Free Awakening: The First Tale of the Trine (Trine Series Book 1) by D.B. West Page B

through the suit. “I was told to bring it to the containment room for the interview, so here I am. If you don’t want to let me in, I’ll just leave it here with you.” With that, he offered the catchpole to the soldier, who backed away.
    The light over the airlock door turned green just before it hissed open. The soldier and assistant who had set up the video conferencing equipment stepped through holding the helmets to their suits. They stopped abruptly at the sight of the guards with their weapons readied and trained on the massive dog blocking the hall. Seeing Aki standing there with only a catchpole around his neck, the two men attempted to push past the soldiers and get out of their line of fire.
    Watching the four men get tangled in the hallway, Aki bolted into the open airlock, dragging the catchpole from Andy’s loose grip. The soldiers flanked the doorway just as the door hissed closed. They caught only a brief glimpse of the dog wagging its tail and shaking its head free of the pole.
    The four men all turned to Andy, who had his hands already raised over his head. “We have to report to the Director right now,” he told them as he slowly backed towards the observation room.

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
    Director Spencer studied the alien intently while the video conferencing equipment was being assembled. It was definitely humanoid, in fact, the only obvious physical differences were the monotone eyes and the pointed ears. Its short white hair appeared naturally disheveled, and swept back from a pronounced widow’s peak. The only variation in hair color was a small patch right at the point that was the same electric blue as his eyes. The rest of the figure was completely covered in the segmented blue tinted armor. Both forearms appeared to be equipped with some sort of high-tech devices, judging from the green tubing on the right, and the touch screen on the left. The screen remained dark, though a softly pulsing red light by its wrist seemed to have some significance, as the figure glanced at it frequently.
    “Director, I think I’ve figured something out!” The lead technician had been calibrating all of the telemetry again to make sure the strange readings the creature was emitting were correct. “I was getting some odd feedback on the pulse oximeter, but I’ve managed to smooth it out.”
    “What sort of feedback? What do you think it is showing?” the Director asked, coming to look at the console.
    “When we tried to amplify the heartbeat to listen to its pulse rate, we were getting a strange echo effect. I isolated each of the noises and got measurements on them individually. At first we thought its heart was just really fast, maybe one hundred twenty beats a minute. There was some odd overlap though in the rhythm! Sir, I think…I think he has two hearts! Once I isolated each one, they appear to be working in tandem, each beating approximately sixty times per minute.”
    “Two hearts…tell me, have you had any luck adjusting the irradiator?”
    “No sir, unfortunately that armor it’s wearing is completely blocking any attempts to get a look at his internal workings. It seems like it may have actually been designed just for that, judging from the way the films we tried to take came back. The figure is almost completely glared out, except for the exposed bits. That suit bounced everything back.”
    Behind them, Agent Soto listened to her earpiece for a moment, before announcing, “The team has the equipment set up, and they are now dialing in all of the official observers before we begin. Director, you will be the primary contact and the only one able to communicate from this room, but the President requested that several other agencies act as witnesses.”
    “Good,” Director Spencer said with a nod, resuming his observation. The alien still sat on the cot watching the two guards work impassively. It had made no attempt to communicate further after being separated from its animal companion, and