This female was most certainly not a gift from his father. Obviously. His father had died over five rotations ago. And even more obviously, his father would never have sent his exiled son a female lupin as a gift in the first place.

That said, of all the females Xenon had been gifted with since his arrival on this planet, this was the first he decided to keep. Not for mating, as the Group 7 leader most likely assumed, but out of sheer scientific curiosity.

For one thing, the leader was correct about the female’s unusual height. She was tall. So tall, she could almost be mistaken for a drakki. One who, like him, had taken on the appearance of this planet’s dominant native species as her shift shell. But he knew this was not possible. No drakki had been sent on this mission. The females of Xenon’s species were far too precious a resource to risk on missions off the home planet.

So no, this female was most certainly not drakki. Yet Xenon had never seen a hominid so very large. Everything about her was oversized in comparison to the other hominid species he’d seen on this planet. And in truth, even the pregnant female hominids did not display such large, full nursing glands, he noted to himself as he escorted her down the tunnel. They were big to the point of being completely impractical when it came to thriving and surviving in a cold and unforgiving region such as this.

Also, rather curiously, she possessed little to no body hair. He studied her carefully as she walked not behind, but beside him through the tunnel that led toward the front staging room of the glacier station. Her strong legs were completely bare, as was her openly displayed sex. And her brows consisted of thin lines that appeared to have been sculpted somehow, though he’d yet to see anyone in possession of much more than a rudimentary bone hair comb among the Group 7 tribe.

Once again, he felt his male works respond strangely to his observations of the differences between this female and the other hominids he’d encountered. There was a tingling sensation in the lowest part of his belly, and the flesh behind and beneath his stomach not only felt heavy, but larger. As if his male works had swollen. To the point where the synthetic hides across his mid-section began to feel tight and uncomfortable.

The female was speaking again.

“Welligessthisizbetterthanthadoodswithspeers. Buttharwillbenosacrifycingtooday—idontcayrwoturscriptsez. Ugetthatryt? Ohgodpleeztellmeeugetthat…beecuzurlykarobotryt? Ryt?”

Xenon listened intently to the way her inflection raised at the end of her many short sentences but still, he could not glean even a fraction of what she was trying to say. So he gave her no response. And when they arrived at the front staging room, he merely indicated that she be seated on the pile of cream-and-white polar bear furs he had fashioned into a replica staging bed when he first set up his lab.

“Ohmigodthankyoo!” she said—this time without the upward inflection. Her flame changed from blue to light orange, indicating an uptick in her mood.

Xenon carefully watched as she reached down with a dark hand to pull one of the thick furs around her naked form. His scientific curiosity was thoroughly piqued, but he had no idea how to go about running diagnostics on her without breaking protocol. Also, there was the matter of the gash across the left side of her otherwise smooth forehead. It needed tending, or else there was an excellent chance she would succumb to one of the many viral and bacterial infections that ran rampant on this water-and-ice planet, just as had happened with so many of the other fragile hominids.

But at the moment, Xenon had no drugged meat available in storage. And it was against protocol to reveal his handheld scanner, or any other trappings of technology, to a native species. He’d likely have to wait until she fell asleep upon the staging rugs, and then use a sedation circle to knock her out. Yet…

He tilted his head at the unfamiliar feeling flaming within him. Impatience. Xenon did not desire to wait to discover more about this unique female.

“Fensa.”

His eyes flicked up, and he was once more distracted from his thoughts by the sound of her voice.

“Imfensa.” The female touched her now fur-covered chest with one hand, splayed wide. Was that…? Yes, it was…. she had dark, glossy red tint atop the small keratin shields at the tips of her fingers.

“whassyoornaam?”

Another inflection. Whatever language she spoke, it was nothing at all like that of the Far Travelers. Her voice was clear and melodic, he noted, with a wider vocal range than any language he’d heard thus far on this planet. Highly sophisticated, and therefore, totally unexpected.

Xenon could not wait any longer. No, he could not reveal his research tools to the female, but curiosity burned inside him. He would investigate. However, he’d have to do it another way.

He thought back to his schooling, and to the six necessary steps of the investigative process. Something all research scientists learned from the very beginning of their studies: Observe. Note. Listen. Note. Smell. Note.

He’d studied her. He’d listened to her. Now it was time to smell her.

Xenon carefully, cautiously (so as not to startle the creature) lowered his head towards the flesh between her legs. He wanted to start there to ascertain if she was with child. He deeply inhaled her scent, taking his time to carefully absorb and analyze her unique chemical signatures.

Strangely, it was this action that finally silenced her. In fact, she went from fidgeting to completely still.

She was not an anthrohominid, he quickly discovered. He could smell the strong lupine pheromone radiating from her almost as soon as he began the exam. Along with a few other less familiar scents. The signature hormones of foods he was unable to identify, some that smelled of neither meat nor plant. She must have come from a region with a substantially different diet than this one.

Moreover, it was soon apparent the female was not with child. Yet there was something unusual about her scent. She fairly reeked of pregnancy hormones. But the more he took in the scent of her womb, the less he could identify the usual gestational hormones. What he did identify, however, was infinitely more startling. There were the distinct signature traces of an artificially created hormone mimicker, one designed to trick the body into behaving as if it were pregnant even though it clearly was not.

Bizarre. Perhaps she came from a region where Drakkon researchers were conducting an unknown experiment? But why would another research team wish to find ways to halt the fertility of this species? Hadn’t breeding these creatures for the hunt been the whole point of the original mission? Well, at least until the Royal Geneticist became overly attached to his creations.

This female confused him. From his crouched position below, Xenon looked up into her dark face. She was staring down at him, her eyes round and wide, pupils oddly dilated, and her flame burning a red and yellow he could not interpret. Discomfort perhaps? Curiosity, like his own?

A strange but pleasurable tingling made its way up from the base of his shell’s spine, and Xenon’s curiosity was further stimulated. There appeared to be a strong correlation between his current physical response, and this examination. Perhaps because it had been eons since he’d had the opportunity to use the six steps of investigation in this way…especially considering the extensive suite of research tools in his lab.

But like any good scientist, Xenon continued. He was especially intrigued by her body’s unusual chemicals, ones he had most certainly never detected on any of the other lupins. He muttered to himself, tilting his head to one side in a contemplative fashion…

Only to have his thoughts cut off once again when, without warning, more words spilled from the female’s mouth, only to just as suddenly cease with a large intake of air. Almost immediately thereafter, her body began to convulse.

Xenon’s stomach dropped. A seizure! She was having a seizure. Possibly the result of her head injury.

He had no choice but to act quickly. But that soon proved to be a mistake.