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“They’d probably do it to entertain themselves.” Ash looked around the room and shook his head.
Georgia tried to unhook the banty’s arms from around her thigh, but it continued to cling on tightly.
“It’s gotten attached to you,” Ash said. “It’s an easy thing to do.”
“It can’t stay with me. We’ve got a mission to complete.”
“It’s going nowhere. You’ve made a new friend, and it won’t get in the way if we take it with us. We’re only going back to the ship.”
Georgia pursed her lips. “I guess you can hang out with us while we’re here. But that’s it.”
The creature made a happy chirp, as if it knew it had won.
“It knows we’re not a threat,” Ash said.
“Then it’s not so smart. You’re a threat to everyone,” Georgia said.
“Not to you. And not to something that small and furry. You should adopt it and take it back to the Apocalypse.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have time to look after an animal. Besides, we’ve got enough reprobate pets on board. Cleo would have a fit if I brought this one back.”
“Cleo loves the animals. I saw her walking around the other week with one of Daisy’s cats on her shoulder like it was some damn parrot. She was even talking to it.”
Georgia grinned. “I could take this little one back and see if she wants to adopt it.” She patted her shoulder several times. “You can’t keep clinging to my thigh.”
It took a couple of minutes of persuasion and continued patting, but the banty seemed to understand what she wanted. It detached itself from her thigh and launched onto her shoulder, clinging on tightly and making a strange chittering sound as if to reassure itself.
Georgia gave the animal another tentative pet on the head.
The animal trilled a high-pitched note and nuzzled against her hand.
“Yep. It’s definitely yours,” Ash said.
“No pets for me.” Georgia shook her head. A quick examination of the animal’s undercarriage showed it was a boy. “He’s not mine. I’ll find him somewhere safe to live before we go.”
“Let’s head out,” Ash said. “We need to give the Draxian a farewell. And I want to see what ELVIS makes of the data we collected.”
Georgia nodded and was following Ash out of the room when she stopped. She hurried to a cage and reached a hand through the bars, yanking out a large chunk of snow white fur. Her heart skipped a beat.
“What’s that?” Ash said.
“I need to analyze it, but I think this is white tail fur.” She examined the coarse fur reverently between her fingers.
“They had a white tail down here?”
“I reckon so. Dallin will need to double-check, but I’m sure that’s what he’ll find. Look around. See if there’s any more evidence.”
They spent a few minutes inspecting the contents of the cage, but there was nothing else to suggest white tails had been living in the caves.
“If we’d gotten here a few days earlier, we could have rescued this white tail.” Georgia scowled as she packed the fur in her bag. It felt like they were always missing these sneaky aliens, and they were always one step ahead of them. How could she make them pay if she couldn’t catch them?
“This mission has been far from a bust. We could have hit pay dirt here. Encrypted data, star charts suggesting expansion plans on other planets, and evidence the white tail was kept here.”
Georgia nodded slowly, her anger cooling as quickly as it had fired up. “This project could be bigger than we imagined. What if they’re attempting an invasion of multiple planets using a unique hybrid weapon? The planet’s inhabitants won’t know what hit them when these things emerge.”
Ash nodded. “And while everyone is distracted by the mutant beasts, the aliens slip in and take over or take whatever they want.”
Georgia’s stomach flipped. She just knew they’d discovered something huge. “Let’s get to the Apocalypse. Once the data is decrypted, it’ll give us a clearer picture of what we’re dealing with and how to stop it.” She scratched the back of her hand, wincing as her nails scraped across a cut.
