Despite having mentally braced himself, Stigel couldn't help flinching at the sight of Nalla, the xeno-biologist, as he entered her quarters. Her serpentine appearance triggered something in the core of his lizard brain that shouted, Predator!

By DNA, Nalla was one hundred percent homo sapiens and as pure as they came, her ancestry tracing back to the Great Rift Valley. But she had undergone extensive body reconstruction, extending her spine and reshaping her arms to give her greater flexibility and fluidity of movement. Grounded upon stocky legs, her torso traced a sinuous curve, and her arms slithered rather than bent. Bio-pigments gave her skin a scaly, iridescent sheen. Her fingers ended in red attachments with slender points. They moved like flickering tongues over the ring of holographic panels that surrounded her.

Nalla's yellow-tinted eyes met Stigel's. "Don't be shy, said the snake to the rat." She expanded the holographic ring to make room for him in the center. "How was your teatime with the alien? Are you swapping scone recipes yet?"

"It may be a while for that," Stigel said, crossing over to her. "We're still working on basic etiquette, like the proper way to hold a teacup with a mustache."

"I suggest you don't take too long." Nalla motioned to the center panel which was taken up by the Janux's damaged section. It was artificially colorized and covered in squiggly, hand-written notations.

"What happened to it?" Stigel said. "It looks like a train wreck."

"You're not far off. Have a look at this simulation." She swapped out holo panels to one showing the Janux plunging at a steep angle. "It appears to have fallen into a deep ravine where we found it. Think of a train jumping the tracks and going over a ledge."

"If it was falling head-first, how come there's no damage to the head itself?"

"It appears to have averted its head at the last moment—I'm guessing as a survival reflex." The simulation showed the night-head jerk up so the segments directly behind it bore the brunt of the impact. There was a ripple and secondary impact as the rest of its body unwound behind it. The slow motion was not artificially imposed but due to the low gravity. "The forward section absorbed most of the shock, but there are less visible injuries throughout, some cracking and warping in the exoskeleton along with internal organ ruptures. All in all, it came through pretty well, though. At full Earth gravity, it would have come apart at the joints."

"You mean it can actually survive a fall like that?"

"Janux biology has a lot of redundancy built in. The segments have a bypass mechanism for when they are compromised. The legs drop off, and the intestines and major arteries seal up except for special pass-through channels. But if there are too many defunct segments in a row, they will drag on the ground, impairing movement and leading to parasitic infection. The additional pumping places a heavy strain on the other segments, which can lead to heart attacks or digestive failure. This one lost full function in three contiguous segments, which is about the limit. But that won't be what kills it."

"It's got some disease, whatever is affecting the night face?"

Nalla nodded. "It's a neuro-degenerative condition of the motor and sensory neurons. A side effect is that the oil glands stop secreting, which makes the skin dry and scaly. Combine that with a lack of sensation in the facial tissue, and you get gross deformation. Think of it as the alien version of leprosy."

"Can you cure it?"

"Doubtful." For all her snake-like exterior, Nalla's tone was somber, compassionate even. In her former life, she had been a renowned neonatal surgeon. Her nimble fingers with their custom attachments had once been used for tapping the spines of preemies. The alien was more than a specimen to her; it was a patient. "The condition is advanced, and a lot of neurological damage has been done already. These new injuries aren't helping. It's lost a lot of coordination and soon won't be able to walk or eat without assistance. Perhaps this is what led to its fall, either directly or indirectly..."

"You think it might have jumped on purpose?"

"I'm no expert on alien psychology. That's Misuni's department. But it must have sensed that something was wrong and getting worse."

"What about the day face?" Stigel asked. "Is it affected?"

"Aside from the exterior damage, not yet." Nalla said. "The two neural systems are completely independent except for the switchover nodes. It may have felt some fatigue, but otherwise it probably didn't notice anything amiss until it found itself lying on the bottom of a ravine. But that will change once the night-side dies."

"How so?"

"Rapid deterioration followed by death. Janux have evolved to feed and be active around the clock. The muscles will start to atrophy from inactivity, and the reduction in caloric intake will cause it to slowly starve. But chances are the autonomic functions will fail first, and it will die from oxygen deprivation. Best guess, I give it two weeks. So if you want to have a meaningful conversation with it, you should be quick about it."