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Tibalt jolted awake with a gasp, his entire body shuddered as he panted heavily in the darkness. Soon after regaining his composure he turned on the light and looked around the room. He wasn't sure what had awoken him, but even as he saw the area was empty, he had the strangest feeling of someone else being there. When he double checked that the room was empty he got out of his bed; with the vestige of sleep jolted out of him by a quick shot of adrenaline, he knew he wouldn't be going back to sleep anytime soon.

The lizardman looked down at his clock and saw that it was nearly four in the morning, which meant that everyone except the night crew would be asleep in their quarters. Nevertheless, he put on his jumpsuit and walked out into the darkened hallways, hoping there was someone in the lounge he could perhaps talk to. The halls were eerily quiet as he walked through them, the only sound was the hum of electricity from the lights above him. When he did get to the lounge he found it to be empty, with a number of liquor bottles and other snacks that proved how late everyone had stayed up with Lucian. No one would be up so early this cycle, he mused as he went to one of the dispensaries to get breakfast, although Weber and the others would probably be up earlier than usual just so they could start running tests on the body...

Tibalt blinked as he found himself recalling small parts of what had happened in the pod, opening the case with his touch... and seeing what had lain within. The body... the image of the corpse he had found before suddenly entered his mind. That strange draconic creature, held preserved in the alien cryogenic chamber since who knows how long. He remembered looking down at its exotic features, and the more he dwelled on it, the more he wondered what it looked like now. Had his interaction with it somehow contaminated the corpse?

He continued to ponder until he heard the ding of the machine that signaled his food was ready. Tibalt flinched at the sudden sound, unaware of time slipping past as he'd thought of the alien. Taking his food to one of the tables, Tibalt vaguely prodded his fork into the soggy pancake while he stared forward with blurred eyes. He had hazy memories of a dream during the night, something about him talking to someone else, but as with all dreams the more he tried to remember it, the more it faded from his head. It led to him having an annoying pounding in his head that he tried to rub away while he finished up his breakfast.

"Well, look who it is!" Tibalt winced as the obnoxiously loud voice of Lucian rang through the room. He turned his head to see the tiger standing in the doorway with a big grin on his face, no sign of hangover in sight as he marched towards the dispenser. "How did you enjoy last night's festivities?"

Tibalt wanted to answer, but quite frankly he was astounded at how early Lucian was up after drinking so much alcohol, so Lucian took the chance to continue speaking. "The crew enjoyed hearing your tale, I'm sure they'll be rallying for you to have a promotion soon enough," Lucian chuckled.

"Your story wasn't really true, though, it was all one big mistake," Tibalt mumbled.

"Creative license," Lucian threw over his shoulder. He marched away from the dispenser with a carbo-loaded plate and slapped it down next to Tibalt before the tiger threw himself into a seat. "You don't seem to get it, bud. Sometimes we make mistakes, true, but when it leads to big discoveries like this, you have to zest it up! As long as you're contributing to the greater good you might as well take a few extra ribbons on the lapel for your mistake," Lucian explained.

The lizard wasn't quite sure how good he felt about his superior officer's words, but quite frankly his head was pounding enough he just nodded to try and quiet him down. It worked for a bit as Lucian started to shovel food into his mouth while Tibalt closed his eyes and calmed himself down. Thankfully he was able to get the thoughts of the alien out of his head for a while, though a faint echo of a voice seemed to play around in the back of his mind that he took little notice in. Suddenly there was a whooshing sound as the door slid open and a few more men started to march into the room, though not without their groans or other telltale signs of a hangover.

"Good morning, men! Ready for another day of research?" Lucian called out. Tibalt grimaced as the loud voice rang in his head, but he knew he had nothing to complain about since the others practically collapsed at the ringing voice with their aching heads. Yet somehow he couldn't stop himself from laughing, which garnered an odd glance from the tiger as he continued to snicker at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Tibalt excused himself from the conversations and made sure that Lucian was engaged with others; the tiger making another poor, hung-over crewman's life miserable before he slipped out. Once he was outside he looked at his watch, finding that it was still too early for him to report to duty. While he wasn't in a hurry to work, it would be something to occupy his thoughts, which once more seemed to have drifted back to the alien in the laboratory. No doubt it would be on the minds of everyone for a while, but unfortunately as an explorer he would have limited, if any, access to such a thing while it was still ongoing tests.

