Caught or Not

"ZIA, do a quick scan and tell me if there is anything potentially harmful in this room to Zimerian physiology" He asked.

After a moment, ZIA replied. "Apart from the alarming levels of oxygen in the atmosphere, I cannot sense anything else that would pose a threat to your life." 

Kaze sighed in relief and walked towards his ship. It was in a very horrible position, but thankfully he knew how to set it right. He grabbed some of the tools already available in the room and started to take out the cover to expose it's engine. Turns out, Dr, Karen Raymond, along with her team had tried to put it back together.

Whatever they had done was horribly wrong, and their poor attempt was evident in the altered structure of the engine. Shaking his head, he undid all the useless connections made by these stupid earthlings before he started to reassmble his ship. After around an hour the ship finally lit up. It's engine was working, but it still needed some fuel if he needed to make it work. Not to mention, he had to take it out of this room, since its structural integrity was not strong enough to withstand a collision with the walls of this room. But, this was a start.

Suddenly he heard a ping followed by the sliding of the door. Someone was here. Kaze hid at the nearest hiding spot he could find at that moment, as fast as he could. Wait, was she back? He wondered. He heard footsteps, but he couldn't quite make out who it was. But, it didn't matter as long as he wasn't caught.

The person stopped in front of the S-Capsule. Dammit, Kaze forgot to turn it off in the heat of the moment. This might alert the IAEA of another possible breach by the unauthorized extraterrestrial being. He observed the movements of the person whose identity was hard to determine thanks to the protective suit of that person.

That person turned around and glanced at the entire room carefully. Kaze stuck his back to the shelf, trying his best not to make any sounds. His hopes of not getting caught faded as the footsteps got louder by the minute. 

"It's you" A feminine voice spoke from behind him, signifying that he had been caught. 

Kaze closed his eyes for a second before he stood up and turned to look at Dr. Karen Raymond. "You're the alien," she declared. 

Kaze wasn't sure yet how she could say that with so much confidence, but Kaze knew if he wanted to make it out of here, he needed to make sure she didn't blabble.

"You caught me" Kaze tilted his head, "I wonder how".

"You don't think the machine I designed doesn't keep records of his usage"? Dr. Karen Raymond scoffed. "I knew who you were since the moment you stepped into IAEA for the test. We knew all along". She gave him a cheeky smile before taking down the mask. "You really didn't think you got into an organization as elite as IAEA all by your own did you"? She asked.

Those words sent a chill down his spine. Technically they didn't have a spine, but two parallel structures similar to spine keeping their structure intact. But the metaphors always work.

Suddenly things started to make more sense now. How he easily accessed everything in IAEA. Despite doing terribly in the test, how he made it. All this time he thought he was studying the humans, the humans were the ones studying him.

"Why are you telling me this"? Kaze narrowed his humanoid eyes. "Taking off that mask as if you are sure none of these are harmful". Kaze asked. Some of Dr. Raymond's behavior confused him.

"Because you got caught you idiot" She groaned in annoyance. "But you might as well. You are a bit useless." She scoffed.

"So what? You're going to report me?" Kaze challenged.

"As if I had to," She rolled. "Like I said, you're useless. I might as well exterminate you" she shrugged. "At least maybe then we can figure out properly what species you belong to". She declared. 

"I'll save you some time. I am a Zimerian" Kaze declared. Dr. Raymond already knew so much about him, so he might as well tell him this tiny detail.

"Nonsense. Zimerian's will never survive earth for as long as you did" Scoffed Karen. 

"Not if they had evolved." Kaze remarked.

"We'll see about that." She tilted her head and tapped something, as if she was putting on a switch behind her neck. Soon her skin turned into a darker shade and scales appeared over the cheekbones. That's when he realised, Dr. Karen wasn't a human. She was a Lysserion. Yet somehow she was still taller. 

"I didn't know Lysserions hid amongst the humans. I thought your species was well blended with the humans" Kaze commented. 

"The government records say so. The reality… that's entirely a different story". She mumbled.

She folded her fingers, making a fist and soon the scales behind her hand hardened. Kaze wasn't sure what was happening until that scale slipped off her hand and aimed directly for Kaze's head. Luckily he had a tough skull, way tougher than any human, or even a Lysserion. The impact of the scale with Kaze's hand would be a fly hitting a human's head. It barely made any difference. 

She was stunned since her scale didn't work and took a few steps back in awe. There aren't many species which could  withstand  the boomerang effect of their scales, including the Lysserions. In fact, it was one of their defence mechanisms. Meanwhile Kaze picked the hardened scales up from the floor, which resembles an oyster shell and crumbled it in his hand as an act of intimidation.

She was about to run away, but thanks to her heavy suit and the tools lying around everywhere, she couldn't. She tripped and fell instead. Before she could pick herself up, her head collided once more with the floor and that was the last thing she ever witnessed.