like she had when removed from the cell back on the ship - it had not stopped what was to come, it had only added to her pain. As for the self-defence Kilnor had been teaching her, well, from the threat the alien had made before to Kilnor, should Sunny attempt anything, action would merely be taken against Kilnor, and Sunny could not bear to see that happen. More than that, it would be no way to repay Kilnor for his valiant protection.

Kilnor was led down from the bench, over to where Sunny was shackled, and before Sunny knew it, she was lying down, the hard steel of the bench bruising against her spine. The initial tests were not so bad, routine sensory reaction tests. It was the drawing of blood that caused all of it to drain from her face. Sunny had never been able to stomach blood tests, something about the needly piercing her skin and removing her very essence unsettling her to her very core, and it was no different on another planet.

Try as she might, Sunny could not stop the shivers that wracked her body, nor the sobs that shook her chest. From the wrinkled, scrunched look of the alien's face, she was not very impressed with Sunny's reaction, but at least she did not seem to take pleasure in it. Once the vials had all been taken, and the needle removed from Sunny's arm, she let out a gasping breath of relief, barely noticing the brief reprieve as the alien removed to a different section of her laboratory to run the blood through her machines. The respite was small indeed, as when the alien returned it was with a small army of needles that Sunny eyed with horror. That was not something Kilnor had to endure.

"You humans are so primitive," the alien informed her, speaking in English. Her tone of voice was faintly disgusted, Sunny noted, though that was only if she was reading the inflection correctly. "It is a wonder you have not died out from the most basic of diseases."

Sunny took that to mean that the injections she would be receiving consisted of a variety of inoculations. She did not particularly relish the thought, but it did settle her some. The devil you know and all that.

Sunny bit her lip, managing to take the injections in her arms and buttocks with total, stoic silence, a far cry from the shivering mess she was when it came to having her blood taken. It was only once she had endured the last prick that she realised what had followed the blood test for Kilnor, and it felt as if her remaining blood had turned to ice in her veins.