When the lizardman escaped the introspection of his mind, he once more he found himself in front of the specimen containment center, and his head tilted in confusion at his arrival to such a location. He realized that he hadn't been paying attention to where he was going, but why his subconscious mind had decided to come there... probably because he was thinking about the creature, he reasoned. Tibalt looked up to see that the warning light was on, which meant that no one had come to collect the body yet. It wasn't surprising, even if the other scientists were up at this time, they took several hours to prepare for such an experimentation, which meant that no one would come for quite some time.

Tibalt looked around, then at the keypad that kept the door locked. Once Weber had given him the passcode to help him with a large shipment of alien flora they had discovered on a habitable moon, and though they were supposed to change it every month, he knew they were notoriously lazy about such things. On a whim he decided to punch in the old code, and to his surprise, and strangely his relief, the green light turned on with a friendly chirp and the hydraulics that sealed the room popped open. After one last cursory glance around the hallway to make sure no one was there he slipped inside, pressing the lock button behind him before he gazed deeper into the room.

There was a slight hissing noise in the air as he ventured forward, but it didn't put Tibalt off as Weber had told him in passing that the sound was from an ionized sanitizer, made specifically for any alien objects so they could interact with them without fear of foreign infections. Looking at the case Tibalt slowly approached it, never letting his eyes shift from the box. Since he had entered the room the imperceptible voice in the back of his head grew stronger with every inch of progress, bidding him to come closer. The lizard felt his breath catch in his chest even as he grew near, somewhere in his mind he could tell that this was wrong...

Standing in front of the case now Tibalt's gaze had shut out anything else, his hand slowly reaching towards it before he stopped himself. He let out a slow hiss of a breath, trying to calm himself as he gazed over the intricate design. It looked just as it had in the pod yet... yet it seemed to be alive now. It wasn't something he could quite explain but looking at it, it was almost as if he could see a pulse of life throughout the intricate metal.

The whisper in his head that had once been inaudible now grew strong enough that Tibalt could understand it. "Touch the coffin, release me once more." This should've been enough of a warning to Tibalt to make him turn tail and run, but with a twitch of his hand he brushed the latticed metal, which flexed as it had once before. Tibalt's mouth went agape as he saw the form in the box once more, and though he only vaguely remembered what had happened before he'd fallen unconscious, he knew the form inside of the box was different than what he had seen before.

The rubbery creature he had previously seen had been most assuredly deceased, but now there was a certain... spark that had been missing before. Tibalt felt his mouth dry up and he approached the coffin, his eyes dragging over the creature. It looked the same and yet... different. A twitch of a muscle, a flinch of the hand, this creature... was alive again, and yet it still lay still. "Are you awake?" he whispered.

The creature remained motionless even with Tibalt's words, and as the lizard continued to stare at it, he wondered if he was just imagining things. He swore that the alien had moved, perhaps it was still alive but in some sort of coma? Despite his better judgement he got up and leaned over the edge of the box as best he could, tilting his head to see if he could hear or feel breath from the creature's lips. Soon his face was less than an inch away from the frozen features of the draconic visage beneath him, and though he didn't feel anything, a growing part of him reasoned that he had to be alive.

Tibalt continued to hover over the alien's head, trying to figure out what he was going to do when he accidently bobbed his own head a little too far down and their muzzles brushed against one another. The contact was brief but it felt like an electric shock passed between them, something that caused the lizardman's body to shudder. Even though he couldn't quite comprehend what was going on he knew he had to try again, to try and replicate such a feeling... to perhaps get the creature to awaken. Once more he briefly darted down and pressed his muzzle against the alien's muzzle again, hoping to get the same spark.

