2. Ell-rom

2

ELL-ROM

A s Ell-rom watched Jasmine leave his room, his body and mind were still ablaze from their kiss.

Perhaps he was lucky that he did not remember his celibate life and the sacrifice of intimacy he had been forced to make. He did not know how old he was, but he knew he was not a boy. He was an adult male who should have enjoyed the pleasure of a female partner for many years. Instead, he had been forced to play the role of a priest and forgo touching and being touched.

What a terrible loss that had been.

Whatever he ended up remembering about himself and his convictions, religious and otherwise, he was never going back to being celibate. If the Mother of All Life had a problem with that, she would have to appear to him in person and argue her case to convince him to return to that miserable existence.

The chief medic approached his bed with an amused expression on her face. "How are you feeling, Ell-rom?"

How should he answer that?

That he had been transformed? But how could he claim to have been remade if he did not know his old self?

"It has been a long and momentous day," he said instead. "So much has happened."

"Indeed." She handed him an odd-looking device.

It was a compact, sturdy tool with a handle to grip and a small screen on top.

"What is this?" he asked.

"It's a device that measures the strength of your hand grip. It assesses your muscle function and helps us monitor your recovery by tracking changes in your strength over time."

Ell-rom regarded the device with suspicion. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

"Place your hand around the grip handle, and when you're ready, squeeze it as hard as you can. Try to apply maximum effort, and don't be afraid of breaking it. William calibrated it for an immortal male's strength."

He hesitated before doing as she instructed. "Does that mean that human males are weaker than immortals?"

The medic nodded. "Immortals are about three to five times stronger than humans, and Kra-ell are about three times stronger than immortals. Since you are a hybrid, you are probably somewhere between the two on the strength scale, but that is in peak state. Presently, you are far from it, but this gadget will help us monitor your progress during your recovery."

Bridget sounded earnest, but he still wasn't convinced that her motives were purely therapeutic. These people had heard rumors about him and his sister, accusing them of being abominations and possibly incredibly powerful.

What if the rumors were true?

Jasmine was human, which meant she was much weaker and more fragile than the immortals, who were supposedly weaker than him. If he wanted to keep kissing her and maybe put his arms around her and hug her too, he should know his strength so he wouldn't harm her by mistake.

With that in mind, he squeezed the device as hard as he could and waited to see the result flash on the small screen. Except, he had forgotten that he couldn't read the language it was displayed in.

"What does it say?" he asked.

The medic took the device from him, looked at the display, and nodded her approval. "Right now, your grip strength is forty-five pounds, which is what I would expect from an elderly human female."

He winced. "That sounds terrible."

"It's very good, given the state you were in when you were brought here. Your muscles were completely atrophied, but you are growing stronger quite rapidly." She gave him a reassuring smile. "We will keep checking daily. At your current recovery rate, you will be as strong as a human in a week or two, and as soon as we can get more food into your stomach, you will improve even more rapidly."

She pulled out a small tablet from her coat pocket and wrote something on it, probably the results of the measurement she had just taken.

"How are your memories?" Bridget asked without looking up from her tablet. "Any new recollections?"

Ell-rom frowned, scanning the fragmented landscape of his mind. "Nothing concrete. Just feelings. Impressions." He sighed, frustration creeping into his voice. "I was told that I was a priest or at least training to be one, but I can't remember what that meant to me. Was it just a sanctuary to hide in from those who would have killed my sister and me, or was it my calling?"

Bridget put the tablet back in her pocket. "It will come back to you eventually. Don't force it, and don't stress over it. Just let it flow."

He winced. "I am impatient, and I am also apprehensive. What if that is all I'm going to get? Some fragments of memories, some impressions, and the occasional dreams?"

She smiled fondly. "The fact that you are getting those so soon after waking is a good indicator that you will get all of it back. Just as your body cannot recover its full strength overnight, your mind can't either. These things take time."

He stifled a frustrated groan. "Is there a way to speed up the process?"

"Of course." Bridget walked to Jasmine's chair and sat down. "Tomorrow, I will start you on physical therapy. I ordered a walker to be delivered, and you will begin by walking down the corridor outside the clinic. Jasmine can watch over you while you are at it, but if you are embarrassed about her seeing you struggling, Julian or Gertrude can assist you."

"Why would I be embarrassed?"

A smile tugged at the medic's lips. "Evidently, losing one's memory is not all bad, especially for a male." When he frowned, she chuckled. "Males like to portray strength, especially when trying to impress a female, but those who are smart realize that there is a caretaker inside most females and that they love nursing a good male back to health."

"They do?"

Bridget pursed her lips. "Well, I don't think that is true for the Kra-ell. Their females are not typically nurturing; the males would rather die than admit weakness. For them, getting killed in battle is the only honorable way to die."

Something about what she said resonated with him, more like a distant memory than something he believed in. "They sound like warmongering people."

"That's how they used to be." She sighed. "Tribal wars were a way of life for them, and duels to the death were commonplace. Nature compensated for the high male death toll by giving them a gender distribution of four males born for every female, but then a progressive queen disturbed the balance by stopping the tribal wars and outlawing deadly duels. A new system had to be devised with males outnumbering females four to one. They are not monogamous, and their family units include several males to one female who heads the household. Things got even more out of whack when they landed on Earth and had to survive, but I digress. I just hope that the Kra-ell who joined our community will adopt our values, at least to some extent, and learn that compassion and kindness are not weaknesses but strengths."

Once again, something about what she'd said resonated with him, but as before, he didn't know whether it was because he agreed with her or for some other reason. Compassion and kindness were excellent qualities, but they should be applied cautiously and only to those who had earned and deserved them. Otherwise, they could be manipulated by the unscrupulous to trap and destroy the well-meaning people.

How did he know that?

Was it innate knowledge or something he had learned?

"You look troubled," Bridget said. "Did something about what I said jog your memory?"

He shook his head. "It's a feeling. A warning sensation that goodness could be one's downfall."

"That's a very good instinct, Ell-rom." She pushed to her feet. "Whoever provided your education did a good job. Compassion and charity need to be backed up by strength, or they will be exploited." She patted his shoulder.

Was she planning to leave already? He wasn't done with his questions.

"Can you stay a little longer? I have another question."

"I'm not leaving yet," she said. "There are a few more tests that I would like to run on you."