the lab for not moving him out of the vivarium, but his attitude wasn’t doing him any favors. After two weeks, he was still glowering at her whenever she came within sight.
She ignored his bad attitude and spent considerable time with him in-between cleaning the other habitats, speaking to him in a low voice. She shied away from talking about her people, uncertain if that would get her in trouble if there was any chance at all that he could understand them. At times, she was certain he did. As she spoke, describing the rolling forests that she had seen, he seemed to pause and draw nearer.
How much of that was just in reaction to her voice and how much was due to him actually listening? She didn’t know.
One thing she did know was that he made no attempts to communicate. Not with her or anyone else. He just glared and snarled at anyone who came anywhere near his cage with such hostility that the scientists were beginning to mutter among themselves that he had to have been tagged and studied. His aggression seemed to get worse as the days passed.
Every time she had to sedate him so that she could clean his habitat, he seemed to trust her less. Not even the cup and plate he made use of had endeared her in any shape to him. He made that clear when he flung the coat she gave him at the barrier the very first day and left it where it fell, far away from where he slept.
Not good.
“This isn’t good,” Erik said suddenly from behind her, echoing her private thoughts. Turning toward him, she ignored the hostile snarl from the male in the habitat, the spines that ran up the full length of his tail and back lifting from where they were concealed in his fur. Erik’s frown deepened as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“I’ve seen him on surveillance scouting his habitat, checking it for weaknesses, trying to work his way out of it. Did you hear that the lab rejected Dr. Phillips’s recommendation to return him to the wild based on his own observations over the last two weeks? He argued that we’re dealing with a taciturn sentient male, accounting for the escalating hostility and aggression, despite his lack of communication with our crew. The lab, however, says there isn’t sufficient evidence for sentience.”
Erik let out a sharp bark of laughter as he looked over at her. “They’re up to something, Charlie. I feel it in my bones. Despite being limited to what I can access, I saw a significant number of restricted access files. The entire setup of this colony has been weird as hell anyway, but I’ve never seen so many files that I don’t have access to.”
“I haven’t seen any,” Charlie said.
“You don’t have access to the inner mainframe. Your clearance allows you general access for the lab. His main file is only on the internal lab mainframe. If Dr. Phillips hadn’t forwarded me his recommendation and their denial, I never would have seen them. He wanted us to be aware, because, and I quote, we ‘are those with the most direct and immediate contact with the alien being, and it would behoove us to be aware of how the lab is working against our best interests and potentially putting us in grave danger.’”
“But there has to be a mistake. I know I heard him trying to communicate with me. Maybe if I talk to Dr. Santo and tell him so he’s awa—”
Erik shook his head. “He knows, Charlie. I forwarded him recordings I captured from surveillance of the alien using what has to be a language during a moment of frustration when he was alone. As soon as I was able to clean up the audio so that it could be heard a bit more clearly, I sent it to both Dr. Phillips and Dr. Santo as well as Dr. Shelby as a priority missive.”
“Why would they want to cover this up?” Charlie asked in bewilderment.
Erik leaned forward, his voice dropping to a whisper as he pulled her away, back toward their workstation. “Because they can. I wasn’t kidding when I said that the conditions on Turongal are unprecedented. Turongal is utterly unclassified. From what I’ve read, the location shows up in some of our allies’ stellar maps but is listed as restricted. No one in living memory knows anything about the planet. Whatever caused that designation is unknown. This means