Not that I was surprised, but I recovered from my injuries surprisingly quickly, all thanks to my enhanced regeneration. Still, they wanted me to stay in the recovery room and get some bedrest.

  Over the next couple days my friends came for frequent visits; Kianna made an appearance to let me know how things were going with the Vyrane mission debrief. Weirdly enough, everyone else on the team was debriefed by supervising commanders from The Judicator, but no one had an audience with the Lord Generals, not even Captain Seash or Kotlokk who oversaw clandestine operations for the mission. Thought it was strange they specifically called Eve for an audience and no one else; made me a little anxious once again wondering what they were planning.

  Tillia came with Kianna most of the time and the two girls gabbed it up quite frequently, almost too much for my taste. Zyno and Yun were often by my side as well, Zyno especially. Proving himself to be my best friend once again, he got my futuristic emulation station that held pretty much every Earth video game and hooked it up to the hologram TV for me. Since I’d lost my laptop back during the Holistia Nebula mission, I asked Zyno if there was any way he could rig me up a more portable way to play my games, and he said he’d look into it.

  A few of my visitors were quite the surprise; Seash came to check on me and once more congratulated me on a mission accomplished, though he made it a point to not stick around for small talk and certainly didn’t start up a conversation over the decisions I’d made to reveal the truth of the Predazoans to the vyranes and all the other things we butt heads over. Kotlokk came for a brief visit too, asking for more sci-fi movie recommendations from Earth, and offering me a few of his own favorites from Imperial media. Lobae and Vinnago visited a few times, trying to show themselves friendly all the while, but conversation with them was rather shallow, and while I wasn’t about to kick them out of my room since I was surprisingly eager for company, I couldn’t forgive and forget the rift that’d grown between us either. I was being more open about me and Eve’s problems with the Empire now, but I was still going to be careful who I counted as friends for those who worked for our enemies.

  There were a few more random soldiers or marines I’d met on previous missions who filtered on through, quite a few who were just curious about the Vyrane mission and wanted the gossip. I could see firsthand what the researchers told me about the grunts on the vessel being kept out of the information loop now too, some of whom had absolutely no idea about anything that’d occurred while we were planet-side.

  The doctors removed my torso-binding, and I was set to be discharged after three days laid up in bed when some more white coats came into the room, none of whom I recognized.

  The man in the middle was tall, taller than me even, surprisingly skinny, and with weirdly long limbs and fingers and an almost skeletal face with a sharp, pointed chin and meticulously trimmed black goatee that followed every ridge of his jawline. The alien’s skin was a sickly blue-grey, and he had beady yellow eyes and black hair slicked-back. He honestly reminded of a cartoon villain; looked like someone who was planning to place a damsel on a railroad track or something.

  “Agent Samson, my name is Doctor Ullion, head researcher for Predazoan gene manipulation.” He introduced, his voice sounding oily slick.

  Name didn’t sound familiar either; probably a new supervisor taking over from The Judicator.

  I was getting out of bed and getting dressed, trying to push off one of the medical doctors making an effort to help me, “What can I do for you?”

  Doctor Ullion pulled out his tablet to display a hologram that showed a humanoid’s musculoskeletal structure, “Now that you’ve been medically cleared, we’re going to need you to come with us to have some tests performed.”

  I finished getting dressed in the casual Earth clothes Zyno picked up for me from my apartment, a simple black t-shirt and dark grey sweatpants, “What, why?”

  The hologram’s body lit up in a few specific places, and a great wall of text and numbers scrolled by, “It’s been confirmed your genetic structure has been modified by Alpha-03; we need to ensure you’re still stable, haven’t been assimilated or controlled, and to see the extent and limits of these enhancements.”

  I fixed him with a flat look while I put on my blue hoodie, “Seriously? And we have to do this now?”

  Ullion nodded, “Unfortunately yes; before you’re released back with the rest of the crew, we have to make sure you aren’t carrying any kind of dangerous contagions as well.”

