---------------H-A-L-O-:-S.I.T.C---------------

Chapter 15:

We arrived at the hospital, and Sam talks with the human at the front desk. After a short talk, she leads us down the left hall, down another until we reach a door marked "I.B VETERINARY WARDS". The door then leads into another hallway. While we walk down the hall, I have a peek through the small windows. Maybe I should visit here more often; I can see other Sangheili being treated, and a Unggoy having it's height measured. He is rather short...

We walk into the room marked "I.B WARD 16; Doctor White / Doctor Fredrick". A human wearing a lab coat is sitting at a desk, waiting for us. "Ah, hello! You must be Samantha Reds?"

"Yeah, that's me"

"Then you must be Voro... Valtacee?"

"Valtac'e"

"Ah, okay. Voro, I was informed that you'd let me do a observation on you, only if I taught you about the Human Anatomy afterwards?"

"Yes. I am yet to learn about it properly, instead of learning which parts come off easier when shot at"

"Okay then. Samantha, you may go to the café if you want, as this may take a while"

"How long, an hour or two?"

"Probably 3 - 4 hours minimum. To get accurate marks.."

"I'll go do some shopping. Voro, have doctor Fred here call me when everything is done". And like that, Sam left to go do something.

"First of all, I'll need to get a sculpture of your mouth. This requires me to put a stretchy material on each of your.. what would you rather me call them, mandibles or lips?"

"Lip, I have four"

"Yes, okay. I'm going to be putting this dried-glue like material on the inside of you lips, along you teeth and gums. It'll solidify into a hard, brick like materiel which I'll use as a mould. Are you okay with this?"

"As long as I an breathe"

"Then lets do this!" the Doctor says, while putting on some rubber gloves.

I lie back in the chair, and look into the dim light above it. The doctor brings over a light and starts looking around and my lips, mouth, teeth, etc. The rubber gloves feel funny on my gums and teeth.

"Amazing! I've seen autopsy photos of Sangheili, but they don't show this much detail!"

I close my mouth and stare at him, silently telling him what I thought of that comment.

"Sorry, so sorry. Would you mind if I took some photos?"

"Take as many as needed"

The doctor goes across the room and grabs a small, square device. He starts pressing a button which lets off a flash each time. A camera, was it? He finishes taking photos and grabs a tube of paste.

"Open wide, please. This'll only take a moment or two"

I open my mouth as far as I can, up until my jaws start hurting a little.

"Interesting, I didn't know they could go that far!" He says, while rubbing the paste-like materiel along my teeth and gums.

I can feel the paste hardening as the doctor rubs it on my other teeth sets. He wasn't kidding about it taking a moment.

A minute passes, and all the paste is dry as a desert. The doctor pulls off the casts and labels them, "up-left:5, up-right:5, low-left:6, low-right:6"

"What we do with these is we replicate what your mouth looks like using these, then file it in data for research and operations. We already have 4 of these, but we still need a lot. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to need you to take off the top-half of your jump-suit"

I get up and start unzipping my suit, when I notice two other Sangheili and the short Unggoy looking through the window, as I did with theirs. I don't know how I feel about this. I pull off the top of my suit, and stand straight for the doctor, who then begins to poke several spots on my back, feeling what my skin feels like, labelling what it feels like while he does it. "Soft, lumpy skin, Scale like bumps all over main body, Grey with tinge of light-ish red", This goes on for a few minutes.

The doctor spends a minute looking at my fingers. "Four fingers; Two thumbs and two fingers per hand. Much longer and gripping than that of us humans"

The doctor has finished with my hands, that can only mean one thing...

"I'm going to need you to take off the lower half of you jump-suit, if that's okay with you"

I'm starting to feel very uncomfortable about this, so I pull up my leggings as high as they can go instead.

The doctor starts looking and my legs, then going down towards my feet. I don't know why, but I feel really embarrassed about this. Not because I'm being looked at by a human, but because there is three of my brothers watching from outside.

"Feet are hoof like, as if standing on tip-toes. Looks as if there is two knees per leg, Could you please lift your leg? Interesting.. it appears the second set bend forward? I'm unsure, I'll have a look at this again later. All finished, you may put back on your jump-suit properly"

"I'm sorry if it was any trouble not being... entirely naked... it's just that I don't feel comfortable being naked around humans.. or my brothers"

"Don't worry, it's the same thing with us humans. Though some times we get over it if the reason we go to the doctors is serious enough. Hey, who's that outside?"

My brothers outside quickly run away from the door, with the Unggoy falling down and making a loud bang. Fools.

"Hmm.. were they there the entire time?"

"Yes, they're the other reason for me being uncomfortable"

"I'll tell them off next time I see them, as they've been looking at all the people having operations or check-ups for the past few days"

"What are they doing here anyway?"

"The recently moved here from Sangheilios, and are acting patients while we find them some care-takers. Anyway, what would you like to learn before Samantha comes back?"

"Everything you can teach me"

I spent the next two hours learning about the human body, even the things I didn't really need to know about... like the genitalia...

Its a nice change learning about the human body and how it works instead of what hurts it most and how to kill it. Besides, it's been almost 3 years since I last had a lesson.

An hour passes, and Sam comes back from shopping, wearing new clothes: Pants of a rough, blue fabric, and a white sling jacket. She looks... pretty. Beautiful, even. Wha- I- What am I thinking? This is a human I'm talking about! This is wrong! She's just pretty. That's it, no further.

"How was the examination, Voro?"

"It went well. I think"

"He was a bit shy about removing ALL of his clothing. Like you said in the email, there is something human about him"

"Huh?"

"Nothing, Voro, ignore what he said. Did you get what you needed, doctor?"

"Yes, I did, most of it anyway. Have a good night, you two"

We say goodbye and leave. People in the lobby are panicking about something, and so are the humans on the street. We walk outside and see why: