《Evolutionary Prison》


 Chapter 1 - Landfall

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    The chains rustled as he shifted slightly, already steeled for the electrical discharge as punishment for moving. The onlooking guards smirked at the beep of the machine as it began recharging. Dustin''s breathing never changed. He was used to the pain by now. He just wished the chair was more comfortable.


    "Prisoner 313564, stand up. We have arrived at our destination. Time for you to receive your sentencing."


    The guard''s breath smelled awful, as he leaned down into his face to give his orders.


    Standing suddenly, Dustin smashed his head into the guard''s face, and keeping physical contact while the machine discharged.


    "Ahhhhh!" the guard screamed, falling to the ground, and promptly peeing himself. He clutched his face where blood was spewing.


    "Oops," he said, not moving as he spoke so as not to set off the charge again. The beep of the machine was loud as the other guards glared at him.


    "Turn that thing off, and get him to the discharge room!" barked the commander as a few more guards entered the room to drag the injured guy away.


    Dragging him from the room, Dustin was carried to an unimpressive room with a small emergency evacuation capsule.


    "Prisoner 313564, you have been charged with murder. You have been sentenced to one year on planet 3.54365. As compensation for your family holdings, you will be given a Personal Evolution Device, or PED. I''m sure you are familiar with them. As per custom, if you are found alive, at the end of your one-year sentence, you will be cleared of all charges and free to go. Also, half of all of your family holdings will be returned to you." The mechanical voice shut off with a whir.


    One of the guards stepped forward, while the others held him still, and closed the bracer-like device over his forearm. Gritting his teeth as needles drove themselves into his arm, he fought the urge to pass out. He would not give them that satisfaction.


    The commander motioned for them to place him inside the capsule, and he stared at it in horror. It would be a tight fit, and there were no safety features. If he ran out of air before he landed, he would die. It probably didn''t have a parachute either.


    "Just so you know," said the commander while they shoved him into this coffin, "this planet is known to be a hunter paradise world among the Josagn aliens. No one has ever survived this. I don''t expect to see you again."


    Dustin took a calming breath, as they strapped him into the temporary restraints, and released his cuff restraints. He closed his eyes and focused on slowing his breathing and his heart. He needed the air inside this tank to last as long as possible, and if he could slow his body down, it would need less. As soon as the latch was sealed, the restraints automatically released, but he didn''t move.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    He could hear them, vaguely, on the outside of the glass, laughing and hazing him, but he shut it out. He knew they were taking a long time to release him, probably to use up more of the air.


    There was a whoosh, and then it was silent. Immediately, he felt the cold of space, and cursed inwardly. This crappy coffin didn''t even have any protection from the elements. How was he supposed to survive reentry?


    "Initiating reentry," came a soft voice in his ear. There was some form of computer in this thing. Maybe he had a chance after all.


    "Computer, tell me about the planet," he asked, slow and gentle. Talking used more oxygen, but he needed to know what to expect.


    "The planet 3.54365 has an atmosphere primarily of oxygen, and nitrogen. It is too rich for human survival. The surface of the planet is thickly covered in plant growth and has a healthy animal population."


    Crap, if the atmosphere was unbreathable, he would only have a few minutes to find something to steal genetic material from. No wonder no one survived this planet. Cursing his luck, he turned his attention to the PED on his arm, and activated it. It was a good thing his dad was a war hero before he died. It had left plenty of money for his mother to waste drinking away her sorrows. It also left enough for him to be granted this little gizmo.


    Dustin wasn''t sure how the system worked exactly, but he knew that the more money the government stood to gain when you were thrown in prison, the fancier the parting gift. Without this thing, he didn''t have a fighting chance.


    (INTERFACING STARTED ¨C 15 MINUTES UNTIL COMPLETE)


    "Time to planet fall 14 minutes 57 seconds."


    Breathing evenly, Dustin cursed his luck. He should have started it up the moment his hands were free. If he survived, it wouldn''t happen again. Running what he knew through his head, he focused on what he had to do.


    As soon as he was released from this metal and glass coffin, he had to immediately look for an animal, any animal, and get a sample from it. The PED would need the sample to be inserted into it before it could extract the genetic material and initiate an evolutionary change into his body. He couldn''t remember how long the change took. He would just have to hope it was quick.


    The ship started bouncing around as it hit turbulence. He could feel the burn of the flames flickering outside his window. Knowing that he would have burnt to a crisp by now if there were no protection, he was impressed. Whoever built this thing really did care, kinda.


    "Landfall imminent. Prepare for ground contact," came the mechanical voice in his ear. He focused on continuing to breath. The air was about used up. His head was starting to ache, and he had to fight to keep his breathing slow.


    There was a loud screech, and he was thrown against the glass, that popped open. He was suddenly face down in the cold mud of an alien planet. Looking around confused, he held his breath, knowing it was his only chance. Spying a worm wiggling in the mud, he grabbed it and shoved it at the genetic entry port of the PED. It wouldn''t open.


    Staring at it in confusion, he kept jabbing the very dead worm into the port.


    (INTERFACING COMPLETE ¨C READY FOR GENETIC SAMPLE)


    The port opened and the worm was inserted. He almost pulled it out again, but the port shut too quickly. His eyes were starting to droop, and he was having trouble seeing.


    (GENETIC SAMPLE AQCUIRED. ATMOSPHERE INHOSPITABLE TO HOST, INITIATING GENETIC RESEQUENCING WITH AVAILABLE SAMPLE)


    He fell back into the mud, and watched the clouds drift by. If anything had come by to eat him at that moment, he would have been a goner.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE. ATMOSPHERE BREATHABLE)


    With a huge gulp of air, Dustin woke up. He breathed deep several more times, before he went to sit up. Then he felt the tentacle that had wrapped around his ankle, tighten and jerk him beneath the water.

 Chapter 2 Why must everything try to kill him??

    The tentacle tightened on his ankle, until he thought it would be cut off. Holding his breath as he was jerked under the water, he reached down, and tried to pull it off. Sharp needle like pricks on his fingers let him know that it wasn¡¯t just pulling him down, it was also toxic. Ripping at the tentacle, he finally managed to get a finger under the edge, and pulled.


    His lungs burned. He pulled harder, but wasn¡¯t getting anywhere. Swimming down, he was able to get his head close to the tentacle, and he bit it.


    There was a sudden release, as the creature fled. Swimming to the surface, he spat the piece of tentacle into this hand, and gulped the air as he dragged himself towards the shore. He had to get away from the sinking ship and out of the water. His foot was limp, dragging behind him in the mud, and his hands were quickly going numb.


    (HOST HAS BEEN POISONED ¨C GENETIC SAMPLE REQUIRED TO INITIATE EVOLUTION)


    Dustin paused his crawl to shove the piece of tentacle into the port, before continuing his crawl. This place was not going to be the death of him!


    (GENETIC SAMPLE ACQUIRED. INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    By the time he reached the shore, he had feeling back in his hands. Leaning against a tree, he looked at his ankle. There were still needles stuck into the skin. He started pulling them out, but they were so fine he had trouble grabbing them. These things were worse than cactus spines.


    The good thing was that as soon as he got them out, feeling began to return to his foot. He was able to stand up after a few more minutes.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    His skin felt funny, and he saw that it was clammier. With a sigh, he realized he probably needed to stay close to the water or risk dehydrating. That stupid squid, or whatever it was, caused him to go aquatic. Looking around, all he saw were plants and bugs. If he overlooked the obvious alien colors and textures, he could almost swear he was in a jungle. There should be plenty of things to get genetic samples from, but the first thing he needed was for this stupid PED to synch better with his mind, so he could choose what it pulled out of the genetic material.


    If he was going to evolve into some freakish monster, he wanted to control what he got. This skin was a definite downer.


    Dustin touched the buttons until it started to do what he wanted on the screen.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    (COMPLETE INTEGRATION 2 HOURS AND 35 MINUTES)


    Sighing, Dustin hoped he could survive that long. While it was integrating, he wouldn¡¯t be able to use it to evolve.


    Spying a small creature stalking along the edge of the water, he stepped back, further into the shadows, and watched it as it hunted. The fish had barbs that were poisonous. The creature stabbed them with a bone tail, and wiped the barbs off on the closest tree, before eating them whole.


    Swallowing, he realized he hadn¡¯t eaten in days. They hadn¡¯t bothered during the long trip to feed him, because they figured he would be able to get something to eat here, or would just die. The water was probably drinkable, but he needed to make sure he evolved to survive any parasites. He didn¡¯t want to survive the large predators, only to succumb to the ones he couldn¡¯t see.


    A tickle near his ear made him jump away from the tree. The trunk was swarming with small black beetles. Reaching up, he could feel a few crawling on him, and he hurriedly brushed them off. He was breathing a bit too hard, but he hated bugs. Looking closer, he could see that they had long fluffy antennae. Shaking his head, he didn¡¯t care. Everything on this planet wanted to kill him as far as he was concerned.


    He made his way to another tree, and made sure it had no bugs on it, before he looked over towards the creature that had been hunting. It was gone, probably spooked when he jumped away from the tree. He felt a tickle along his hairline, and he brushed it, thinking it was just another bug, but his hand came back covered in blood, and he jumped again.


    What now??


    Running both hands over his head, he got away from the tree. There was a creature, camouflaged among the leaves, dangling near where he had been. It retracted its tongue, that looked strangely like a long straw, and climbed up higher into the branches. There was a cut, just at his hairline. Cursing, he applied pressure to it, trying to get it to stop bleeding. Who knew how many creatures here could smell blood on the wind?


    Keeping a close eye all around him, he started to move. It would be too dangerous to stay in one place. He avoided every tree, not trusting himself to be attacked again, but stayed near the water. His skin would need to stay moist, and he couldn¡¯t guarantee that he would find water again.


    A loud call in the air behind him, chilled him to the bone. Whatever felt comfortable calling out like that, wasn¡¯t afraid of predators. Which meant there was a very strong possibility it was a predator, and was probably interested in the fresh smell of blood on the air.


    Breaking into a run, he heard something big give chase. Branches blocked his vision, and he knew that if he stopped, it would get him. A huge tree, with an incredibly crazy root system appeared through a gap in some branches, and he darted that way. As he crawled into the middle of the mess, he hoped that it wasn¡¯t some type of giant venus flytrap.


    Unfortunately, as soon as he stopped moving, he noticed vines creeping through the roots, coming towards him. He prepared to climb back out, when the biggest monster he had ever seen crashed out of the bushes and started trying to reach him. It had four eyes, all of which were focused on him.


    The fur on the beast was stiff along the spine, and the color changed as it moved. Snarling, it fought the roots to get to him. Dustin tried to think of what to do, then noticed that the vines had swapped their target to the creature. Finally, something was going right!

 Chapter 3 - Turtle Power

    The vines were creeping slowly towards the beast that was trying to have him for a snack. Dustin saw that the roots weren¡¯t going to hold for long, and looked around for a solution. Above his head, he saw that the core of the tree was actually hollow. Small blue fruits were growing, and tiny bugs swarmed over them.


    Nope, not doing bugs. He looked around. There were other trees around, but he wasn¡¯t sure he could get to them before this thing took him down. He had no weapons, and his PED was currently busy. Okay, he could deal with this. Taking a breath, he prepared to act, when suddenly, one of the vines touched the monster¡¯s foot.


    Within seconds, it slowed and fell to the ground.


    Dustin didn¡¯t waste any time. If those vines could do that to such a huge creature, he wanted nothing to do with them. In fact, a few were already moving in his direction again. Climbing back out of the tangled mess of trees was a bit more difficult, but he managed. Once outside of their range, the vines went back to wrapping around the giant creature.


    Even though his PED was busy now, didn¡¯t mean it would be in the near future, and he wasn¡¯t going to waste an opportunity like this. He snatched up a rock and chopped off a piece of its tail. He wasn¡¯t sure what he might get from its genes, but they had to help him survive a little longer.


    Standing back, Dustin observed the vines. He figured most things probably feared this tree, so if he stayed near it while his PED was syncing, he would be relatively safe, and thankfully, that held true.


    (INTEGRATION WITH HOST COMPLETE)


    Finally, he shoved the piece of flesh into the port, and waited.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. BEGINNING ANALYSIS)


    He had seen countless types of birds and small creatures flitting about the trees around him, but none seemed interested in him enough to get close. Maybe he didn¡¯t want to stay by this tree for too much longer.


    (AVAILABLE EVOLUTIONS: WATER RESISTANT FUR, ENHANCED SMELL, HEAT VISION, PHEROMONE CONTROL)


    Dustin thought about that. They all sounded good.


    ¡°Initiate evolution,¡± he thought to it.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    Dustin watched his skin changed from a pale clammy texture, to that of a soft dark gray colored fur. His vision also became sharper, and he could focus on the temperature of his surroundings.


    Swallowing, he suddenly realized he was surrounded by creatures that were staying just outside reach of the tree¡¯s vines. They were huge, much larger than the one that had just attacked him. And as he looked at the tree before him, he saw that it had a huge heat signature just below the ground, under the main root section.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    He became aware of a smell around him, and realized it was fear. Gritting his teeth, he crouched. This was crap. How was he supposed to survive in a world where everything was out to get him? The smell of fear was replaced with anger, and he smiled. These things may be bigger than him, but he wasn¡¯t just going to roll over and die.


    As a vine began creeping towards him, he took up another rock, and smashed it. The next couple of moments were hard to explain. There was a sudden explosion of dirt into the air, while at the same time, the large heat signatures all around, fled. Dustin reacted by jumping to the side, and rolling away from the tree, just barely managing to avoid the long teethlike thorns that snapped shut over where he had just been.


    He didn¡¯t stop moving, as those thorns were moving fast. They traveled under the ground, and were chasing him. He rolled just into the line of brush, and was relieved to see them pause. He decided he had overstayed his welcome, and broke into a jog.


    The huge creatures were gone for now, but he had to figure out a way to survive. He could breath the air, but he still needed food and shelter.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    That was nice. He didn¡¯t even glance at it, as he kept moving. A delightful smell came to his nose, and he decided one way was just as good as another. As he drew closer, he saw that there was another giant plant, though this looked like a gooey mess oozing from a multitude of flowers, creatures of all shapes and sizes gathered to lick at the disgusting stuff.


    With his stomach empty, and the enticing smell, he was half tempted to lick it himself. First, though, he was going to take advantage of the genetic material spread out for him to pick and choose from. Before stepping forward, he looked for any obvious traps. There were giant spear-like leaves, dangling from above the gooey mess. That looked like a pretty obvious trap to him.


    Sure enough, one stabbed down, spearing a small foxlike creature with three tails, and pulled it back up into the main stalk.


    Dustin studied the animals, knowing he could harvest traits and advantages from each of them. One had spines, that could be useful, another had sharp canines, which he would like if they weren¡¯t too big in his mouth. He didn¡¯t want to drool all over himself.


    A crashing noise came from his right, and he immediately, crouched lower. A large creature, with huge flat feet, entered the clearing. It had a thick shell on it¡¯s back, that stopped the spear leaves from stabbing it. Scooping up large mouthfuls of the gooey mess, it seemed to relish the meal.


    Hefting his stone, he tried to figure out how he could get a piece of it. Then he remembered he had pheromones. Maybe, he could do something with that?


    The sky rumbled and it started to rain. Not just a little sprinkle, but like a waterfall had just opened up above him. Thankfully, the fur that now covered him, allowed the water to run right off. He watched as the gooey mess was washed away, and the creatures scattered. He had lost his chance at getting any genetic material, and it infuriated him.


    Rushing at the back side of the giant turtle thing, he smashed his rock down hard on its shell. There was a soft ding, but otherwise nothing happened. It went right on, licking and slurping the mess as it was washed away, totally ignoring him. He dodged back, when a spear leaf came after him, but it was limited in range. Jumping back into the fight, he swung at the tail, that stuck out just under the edge of the shell.


    Dustin saw the rock form a cut, and a little black fluid oozed out. Swiping some up with his finger, he had to jump back again, as the turtle thing swung around at him. Apparently, he had hit a soft tender spot, and ticked it off.


    Shoving the ick into the port, he took off running, losing the thing among the thick trees when it couldn¡¯t keep up.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. BEGINNING ANALYSIS)

 Chapter 4 - Lizard man

    Dustin sat under a large leaf, watching the rain come down. He almost wished he had kept the aquatic skin, because his fur was soaked. It worked fine for keeping the water off for a while, but that while was several hours ago. Thankfully, the weather seemed to deter most things from moving, because all of the heat signatures he could see, were still in the same spots.


    ¡°Only a little under a year to go,¡± he grumbled to himself, glancing at the PED on his arm. He wished it would tell him more, like how much time he had left, but he was stuck with this low-end piece of crap the government couldn¡¯t give away.


    He still needed to find something to eat, and shelter. Pulling another strip of fabric from his ruined suit, he continued weaving the strands into a rope. It was his hope, that he could make some kind of nest high up in one of the trees, where the larger predators couldn¡¯t reach. Besides, the genetic material he had gotten from the turtle, hardened his skin, and made his bones stronger.


    He had been hoping for a shell, or something more, but he would take what he could get. After all, he only got a smear of blood from the thing.


    A crash to his left, had him up and moving. There was something large coming towards him, and he wanted nothing to do with it. Hiding behind the tree he had been leaning against, he watched a large three-legged creature, with huge spikes coming out of its forehead, rush past him and crash into a tree. The tree shuddered, and a shower of fruit and bugs fell to the ground. The fruits were purple and oblong, kind of like pears.


    The creature had thick grey skin, that actually reminded him of a rhino or elephant¡¯s skin. It was gobbling up the fruits as fast as it could. Large tentacles were coiled on it¡¯s back, probably able to attack anything that came after it. He could tell from the way it was eating, that it didn¡¯t have any sharp teeth. Probably just an herbivore.


    Reaching for one of the fruits that had fallen next to his foot, he jerked his hand back when it wiggled. Splitting open, hundreds of tiny bugs began crawling out. They reminded him of spiders with all their legs and giant fangs. If they didn¡¯t have wings, he might have stomped them. Shuddering, he stepped back, out of the way. Shaking his head, he moved away from the scene, and headed towards the open water. Thank goodness it was still raining so those things couldn¡¯t fly up. He imagined they might form a swarm, and wanted nothing to do with them. This rain didn¡¯t look like it was going to stop anytime soon, so he might as well get a move on.


    Crouching on the shore, he used a stick to spear some of the small fish with spines. They were green that faded into shades of white; blending in well with the slime that grew in the water. Rubbing the spines off on a tree, he thought about swallowing them whole, like the creature had done earlier. What if he couldn¡¯t digest it? With his stomach growling, and his whole body feeling weaker, he decided he couldn¡¯t afford to waste anything.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    The fish didn¡¯t have much of a flavor, too slimy to really linger long in his mouth. When nothing happened, he continued fishing. Keeping an eye on his surroundings, and in the air, he noticed several things were starting to move about, despite the rain. And then, just as suddenly as it started, the deluge stopped.


    In the silence after the storm, all he heard was the dripping of water. Then something, maybe a bird, called out, and the familiar noises he was used to returned.


    Dustin fished until his stomach was full. He needed to find shelter, and if he could do it here, on the edge of the water, that would be great. Then he only had to live a boring life of fishing for the rest of the year.


    The thing in the water seemed to disagree. Before he could jump out of the way, his leg was locked into the jaws of a scaled beast, dripping slime and mud from the water. It¡¯s yellow eyes, all six of them, were locked onto him, as the long thin teeth dug deep into his leg. He could almost feel the thick heavy tongue caressing the side of his calf, as the teeth dug deeper and blood poured out.


    Clamping his mouth shut to keep from shouting in pain, he looked around wildly for something to grab. The tree behind him was just close enough to latch onto, and his fingers dug deep into the soft bark as it tried to drag him into the murky water.


    Grunting in pain, he grabbed the rock he still had from earlier, and bashed it in the eyes, when it paused from trying to drag him away. It locked it¡¯s two front feet into the mud and gave a tremendous jerk. Only holding on with one hand, was a bad idea, because once he landed his first blow, it jerked him again, and managed to get him into the water. Pounding with all his strength, Dustin wailed at the thing¡¯s eyes, until it finally let go of his leg.


    He saw it swim off, using a tail twice as long as its body, to propel it deeper into the murky water. Blood tinged the water, and he knew he had to get out of there fast.


    Scrambling back onto shore, he cursed his misfortune. There were deep punctures on either side of his leg, and as he tore more of his clothing for bandages, he found a tooth, still deeply entrenched. Holding it up, he hesitated before putting it into the port. How many evolutions could this thing handle before it ran out of juice? He couldn¡¯t remember the specs on it, because honestly, he had never looked.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. BEGINNING ANALYSIS)


    (AVAILABLE EVOLUTIONS: SHARP TEETH, SCALED HIDE, COLD BLOODED, AMPHIBIOUS, BREATH-HOLDING, HERMAPHROMORPH, NICTITATING MEMBRANE)


    ¡°I don¡¯t want the herma-whatever, but the rest are fine. Initiate evolution.¡±


    There was a chance, whenever he evolved, that any damage he had, would be partially healed. That was his hope, as his leg was completely mangled.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    Backing further away from the water¡¯s edge, he watched as the fur that had been soaked, began to be replaced with tight scales. There was a slight pressure in his mouth, and as he ran his tongue over his teeth, he could feel them growing sharper. The chill from the rain was gone, but he also felt a bit more sluggish. That might be a problem.


    Standing up on the mostly repaired leg, he admired his newly clawed hands and feet. Glancing at himself in the water, he chuckled. He looked like one of those lizard men from some sci-fi movie. If being cold- blooded didn¡¯t cause any issues, he might keep this transformation.


    Now he had to find a safe place to rest and sleep.

 Chapter 5 No Luck Hell

    ¡°DAMN!¡± he screamed at the top of his lungs.  The stick he had tried to use as a weapon had been bitten clean through.  His rope was gone, torn apart and scattered to the winds. How could he not have foreseen this??


    Dustin sat on a branch, high in a tree.  He was completely surrounded by large bat-like things.  They had looked like brown, dead leaves, dangling on the branches, even when he looked a bit closer.  But as he started climbing past them, they had started to unfurl.  His infravision, or ability to see heat, hadn¡¯t seen their body heat through their wings.


    He seethed, furious with himself, as they chittered to him. The sharp little needles sticking out of their mouths, meant a piece of fruit probably wouldn¡¯t satisfy whatever cravings they might be having, assuming he had a piece of fruit.  As his scream faded, they started moving towards him again.  They didn¡¯t have eyes, could his scream have stunned them?


    Before he could finish sucking in a breath to test his theory, a large shadow flew overhead, and his breath caught in his throat, choking him.  A deep rumble filled the air from whatever it was in the sky, and the bats seemed to scatter.  Not a hair was left to show they had been there.  Swallowing, he watched as it flew away from the sun, so he could see it a little more clearly.


    It was flat?  There was a slight bulge in the middle that was a lighter color than the rest of its body, but otherwise it looked like a glorified rug!


    The thing was easily 3 yards long, and had no identifiable legs or arms.  It¡¯s dark purple, circular body, seemed to shimmer and float on the air.  Turning smoothly in the air, he saw it was headed back his way.  There was no way, he was going to try and take on a beast more than twice his size.  Grasping the trunk of the tree, he swung down to the lower branches as fast as he could.


    Dustin hadn¡¯t slept since he arrived on this godforsaken planet.  He slipped as he descended.  Trying to grab branches, as he fell, he ended up grabbing the leg of a creature he remembered passing by earlier.


    It had been slow moving, eating the leaves off the tree, and paid no attention to him.  It¡¯s arms and legs were twig thin and extraordinarily long, close to several yards each. Its course pink fur, helped him keep his grip as he jerked on it from falling.  It freaked as it started to lose its grip, and actually grabbed him, and put him on a branch.  Nodding in thanks, he made a mental note to investigate these things again, when he wasn¡¯t about to be killed.


    The rest of the trip to the ground was uneventful, the rug having left, and he was intensely grateful. Crouching on the ground, he looked around for killer bugs, tree vines, and animals.  There wasn¡¯t water nearby for something to be hiding in, and he didn¡¯t see or smell anything hiding nearby.  Could he possibly be safe here?


    An arrow hit the tree, inches from his face.


    Nope, no such luck. He jumped to his feet, and fled.


    He was going to name this planet No Luck Hell.


    Dodging through bushes, he intentionally ran through thick groups of creatures, hoping to lose the hunter among them, and avoided large bodies of water.  No reason to invite more trouble from there.  Looking over his shoulder, he saw a man-like figure with a bird¡¯s beak on its face.  There were colorful feathers of turquoise, violet and silver, sticking out of the top of its head, and it was on a flying bike.


    ¡°No. Freaking. Way!!!!¡±  Dustin turned, and hid behind a tree. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    The guards had said there would be alien hunters here, the Josagn.  He had kind of hoped to avoid them. They traveled alone, and had no problems with using dirty tactics.  He waited for the thing to fly by, and jumped at it.  A knife skidded over his scales, not managing to penetrate, and he sunk his sharp teeth into the things neck.  Its skin was rubbery, once you got past the feathers.


    The scream in his ear, made him flinch, but he dug his teeth in deeper, trying to rip a chunk lose.  Succeeding, he lifted his head, and he made sure to look the hunter in the face. There was blood running down his chin as he chewed the meat and swallowed it.  The hunter¡¯s eyes were filled with a mixture of anger and terror.


    Grinning, he grabbed the knife right before they hit a tree and careened out of control.  Dustin went flying, hitting the ground hard.  The bird man hit just as hard, not far away, but unlike Dustin, didn¡¯t get back up.  The bike landed in a smoldering pile two yards away, causing him to dodge flying debris.  Pulling the knife out of the ground, he admired it, finally feeling accomplished.


    Things were coming.  Jumping up, he grabbed the body, and headed over to the bike.  He looked over it quickly, grabbing several things, before disappearing into the brush.  Running ten yards or so, he paused to search the body for anything that might be salvageable.  The smell of blood was intoxicating, and he knew he couldn¡¯t take the body any further.  Ripping a piece of fabric from the alien¡¯s shirt, he wiped as much of the blood off himself, as he could.  The same type of creature that had died to the vines, would come for him again.


    As that thought entered his mind, he considered something.  Glancing around, he saw several trees that he could recognize by now that were not dangerous.  He would climb high enough they couldn¡¯t get him, and take the time to watch them.  He might learn something.


    Besides, he was too tired to run away from them this time.


    Climbing the tree closest to the body, he stopped as soon as the things drew close.  They were following the smell of blood.


    Each one that entered the clearing had the same features as the first one he had encountered.  Four eyes studied their surroundings, spying the body quickly, and even him, high in the tree.  The largest watched him, pausing for a moment, until it was certain he wasn¡¯t moving, before continuing to the body.  He found it interesting that the eyes could move independently so that one eye remained on him at all times.


    The other two were smaller, their fur not changing colors as they moved. He realized, with a jolt, that this was a family.  The two small ones nuzzled the larger one, and it snarled at them.  They mewled, pitifully, as it went over to the body and ripped it apart.  They nuzzled it for a bit, before they finally figured out how to eat it.  Then, once it was gone, they licked each of their six paws, as if not to miss a single morsel.


    He studied their every movement from the time they entered the clearing, until they left, unsatisfied from the paltry meal.  Could the larger one, that had died, have been a parent?  Maybe the mother, since they still wanted to nurse?


    Shaking his head, he didn¡¯t care.  It was time to move again.  He had to find some place he could sleep.


    Moving as silently and stealthily as he could, Dustin traveled for several more hours before he finally found a place he thought might work.  He was so tired by this time, that if it didn¡¯t work, and he got eaten, he probably wouldn¡¯t know it.


    A tree had fallen, taking several others with it.  There was a wonderful hollow, for him to crawl into, but as he went to investigate, a hiss filled the area.  He barely fell back onto his butt, to avoid getting bit.  The snake had arms??


    Rising up, it flared out a white hood, with huge midnight black eye spots.  Dustin was too tired to react before it bit him this time.  As the fangs slid into his chest, he grabbed its neck, far behind the venom sac, and squeezed.  It flailed, grabbing him with its arms, and wrapping itself around him.  He grinned and bared his teeth, then squeezed and twisted, flexing every muscle he had, to rip the fangs out of his chest.


    SNAP.


    It stopped moving, but Dustin didn¡¯t notice.  He was too busy scraping its blood, flesh, bone, scales, whatever, off his hand into the port of his PED.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED.  BEGINNING ANALYSIS)


    (AVAILABLE EVOLUTIONS: CLINGING, CONSTRICTION ATTACK, ENHANCED REFLEXES, FLEXIBILITY, VENOM BITE, VENOM IMMUNITY)


    ¡°Initiate evolution,¡± he whispered, falling back, not even aware of the options.  The venom was shutting down his system.  His vision was going black, and he knew that he was spasming.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)

 Chapter 6 – New PED

    Pain. There was nothing but pain.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)


    Something was licking his fingers.  Everything burned.  Rolling his head to the side, he opened his eyes to slits, and saw a small, six-legged lizard standing near his hand.  It licked its lips, then, still watching his face, leaned down to bite his finger.  The sun glinted off the silver and green stripes that covered its body as its tiny needle teeth drew closer to his flesh.


    ¡°No,¡± he wheezed sharply.


    It jumped a foot into the air, and scampered off.