Unfortunately it didn't happen again, even after several passes it appeared that whatever happened would not repeat itself. In a final, last ditch attempt, he leaned down and connected his lips with the creature's, but instead of pulling back, he sustained what he could only call a kiss as long as he could. At first he thought he would have nothing once again, but suddenly he felt his heart began to race as a warm tingle spread out from his lips. He continued to hold his head there and clench the side of the railing as it felt like he was being pulled even closer to the creature's form.

Then suddenly the feeling was reversed, Tibalt's eyes widened as a numb sensation could be felt in his extremities that slowly began to move up his body. He tried to back away from the body, but it was if their lips were sealed together, and as soon as he tried to pull away he felt something push into his maw from the alien's mouth. Everything went fuzzy then, his vision blurred as the strength began to drain from his body while his hands maintained a death grip on the railing. The appendage in his mouth continued to wiggle around, exploring inside him as he began to lose consciousness. As he looked down before the darkness enveloped him he caught a glimpse of the dragon's eyes opening, though it was fleeting as the darkness quickly consumed him...

**********************************************

Weber awoke just before his alarm, as he always did, which made him sometimes wonder why he had one at all. The noise that came after he awoke this morning wasn't his usual clock, but rather his watch buzzing on the counter. Glancing over at it he had an odd feeling of dread; he was the person in charge of making sure the specimen in the lab was untouched, and as such had synced his watch with the door to alert him if anyone opened the lock. Stretching out his body he quickly hopped to his feet, the husky's body buzzed with concern as he worked to pull his clothes on. He knew that it could've just been one of the other workers checking in, but they were supposed to get his okay before they approached the casket.

After getting his clothes on, Weber slipped a taser from his desk drawer into his pocket. Technically speaking the only people on board the station who were allowed to carry any sort of weapon while on deck was the security unit, but since he had special permission to guard the password protected areas he'd received the taser, though it only had one use. Making his way out he started towards the casket's room while passing some of the other members of the day crew, though he could see that several of them were still heavily hung over from their drinking games from the previous night.

Part of the husky knew that he should alert someone, but since so many members of the crew were still aching from hangovers, he could only imagine that one of the other members had wandered into the room without thinking due to their drunken stupor. Or, at the very least, he hoped that's what happened. While he marched down the hall he nearly ran right into Lucian, who had the same big grin on his face as always. "Weber, good morning! How's everything going on the tech-head side?"

Weber had to fight off a groan of annoyance. Out of everyone on the ship, Lucian was the one person he didn't like. The tiger was too full of himself and he'd never quite treated the techies well, though that's not to say he was ever rude. He just didn't let them do anything while exploring, but at that moment he didn't have time to hash it out with the tiger. "Hey Lucian, I'm just gonna go check on the casket," he explained curtly.

The tiger stood still for a moment, his eyes looking at Weber with a surprising amount of depth. "Do you need someone to go with you?" Lucian asked.

For a second Weber actually thought about accepting, but he didn't want to make a huge story out of this for Lucian to use as another excuse to pump his ego. "I'll be fine, it's just a routine inspection," he commented. Lucian was quiet for another moment before seeing one of the still hungover crew and marched off to meet him without another word to the husky, his voice booming with laughter as he started to expressively annoy the poor crewmember. Weber whispered an apology to the man before he once more made his way down to the casket room.

Once he had gotten there everything looked normal, the hermetic seals seemed to be in place and the lock was functioning properly. He went up to the datapad and executed a search of the logs and his lips turned to a frown when he saw that someone had accessed the specimen containment system when he was notified. "I swear, if one of those meatheads tried to get in and take a selfie with the body..." He grumbled as he looked up when the intruder left, only to find a blank spot where a time should be. "They're still in there?"

A sense of worry began to override his initial anger as he punched in the code, waiting impatiently for the door to open. As soon as it was wide enough for him to slip inside he did, only to find himself walking into darkness. He tried to turn the lights on but found the switch to be unresponsive, luckily their suits came with a LED light for emergencies that he flicked on. Initially nothing appeared to be out of place, all the samples that they stored in the first few shelves were all in their properly catalogued boxes as he moved on to the larger specimen storage.

