Chapter 9P.E.B.S.   On the ride to the hospital, Alissa sat beside Thak and they rode in silence for a few minutes until Thak asked Alissa about Jonah's injury and the events leading to it. Alissa reyed the events of the battle to the Ibian and Thak nodded as she took in the details of the story.

  “I was supposed to be the one that was hurt,” Alissa said. “Not him, but he pushed me out of the way and look at what happened.”

  “Grateful, you are, to Jonah, are you not?” Thak asked looking at Alissa questioningly.

  “No, I am, but I feel as though it should be me back there, not him. I love him so much I would take on the wound and all the pain that comes with it if it meant he would not have to endure it. Do you understand what it is like to love someone that much? To the point where you would trade pces with them just to spare them?”

  “Ah, understand you now, I think I do. Exchanging physical natures, to spare from pain, the one you love. Yes?”

  Alissa looked at the Ibian confused so Thak continued.

  “Your health, becomes his, his wound, becomes yours. Exchanged. Healthy, he would be, while his hurt, you carry. Wish this, you do?”

  Not thinking that Thak quite understood, Alissa agreed not wanting to try to expin it further.

  “Then this, with you, we can help, when exam you, we do. Added bonus, we shall receive, in the process.” Thak looked pleased. “Better understanding, gained, will knowledge be. Much help. for relic research, you shall provide. To your mate, no cost, shall there be. Sufficient trade, data received, will be.”

  The more Thak talked the more Alissa was confused about what exactly she was talking about. The Ibian babbled on the rest of the trip and Alissa soon tuned her out as she watched the streets pass by.

  As they arrived at the hospital that they were to meet Doctor Sliss at, Alissa realized that she had never seen this particur building during the entire time she had been coming to Ib and she wasn’t sure exactly what part of the city it was located in. The vehicle pulled up under a rge awning and two Ibians rushed out of the doors of the hospital, opened the back hatch, unloading Jonah. They gave Jonah an injection of something she couldn't see before rushing him inside. Thak indicated that Alissa should follow.

  She followed the pair as they quickly moved through a maze of corridors and up several flights of stairs. Soon they stopped before a set of double doors and, pushing them open, moved Jonah inside. Alissa followed not knowing what else to do and saw that Jonah had fallen fast asleep as they transferred him into a rge gss tube that had dozens of tubes and wires attached to both ends. They quickly removed the splint, his bandages and all of his clothing, which caused Alissa to blush furiously and turn away, before closing the tube before they left the room as it sealed with a sucking sound.

  After the pair left, Alissa was left alone with the now naked Jonah. Curious, she walked over to the tube and examined him since she had never seen him naked before. She eyed the tight well-formed muscles of his chest and followed them down the rippled muscles of his abs. His arms were well toned, hinting at the hidden strength and power that they possessed but would only show when the muscles in them were tensed. His legs were even more muscur than his arms and just up his body from his legs was something she had never actually seen up close. Curiously she leaned in for a better look when she heard the door behind her open and she stood quickly, blushing darkly.

  “Hmm, blood rushing to facial region of human female,” said a red Ibian who was wearing a b coat and carried a rge clipboard that she was busy jotting notes onto. “Examination of mate in the nude, the likely cause.”

  Thak walked into the room behind the red Ibian and introducing her as Doctor Sliss. Doctor Sliss examined Alissa intently making her a bit nervous.

  “The human female for examination, is this?” The doctor asked Thak.

  “Yes, Doctor,” Thak replied. She indicated to a second gss tube that Alissa had not noticed before and informed Alissa that she needed to strip down and get in it.

  Alissa did as she was told, feeling uncomfortable from the doctor staring at her and jotting notes down constantly. Soon Thak came over to her and gave her an injection telling her that is will make her sleep for a short while. As soon as Alissa was fast asleep in the tube, Thak sealed it and turned back to the doctor.

  “Requested by the female, the PEBS was. To further research, given as well, external and internal exam approval was. Approved by the Board, payment in this fashion, was. On PEBS, knowledge gained immense, will be, the Board thinks. Exams performed, while PEBS effect occurs, should be.”

  The doctor looked to Thak and asked, “The Human female requested the PEBS? Why?”

  “By name, she did not ask, but, expressed regret, she did, for pain, owed her instead. Wished, she did, that unnecessary pain, the male be spared from, when to her, the pain belongs. Wished for the PEBS, she did, though, a name she knew not, to call it.”

  “Hmm, it has never been tested on Human or Ibian, so it might be unsafe. On mindless beasts, we have only ever tested it. Main purpose of PEBS, under review still. Board approval stands still in light of this?”

