Six aliens sit on a bench in the dining hall. In the middle of them is Doctor Kyxoro, who is sitting straight as a rod with her datapad in hand. Wearing her white uniform, her air of prim and proper professionalism seems even more stark now than it ever did in her exo-suit. All of the accompanying scientists are the same green species as the good doctor, and all of them seem more than ready to take notes on the strange human. A space has been cleared away a distance in front of them, the round tables and simple chairs of the dining hall cleared to the side by Jaycen's ever present hulking guards. Several metal storage crates of a multitude of shapes and sizes have been scattered around the area, making the room resemble a particularly uninspired obstacle course.
As Akhia is preparing to jab Jaycen with another one of the nano-syringe guns, Jaycen can't help but feel like even more of a lab rat than he ever did back in his room. The leering faces of the fascinated aliens wasn't quite preferable to the constant worry that he was being watched back in his bedroom. At the very least, when he was under observation there he could pretend he was alone. Out here in the spacious hall, he felt exposed. The fact he was shirtless didn't help either. He wasn't particularly self conscious about his body, but he'd already felt vulnerable the whole time he was on this damn ship. He tries to rationalize it away by pretending that it was a simple medical procedure, but the surreality of the situation once again eats away at his thoughts.
"So... I just start lifting, I guess?" he asks as he looks around the area, scoping out which of these metal objects would be the least awkward to carry.
"Essentially, yes," she answers, her antennae twitching. She quickly steps away him after the injection to stand a small distance away. Even if it's only the second time he's seen her around the other aliens, Jaycen can't help but feel that she looks out of place. Part of that was the fact she hasn't had a chance to change out of her exo-suit yet, the bulky yellow and black ensemble clashing with the off-white and pastel blue of their surroundings. But part of it may be the difference in species between her and most of the other scientists. When they were in that meeting, there seemed to be some tension between her and that asshole who called him a killer. Right now, he can't help but notice the fact that they're all sitting in chairs, while she's still standing off to the side. Maybe he's reading a bit too much into it, but he gets the feeling there might be a "all of the other reindeer" sort of situation going on. He considers asking Akhia how she feels about it, but files that discussion away for another time.
"Feel free to begin whenever you are ready," she says as she checks his vitals on her datapad, the nanobots already transmitting from within his body.
The observation here, as Akhia previously explained to him, would consist of him exercising as close as he could to his normal level of intensity while the assembled scientists observe and take notes. The nanobots in his bloodstream will provide the scientists with constant feedback about whatever was going on in Jaycen's body. It seems simple enough.
Out all the weird shit he's experienced in the past week, this was probably going to be the most surreal. Jaycen drops to the ground to do some pushups as he begins his usual warmup routine, trying his best to ignore the leering gazes of the assembled researchers as he starts to work up a sweat.
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"By the fates, this can't be right," Kyxoro whispers to herself. The human in front of her is doing little more than lifting crates like a common laborer, but the information being transmitted by the nanobots tell another story. Most of the readings were matching with what the biologist expected in any carbon based lifeform; the human was experiencing increased respiration and blood flow, which is allowing additional energy to reach the working parts of the body. But there was a second, stranger phenomenon taking place.
As far as they could tell, the human's exercise was causing micro-tears in its muscle fibers, a process that would be deeply painful for any Coalition species. However, some sort of acid production in the human's body was allowing increased energy production, and the build up of acid was preventing the human from using its muscles to the full extent of their power, which undoubtedly would have caused serious and potentially permanent damage.
Or in other words, the human had far more energy for intense physical activity than any of them could have expected, and the human was so powerful that its own body needed to purposefully limit itself to prevent the human from ripping itself apart from within.
"Why?" a a quivering voice by her side asks. She turns away from the human and recognizes the fearful face of the young man beside her as belonging to a junior researcher in her division, a budding young talent named Yxpor. "Why would it do this to itself intentionally?"
Kyxoro clears her throat, and tries to adopt her usual tone of authority. "I believe in a situation such as this, the best possible source is from the subject itself. As soon as he's finished this... routine, we shall have to interview him."
The dead silence of her team tells her all she needs to know about how much they dread that order. After a few moments of watching Jaycen do some sit-ups, Yxpor speaks up again. "Is there any chance we can do that interview in its room? From behind the observation window?" Almost as soon as he finished asking the question, the rest of the assembled scientists physically shrink away from him.
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Kyxoro answers his question with a glare at the junior researcher, her quiet fury cowing him immediately. "I would remind you that Researcher Akhia, whose expertise lies in xenoanthropology of all things, has spent nearly ten deci-cycles in total with the specimen, completely alone. Do you believe yourself to be a less capable researcher than her?"
Yxpor bristles under her question. "N-no, Doctor."
"Then I suggest you don't embarrass yourself further with any more ridiculous requests, Junior Researcher."
He hangs his head in shame, unable to meet her piercing gaze. "Yes, Doctor."