    Groaning softly, he rolled to his side, and tried to sit up.  His left shoulder ached and his insides felt like they were filled with molten lead.  A noise to his right, snapped him wide awake.  It was the crunch of bones breaking.  Turning his head, he saw a large four-legged dinosaur.  Surely that¡¯s what it was.  It had the elephant skin, the thick muscular legs, and the giant head filled with teeth.  Sure, it was a bright purple with neon green stripes, but it just wanted to be fashionable.


    Sliding slowly towards the opening behind him, where the snake had come from, he tried not to draw its attention.  He watched it pick up the snake by the tail, and turn to leave.  Swallowing, he heard a rustle behind him, from inside the hallow.  A trio of smaller snakes slithered out, gazing at him curiously, and he froze.


    Had the evolution with the snake material given him immunity to poison?  He couldn¡¯t remember, it was all a haze.  Back home, the baby snakes could kill a lot faster because they couldn¡¯t control how much venom they delivered in a bite.  These things were bone white, and would have been terrifying without the prior experience with their parent.


    After several minutes passed, and he still didn¡¯t move, they slithered off, leaving the burrow to him.  Breathing hard, Dustin began to climb into the cavity between the fallen trees.  Every movement hurt, and he wasn¡¯t sure why.  Had something burrowed into him while he was out?


    The back of the space was filled with leaf litter, so after resting a few minutes, he began scooping it out, and cleaning up the space.  If it started raining, it would flood, so he had to figure out a way to waterproof it, and it would need a door.  Hitting the soft dirt, he added a floor to his list.  There would be plenty of time for all of that in the next year.  The piled debris blocked any thing that tried to look in, from seeing him.  For the first time he felt safe.


    His eyes began to droop.  Sleep would be good.


    -Dreaming:


    -¡°I¡¯m so glad that bitch is gone!  She was great in bed, but other than her ass, she didn¡¯t have much going for her.¡±  He was talking to another guy on his phone.  His girl was gone, having just broken up with him because she didn¡¯t want to have kids.  She hadn¡¯t been the first.


    -¡°She can rot in hell.  I¡¯ll find some other chick to have kids with.¡±


    -The guy on the phone didn¡¯t understand why he wanted kids.  There were so many broads out there to bang, why settle down?This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    -¡°You know me, man, I¡¯ve always wanted kids.  I¡¯m not going to be one of those baby daddy men.  I want me a woman and a house full of kids.¡±


    -He turned, suddenly in the living room by the fire, his phone gone.  That bitch was back, screaming at him about what a loser he was.  A paper appeared in his hand, that showed the confirmation of the abortion she had just gone and done.  His hand started shaking.


    ¡°No.¡± He didn¡¯t want to relive it.  But the dream went on.


    -¡°You are such a dick!  No one¡¯s going to settle down for you!  You can¡¯t even keep a job!¡±  Her words stung, because it was true.  He couldn¡¯t keep a job.  They all sucked.  The things they all wanted him to do, he didn¡¯t want to do.


    -¡°I¡¯m going to relish the fact that I just killed your baby!  The one thing you¡¯ve ever wanted, other than a piece of ass, was a kid, and you aren¡¯t getting it from me!¡±


    -¡°You!¡± He crumpled the paper, tearing it in his rage and grief.  How could she?


    ¡°No!¡± Still the dream went on.


    -She swung at him, landing a hit on his chin.  Almost cracked it.  Not getting enough vitamins.


    -He swung back, just to return the favor.  But he was stronger.  She fell back.  It was just a black eye.  He didn¡¯t mean for her to die.  He never wanted a fireplace anyway!


    Dustin jerked awake, sitting up and hitting his head against the wood log above him with a dull thud.  Laying back down, he curled into a ball, and held his head, waiting for the pain to recede.  At least he wasn¡¯t bleeding.  Why did that god-awful dream keep coming back?


    He had his sneaky suspicions that they had implanted some kind of mental thing while he was in that temporary prison, to make him remember what had happened.  Maybe they hoped that if he didn¡¯t die, he would go crazy.


    As the ache faded, he was reminded of the pain he had felt before.  It had faded, but was still there.  The venom must have caused a lot of internal damage before he went through the evolution.  Tapping on the PED, he tried to figure out what abilities he had gotten from the last evolution.  It wouldn¡¯t tell him.  Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the things that he had taken off the dead hunter.


    The first thing he had grabbed, was a belt full of pockets.  The things in the pockets wouldn¡¯t work for him anymore.  They were various medicines, pills and herbs, for the Josagn, but his biology had changed so much with all of the alien material, he couldn¡¯t guarantee what would happen if he took any of it.  The pouches themselves, though, would come in handy.


    The next thing he had grabbed, was a bag.  It would be just as handy as the pouches.  Opening it, he was excited to see a variety of food stuff.  Pulling a few things out, he immediately began eating it.  After the first bite of bread, he stopped.  It tasted wrong.  Spitting it out, he looked at it in wonder.  He had become a carnivore.  Looking over the rest of the food, he found with disgust that none of it had any meat.  The only thing with protein was a package of beans.


    ¡°Fucking birds,¡± he muttered, shoving the food back into the bag.  Maybe he could use it for bait in a trap.


    The knife he had grabbed, was still plenty sharp, and as he turned it to look at it closer, he saw the makers mark on the handle.  If Shapirole made it, then it would take a lot to break it.  They always incorporated the best materials into their items.  He would know, his father had a knife made by them.


    The last thing he had grabbed, was a bracer, much like his PED.  He was hoping that it would help him understand his own, since the company stamp was the same.  It didn¡¯t look damaged.  Turning it over, he saw, to his amazement, it fit over the top of his own PED.  What was a Josagn hunter doing with a PED?


    Fitting it over his, he snapped it into place and turned it on.


    (ACTIVATION SEQUENCE INITIATED.  NEW HOST DETECTED.  PERSONAL EVOLUTION DEVICE DETECTED. SYNCING TO EVOLUTIONARY DEVICE WILL TAKE 32 MINUTES.  ALL PRIOR SAVED DATA WILL BE LOST ON BOTH DEVICES.  CONTINUE?)


    Licking his lips, Dustin realized this wasn¡¯t a PED.  He didn¡¯t know what it was.  Would getting this affect his sentence on this hell planet?  He wouldn¡¯t be able to find out what traits he had acquired, if he did this, but it seemed to be some kind of upgrade.


    He had to survive.  This thing might give him an advantage, and he couldn¡¯t miss out on that.


    ¡°Continue,¡± he thought.

 Chapter 7 Higher IQ

    (SYNC COMPLETE.  ACCESSORY DEVICE UNSATISFACTORY. REQUESTING PERMISSION TO ASSIMILATE.)


    ¡°What does that mean?¡± he wondered, peeking out from the debris hill blocking the entrance.  A small creature he recognized from earlier was sniffing around where the dead snake had been.  Its bone tail waved back and forth, held off the ground by a stump.  His eyes roamed over its soft tan fur, and he wondered if he could figure out how to tan it.  It would be nice to have a soft bed.


    Reminding him a lot of foxes, he itched to attack it to find out just how soft its fur actually was.


    (PERSONAL EVOLUTION DEVICE HAS LIMITED PROCESSING CAPABILITIES.  ASSIMILATION WILL ALLOW PERSONAL MENIAL SERVANT TO ACQUIRE EVOLUTION OPERATIONS AND IMPROVE ON THEM.)


    ¡°Improve, how?¡±  The itch was growing, and he unconsciously scratched his arm.


    The creature drifted closer, and he saw that it had a whitish tinge over its head, that made it look almost like it was wearing a bone faceplate.  Sneezing, the bone fox lifted its head and stared him in the eyes.  It had beautiful steel grey eyes. Before either of them could react, it heard something, and darted off.


    A flying bike entered his line of vision, making almost no noise.  The Josagn hunter studied the ground, jumping off the bike to get a closer look.  Pulling his knife closer, he prepared to attack.


    (CURRENT EVOLUTION ABILITY ALLOWS PERSONAL EVOLUTION DEVICE TO CHANGE GENETIC MAKEUP OF HOST WITH WHATEVER GENETIC MATERIAL IS PROVIDED VIA ITS PORT.  AFTER ASSIMILATION, PERSONAL MENIAL SERVANT WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE CHANGES IN A SIMILAR FASHION, BUT DATA WILL NOT BE LOST AFTER EVOLUTION.  ALL GENETIC CHANGES WILL REMAIN VIABLE UNTIL DATABANK IS FULL.)


    ¡°Great,¡± he thought, not really paying attention.  The alien had just stepped close enough for him to reach.


    Surging up out of the debris, he sunk the knife into its belly.  The beak opened and it gave a slight squawk, before crumpling in on itself.  He jerked it up, making sure to pierce the heart, before allowing it to slide off his knife.


    ¡°Wait,¡± he thought, as he ran back through the words of the bracer.  ¡°There is no way in hell I am going to have a PMS on my arm.¡±


    (NEW NAME AFTER ASSIMILATION WILL BE PERSONAL ENHANCED EVOLUTION DEVICE, UNLESS HOST WOULD LIKE TO SPECIFY A NEW NAME.)


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s fine, I just don¡¯t want to handle PMS. God, I¡¯ve had enough of that for a lifetime.¡±


    He looted the body, then dragged it across the clearing, perching it against a tree that had those little black beetles with fuzzy antennae. Backing away, he watched as they swarmed over it.  Shaking his head, he stepped back a few more feet and watched them strip it to the bone.  He knew bugs were horrible!


    Suddenly a large bird with razor-like claws jumped at him from the bushes.  Its green plumage had blended in with the leaves to the extent it had been all but invisible, but he had noticed it because of its heat signature.  Slashing with his knife, he didn¡¯t even hesitate as he cut it down.  Its body fell to the ground in a pile; feathers flying everywhere.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Turning to the bike, he smiled.  Time for a joyride!


    Jumping onto it, he studied the controls for a moment, then turned it on.


    (ASSIMILATION COMPLETE. READY FOR GENETIC MATERIAL.)


    Opening the port, he wiped the blade of his knife in the edge.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED.  ANALYZING.)


    Grinning, he revved the engine, and shot into the sky.  He was going to head somewhere that didn¡¯t have quite so many creatures.  Somewhere less boring, to await the day the ship returned to take him back home.


    (ANALYSIS COMPLETE.  AVAILABLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: INCREASED INTELLIGENCE, FLAT GRINDING TEETH, SOFT FLEXIBLE SKIN, WARM-BLOODED, G-TOLERANCE, SINGLE MINDED, AND UNFAZEABLE.)


    ¡°Give me the increased intelligence, warm blooded, G-tolerance, and unfazeable.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    Spying the flying rug in the distance, he laughed.  There was no way it could fly as fast as this bike.  No sooner had the thought entered his mind, then the bike began to sputter.  Looking down at the fuel gauge, his eyes widened in alarm.  It was empty.  What kind of fuel would a bike like this take?  And how in the hell did he run out already?  Guiding it down towards the ground, it suddenly died, and plummeted.


    Screaming, despite himself, he tried to aim for a tree.  Maybe he could catch a branch?  The tree that he aimed for looked to have lots of leaves, but as he got closer, he screamed again.  It was the tree with the vines that could kill.


    Grabbing the bike, he tried to redirect his fall, by kicking off from it, but it really did nothing.  The television lied!


    As the tree grew larger, an arm reached out and grabbed him out of the air.  He lost his breath as the arm tightened around him, swinging him around, and setting him gently down on a branch.  Breathing hard, he found himself looking into the face of the long legged, twig armed creature.  It really reminded him of a stick bug, only much, much bigger.


    Swallowing, he nodded in thanks again, and went to climb down, but stopped.  The bike had landed in the very middle of the vine tree and exploded. The root monster howled as it burned.  Vines were whipping everywhere, and creatures great and small were fleeing.  As the stick giant climbed higher, he followed, unable to look away.


    The tree had a large tuber root under the crazy twisting roots that had the mouth filled with thorn teeth.  He had seen the teeth before, but never saw the tuber.  It ripped up the ground trying to put out the fire, but the fuel refused to be quenched.


    A hand, from the stick giant, swung down and tapped his PED.  Looking back up to it, he saw it lean down and study it for a moment, then turned and looked at him.  Pulling out the device he had just stolen off the hunter, he handed it over, and the giant wasted no time placing it on its own wrist.


    Could this be another person, thought to have died, but actually, had merely lost his device?  The implications ran through his mind.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)


    If he had to evolve to survive the year, what was keeping them from saying he had died?  They couldn¡¯t do a DNA scan to find him.  There wasn¡¯t a human around to gather genetic material from, to swap back.  If anything happened to his PED, they could easily claim he was gone.  Or even worse, the realization hit him, they could claim an alien creature ended up with his device, and take it from him, leaving him here.


    Watching the stick giant reach out and snatch one of his scales off, he stifled an angry grunt.  It hurt about as bad as someone pulling out a hair.  However, there wasn¡¯t a port on the device it was wearing.  Dustin couldn¡¯t tell if it was angry or sad when it started moving away from him.


    Turning to view the burning tree below, he saw that it was dead.  Was there enough animal in it for him to get a genetic sample?  Being able to paralyze or kill with a single touch was very enticing, so he began to climb down.

 Chapter 8 Bugs

    Before he got very far, the stick giant stopped him. It pointed to the places on the tree where the whipping vines had touched. Dustin saw small patches of thick black snot. It almost looked like someone had sneezed and rubbed their snot all over the wood.


    While disgusting, he didn''t see why he should be worried about some tree slime.


    Then the stick giant pointed at the drooping tentacles.


    Dustin was getting annoyed with this thing, but he humored it and looked. A chill went down his back.


    The ends of the vines had split open from the force of being whipped, and the same black snot was oozing out of them.


    If this guy hadn''t stopped him, he would have touched that stuff. Turning towards it, he wanted to shake its hand, but it was already moving away.


    Snapping off a small twig, he scraped up some of the snot and placed it in the port.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. MATERIAL IS INSUFFICIENT FOR EVOLUTION.)


    What?? That''s a load of crap! How was he supposed to get a piece of this thing without being killed?


    Dustin looked around, and saw that the stick guy had moved to another tree and was in the process of pulling them together. Why was he trying to help him so much?  While suspicious, he wasn''t going to jinx it.  Climbing back up to try and grab at the other tree, a shadow above drew his attention. The flying rug was back, with its deep sounding call to announce its arrival.


    This creature, while odd looking, hadn''t caused him any troubles every time he had seen it, so this time he expected the same. The stick guy, however, freaked. It waved at him to hurry, glancing at the rug constantly.


    That wasn''t a good sign. This thing hadn''t freaked like this when the vine tree went crazy. He grabbed the tree branch held over by it and swung over to grab another branch.


    As he was in motioned, the flying rug swooped down, faster than he had ever seen it move before, and tried to wrap around him. As it got closer, Dustin saw that it was actually covered in thousands of tiny bubbles. In the very center, where the bulge was, a cross slit opened four ways, exposing a needle filled maw.


    "I''m not dying from a flying rug!" he growled, pulling back on the branch, and letting it slap the monster as it got close.


    As he let go of the branch, the stick guy grabbed him and jerked him over to the tree trunk. The branch hit the rug, and every bubble the branch hit, popped, spewing a thick neon green ooze out, over the area he had just been in.


    Dustin watched the rug go flying, and crash into another tree nearby.  Everywhere the green goo landed, started smoking. He moved further away, watching as the rug tried to get loose from the branches.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Damn!  Everything was trying to kill him!


    Swinging down, to the ground, he glanced around to make sure something wasn¡¯t about to jump at him, or sting him, and headed towards the dead tree.  Avoiding the black snot, he used his knife to cut a tiny piece off one of the vines, and stabbed it.  Sticking the rubbery section into the port, he checked on the stick guy.  It was watching the rug thing.  Dustin couldn¡¯t see it, there was too much steam from the green acid eating away at the tree.  It didn¡¯t even have much of a heat signature.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. MATERIAL CONTAINS TRACES OF BOTH PLANT AND ANIMAL GENETIC MATERIAL.  EVOLUTION POSSIBLE FOR HOST INTO THE PLANT SPECTRUM OF LIFE, BUT ONCE ACQUIRED, HOST WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RETURN.)


    ¡°Well, what animal traits can I get?¡± he asked it, moving further away from the stick guy and his rug.


    (AVAILABLE ANIMAL EVOLUTION OPTIONS: DETECT VIBRATIONS.)


    ¡°What?  But what about the killing poison this thing had?  What about that?¡±


    (THOSE TRAITS CAME FROM THE PLANT HOST, NOT THE ANIMAL SYMBIOTE.)


    Symbiote? What was that?  He definitely did not want to go plant if it meant he couldn¡¯t go back.  But still, detecting vibrations sounded interesting.  He would be able to know if something was under the ground, or sneaking up on him.


    ¡°Alright give me detect vibrations.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    He glanced at the stick guy one last time, wondering if he should do something to thank it for all the help it gave him, but decided he needed to keep moving.


    There was a rhythmic rumble in the ground, and he paused, to squat down and feel the ground.  What was that?  It was getting louder!  Jumping up, he looked around, ready to sprint away from whatever new threat was about to present itself.  The giant turtle creature broke through some trees off to the right of him and paused.  It looked at him for a moment, then turned to sniff at the dead tree behind him.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Sneezing it turned away from the tree and started moving again.  Dustin grinned.  This was his opportunity to get a better genetic sample.  Following it, he tried to figure out how he could cut it, get the sample, and get away.  It moved slow, but he knew it could move fast when it wanted to.


    A large group of very dense trees were growing together up ahead, and the turtle, knowing that it couldn¡¯t go between them, turned to go around.  This was his chance!


    Darting forward, for the tail again, he tried to cut the tip of the tail off by grabbing it and swiping with his knife.  He cut his hand, but managed to get a small piece.  There was no time for him to enjoy his reward, or even shove the thing into the port of his PED, as the turtle gave a screech that hurt his ears, and swung around faster than he was expecting.  He scrambled towards the trees, dodging between them before it could bite him.  Tripping, he fell down, and rolled over to see the turtle straining against the tree trunks, bite towards him with its sharp beak.  This thing was out for blood!


    Shoving the piece of meat into the port, he scuttled back as the first two tree trunks gave up the fight and began to bend and crack.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED.  ANALYZING.)


    A sound he wasn¡¯t familiar with, a soft hum or drone, became louder, as the turtle continued to strain against the trees.


    (AVAILABLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: PLATED SKIN, SCALED EYES, BEAK MOUTH.)


    ¡°Don¡¯t give me the mouth but initiate the others!¡± he cried, backing up even more.


    The turtle seemed to noticed the sound now, it was almost a high-pitched whine.  It settled down on the ground, its legs withdrawing into its shell, and it almost seemed to smirk at him as it drew its head in.


    ¡°Shit!  That¡¯s never a good sign!¡±  Climbing to his feet, the swarm of insects, hidden by the turtle¡¯s large bulk, came into sight.


    ¡°Oh, hell no!¡±  He turned around and ran.  He didn¡¯t care where he ran to, just as long as it was away from that mess.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    He tripped.  He tried to get up, but the swarm was upon him.  Curling into a ball, Dustin screamed as they crawled all over him.

 Chapter 9 Dino Leg

    Dustin uncurled himself slowly.  He was stiff and sore, but unharmed.  That was a first.


    Looking around as he brushed the dead bugs off of himself, he couldn¡¯t help but be amazed at the change in the landscape.  They had eaten everything.


    The trees were stripped bare close to thirty feet up from the ground, and he could see skeletons of things that had been caught in the swarm.  Why had they not killed him?  As he glanced at the PED, he noticed that his arms were covered in thick shell plates.  Then he noticed he was completely naked.  The belt with pouches and the rest of his outfit were gone.


    Horror washed through him, as he reached between his legs and found nothing.  Where had his twig and berries gone??!  Cupping himself, relief washed over him as he realized they were safely contained behind a flap of skin with a thick plate of its own.  Rubbing his face, he laughed softly to himself. Scooping up one of the dead bugs, he decided to see what his PED could do with it.  Now that they were dead, he didn¡¯t mind the nasty things as much.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. AVAILABLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: FANGS, WINGS, REDUCED SIZE WOULD BE REQUIRED FOR WINGS.)


    ¡°I¡¯m not interested in any of that,¡± he said, looking around.  It should be relatively easy to travel at the moment.  How often did these things swarm like this?  Was it like the locusts back home, or did it happen more often?  He had a hard time believing that.  There wouldn¡¯t be as many critters trying to kill him if that were the case.


    Making his way through the eerie forest, he spied several of the foxes with three tails, snapping up the bugs.  They paused to watch him as he went on, then continued with their feast.  He didn¡¯t think he was going to get anything worthwhile from them.


    ¡°PED, will I be able to go back to being human?¡±


    (ALL GENETIC EVOLUTIONS ARE PERMANENT. IN ORDER TO RETURN TO A PREVIOUS STATE, HOST WOULD HAVE TO ACQUIRE A SAMPLE OF GENETIC MATERIAL.)


    He paused, then cursed.  That meant the Dustin that had been sent to this planet was gone.  He would never be able to prove it was him, unless¡­


    His mind raced.  His mother had been a hopeless drunk after his dad died, but before then, she had been a loving and caring mother.  Except, he remembered she kept his baby teeth in a jar.  He thought it was gross and had asked her why she did it, and she refused to answer him, only laughed.  If he could get his hands on that jar, maybe he could turn back into the man he had been. But how?Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Starting back up, he saw a glimpse of water ahead, and decided some fish sounded good.  As he got closer, his pace slowed.  There was a small beach here, something he hadn¡¯t seen yet, and lazing on the beach were countless numbers of creatures.  Drawing closer, he realized they were the same things as the lizard fish that had tried to take his leg off.


    He stopped fifty feet back to watch them.  They only had two legs to pull themselves with, like seals almost, and long tails that dragged behind them.  Their mouths were huge, too big to be able to close completely.  The needle thin teeth he remembered, were sticking out over their lips, causing them to drool all over the place.


    How did they swim like that?  Those mouths must cause some serious drag.


    Shaking his head, he decided he didn¡¯t care about that.  What he did care about, were the eggs they seemed to be laying in the sand.  How long would it take them to finish?  Could he sneak up behind one and dig out another nest without getting attacked?  He weighed his options, and decided to wait.


    Off to the side, he saw several other things were waiting as well.  The bone tailed foxes were lined up, laying down and watching.  He kind of thought they were cute, but knew they were going to be after the same eggs he was.  Looking back at the beach, he decided there were probably going to be plenty of eggs to go around.


    Hours passed, and more and more creatures joined the wait.  There seemed to be a type of agreement among them, not to attack each other, and Dustin was glad.  He didn¡¯t think he could take some of them, and none of the trees around him had limbs close enough to the ground for him to grab and climb.  As the sun started going down, the last of the lizard fish slithered back into the water, and the hunt was on.


    Dustin dashed forward with the quicker creatures, digging like crazy.  His toughened skin and claws made digging a lot easier then he had thought, and it took him no time at all to find his first batch.  As he reached for the first egg, one of the other, larger predators, pushed him to the side and started slurping them up whole.  It was the four-legged dinosaur he remembered seeing from his burrow under the fallen trees.  It¡¯s bright purple and neon green hide shined in the setting sun.


    He reacted without thinking, biting the thing on the leg.  His teeth sunk into the thick hide, and he tasted a thick bitter flavor as its blood rushed into his mouth.  Letting go, he jumped back as it went to bite him, but faltered.  Everything on the beach stopped what they were doing as it stumbled and fell.  It convulsed for a few minutes, then went still.


    Tilting his head to the side to look at the leg where he had bit it, he saw black lines radiating out from it.  So, he must have gotten venomous bite from that snake thing he had killed.  He looked around at the other creatures on the beach, but they had all gone back to digging and eating.  Picking up some of the eggs, he ate them.  They were slightly fishy in flavor, but not bad.  By the time he was done with that nest, and ready to move to another one, most of the first comers had finished and run off.  The second wave had arrived, and they were much bigger and more aggressive.


    Pulling out his knife, Dustin moved to the dead dinosaur and started skinning it instead.  He wasn¡¯t feeling like eating anything else raw.  It was time to have a cookout, and dinosaur leg was on the menu.

 Chapter 10 Dreams

    The hunters had been patrolling the area for the past three hours.  He had to give it to them, they were definitely persistent.   The embers from his fire were still smoldering from where he had cooked the leg and some eggs.  They were in his hollow with him, safely put away from the prying eyes of the hunters.


    To keep them from finding him, he had scattered pieces of meat all over the place, and the ensuing rush from all the foxes that lived in the area completely hid his own footsteps.  He was actually a little impressed with the number of three-tailed foxes and bone foxes that had shown up.  Even the six-legged silver and green lizards had managed to grab a few morsels, but they were too timid to fight the foxes over them.


    The bug swarm hadn¡¯t made it as far as his clearing, so there were still plenty of leaves on the trees and debris around the entrance of his hollow.


    Settling down to sleep, his stomach full, and nothing to currently bother him, he drifted off.


    -Dreaming:


    -¡°Dude,¡± he was on the phone with his friend.  ¡°She did what?¡±


    -His friend was talking about his girlfriend.  Said she was great.  No.  No way in hell¡­


    ¡°No, stop,¡± he mumbled, but it wouldn¡¯t.


    -¡°You want kids?  When was that a thing?¡±  She had on that crimson red lipstick he liked.


    -¡°Come on, babe, you know I¡¯ve always wanted kids.¡± He held her to him, wanting nothing more than to kiss those bright red lips.


    -¡°Well, how many are you thinking?¡±  Maybe this would work out.


    -¡°As many as we can, why?¡±  He leaned in for a kiss.


    -¡°No.  I don¡¯t want to ruin my body for any brats.¡±  She pushed away from him. -Was that really what she said?-


    -¡°What?¡± He was putting the phone down, from talking to his friend, the one she cheated with just last week. -I don¡¯t remember that¡­did I have a friend?-


    -¡°I¡¯m pregnant!¡± she screamed, adding in several curses, as she glared at him  She was fuming and there was that crazy look in her eye that meant she either wanted to try something kinky, or he was about to get hit.


    -Dodging her swing, he stepped back with his hands up.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    ¡°Stop, please,¡± he turned, trying to wake up, knowing what was coming next.


    -She threw a balled-up piece of paper at him and he caught it.  The words blurred but he knew what they said. -Do they really do abortion confirmations??-


    -The fireplace loomed up, large in his vision, as she swung at him, hitting his chin, and almost breaking it.  Not enough vitamins.


    ¡°No!¡± It wasn¡¯t going to stop.


    -He swung, returning the favor, but only to give a black eye, not anything else.


    -She was falling.


    Jerking awake, Dustin crashed his head against the tree trunk above him and cursed.


    ¡°Damn it!  Why is it every time?¡±  his words were soft, but he could feel someone approaching.  The steps were light, but the ground told him, and he believed it.


    Not waiting for the hunter to get a shot, he exploded out of the hollow, and wrapped his arms around it.  He sunk his teeth into its neck, and then let go, letting the hunter fall to the ground.


    ¡°PED, can you use anything from this PMS to improve yourself?¡± he asked, picking up the device as soon as the hunter stopped spasming.


    (ADDITIONAL PROCESSING WILL ALLOW FURTHER FUNCTIONS TO BE AVAILABLE.)


    ¡°How do I go about adding it to you?¡± He was all for it having more functions.  Maybe it would be able to eventually return him back to a normal human.


    He sat for the next hour, meticulously dissecting the PMS from the Josagn hunter, and adding pieces to the PED on his arm.  Outside, he could hear the monsters of the forest fighting over the corpse.


    Suddenly, just as he was closing the PED, there was an explosion of dirt and leaves in his face.  Tentacles flew out of the hole, and he found himself entangled.  Whatever this thing was, it was dragging him out into the open.


    Biting the closest tentacle, caused all of them to let him go.  Breathing hard, he snarled at the hunter that was standing in the opening watching him, pointing its arrow in his direction.


    ¡°You will make a fine specimen.¡±


    ¡°Suck my dick!¡± he snarled, jumping at it.  The arrow hit his shoulder, but bounced off.


    Right before he hit it, the hunter¡¯s eyes opened wide in surprise.  He bit it on the arm, and jumped back.  Straightening up, he turned to look at the two other hunters behind him.  They were standing on top of his home, pointing dart guns at him.  Chuckling, he turned to face them.  The plates on his skin wouldn¡¯t let those darts do a bit of damage.  They seemed to know it too, as they looked at each other before leaping for their bikes.


    Dustin was able to get one by the leg, and wasted no time biting it, but the other managed to get on its bike and escape.  Jumping on the other bike, he chased after it.  On one hand, he couldn¡¯t let it get back and tell stories about him, that would send even more of the bird-brained idiots, and on the other hand, there might be a space ship he could use to escape this hell hole.


    He checked the fuel gauge and found it interesting that it was almost empty, just like the last one he had gotten onto.  If they were traveling together, they were changing their tactics, which meant everything he knew about them could be wrong.  Also, if his bike was almost out of fuel, the other guys bike would be too.


    Sure enough, the bike ahead of him started sputtering and dying.  The Josagn grabbed something out of the pack on the side of the seat and shoved it into the fuel tank port.  It stopped sputtering and straightened out.  Not waiting for his to start sputtering, he felt on the side of his seat, and sure enough, there was a pack.  Grabbing a handful of tiny pellets, he shoved them into the port and watched his fuel gauge climb back almost to full.


    ¡°Handy,¡± he growled, grinning.