As soon as he got within ten feet of the case they had recovered it began to glow, lighting up the area better than his flashlight could. He flicked off the device and quickly stepped up to the crystalline case, breathing a sigh of relief when he found the box to be closed and the alien still inside. All the scenarios that he had running through his head, particularly one where the alien killed whatever crewmate was stupid enough to come in here and was now loose on the ship, fell away as he pulled out a datapad to document why he was near the creature. As he turned on the camera the viewscreen lit up and showed his canine face with the case behind him, though as he started to talk, he saw something in the corner of the screen that caused him to turn around and nearly drop the datapad.

"Tibalt!" Weber shouted as he ran over and kneeled to the side of his friend sprawled out on the floor, then activated his radio. "We have a medical emergency, meet me outside specimen containment immediately!"

**********************************************

Coming to, Tibalt let out a low moan and rubbed at his forehead, it didn't take him long to notice that he was in one of the medical bay beds seeing as the room was shockingly white. "God... what happened?"

"Well, you were found unconscious in the specimen containment unit for one," Weber said. Tibalt jolted awake as he saw his friend standing next to the bed, a mixture of concern and relief on his face. "How're you feeling?"

Clenching his hand a few times Tibalt shrugged, though he couldn't quite shake an odd numb sensation still clinging to his body. "I'm alive, and everything's working still. What happened?"

"I'm honestly not sure, myself. The camera inside of the unit went out when you walked in there, the only thing we could see was you approaching the casket. Nothing seems to have happened to the specimen, and the only thing the doctor could find wrong with you was a strained muscle, likely from the fall you had the other day." Tibalt nodded slowly as Weber stood by his side, though he trusted the doctor's opinion, he couldn't shake that something was off about him... and he couldn't quite remember what had happened upon entering the room... or even leaving the food court for that matter. "Why did you go in there?" Weber asked.

His friend was quiet for a bit, Tibalt's mind was searching for some answer... for some reason he'd done it but... nothing came to mind. The only thing he could even faintly register was an oddly hollow feeling... like he was missing something. "I don't know... I just remember getting up to throw away my plate at the food court and then... I woke up here."

The answer didn't seem to satisfy Weber, but he just shook his head as he scratched the back of his neck. "Well you'd better find an answer soon, bud. The captain's not happy with you, or me. I had to tell him that I gave you the code to the containment unit, and since that's pretty top security information, I may be getting docked on my pay," the husky chuckled. Tibalt knew that he was trying to play it up for laughs, but the dog was very likely in deep shit.

"I'm sorry..." Tibalt muttered.

Weber sighed as he scratched behind his ears, his eyes looking distressed as he looked at his friend. "I know... just... try to remember. If something's wrong... I couldn't help but blame myself." With that he patted Tibalt on the shoulder and walked out of the room, his tail hanging low as the door shut behind him.

For a few hours Tibalt had to wait until the doctors were done scanning and prodding him, and though they wanted him to remain there for several days for observation, the lizardman politely declined. The medical wing started to get claustrophobic to him, and the longer he stayed there, the more anxious he got. When they finally gave him the paperwork to be released he almost ran out, and he continued to quickly walk away until he got back to his own sector of the space station. Part of him wanted to go and see Weber and apologize for the trouble he got him in, but at this point in time he knew they would be hard at work in the lab, and his guess was his presence was not particularly welcome there.

Instead he hit the showers, the only area of the ship that would afford him a bit of assured privacy. Everyone else was on duty at the moment so he knew they would be empty, which he found his hypothesis to be correct when he entered the glass chamber to find it vacant. There were only four stalls in the showers, anyway, since that was all the ship's filtration system can handle at once. He walked over to the nearest one and turned it on, the hot, recycled water hitting him in the face as he began to shower.

"Looks like great minds think alike, eh?" Tibalt groaned inwardly as he heard Lucian's voice, followed almost immediately by a playful slap on his scaly rear. He quickly turned around, but by then the other male had already gone into another stall, hearing the sound of a second cascade of water hitting the tiles. "Heard that you got in a bit of trouble, got a little overzealous in your desire for knowledge and ended up in the hospital."