  It wasn’t like I had anything better to do, no reason to kick up a fuss. Eve still wasn’t back from her debrief with the Lord Generals even after three days; last time we dealt with them it took over a cycle, so there was no telling how long they might keep her now.

  I gestured to the collection of research doctors before me, “You aren’t going to quarantine me and throw me in a containment cell in the meantime, are you?”

  Ullion smiled, and even his smile seemed sinister with too many small, sharp teeth in his mouth, “Of course not, Agent Samson, we can all walk there just fine.”

  I looked at the medical doctors in the corner who were finally done with me, then over to the research doctors I’d have to deal with next.

  I let out a quick sigh and just shrugged, “Alright, let’s get this shit over with.”

  ***

  The amount of tests the research doctors threw at me seemed unreasonable, overly redundant, and pretty much nonsensical. Right away they did an excessive amount of bloodwork, then they scanned me with every kind of scan I couldn’t even imagine—maybe mapping out all my DNA or some nonsense. They took skin samples, bones samples, a urine sample, pretty sure they were going to ask for a semen sample if I didn’t tell them to knock it off with all the samples.

  They did some weird image tests too, had me in some room with a screen that displayed my body through all kinds of weird lenses, like seeing just my skeleton moving, or my muscles, my organs, my nerves, and then some weird colorful ones like mapping my body heat or energy, tons of stuff I didn’t even understand. They had me move and stretch, turning every angle as they grabbed tons of pictures or videos of my movements, trying to see every little detail of my body.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  It was wildly invasive, but all the more irritating because I straight-up told them what my genetic enhancements were; enhanced strength, enhanced speed, enhanced durability and enhanced regeneration. And yet still they kept testing me, taking scans of every square inch of my body as though they didn’t care what I told them.

  Although to their credit, I did hide the fact Eve and I could communicate directly and privately with a newly created bone in my inner-ear through a series of humming vibrations, but the whole point of that was so we could talk without anyone knowing about it, especially in front of our Imperial enemies.

  Once they were done with their scans and lab work it was time to run some physical tests. Initially, I was planning on keeping it secret just how much I’d been enhanced, to not let the Empire now how strong I was now and what all I could do thanks to Eve’s genetic manipulation, but I had to admit I was actually really eager to test my own limits now.

  First they just poked me and prodded me with various metal instruments, seeing how durable I was. Sounds like torture when I say it like that, but they actually numbed up an area on my abdomen so I wouldn’t feel the pain while they pressed some weird liquid metal instrument into me, changing its shape and form constantly to see what kind of damage I was resistant to; cutting, stabbing, heat and cold, lasers and ballistics, various things the weird metal could imitate, even raw kinetic force. They confirmed my skin was now 24 times tougher, while my bones were 38 times denser, and my muscles were 16 times more elastic and resistant to damage.

  Honestly I probably should’ve been pissed they were treating me like a lab rat and purposefully trying to damage my body, and yet I was just as fascinated as they all were, watching the results of the tests with great interest.

  Things started getting friendlier after the durability tests and the mood in the testing room became much more casual. I couldn’t help but laugh and joke with the research doctors, and they all lightened up significantly—even Doctor Ullion who looked like a cartoon villain turned out to be pretty chill; I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover.

  I was rather open with them about not knowing my limitations now and curious all the same. Of course, that led to them asking why I allowed the Predazoan asset to modify my genetics, but I could easily dissuade their suspicions telling them since I was out fighting the other dangerous Predazoans and I had such limited combat training, it only made sense to enhance me so I could be useful to Eve in a fight.

  Of course that was true somewhat, but I wasn’t about to add on top of that how I wanted to be enhanced so I would be strong enough to fight or rebel against the Empire as well.

  They accepted my explanation immediately, especially after I told them how my new abilities had totally come in clutch during the fight with Beta-09 when I cut off her tail and Eve was able to consume the extra biomass to increase her size to match the giant, Kaiju-sized Predazoan threat.