 Chapter 11 AI Security

    He was almost close enough to try and grab the Josagn on the bike ahead of him, when there was suddenly a flash, and the bike in front went flying off to the side.  Slowing down to a crawl, he swung back to see the bike go into a spin, throwing the alien off, before it crashed and exploded.


    It was breathing hard, as he calmly parked his bike and started walking towards it.


    ¡°Damn you, prey!  You tripped the sensors!¡± -Gasp- -Gasp-


    Dustin paused, ¡°What sensors?¡±


    It chuckled, or at least he thought it did, since it came out more of a trill.  That is how they chuckled, isn¡¯t it?  He couldn¡¯t remember much from the information pamphlet he got in high school.


    ¡°You can¡¯t escape this place.  They¡¯ll shoot you into oblivion if you get too close to the space port.¡±  It gagged and settled back, breathing hard.


    He should have known.  It would have been too easy to just conveniently find a ship waiting for him to board.


    ¡°What kind of sensors do they use?  It can¡¯t be heat seeking, I could just turn cold-blooded.  It can¡¯t be motion sensitive, it would shoot you too.  Must be an AI.¡±


    Its eyes grew wide.  If he managed to get it medical care, it might even live, but it had tried to kill him.


    ¡°If you tell me more, something good, I¡¯ll make sure your death is quick,¡± he said, getting closer to its face.


    ¡°Suck my dick!¡± it screeched, repeating the line he had given the other hunter.


    Shrugging, he backed away and let the pack of lizards that had appeared swarm over it.  They were very similar to the six-legged ones he had seen near his burrow, except instead of silver and green stripes, these had silver and magenta.


    Dustin only watched for a moment, as the Josagn hunter screamed and tried to fight off the lizards.  Their teeth were sharp enough to very quickly kill it.  It was amazing how their legs held on to its flailing body. That was some form of clinging, he was pretty sure, wait hadn¡¯t he gotten that from one of the evolutions he had done?  Maybe it wasn¡¯t a very strong one.


    Heading back to the bike, he spied one of the lizards had been wounded, and the others turned on it, starting to eat it too.  They scattered when he approached it.  If it had a better cling ability, he wanted it.  Scooping up some of the gore, he shoved it in his port, then returned to the bike.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: ADVANCED CLING, REGROWTH.)


    ¡°Wait, it was a lizard, right?  Shouldn¡¯t it be cold-blooded?¡±


    (YES.)


    ¡°Then, shouldn¡¯t that be an option?¡±


    (HOST HAD BEEN COLD-BLOODED AND CHOSE TO BECOME WARM-BLOODED.  DATA FOR SUCH AN EVOLUTION HAS BEEN STORED FOR LATER EVOLUTIONS, BUT ARE NOT OFFERED AS A CHOICE BECAUSE OF PREVIOUS DECISIONS.)


    That made sense to him.


    ¡°Initiate evolution with the advanced cling and the regrowth.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    Climbing onto the bike, he started heading back the way he had come.  If there was an AI sensor, he would probably be fine, heading away from the compound.  It would only shoot him if he was heading towards it.  He would have to figure out a way to get past that, if he was going to get off this hell hole.


    His mind was a jumbled mess.  These hunters could hunt him legally, because he wasn¡¯t technically human anymore.  The Evolution Laws were only a recent thing.  With more of these evolution devices becoming more and more available, he was sure they would change.  He just wasn¡¯t sure how much in the next year.  The way the law worked the last time he checked it, you were still considered a human, despite evolutionary changes, as long as there was clear documentation of the process.  He lost that when he upgraded his PED.


    If anything happened to his PED during his time here, they could easily have said, nope, sorry, that¡¯s not the Dustin we released.  Which meant, he was going to have to find a way to break off this rock on his own.  If he could get back to earth, find that damn jar of baby teeth, and change back, it would have been after the one-year sentence, allowing him to get some of his fortune back.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°PED, if you are given a genetic sample of another creature, could you turn me into that other creature, completely?  Like a full change?¡±  His mind was racing.


    (WITH CURRENT SETTINGS, NO.  HOST WOULD NEED TO UPGRADE SYSTEM TWO MORE TIMES TO COMPLY WITH REQUEST.)


    ¡°Two more, heh?¡± he could do that as soon as he got back.  There were two bodies he had left at his burrow.  The creatures may have eaten them, but the PMS should still be there.  He revved the engine and raced forward.  He couldn¡¯t wait to get off this planet.


    A sound he hadn¡¯t heard before, caused him to slow down.  There was a fire ball racing towards him from orbit.


    ¡°Orbital bombardment seems kind of farfetched, don¡¯t you think?¡± he asked the empty air around him.  Speeding up again, from where he had slowed down, he veered away from where the impact would be.


    As it got closer, he was shocked to see it resembled another prisoner pod, just like his own.  Could this really be another prisoner?  Had he also killed someone?


    Debating for the 30 seconds it took for the pod to make impact, he finally decided to check it out.  It couldn¡¯t hurt.


    As he arrived, the port flew open and a hot chick fell out, gasping and looking at him in panic.


    ¡°Shit!  Why¡¯d it have to be a girl?¡±  Growling, he rushed to her, as she started to collapse, ripped a scale off his arm, and shoved it into the port of her PED.


    Looking over his shoulder, he saw that he wasn¡¯t the only thing attracted to the sight.  Several of those giant dinosaurs with big sharp teeth, like the one that had eaten the snake, had arrived on the scene.  Grabbing her up, he threw her over his shoulder and shot off on the bike.  He could feel the skin on her arm, where he was holding her, starting to change into the same scaled plates he had, and sighed in relief.


    Why was he so worried?  What¡¯s he going to do with this chick?  Bang her and have his kids here?  The thought didn¡¯t sound too bad actually.

 Chapter 12 Is She Crazy or Is He?

    ¡°What the hell?¡± She had jumped off the bike, and was falling towards the trees below.


    She¡¯s crazy!


    Angling the bike to go back for her, he saw her land in the water and sped up. There were those lizard fish things, and the giant squids¡­his mind was rushing through the list of monsters that might be there to kill her, and he didn¡¯t even know her name yet!


    Flying over the water, he saw her struggling with the squid. Cursing, he realized she didn¡¯t know about her killer bite yet. Jumping into the water, he swam down very fast, thanks to his amphibious evolution, and reached for one of the tentacles.


    They were soon at the surface, where she was sputtering and gasping for air. Before she could fully catch her breath, he saw several of the lizard fish things swimming their way, and started swimming back to shore. He didn¡¯t see his bike anywhere, and assumed it was long gone. He was more annoyed then angry. There should be another bike at his camp, and more aliens would always come along.


    ¡°What are you, let me go!¡± she growled, fighting his attempts to drag her to the shore.


    ¡°Fine,¡± he said, letting go of her. ¡°Those things coming for us, will enjoy the snack. Mind if I have your PED?¡±


    She glanced at the things swimming towards them, and started trying to dog paddle to shore. He stared at her for a moment, wondering if she was serious, then shaking his head, grabbed her hand and dragged her to shore.


    She scrambled up, backing up to a tree. He snatched her arm, pulling her away from the reaching tongue of the slow-moving camouflaged sloth.


    ¡°You have to be careful, everything wants to kill you,¡± he said, pointing it out to her.


    Licking her lips, she looked at him. ¡°Except you.¡±


    He opened his mouth to respond, then shut it, thinking carefully about that. He eyed her up and down. She still looked hot, even as a lizard girl. Nodding, he said, ¡°Yeah, except me.¡±


    Turning to head back towards his camp, he didn¡¯t bother to see if she was following him. If she had a brain, she would. He wondered who she was, and what she had done to get banished here.


    Glancing at her briefly, he said, ¡°The last time I fought that squid, I didn¡¯t have the scaled plates I have now. It can leave some nasty needles sticking in you.¡±


    ¡°How long have you been here?¡± she asked, keeping up with his fast pace.


    ¡°Maybe three days?¡± he said, thinking about it.


    ¡°Only three days?!¡± She looked at him, then down at herself. ¡°What have you been doing?¡±


    ¡°Surviving.¡± His answer was deadpan.


    She was quiet and he was glad. It meant she was thinking. He would have to dig out the burrow to make room for her, but that would be alright. He had been needing to do that anyway. He was actually looking forward to seeing how good she was in bed. And he was tired of hitting his head on that damn log when he woke up.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°You must have killed someone,¡± she finally said. He turned to say something and pushed her to the ground as a couple of those brown bats flew past.


    ¡°Get off me!¡± she growled, baring her sharp teeth.


    He looked around to see that the bats were gone, and climbed up. Offering her his hand, he was amused when she ignored it.


    Shrugging, he continued on his way. He was starting to recognize trees, they weren¡¯t far away now. He frowned as he thought about whether something had eaten his food or not.


    ¡°I have to survive here for a whole year. This place is awful.¡±


    ¡°No, you have to survive here, until you get off the planet. There¡¯s a difference.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Who was sentenced to this planet for a year?¡± he asked her.


    ¡°I was, and I¡¯m assuming you were?¡± she ventured.


    ¡°Wrong. The human that you used to be was sentenced here. You¡¯re not that human anymore.¡±


    ¡°But my PED kept track of that, they can see that I used to be that human.¡±


    ¡°And how long do you think the battery will last in that PED of yours?¡± he asked, moving some branches out of the way to gaze into his clearing. It was clear, surprisingly. The bike was still there, and the PMS from the hunter he killed, but it looked like the second hunter had been dragged off. He would have to hunt that PMS down, or wait for another hunter to come by.


    ¡°These things are powered from our evolution changes. As long as we keep changing, their batteries don¡¯t die.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡± he asked, turning to her in surprise. He didn¡¯t know that.


    She looked at him funny, but didn¡¯t get a chance to say anything, because he spied the heat signature of something really big heading their way. Something bigger then he had ever seen before.


    ¡°Time to hide from the monsters. Ever hide under your bed before?¡± he asked, shoving her into the burrow as he kept an eye on the approaching monster. He couldn¡¯t tell what it was yet, through the trees, but whatever it was, he didn¡¯t want to meet it.


    Grabbing the PMS on the ground, he shoved himself into the burrow with her, and hastily shoved debris in front of the opening. It was tight in there, and he found himself looking her in the face.


    The scaled plates that covered her body, just like his, were a drab olive color, but as he watched her turn away from him, he noticed some of the plates were turning a bright, almost neon, blue. And for some reason, that was a huge turn on for him. Peeking outside, to distract himself from his raging hard on, he almost peed himself.


    The neon orange head of a huge lizard, with forward facing teal eyes, was right in the opening. He could feel its breath flowing over his face as it was breathing, and realized it was tasting them! The razor-sharp teeth were only about a foot in front of him, far too close for comfort, and judging from the size of those clawed feet, this thing would have no problems digging them out of the hole they were in.


    He found himself scrunching even further into the hole. If he pushed her out, would it eat her and go away, or would she just whet its appetite? Licking his lips, he suddenly realized he had a poison bite. Could he bite it before it killed him?


    A huge purple tongue slowly escaped from the mouth, dripping saliva on the ground, and he sprung forward, biting the tip off. Scooting back into the burrow fast enough to avoid the beast¡¯s contractions, he spat the piece of tongue out and shoved it in his port.


    For the next minute he fought all of his willpower to not scream and gag.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: ENLARGED BODY MASS, UNIVERSAL DIGESTION, JACOBSON¡¯S ORGAN)


    ¡°What is jacobson¡¯s organ?¡± he finally managed to ask in his head. The thing outside reminded him of a giant dragon. Spitting to the side, he noticed her staring at the thing in shock.


    (JACOBSON¡¯S ORGAN ALLOWS HOST TO TASTE AIR)


    What the hell would he need that for? Tasting the air sounded stupid, and he definitely didn¡¯t need to be bigger. He was plenty big enough, thank you.


    ¡°Go for universal digestion, that sounds interesting.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    ¡°You bit its tongue,¡± she whispered, finally turning to look at him. ¡°And it died.¡±


    ¡°It was a horrible french-kisser.¡±


    Not looking at her, he felt the ground. There was nothing else around, at least nothing moving, so he started crawling out of the hole. Maybe it was time for another cookout. Looking at the thing, he was surprised to see it had six legs. Yep, definitely time for a cookout.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± she asked as she joined him by its side.


    ¡°Dustin Lafelle,¡± he said, crouching down to butcher it.


    ¡°Dustin, the Lady Killer?!¡±

 Chapter 13 Josagn

    ¡°Ugh, don¡¯t call me that.  I hate it.¡±


    ¡°So, it¡¯s true?¡± she asked, almost squeaking on the last word.


    ¡°She was my ex, and it was an accident,¡± he said, focusing on cutting the hide of the dragon.  That seemed like a good name for it.  To bad it didn¡¯t actually breath fire.  That would have been a cool ability to have.


    ¡°Wow.¡±


    He didn¡¯t look at her, only focused on the task at hand.


    ¡°Who¡¯d you kill?¡± he asked, getting one leg free, and setting it to the side.


    She straightened her back.  ¡°A rapist.  In self-defense.¡±


    ¡°That hardly sounds worthy of a sentence here.¡±


    ¡°He was a four-star general,¡± she whispered.


    He whistled softly.  ¡°You¡¯re out of my league, at least you were.¡±


    She was silent as he put a second leg to the side.


    ¡°I¡¯m not a whore!¡± she finally sputtered.


    Glancing at her, he turned back to his work.  ¡°Babe, I never said you were.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t call me babe!  My names Olivia, Olivia Nyah.¡±


    He started chuckling and turned to look at her.  ¡°You talk about me being someone.  Look at you!  Ms. I¡¯m the alien expert!  No wonder a general tried to fuck you!¡±


    She looked away.  He shook his head and turned towards the fallen trees behind him.  He needed to get a fire started to keep the critters away before they got brave enough to try and steal some of the meat.  He could see them staring at him from the bushes all around.


    ¡°My job was supposed to keep me safe from that crap.  They said to make myself famous and no one would be willing to risk touching me.¡±


    ¡°Who was that?¡± he asked, ripping a branch from the dead tree.


    ¡°My superiors.  My teachers.  My mom.¡±


    ¡°And yet it didn¡¯t work.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    He focused on getting the fire started.  It wasn¡¯t hard if you knew what you were doing.


    Settling the first couple of legs against the fire to start cooking them, he threw some of the guts over to the foxes.


    Olivia sat by the fire, watching them fight over the scraps.  He didn¡¯t see the bone foxes, only the three tailed ones.


    ¡°Are those dangerous?¡± she asked softly.


    ¡°Only if you¡¯re dead, or a bug.¡±If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    ¡°What did you mean earlier, about not being the person who was sentenced here?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re not human, right?¡±


    ¡°I guess not,¡± she conceded, touching her PED.


    ¡°This planet is open to hunters like the Josagn.¡±


    ¡°Oh shit!¡± she exclaimed in horror.


    ¡°Exactly.¡±


    ¡°That means¡­but why would they do that¡­unless¡­¡±


    ¡°They want us to disappear.  If we¡¯re not humans anymore, even with a PED to prove that we may have once been one, then we¡¯re open game to them.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll never live a full year.  They¡¯re excellent hunters.¡±


    ¡°About that, what makes you think they plan to come back for us?¡±


    ¡°They probably won¡¯t.¡±


    ¡°We need to get off this mud ball on our own, before the local citizenry convince us to stay permanently.¡±


    She was silent, her eyes flitting back and forth as she thought.


    Dustin finished pulling a third leg off the dragon and put it over the fire.  That should be plenty for now.  He sat down by the fire, signaling the lizards and foxes to draw closer.


    ¡°The Josagn¡­why couldn¡¯t it be the Kjafng?  We would have been able to barter with them.  The Josagn are¡­difficult.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve not heard of the Kja..ng?¡±  He started turning the meat to keep it from burning on one side.


    ¡°The intergalactic council had only just met them.  There was a debate going on whether they had anything we wanted, or if we were going to try and use them for political reasons.¡±


    ¡°So, what¡¯s so difficult about the Josagn?¡±


    ¡°They like to kill for sport, but not just anything.  They¡¯ve been trying to get us to agree to war games for years.  But we know that their idea of war games is actual life and death battles.  The smarter the prey, the better the hunt to them.  And they hate politics.  I tried to study them for six years, starting in high school, but all they were interested in was trying to teach me how to hunt and kill things.  Apparently, they¡¯ve hunted and killed eighteen other species to extinction.¡±


    ¡°Sounds fun.¡±


    ¡°No, actually, their idea of teaching me was to actually try and hunt and kill me.  If I managed to kill something, they would leave me alone that day¡­¡±


    ¡°So, you¡¯ve killed a lot!¡± He looked at her with new respect.  She killed something every day for six years?


    ¡°If this is a designated hunting planet for them, that means they¡¯ve seeded this planet with the deadliest things they could find all over the galaxy.¡±


    ¡°Well, that explains the last few days.  I just thought I was a weakling with really bad luck.¡±


    ¡°The government must have made a deal with them, to get rid of unwanted prisoners.¡±  She reached up to her nose.  He realized she must have once had glasses.  That was an adorable habit for her, and he suddenly wanted to see her in glasses.


    ¡°So, we expose them?¡± he asked.


    ¡°No!  That means if we do manage to escape from this planet, they¡¯ll try even harder to kill us.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m not staying here.  I want to settle down and have a house full of kids someday.  That is not happening on this hell hole.  If I really can¡¯t get my fortune back, then I¡¯ll have to do something else.  Either way, I¡¯m getting off this planet.¡±


    She looked at him, then around at the jungle.  ¡°I am having a hard time seeing you with kids, but I agree, this is no place for kids.¡±


    ¡°What is it with everyone saying they can¡¯t see me with kids?¡± he fumed, standing up and kicking the dead dragon.  That felt good, so he kicked it again.  The foxes ran off, but he didn¡¯t care.  Everyone always said he would make a horrible dad.  Why?  Why couldn¡¯t he be a dad?  Kicking it again and again, he looked up as he heard the twang of the bow.  Turning his head, the arrow flew right in front of his face, before burying itself into a tree on the other side of the clearing.


    Without hesitating, he charged for the Josagn hunter.  It tried to dodge and flee, but he tackled it and pinned it to the ground.


    ¡°Hold it still!  We can ask it questions!¡± she said, jumping up and running over.


    ¡°Stupid prey, you will die!¡± it sputtered.


    ¡°Fat chance ass wipe!¡± he growled in its face, flashing his sharp teeth.


    She helped him tie it up with some vines, and he relished the knowledge that it was having a reaction to the sap from the vines.  Welts were raising up everywhere the vines touched.


    ¡°Keep it quiet, or it will bring others!¡± she hissed as it started to squawk.


    Grabbing its beak, he forced it shut and got in close.


    ¡°Make that noise again, and I will start breaking things,¡± he threatened.


    It continued to try and squawk, so he reached down and ripped off two fingers.  Then ate them in front of it, slowly.  It stopped.  He heard Olivia swallow, but when he glanced at her, she was pulling off its PMS device.

 Chapter 14 Religious Purists

    ¡°Here, take this personal device.  I¡¯m going to see if I can get any info from it,¡± she said, shoving it at him.


    He backed away, wondering what tricks she had learned while living with them, to get them to talk.  As far as he knew, getting anything from one was like pulling teeth, and since they didn¡¯t have teeth¡­


    It stared at her, obviously not sure what she was about to do.


    She tucked her hands into her armpits, and took a wide stance with her knees bent and her feet pointing out.  Dustin gaped at her.  Was this some kind of joke?  Doing the chicken dance was supposed to get them to talk?  He knew that they were bird people, but still!


    As she high stepped towards it, she would pause with one foot in the air, and turn her head to look at the hunter out of one eye.  Dustin looked from her to it, and was amazed to see a look of fear come over its face.  No way in hell this was working?!


    As she finally got close enough to kiss it, if she wanted, she said, ¡°I haven¡¯t killed anything today.¡±


    It pissed itself.  Dustin had to turn away.  He was going to bust something trying not to laugh.  All the suspense of the past couple of moments, to have the chicken dance terrify the big bad hunter was too much.


    ¡°Where did you learn that?¡± it asked in a terrified whisper.


    ¡°From Master Ghaou.¡± She straightened up, letting her hands fall to her sides, and grinned.  ¡°Tell me about the space port, or I will start my quota today with you.¡±


    ¡°The AI sentry analyzes our personal devices to see if we have evolved in the past 24 hours.  Since we have a time limit of 20 hours to check back in, that ensures no prisoners escape.  There is a grey zone, where initial entry will initiate the sentry guns, to give the hunters time to deal with any potential tagalongs.¡±


    ¡°And if you don¡¯t check in before the 20-hour limit?¡±


    ¡°It is assumed we are dead.¡±


    Dustin busied himself, turning the meat near the fire.  It was starting to smell good, and he didn¡¯t want it to burn.  He had to do something to keep from butting questions in.


    ¡°How do you arrange transport on and off the planet?¡± she asked, her voice a strange monotone, as if she were talking to a classroom of boring teenagers.


    ¡°None of you have ever escaped.  Our security is overseen by some of our best hunters.  You would never get through the check point.  Our personal devices log our entry into the planet, and we have to log our exit.  You have no entry log.¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    ¡°So, there are shuttles that take you back and forth to a space docking station?¡±


    ¡°Yes.  Only the Josagn are allowed on the station. If there is any sign of contaminated genetic material within you, you would be thrown out an airlock.¡±


    A couple of bone foxes had shown up, and started a fight between some of the three-tailed foxes over the tongue.  Apparently, his venom was short lived after killing his prey.  Grimacing at the memory, he decided they were welcome to it.


    ¡°How far does the sentry stretch from the shuttle bay?¡± she continued, still in that annoying tone of voice.  He was starting to get fed up with it, but managed to ignore it by focusing on the action between the small predators.


    ¡°Only half a mile.  Though it is set to kill anything that is not a Josagn within that area.  Your PED¡¯s should not be capable of evolving with our genetic material.  All of this talk is a waste of your time.¡±


    ¡°Why can¡¯t our PED¡¯s use your genetic material?¡± Her voice changed.  She was obviously surprised by this concept.


    ¡°Where do you think your human government got the technology from?¡± it asked in a condescending tone.


    Baring her teeth in anger, she slashed at its face, leaving a gash over one eye, that caused one eye ball to start leaking fluid.  Its feathers began to quiver, but no noise came from it.  Snarling, she bit its shoulder, and jumped back as it started spasming.


    With a sigh, Dustin said, ¡°Oh, now you¡¯ve done it.  Our source of info is gone.¡±


    Looking back at him in confusion, she caught sight of the dragon, with the foxes and lizards swarming over it, feasting to their hearts content, and realization dawned on her face.


    ¡°Our bite is that toxic?¡±  She looked down at her hands, then at the dead Josagn.


    ¡°Yep.¡±


    ¡°You really have been busy.  I don¡¯t think I want to know what you had to do to get that ability.¡±


    ¡°It wasn¡¯t fun, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re asking.¡±


    Pulling the body free from the vines, they threw it into the bushes for the creatures around to enjoy.  Dustin pulled the hunters bike out of the bushes to sit next to the one in the clearing.


    ¡°My PED is too low functioning to do a complete evolution into a different species.  It needs two devices from the hunters, of which I now have, to get it to that point.  But yours will need four devices to get it that far.¡±


    ¡°How long have they been using bow and arrows?¡± she asked, picking up the bow it had dropped on the ground.


    ¡°Since the first day I¡¯ve been here, so today would be day three.¡±


    ¡°And I take it, none of the hunters have made it back to the shuttle bay?¡±


    ¡°No, why?¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ll assume you are harder prey, and start using more advanced weapons starting in the morning.¡±


    ¡°Then we don¡¯t have much time.  I can upgrade your PED for you, like I did mine, but you have to give me a good reason not to just leave your butt here.¡±


    ¡°I know the Josagn.  I can get us through that security and onto a ship away from here.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll need two more devices each, to get them upgraded enough to evolve us completely.  What did that thing mean about us not being able to use their genetic material?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s something they¡¯ve coded into them.  If they are the ones selling the evolution devices to the government, there¡¯s no telling what codes they¡¯ve programmed into them.¡±


    ¡°I take it the Josagn are purist?¡±


    ¡°Religiously.  I knew they had access to the devices, and loved to use them against other species in order to hunt things that are deadlier, but it never occurred to me that they would code it into them never to manipulate their own genetic makeup.¡±


    ¡°Well, we¡¯ll worry about that later.  For now, we¡¯ll focus on the first couple of steps and worry about the later ones when we get there.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡±

 Chapter 15 The Big Gun

    Twitching its last, another hunter died without a sound.  Chucking its body into the bushes, Dustin returned to the clearing with its PMS.  He was looking forward to getting back to work on the burrow, so that hopefully when he woke the next morning, he wouldn¡¯t hit his head again.


    There had taken to being a rather large group of predators hanging around the clearing with the influx of constant food being available. He hoped he could continue to handle them all so it didn¡¯t get out of hand.


    Climbing into the burrow, he saw that Olivia had dug a sizable space for them both to be able to comfortably lay down side by side.  Her butt was wiggling back and forth as she dug at a root that was in the way.  He paused to appreciate the view after tossing the PMS into the corner with the other two that were there.  With a sigh, he grabbed the dragon skin and started dragging it outside.  She had piled the dirt onto it, so, he dumped it on the side of the fallen tree, and started patting it into place.  If it started raining again, he hoped the higher sides would prevent their hole from filling with rain as quickly.


    Licking his lips, after a bit, he thought about getting a drink.  As he turned around, he spied a flash of light on something moving very fast.  Ducking into the burrow, he pulled the door he had made to look like a debris pile, over the entrance, and peeked outside to see what was approaching.  She noticed something was up and stopped digging.


    A herd of animals with long spear-like hairs stampeded through the clearing.  The blood red fur under the giant quills, gleamed with a light of its own, reflecting sunlight every now and then, almost like glitter.  Scratching his nose from the dust that had been kicked up, to prevent a sneeze, he thought they looked like a cross between a deer and a porcupine.  A few even jumped over the logs, their hooves drumming their roof, knocking dirt down on top of them.


    The hole near the entrance of their burrow, that the tentacled worm thing had burst out of earlier that morning, had been filled with some of the dirt from their digging, but apparently wasn¡¯t filled enough.


    SNAP


    The porcupine deer fell heavily onto the ground, screaming in pain as it tried to get back up.  Dustin could see that its leg was completely separated.  There was no splinting that.  Would it taste like venison?  Could he use the quills as actual spears?


    He was faintly curious what could have spooked them, when he heard a noise that sounded like bees.  He hated bees more than he hated bugs in general.  A flash back of throwing rocks at a hornet¡¯s nest filled his mind, and he quickly started throwing dirt at the door to block it off even more.  He wasn¡¯t sure their plated hides would keep them from being able to sting them, and didn¡¯t really want to find out.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Picking up on his panic, Olivia started throwing scoops of dirt at the doorway too.  As they watched, the light that filtered in through the gaps between the logs went dim and they could hear the screams of the deer outside stop.  The scratching of millions of feet on the wood around them filled the space, and Dustin rubbed his arms in disgust.


    She watched him, but didn¡¯t try to touch him.  That was probably a good thing, because he wasn¡¯t sure what he would have done, had she tried.


    Sitting down in the back of the hole, he picked up the first of the three PMS devices they had acquired from the hunters and motioned for her to sit next to him.  He needed something to focus on other than the swarm of insects outside.


    After glancing at the door, she finally sat down next to him, and he placed the first device over the top of her PED.  He knew it would take about thirty minutes to sync, and began to disassemble the next device for the subsequent upgrade.  He ignored the look she gave him when it undoubtable told her that all its data would be lost if she accepted the upgrade.  When she didn¡¯t throw the device back at him, or attack him, he gave an inward sigh.


    In his whole life, he had wanted nothing more than to settle down and have a family.  His dad had been an awesome dad, but then he died.  They said it was an accident, but never said how he had actually died.  The money that the military compensated them with, for his war hero status, hadn¡¯t filled the pain both him and his mother had suffered.  She turned to the bottle, and he turned to sex.


    Surprisingly, none of the girls he hooked up with wanted to have kids with him.  They all insisted on protection, or were on birth control.  Even the few that agreed to have kids, eventually left him.  And all the guys he talked to couldn¡¯t figure out why he wanted a house full of kids.


    As he set down the first device, all ready to be used in her second upgrade, it fell quiet outside.  Not the gradual lessening of the swarm receding, but the complete silence as if someone had pushed the pause button.


    Olivia looked at him, but didn¡¯t move.  He studied the few gaps in their burrow carefully, but nothing seemed to explain the silence.  Sniffing the air, he could smell the blood of the dead porcupine deer, and the dirt from the stampede.  There was also a slightly sweet smell on the air, but he couldn¡¯t place what it was.  Probably the bees.  Leaning forward, he placed his hands flat on the ground, and felt the vibrations of the retreating herd, as well as something else.  It was so insignificant, he almost missed it.


    His eyes widened as he realized what it must be.  The bees were still swarming, because they were being driven.  The vibration he was having a hard time figuring out was from a device he had heard about.  It was known to cause ¡®blackouts¡¯ in sound when used, and drove animals and bugs absolutely crazy.  If they had been outside, when it was used, they would have been unable to move, frozen in place, and at the whim of whatever happened along, as it would have disrupted their nervous systems.  Fortunately, the trees above them and the dirt on either side of them, kept them safe.


    Meeting her eyes, he knew that they had upped the playing field.  The hunters had pulled out the big guns.