"They guessed it was just something that lingered from my accident." Tibalt replied. "What are you doing here, I thought everyone would be on crew shift right now?"

"I'm going out on another exploration team in a few hours, so I have this time off," Lucian explained. "You'll find out soon enough that being an explorer has its perks, not only do you get to be the first to see amazing things, but the higher-ups tend to make accommodations for you. Stay under my wing long enough and I can get you fast tracked into being a full-time explorer."

"Thank you, that's very kind," Tibalt said as he moved to turn off the water, only to have to catch himself against the wall as a wave of nausea rolled over him. He tried not to make a noise, nothing to alert the tiger that had begun to hum to himself, as his other hand went to his stomach. At first he thought it was stomach pains, but as the seconds ticked by it felt more like his insides were writhing just underneath his scales. He covered his muzzle as he felt his stomach area calm down, but just as he thought he had it under control, his throat contracted and a shiny, black liquid covered his hands as it oozed out of his mouth.

A wave of terror passed over the lizard as he saw the black goo overflow his cupped hand and splatter onto the ground. Thankfully the pouring water more than made up for the sound as the black goo flowed down the drain, leaving no trace of it. Tibalt stood there in shock as his hand was washed of the liquid, Lucian was saying something in the background but it all went over his head. Tibalt had a thousand thoughts go through his head: Was he infected with something? Should he tell Weber? Should he go back to the hospital? It all culminated in a simple "Huh" as he watched the last of the mysterious substance go down the drain.

The lizard jumped as he felt a paw swat at his shoulder causing him to jump three feet up in the air. "Whoa there buddy! Seen a ghost?" Lucian asked. Tibalt turned and gasped a few times before he realized that Lucian was standing there completely nude and he felt his face burn up in embarrassment before he turned away from the other male. "Looks like somebody's a little embarrassed to be seen in the nude," Lucian chuckled. Honestly, the fact that Tibalt had seen his commanding officer naked wasn't the reason he was so embarrassed... it was the fact that he'd felt an odd sensation of attraction arise at seeing the other male completely nude.

"S... sorry sir, just... it's been a long day. I guess I'm a bit touchy... do you mind if I finish up my shower alone?" Tibalt asked. Part of him felt like he was being overly suspicious, though he DID have a right to be alone. For a moment Lucian loomed behind him, dangerously close to him in his opinion.

For a moment Tibalt closed his eyes as he expected to be yanked out of the showers, but then he heard footsteps leading away. "Well if that's what you want, Tibalt. Why don't you sit out today's expedition? With all this excitement I don't want you getting too bloated of an ego. Take a day and get better." The line about a bloated ego only felt a tad bit hypocritical to Tibalt, but at this point he just let it slide as he pushed a finger into his mouth. Pulling it out he could only see clear saliva, no remains of the black goo that had come out earlier.

Tibalt breathed heavily for a bit as he let the water cycle finish up and automatically shut down, his thoughts still racing as he walked out to grab a towel. "I think... I need to talk to Weber..." he mumbled to himself.

**********************************************

Today had been interesting to say the least for Weber. If Tibalt hadn't been found in the specimen unit, it likely would've been just another day upon the station, but now it felt like someone had dropped coals under his feet. The lead scientists had given Weber a major grilling and more than one threat of a court martial, but it was only because of Weber's flawless record that he'd been able to avoid getting sent back to Earth. Though quite frankly part of the husky would've preferred it, he didn't want to be angry at Tibalt any longer than he had to. It was obvious that something was wrong with his friend, and it was even more painful mixed with the fact that there was likely absolutely nothing he could do about it.

While they were looking over the casket today, Tibalt felt the gaze of the other scientists on him with painful clarity. He knew that by the end of the day the others would likely be gossiping about how one of them would be given security clearance rather than him, but he didn't care, he just wanted to see Tibalt and make sure the lizard was alright. "Any changes on the casket?" Lou, his supervisor, asked as he walked in.

