Elements
by Amiana
***
Is she here?
She has arrived.
Have her escorted to my chambers.
There was an affirmative 'nod' sent through the Commonality. Within moments, the doors to his chambers quietly swished open to reveal the perfect human woman.
He rose gracefully out of his throne-like chair and gave her the Taelon greeting. She returned it with equal grace and tranquility. Her crystaline blue eyes serched his room with calm interest. The Volunteer that had escorted her here had left. They were alone.
"Come. Stand with me and view your planet."
She glided across the floor without making a sound. For no little time they stood together in silence, watching the Earth turning below them.
"You have come a long way, human. Do you require anything?" he asked politely, breaking the quiet.
She turned her head with liquid serenity and gazed at him straight in the face. She was indeed beautiful, he remarked. The human woman closed her eyes breifly and then repopened them to relveal green gems. He smiled to himself.
"I do not require anything at the moment," her voice was like angelic music playfully flowing out of her mouth, past her perfect human lips, "But I thank you for your kind thought," she blinked again to reveal a honey-sweet hazel gaze, "Da'an."
He inclinded his head and smiled fondly at his project. It had taken Mit'gai and himself a full human year to perfect the genes and chromosomes that had eventually led to this perfect human woman. Da'an had watched her grow and blossom throughout her entire- albiet short- life. She was technically only three years old, but appeared as a vibrant young twenty-year-old woman. She was like a favorite student of his, his prize project. And the time was drawing near to see if she would be a success.
Her hair was straight and waist-long. It had no deffinite color; no one color was perfect, so they had used them all. Presently, it appeared as a sandy reddish-blonde, but Da'an knew that the instant she turned her head it would look to be a sun-reddened brown. He gazed at her lithe form with a hungry anticipation. She was the perfect human.
"You have been informed about what is to occur?" he was very aware that she had, but asked anyway.
"I have Da'an. My purpose draws near." again her melodic voice enrapt the Taelon. Never had there been anything so wonderful, so beautiful, so... perfect.
"Indeed it does, Lainah, indeed it does." he breathed. Her name played on his tongue like sweet sugar, Da'an savoured the sound of it.
They stood together, gazing at the turning Earth, in expectant silence. The stars seemed to shine brighter than they had before.
***
The medical lights were teribly bright, the three Taelons occupying the room were forced to squint so that they could see properly. The one human in the room did not notice the blazing light, she was gazing calmly at one of the Taelons. The Synod Leader was fretting.
"What if it is not successful, Da'an? What will happen to Lai- the human?" Zo'or was not hiding his anxiety well.
"You worry for no apparent reason, my child," Da'an said patiently, "If she does not survive the injections, then we will have lost a great opportunity. That is all."
Zo'or saw through his parent's outer calm. Da'an was as attatched to this human as he himself was, except in a different way. Zo'or was about to launch another line of worried questions, but something averted his attention.
"Zo'or, you worry. You should not." Lainah's warm hand was comforting in his cool one, her green gaze full of happy wonder. She was about to take the second step in her purpose, getting her that much closer to her goal. If she did not make it she will have failed them, but that did not concern the perfect angel.
"I worry for your safety, Lainah. For you," Zo'or said quietly. His blue eyes burned into her brown ones. What would he do if she was to fail?
Da'an and Mit'gai shared a glance behind the Synod Leader's back. They quietly left the room to leave the Taelon and human together. Alone. Zo'or silently appreciated their kindness.
"Lainah, my angel, you mean the universe to me." Zo'or crooned sadly, "I cannot loose you."
"I have done my best for the Taelons thus far, my love, I shall continue to do so." she smiled with her perfectly formed lips and squeezed the hand she held in hers.
Zo'or and Lainah iniciated a sharing, not for the first time, but perhaps for the last. When the contact was broken and both regained their composures, Da'an and Mit'gai re-entered the room. The Synod Leader and the perfect project shared one, last, emotion-ladden gaze before he was ushered out of the medical lab.