 Chapter 16 Fairy Lizardman

    When the sound returned, they both sighed in relief.  The bees were starting to wiggle through the door, so Olivia returned to packing dirt against it.  Squishing the few that got in, she turned and offered him one.  Shrugging, he put one in the port.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: WINGS-REQUIRES REDUCTION IN BODY MASS FOR FLIGHT, ULTRAVISION, ULTRAHEARING)


    ¡°I¡¯m not interested in any of the things it offers me,¡± he said, turning to the last PMS device.


    ¡°Me either,¡± she said glancing at her PED.


    ¡°Ready for the next upgrade?¡± he asked, pausing before he opened the access panel.


    ¡°I guess,¡± she said, a little angrily.  Sitting down next to him, he popped the access panels open and started swapping the same parts he had swapped on his own device, adding some and taking others away.  She sat there, patiently, as he focused on making sure he didn¡¯t break anything.


    ¡°How did you learn to work on them?¡± she asked, as he shut the panels.


    ¡°I worked at a job where we tried to reverse manufacture alien tech.  With all the new races we¡¯ve encountered over the past twenty years, they pay good money for people to do that.¡±


    ¡°So, if we didn¡¯t head back to the human sector, we could settle down somewhere else and be just fine.¡±


    He looked at her for a moment, wondering if she was serious about staying with him.


    ¡°Do you want kids?¡±


    ¡°I already said no, didn¡¯t I?¡±


    ¡°Then why are you talking like you want to stay together when we leave here?¡±


    She sat there thinking, as he moved over to the door, to look outside.  The buzzing of the bees had receded and he was still thirsty.


    The porcupine deer at the door was dead, stung to death by the bees as they swarmed.  The ground was littered with dead bees.  He shuddered to think about how many bees there must have been for there to be so many dead on the ground.  Picking one up, he examined it.  It had the same basic body shape as a bee, but each foot ended with a claw.  Its mouth looked more vicious, and the stinger didn¡¯t retract.


    Flicking it back outside, he started to move the door.  Bees that weren¡¯t dead yet, but were definitely on the way out, started trying to fly and attack him.  He easily brushed them aside.  Stepping out, he stretched, and a swarm of arrows bounced off his body.  They hurt when they hit, but none were able to actually stick.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    ¡°Dustin!¡± she exclaimed, scrambling out of the burrow, and experiencing her own hail of arrows.


    He snarled and charged into the trees, not hesitating to grab and bite every hunter he could find.  There were so many of them!  He never knew they could fight in such groups before.  Falling back, when they pulled out projectile guns, he jumped on his bike.


    Olivia darted from the bushes where she had followed him on his killing spree, grabbing PMS devices from the dead hunters.  She jumped on the other bike, and they flew off into the forest.  He led the way, heading towards the vine tree that he remembered.


    As they got close, he felt like facepalming.  He had killed the tree by crashing a bike into it. Flying over the top of the dead tree, he spied the stick guy, wrapped in a cocoon, hanging from a branch high in a tree.  Its arm was sticking out, and that was the only way he recognized it.


    Flying on, he hoped to find something to distract the hunters he could hear behind them.


    Suddenly, ahead of him, there was a huge chasm.  Water poured in, as waterfalls, in multiple locations, and his bike decided to start sputtering.  Reaching for the pouch at his seat, he found it empty.  Could something have stolen them, or were they all used up?  He wasn¡¯t sure, but without them, he was going to crash a very long way down.


    Steering downwards, he tried to turn the bike around.  Rocks glistened far below, and caves peppered the cliffside.  Looking up to see Olivia still following him, he had to make a decision.  Ripping off several scales, he gritted his teeth in pain.


    ¡°Initiate wings with flight.¡±


    (BODY MASS MUST BE REDUCED, CONTINUE?)


    ¡°Initiate!¡± he screamed as the engine finally died and he started to plummet.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    The world suddenly became a much larger place.  He felt pain as wings erupted from his back.  He wondered if he could change their look, and decided that could wait for a later time.  Clinging to his scales, he flew up to meet her, and pointed to one of the caves.  They managed to get to the edge of one, just as her bike began to sputter and die.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°Push it off the ledge, so the hunters think we fell with them!¡± he said.


    She threw the bracers further into the cave and hurriedly pushed the bike into the abyss.  Neither of them waited to see if the hunters were tricked or not, rushing to grab the bracers and flee further into the cave.


    They hadn¡¯t gone ten feet, before a tentacle wrapped around her ankle, tripping her and dragging her towards a worm hole.  She dropped the bracers again, clawing at the tentacle, unable to get a grip well enough to bite anything.


    Dustin flew to rescue her again, biting the tentacle, just as another grabbed him, crushing his wings.  It immediately let him go, as it belonged to the same worm, he had just bit.  They sat for a moment, catching their breath.  Taking a piece of the tentacle, he shoved it into his port, and she followed suit.  They kept glancing back towards the entrance to the cave, knowing that the Josagn were close.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: DIRECTIONAL AWARENESS, ENHANCED HEARING, BRISTLES)


    ¡°I don¡¯t want bristles, but give me the others.¡± He looked over at her, and she nodded in agreement.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    She picked up the bracers and he landed on the ground in front of her.


    ¡°I¡¯ll test the ground to make sure it won¡¯t collapse into a deeper tunnel.¡±


    ¡°How far do you intend on going?¡± she asked, quietly, glancing back towards the light.


    The hunters were flying from cave to cave, searching for them.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°Far enough, come on.¡±

 Chapter 17 Underground City

    Dustin crouched behind a rock, looking out over the enormous cave before him and Olivia.  Below them, a rough city rose from the cave floor, teeming with life.  Few of the creatures they could see, looked similar, so it was probably a safe bet they were all prisoners that had made their way here for safety from the hunters.


    ¡°PED, can you return me to the form I had prior to gaining the wings?¡± he asked silently, in his head.  If he needed to fight, he wanted to be larger then the three feet he currently found himself.


    (UNABLE TO COMPLY WITH HOST REQUEST WITHOUT GENETIC MATERIAL, OR TWO MORE UPGRADES.)


    Clutching the scales in his hand, he debated using one of them.  Would he lose the abilities he had gained from the ground worm?


    (NEGATIVE.  EVOLUTIONARY TRAITS ARE ONLY REMOVED DURING AN EVOLUTION IF HOST REQUESTS IT.)


    Nodding, he shoved one of the scales into his port.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED.  ANALYZING. NO NEW EVOLUTION OPTIONS.)


    ¡°Initiate evolution to remove the wings and increase my mass size to that of the genetic material provided,¡± he told it, trying to make sure he worded his request correctly.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    The wings on his back began to shrink, and he had to move to another rock as he started to grow.  Olivia watched him curiously, before moving closer and motioning for him to get closer.


    ¡°None of them have PED¡¯s,¡± she whispered, waving to the city below.


    Looking back at the figures below, he saw a group start heading their way.  ¡°We¡¯ve been spotted.¡±


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Staying low, he darted back towards the cave they had come from, but stopped just inside it.  There were three figures waiting for them.  He stood up straight, and waited for them to say something.  Olivia stopped just behind him, trying to keep the PMS devices she had from the hunters, hidden.


    ¡°Don¡¯t try hiding them, missy, we can see the evolution devices you have,¡± growled one of them.  It had spikes, like from a cactus, and seemed to almost glow in the dark.  As it stepped closer, Dustin could make out that it was almost a honey yellow color.


    ¡°You¡¯re mistaken,¡± Dustin said, lazily.


    ¡°What do you mean?  We¡¯re not blind!¡± exclaimed a flower man.  He had vines for arms and legs, but still had his package out in the open, for all to see.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    ¡°They¡¯re not PED¡¯s,¡± he said, refusing to look at the flower.  That was just vulgar.  At least his package was covered with a scale plate.


    ¡°We¡¯ll be the judge of that,¡± said the cactus, stepping forward.


    ¡°Don¡¯t touch me.¡±  His voice was a deep growl that caused the cactus to hesitate for a moment.


    ¡°Fuck you,¡± he said, grabbing him on the arm.


    Swinging his arm around to grab him by the neck, Dustin opened his mouth, to show off his sharp teeth, and bit him.


    It was over in moments.  The cactus fell on the floor, spasming and going still.  The other two backed away a few steps in horror and surprise.  Casually spitting the chunk of flesh into his hand, he placed it into his port.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: IMPROVED STRENGTH.  ALL OTHER EVOLUTION TRAITS AVAILABLE ARE PLANT BASED. DOES HOST WISH FOR ALL FUTURE PLANT OPTIONS TO BE IGNORED?)


    ¡°Yeah, ignore them, I don¡¯t want to be a fucking plant.  Initiate evolution.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    ¡°Holy shit, he just killed him!¡± said the flower, stepping back again.


    ¡°The others are almost here, get ¡®em!¡± growled the third figure, pushing the flower forward.  It had fur all over its body, with long quills sticking out of it¡¯s back.  Opening its mouth, tentacles flew out and wrapped around Dustin¡¯s arm.


    The flower jumped past him, as he jerked the quill guy forward, and went for Olivia.  She smacked him in the face with one of the devices before kicking him in the crotch.  Dustin didn¡¯t see any more, as he focused on fighting the guy who was trying to eat his arm.  Leaning forward, he bit through the tentacle, freeing his arm, and watching as the guy fell to the ground spasming.  Palming a piece of the tentacle, he let the rest of it fall to the ground, before turning and seeing the flower fall to the ground, spasming as well.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°Enough, we get that your bite is deadly, stop killing my men.¡±  The guy who stepped forward looked familiar, and Dustin realized that was because he had the same hood as the white snake he had killed.


    ¡°You should teach your people manners.¡±  Dustin turned to look at him, while Olivia moved behind him again.  She was just as deadly as he was, but he appreciated her staying out of his way.


    ¡°I don¡¯t normally have people who find the city, then try and leave.  Unless you have a date?¡±


    The guy glanced at Olivia, before returning his gaze to him.  Dustin looked over all the creatures that had followed him, and was mostly unimpressed.  Shoving the piece of tentacle into his port, he made a point of snapping it shut before looking back at him.


    ¡°Where¡¯s your PED¡¯s?¡± he asked, nodding towards their empty arms.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: IMPROVED DEXTERITY, TENTACLE MAW.)


    ¡®Give me the improved dex, not the maw,¡¯ he thought.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    ¡°Everyone is required to give up their PED¡¯s when they join the city.  It¡¯s the law.  They don¡¯t work for long after you stop evolving anyway.¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t want to join your city.¡±


    ¡°No one wants to live out there.  Those alien hunters will kill you in a few days.  Have they started using their ray guns yet?  It only gets worse after that.¡±  Snake man didn¡¯t seem to get it.


    ¡°I think we¡¯ll take our chances.¡±


    ¡°Why don¡¯t you at least come see what we have to offer?¡± he said, waving back towards the city.


    ¡°No, thanks.¡±  He turned, and Olivia started to walk back the way they had come.


    ¡°You better not bring those hunters here,¡± called the snake man as they turned around a corner.


    ¡°Do you think they¡¯re just going to let us leave?¡± she asked in a whisper.


    ¡°No,¡± he answered, looked around. ¡°They¡¯re hiding something.¡±


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°You haven¡¯t accepted any plant traits, have you?¡± she asked softly, moving quickly to keep up with him.


    ¡°No.  You?¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Good.¡±

 Chapter 18 Caught in a Web

    Dustin paused at the next curve of the cave tunnel.  Olivia stepped up next to him, obviously confused.  They had been making great time, working their way back to the entrance of the cave.  He placed his hand on the wall, feeling the same vibrations that he had been feeling every since they left the city.  Someone was following them.


    He turned around, wondering who it could be, when the floor beneath them suddenly gave way.


    Falling only a short while, they landed in sticky webbing.  Dustin freaked, twisting and turning, fighting the web.  It didn¡¯t take long for him to be completely entangled and immobilized.  Olivia calmly started extracting herself, but before she could get far, the monster who created the webbing, chuckled.


    Who the hell thinks up such a creature? Dustin wanted to punch him in the face.  A mole/spider hybrid??  The thing was obviously female, and as she got closer, he realized she was probably a citizen of that damn city they left behind.  Her face was pointed, like a mole, and black as night.  Countless eyes dotted her face, claws tipped the end of her many legs, and each step she took, sent her melons bouncing and swinging.


    ¡°If I didn¡¯t have to turn the two of you over to Snake, I would have some fun with you first.¡±  Her voice was gravelly, and deep, but definitely female.


    As she wrapped him in more webbing, he couldn¡¯t help shuddering in disgust every time she accidentally touched him.  With the number of times she came in contact, he was pretty sure they weren¡¯t accidents.  She didn¡¯t take nearly as much time wrapping Olivia up.  He was just glad she didn¡¯t take away the devices before throwing them over her back and scurrying down the tunnel.


    As they traveled back towards the city, he realized the reason why he had felt the vibrations.  Her tunnel was directly under the cave tunnel.  This must be a common trap they used.


    When they emerged out of the tunnel, they were in the middle of the city.  Creatures smirked and laughed at them, from all directions.  It didn¡¯t take long for him to look forward to killing someone.


    Dumping them into the bottom of a pit, she left them there, laughing.


    ¡°Enjoy your nap.  Snake won¡¯t bother to come see you until he¡¯s finished his supper.  Should have come with him when he offered the first time.¡±


    As soon as she was gone, he turned his head to say something to Olivia, but found his face planted right into her chest.  Both her breasts pressed on either cheek, and he completely forgot what he was going to say.  Leaning forward, he could feel himself getting another hard on.  Maybe he didn¡¯t want to move.  This was a good place.  As he became more uncomfortable, he decided this would never do.  He had to get out of this damn webbing in order to fuck her. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    With a sigh, he opened his mouth and drew her flesh into his mouth, except it wouldn¡¯t go, because of the scale plates that covered her skin.  The webbing did, though.


    Biting it, the webbing seemed to dissolve like cotton candy in his mouth as he chewed.  If only the flavor was there.  Eating all the webbing he could reach, he saw that some of her scales were starting to turn blue, and chuckled.


    He felt her shift, and starting eating the webbing that was now presented to him.  Thanks to the universal digestion, his stomach felt fine, as he finished getting her free.  She hesitated for only a moment, before she started eating the webbing on him, leaning over and taking quick little nibbles.  Groaning in frustration, he flexed his arms and broke the rest of the strands.  She straightened up, and turned her face away in embarrassment.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to have to talk about having kids again, but right now we have a meeting with a snake to avoid.¡±


    ¡°Oh, thank God!  I was worried you were too far gone!¡±


    Chuckling again, he turned and placed his hands on the side of the wall.  He could feel a suction as his clinging ability started working.  Moving slowly and steadily, to keep an eye out for guards and to not be noticed, he climbed up the wall.  Olivia used some of the webbing to wrap around the devices she had and tied them to her back, to free up her hands.  Then she followed him.


    When he got to the top, he shook his head when he saw no one was watching the pit.  There were people walking around, but none were looking in this direction.  Keeping low, they made their way to a building and stood up, hiding in the shadows.


    ¡°We don¡¯t know what abilities anyone has here, so we have to make a break for it, and keep moving.  The plates should prevent anything from hurting us, and if you get caught, bite them.  That should kill them.  Stay on my tail and don¡¯t fall behind.¡±


    She nodded in understanding, and he moved to the corner, to look around at the crowd that was forming.  That spider-mole had said it was supper time, and a lot of those faces looked hungry.  They probably had trouble feeding everyone.


    Remembering the layout of the city, from when they had first seen it, he tried to pick the best route.  Moving to the other corner, he saw that the crowd was less, so he started jogging in that direction.  They were spotted almost immediately by those in line, but strangely enough, none of them cried out an alarm.


    It wasn¡¯t until they were almost to the edge of the city, that an alarm was raised. Spying Snake and that fucking spider-mole heading towards them, he gritted his teeth and started running for real.  Olivia stayed right with him.  As soon as the alarm was raised, the people that had been ignoring them started trying to half-heartedly catch them.


    Knowing that they weren¡¯t serious, meant they were able to get past most of them without too much of a problem.  The real problem came when a huge, snot covered toad oozed out of a hole in the ground.  Did that thing even have bones?

 Chapter 19 A City Dies

    As it opened its mouth, a bulbous tongue appeared, then shot towards them, stretching thin.  He could see the goo sliding down, about to drip onto the ground.  Dropping to the floor, his movement was so sudden, Olivia didn¡¯t get a chance to dodge, and ended up landing on top of him.  If ever there were a moment, he wished he wasn¡¯t kissing the ground, it was now.


    Behind them, they heard a scream, and the tongue retracted back into the things mouth, carrying whatever poor creature couldn¡¯t get out of the way in time.  Olivia scrambled off of him, and he jumped to his feet.  Snake and his lackeys were gaining on them.


    Taking off around the toad, they saw it trying to swallow the guy it just ate, but he had some kind of fear reaction, that caused him to puff up to twice his size.  If he wasn¡¯t running so hard, Dustin would have laughed at the comical scene.  It couldn¡¯t swallow, because he was now too big, and it couldn¡¯t spit him out, because of the sticky tongue.


    As they got around it, the putrid smell of its slime was almost overwhelming.  He had to get away from that, before it made him gag.


    They made it to the cave again, and he paused just long enough to glance back, before darting after Olivia, who had not stopped.  The spider-mole wasn¡¯t in sight, which meant she was going to try and catch them again.  But he was listening.  When the vibrations of her scurrying after them got close, he grabbed Olivia around the waist, and jumped onto the wall.


    She went to smack at him, almost as a reflex, but stopped and started scurrying along the wall with her cling ability.  He watched her butt wiggle and didn¡¯t have any problems chasing after her.  When the spider-mole collapsed the tunnel floor, they didn¡¯t fall into her web trap.


    Cursing filled the chamber behind them, as they exited the tunnel into a larger cave room.  Tapping her foot, when she hesitated on which direction to go, he pointed towards the ceiling, where a crack was emitting a faint trace of light.  Nodding, she followed him as he took the lead.  Behind them, they could hear their followers cursing at the spider for collapsing the tunnel floor.  The shouting echoed, and reverberated down the tunnels.


    Dustin heard a scratching sound as he got closer to the crack, and paused.  Maybe he didn¡¯t want to go that way.  If there were giant bugs, he could definitely go a different direction.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Spying a group of stalactites, they quickly hid among them, and waited.  Their pursuers soon emerged into the large room, looking around like crazy for them.  Hilariously, none of them looked up.  They watched, while their pursuers shouted back and forth, as the crack began to widen.


    Suddenly, a beam of light shot out, hitting Snake right on the forehead, and blowing his head off.  It was a laser.  Well, Snake had mentioned laser guns.  It only seemed fitting that he be killed by one, Dustin assumed.


    Everyone below them, stood stunned as his body dropped lifelessly to the ground, before glancing up at the hole, and then darting back down the tunnel, the way they had come.


    The sounds of flying bikes vibrated throughout the cave, as the Josagn arrived.  None of them glanced in their direction, having caught sight of the fleeing people, and went after them.  The cave grew silent after a few minutes, and Dustin itched to check out the hole.  When Olivia made a motion to move towards it, he grabbed her arm and shook his head.  He wasn¡¯t sure, but he had a feeling there was more to come.


    Sure enough, a few minutes later, a second group of them flew down from the hole, and settled on the floor by the body of Snake.


    ¡°It looks like we found where they¡¯ve been hiding.¡±


    ¡°It was bound to happen eventually.¡±


    ¡°There should be good hunting this day!¡±


    None of them touched the body, and the sounds of screaming drew them down the tunnel.


    Dustin started moving again, but it was away from the hole.  There was too much going on at the moment, to try and escape through the hole that the Josagn were using.  They would definitely be found and killed.  He moved instead towards a smaller cave hole, that was far from the floor.  It looked promising as a place to hide for a while.  The entrance was hidden behind one of the stalactites, so no one from the ground would ever notice it.


    Olivia followed along after a moment of staring at the hole.


    He was relieved to get off that damn ceiling.  He may have the ability to cling to it, but that didn¡¯t mean it was comfortable.  Heading deeper into the cave, he found that he would have to crawl to go very far into it, but once he got past the low spot, it opened up to a comfortable space.


    Exploring the entire area, there was no other exits or entrances, depending on how you looked at it, but that was fine with him.


    ¡°What are we doing here?¡± she breathed, softer than a whisper.  The noise carried just fine for him to hear, but not to travel outside the current area.


    ¡°We can¡¯t get out while the Josagn are on the prowl.  Not with laser guns.  Even our scales would have trouble with that.  Give me those devices and I¡¯ll get our PED¡¯s upgraded finally.  Maybe by the time I¡¯m done, they¡¯ll have cleared out and we can get out of this cave.¡±


    She nodded and handed them over.  He decided to start with his, asking the PED computer to walk him through it once, so then he could upgrade hers.  He wanted to keep them upgraded the same, so that if he got interrupted before he could finish, they would be roughly the same.


    In the distance, they could hear screams and wails as a city died.

 Chapter 20 Crystal Skin

    Checking a couple of last-minute things, Dustin finally finished the last upgrade.  It honestly wasn¡¯t that hard.  He had done a lot harder.


    Glancing at Olivia, he considered his future with her.  She was starting to warm up to him, he thought, and he knew he was turned on by her, whether in human form or not.  He still dreamed of having kids, even if she didn¡¯t.  Could he convince her to suffer through having a dozen or so?  Glancing at the rise and fall of her chest, he wanted to do things to her, that would probably alert the Josagn to their hiding spot.


    Licking his lips, he released a small stream of pheromones into the air.  He wasn¡¯t beneath using a little persuasion.


    She gasped, sucking in a lot of air, and sat up.  He leaned back, looking at her, as she turned on him.  Her scales had started turning blue again, and he was starting to think that was her sign.  She looked around the room for a moment, checking her PED, then settled her gaze back on him.  He grinned at her.


    She leaned back, not fully awake, and he allowed his gaze to roam over her body.


    Growling deep, he started crawling towards her, and she finally laughed.


    He paused in confusion.  Was he not being obvious enough?  What was so funny?  Then she tackled him.


    ¡°I¡¯m still not convinced enough to have kids with you, but I¡¯m not opposed to having a little fun.¡±


    He looked up at her and kissed her.  It was surprisingly difficult with sharp teeth and scaled lips.


    The Josagn that was trying to crawl through the tunnel had horrible timing.  Dustin snarled, swiping a claw at the entrance that they were now lying next to.


    Breathing hard, he turned.  It was going to die!


    Dustin didn¡¯t care if that thing had a laser gun or not.  If there had been a dozen of them, he would have slaughtered them all.  The bird-brained hunter went to squawk in surprise when he shoved his face into its face, and bit down.  Blood spewed everywhere, as he felt his teeth sinking deeper, fluid suddenly erupted from an eye, and the spasms that signaled death took over.


    He went to crawl further, ready to kill anything else, but felt a hand on his leg, and froze.  Turning the corpse sideways in the hole, to block the sound a bit more, he slid back to watch what she was doing that felt so good.


    Dustin was no stranger to sex, in fact he¡¯d had many partners in his life, but somehow, she was doing things he hadn¡¯t felt before.


    XxxxX


    ¡°We can use the genetic material from the Josagn you killed, to become one, assuming it works.¡±


    They were laying, exhausted.  He was feeling better than he had in a while.


    ¡°Only one way to find out,¡± he jerked the body closer, and bit off the tip of a finger.  Then he shoved it into his PED port.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED.  ANALYZING.)


    (ERROR.  NO POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS.)


    ¡°Well, crap,¡± she said, laying back when he shook his head.


    ¡°Why can¡¯t it be read?¡± he asked his PED in his head.


    (GENETIC SAMPLE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH HOST. BASE SEQUENCING TOO COMPLEX TO ALLOW EVOLUTION WITH HOST.)


    ¡°Wait, what?¡±


    (HOST BASE SEQUENCING HAS FOUR BASE PAIRS.  GENETIC SAMPLE HAS A DIFFERENT SET OF BASE PAIRS THAT ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH HOST SURVIVABILITY.)


    ¡°Can you explain that in a way that I can understand?¡± he asked, rubbing his head in annoyance.


    (HOST AS FOUR BASE PAIRS.  SAMPLE HAS FOUR BASE PAIRS BUT TWO ARE DIFFERENT.  IF EVOLUTION IS ATTEMPTED, HOST WILL DIE.)


    ¡°What if I don¡¯t want to just evolve, but completely become the same thing as what the sample came from.¡±


    (COMPUTING.)


    (UNABLE TO COMPUTE ODDS OF HOST SURVIVAL DURING ATTEMPT.)Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Sighing, he threw himself back onto the dirt and rock.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± she asked, climbing onto his chest and resting her chin on her arms.


    ¡°They have a different base pair then we do, so if we try to evolve into them, it would kill us.¡±


    ¡°That makes sense.  If they were genetically different from every other creature, then the evolution devices wouldn¡¯t work, and it would keep their line pure.  I told you they were purists.¡±


    ¡°You know what that means?¡± he said, sitting up.  She sat up as well, sliding into his lap and looked up at him.


    ¡°We are going to have to do this the hard way.¡±


    When they finally crawled out of the cave, Dustin was much improved.  He no longer felt angry or depressed.  He was still going to get off this damn planet, even if he couldn¡¯t do it the easy way.


    They made sure there was nothing moving or making a sound before they descended to the cave floor.  Snake¡¯s body was still there, but part of it was missing.


    ¡°They like to keep trophies,¡± she responded to his confused look.


    Shaking his head, he led them towards the city.  There were bodies everywhere.  The amount of blood, was surprisingly small.


    Stepping past the deflated body of the slime toad, he looked around.  If any of these things had a skin plate that could reflect the lasers, he wanted to steal it from them.  They spread out, investigating the various bodies, but staying in sight of each other.


    Dustin came up to a building, and glanced inside.  It looked like there had been a lot of fighting right here, rather than just a bunch of bodies shot as they ran away.  The lock on the door had been melted by repeated blasts from the lasers, much like the hole burrowing through the ground had.  One wall was nothing but a smoking ruin of metal, half melted in on itself.  He moved closer, hearing Olivia enter behind him.  This had been something built from all of the PED devices from all of the prisoners.


    ¡°They were building a super computer,¡± she blurted in astonishment.


    ¡°But why?¡±


    ¡°Maybe they were trying to do the same thing we were.¡±


    ¡°Maybe¡­¡± he mused, moving a large melted piece that had cooled some, to the side.


    Underneath, he found a shiny multifaceted clump, about the size of a large dog.


    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± she asked, moving closer.


    ¡°What I¡¯ve been looking for,¡± he said with a grin.


    ¡°What?¡± she asked, confused.


    ¡°Stand up, we won¡¯t hurt you like those hunters or that snake guy.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve heard that before,¡± a soft high-pitched voice said.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t say I wouldn¡¯t hurt you, just not like those others.¡±


    ¡°Well, at least you¡¯re truthful,¡± he conceded, uncurling and climbing to his feet.


    He was cute.  Olivia sucked in a breath, in surprise, and promptly left the room.  His face was small, with large eyes that shined in a rainbow of colors.  Every inch of his skin was covered in crystals.  They were larger on his back, which led to the illusion of just being a rock when rolled into a ball.  He would be lucky if he stood a full two feet.


    ¡°Done gawking?¡± he grumbled in annoyance.


    ¡°Just trying to figure out how to get a genetic sample from you.¡±


    ¡°Good luck, that Snake guy tried for years to figure it out.  He finally locked me in here, to keep me from escaping, and threw the PED devices in to keep me busy.¡±


    ¡°So, you built this thing?¡±


    ¡°Yea, but it was more out of boredom then actual use.  The juice it had wasn¡¯t enough to power any actual evolution.¡±


    ¡°Makes sense.  So, did he try pulling teeth or cutting your tongue?¡±


    Nodding, he said, ¡°The crystal coating continues throughout my digestive system.  I¡¯m not even sure how I can digest my foods.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± he said, walking towards him.


    ¡°Wait, what are you doing?¡± he backed up holding his hands up.


    ¡°Let me see your smallest finger.¡±


    The crystal guy looked at him for a moment, then shrugged.  ¡°It¡¯s not like you can hurt me.¡±


    Squatting down, he took the guys finger, and shoved it into the port whole.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING.)


    ¡°Wait, what¡¯s that?  Is it actually working?¡± he asked incredulously.


    ¡°Nothing ever said the sample had to be completely contained in the port.¡±


    He opened his mouth, and then shut it.  Shaking his head, he began to laugh.


    ¡°If that Snake guy knew, he would be so angry!  He tried everything to get a sample from me, but never could get even a sliver.¡±


    (POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: CRYSTAL SKIN, CRYSTAL DIGESTIVE SYSTEM, REDUCED CONSUMPTION, REDUCED NEED FOR BREATHING, TORPOR AT WILL)


    ¡°Save this information for later evolutions,¡± he said.


    (EVOLUTION OPTIONS SAVED. DOES HOST REFUSE EVOLUTION AT THIS TIME?)


    ¡°I want the reduced consumption and reduced breathing right now.  Initiate that evolution.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    ¡°Did it really work?¡± he asked, when Dustin released his hand.


    ¡°Yep,¡± he responded, standing up and walking away.


    ¡°Wait, where are you going?¡± he asked.


    ¡°Why?¡± asked Dustin, turning back.


