able to refuse. It had been the perfect excuse to get a sample from her. Just a little puncture from the barb on his wrist, careful not to expel any toxin, and a tiny amount of human tissue had been retrieved. She hadn't suspected a thing. He hadn't been so gentle when he'd collected the sample from "Miles."
Now, back in his temporary living space, Tsij prepared them both for testing, carefully labeling the tubes so that he could find the donor again. For the girl's, he used her name: Hailey. His tongue refused to wrap around the letters properly, but if he said it enough, it eventually would. Oddly, he didn't mind saying it.
She wasn't like he'd expected. Instead of avoiding him - which humans typically did according to their research, instinctually knowing he was different - she'd been kind, possibly even curious. He set the vial in the incubator and let his eyes close. She'd seemed completely healthy. It had been almost a full day since he'd first met her. She should be showing some signs of infection if she was susceptible. A slight irritation of the eyes, a cough, maybe even a fever, but she seemed fine.
The chances that the first person he came across would be the ideal sample were astronomical. Then again, so were the chances of an asteroid impacting the oxygen reproduction section of their ship. They could repair almost anything else en route, but not that. It was the one thing that would force them to land, and Earth had been the only planet in the region suitable for them. Granted, that was exactly why the Gahnek had been studying it for so long.
Tsij pushed his hands across his face. The pilot should've sent off a distress message, but it would be years before anyone would arrive unless another science vessel was in the area. With humans swarming all over the ship, none of them would know if help was on the way, and unless humans could read or speak his language, replies would simply go unanswered.
That meant he had to find a vaccine for the human population, and soon. He had to prevent Gahnek bacteria from wiping out the entire species of this planet. Human biology had never encountered things that Gahnek had learned to live with symbiotically. While most creatures had some amount of simple organisms, usually yeasts and bacteria, on their skin, the alien strains could be fatal. Human immune systems simply wouldn't know how to fight it. Few of them used the same proteins, and the amino acids his world favored were much less common on this planet.
It worked both ways, but before any scientists had been allowed on the surface, they had been inoculated against all foreign pathogens. Now, it was standard for the entire crew of the ship to be prepared. Tsij's body could adapt to the germs on Earth as easily as a human's, but the microbes on his skin, in his breath, and even in the air of his ship would infect all creatures with a specific intolerance. That meant all primates definitely, and possibly other creatures as well. And he was the only one that could find a solution before people started dying. He should have about seventy-two Earth hours before symptoms began to show. Fatalities would begin to appear somewhere within two human weeks.
He yawned, wiping at eyes stinging from the pollution in the air, then checked his experiment one more time. He knew it was a long shot, but stories told of early explorers mingling with the natives. Hushed rumors whispered that crossbreeding was even possible. Their species were very similar after all. So similar that it was inexplicable. So similar that images of strangely colored human women still circulated back home as fetish pornography.
Tsij had never understood the appeal. Simple-minded, uneducated, primitive creatures, humans were close enough to his kind to be interesting, but different enough that they should be little more than pets. Yet, when the observations first started, travel through space took so long that it only made sense to mingle with the natives. Gahnek would spend most of their lives here, cut off from their own kind. It was only natural for relationships to form over time. Supposedly, some of the early expeditions had members who requested to stay behind when their ship left. Reports hinted at children being born, but only if one read between the lines.
That meant there was a chance that the gene for recognition of Chajek antigens was embedded in the population somewhere. In four thousand years, surely it hadn't been wiped out completely. If he was lucky, it had been replicated enough to give the population a head start against the pathogens that had been released with the escape hatches.
Moving away from the replicators, Tsij stretched out between the heating vents, enjoying the limited warmth. If he found a suitable specimen, he would need to isolate it for the final round of tests. The girl had shown no fear of him. If she proved to have the proper genetic codes, he'd choose her. She was kind - he smiled at the memory of her shy look when she'd offered him another drink. Hopefully, she'd cooperate eventually. He'd probably have to abduct her, but with enough sedation, she should eventually give in and assist him.
Or maybe she'd do it willingly? He snorted at his own whimsical thoughts. Humans could barely comprehend the idea of life on other planets. There was no way she'd just let him expose her to alien bacteria to process antigens from her system. She'd be convinced that he was trying to take over the world, or something equally silly. So many of their movies were based on the same idea that it had to dwell in their subconscious. It would be nice, though, to have a willing partner rather than a reluctant specimen.
"Hahley," he tried, whispering her name under his breath. "Haeyley."
As his eyes slipped closed, he reminded himself that she'd likely be showing symptoms in the morning. He was just following her so closely because she was the first positive exposure he could record. It had nothing to do with protecting her. She was simply a case study. If she succumbed, it would give him a timeline to work from; that was it.
But damn it, he sure hoped she'd be the one. She liked his accent after all.