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He nodded at her. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything too pretty down here.”

Georgia pressed her lips together and pointed to one of the three entrances in front of them. “We may as well start in there.”

Ash went first, his weapon out. His eyes widened as he entered the room. He wasn’t expecting to find a bank of computers and a huge table covered in star charts.

“Someone’s been busy down here.” Georgia walked to the first computer and touched it. Nothing happened.

Ash strode to a row of portable battery packs. “Most of these have no charge, but there’s power in a few of them. Give me a minute to rig something up, and we’ll see if we can get anything useful off these machines.” He disconnected the dead batteries then used three with some juice left to connect to the computer Georgia stood beside.

She pressed a key and smiled at him. “We have power.”

A few minutes later, they were looking at reams of indecipherable data.

“This is encrypted,” she said. “No surprise, given what they’re doing.”

“You download the data. We can take it back to ELVIS, and he can decrypt it.”

Georgia pulled out a data stick and plugged it into the machine.

“I’ll go take a look at the other two rooms while you do that.” Ash left Georgia and headed into the next room. The stench of decay was stronger in here. There were several empty cages with the tattered remains of bedding and a few old bones. He stopped by a glass tank. There was a foul-smelling slime inside but no animal.

He left the room and checked back in on Georgia. She was still studying the computer screen.

She lifted a hand when she saw him. “All good here.”

Ash headed into the last room. He pulled up short as a movement in one corner reached him. He lifted his gun and stepped closer. There was nothing there but shadows.

He frowned to himself. He was getting jumpy.

Ash took a minute to look around. There were more cages, and these were occupied. He gritted his teeth, scowling as he inspected each one. There were no survivors, and all these animals had been experimented on. Some were grossly distorted, with enormous fangs and claws.

A slight movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned toward it, but there was nothing there. Ash still felt like something was tracking him, just keeping out of his sightline, so he wouldn’t fire.

His gaze flicked to the final cage, and his mouth opened. There was a dead Draxian inside. At least, he sure as hell hoped he was dead.

Ash rushed to the cage and stared at the body, his heart thudding as a sick rage boiled inside him. One arm had been replaced by a metallic claw, and a bone graft had been attempted along the spine, giving the Draxian spiny quills running down his back. Horns had been implanted into his forehead.

Ash gagged at the smell as he checked for a pulse before turning away. He blew out a breath, grateful the Draxian was dead. He must have been in agony while enduring that painful, pointless surgery. Whoever did this must have known it would fail.

A gasp behind him had Ash turning.

“Is that a Draxian?” Georgia stood there, shock and fury clear on her face.

Ash tried to block her view. “It looks like our alien enemy is attempting to chimera more than animals.”

Georgia strode over, nudged past him, and stared into the cage. She shook her head then looked around at the rest of the cages. “If they’re willing to experiment on other aliens, who knows what they’ll do next?”

“Maybe that’s their ultimate plan. Make an army of mutant aliens to command. The animal experiments were the first step.” Ash pointed at the dead Draxian. “They’re testing the boundaries and seeing how far they can go.”

She grimaced, her lips pressed together and tears in her eyes.

Ash blocked her view again. “Are you good?”

“No! I want to hit something.”

“You don’t have to stay in here. I’ll take records of this, and we’ll send the images back to the Apocalypse,” Ash said. “Are you done collecting the data off the computer?”

She nodded, her attention still on the cages.

“Give me five minutes to make a record of this fucked up mess then it’s time to leave.”

Georgia swallowed and licked her lips. “Should we bury him?”

“No, Draxians have fire ceremonies when they die.”

“Then we should do that. It’s wrong to leave him here.”

Ash hesitated. Burning the body would be proof the site had been discovered, but it twisted him up to think of leaving this tortured corpse behind.

“Ash! We have to.”

He nodded. “Find something to put him in. We’ll take him outside for the ceremony.”

Georgia had just reached the entrance when she yelped.

Ash spun, raising his weapon. “What the...”

Hanging off Georgia’s thigh was a matted bundle of brown fur.