6

 

He was utterly still.  The others were all pacing around on all fours, beast-like, their eyes blank.  He was slumped against one corner of his enclosure.  His head was in shadow and I could tell that his breathing was even.  I assumed he was sleeping, but as I got closer to the angled panels, I could see that there was blood oozing out from the soles of his feet.  There was scar tissue there which looked like it had not been allowed to heal properly.

 

"Don't you care if he gets an infection?"  I wondered, looking at the open wounds.

 

Hearing my voice, the alpha's eyes opened as he moved slightly into the eyes.  His eyes glowed with the ocean blue color as his eyes darted from Dr. Dawson to my scared eyes.  He suddenly bared his teeth and growled low into the back of his throat, it was a warning sound that made me flinch, but I was aware so I didn't take the step behind Dr. Dawson like I dearly wanted to.

 

"It's good you have some standing as they try to establish their dominance often with displays like this.  You are quite good at fighting your own instincts."  Dr. Dawson's mouth curled as he spoke.  "Please recall the origin of my specimens, Ms. Spitz.  As veterans, they have sustained many injuries in war and it is fun to let them play together.  But in such an aseptic environment there is unlikely to be anything more than a little pain."

 

"Okay."  I nodded as that made sense with all of the biosecurity measures.  They were astrosoldiers after all.  I couldn't really say much as I hadn't studied this population yet.  I wanted my words to hold weight eventually.  I didn't look at his feet and fought my nature.  I wouldn't bend, I reminded myself, for a criminal who was here for a dark reason.  And soon, his feet would harden with callouses as he was a hardened veteran of the front lines.

 

"But of course with hormone usage, there will be a negative to it?"  I couldn't shake that there was something off with this alpha as he got up and put weight on his slashed feet.  He didn't flinch as he put his weight on them.  He was locked onto Dr. Dawson and his stance was like he was sizing the researcher up.  Dr. Dawson seemed disinterested.  I couldn't imagine how these two alphas didn't have a go at each other.

 

"Of course.  To embrace the animal makes us inhuman.  He has his primal instincts now.  He is dominant and wild.  We're going to have him tamed again.  We have such a bright specimen, it would be a waste of government resources otherwise, do you not agree?"  Dr. Dawson put his hand against the wall and the specimen stimulated immediately.  His low growl immediately turned into a roar as he charged against the wall.  He rammed himself into the window so hard that I flinched wondering if it would crack.  Seeing, there wasn't even a crack, he shoved his face against the glass blinders as much as he could see.  His eyes twitched menacingly with the abnormal blue hue as they rolled in the socket.  There was a frenzy to him that was incredibly unsettling.

 

"You can see that he's not quite human anymore.  My serum has it's faults.  His alpha instincts are in full force.  It's quite the aura, wouldn't you say so?  Well I assume as a beta it's hurting you much more than it does me.  It is the benefit of my species to be dominant which helps negates the ill effects of my imperfections in the serum.  Dominance in battle is definitely something of government priority.  The poor side effect is that following orders is something we are working on.  But you know all things are a work in progress."  Dr. Dawson took a quick step forwards and instantly like a tiger aroused by an invasion into his territory his mouth lifted up.  His snarl rebounded across the room getting closer and closer and I closed my ears and heard a crash.  I had unknowingly closed my eyes.

 

But when I opened them, the two alphas were face to face.  He was foaming at the mouth as he banged against the glass, ramming it with his whole body as it shook.  Dr. Dawson smirked.  He taped the glass with a mocking expression.  As the specimen had nothing he could think of doing for more intimidation.  He started to pace back and forth, staring Dr. Dawson down, growling at him and baring his teeth.

 

"He's very aggressive still.  How do you think to control them?  They seem like animals."  I tried to keep my voice from shaking as I struggled to keep my body from curling into the submissive position to make the alphas understand I was not one of them.  I had to pretend I was ok when I very clearly was not.  I wasn't sure that I would be around that one displaying such anger.

 

"He's an isolated case.  We also focus on making sure they are kept in their designated areas rather than hurting our very valuable specimens."  Dr. Dawson looked almost bored.  He traced a pattern back and forth on the glass lazily as he looked at his specimen.  It didn't seem to bother him, the low growls and the fake jumps that the specimen would make at the glass towards him.  "It's not much of a question if you think about evolution and the animal kingdom.  There is one thing that will pacify any male on this dire excuse of a planet.  Even the heirarchy aside, once mated, nothing else can matter."

 

I struggled to imagine how something to violent could be anything but, my expression made the doctor laugh as I struggled to speak.  "You mean that all of these specimens have females with which they can . . ."  I couldn't bring myself to say it.  "The Galactic High Commission has strict rules for mated pairings for both heterosexual and homosexual matches.  Even if he is your specimen, you cannot deny him his right to her.  Even if she is also a felon or a woman of violent criminality."