    ¡°Everyone who¡¯s ever found me, wanted to keep me, like a treasure or something.  But you¡¯ve just met me, and you¡¯re already leaving.  I don¡¯t know, it just seems odd.¡±


    ¡°Let me ask you a question.  What do you want?¡±


    The man seemed shocked at the question.  He looked around the room.  ¡°I want to see the sun again.¡±


    ¡°Then get out of this cave,¡± he said, shrugging and turning again.


    Olivia was walking towards him, carrying a bucket of water and several skewers of cooked meat.


    ¡°Ah,¡± he sighed with a smile.


    ¡°I was hungry and thirsty, so when I found this, I thought you might be too.¡±


    Grabbing the bucket, he dunked his head into it, and drank his fill.  Flinging his head back, he grinned at her, and she laughed at the sight.


    ¡°Did you find what you were looking for?¡± she asked, passing him a skewer.


    ¡°Yeah.  Ready to get off this rock?¡±


    She looked at him, uncertainty in her eyes, but she nodded.


    ¡°How do you plan to do that?¡± asked the crystal man behind him.


    They both turned to look at him.  Olivia seemed to have gotten over whatever bothered her before, because she didn¡¯t immediately run away at the sight of him.


    ¡°By using the crystals to ignore the damage from the lasers.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s all good and well, but what about the sonic blasts?¡±


    ¡°What sonic blasts?¡±


    ¡°The ones that rip you apart when you get past the sentry guns.  Even the crystals won¡¯t keep you safe from those.¡±

 Chapter 21 The Crystal Prince

    ¡°Where are we going?¡± Olivia asked, as he nodded thoughtfully and turned around.


    ¡°I have an acquaintance to ask a question of.¡±  He held up one of the PED devices that hadn¡¯t been damaged from the jumbled mess of them.


    ¡°Is that one still working?¡±  she asked, taking it curiously.


    ¡°Only one way to find out.¡±


    They made their way back to the big cave, and then started climbing up to the hole.


    ¡°Hey! Wait!  How am I supposed to follow you up there?¡±


    ¡°Learn to climb,¡± said Dustin, not really caring.


    ¡°I can help you figure out how to get past the sonic attack!¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve got a pretty good idea.¡±


    ¡°I know what other defenses they have!¡±


    Dustin paused.  He was almost to the hole, but turned to look at him.


    ¡°And just how do you know that?¡±


    He squirmed for a moment.  ¡°I used to be Josagn.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    Dustin and Olivia both began climbing back down.


    ¡°How is that possible?¡± demanded Dustin.


    ¡°I was young and stupid.¡±


    ¡°More,¡± demanded Olivia.


    ¡°The Josagn are the best hunters in the galaxy, but only because of our weapons.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d always thought they died really easy.¡±


    ¡°Wait, you stole a PED from one of the prisoners, didn¡¯t you?¡± asked Olivia.


    ¡°It was my first hunt here. I was sick of watching my people die just because we had to stay pure.  If we were willing to change, to evolve, like other races, we could grow stronger.  I wanted to prove it, but the device malfunctioned.  Once I changed, it wouldn¡¯t let me go back.¡± His voice sounded bleak.


    ¡°Spill everything.¡±  Dustin crossed his arms.


    ¡°When I came across the human, he was dead.  He never made it out of his pod alive.  I took his PED and upgraded my own.  I spent the next couple of hours, evolving and goofing off.  None of it was serious to me.  When I was attacked by one of the aquatic creatures, I got a sample of it, then decided I wanted to explore the oceans.  There was so much to explore, I lost track of time.  My father came in search of me, but obviously couldn¡¯t find me.  When I saw the shiny crustacean on the floor of the ocean, I of course acquired a sample and became what you see now.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°When I surfaced, to see the sun¡¯s reflection on my new skin, I was captured by other prisoners.  I watched them kill some of my father¡¯s men, who were obviously looking for me still.  They brought me here, where I have been ever since.¡±


    ¡°So, who actually, are you?¡± asked Olivia, looking at him suspiciously.


    ¡°My father is Aioth.¡±


    She opened her mouth, then turned to Dustin, who had no clue who that was.


    ¡°That would make you the prince!¡± she finally managed to sputter.


    ¡°Yes, but I¡¯m not sure it would make much of a difference anymore.  I am no longer pure.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯ve been looking for you for years!  It¡¯s known you disappeared¡­¡± she drifted off, and stumbled back.


    ¡°What?¡± asked Dustin, standing up straight.


    ¡°Right before I was thrown in prison, there was talk about a reward for who ever found him.  It was in the billions.¡±


    ¡°But I thought they considered you dead if you didn¡¯t return in 20 hours.  Wouldn¡¯t it be incredibly stupid to put out a reward for a dead guy?¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t understand,¡± she said, shaking her head.  ¡°There is a gem that glows for each royal family member.  I know because I saw them.  The prince¡¯s stone still glows, so they know he still lives.¡±


    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t know that I wasn¡¯t still pure,¡± he confirmed.


    ¡°Wait, so if we waltz into that place, with him, claiming that he¡¯s the prince, they might just let us off this hell hole?¡±


    ¡°Maybe, if you can get inside,¡± he said.


    ¡°Whelp, good enough for me,¡± said Dustin, grabbing the guy up.  They started climbing up again, with the crystal guy clinging to his back.


    The hole was really deep, so they had to climb for a long time.  As Dustin finally reached the surface, he was amused to see that they had killed a vine tree.  He climbed around to avoid the black ick still on the ground, and Olivia followed his lead.


    ¡°Now all we have to do, is get to the shuttle port.¡±


    They looked over the forest, to catch their breath, and after a moment, they started walking.  The prince turned out to be very annoying.  He wanted to look at everything.  It was a good thing he couldn¡¯t be hurt, because he would have died a hundred times over, otherwise.


    They were attacked by the color changing giant wolves with four eyes and six legs, but Dustin bit the first one, and the others fled when it died.  Then one of the thick-skinned creatures with the spikes on its forehead, tried to charge them, and Dustin sidestepped it, again biting it, when it impaled its spikes in a tree, getting temporarily stuck.


    When the dragon charged, Olivia climbed a tree.  Dustin watched as the crystal prince went flying.  Then as it was gnawing on him, he charged, jumping onto its back, and digging his claws in to hold on.  It roared and started to shake, running and rubbing against trees to dislodge him.  When it started for a tree, he knew had those black beetles that could strip a body in minutes, he decided he¡¯d had enough fun and bit it.


    Jumping to the ground, he walked away as the beetles began to crawl over and cover the body behind him.


    Olivia climbed, and jumped from the tree, to land next to him.


    ¡°You guys are crazy,¡± said the prince, picking himself up and trying to brush the dirt off his crystals.  He wasn¡¯t having much luck, when there was a distant rumble of thunder.


    Dustin chuckled and the sky opened up.


    ¡°What the¡­?¡± yelled Olivia, over the downpour.  She started to run for cover, but stopped when neither Dustin or the prince appeared to be following her.  She followed them as they trooped along, in the mud of the storm as every other sane creature sought shelter.  At least they weren¡¯t getting attacked every other step they took.

 Chapter 22 Fabricated Dreams

    Dustin stopped and looked around.  He was exhausted.  Walking during the rain seemed to have drained him, and he wasn¡¯t sure why.


    ¡°Is anyone else feeling really tired?¡± asked the crystal prince.


    ¡°Yea, I can barely keep my eyes open,¡± complained Olivia.


    ¡°There must be something in the rain that¡¯s causing it.  I don¡¯t remember this the last time it rained, but I also took shelter and didn¡¯t stay in it the whole time.¡±


    ¡°Well, let¡¯s find a place to rest.¡±


    It took them about twenty minutes to get a little lean-to built.  Using branches from surrounding trees to keep off a lot of the rain, they threw more inside to lay on.  It didn¡¯t look to bad for a rushed job in a downpour. As they climbed inside, exhaustion pulled at them, and they were all quickly asleep.


    -Dreaming:


    -¡°Dustin, what are you doing?¡±


    -He looked up to see he had been going through her purse. (Why would he do that?)


    -¡°My buddy said you went to see the clinic yesterday, so I was looking for the receipt,¡± he answered, glaring at her.


    -¡°You think just because we¡¯re dating, that gives you permission to go through my purse?¡±  She was obviously pissed. (She should be!  Why the hell would I go through a woman¡¯s purse?  Those things are like black holes!)


    -¡°Then tell me why you went to the clinic.¡±


    -¡°I got an abortion.  I told you that I didn¡¯t want no brats!¡± (Can you even get abortions at a clinic? What the hell?)


    -¡°You bitch!¡± he swung at her, hitting her eye. (I would never hit a woman first!  What kind of shit is this?)


    Dustin managed to jerk himself awake, furious.  That dream was supposed to be a rerun of what had happened, but he knew without a doubt, none of that had happened.  What was going on?


    He looked outside, to see that it had stopped raining, and things were starting venture out again.  The birds had started singing, to fill the silence after the storm.


    Olivia woke with a start, and sat up, with a scowl on her face.


    ¡°Did you get the dream augmentation, too?¡± he asked, curious.


    ¡°These dreams are a load of bull!  None of that happened.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯ve lived longer than they anticipated.  The dreams are starting to break down,¡± said the crystal prince, as he sat with his back against the tree trunk.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked Olivia, before Dustin could.


    ¡°We gave that technology to you human¡¯s too.  The dreams that are fabricated, only follow the original story line for a few days before breaking down. It¡¯s supposed to make the dreamer more suicidal, at least based on what the human government was wanting.  We used the dream tech for other uses.¡±


    ¡°So, does that mean, there¡¯s a chance, that what happened, didn¡¯t actually happen?¡± asked Dustin, suddenly wondering.  He could see himself hitting a woman, especially if she had hit him first, but for a woman to be able to almost break a jaw, like he remembered, would take a pretty strong woman, and he never went for that type.  All the girls he dated would have hated to chip a nail, much less actually punch a guy.


    ¡°Actually, that¡¯s a pretty safe bet.  It¡¯s far easier to sentence someone to a crime, if that person believed they actually did it.¡±


    Dustin and Olivia were both shocked and outraged.  If they didn¡¯t commit the crimes they thought they had, then why were they here?


    ¡°Does that mean, they¡¯re just grabbing people at random to throw down here?¡± asked Dustin, trying to remember what had actually happened.


    ¡°That doesn¡¯t make sense.  I was a pretty big player in the Josagn political field.  They couldn¡¯t just make me disappear without a really good reason.¡±  Olivia shook her head.


    ¡°Did you have anything political going on with you?¡± asked the prince, turning to Dustin.


    ¡°My dad was a war hero in the last excursion.  He died shortly after returning, but how could that have anything to do with it?¡±


    ¡°With the Ogifgar?  That was a brutal war.¡±


    ¡°The Ogifgar?? That¡¯s why!¡± exclaimed the prince, standing up in excitement.


    They both looked at him, like he had grown a second head.


    ¡°The Ogifgar are our top competitors at the moment.  Or they had been.  We only agreed to partner, somewhat, with the human race, because you guys took out the primary force of the Ogifgar race.  Once you did that, it opened a doorway for us to be able to start playing our war games with them.¡±


    ¡°What, let me get this straight, you guys refused to deal with us, unless we crippled this other race for you, so you could go and kill them for fun?¡±


    The prince shrugged.  ¡°That¡¯s what we do.¡±


    ¡°But what does that have to do with us?¡± asked Olivia.


    ¡°What did you have to do with the Ogifgar?¡± he asked her.


    ¡°Nothing.  I was a species analyst for your race.  I stayed with your people for six years trying to learn about you for my government.¡±


    ¡°Oh! Well, that¡¯s why you were sent here.  Our people don¡¯t like snoops.  That is what you call them, right?  Those who go into other places to learn about them?¡±


    ¡°Do you mean, like spies?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Yes!  We hate those who would spy on us.  I imagine one of our diplomats threatened to cut off relations if you weren¡¯t removed.¡±


    ¡°By claiming you killed a general, that would give them plenty of permission to throw you away,¡± said Dustin, thoughtfully.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll give you that,¡± she finally conceded.  ¡°But that doesn¡¯t explain you.  Just because your dad was in a war, I don¡¯t get the connection.  What did you do for a living again?  Something about building alien tech?¡±


    ¡°No, I reverse engineered tech that came from aliens.  I was pretty good too.  I had just gotten a promotion for this little device that came from somewhere.  It looked kind of like a cube, but when you turned it, this glow would emit, causing all those around you to freeze, for like, ten seconds.¡±


    ¡°A dantien cube?¡± shrieked the prince.


    ¡°Maybe?  It didn¡¯t come with a name tag.  I was told to reverse engineer it, just like all the other crap they throw at me, and I did.  I was hoping for a larger bonus, but eh, I took what I could get.¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s a dantien cube?¡± asked Olivia.


    ¡°It¡¯s one of our most top-secret military devices!  How the skadfhg did you guys get one???¡±

 Chapter 23 Crystal Plates

    ¡°Ah, who cares. It won¡¯t help us here,¡± said Dustin, turning back to looking around.


    His mind drifted, as they continued on, to the thought of getting off this planet and settling down somewhere.  He would have to figure out how to get back to human at some time, but that wasn¡¯t important right now.


    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± asked Olivia, pausing next to him.


    Dustin looked in the direction she was pointing, and noticed movement.  Small creatures were running towards them, not to attack, but in terror.


    ¡°What are they afraid of?¡± she asked.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but it may be time to go ahead and figure out how to do some modified evolutions.¡±  He looked at his PED and started pushing a couple buttons.


    (HOST WISHES TO INITIATE MODIFIED EVOLUTION.  STATE REQUESTED EVOLUTION COMBINATION.)


    ¡°I want to keep my scale plates, but I want them to become the crystal skin.  I don¡¯t want to look like a walking gemstone like the originator of the genetic material.¡± Blowing out some air, he was glad he could remember some of those words.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION: CRYSTAL PLATES.)


    Dustin watched in fascination as the scale plates went from a dull olive green to a pale off-white pearl color.  There was still the green around the edges, where his joints were, but overall, he was much easier to see.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°Woah, what did you do?¡± asked Olivia, walking around him, and reaching out to touch one of the plates.


    ¡°I used the upgraded PED to make crystal plates instead of skin.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°You can do that?¡± asked the crystal prince, also coming to investigate.


    ¡°Only because I¡¯ve upgraded the PED¡¯s so many times.¡±


    ¡°But how?¡± he asked.


    Dustin opened his mouth to answer, and stopped.  Behind the creatures that had been running towards them, he saw a sight that took his breath away.


    ¡°I figured it out!¡± exclaimed Olivia happily examining her crystalline plates.


    ¡°Oh, God!¡± he finally managed to whisper.


    ¡°What?¡± she asked, turning to look behind her, just as the swarm of giant bugs engulfed them.


    They were huge, with legs everywhere, had rainbow shells that shimmered in the light from a pearly white all the way through the spectrum to a dull black.


    Dustin curled into a ball and screamed as they crawled, spat, chewed and ran over them.  At one point, the tip of a leg was shoved into his mouth, and he stopped screaming, afraid he might throw up if it happened again.


    ¡°Dustin, they¡¯re gone,¡± said Olivia, grabbing his arm.


    Breathing hard, he stood up shakily.  ¡°We have got to get off this planet!¡±


    ¡°Those bugs are the least of our problems!¡± cried the prince, picking himself up off the ground.


    They all turned to look at the things that were approaching now, and he was surprised to see they carried spears and clubs.  The men looked like walking lizards, and his first thought was that they had copied his evolution pattern.  It took him another minute to realize they were beings that must live on this planet, and they were hunting the bugs that had just run by.


    ¡°I don¡¯t imagine, they¡¯ll just go by?¡±


    ¡°They eat whatever they can catch!¡± said the prince, terrified.


    ¡°What are you so scared of?  They can¡¯t eat you?¡± said Olivia.


    ¡°No, but it still hurts when they boil you in oil!¡± he said, with a shiver.


    The lizards attacked at that moment, with growls and roars.  While the crystalline plates prevented them from cutting and piercing their skin, Dustin discovered very quickly, that it didn¡¯t keep them from bashing them with their clubs.


    Olivia was dodging the blows and slashing with her claws.  With the crystal covering them, she cut every time she came into contact, but a few scratches weren¡¯t enough to drive them off.  Dustin started grabbing them and biting them.  As long as his teeth could break through the skin, they would die.  Or so he hoped.


    The first one he bit, bled a lot, but never started convulsing.  He merely kicked him away and swung his club to try and bash his head in, but missed when he rolled away.


    Spitting, he shot back to his feet.


    ¡°I fucking hate this planet!¡± he screamed, driving his fist into the lizard¡¯s face.  The first hit, stunned it, but the second knocked it down.  The other two hundred rushed in to get in on the action, and he grinned.  This would be fun.

 Chapter 25 Temporary Evolution

    The lizardman went flying through the air, as Dustin grabbed its leg and threw it backwards.  It landed heavily on its back, and promptly had another one land on it, from near Olivia. Ducking under a swung spear, he glanced at her.  She had something on her hands that were slicing through the hides of the lizards before her, like they were made of butter.


    ¡°Woah!  How¡¯d you do that?¡± he called, punching another one in the face.


    ¡°It¡¯s a modified crystal plate over my hands,¡± she called back, slashing another one across the face, then kicking at one who got too close behind her.


    ¡°That¡¯s cool!¡± he almost sang, dodging the club of a spectacularly tall lizardman, and kicking its legs out from under it.


    ¡°Oh, go sing to someone else!¡± she shouted, ducking a blow, then upper cutting the lizard, slicing off part of his face.


    ¡°You¡¯re so cool,¡± he sang out loud, horribly off key, as he punched one, then kicked another, before stepping back to avoid a spear to the face.


    ¡°I¡¯d be a fool,¡± he continued, as she started to laugh, twisting to avoid another spear, grabbing it when the lizard overextended, and jerked it off its feet.


    ¡°To leave this school, as a rule!¡± he ended the song on a high note, that made the lizardmen grimace, and attack him even harder.  Olivia smashed two lizardmen together, shaking her head at his impromptu song.


    ¡°You need lessons!¡±


    Grinning, he turned his attention to his PED.


    ¡°Initiate temporary modified evolution, crystal plate over each hand. I want the edge of the plate to be sharp. Name it ¡®Bladehands¡¯.¡± He dodged another attack, letting it hit the big guy, who was now laying on the ground, looking really ticked.


    (TEMPORARY EVOLUTION ¡®BLADEHANDS¡¯ INITIATED.)


    Being able to envision what he wanted, helped immensely, and he was really glad he had incorporated that into the last upgrade.


    As he stepped back to avoid the swing of another club, his fingers became rigid and fused together as a crystal plate grew over them, incorporating his claws into the edge, so that the plate had an almost ridged appearance.  It shone in the light, and he grinned.  It was time to get busy cutting and slashing.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)


    As body after body fell, he couldn¡¯t help thinking about how much this was like the time he got stuck in a brawl between two street gangs.  They both thought he was on the other side, making every attempt to kill him as they attacked each other.  They had used bats and sticks, chains, sharp broken bottles, whatever they could find.  He survived only because his dad showed up to save him.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    He sobered as he remembered, he wasn¡¯t allowed outside to play after that, and then they moved a couple of weeks later.  He suddenly missed his dad.


    As he weaved through the tangled mess of lizardmen trying to kill him, he also managed to sneak glances at Olivia.  Her body count was even higher than his, but she had admitted to killing things for six years straight.


    ROAR!


    All of the lizardmen who were able, suddenly turned tail and fled the clearing.  Those who couldn¡¯t tried to crawl.


    Out of the brush, a creature Dustin had never seen before, emerged.  Its head was triangular, with red, slitted eyes.  Sparse yellow fur covered its body, with nasty, pus-filled sores leaking orangish brown goo.  Its mouth was stretched wide, exposing teeth too large to contain, resulting in thick strands of drool dripping from its mouth.  It gazed down at the lizardman who lay on the ground before it, trying to crawl away, despite its wounds.


    The crystal prince and Olivia, backed up to him, stepping over the fallen bodies of the lizardmen.


    ¡°I think now would be an excellent time to retreat,¡± said the prince.


    ¡°I thought Josagn never retreated,¡± replied Dustin, eyeing the twenty-foot tall beast.


    ¡°Dustin, if this is what happens when you sing, you are never allowed to sing ever again.¡±  Olivia didn¡¯t spare him a glance as the thing reached down to the lizardman and bit it in two.  Shaking its head, like a dog with a rag toy, it flung the top half through the air, intestines and guts flying out everywhere, like confetti.


    ¡°I apologize.  Did you see those fangs?¡± Dustin was torn between the huge fangs and dripping sores, and the urge to get a sample from it.  Somehow, he didn¡¯t think biting it would be a good idea, though.


    ¡°This thing might be able to kill us, even me.  I was told to retreat if this thing showed up.  It¡¯s a plague bringer.¡±  The prince continued to move away from it, drawing closer to the bushes.


    ¡°That explains the weeping sores.  Let¡¯s back away slowly, and hope it doesn¡¯t follow us.  There should be enough lizards laying around to distract it.¡±


    After thinking a few seconds more, he finally agreed with them, and started moving away as well.  This sucked, but he wasn¡¯t sure that he could fight off the plague.  He knew that he was immune to venom, but not disease.  Was it even that important?  His goal was to get off this damn planet.  Searching for new genetic material would cause him to take longer meeting that goal.


    ¡°End temporary evolution,¡± he said to the PED, as he reached the bushes.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION: END TEMPORARY EVOLUTION.)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)


    Moving as quickly and quietly as they could, they started making good progress towards the shuttle station.  Maybe, just maybe they could get there without any other interruptions.


    ¡°You really are a horrible singer,¡± declared the prince, matter-of-factly.


    ¡°Shut up,¡± he growled, looking over at Olivia.


    She wasn¡¯t paying attention, because those other interruptions he was trying to avoid, had arrived.  Six-legged lizards, with black and yellow frills all around their faces and down their necks, scurried towards them.  A few had hands and feet, of lizardmen, clutched in their jaws.


    ¡°They can¡¯t hurt us,¡± Dustin said, starting to jog again.  If any got close enough to kick, he did, and they hissed at him.


    Plumes of black mist seeped out of their mouths, and he decided he really didn¡¯t want anything to do with them.  They ran faster, with Dustin picking up the prince, trying to outrun them.  Strangely enough, with six legs, they were able to keep up pretty well.

 Chapter 26 Crystal Eater

    Breaking out of the bushes, Dustin barely managed to stop before running straight into a lake by grabbing the trunk of a tree.  Dropping the prince in the mud, he started waving his arm like crazy to get the black beetles that had crawled onto it, off.


    ¡°Ugh!¡± cried the prince, raising an arm covered in muck, exposing a long black worm stuck to his crystal arm.  It was a leech.


    Dustin jumped back, his feet sinking into the soft mud near the shore.  The black lizards had stopped at the edge of the mud, and were watching silently.  That couldn¡¯t be a good thing¡­


    ¡°What are those things?¡± asked Olivia, just outside the reach of the lizards, yet not in the deep muck that Dustin and the prince were in.


    Looking over his shoulder, he could see what looked like hundreds of the leeches crawling through the muck.  Deeper in the water, he saw a heat signature, that was so large, he couldn¡¯t tell where it ended.  Was that one thing, or a multitude of things?  Trying to step away from the leeches, he started to hyperventilate as he found himself stuck.


    The lizards turned tail and fled moments before a huge mountain of green and pink flesh rose out of the water.  All Dustin could see were rows upon rows of teeth, before he was covered in mud.  What had happened??  He couldn¡¯t move, couldn¡¯t breathe, mud was filling his mouth, nose, ears, eyes¡­


    Suddenly, he was flying through the air, hanging upside down, still blind from the mud.  Then he was underwater, drowning, being dragged deeper and deeper.  He could faintly feel a tightness around his ankle, that was dragging him through the water.  And then he was in the air again, he could see, thanks to the water, but the sight that met his newfound vision, was chilling.


    The prince was held for only a moment, in a tentacle, before dropping into the opened maw of some great beast.  The tentacle that held his ankle tightened, and he was certain he would drop into that maw next.  Could he survive being digested?  Even if the acid couldn¡¯t eat through his crystal plates, he wouldn¡¯t be able to breathe!


    Curling up, he grabbed his ankle, giving himself the leverage to grab the tentacle before it dropped him into the mouth of the thing wanting to eat him.  Pulling himself closer, he bit it.


    He was suddenly flying through the air, hitting tree branches on his way, and finally came to rest on the ground, far from the lake.  A roar that shook the ground he sat on, filled the air, and everything that hadn¡¯t fled, took the opportunity to do just that.  Dustin sat up with a groan.  He hurt everywhere.  Spitting out the piece of tentacle, he climbed to his feet, shoved it in the port to his PED and started jogging back towards the water. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: GILLS, MINERAL EXTRACTION, TENTACLES.)


    (INITIATE EVOLUTION?)


    Dustin stopped in his tracks.  Tentacles?  That had possibilities¡­


    Focus Dustin!  He shook his head and then realized the mineral extraction meant that thing probably attacked them because of the crystal skin!  Oh Shit!


    He arrived just in time to see the thing disappearing back into the water.  As it dove deep, he saw that those tentacles came out of its butt.  Like worms???  Heaving, he threw up at the thought of having bit a butt worm.


    Olivia was no where to be seen.  He glared at the water, wiping his mouth.  The leeches were crawling over and attaching to his crystal plates, but they couldn¡¯t do anything, at least he hoped they couldn¡¯t.  He closed his eyes.  Oh God, did he have to do this?


    Breathing hard, he stepped forward.  They would die if he didn¡¯t do this.


    ¡°Give me the gills.¡±


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION.)


    Diving into the water, he felt the sides of his neck flutter and then he could suddenly breathe.  The heat signature below him was slowly fading.  He swam faster, thinking it was getting away from him, but as he came up on it, he realized that it was dead.  His bite had worked!


    Swimming around to the mouth, he grimaced.  How was he going to get them out?  Could he pry open the mouth?  Or should he start cutting from the side and hope he could cut through it fast enough?


    ¡°Initiate temporary evolution, bladehands.¡±


    (INITIATING TEMPORARY EVOLUTION.)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Dustin started slicing, quickly staining the surrounding water with the black blood of the monster.  He ignored it, as well as the leeches that let go of his crystal hide, to swim towards the leaking cuts, and continued cutting.  When he reached the stomach, the acid that spilled out, started eating his crystal blades, eroding them.


    ¡°End temporary evolution.¡±


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION.)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Gripping the edges of the cut stomach, he shoved his hand inside, feeling around for anything hard.  He felt the hand of the prince and jerked him out.  He was much smaller, most of his crystal skin having been eaten away.


    Letting him fall, Dustin reached back in, trying to find Olivia.  There was nothing.  He grabbed the edges and ripped it open wider in panic.  She had to be here.  Hadn¡¯t she?


    Swimming back after finding nothing more, he swam down to grab the floating prince, then headed for shore.  Carrying him past the disgusting leeches, he set him down on the shore.  A few hard whacks on the back had him choking out water and unmentionable liquids.  Dustin stepped back out of the way of the spray, when a gleam caught his eye.


    Moving further down the shore, just in the bushes, was Olivia¡¯s PED.  There was blood where it had been ripped off of her arm.  He crouched, looking around carefully, before picking it up.  It was still warm.  He could see the heat where it had been in contact with her skin.


    A feeling of relief washed over him as he realized she hadn¡¯t been eaten.  But what had happened?  Why was her PED here?

 Chapter 27 Truth From A Stick

    Dustin helped the prince to stand, wondering what in the hell was going on.  Every time he seemed to be getting closer to this damn shuttle station, monsters uniquely suited to his evolutions kept popping up, and then this huge lake appeared.  Now Olivia was missing, and he wasn¡¯t sure where she had gone.  As far as he could tell, she hadn¡¯t just run away in fear, because she would never had left her PED, yet there hadn¡¯t been a sign of a struggle.


    Coughing, the prince finally seemed to be getting better.


    Dustin went to pick him up, so he could start heading around the lake to get to the shuttle station, when a familiar figure appeared.  The memory of a hand sticking out of a cocoon had him looking at the stick giant in suspicion.


    It paused, seeing the look on his face, then pointed at the PED.  He hesitated.  Olivia would need it.  It pointed again, and he sighed.  Chances were that she was dead.  At least the sex was good.


    Handing over the PED, it slipped it onto its arm, and began to evolve.  How did it do that without getting any genetic material?  Didn¡¯t it need to resync with a new user?


    Looking up at him, he found himself looking into Olivia¡¯s face.  The prince looked at her, then at him, then back at her.


    ¡°Is this a joke?  How does she have Olivia¡¯s face?¡± asked the prince in confusion.


    ¡°Yes, that is a good question,¡± he said, in a low growl.


    ¡°I can explain, but we need to get out of sight.  The drones will be back any moment.¡±


    ¡°Drones?  You mean this planet has managed to receive enough ratings to warrant a show broadcast?¡± asked the prince in astonishment.


    Turning, she ignored him, and with a shrug, Dustin followed her.  They stopped at a tree that looked like many others.  Dustin tried to see if there was like a hidden door on the bark or something, but instead, the Olivia look-a-like moved a rotten stump off the entrance to a tunnel.


    ¡°Of course, I should have seen that coming,¡± he said, feeling tired all of a sudden.  This whole damn planet was getting on his nerves.  Why couldn¡¯t he just leave all ready?  Why did this crap keep happening?