  From there, the tests started getting more fun and physical as well; they had some machines which looked like they belonged in a futuristic gym, and they started testing how much force I could exert or how much weight I could lift.

  For my punches, I was able to put out several times more force than even the strongest bullets back on Earth; the longer I concentrated, the more force I could unleash. Made me feel like I was powering up like an anime character, but realistically it was probably just more in line with what Eve was saying about my body needing to adjust and get used to the new abilities. The craziest thing was according to her, I could keep getting stronger, just like a regular person who trains or works out.

  Next, they had me lifting this weird, reverse press that added more pressure against my exerted force to see how much weight I could push against. I wasn’t sure exactly how the numbers worked with the enhancement with Eve saying I would have the strength of a hundred men, but my maximum record was just over 10 tons. I kept trying for more, feeling more like a superhero than ever before, but the doctors didn’t want me to overexert myself, so they cut me off when I started struggling.

  It made me wonder what the best way to improve my strength or increase my limits would be now; I couldn’t exactly go to a regular gym, even the workout equipment on The Radiance wouldn’t be able to stress me out. I’d have to come down to the research and testing areas to get a real workout, but I was definitely still interested in growing stronger; just because I was enhanced with superhuman abilities now didn’t mean I would grow lazy or complacent with it. After all, the whole reason for this was to help Eve, and to work to free ourselves from the Empire.

  Finally, they moved onto testing my speed. They worked with my reaction time first, having some computer screen light up and have me press a button in response. I reacted so fast they couldn’t even record the time properly; I seemed to respond instantly according to their instruments. Doctor Ullion even admitted they might need to update some of their equipment to properly record my limits and growth.

  After the reflex testing, it was time for a classic test; working on the treadmill. They went for stamina and endurance at first, seeing how long I could maintain a regular running speed. After an hour of that they moved on to testing my limits, having me run as fast as I possibly could.

  Same as pretty much everything else, it wasn’t exactly immediate, but once I had time to work up to it, they clocked my max at over 1800 miles per hour, and I could maintain it steady for about ten minutes before I totally gassed out.

  After all the tests and data, several hours had passed, and honestly I was totally exhausted.

  “Alright Adam, that just about wraps everything up on our end.” Ullion confirmed, logging the last of the data into his tablet.

  I waved around vaguely towards him, still trying to catch my breath, “Everything cleared for me then? I’m free to rejoin the rest of The Radiance’s population?”

  Ullion smiled that villainous grin of his, “All cleared; no foreign contagions, no diseases, no assimilation or controlling agents. As far as all the lab work goes, you’re still 98.8% human.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “What’s the other 1.2%?”

  Ullion shrugged, “Something more than human, but nothing we can really quantify—not strictly Predazoan either.”

  I smiled brightly, “Oh, then you should call it ‘homo-superior’.” I offered.

  He cocked his head to the side, “Like homo-sapien, but superior?”

  I laughed then, “Hell yeah, based on some Earth comic books about superpowered mutants, seems to work here just fine.”

  Ullion nodded along, “Well I suppose you are superior to regular humans, but I don’t think we can call purposeful genetic modifications the same as a mutation.”

  I waved him off quickly, standing up and cracking my back, “Don’t think too hard on it for now, just use it as a placeholder or something.”

  Ullion seemed like he wasn’t concerned either way, “Very well.” He tapped his tablet off and put it on the desk behind him, “And with that you’re free to leave, though we might need you again for further tests after we compile the rest of this data, but I can’t imagine that would be anytime soon.”

  I quickly grabbed up my hoodie and turned to leave, “Alright, works for me. See you all next time.” I offered, then left for the halls of The Radiance, not even sure where I was heading.

  I still hadn’t heard from Eve, so for the first time in a long time, I was on my own on The Radiance, and honestly, I had no idea what to do with myself.