After I sent Carrie off to have an AI buddy of her own implanted, I made my way to the theaters for another go of recruiting and to make sure everyone woken up was up to speed quickly. I spent another six hours doing that before making my way to the cafeteria that the other humans were using; just because they weren't about to sign up to fight the Scourge didn't mean that I needed to avoid them.

When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was the fact that everyone was staring at me. That was making me uncomfortable but I just needed to suck it up and deal with it.

"How's everyone doing?" I asked in an effort to break the ice. It did not work.

"That good huh?" I muttered as I made my way to the food synthesizer that had been set up for public use.

"Steak, medium rare, with garlic butter and sauteed mushrooms and onions topping it. Side of scalloped potatoes. Side of grilled mixed vegetables. And a root beer to drink," I ordered from it using the voice function rather than typing it all in manually.

With a small ding, the sythesizer let me know my food was done and as I was reaching in for it I heard someone behind me exclaim.

"How'd you do that?" the kid that couldn't have been more than sixteen asked.

"Didn't you watch the video that tells you about all of this stuff?" I asked him in return.

"What video?" he asked with a confused look.

"The holo-video that the aliens made so that no one was lost about what everything was and how to use them." I told him.

"I didn't see any video," a larger man with a mean look said. "Where the hell did they hide it?"

"They didn't," I explained. "They would have set up a button on a pedestal that would wait until someone pressed it. It was meant to be used until everyone didn't need it."

"I saw a pedestal," I small woman said. "Some boys were moving it for some reason."

Oh great, I had to deal with vandals so that no one was left feeling like they weren't safe.

"Can you point those boys out to me?" I asked her. I wasn't looking forward to having to take care of that.

"I don't think so," she answered. "They were wearing those uniforms that we were all given and they had short, dark hair. I couldn't see much more than that."

Great, just great. I needed to figure out who was doing this soon, but first I needed a question answered.

"Has anyone eaten today?" If the pedestal the Wardens had left for the humans that weren't becoming Nephilim was gone, then that meant very few people had had an opprotunity to see the video that would have explained more to them.

"No, nobody has that I've seen," the kid who had first spoken up said. Oh no.

"Alright, everyone gather around and I'll explain how this goes," I said raising my voice to be heard throughout the cafeteria. It only took a few minutes and another demonstration had everyone lining up and ordering anything they could think of from, caviar to chicken noodle soup. For my part, I wasn't able to eat my steak because I was left standing nearby the woman that had spoken up about the boys who took the pedestal in the first place. Angie, the woman's name, was rather talkative after she was able to dig into her food and she was willing to help me try and find the boys that were causing the problems. Before we could find them, I recieved a message through Cai and had to set off for the medical ward where Carrie was waking up from her AI surgery. Apparently, the surgeons wanted to ask me something about her and I was planning to set them straight by telling them that any Nephilim had control over what happened to their body as a result of any surgeries or medicines the doctors offered them.

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The medical ward set aside for the Nephilim recruits was a rather large building with several beds lining the wall behind a desk manned by a Hullmran as soon as you entered the door. More doors at the back wall of the room led deeper into the building and toward the areas set aside for surgeries and examination rooms.

"Where do they want to see me?" I asked the Hullmran.

"Operation Room One," she told me. "Your new cadet was rather curious when she came through, I hope to speak with her again."

Carrie was getting along with the aliens she met? Good; if things went the way I expected them to, she was going to be encountering a lot of them.

I made my way toward the indicated room and found the head of the Nephilim Project waiting for me outside Carrie's room. The Gurtmic was glad to see me and quickly approached before speaking.

"Commander, excellent to see you," she greeted me with the Warden salute, two fingers rising to her opposite shoulder and a slight bow. "The female Human, do I have your permission to procure a sample of her DNA? We can make do with the sample from you, but having a sample from a member of the opposite sex will greatly speed our progress in the creation of the Nephilim serum."

"Interesting," I said. "Did you ask Cadet Applewood for a sample already?"

"We did not," the Gurtmic said. "The cadet was already under sedation when the members of my team thought to suggest such a course of action. I have been debating whether to ask you or to wait for the cadet to awaken and asking her."

"I can't go behind my cadet's back and allow your team to obtain a sample while she's in a vulnerable state," I told her. "If you feel that you cannot wait until she has woken up and been cleared to return to her trainings and duty, then I can suggest approaching the other human women that have been woken up and asking them. If all of them refuse to allow you to take a sample then I'm sorry, I won't force others to give in to this even if I believe in it."

"I understand Commander," she said. "Thank you for being honest with me. Can I ask that you approach the Human women and ask for their help?"

"I will ask," I answered. "Thank you for respecting the privacy and safety of my cadet. I will contact you if any of them say yes."

"Thank you again," the Gurtmic said with another salute. "If any men are willing to provide extra samples then they are also welcome. They will allow us to map out any and all potential differences in your race's DNA much faster."

"I'll let you know," I said before turning to leave. Now I had to go back to the cafeteria and ask them all an important question.

"So you expect us to let these aliens take our blood and experiment on us?" a man with glasses demanded after I had pitched the idea of some people letting the Wardens have some DNA samples.

"No, that isn't what I said," I told the people gathered in the cafeteria. "What I said was that if anyone was willing to contribute to the fight against the Scourge without joining the Nephilim then they could volunteer some samples of their DNA so that the genetics team working to finish the upgrade process for those who will fight can finish faster."

"In no way do I expect any of you to allow the Warden doctors and scientists to 'experiment' on any of you," I said with air quotes. This wasn't going well, but did things ever?

"As long as they don't try to probe me then I don't care what they do," a man with longer hair stated. "And if any of them come at me with needles then I'm gonna kick their asses!"

"Please don't be violent," I told him and others who were nodding in agreement with his words. "The way you let them know you're fine with giving them a blood sample or even a hair sample is to go to the medical area and fill out the reason of your visit as 'sample donation' or whatever. If you don't want to help then you don't have to."

I spent several more long minutes calming down the ones who were adamant that the Wardens of Life would probe them in all sorts of ways and also spent nearly ten minutes trying to convince another man that the food was edible and safe and wouldn't turn him into a "one of them Thai girly-boys" as he claimed. That was the weirdest part of my day and I resolved myself to spending more time either with the Nephilim recruits or in my own private quarters when I was hungry. And I still hadn't eaten any dinner.