As he walked away down the hall towards the bridge, Zo'or could feel the Taelon doctor and his parent preparing for the proceedure. He gave a sort of prayer for to any listening 'higher being' that his human love would come out alright. That she would not fail them. Fail him.
***
He watched his precious machines.
"All vitals normal."
He pressed a few buttons and switched a few levers. The mechanical arm with the rotator needle situated on the end of it moved forward. A piece of menacing mechanical technology.
"The Taelon DNA shall be injected first," he droned.
The needle punctured Lainah's skin. She yelped in pain and her back arched violently. This was a lengthy proceedure. Mit'gai winced. He checked a nearby readout quickly, and then her vitals again. There was a new pulse of light where there hadn't been before. Mit'gai nodded.
"Her heart rate is terribly high, Da'an! Her body cannot take much more!" the Taelon doctor reported worriedly, "Her brain waves are off the scale! Da'an...?!" he looked over to the other Taelon. Da'an was standing quietly by the human's bed, emotions warring on his features. He turned sadly, but coldly to the doctor.
"We must continue, Mit'gai. If she does not survive, we all will have failed, including her. And we will have to start again." the pain was evident in the Taelon's voice, but so was the harsh reality.
"Of course, Da'an." Mit'gai whispered. He silently turned back to his computers and ordered the needle to come out.
Lainah yelled again with the removal of the horrid thing. Mit'gai gazed sadly, but in a detatched manor at the whimpering and convulsing woman. If she survived, he would continue.
He watched her vitals for several minutes, hoping that they would calm down. They did so only slightly. The human was in excrusciating pain. He prepared the second needle.
The DNA in this needle had been extremely difficult to come by. Da'an had chased the human who had contained it for some time before obtaining it. The human had been killed by a Volunteer in the process. Mit'gai had heard the human to be named Reklae Verdyana. Her DNA had been collected from the spot that she had been vaporised. The DNA had to be tinkered with so that only the most important part would be passed on to this project.
Mit'gai shook his head sadly. Such an interesting subject had been lost in that struggle. He had also heard that this particular human had had a younger sister that had escaped the tirade... Li... Liana...
Mit'gai shook his head again in bemused wonder. He prepared himself for Lainah's reaction to the second needle.
It pierced her skin and mixed with the previously injected Taelon DNA. Lainah let loose a scream that was so heart-wrenching, so ear-splitting that Mit'gai was sure it would deafen half of the mothership. He checked her monitors and noticed that she had nearly ripped her vocal chords into several pieces with the last expenditure of sound. He hoped that it would not mean the perminent loss of her voice.
He looked over to Da'an, silently wishing the other Taelon to call an end to this torture disguised by the word of "project." Da'an appeared to be a statue of unmoving, unaffected rock. How could he not be emotional for his prize project's unacountable pain? Mit'gai let the thought hang. He watched Lainah's body convulse again in agony. Her vitals were dangerously precarious.
Without so much of a moment's hesitation, Mit'gai readied the third and final needle. This injection fluid had been created by Mit'gai himself, under Da'an's instruction. This DNA would give Lainah's goal an immense power, more than the little world of Earth had ever known, more than even the Taelons had envisioned possible from the little race called "humans". This and the DNA from the human Reklae combined with the Taelon DNA would create an amazing outcome. If she survived.
The Taelon doctor braced himself for the last injection's reaction. The needle went in. To his evident surprise, nothing happened. Lainah's body was beaten, bruised, and several bones were broken, but the last injectiion caused nothing. A sudden fear enveloped him. Was she... he hoped against all odds that she wasn't... the doctor checked his machines with unmasked haste. He saw the readings with wide and unbelieving eyes.
She was... alive. She had survived. Survived!
He quickly calmed himself. She had survived... so far. She had a horribly painful recovery ahead of her. Mit'gai prepared the medical room for recovery, stashing away the surgical tools. Da'an was seated in a chair with his head in his hands. Peace had claimed the room. It was a precasious peace, but it was there none-the-less.
And now there was one more being to share it.
***