“Mr. Heartface took her to the room. If you don’t let me in right now, I’m going to wait right here until you come out. Do not test me!”
He looked at the door and swallowed, his gaze briefly clouding over as hundreds of scenes of him and Hector flashed within his mind.Please. Not now.
Hector loaded the tranq gun with fresh darts and attached it to his arm. “Ready for this?”
“Ready as ever.” Zeph checked the buckles of his field gear and paired the suit with his internal tech. He stretched and loosened the fitting around his joints. “Let’s just get this over with.”
They were on their last retrieval mission of the season and had a full menagerie of acquisitions to drop off at the EPED base outside Earth’s moon. His gaze roved over the many sleeping creatures that had come from across the galaxy. Most were plants, but there were a few larger beasts in their hold.
Hector headed for the hull while Zeph handed over the reins to the lab to one their androids. He followed Hector shortly after, scanning the environment outside their ship.
They stepped into the exit chamber together and recalibrated their bodies to the local environment.
“Let’s take the one south of us. The other is in a gorge farther east, and I really don’t feel like hauling a sleeping body out of it,” Hector said, flicking his visor down.
Zeph snapped his teeth and grinned. “We both know I’ll be the one doing the lugging.”
“Easier to finally get rid of you once and for all. I’m just waiting for the day your arms are full.” Hector laughed.
Zeph lowered his own visor and looked out over the windy terrain. They were sent to an asteroid belt in the Andromeda system where life was spotted by salvagers. Their task was to prove it and bring a specimen back to study.
Two creatures showed up on their radar. It was just a matter of apprehending one now…
“What do you plan on doing during your break?” Hector asked. He jumped over a crevasse, his body soaring into the air before gravity brought him back down.
“I’m heading to Ghost for new cybernetic hardware. You?”
“I’m thinking of doing that PR nonsense Nightheart wants done. Look.” Hector squatted, the dust whipping past his body, and checked his sights. Zeph lowered next to him.
The creature, a hairless, thin-looking, gangly mass with six arms and legs dragged something into a small cave. Zeph switched the sensors on his visor to follow its heat signature through the ground. He and Hector moved forward in unison.
Zeph dropped to the floor with athud, his body sliding in its own blood as a partial shift took place. He blinked and readjusted his visual feed over and over, but all he could see was the heavy, starlit shadows of the cave entrance.
Claws jutted out of his nail beds to rip across the metal floor, and his jaw elongated into a metal snout as the skin around his eyes pulled tautly. The interior of his legs opened up and hooked together seamlessly to lengthen his body and create a heavy metal tail. It smacked the ground and the walls to either side of him, knocking the weapons off.
Bang!
“Zeph, open the door.” Janet’s voice slivered through the memory, filled with desperation.Why is she here?
Hector took position outside the hole, holding up an electrical net. Zeph brandished his knife and stuck a tranq dart in his mouth. He lowered onto his stomach to crawl. The creature didn’t know they were there. Yet. If he had his way, it would wake up on the other end in an EPED lab billions of miles away without ever knowing what hit it.
Bang! Bang!
“Open the goddamn door, you cold-blooded piece of shit!”
“Janet,” Zeph groaned. “Shut up or you’ll spook it.”
“What?”
She shouldn’t be there, shouldn’t be out here hunting with him and Hector on an asteroid that was uninhabitable for humans. Was she wearing a biosuit? Had he checked her space-suit before he left the ship? The scene flickered in his head while he hesitated. Retrieving the creature was the last thing on his mind now, but when he turned back, all he saw was darkness. A clicking hiss filled his ears.
“Hector! Get Janet out of here!” he roared. The cave trembled.
Zeph’s chin hit the cold, wet floor, and he moaned, opening his eyes. Light blinded him for a microsecond just as the door to his armory whipped open. Another low hum filled his chest as Janet came into view, and the old memory faded back deep into his databanks.
Janet gasped at the threshold. Her eyes flicked all over the destroyed room only to keep returning to him. “What did you do?”
He groaned and pushed himself off the floor to land on his back with a wince. “I was packing.”