She turns back to the human, adopting a rigidly professional posture, and readies herself to continue her notes. If Kyxoro is being honest with herself, she didn't exactly relish the idea of interviewing the human herself, but her stubborn Xoruun pride keeps her from backing down from such an intellectual challenge. She refused to be visibly intimidated by the sweaty, disgusting, brutish human. She knew intellectually that she, and in fact the Xoruun people in general, had a bit of an attitude problem. They had more than earned their reputation as snobbish elites of course. As one of the first races in the Coalition, by the time half the Coalition species' were getting off-world for the first time they had already cemented themselves a lofty place in stellar society. The Xoruun, at least according to their own records, were the very first species to develop a true understanding of quantum physics, which was the seed that led to them developing warp drives that could fold space in on itself; without this, the common wisdom went, there was no way for any species to travel to other star systems. Simple combustion engines or solar sails couldn't hope to produce enough force to maneuver a spacecraft with any real speed, at least on a galactic scale, and any person attempting a flight out of their own star system would take so long to arrive at their destination that they'd need infrastructure to support at least dozens of generations aboard a ship. But with a warp drive, a journey that could be measured in generations could occur in weeks. To say that her people took pride in their discovery of warp technology would be an understatement; as far as most Xoruun were concerned, a species without warp technology was only barely sapient, no more worthy of their respect than a particularly crafty wild animal. Perhaps it was her species' legacy of scientific discovery that led to them being considered some of the finest scientists in Coalition space, or perhaps it was their stubborn drive to prove their own intellectual superiority over everyone else in the galaxy. Who could say?
Akhia, meanwhile, was having a starkly different experience from her green colleagues. She does not usually tap into her artistic talents while she was working, but at the moment she is accompanying her notes with quick sketch of her subject of study. Something about Jaycen compels her in this moment to capture his likeness. She's somewhat glad to be apart from the other scientists, knowing that they would likely see her creative endeavors as frivolous, but in her mind there was a unique beauty to recreating a subject through the visual arts that was difficult to capture with a recording device. Of course, though she'd never admit it, her interest in the human isn't entirely professional. Since Jaycen had shamelessly taken off his shirt, directly in front of her at that, she had been fighting with herself not to stare openly at his musculature. His physique is a far cry from the few male Khiret she had spent any decent amount of time with. The men of her species tended towards a smaller stature, only a bit taller than an average Xoruun like Kyxoro, and tended to have little to no muscle definition or bulk. In fact, back on Chak, it was traditionally seen as attractive for a male to be as slight and diminutive as possible.
Jaycen, or perhaps humans in general, were something else entirely. Akhia was somewhat tall for a Khiret, but Jaycen still has a good half a foot on her, and he's significantly more broad. She is acutely aware just how unusual a specimen Jaycen is by the galactic average, where beings of great physical might tend to be significantly large as well. One needed only to look at her two towering bodyguards to understand that distinction; the Rasheran people were capable of some impressive feats of strength, but that was to be expected considering their size. Humans, it seemed, were able to cram a similar density of muscle into a much smaller package, a fact that the had to attribute to his status as a death worlder. It also helped explain why he required so much sustenance compared to the rest of them; he has the metabolism of a creature twice his size, with an appetite to match.
As Jaycen walks over and begins to test the weight of a bulky cylindrical crate, Akhia has to suppress a small laugh. She recognizes the object as a chemical tank they had lying around in the hold, some product that was required for the ship to operate but had already been depleted and rendered safe to handle. Her antennae twitch as he examines the metal container, and for a moment she grins as she imagines that he's actually considering trying to heft the thing himself. She could tell it was far too large and unwieldy for him, despite the metal handles built along the side of the thing. It would be difficult for even a trained Rasheran to lift. Cargo of that size is typically handled by using either a power harness or dedicated machines, not via brute force alone.
At the same moment, Jaycen is starting to get sick of these damn aliens leering at him like a sideshow. He tries his best to put it out of his mind as he bends down and rolls around the oblong object at his feet a bit, testing the weight. While it'd be difficult to get it up there, it was just about the right size for him to hold in a fireman's carry. Without thinking much more about it, he grabs a couple of the handholds and begins a deadlift.
As Jaycen lifts the heavy crate with a grunt, he's startled by a clicking gasp from Akhia and a murmur from the assembled biologists. Jaycen frowns slightly, not quite understanding the reaction, but soldiers on and swings the crate out in front of himself, over his head, and onto his shoulders. He tests the weight a moment, shifting it into a more comfortable position over his back, before beginning a simple squat set. Silence falls over the room as the assembled aliens gawk at his weighted squat routine, a palpable tension in the air. Nearby, the two massive bodyguards look at each other for a moment before drawing their stun batons, though they still have the good sense not to start powering them up. For his part, Jaycen is trying his best to look at the ceiling as he counts his reps, oblivious to the mood of the room.
As the human grunts in exertion, Kyxoro pauses from her notes to wipe the sweat from her brow, the first cracks in her veneer beginning to show. While she isn't about to back down, she was nonetheless seriously reconsidering her order regarding the upcoming interview of the brutish alien in front of her.