  “Approval stands still. If anomaly appears, abort to save subjects if necessary, the Board orders. Prior to physical exams requiring consciousness, should PEBS be, for best results.”

  “The brain is required inactive for PEBS effect, so performed immediately it must be, before drugs wear off. Insanity is a risk otherwise.” The doctor said, looking at the two humans.

  “Agreed.”

  The doctor pressed a button of the wall and spoke into an intercom system requesting the PEBS device. It arrived shortly after, wheeled in on a rge trolley. The device was spherical in shape with P.E.B.S stamped in to the metal on one side. It had two long, thick cables that ran out of it and could be connected to the sides of the tubes that Alissa and Jonah were in right above their foreheads. Thak and the doctor set about attaching the device to the gss chambers then pulled several wires from the wall over to the PEBS and connected them, providing a controlble interface in the next room.

  They left the room and proceeded to the next which was down the hall. In the room there was a rge gss panel that overlooked the room that the humans were in. From the room that Alissa and Jonah were in the wall looked normal, but from the room that the Ibians were in, it appeared transparent. There were several screens that glowed faintly in the dim lights of the room that listed the vital signs of the humans in the tubes.

  Doctor Sliss walked to one of the screens, reaching out to touch it. As she touched the screen it sprang to life, information flowing quickly across the screen while the doctor muttered softly to herself as she selected multiple options with only a touch.

  In the other room the PEBS device sprang to life, the whole machine glowing with a faint purple colored light. Where the two cables were connected to the tubes a small device stretched slowly out toward both of the humans heads. As the devices neared their foreheads, a long needle sprang from the tips, penetrating deeply through flesh and bone, boring into Alissa and Jonah's brains.

  Thak watched Doctor Sliss work efficiently, quickly selecting and deselecting options on the screen while carefully monitoring vital signs and brainwave activity on a second monitor. After only a few minutes, the doctor stopped and decred the process done. In the room with the two humans, the needles retracted back into the devices which then pulled back into the side of the tube where the cables were connected. Thak looked into the room where the two humans were, noting that they slept soundly, undisturbed by the process.

  Doctor Sliss started an external scan of the human female, then began jotting notes down quickly on her clipboard, not paying attention to anything else as the scan ran its course. She stopped writing a few seconds before the monitor beeped, indicating the external scans were complete. Looking over the results on the screen, she made a few more notes then proceeded to run a program that would perform multiple scans of the female’s internal systems. Turning to another monitor that dispyed information on the male, the doctor began an external scan, this time on the male.

  The external scan on the male finished long before the internal scan on the female. Paying close attention to the results of the scan around the wound on the male Doctor Sliss could see that nothing was abnormal with the male except for the wound itself. She then ran an internal scan on the male, focusing first on the area affected by the wound. Doctor Sliss nodded to herself, satisfied that there was minimum infection. There was extensive damage to the calf muscle as well as some splintering on the male's tibia and fibu. The tibia was broken in two pces and there was a rather nasty fracture that was beside the single break on the fibu, but nothing that the doctor thought could not be repaired with retive ease. Satisfied with the results she set it to finish scanning the remainder of the male's body before checking on the scan of the female.

  The scan was almost complete so the doctor brought up the scans and notes on human male anatomy to compare the two together. While Doctor Sliss was busy with that, Thak watched the two humans as they slept and wondered if the PEBS was successful. If it was, then she contempted how they would react upon waking. There were many tests that she wanted the doctor to preform that would provide results which would hopefully give the Ibians some insight into what the PEBS was originally used for. The attempts to use it on animals in the past were inconclusive, a problem suspected to be caused by using it on animals driven purely by instinct. With the ability to communicate with the subjects, they could ask all kinds of questions instead of just having to study behavior patterns like they had to do with the animals. The animals that they had used PEBS on would act strange for a short period of time, their behavior mimicking that of each other, before they started acting as they normally had prior to the proceedure.

  Doctor Sliss checked the screens as the scans on both subjects finished. She took note of all physiological and genetic differences between both the male and female humans, surprised to see how different and simir they were simultaneously. Looking to Thak, she shared the results including a comparison of the male to other human males that they had scanned in the past.

  Thak nodded, obviously impressed with the information that Doctor Sliss had obtained.

  Doctor Sliss asked if Thak thought it would be preferable to awaken the subjects now or let them sleep and wake on their own before continuing. Thank paused to considered for a moment while accessing a communication device on her wrist, then gave the doctor instructions to go ahead and wake up the subjects.