    After climbing down, she moved the stump back into place.  They descended into a cave for about thirty feet, before coming to a decent sized room.  Sitting down in a corner, the prince stretched out and made himself comfortable.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    ¡°You have survived an incredible amount of time on the surface.  My sister was the one who you had encountered before.¡±


    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s why I thought you were dead,¡± he said, kind of understanding.


    ¡°Yes, my sister died fighting the carpet bird.¡±


    ¡°That flying rug thing?¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± she nodded, sitting down as well.


    ¡°The drones watch you, and when you do not die from the creatures, they send harder ones.¡±


    ¡°Who¡¯re they?¡±


    ¡°The bird people who fly on machines.  They come to hunt the new ones who fall from the sky, but if they fail, they send monsters.  I fear what they will do now that you have not died yet.  Your survival endangers us all.¡±


    Dustin was getting a sick feeling in his stomach.  His eyes wandered over the warm roots that made up the walls of this cave.  He wondered if he had just willingly stepped into a trap.


    ¡°You live here?¡±


    ¡°Yes, my people have always lived here, long before the bird people came and started bringing such evil things to our home.  We have learned from the ones who survive the longest, but we struggle to survive.¡±


    ¡°You know that killing me, won¡¯t stop them sending people right?¡±


    ¡°This is understood.  We do not kill.  We seek to have you kill for us.¡±


    Rubbing his head, he couldn¡¯t figure this thing out.


    ¡°Why do you look like Olivia?¡±


    ¡°I requested the form of the last wearer.  This is not the first device I have worn.  Though this device is far better than any I have worn.¡±


    ¡°Do you know where Olivia is?¡±


    ¡°She has returned to the port, with the bird people.  As she has many times.  I was sent to warn you.  They always pull away all those who they do not wish to be harmed right before they start the worst attacks.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what do you mean she has many times?  Are you sure it is the same girl?¡±  Dustin was shocked.  How could she be a spy?  Thinking about it, she had seemed different from any other girl he had dealt with before.  Had the Josagn sent her?


    His mind spun with all the possibilities.  That¡¯s when the prince spoke up.


    ¡°The drones are always used on planets with a high entertainment value for my people.  When they are not hunting, they watch the shows produced from the hunts on planets like this one.  If the people liked her, they may have saved her from some cataclysmic event that is intended to wipe you out. It would not be hard to wipe her mind.  I have been on this planet for many years, I am sure, yet she speaks of my crystal back home still glowing.  I doubt that is true.¡±


    ¡°But I remember the videos of her speaking about your culture. She was on talk shows where they would ask questions.  She was a favorite, because she was so willing to explain the aliens everyone wanted to know about, the blood-thirsty Josagn.¡±


    ¡°This is not your first time on this planet either, human-minded one.  I have witnessed you also being taken back to the port, when they have wanted to kill off those you traveled with.¡±


    Dustin was floored.  This wasn¡¯t his first time?  How was that possible?  Licking his lips, he looked around.  There had to be an answer to some of these questions, but only more questions came to mind.  This whole thing was messed up.


    ¡°Prince, you better tell me what the hell is going on, or I will finish what that giant fish started!¡±

 Chapter 28 Twig War

    ¡°What do you want to know?¡± asked the prince with large eyes.


    ¡°What exactly is meant by drones watch everything?  I haven¡¯t seen any drones!¡±


    ¡°They are camouflaged in the upper atmosphere.  You couldn¡¯t see them, unless you really tried.¡±


    ¡°What the hell! Look, just¡­¡± he rubbed his face in frustration.  ¡°You said that your people, the Josagn, watch these, what, reality shows?  Why would they¡­ how do they save and reuse people??  I sure as hell don¡¯t remember being on this godforsaken planet before!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s easy, they wiped your mind and reloaded your previous memories.  If you really are one of the favorites, they would have a genetic sample of you before you came, along with a mind tape.  That way, when they went to save you, they could return you back to the original base you started as.  I told you we used the memory technology different.¡±


    ¡°Those were dreams.  Not entire personalities!¡±  He stood up, unable to be still.  This was insane.  How could this be true?  He knew that all of this could theoretically be true, but still.


    ¡°How many times¡­no what happens if I died?  Do they have some kind of clone thing going on too?¡±


    ¡°No, the ones who can survive the longest become the favorites, but if they are too successful, it is decided to finish them off, or send the best hunters after them.  It would not be good for our people to watch a non-Josagn be such a good survivor as that.¡±


    ¡°At least I¡¯m still me.  That¡¯s a relief.¡±  He turned to the stick Olivia.  ¡°The Josagn are hunters of intelligent races. Why is it that your kind haven¡¯t been hunted?¡±


    ¡°We are not aggressive.  We do not hunt, or fight, if possible.  The bird ones you call Josagn, may not know we are intelligent.  We do not build structures as your people do, nor do we build weapons.¡±


    The prince shook his head.  ¡°You would not be worthy of noticing.¡±


    ¡°Does that mean, you could walk right into the shuttle station if you wanted?¡± asked Dustin, suddenly getting an idea.


    ¡°I suppose.  I have been very close to the structure where these shuttles go and return from the sky, without any problems.¡±


    ¡°Prince, why can¡¯t I use plant genetic material?  My PED said it couldn¡¯t turn me back into full human if I ever used the plants material.¡±Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°It has to do with the cell walls that plants have.  I don¡¯t know that much behind the science part, as that wasn¡¯t my specialties, but I remember some talk about the cell wall could not be removed once initiated.  It was always sad to see a favorite from one of the shows accept plant material during evolutions.  They couldn¡¯t be saved, no matter how much the audience wanted.¡±


    Dustin was hit with a problem.  He was given an opportunity to get off this planet, but it meant he could no longer return to human.  He glanced at his PED.


    It was a simple device really, the programming was complex, but he found that part fun.  He had worked on countless alien pieces that were incredibly more difficult than this.  At least he thought he had¡­no!  Even if what they said were true, he had to believe something about his past was true.  Otherwise, he might lose it.


    Ignoring the possibility of his entire existence worth of memories being made up, or not true, he focused on the problems at hand.  He was on a planet that specialized in trying to kill him as quickly as possible. The longer he stayed, the harder the obstacles.  He could try to hide from the drones, but he wasn¡¯t sure what would happen the longer he stayed.


    If the dream technology wore off, the longer he stayed alive, then would the false memories they had planted in his mind also fade?  What exactly would they be willing to do to ensure he were dead?


    Focus, Dustin.  The facts!  Just think about the facts.


    Ok, he wanted to get off the planet, because the Josagn wanted him dead.  Apparently, he had outlived his entertainment value.  They had a sample of his original genetics, if this wasn¡¯t his first time.  So, if he could find that, he could return to human, without having to sneak back for some damn baby teeth.


    Also, there was a girl, he kind of had the hots for, at least she was a great lay, and he wanted to try and save her too, if the opportunity presented itself.  This alien twig thing, could get him close to the shuttle port where he needed to be, but he couldn¡¯t go plant, or all bets were off on ever being human again.


    Could he use his PED to make himself look like one of the stick people, without actually going plant?  He just had to look like one.  Then he just had to wait twenty-four hours for the sentry gun to not register his PED as he snuck close.


    Nodding to himself, he looked up to see that the prince and the twig Olivia were watching him.  Had he been pacing?  Why were they staring at him?


    ¡°What?¡± he asked, reaching up to touch his face.


    ¡°You have not listened to our request,¡± said twig Olivia,


    ¡°And what is that?¡± he asked, annoyed that they wanted to add to his list of to do things.


    ¡°We want you to destroy the shuttle structure, so that the bird people do not return.¡±


    ¡°That would never work,¡± jumped in the prince, obviously insulted that she even mention such a thing.


    ¡°We do not want this hunting or viewing shows to continue on our planet.  We would like to request that your bird people leave us in peace.¡±


    ¡°And this is probably why they don¡¯t see your people as worth noticing.  You have a planet here, that while blood-thirsty, is kind of pretty, if you like that sort of thing, and instead of trying to protect it, you ask others to do it for you.¡±


    The twig Olivia turned her head, thinking about his words.


    ¡°Then we would have you teach us to do war.¡±

 Chapter 29 The Dreams Breaking

    Dustin closed his eyes for a moment.


    ¡°Of course, you do,¡± he finally said with a sigh.


    Time to revise his plan of action.  Teach the stick people how to fight, then sneak into the shuttle port, get off the damn planet, find his genetic material to become human again, grab the hot chick, and leave this nightmare in his dust.


    ¡°I would recommend your first course of action, to be finding a way to hide from the drones.  If you can successfully hide from them for a period of seven days, they will assume you are dead.¡± The prince looked thoughtful as he said this.


    ¡°Then how do those things work?¡±


    ¡°The first thing the drones look for, is movement.  The second is color differences in the normal spectrum.  The third is heat, and I think the fourth thing they look for is electromagnetic signatures.¡±


    ¡°Shit!  How the hell am I supposed to hide from all of that? I might be better off heading back into that cave and hiding out there for a week.¡±


    ¡°That would be an option, though I hesitate to return to that place,¡± he said with a shudder.


    ¡°That would not be good for us.  We must have the sun to survive.¡±


    ¡°But, you¡¯re underground right now,¡± pointed out Dustin, annoyed.


    ¡°Short periods out of the sun will not harm us.¡±


    Dustin stared at the twig girl for a moment, as an idea started to form in his head.  Looking around at the cave he was in, he decided to give it a try.


    ¡°What about this place.  It¡¯s plenty big enough for me to sleep in, and you could go out, kill things for me, and bring them back.¡±


    She did not like that, and he could tell right away.


    ¡°Look,¡± he said, before she could object, ¡°We¡¯ll start you off small.  You can get used to killing things slowly, over the next week or so, then once I¡¯ve gotten enough genetic material to hide from those drones, I¡¯ll start teaching you how to kill bigger things.¡±


    He had no idea if this would work, or not, but he had to try something.  He was sick of fighting harder and harder things.  If he had to lay low for a week to get them off his tail, he¡¯d do it.  Let the whole fucking system reboot, or whatever.


    ¡°Alright,¡± she grudgingly agreed.  ¡°We shall see if this works.  We are not happy with this plan as we do not like to kill things.¡±Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    ¡°You can¡¯t go to war without knowing how to kill things!  That¡¯s the whole point of war, to kill your opponent!¡± exclaimed the prince.


    ¡°Actually,¡± Dustin started, then stopped himself.  There could be a way to do this without killing the damn birds, but he wasn¡¯t willing to put in that much effort.  The whole fucking race could die for all he cared!


    ¡°Never mind, why don¡¯t you change back into your stick bug form, give me Olivia¡¯s PED back, and go find some bugs.  Little ones.  You don¡¯t even have to kill them, just bring them back, and I¡¯ll show you how to kill them.¡±


    Nodding, she returned to her form, and gave him back the PED before leaving the hollow.


    ¡°You do realize that as soon as they start killing things, the rest of my people will notice them and start to evaluate them as possible targets, right?¡±


    ¡°It gets your people off my back, keeps her busy, and gives me possible sources of genetic material to sample.  If anything at all is brought back that is helpful, it will have been worth it.¡±


    He looked like he wanted to argue for a moment, then shrugged and rolled over to sleep.


    Sleep.  That sounded like an excellent idea.  So much had happened since they woke up earlier, that he felt like he had been running on fumes.  Maybe after he slept, he¡¯d be able to think a little clearer.


    -Dream:


    -¡°Damn you, Sean! I told you to leave my tools alone!¡± he yelled, digging through his bag, looking for that yellow handled screwdriver.  The one that had the smallest little head.  It was perfect for the screws on this thing, but he couldn¡¯t find it.


    -¡°Fuck you, Dustin! I pay the rent here, too!  If you don¡¯t want me using your stuff, leave it in your room, or at work!¡±  He stepped out of the kitchen, just long enough to hurl it at him, without really looking, and then returned to whatever horrible thing was stinking up the apartment.


    -The screwdriver looked like it had been used to scrape something up, all the little grooves were full of black ick. Cursing at him, he tried to clean it off, but whatever it was, was not coming off.


    -He stood in his boss¡¯s office, sweating bullets.  The project was behind schedule, and most of the reason was his roommate¡¯s fault.  He was going to kill him when he got home!


    -The fireplace loomed in his face, that hadn¡¯t been there before.  The room had changed.  His tools and projects that had been scattered, were gone, replaced by a nice, well-to-do set of furniture.


    ¡°This is wrong,¡± he murmured in his sleep.


    -¡°How could you?¡± he whispered in horror, holding the paper from the clinic.  No words were on it, but his dream-self knew that it talked about an abortion.


    -¡°I did it to hurt you!¡± she screamed at him, swinging to punch him, but her form flickered, and it was his roommate, swinging, for a moment.  Then it was her again.


    -¡°You¡¯ll never get what you¡¯ve always wanted!¡± she/he screamed as the form flickered again.  The punch, too strong for a sexy woman, landed, almost breaking his jaw.


    -He swung back, not afraid to hit a man, landing a good hit, that had him/her falling back.  The form flickered back and forth, finally settling back on her, as she connected with the fireplace.


    Jerking awake, Dustin rubbed his head.  He had a splitting headache.  Running back over his dream, he realized he must have killed his roommate, instead of an exgirlfriend.  Maybe?  There hadn¡¯t been a fireplace in the apartment.


    His head hurt too much to think about it anymore.  The stick girl was waiting for him to wake up, holding a handful of different bugs.  All of them were squirming, and he immediately jumped to his feet, backing away.

 Chapter 30 Bugs

    One of the bugs was red and yellow, had a tiny little stinger on its tail, like a scorpion, that stretched over its back, and six, super long, claw-tipped legs. Of all the bugs she was holding, this one terrified him beyond anything else.


    ¡°Why are you so scared?¡± asked the prince, moving forward to look at the selection.  ¡°These are all merely bugs.  Sure, they can kill some, but your scales should be sufficient to protect you.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know, but that red and yellow one, scares the shit out of me!¡± he said, shaking his head.  He couldn¡¯t bring himself to get any closer.  In fact, he was pretty sure that if he had more space, he¡¯d move even further away from it.


    ¡°Well, you were going to teach her how to kill, you could start with that one?¡± suggested the prince, shrugging and sitting down, out of the way.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a good idea, kill that thing!¡± he said, pointing at it.


    She tilted her head to the side, as if she wasn¡¯t sure what he wanted.


    ¡°Damn it!  Just squish them!¡±  He clapped his hands together, as if squishing them all.


    So, she clapped her hands together, only squishing some of them, and sending the rest flying throughout the room. Most of them landed on the ground, and scattered to the edges of the room, against the walls.


    And do you know where that damn yellow and red bug landed?  Yep, right at his feet.


    He couldn¡¯t swear where the girly screaming was coming from, but it certainly amused the prince, who calmly reached over and crushed a few around him. Dustin thought he was going to lose his mind, scrambling halfway up the walls.


    His heart was trying to make its way out of his rib cage as that bug sat there calmly waving its antennae.  Then it almost turned its head towards him, and just like in one of those damn horror movies, that he hated by the way, it scrambled towards him.


    The bug tried to sting him, and he just barely moved his foot out of the way in time.  The prince was on the ground, laughing, and the stick girl looked at him in confusion, shaking her sticky hands, that were covered in bug guts.


    ¡°PED you better coat my feet in some thick crystals right now!¡± he all but screamed.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    As soon as his feet were as encased in crystal as the prince¡¯s used to be, he dashed forward and stomped that bug.


    It became paste beneath his foot, and he slowly raised it up, seeing a bright, glow-in-the-dark blue streak.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    Breathing hard, he allowed a full body shiver to travel throughout him, before slowly reaching down and pinching a piece of it.  Placing it tentatively into the port, he quickly wiped his fingers on a root that was sticking out of the wall.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: TISSUE DISSOLVING VENOM, NEUROTOXIC PAIN INDUCING SALIVA, TARGETING PHEROMONES)


    A little giggle escaped his lips as he worried about his sanity for a moment.  How the hell does anything come up with these things?!


    ¡°Give it all to me,¡± he said, scraping his foot off.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Shaking his head, he turned back to the twig girl.  ¡°Do that,¡± he said, pointing to the glowing smear on the ground.


    After she was done, chasing and stepping on all of the bugs she had brought down, Dustin changed his mind about staying down here.  He had sampled all of the bug material, but none of it gave him better traits.


    ¡°I must have been stung by that thing,¡± he said after she was all done, still staring at the spot it had died.


    ¡°Really? Do you remember?¡±


    ¡°No, but the traits I got from it are terrifying enough, I¡¯m sure there must be some residual trauma for me to react like that.¡±


    ¡°I suppose, we haven¡¯t bothered to study anything like that, at least we hadn¡¯t before I got stuck here.  It¡¯s always possible they might have discovered that, but honestly, I don¡¯t see them caring.¡±


    Turning to her, he said, ¡°There are some creatures that hang in trees, camouflaged, so that you don¡¯t see them until they start sucking your blood.  Do you know what I mean?¡±


    She nodded after a moment of thinking.


    ¡°Get one and hit it hard enough that it doesn¡¯t try to bite you, and bring it here.  It¡¯s time for you to kill something larger.¡±


    After it left, the prince shook his head.


    ¡°Getting the cloaking ability from that creature will only work momentarily.  The drones will still be able to pick up your heat signature, and the electrical signature of your PED.¡±


    ¡°One step at a time.  I can¡¯t solve all the problems at once.¡±


    Dustin was frustrated.  How the hell did he hide his heat signature?  He was trying to think about if he covered his PED with a large plate, whether that would do it, but he wasn¡¯t sure.


    ¡°PED, grow a crystal plate over the PED.¡±


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    It looked weird as hell, but seemed like it would work.  How could he check to see if they could see it or not?  He thought really hard, then froze.


    What was he doing?  Dustin felt like such an idiot!  Here he was, trying to hide himself from the sensors and drones, when he could be hiding in plain sight.  He had upgraded the PED to allow him to mimic any creature he wanted, fully.  Just because he couldn¡¯t mimic a Josagn, didn¡¯t mean he couldn¡¯t mimic anything else!


    He needed to find a creature, that was about the same size as himself, because he was rather partial to his current size, and that wasn¡¯t on a kill-on-sight list, then he could waltz right up to the shuttle station.  He wasn¡¯t sure about once he got inside, but he would worry about that then, unless¡­


    ¡°Hey, Prince!  What kind of defenses do your people have inside the shuttle station?¡±


    ¡°The weapons they carry on themselves, normally?  There would be the normal laser guns, maybe a few projectile weapons, but your biggest problem will be the sonic attack that they are capable of shooting at any shuttles that leave.¡±


    ¡°And what does that sonic attack come from?¡±


    ¡°A mounted sonic emitter, that swivels on a 360-degree base.¡±


    ¡°What would be the point of having such a powerful weapon, when it is only good against crystal creatures?¡± he wondered, out loud.


    ¡°Oh, it¡¯s not used to hurt anything, though it would hurt crystal things, it¡¯s primary use is to capture things alive.  On a non-crystal creature, it would merely stun them.  That way if a prisoner managed to get as far as the shuttle station, they could catch it, wipe its memory, and try again.  The viewers love it when they get that close to escape.¡±


    ¡°Sadistic bunch, aren¡¯t you?¡±

 Chapter 31 Time to Leave the hole

    Dustin was ready to leave.  He was exhausted because the bug gore in the hole kept him awake.  It was fucking stupid, but he just couldn¡¯t seem to get over it.


    ¡°You seem to be agitated¡­¡± observed the prince, after several hours of pacing.  He had been hoping to tire himself out, and thus sleep, but it hadn¡¯t worked.


    ¡°I have got to get out of this hell hole!¡± he snarled, eyeing the entrance.


    ¡°It hasn¡¯t been seven days yet, and you could still be seen by the drones.¡±


    The stick girl had brought several creatures, but none of them were the camouflaged sloth.  He had tried to acquire genetic material from them, but nothing was giving him anything good.  It had helped with his hunger, but now he was also thirsty.


    ¡°What kept the drones from finding you, when you went missing?¡± asked Dustin, grasping at anything to stay sane.


    ¡°I went underwater.  The drones can¡¯t submerge themselves.¡±


    Dustin stopped.  He had gills, and with his bite, nothing could really stand up to him anymore.  Staying in the water would be infinitely better than this hole.


    ¡°That¡¯s a wonderful idea.  You stay here, and keep teaching this stick girl how to hunt, and I¡¯ll see you in a week.¡±


    He started to climb out, when the prince laughed.


    ¡°I don¡¯t give a skadfhg about teaching that walking stick how to hunt.  That¡¯s your pet project.  And if you think I¡¯m just going to stay here, you are mistaken.  Either take me with you, or I¡¯m going to start heading for the shuttle port station.  If they find out about you, it sure will be interesting to watch the hunt for you.¡±


    Dustin had never wanted to kill someone so bad, as he did right now.  At least, not that he remembered¡­  Stepping forward, he kicked the little bastard as hard as he could, with his over protected crystal foot.  He flew up, hitting the ceiling hard, and then fell to the floor.  He lay there, coughing, then passed out.


    Dustin froze.  If he killed the prince, there was little chance of getting off this planet.  He needed to calm down, which meant getting out of this hole.  Picking up the crystal prince, he moved towards the entrance again.


    ¡°Initiate evolution, I want to look different.  Give me crystals that are spiky, with wings that are non-functioning.  Remove the extra crystal around my feet, and make them be clawed like the dragon¡¯s feet.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    His skin felt tight for a moment, as the scales became sharp and pointed, including the oversized scale over the PED.  He noticed a similar scale grew on his opposite arm, so that they matched.  Grinning, he knew he looked completely different.  Grabbing one of the roots with his knew clawed feet, he held himself in place while he reached up to the hatch and waited.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    As he focused on the hatch, he could feel slight vibrations traveling through the soil.  Nothing big was around the hatch, so, he threw it open and climbed outside.  Curled around the entire tree was a huge snake.  This thing could easily have wrapped around Godzilla¡¯s throat as a scarf, plus some. Its white scales gleamed in the moonlight, making the dark eyespots on its hood stand out even more, as it raised up and hissed.  Each fang was easily twice as long as he was tall.


    Crouching on the edge of the hole, he waited until its muscles tensed, signaling a strike, before jumping to the side.  As the fangs missed him by inches, due to the size of the snake, he twisted and caught the edge of its hood, biting down hard enough to draw blood.


    It lurched back, as he dropped back to the ground, and ran.  He could hear it writhing in pain behind him.  Trees crashed to the ground, and the tail smacked into the ground just to his right.  He didn¡¯t stop running, aiming for the open water he could barely glimpse through the trees.  It should have been immune to venom, except he didn¡¯t have normal venom anymore.


    A heat signature to his left, drew him up short.  The crashing behind him had all but stopped by this point.  Darting towards it, he grabbed the damn sloth as it tried to slink higher into the tree.  The section he grabbed seemed rubbery and stiff, but still sheered off when he bit it.


    Spitting the flesh into the port, he left the thing twitching on the ground.  As it uncloaked, he saw the most hideous thing ever.  It had no eyes, but the mouth on this thing was huge.  The tongue that sucked out blood from its victims, started huge, filling its mouth, and came down to a thin needle like tube at the end.


    (GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING. POSSIBLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: CAMOUFLAGE, LEAF DANCE, NUMBING TOUCH, HEMATOPHAGY, PERFECT CLIMB.)


    ¡°Ooooh!  Give me everything except the hema-whatever.  I don¡¯t care to drink blood.¡±


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    The prince started to move, beginning to wake up.  Setting him down, Dustin moved up against the tree and activated his camouflage.  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see himself suddenly looking like a mossy section of the tree.


    ¡°Ugh,¡± groaned the prince, rubbing his head.  He sat up and looked around, obviously not seeing him.


    ¡°Skadfhg! That brat left me,¡± he cursed, climbing to his feet and looking all around.


    Dustin was very amused, and was just about to reveal himself, when he saw the prince act odd.


    ¡°Base, I¡¯ve lost the target, do you have eyes on it?¡±  He spoke quietly, as if he didn¡¯t want anyone to overhear him.  Listening to a voice, he turned slowly and looked in his general direction.


    ¡°Negative, I do not see anything.¡± He moved forward slowly, reaching out to touch the edges of his arm.


    Dustin used the leaf dance ability to move his arm slightly.  It looked weird out of the corner of his eye, but he refused to move his head.


    ¡°It¡¯s just some moss.  I don¡¯t see any difference.  Affirmative, heading in now.¡±


    What the hell was this?

 Chapter 32 Twenty Cycles

    Turning his head slightly, to look down at his arm, Dustin activated the leaf movement again, which caused twitching in his arm muscles, in a sporadic pattern. It made his arm, which was camouflaged, appear to rustle in a slight breeze.  If he didn¡¯t know it was his arm, he could have sworn he was looking at some moss hanging off the tree behind him, rustling in a breeze.  Dustin, twitched his head again, very slightly, not moving hardly at all, and watched as the prince moved off through the brush, towards the shuttle port station.


    Thinking hard, he was trying to decide his movements carefully.  If there really was something watching him, he had to be sneaky how he followed the prince.  His upgraded PED allowed him to shift into anything he had acquired material from, but the prince knew most of its abilities.  Dustin had assumed that the prince was who he had said he was, and didn¡¯t keep anything from him.  That was stupid on his part, but there was no way of knowing the shit would be a spy.


    All plans of exploring the waters of this world, went out the window.  Could he trust anything that asshole had told him?


    It would probably be better if he didn¡¯t.  Thinking about his broken dreams and how things were so screwed up, he suddenly wondered about Olivia.  Was she a spy, too, or another unfortunate, trapped in this farce?  There was only one way to find out


    Fluttering his wings, the camouflaged crystal scales shifted from greens to browns, and back again.  He had looked forward to using them to help propel him through the water, like fins, maybe, but it was time to focus on what little he knew as truth.  And the most pressing thing at the moment was to get off this damn planet, and to break through all the lies. He could play later.


    Fuming, Dustin watched the figure of the prince move even further away.  Once he was just out of sight, he started to think about all the different things he could turn into.  Just in case there were drones, he needed to be able to follow him without being seen.  Maybe, underground?


    He had the genetic material from the ground tunneling worms, could he turn into one of them?


    Why not?


    ¡°PED, initiate a complete change into the tunneling worm from the cave,¡± he said thinking of how it had attacked while he was small and winged.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    The world around him suddenly went dark, as his eyes disappeared, and he became blind.  Panic coursed through him, and he wanted to scream.  What if something came and ate him?  He was such a god-damn idiot!Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Flee!  With the fear coursing through him, of something about to eat him, he dug down into the ground, feeling comfort and relief washing over him, as the sensation of dirt encompassed him.  He paused, happily wiggling his multitude of bristles, as all of the worries and concerns that had been plaguing him, receded to the simpler concerns of moving in the dirt.


    He was a little hungry, and he could feel something moving not far away.  The vibrations traveled through the ground, tickling his bristles, and sending a clear image to his mind, of something small enough to successfully capture.  It wasn¡¯t even moving very fast.  Tunneling slowly, so as not to give himself away, Dustin slowly stalked his prey.


    -The fireplace was fake, there was a table covered in alien tech, waiting to be reverse engineered.


    Dustin paused in confusion.  What was that?  The prey was just ahead, if he didn¡¯t hurry, something else might get it.  He started to sneak up on it again.


    -His screwdriver had some nasty black ick, the worst kind of ick, the kind that couldn¡¯t be scraped off with just the fingernails, but would need hours soaking in hot soapy water before being scrubbed with a miniscule file, late into the night.


    Dustin paused again.  He couldn¡¯t tell what was happening.  As he sat there, the prey got ahead of him again.


    (HOSTS INTELLIGENCE HAS DROPPED BELOW THE NECESSARY LEVELS FOR ACTIVATION.  INCREASING HOST INTELLIGENCE BACK TO NORMAL.)


    If he had eyes, Dustin would have blinked in confusion.  He wiggled his forward bristles in an equivalent movement.  What the hell?


    Vibrations of something walking away from him, drew his attention.  He was a little hungry and this body wanted to attack it.  Could that be the prince?  Was he really a tunneling worm?  Chuckling in his mind, to himself, he kept his distance, moving slowly after the prince.


    Something else, an above-ground creature, was stalking the prince, but when it got within a few feet, it paused.  The prince never stopped walking, unaware he had almost been attacked.  After a few moments, the creature moved off, possibly having lost interest in the prince.


    Or had it.  Could the prince have a weapon he was using on anything that got close, like a gun or something?  He needed to know, for when he got close enough.  Speeding up, he got within a few feet, when suddenly:


    -His roommate was flushed, swinging a beer bottle at his head, but missing, and stumbling.  Dustin watched his bright red hair, suddenly get coated in thick blood as it seemed to pour out of the wound.


    What the hell?  Where was the girl?  Was there ever a girl?  He paused, feeling the prince get further away again, and realized, every time he got close, he had a flash of dream.  Could that be because this creature slept differently?


    Rushing forward again, yet being careful not to leave a trail on the surface, he drew close to the prince.


    -¡°We can¡¯t just throw him into a cell to rot.  He¡¯s too important.  We need his abilities.¡±


    -¡°We need to cover the death of the non-human.  It will be difficult to smooth this over in the public eye if we don¡¯t spin this right.¡±


    -¡°I didn¡¯t kill him!  It was an accident!¡±  They refused to listen to him, continuing with their discussion on what to do with him, as if he wasn¡¯t even there.