"God, why did it have to be Lou?" Weber groaned internally. Out of all of his supervisors, Lou was the one who had it out for the husky. Ever since Weber had been brought along on the project he'd been called out the most amongst the others due to his youth. Many of the others had ten years minimum requirements on coming along, but Weber had only two years on record, and that had made him a prime target. Lou especially had it out for him due to his own dissertation a few years back, having been disproved by the husky's own papers, and with this new mess up from Tibalt... well... it was proving to be a good bone for Lou to pick. "Nothing seems to have changed. The subject inside still shows no signs of stirring and we've yet to find a way to open it," he reported.

The lion didn't seem to believe him though as he merely let out a snort and took one of the aide's tablets and started reviewing the information. "There's no signs of manipulation from the intruder?" Lou asked.

Weber bit his lip a little too hard, drawing blood, but he didn't show any outwards anger. "If you're referring to Tibalt earlier, he's done nothing to impede our progress, sir," he stated. Lou gave him a sharp glare before reviewing the tablet's information once more, as if to prove Weber wrong, but upon finding nothing, the husky curtly nodded before starting out the door.

"Hey, we're not done here yet!" Lou shouted, which caused the husky to breathe deeply more than once before he turned around. He found Lou a few steps behind him, dangling a keycard with his name and picture on it. "Due to the security breach and lack of effort on password protocol, we had a new keycard reader put into the specimen containment storage unit. This keycard has to remain with you at all times, it's the only thing that's going to allow you access into the storage areas from now on."

Weber tried to resist glaring at his supervisor as he grabbed the keycard and the chain it was on before he turned and left once more. Once more he felt the ire at his friend for causing such a switch of protocol, and that it was his intrusion that caused it. What he wanted now was answers, and that's what he intended to get when he walked to the hospital wing to talk to Tibalt. When Weber found that the lizardman had checked out, he started to walk towards his room when he got a text on his commlink. It was from Tibalt, asking if he was done with his shift and to meet him in the commons area as soon as he could, an invitation the husky was more than willing to accept.

When he finally got there Weber found his friend at one of the booths, picking at a plate of food. "Alright, I'm here." Weber said as he sat down.

"Ah, Weber, thank god." Tibalt replied, which caused the husky to sit up slightly. "I was hoping to talk to you as soon as your shift ended; I didn't realize how dull it was around here when you didn't have duties to perform and everyone else was on shift."

Weber just nodded and looked at the lizardman. "You know I'm here for you, Tibalt." He reassured. "Anything you need to talk about, I'm willing to listen."

"Great, did you guys find anything else out about that specimen we found?" Tibalt asked. Silence followed, Weber just stared at Tibalt who seemed to grow more and more confused with every passing second. "Well?"

"Really?!" Weber nearly shouted, though he still had enough sense to keep his voice below where others could hear. "You've been caught in a restricted area, passed out on the floor next to an alien creature, then woke up in the infirmary, and the first question you have for me is how the research is going?! I almost got sent back to Earth because of this, and now Lou is so far up my backside that I can feel him breathing against the back of my throat! Not to mention the new security protocols!"

"Security protocols?" Tibalt said, taken slightly aback. "You mean they didn't just change the passcode?"

"No!" Weber shouted as he pulled out his security card. "Now we all have to use a card reader, which, by the way, that plus your possible contamination has made me the pariah of the whole lab. And here I thought you were going to come clean with me about why you were there... or at least try to work out what happened to you when you went into the containment zone."

"Weber, let me explain," Tibalt tried to reason, only to have the husky roll his eyes and get up from the booth. "Weber, wait!" By then the scientist stormed off from the room, the others in the lounge staring at the scene and whispering to each other as Tibalt looked at them wearily. For a moment Tibalt was torn between trying to explain what had happened and chasing after his friend, but after a moment he just sighed and sunk into his seat with a deep sigh.

Pressing his hand into his face, the lizard wished he could've just pushed until he went unconscious again, better that than having to meet the gazes of everyone else. More than likely everyone in the room knew what had happened, probably everyone aboard the ship knew what he had done. "I'm such an ass..."