The next days are a haze. Not much time is spent awake. Any feeling of time is lost as it vaguely feels itself being carried around, glimpses of strange alien machines. Something that looks like it might have been a face, coloured a rich brown, with patches of black fur covering parts of it. But the drugs weigh heavily on its mind – there is no telling if this face had been real or made up. It doesn't take long until the darkness sets back in, sending it adrift in its own mind.

Occasionally, there is excruciating pain. Then, the silence enwraps it again, like a gentle embrace. Is this... death? It doesn't suppose that there is such a thing as rebirth for a kett, no matter its heritage.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next time it wakes up, the scenery has changed. Its limbs feel as though someone set them on fire. Most likely due to sedatives, administered in order to transport it here without chance of any... mishaps. Its jaw is quivering subtly as it tries to look around, its eyeballs still the only thing it can move. There's a large mirror to its right, and the rest of the room is filled with what might be medical equipment. Maybe they had brought it here to be tortured.

Torture wasn't exactly the most useful technique to get information from a kett. Especially one of low rank such as itself. They rarely had useful insight, if any at all. This one itself had been stationed far away from any alien contact for years. Until a couple weeks ago, when their science team discovered some remnant artifacts. And that had been when everything went downhill. Now, it is stuck here. Left to be interrogated for who knows how long. It wishes desperately for a way to track time, at least.

An unknown amount of time later, a door slides open. A-... thing steps through. An alien. How much had changed since its exaltation? It knows that it's been years. Years since... ...it prefers not to think of it. Instead, it decides to focus on the situation at hand. Focus on the thing that is eyeing it, dressed in a white and red piece of garment. Scaled, blue skin. A single white stripe going from its lower lip down to its chin. It looked... maybe disgusting was the right word. Like something was severely wrong with it. How did its tiny neck hold up its head?

The blue alien starts speaking to... something. Someone? It isn't certain which option is the correct answer. It can see its mouth moving and noises coming out, but none it understands. A second voice comes from a speaker, followed by a crackling noise, like static. Painful seconds drag by as the two voices keep talking back and forth.

“Hey... is this thing working?” It flinches as the alien's words suddenly come out in the guttural language of Tonaizhet. The voice remains feminine, but it's not the same as before. “Can you understand me?” Milky white eyes follow the blue alien as it steps closer to the gurney it is strapped to. It's not sure how the alien is suddenly speaking to it, but somehow, it feels good to hear someone else's voice for a change. Speaking only to yourself in your head drives you nuts after a while. Answering this alien's question goes against all instincts and everything it has learned, but it doesn't want to be alone again.

Figuring out how to speak again after weeks of isolation appears to not be as easy as thought, however. Its muscles tense up, fighting to break through the restraints. It is in that moment that it realises that it can barely breathe under their weight, lungs only filling with air when it makes a conscious effort to. The alien looks over towards the mirror with a concerned gaze.

“Are you sure the translator is working?”
“Yeees, I'm sure”, replies a very annoyed voice. It seems that someone is sitting on the other side of that mirror, most likely watching them. Attempting to take a deep breath, it can hear the restraints creaking with effort to hold it back. That makes the alien's eyes widen with fear, looking back at the otherwise motionless body on the gurney.

“Can't... breathe....” Between all this, its own voice feels almost deafening. Deep and coarse, coming from the depths of its guts with a volume it had almost forgotten about. Shaking softly, it is glad to see the alien quickly release some of the restraints around its chest, despite initial hesitation. It takes a deep, desperate breath, closing its eyes involuntarily. After coughing a couple times and taking another moment for pure recuperation, it almost wants to thank the alien. Almost.

“So... you can understand us?” The alien's eyes are a little desperate now. Maybe it's worried that it harmed its subject in some way. It's possible. Catching a live kett is rare, so this blue thing must have worked hard for this.

“...yes.” Coughing again, it averts its eyes, trying to focus on the bright light above its head. How had it not noticed that before? What a strange facility this is.

“Alright. Finally!” The worry in the alien's voice is replaced by excitement. Were their intonations that similar to those of the angara and kett? Or did they have a different meaning entirely and it was merely misunderstanding? It's already strange enough how familiar the alien looks. Looking over at it again, the kett resumes observing. Two legs, two arms, mammaries. A female, perhaps? It can't be certain. There's no saying just how different a new species of alien might be. Even what appears to be a smile on its face doesn't necessarily have to be a smile.

“...I have nothing of value for you, alien”, it coughs out, voice regaining more life with each word.

“Wrong. You have everything I could possibly want or need.” The alien's eyes are focused on the strange device projected up from its wrist. Orange glow fills the room with a more comfortable atmosphere, only making the kett more uncomfortable. Its eyes are filled with suspicion as it watches the alien work, not about to speak when there was no reason to. “I want to learn from you. About you, about your people. That's all.”

“There is nothing I can tell you. You are wasting your time.” The words roll off of the kett's lips without much thought. There is nothing to think about when there truly is nothing to tell. It's certain that the alien already knows everything there is to know about the kett empire, and it as an individual is everything but interesting.

You know that's not true.

“Do you have a name?” There's that... smile again. It would love to know if that's really a smile.

There is no point in telling. Neither is there a point in not telling. What could possibly be gained from a name? Kett names are nothing more than random letters and numbers, with most disregarding the numbers part, at least when speaking to each other. The numbers are more important when it comes to bureaucratic bullshit. It decides to see where this goes. Death awaits one way or another, but perhaps, the last hours or days could at least be spent in an interesting manner.

“...Nnriek.” The 'name' its commanders had used to shout orders over comm.

Vekksaan. That was the name its mothers had chosen. A name it would never hear again.

“Well, N-nriek.” The alien has trouble pronouncing its name, something it is not surprised by. “I'm Doctor Lexi T'Perro. We're going to be spending a lot of time together from now on. I would appreciate it if you'd cooperate.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

\0/ part 2. I hope I didn't miss too many places where I switched tenses. doing that will be my eternal antagonist