    This was a memory, not a dream.  Excitement coursed through him.  He needed to know more!  It didn¡¯t take much to catch up, again, to the prince.


    -¡°Twenty cycles, as payment for the death of one of your people, and he¡¯s returned to us, unharmed, none the wiser.¡±


    -¡°Agreed.¡±

 Chapter 33 Many Dreams

    Dustin was speechless, and not just because he couldn¡¯t talk in this form.  Had they really thought he had killed someone, an alien, possibly someone sent to spy on him¡­


    The PED gave the option for spies to be everywhere.  If the alien had died, and they thought he had done it, then the aliens would want compensation, regardless of the fact that they had been spying.  This was so messed up, and thinking about it, made his head hurt.


    Keeping pace with the prince, while he thought, was easy.  This form was excellent at it. He would have to make sure he kept his PED when he escaped from this planet.


    So, what he knew so far, was that he had been someone who reverse engineered alien tech for a company, possibly the government.  And he was pretty sure this was true, because he hadn¡¯t had any problems upgrading the PED.


    Someone had died, probably a roommate, not an ex-girlfriend, and he was charged with murder.  Why no one thought it was an accident was still a mystery with him, but everything pointed at him being punished as a murderer.


    Now, it looked like an alien had been sent to spy on his progress, possibly a Josagn?  If he was working on Josagn technology, it would explain why his tools were always missing in all of his dreams.


    It seemed, from the last set of memories, that he was sent here, to this planet, as payback for killing the person.


    Also, he probably wasn¡¯t rich, and he wasn¡¯t sure if his dad had been a military hero.  Wondering about going forward again, Dustin started to speed up, when he felt a vibration of something approaching.


    This time, it was below ground.  Turning his attention to it fully, he realized it was another worm, a much bigger worm, an angry worm!


    The fear that spike through him, made him realize these things must have territorial boundaries, and he, being new to the area, was encroaching.  What was he supposed to do?


    ¡°PED is my bite still deadly, as in my previous form?¡±


    (NEGATIVE, HOST REQUESTED A COMPLETE CHANGE.)


    ¡°Shit! Quick! Initiate the venomous bite with all of the same stuff it had prior to this form.¡±


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    Bracing himself, he stopped moving, and waited for the worm to get close enough to attack.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    It pulled up next to him, breaking into his tunnel, and whipped its tentacles towards him, in a quick attack.


    He returned the favor, shooting his tentacles at his opponent, except his tentacles were different from its.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Spines covered his tongue like tiny needles filled with a toxic venom that dripped with dangerous promises.  The moment his tentacles came into contact with the other worm, it seemed to shudder in intense pain, then started to spasm encased in its tunnel.


    Dustin moved away quickly, hoping it didn¡¯t give him away to whatever sensory devices the Josagn were using to watch the prince.  As he rushed away from the worm, and towards the prince, he got too close, and was hit with more memories.


    -¡°Dustin, can you come by today?  I have another one of those tiny screwdrivers you like so much.  This one¡¯s a fourteen, instead of a nine, like the last time.¡±


    -¡°Sweet!  I don¡¯t have a fourteen yet!  You¡¯re sure you won¡¯t get in trouble for this?  It¡¯s not like you can just go to the local store for that, you know.¡±


    -¡°It¡¯s fine!  How many times do I have to tell you, that they have thousands of these things?  They would never miss one!¡±


    -¡°Well, okay, if you think so, thanks, Olivia!¡±


    He knew her before?  Did that mean she wasn¡¯t an alien advisor?  If she was an advisor, how the hell did he know her?  He had to get more memories, this was too good of an opportunity to miss out on.


    -¡°I¡¯m sorry, Dustin.  I couldn¡¯t make it the other day because my boss wanted to see me.  The jerk tried to cop a feel and I slapped him.¡±


    -¡°Woah, did he fire you?  What a scumbag!  Wait, who¡¯s your boss?¡±


    -¡°Some general.  It¡¯s no big deal.  I don¡¯t think there¡¯s going to be any charges or anything.  He probably gets slapped often.¡±


    Dustin was less then impressed with this memory.  Sure, it had Olivia and him talking, but it didn¡¯t have anything substantial.  He was going to try again.


    -His roommate had just entered the room and stopped moving.  He looked up to see the most startled, almost scared, expression on his face, that he had ever seen.


    -¡°Where did you get that?¡± he finally asked.


    -¡°My boss wants it reverse engineered by Wednesday.  Apparently, its pretty important to someone.  They said they were going to give me a bonus if I could pull it off.¡±


    -¡°But where did you get it?¡± he insisted.


    -¡°My boss gave it to me, just like every other project I work on, what¡¯s your problem?¡±


    -His roommate stumbled out of the room, into the kitchen, as if in a daze.  Dustin rolled his eyes and turned back to the cube on the table in front of him.


    The cube!  Dustin remembered that!  The prince had been very interested in it.  He had to know more!


    -Dustin had just returned from the bank.  He held the deposit slip in his hand victoriously.  He finally had enough money to kick his damn roommate out.  He was sick of all his snooping and messing with his stuff!


    -He could hear his roommate in the kitchen, slamming things around.  He must be having another temper tantrum about something.  He never could figure the guy out.


    -It wasn¡¯t very long before he entered the room, holding a bottle of rubbing alcohol from the medicine cabinet.  What the hell?  He wasn¡¯t hurt?  He glared at Dustin, while he opened the bottle.


    -As Dustin watched in horror, he downed the entire bottle in one go, then spit some out as he screamed.  The inside of his mouth was burned, forming blisters and flaring into a bright red.  He flung himself forward, puking all over the place.  Shaking his head, he started to gasp, then fell to the side, hitting his head on the table corner.


    -There was so much blood!  What was he supposed to do?

 Chapter 34 Tired of Distractions

    The prince had been walking when Dustin came out of his last dream, but as he went to get close again, the prince stopped.  He was dying to know why, so he decided to find out.


    Digging as gently as he could, he got up underneath a tree.


    ¡°PED, initialize an evolution that gives me an antenna that can hear, change my blood to look black, if I bleed, and make sure I can camouflage still.¡±


    (INITIALIZING EVOLUTION)


    As the antenna formed, he started sending it up through the dirt, along the side of the tree.  Making sure it looked like the tree behind it, he slowly turned it so that he could hear what was going on.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°I see the subject.¡±


    Panic coursed through him, and he froze.


    ¡°How long has it been out?¡±


    Oh, good!  He wasn¡¯t what the prince was talking about.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t look like he¡¯s going to make it.  Should I hide so that the creature doesn¡¯t see me?¡±


    Curiosity gnawed at him.


    ¡°PED give me an eye covered in a scale for protection, on my antenna.¡±


    (INITIALIZING EVOLUTION)


    As vision established itself, he swung the eye around slowly, noting that the prince had taken cover behind a thick bush next to the tree his eye was hiding by.  Thankfully it was still far enough away to keep the dreams from occurring, or for him to notice the strange eyeball on a stalk.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    A man screamed in the distance, quickly followed by a loud chittering roar.  It was the weirdest thing he had ever heard, so he kind of wanted to see what made it.  Moving the eye around, to under the bush, he saw that there was a man on the ground, holding a large stick in defense of a large spider-like creature.


    It had four legs, that ended in pointed tips, and were covered in thick black hairs.  On the torso that rose above the legs, there was a set of arms that ended in points, much like the legs, but had no hair, and a set of arms that had sparse hair, but ended in three fingered hands.  There was no real neck making the head seem to be a part of the chest.  Thick black hair ran from the forehead down the back, blending into the hair on the legs.  Its face was taken up by a dozen eyes directly above a mouth that opened the whole lower face into a toothy maw.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Basically, if you had a fear of spiders, this thing was a perfect monster.  Dustin wanted nothing to do with it.  The only thing that would make it worse, was if it had bug monsters to go with it.


    As if on cue, a large black beetle, the size of a cat, crawled out of the bushes behind the guy.  It had a long tail dragging behind it and long tubes coming out of its lower face.  With a shudder, Dustin stopped watching.  He hated bugs!


    There was one last scream, before a loud crunch stopped it.


    ¡°The subject is down, you can send in the extraction team and call off the beasts.¡±  The prince seemed unimpressed, and waited impatiently as the distant sound of air bikes drew closer.


    Dustin did not want to see those bug monsters again, but he was very interested in this extraction team.  The guy was dead, so why were they extracting him?


    As the bikes settled next to the body, he watched one of the Josagn use a small gun on the two creatures.  A loud noise almost made Dustin spasm in pain.  Thankfully, it only lasted a moment, but as the Josagn turned to the other creature, he plunged his antenna into the ground to protect it from the second blast.  It still hurt, but not as much.


    That must be a sonic gun, and judging from the reaction of the creatures, falling to the ground, it caused them to become paralyzed.  He peeked back up from the dirt in time to see them throw the remains into a bag and then onto the back of a bike.  As they turned to leave, the prince spoke up.


    ¡°Is he still following me?¡±


    Shit!  They were watching him all this time!  But how?  He was sure he hadn¡¯t left a trail on the ground.  His PED should still be blocked by the dirt, and they shouldn¡¯t be able to see him or a heat signature because of the dirt.  They must be tracking him some other way.  But how?


    ¡°Understood.¡±


    Dustin was so fed up with all of this crap.  Pulling his antenna back in, close to his body, he surged towards the prince, trying to ignore the dreams as he got closer, but they grabbed him anyway.


    -¡°Oh, Dustin!  It¡¯s so big!¡± Her eyes rolled back into her head, as he thrust into her.


    -She clawed at his back, drawing blood, but he didn¡¯t care.  He hadn¡¯t had any in a long time, and this felt great.


    -He was just about to cum, when she let out a scream.


    Dustin jerked awake, to see the prince had moved away, and was heading towards the shuttle port again.  If he had a mouth with teeth, he would have ground them together and screamed obscenities at him.  How was he going to attack him, when he had a flashback, or dream whenever he got close?  Maybe use his tentacles?  Maybe if he grabbed him up in the tentacles, he could squeeze him with the constrict move?


    Why the hell was he following this little jerk?  What he needed to do, was get to the station.  All these distractions were annoying.  Turning towards the station, he ignored the prince and started moving as fast as this form could.  He found after only a short distance, that he couldn¡¯t move nearly as fast as he would like.  It just took too long to dig.


    Pausing, he thought of all the different forms he could take.  It was time to make this PED work and get some real speed built up.

 Chapter 35 Olivia, Again

    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    Dustin burst out of the ground, covered in crystal plates like before.  Except this time, he wasn¡¯t a lizard man.  He sported four legs, long and thin, like a bug.  Each ended in claws that could grab and hold on if he wanted to run up trees or rocks.  His body was relatively small, giving him greater aerodynamics.  His head was large and flat, almost like a kite, and covered in eyespots.  His mouth could open into a maw with several long, needle-covered, thin tongues, capable of darting out and injecting his prey with the special toxic mix he had already created.


    Giving himself a shake to dislodge any bits of dirt that clung to him, he darted off towards the station.  Thanks to the directional trait from the worm, he knew exactly which direction to head in.  His PED was encased in crystals on his back, forming a type of ridge along his spine.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    At this speed, he should be able to reach the station in under two hours.  Just as he expected, creatures started coming out of the woodworks, after him.  Most he just ran by, ignoring them.  Others he took the time to shoot his tongues at, and kill, before continuing on.


    He was halfway there, with a long line of dead or angry creatures behind him, when he heard a loud crack.  Above him, he saw another pod rushing towards the ground.  Should he check it out, or continue to the station?  After only a moment of hesitation, he decided to check it out, because he would never forgive himself if it were Olivia.


    ¡°Initiate evolution: Wings to fly.¡±  He knew it wasn¡¯t a cool name, but it worked, and he could remember it.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION: WINGS TO FLY.)


    Huge wings that looked like pearlescent dragonfly wings erupted from his back.  He was expecting the pain, so he was able to ignore it. Flapping them, he hurled himself into a tree, and ran up as fast as he could, launching from the top branches and taking flight.  Flying was faster than running, but he had wanted to make it harder for the Josagn to attack him, so he used the trees to block him from their sight.  Since he wasn¡¯t going to the base immediately, he needed to check out the pod as fast as possible.  If it wasn¡¯t Olivia, he was going to head back to the station.


    The pod landed in the same marshy area he had, splashing water and muck everywhere. As the pod door opened, he saw a figure fall out, and scramble for something.  Shoving it into the port, the figure collapsed.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    He swallowed.  Isn¡¯t that what he had done?  Looking towards the water, he could see a tentacle from a small squid work its way across the mud to the prone figure.  Diving, he got close enough to see that it wasn¡¯t him laying in the mud, and gave a sigh of relief.


    He couldn¡¯t tell if it was Olivia, but it was definitely a girl.  Landing next to her, he stabbed the tentacle with one of his legs, and picked her up with his small arms.  They weren¡¯t really strong enough to hold anything for long, so he flew back towards shore quickly.  Being careful to avoid the trees, he lay her down and examined her.


    Olivia had brown hair, and this woman had red.  It was the only difference he could see.  As she opened her eyes, they grew wide in fright, and he realized he probably looked like a monster about to eat her.


    ¡°Olivia?¡± he managed to say.  It was more growl than speech, but she seemed to respond.


    ¡°What are you, and how do you know my name?¡± she asked in confused horror.


    ¡°I¡¯m Dustin.¡± His mind raced with everything he wanted to say, but couldn¡¯t in this form.  Glancing up at the sky, he saw that it was getting late.  It would be dark soon.  Looking around, he spied a stump like the one the stick person had opened for him to hide in.  He went over to examine it, hoping it might lead to another hidden room, but no such luck.  He could get to the station before dark if he flew, but he wasn¡¯t sure he could fly with her.


    It suddenly occurred to him, how convenient it was that she was throw at him right as he was rushing towards the station.  It was obvious they were trying to slow him down again.


    ¡°Initiate evolution.  I need to have weight bearing muscles and structures implemented throughout my body, to be able to carry Olivia.  I also want a small face, without eyes, on the back of my head so that we can talk.¡±


    (INITIALIZING EVOLUTION)


    His legs got thicker, and he could feel muscles stretching along the back of his body.  An itch on the back of his head grew till he felt like he would go mad, since his arms couldn¡¯t reach it to scratch.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Olivia had scrambled to her feet, and was staring at him in confusion and terror.


    ¡°Get on,¡± he said, turning sideways so she could climb on his back easier.


    ¡°Like hell!¡± she cried, turning and running away from him.


    He scrunched his face in confusion.  She had done this same thing before.  Then it dawned on him, she must have memories they had shoved into her head, that made her act like this.  With a sigh, he followed her.


    It didn¡¯t take long for a predator to jump out, pinning her to the ground.  It saw him, though, and turned tail to run.  She jumped up, shooting him a scared look, before running again.


    This was taking too long.  He would have a hard time making it to the station before dark now.  Why was she so scared of him?  Even if she didn¡¯t have her prior memories of him, she should still be able to realize that he didn¡¯t intend to hurt her?


    Movement to her right, caused her to turn left, which in turn led her straight into the trap, the giant spider had wanted.  Dustin froze when he saw the size of the monstrosity heading for her along its web.

 Chapter 36 Something Not Human

    Dustin was frozen.  He was torn between his fear of bugs, the immense size of this damn thing, and wanting to save Olivia.  He had memories of her from before all this craziness started.  Giving himself a shake, he started forward.


    It turned and stared at him with its multitude of beady eyes, and he jerked to a stop.  Ignoring Olivia, it darted towards him.  With a very unmanly squeak, he went to dart away, but stopped himself, when he realized this thing shouldn¡¯t be able to hurt him.  Turning back, he saw that it was almost on him, and he braced himself.


    The giant spider pounced, exposing a long needle stinger, dripping with poison.  He waited until it was just above him, almost on top of him, before shooting out his tongues, and slapping the underside of the spider with all of the venom needles on them.


    The spider landed heavily, collapsing to the side and started spasming.  Leaping away from it, he sprinted over to Olivia, who was hopelessly tangled in the web.  Her look was guarded as she watched him tear the webbing away.


    ¡°Please, I don¡¯t mean to hurt you!  If you will climb on my back, so we can get away from this dangerous area, I will explain everything I know.¡±


    She scowled, but climbed onto his back.  After getting used to the feel of her, he turned in the direction of the station and took off again.


    ¡°You said you would explain everything!¡± she hissed, ducking down to keep the wind out of her face.


    ¡°What do you want to know?¡± he asked, giving her a chance to ask questions while he tried to arrange his thoughts on what to tell her.


    ¡°Did you really kill that woman?¡±


    ¡°No!  It never happened!  The murder was fabricated and turned into a memory dream.  I had a roommate that was actually an alien, who died.  I was tried for murder to placate the aliens.¡±


    ¡°I saw the murder scene!  How could you say that wasn¡¯t real?¡±


    ¡°Look, I don¡¯t know what memories they gave you, but I can tell you that the longer you stay here, the more they will break down, and bits and pieces of your real memories will surface.¡±


    ¡°And how long have you been here?¡± she asked, sarcastically.


    "I don¡¯t know, a week?¡±  he wasn¡¯t sure how long he had been in that cave with her before, and how long he had stayed in that underground room with the prince.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    ¡°Oh,¡± she seemed to deflate.  ¡°Where are we going?¡±


    ¡°To the shuttle port station.  This planet is a Josagn hunting planet.  If we did manage to survive the creatures, they put down here, then we have them with powerful weapons to worry about.  I¡¯ve seen ray guns and sonic guns.  There¡¯s no telling what other goodies they have in store for us.¡±


    ¡°Oh God!  This is a Josagn hunting planet??  There¡¯s no way we¡¯ll get off this planet!¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll just fight our way to one of the shuttles and then once we get to the space port in orbit, we¡¯ll fight our way to a space faring ship.  Then we¡¯re good to go.¡±


    ¡°But their shuttles have fail-safes!  If you fly one too high, it will self-destruct.  Only a Josagn can fly one safely off planet.¡±


    He was quiet as he thought about that for a moment.  He had managed to reverse engineer tons of different alien tech, what was one shuttle?  He just had to fly it somewhere where he could work on it.  If there was one thing he knew, it was how to work under pressure, thanks to his boss from before.  But where could he fly it?


    ¡°How high do you have to fly before it self-destructs?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t remember,¡± she said hesitantly.


    Thinking again, he dodged around a pack of huge glowing green squids with legs.  Their backs were covered in large pulsing boils that emitted the green glow.  Their tentacles were nasty looking, and he wanted nothing to do with them.


    ¡°Does everything on this planet want to kill you?¡± she asked, as he dodged past another creature, this time one of the flying rugs that flew down and tried to attack in a clearing.


    ¡°Pretty much, there¡¯s a few things that don¡¯t but I think they¡¯re native.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what do you mean by native?¡±


    ¡°Most of the things on this planet were seeded by the Josagn to make their hunts more fun.¡±


    ¡°Makes sense for a Josagn hunting world.  How the hell did I get put down here?¡±


    ¡°I think our government handed us over to them as punishment for something we did for our government against them.¡±


    ¡°That sounds messed up.¡±


    ¡°Pretty much.  I¡¯m still working on getting my memories back, but I remember being friends with you, which is why I¡¯m trying to save you too.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by save me?  I only have to find somewhere to hide until my year is up.  The Josagn don¡¯t like water, so I might find a cave somewhere I can fish from.¡±


    ¡°That will never work.  The government doesn¡¯t care if our time is up or not.  As soon as you got that genetic material to be able to breath, you no longer registered as Olivia from earth.  You¡¯re something not human.¡±


    She opened her mouth to refute his claims, but she shut it instead.


    Jumping over a log, he skidded to a halt as a huge white head lifted up over the trees ahead of him.  It was another one of those giant snakes.  This time it had thicker scales, that shimmered in the last light of the setting sun.  He wasn¡¯t sure he could dodge it and get away with her on his back.  If he failed, she would get hurt or killed.


    ¡°Hold on, this is going to get pretty wild!¡±


    She nodded, unable to even scream in her fear.


    ¡°PED, grow scale plates over her, as a type of shield.  I don¡¯t want her getting knocked off or hurt.¡±


    (INITIALIZING EVOLUTION)


    ¡°What the hell?¡± she cried, as scaled plates began to form over her legs.


    ¡°I¡¯m trying to protect you.  This things venom can kill you if it lands on your skin.¡±


    ¡°Oh God!¡± she ducked under the plates as they closed over the top of her head.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    He had to move fast so that she didn¡¯t run out of air!

 Chapter 37 War With Josagn

    His legs skittered against the white scales as Dustin leaped to the back of the snake.  It reared back, in preparation to bite.  Timing it just right, he jumped into the air as it went to strike, and then started running along its back, towards the head.  It struck at him several times, and each time, he jumped so that it would miss.  Just as it went to strike again, he leaped high into the air, and landed against its hood, clinging with the claws at the end of each foot.


    As the snake rushed at the ground, probably to crush him, or rub him off, he opened his maw and leaned forward.  Getting as close to its eye as he could, he jabbed at the scale with all of his tongues.  They broke through, breaking all of their venom filled needles.


    The ground rushed up at him, and he sprung away from the head as hard as he could, grabbing the trunk of a nearby tree, and vaulting further away.


    ¡°Remove the scales over Olivia,¡± he said, dodging the spasming coils.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°What the hell!¡± she screamed as soon as the first scales released her.


    ¡°What?¡± he asked innocently, as he started running along the ground again.


    ¡°You just leapt at that things head, like the four-foot fangs weren¡¯t anything to worry about!¡±


    ¡°They weren¡¯t,¡± he said, with a shrug.


    Her mouth just hung open for a moment, and he chuckled.  She was speechless until he ran past the giant turtle.  It had gotten too close to a tentacle tree, and was in the process of being devoured.


    ¡°Was that tree really eating a giant tortoise?¡±


    ¡°Yep.¡±


    ¡°Okay, I think I¡¯m officially alright with leaving this planet.  This place is messed up.¡±


    ¡°So, what do you think about having some kids?¡± he asked, as he jumped over several trees that had fallen at some point.


    ¡°Never wanted any.  I was sterilized before heading out to be an alien advisor.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± he asked, feeling the pit of his stomach drop.  No kids?  Sterilized?  Who the hell WANTS to be sterilized??


    ¡°It¡¯s standard practice before heading to an alien home world, to ensure that there aren¡¯t any mishaps.¡±


    ¡°Mishaps?¡± His voice was a little strained.  Since when was having kids a mishap?The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Well, the Ogifgar are known for raping every species that comes to their planet, just for the interesting half breeds that occur.  Since them, every person who becomes an alien advisor has to go through the sterilization process to ensure no mishaps.¡±


    ¡°Right,¡± he said, totally not getting it.  Maybe she could use her PED to fix the sterilization?


    As they passed through a clearing, almost to the station, Dustin could see that there were stick people moving in the evening dusk.  As he got closer, it became obvious they were fighting with the Josagn!


    Pausing in surprise, he watched them as they fought.  The stick people must have some kind of hive mind, because all of their moves were in tune with each other¡¯s, even when they couldn¡¯t see what the other was doing.  It was very weird, and he couldn¡¯t help but imagine some great puppet master controlling them.


    ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Olivia asked, leaning forward for a better look.


    ¡°It¡¯s civil unrest.  The locals are complaining about the renovations to their home town.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±  she wasn¡¯t impressed.


    With a sigh he explained how he had taught one to fight and kill, because they didn¡¯t want the Josagn changing their world.  She sat back, in contemplation.


    ¡°That means the Josagn are here illegally.  They will try even harder to kill us now that we know they are intentionally misusing another races planet.¡±


    ¡°Great, as if they needed another excuse to kill us.¡±


    Spying a Josagn whip out a sonic gun, he backed up quickly.


    ¡°PED, initiate second skin,¡± he said briskly.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    A second layer of normal scales grew over his crystal ones, leaving an air pocket between the two.  Dustin knew that sound proofing often used dead air spaces to lower sounds, so he was hoping this helped if he was targeted by one of the sonic guns.  He wasn¡¯t sure about the mounted gun the prince had told him about, but by this time he wasn¡¯t sure anything the prince had told him was true.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°This is about to get nasty.  I¡¯m going to run through the fighting and try to get inside the shuttle station.  Do you want me to cover you with scales again?  I know they have laser guns.¡±


    She looked around in the dim light, as the stick people were slowing succumbing to the onslaught of the Josagn, and their hi-tech weapons, and nodded.  She leaned down, and he initiated the crystals over her again.  Once they were complete, he took a breath and then darted as fast as he could, towards the shuttle station.  The laser that had shot at him the last time was too busy with all of the fighting going on, to target him, too, so he was able to get all the way to the station without any problems.


    Running around the side, he tried to find the front door, but wasn¡¯t having much luck.  Holding his small arm out, and trailing it along the wall, he was finally able to find an opening that had been hidden by some kind of hologram.


    Annoyed at not being able to see past in, he wasted no time in swiftly entering the station.  Inside, his eyes needed no time to adjust, but the Josagn inside, hadn¡¯t needed any time to react.  Bullets of all kinds were shot at him, from an arsenal of waiting Josagn.  Bullets ripped through the normal shells, but made no impact on the crystal ones.  The same went for the lasers, though there was heat involved too, he was able to ignore it for the most part, as long as he kept moving.  The sonic guns were slower to shoot, giving him just enough time to outrun the aim of the Josagn with that weapon.


    After circling the room twice, he realized the entrance to the shuttle bay was hidden just like the door had been, but if he slowed down to drag his arm, like he had with the outside wall, the weapons that were just missing him, would start hitting more.  Dirt marks on the floor gave the entrance away.  The person shooting the sonic gun managed to actually hit him, when he ducked through the entrance, and he found himself skidding across the floor, in horrible pain.

 Chapter 38 Weapons

    ¡°Initiate copy-cat!¡± he thought, shuddering as waves of pain danced along his limbs.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED: CAUTION, THIS WILL CAUSE INTENSE PAIN IN HOST, PROCEED?)


    ¡°Yes!¡±


    Dustin felt his skin start to peel.  Fighting not to scream, he was thankful for the pain from the sonic attack, as he wasn¡¯t sure if he could have endured this otherwise.


    Olivia blinked in surprise, finding herself laying on the ground, as his plates continued to slough off.  She scrambled back. Blood began to seep out of cracks in his skin, and his head, chest, and a part of his body slipped free, exposing a much smaller form.  He climbed to his feet, as a small two-foot person, with his PED on his back, and glanced around.


    Behind him, it looked like he had melted.  Stepping away, he glanced around him.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)


    They were in a short hall, with three doors to choose from.  Not hesitating for long, he grabbed her hand and they darted for the right door.  It had just clicked shut, when he heard some of the Josagn exclaiming over the shed skin.


    The room they had entered, was full of all sorts of mechanical things.  They had just enough time to duck behind a row of flying bikes, before the door was opened.


    ¡°Clear!¡± came a call, before the door was shut again.


    ¡°He really must have melted!  Who would have thought a sonic attack could have liquified him?¡± The speaker had to be by the door for them to hear his muffled voice.


    Several more moments passed where orders were given to clean up the mess and to start repairs.  The two could hear bits of a discussion about the stick people.  Apparently, they were giving up, and returning to their forest.  The Josagn were joking about how they hadn¡¯t stood a chance.


    Dustin glanced at Olivia in time to see her rolling her eyes.  These aliens were really stuck up.  He felt a little sorry for the stick people, but they weren¡¯t his main concern right now.  He had just spied an entire shelf of PED¡¯s. Sneaking over to it, he was floored by what he saw.  These PED¡¯s were all upgraded in one way or another.  It looked like they threw them here, when they killed the wearer.


    Olivia wandered further into the room, as he started looking through them.  He was breathing hard in excitement as he looked over the various upgrades.  There were so many, and some of them were even better than the one he had on.  He could spend hours here working on this!


    ¡°PED initiate a return to my lizard man form.¡±Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    As his form grew to his six-foot size, it was much easier to reach the upper shelves.  The PED moved itself back to his left forearm, and covered itself with a crystal plate again.  He was so glad he had thought up all of these functions with it.  It was so much easier just telling it to initiate a certain function, rather than having to go into detail with each evolution, every time.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°Look over here!¡± Olivia hissed from further in the room.


    Dustin looked over and saw her holding up several guns.  His jaw dropped as he realized this must also be the storage for weapons.  Forgetting the PED¡¯s for the moment, he hurried over to her.


    There were rows and rows of different weapons.


    ¡°PED, do you have a scan feature?¡±


    (NEGATIVE)


    ¡°Hold on, Olivia,¡± he said, jogging back over to the PED¡¯s.  After a quick search, he found three that had attachments that might function as scanners.  Looking over them, he finally picked one, and started upgrading his PED with the new components.  His fingers flew as he detached and reattached parts here and there.


    (NEW COMPONENTS DETECTED.  SYNCHRONIZATION REQUIRED. ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION TWO MINUTES THIRTEEN SECONDS.)


    ¡°Initiate synchronization,¡± he said in excitement.


    (SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE. SCANNING ABILITY NOW FUNCTIONAL.)


    ¡°Scan all items in range,¡± he said, holding it up and watching where the scan light flashed, moving it as needed to include all of the weapons on the shelves.


    (SCAN COMPLETE.  THE FOLLOWING ITEMS WERE FOUND: GENERIC PISTOL, SONIC PISTOL, PLASMA PISTOL, LASER RIFLE, GRENADE LAUNCHER, ELECTROMAGNETIC RAIL GUN, PULSE RIFLE, SNIPER RIFLE)


    ¡°What does each do?¡± he asked, even though some of them were obvious.


