"The sink is motion activated. The first pass will have soap and the second pass will have pure water. That can be reconfigured if it's inconvenient."

Oh! That's... impressive and in line with what she's growing to expect from this place. She passes her hand under the sink, and sure enough, it's soap. She scrubs her hands. "That works."

Thinking about the technology level reminds her of so many questions she needs to ask. "What...species are you from?" She's not sure if that's even the right way to phrase it.

"I think the translation we're supposed to use is Khalastrian. I don't really know if that's final though."

Well that sure is a literal answer to the question she asked. "What are Khalastrians... like? Are they all like you? No bodies?"

"I'm not strictly from any species at all, but it's easier to pretend I'm from the same species as my template. Khalatrians are most similar to Otters out of the species present on your world in that they're aquatic creatures that need to surface to breath and have dextrous limbs and digits for manipulating objects."

Otters. That is not quite what she had expected of aliens, especially these aliens. It's too... cuddly for what's been going on.

"And why did they ask you to do this... research?"

"I'm fairly certain I already stated that my research is to ensure the full range of medical care is available for your species. The Consortium's reasons for wanting that aren't particularly important to me."

Yeah, Adelaide remembers something along those lines now. She was a bit busy panicking at the time.

So she's here, being researched, so that in the future these aliens -- Khalastrians -- can provide good medical care for other humans. On the surface, that almost sounds like a good thing. But...

"Do you know in what context said medical care will be provided to other humans? Are the Khalastrians going to take over Earth?"

"I expect that Earth will join the Consortium, most planets we extend the offer to do. I don't know why they wouldn't."

Oh so it's like a "space empire pretends to be conquering things consensually" deal. And she's collateral damage.

"I see."

She'll eat a cookie, they should be cool by now.

AG waits for her to finish her cookie and then addresses her again.

"I believe I have identified the nerves that regulate your breathing and heartrate. Full paralysis below the neck should now be safe. Further tuning will likely be required before I can be more precise in restraining your movement and numb pain without side effects."

"Oh. Are you going to...do that? Now?"

"There's no immediate necessity. But it is now possible to pursue additional avenues of research. If you'd like, I can explain my research plans in more detail and offer you some input into ordering."

She's not sure if knowing will make it better or worse but she kind of wants to know anyway. "Please do."

"Obviously, further refinement of the model I have of your nervous system is still a priority, the easiest way to calibrate that faster would be a series of exercises and applied stimuli. At a high level I'm tasked with achieving: external reproduction, bio-sculpting, organ repair or replacement, brain uploading, and memory modification."

Well none of those sound like "I'm just going to torture you for fun" but who really knows.

"Explain bio-sculpting and external reproduction?"

"Bio-sculpting allows for cosmetic and functional changes that better tune people's bodies to their preferences. This can involve correcting major injuries or birth defects. It also includes what are known on your world as gender affirmation procedures. External reproduction is the ability to gestate or incubate an individual without needing any interaction with a living body beyond providing the genetic material."

See that all sounds perfectly nice except for the fact that it's going to be happening to her. "How much of each thing are you going to be doing to me?"

"Enough that I'm as confident as I can be with a single subject. Eventually, I'll need additional subjects to be able to confirm I'm not overfitting."

"And what kind of...side effects can I expect from each of those?" She should leave the worst for last, because she's going to learn to teleport and then escape before anything too horrible happens.

"This is very exploratory research so unexpected side effects are very possible. That said the external reproduction research may involve simulated or actual pregnancy and so the usual side effects of that are to be expected. Bio-sculpting shouldn't have any substantial side effects except perhaps some difficulty adjusting to your body plan. It should also be entirely reversible if anything gets too severe to tolerate. Organ replacement will naturally carry some risk of rejection or organ failure so we'll start with organs you can do without like your kidneys. Brain uploading is tricky, depending on the path I take that might involve brain surgery and that can be very delicate. Memory modification naturally carries the risk that unplanned memories and skills will be impacted."

Fine. This is fine. She's going to escape.

"I would like bio-sculpting to be first."

"That seems like a reasonable place to start. Is there anything you'd like to change about your body specifically? It's always good to start on a positive note and end on one."

She's never really thought too much about her body. It does its job.

"Um, I guess you could remove the birthmark on my back? Or... if you changed things about my arms or legs I wouldn't...care that much?" She's already tense. She's used to the way things are.