    (GENERIC PISTOL: A SINGLE-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES MATERIAL BULLETS, AND DEALS DAMAGE IN A SINGLE LOCATION UPON IMPACT OF BULLET.


    SONIC PISTOL: A SINGLE-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES NO AMMUNITION, AND DEALS SONIC DAMAGE INCAPACITATING TARGET.


    PLASMA PISTOL: A SINGLE-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES NO AMMUNITION, AND DEALS PLASMA DAMAGE IN THE FORM OF SUPERHEATED BOLTS OF BLUE PLASMA THAT DEALS LARGE AMOUNTS OF DAMAGE OVER A WIDE AREA.


    LASER RIFLE: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES A BATTERY PACK, AND DEALS LASER DAMAGE IN THE FORM OF A SUPERHEATED BEAM GUARENTEED TO BURN THROUGH ALL ORGANIC MATTER IN A SINGLE LOCATION.


    GRENADE LAUNCHER: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES GRENADES, AND FIRES GRENADES THAT DEAL SPLASH DAMAGE OVER A LARGE AREA.


    ELECTROMAGNETIC RAIL GUN: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES A BATTERY PACK AND MATERIAL BULLETS, AND DEALS HIGH POWERED DAMAGE TO A SINGLE LOCATION OVER A LARGE DISTANCE.


    PULSE RIFLE: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES A BATTERY PACK, AND FIRES A PULSE OF ENERGY THAT DEALS DAMAGE OVER A LARGE AREA.


    SNIPER RIFLE: A TWO-HANDED WEAPON THAT REQUIRES MATERIAL BULLETS, AND DEALS DAMAGE TO A SPECIFIC LOCATION OVER A LARGE DISTANCE.)


    Dustin picked up a laser rifle after several moments of indecision.  This was the only one that didn¡¯t make noise when it was fired.  As much as he wanted some of the others, it was important that he not draw attention until he was ready for it.  Turning away, he paused and grabbed a couple plasma pistols too, and then headed back to the PED shelf, after looking around the room some more.  While there was plenty more to look at, none of it looked like it would help them at the moment, while he knew the PED¡¯s offered a lot of upgrades.


    ¡°If you see anything else exciting, let me know,¡± he whispered at Olivia, and she nodded as she went to look over the shelves more carefully.


    Grinning at the assorted PED¡¯s he set his guns down close enough he could grab them quickly, and got to work sorting and examining each one.  He didn¡¯t want to miss anything cool, and some of these definitely looked worth the time.

 Chapter 39 Shuttle Port

    As Dustin went through the pile of PED¡¯s he found a troubling problem.  Most of them had the same upgrades, down to the same wires and components.  After counting them, he found there were nineteen.  Swallowing, he turned to glance at Olivia.  She had found a duffle bag, and was throwing pieces of what looked like armor and various weapons from a different shelf, one that he hadn¡¯t seen.


    The memory of him having to make twenty trips made his stomach do flips.  Squaring his shoulders, he decided that meant he had to get it right this time.  He flipped through the PED¡¯s that hadn¡¯t been upgraded that far, and threw them in a pile off to the side.  Picking out the PED¡¯s he wasn¡¯t sure about, he put them in a second pile, leaving the last ones that had obviously better stuff for last.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to set up base by the door, so that if any aliens try to come in while you¡¯re busy, I can melt their butts.¡±  She patted the butt of a long rifle with several alien tweaks he didn¡¯t recognize.  It wasn¡¯t one of those he had scanned, making him wonder what all she had in the bag. Olivia stepped up behind him, and handed him a wrapped bundle with a small smirk.  Taking it with a confused look, he opened it, and gasped in delight.


    Waving her on, he turned to the wrapped bundle with glee.  It was a complete set of tools.  His memories on how to use them, returned as if they had never left.  Lifting out each piece, he placed it next to its neighbor, and they bonded, reforming themselves into a single unit, but still capable of doing both tasks.  He had always wanted one of these, but even the military couldn¡¯t afford them.  It was a morphing tool.  This one had obviously never been used before, because it was still in all of the original pieces.


    It took him a good twenty minutes before he figured out how to get his PED to scan each of the PED¡¯s, and to assimilate everything that was new, including stealing all of the genetic data they had stored.  Without the tools, it would have taken hours, if not longer.


    When he finished, his PED reached from his wrist, all the way up to his elbow.  It had acquired a stealth function, that hit it from all surveillance.  He wasn¡¯t sure how the previous owner had gotten that, but he fully intended to put it to use.


    ¡°PED, keep yourself hidden at all times.¡±


    (INITIATING STEALTH MODE)


    It¡¯s color and shape changed to look like his skin.  With the plate over the top of it, it almost looked like he was just buff.  Not a bad look, if he said so himself.


    As he sat there, a strange feeling of exhaustion came over him, and he felt his arms and legs droop.  If he had been standing, he was sure that he would have fallen.


    ¡°PED, what¡¯s going on?¡± he asked, knowing with all of the upgrades, it could now scan him for health and possible contaminants.


    (SLEEP FUNCTION FOR RETRIEVAL HAS BEEN INITIATED. HOST IS EXPERIENCING INTENSE DROWSINESS FROM EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF MELATONIN AND OTHER SLEEP-INDUCING HORMONES.)


    ¡°Fuck! Disable all remote functions!  I don¡¯t want anyone to be able to hack you or make you do anything!¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    (HOST DOES NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY FOR THAT OVERRIDE FUNCTION.)


    ¡°What?  Damn!  PED remove the plate over the PED.¡±


    The plate receded and he popped the access panel off.  Studying the alien components intently, he started tinkering, completely oblivious to everything around him.  Suddenly, there was a spark, and he jerked back.


    (CAUTION.  UNREPAIRABLE DAMAGE HAS BEEN INCURRED.  TRANSMISSION AND RECEIVER ANTENNAE HAS BEEN DESTROYED.  IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT ASSIMILATION OF NON-DAMAGED DEVICE OCCUR TO RESTORE RADIO FUNCTIONS.)


    ¡°Denied,¡± he crowed, slamming the access panel back into place.


    (REFUSAL TO REPAIR ANTENNAE MAY CAUSE SYSTEM TO BECOME UNSTABLE.  PED WILL BE UNABLE TO INITIATE NEW EVOLUTIONS UNTIL SYSTEM IS RESTORED TO FULL CAPABILITIES.)


    ¡°How does you not talking to someone affect your system?¡± asked Dustin.  He honestly didn¡¯t expect a response.


    (HOST GENETIC MATERIAL DATABASE IS NOT STORED WITHIN THIS DEVICE.  WITHOUT ACCESS TO THE CLOUD STORAGE, NEW EVOLUTIONS WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE.)


    ¡°Wait, you told me that you could store all of the data within you until you were full.  Where did this cloud shit come from?¡± Dustin was just about to rip the whole thing off and fling it across the room.  Maybe this was why all of the people in the underground city were forced to remove their PED¡¯s.  The Josagn could track them with them, and if they disabled the tracking function, they were useless afterwards.


    (STORAGE CAPABILITIES ARE INSUFFICIENT TO CONTAIN ALL OF THE DATA WITHIN THE DEVICE.)


    ¡°Do you still have any info stored in you?¡±


    (ONLY THE MOST RECENT MATERIAL IS STORED.)


    ¡°So, my bug beast?¡±


    (AFFIRMATIVE.)


    ¡°So, you could initiate an evolution into that form and then back to this one if I asked?¡±


    There was a long pause as it computed his request.


    (AFFIRMATIVE.)


    ¡°Good enough for now.¡±


    He would worry about everything else later.  A giggle from behind him, caused him to turn.  Olivia was laid out on the floor, pointing her gun at the small hall outside the doorway.  As he watched, a Josagn came through the hologram, hiding the door, and she shot him with her gun.  The gun shot a strange looking mist at the alien, coating him with a type of green slime that basically caused him to dissolve.  There wasn¡¯t even a puddle on the floor when it was done.


    ¡°He didn¡¯t even get a chance to make a sound,¡± Dustin said softly, so as not to alert any Josagn listening out for them.


    ¡°I¡¯ve lost count of how many I¡¯ve killed.  I think I¡¯ve fallen in love with this thing.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡±


    ¡°A molecular destabilizer.¡±


    ¡°A what?  That¡¯s a thing?¡±


    ¡°Think of it, kind of like an acid gun, just faster, without leaving any gunk behind.¡±


    ¡°Where the hell did you find something like that?¡±


    ¡°On the shelf over there in the back.  It was marked ¡®navwi¡¯ which basically means, don¡¯t use unless the world is ending.¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± he started, then fell silent as he realized he didn¡¯t have any come back from that.  ¡°I guess, we¡¯ll use that to clear the way?¡±


    ¡°Yep.  I was just waiting for you to finish playing with yourself.¡±  The smug look on her face said it all and he couldn¡¯t help but groan.


    ¡°You didn¡¯t have to put it that way.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes I did.¡±  She then shot another Josagn that had stepped through the door.


    ¡°I need to fix your PED, if you¡¯re willing?¡±  He didn¡¯t feel like telling her, that this would be the second time he had upgraded her PED.


    ¡°What kind of upgrades?¡± she asked, suspiciously.


    ¡°To make it be able to do more than simple upgrades and to remember everything you acquire?¡±  There was so much more, but he didn¡¯t want to have to explain everything.


    ¡°If you can do it without me moving,¡± she said.


    Dustin returned to the shelf with the PED¡¯s and started gathering parts and pieces.  He didn¡¯t have a PMS from a Josagn to upgrade it the way he had upgraded his, but these upgraded PED¡¯s already had the parts he needed.  With his arms full, he returned to her side, and got busy.


    He couldn¡¯t wait to see what else this place had to offer.  He wanted to get off this planet, but he was starting to wonder what else was going on.  So much of what he had thought was truth had turned into lies.

 Chapter 40 Shes In Her Human Form

    ¡°Fuck!¡±


    He dodged another blast, while trying to not jostle Olivia¡¯s arm too much. The Josagn had figured out what she must be doing, and had started lobbing electric balls through the hologram doorway. She was returning fire, but without knowing if she was hitting them or not, it was annoying.


    ¡°I¡¯m out,¡± she whispered, turning to look at him.


    Dustin looked down at her PED. It was scattered in parts all over the floor, and he was currently in the middle of connecting wires together.


    ¡°Any chance you could scoot the bag over so I can grab another gun?¡± she asked as if he had a free hand.


    Gritting his teeth, he scooted it closer with his knee, and went on with the upgrade. Another electric ball flew in, and just barely grazed the top of his head as he ducked. She grabbed the bag with her free hand and started rummaging through it. His head exploded into a massive headache, but it quickly faded with his rapid healing.


    ¡°There weren¡¯t any reloading capsules for the genetic material destabilizer on the shelf back there. I had hoped it would hold more rounds than that, but it obviously didn¡¯t¡±


    ¡°How did you recognize it?¡± he asked, taking a part from one of the other PED¡¯s and gently lowering it into place. Her PED snatched it with loose wires and it clicked into place as they tightened.


    ¡°I saw a lot when I was on the Josagn home world. Did you know that they were religious purists?¡± She pulled out a big gun and checked the energy cartridge. She knew what she was doing, even one handed, so he had to assume those memories concerning weapons had to be real. Since she had said almost the same time the last time he met with her, he wondered if the purist part was actually true.


    ¡°Really? No chance they would change some of them into other races in order to spy?¡±


    She thought about that for a moment, then shook her head.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. They were too much into hunting and killing their prey. The harder it was, the better. I don¡¯t think they would have been very good with intrigue like that.¡±


    Dustin was pretty sure they were, but didn¡¯t want to argue. He was in a delicate spot, tightening another piece into place, and trying not to break it. Only a few more pieces and he would be done and ready for it to sync.


    Aiming with her new gun, she started to shoot in a particular pattern, through the hologram doorway. It fired a long-lasting laser, that she swiped back and forth. The electric balls stopped, so hopefully she hit whoever was firing them.


    Suddenly a swarm of yellow bugs skittered through the hologram doorway, under the beams of laser she had been firing.


    ¡°Shit! Kill them!¡± Dustin panicked and screamed.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.


    Redirecting her aim to include them, she was able to get most of them before they reached the doorway. Squishing the last one with the butt of her gun, she shot him a nasty glare before going back to shooting through the doorway.


    If he was capable of sweating, he was sure he would be sweating buckets. Why did those things bother him so much? Looking down at his progress, he quickly snapped the last piece in place and shut her access panel.


    ¡°Let it sync, then I have one last thing to do,¡± he said.


    Her PED looked different from his, but still stretched from her wrist to her elbow. Grabbing the bag, he jerked it open to see bits of armor that fit over arms and legs, and a helmet piece that looked incomplete. It only covered the sides of the head, almost like a hair piece some of the women in his fragmented memories would wear.


    As he dug them out, he saw that there were two sets of everything, so he busied himself putting them on. The arm piece that was supposed to go on the same arm as his PED was a little tight, but fit. Underneath them, he saw a couple more weapons. Snapping the last piece on, there was an audible hum, then he heard a sound in his ear.


    ¡°They¡¯re holed up in the armory. We don¡¯t have a signal on the male, but we can confirm that his voice has been heard. Copy.¡±


    ¡°Is there any word from Space-base on the condition of his PED? Copy.¡±


    ¡°The last report stated it had been upgraded past all previous upgrades. Then it went radio silent. There¡¯s no word on why, but it can be safe to assume he will take no new forms. Space-base has confirmed that they are spamming the retrieval code so the moment it comes back online, we should be able to go in. Copy.¡±


    She had stopped shooting the laser gun and was checking the energy cartridge with a scowl.


    ¡°Worse than a whore on Wednesday!¡± she muttered angrily.


    ¡°What?¡± asked Dustin, after making sure his headphones were disabled. That was a new one on him.


    ¡°It¡¯s out already! Piece of crap! Why do all of these weapons have shit for ammo?¡±


    ¡°Maybe because they didn¡¯t want any prisoners to grab them and use them for a long time?¡± he suggested, disabling her headphones before tossing her the pieces of armor. He wasn¡¯t sure what all they did, but it couldn¡¯t hurt.


    ¡°Wait, I need to do one last thing to your PED,¡± he said, before she put the arm bracer on over it.


    Disabling the radio antennae, she looked at him incredulously as there was a puff of smoke and a few sparks.


    ¡°What the hell?¡± she said, glancing back and forth between her PED and him.


    ¡°I just disabled the radio antennae so the PED¡¯s can¡¯t communicate with the Josagn.¡±


    ¡°Wait, these things came from them?¡±


    ¡°Yep. Ready to move to the next room?¡±


    Snapping her last bracer in place, she nodded, and hefted the last gun from her duffle bag. Taking it back to the shelf with the other weapons, Dustin swept as many into it, as it would hold, before joining her at the door.


    Darting down the small hall, they kicked the door open, and were suddenly blinded.


    Dustin ducked to the side, rolling until he came up against a wall, then slashed at the feel of feathers. Blood splattered as he connected solidly with someone, then, he felt the vibrations of someone running towards him. His visor kicked in, and suddenly he could see.


    There was a flash grenade by the door shooting super bright lights, probably to blind them.


    ¡°They¡¯ve reached the barracks! Repeat, they¡¯ve¡­¡± the voice was cut off as Olivia shot the Josagn with her new gun. It shot a black electrical ball that, when it hit, expanded to cover the whole Josagn. He fell to the ground spasming, until smoke drifted up from the nostrils in his beak.


    She nodded to him, and he looked around the room. There were beds lining the walls and clothing hanging from hooks, but not much else. The Josagn at his feet was breathing heavy as blood filled his lungs. Dustin¡¯s blind slash had caved in its ribcage. As he watched, it dropped another grenade. He didn¡¯t waste any time jumping at Olivia and the door.


    There was another blinding flash, but this time, he could feel it burning the plates on his back. He couldn¡¯t imagine what it would do to Olivia, since she was still in her human form.

 Chapter 41 Shuttles

    ¡°Ahhhh!¡± he screamed, rolling on the ground.  The burning had intensified until he felt like he was being cooked on his back side.


    ¡°It¡¯s napalm!¡± she cried, running for the armory.


    Dustin rolled on the ground, trying to put the fire out, but the pain, when he rolled onto his back, was so intense, he immediately rolled back off of it.


    Suddenly, he was blinded by freezing cold clouds of white.  He couldn¡¯t tell what hurt more, the cold or the hot.


    (HOST HAS BEEN DAMAGED.  RECOMMEND EVOLUTION CHANGE TO HEAL DAMAGE TO PLATES.)


    ¡°What?¡± he thought hazily, as he writhed on the ground.  He could feel the pain on his back fading, as his healing kicked in.


    (HOST HAS TAKEN DAMAGE TO PLATE SCALES.  NORMAL HEALING WILL NOT REVIVE THEM.)


    ¡°Then,¡± he sat up as his back stopped hurting, ¡°Initiate evolution of this same form so they revive.¡±


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    Dustin loved his healing ability, and really grieved for anyone who had to suffer from burns.  They were the most horrible things he could remember having suffered.


    ¡°Better?¡± asked Olivia, holding a strange contraption he assumed was the alien equivalent of a fire extinguisher.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°Much!  Oh God!  You are an angel!¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve been called better, but I¡¯ll take it,¡± she said with a wide grin.


    Before he could groan, a Josagn rushed through the hologram doorway, and aimed his laser at them, firing off several shots.


    Both blasts hit Dustin square in the chest, and he watched amazed, as the armor activated, reflecting the blasts back at the Josagn, and sending him flying back through the hologram doorway.  Dustin fell back against the wall behind him, but he didn¡¯t waste any time and scrambled towards the last door.  Why the hell did the armor just now decide to kick in???


    Olivia grabbed up her duffle bag, and followed close behind him.  He looked at her and she nodded.  They both kicked the door open, and charged into the room.  There were about twenty Josagn, waiting for them with weapons drawn.


    Most of the blasts reflected back at the Josagn from the armor, but they couldn¡¯t guarantee how long the power would last on the armor, after the weapons sucked so bad.  Olivia rolled towards a wall, firing her black electric balls towards them, and Dustin charged straight ahead.  Once he reached them, he could feel some of the damage starting to leak through.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Grabbing the first Josagn, he threw it at the others, then grabbed another and bit it.  Half the damage he was getting, was halted as they scrambled on the ground under their companion.  Tossing the bit Josagn at some others as it started to spasm, he grabbed another one.


    Using it to take the blast from a really big gun, he threw it at the idiot who fired the gun, then stepped sideways long enough for some of the blasts he had been getting from behind, hit the Josagn in front of him.


    Jumping on top of a pile of them, he clawed at faces and yanked weapons away, without paying attention to what they had.  His goal was to do as much damage as quickly as possible.


    Someone tried to tackle him, but his body weight was greater than one of theirs, so the only affect it had, was as if it was trying to give him a big bear hug.  So, with a laugh, he punched it in the face and then kicked it away, when it stumbled back.  All the while, black electric balls of energy were hitting them and sending them into spasms from Olivia.


    A noise drew his attention to the back of the room, and he watched as a huge crystal bug straightened up from the restraints that had just been released from it.  Dustin ignored the rest of the Josagn as he watched this thing rise high above all of their heads.  These guys had to be fucking stupid.  They were already bird-brained, but this was ridiculous!


    They had taken one of the yellow bugs that terrified him so much, blew it up to an impossible size, then gave it crystal skin, so he couldn¡¯t hurt it.


    Licking his lips, a giggle escaped his mouth.  He fell to his knees, and started reaching around for a weapon, any weapon, and picked up the first one he found.  It was a laser gun.  He aimed for its eyes, and fired off a shot.  The beam redirected from the crystal, hitting the wall.  He fired another beam at its mouth as it opened it to chitter at him.  It bounced around, but didn¡¯t come back out.  He didn¡¯t know where it ended up, and whether it did any good or not.


    Tossing the gun over his shoulder, he scrambled for another one.  Olivia fired a black electric ball at it, but it bounced off, landing on a Josagn and frying it.  The bug scrambled for him, slamming a foot down, pinning a Josagn to the ground, and he scurried back.  Its stinger struck at him, missing him by a hairsbreadth, as he continued climbing over the Josagn bodies.  As he felt his back come up against the wall, his hand landed on a grenade.  He didn¡¯t hesitate to see what kind it was, pulling the pin and shoving it into the bug¡¯s mouth as it rushed towards him, to bite him.  It closed its mandibles, taking a few fingers, and he threw himself underneath it, towards Olivia.


    He grabbed her arm, as she jumped up, and they rushed past the giant bug as it turned to attack them, but it got distracted by a couple of Josagn that were trying to drag themselves away from it as well.  As they reached the door out of this small command center, there was a blast from the bug, throwing them forward, through the doorway.


    ¡°What kind of grenade was that?¡± she asked, as she picked herself up.


    Dustin¡¯s ears were ringing, but he shrugged as he kicked the door shut.  The bug was missing its head, exposing its crystal innards as the door slammed shut.


    ¡°It was probably super effective against crystal,¡± he said, flexing his hand, with its short stubs that were already starting to regrow.  They hurt and itched like hell.


    ¡°Dustin,¡± Olivia said, turning away from him.


    He looked up, and saw that they were in a hanger bay.  Several shuttles were ready to be boarded.


    ¡°About time!¡±

 Chapter 42 Escape from the Shuttle Bay

    ¡°They¡¯ve reached the hanger bay!  I repeat, they¡¯ve reached the hanger bay! Over,¡± Shouted one of them over the coms.


    ¡°You fool!  They¡¯re wearing a set of the com armor!¡±


    ¡°We are going radio silent.  Repeat. We are going radio silent!¡±


    Dustin looked over at her and chuckled.


    ¡°It seems like they¡¯re not too happy that we made it this far,¡± she said, grinning at him.


    ¡°Let¡¯s get out of here, before they try blowing the place up, or sending more damn monsters after us.¡±


    They jogged over to the first shuttle, but the door was locked.  Looking at each other, they split up to check each of the other shuttles, but their doors were locked too.


    ¡°Can you hack the system to get one open?¡± asked Olivia, glancing at the door they had come through.


    ¡°Maybe, but it¡¯s going to take time.¡±  He pulled out his multi-tool and glanced over the shuttles.  Maybe the farthest from the door would be best.  It would give him the most cover if anyone came calling.


    ¡°I¡¯ll cover the door so if anyone tries to interrupt, I can blow ¡®em away.¡±  She pulled out the grenade launcher with a wide grin.


    ¡°Why do I get the feeling you¡¯re enjoying this?¡±  He paused to watch her hips sway as she walked towards the door.


    ¡°I had to suffer at the hands of these assholes for six fucking years.  I think they liked it, too.  It¡¯s time I get a little payback.¡±  She stroked the gun, looking at him suggestively, before turning back to what she was doing.


    Dustin was sure, with all of the guns that were in that bag, she should be able to hole them off long enough for him to get the shuttle open.  After checking over the door carefully, for anything he may have missed, he found an access panel for maintenance repairs, and got to work.


    Using the PED as the access control device, he started to explore what all it could do.


    (SENSING NEW HARDWARE.  ATTEMPT SYNC?)


    ¡°I just want the damn door to open.  Once I¡¯m inside, we¡¯ll see what needs done to get this thing into the air.¡±


    (SYNC IS REQUIRED TO ACCESS THE SYSTEM OF THIS NEW DEVICE.)Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    ¡°Then sync already, but no contacting the aliens!¡±


    (PROTOCOL STATES THAT IF ACCESS TO COMMUNICATION WITH HOME BASE IS AVAILABLE, AN ATTEMPT MUST ALWAYS BE MADE TO MAKE CONTACT.)


    Pulling the wires and breaking contact, he cursed at the damn Josagn that programed it for that.  He would have to try and figure out how to reprogram it.  He wanted access to all of his genetic material before he got far away from them and their damn games.


    (LINK WITH NEW HARDWARE HAS BEEN SEVERED.)


    ¡°Yeah, well, suck it up, buttercup.  I don¡¯t feel like taking a nap anytime soon.¡±  He took his multi-tool and started poking and prodding at the electronics inside the door.


    Dustin didn¡¯t have a clue what he was doing, but every time he did something, it seemed right, so he kept on.  Every once in a while, he would hear Olivia firing on something behind him, but he ignored it.  This damn door had to open if they were going to get out of here alive.


    ¡°Dustin!  We have a problem!¡± Olivia shouted, just as he figured out how to get the door opened.


    ¡°Get your ass over here, and tell me about it!¡± he shouted back, jumping through the door and looking around.  It wasn¡¯t very large, with a bench seat along the back, and one seat for a pilot.  There was a lot of open floor between the two, and he really didn¡¯t want to think about why.


    She came running, carrying her bag of guns and the grenade launcher.  Behind her, he could see the crystal prince running, rather quickly.


    ¡°Shit!¡± he cursed, grabbing her arm and jerking her inside, then slamming the button to shut the door.


    As he got closer, the crystal prince waved his hand, and it became a blade, sharp and pointed.


    As the door closed, he jumped over to the seat, and started the ignition sequence.  Outside, he could hear, the crystal prince scraping the side of the shuttle with his blade. Slamming the button that would open the overhead hanger doors, he jerked the ship high into the air, causing the engine to whine, as it wasn¡¯t really ready to lift off.


    Clearing the doors by inches, he shot forward, instead of up, choosing to stay as close to the trees as he could.  Occasionally, there was the sound of scraping, as he got too close to their reaching branches.


    ¡°We have incoming!¡± said Olivia, from his left side, where she was watching some of the monitors, he hadn¡¯t paid attention to.


    Glancing at them, he saw that there were half a dozen ships, entering the atmosphere, and heading his way.  He only had a few moments before they would be close enough to do something.  Watching the screen in front of him, he pushed the ship to go even faster, knowing that it wasn¡¯t meant for that.  A high-pitched whine started to emit from the engine, and several lights on his board lit up.


    Up ahead, what he was looking for, appeared, and he aimed for it.  Just before the ships got within range, he slammed the thrusters into reverse and they almost came to a sudden stop.  Olivia went flying, and thudded heavily against the console.  The ships that had been chasing after them, overshot by a long way, and would take a few minutes to turn around and come back.


    Dustin angled the ship down, and entered the crevasse that they had lost the Josagn in the last time, with all of the caves.  Olivia managed to climb over and was clutching his seat with a death grip, trying not to get thrown all over the place again.


    Just as he remembered, the bottom of the crevasse was filled with water, from the numerous waterfalls that flowed down into it.  Hoping it wasn¡¯t too deep, he steered the ship into it, and they became submerged.

 Chapter 43 Underwater Adventures

    ¡°What the hell are you doing?¡± screamed Olivia, picking herself up as the ride smoothed out tremendously.


    ¡°Trying to keep us alive!¡± he growled as he steered the ship past an outcropping of rocks.


    ¡°Don¡¯t you know that you can¡¯t take a space ship under water??  They¡¯re designed to handle air pressure pushing out, not water pressure pushing in!¡±  She sounded like she was going to hyperventilate.  Was she scared of water too?  He remembered the first time he met up with her, and how she couldn¡¯t swim worth shit.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, that¡¯s only if we go too deep.  I don¡¯t plan to do that.¡±


    She grumbled to herself, but moved back to the bench seat and buckled herself in.


    Glancing at one of the panels to his left, Dustin saw that the alien vessels that had been chasing them, had followed into the water, and were shooting missiles at them.  Diving deeper, he kept a tight grip on the steering, while keeping a close eye on the pressure gauges.


    A flash of something in front of him, caused him to jerk the ship to the right, and Olivia gave a short shriek behind him.


    ¡°Do you even know how to fly?¡± she complained, grabbing the bag and strapping it into the seat next to her.


    Dustin ignored her as he veered further right, as a huge mouth, from some underwater monstrosity, tried to take a bite of the ship.  He veered under the jaw and flew down the length of the monster.  It didn¡¯t go down for very far, before it curved back up, and suddenly, he was out of the water, flying through a huge underground cavern.


    Of the ships that had been following him, only one managed to follow him.  However, as it paused just above the water, no doubt looking for him, the monster surged out of the water, and swallowed it whole.


    Dustin didn¡¯t wait to be the next bite.  There were some tunnels that looked vaguely familiar, that were large enough for the ship, but not for the monster.  He darted for one, just as the water splashed from it, as it came for them.


    As he paused in the tunnel, shining the ship lights over the walls and further down the tunnel, he caught his breath.  He could hear small hysterical giggles coming from Olivia.  She would never have survived, he¡¯s pretty sure.  She freaked out way too easy.


    Flying down the tunnel, he realized it was dug by one of the same tunneling worms that he had stolen the genetic material from, only much, much bigger.  What could a worm of this size possibly eat?You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    Hoping the answer wasn¡¯t them, he made sure that the ship didn¡¯t brush the ground anywhere.  He needed to find a dead end, so he could park without worrying about something sneaking up on them while he worked on the ship.


    Turning around a bend, he pulled the ship up short.  He was staring at the tail end of a worm so massive, he was afraid to sneeze.  A tunnel on the side, became visible as the worm continued tunneling, and he wasted no time in darting down it.  It angled down, then turned back, until they were heading back in the same direction they had come from.


    He didn¡¯t fly for very long, before he came across a weird sight.  There was water lapping at a pool, and sticking up out of the water, was the tail end of a worm, but it wasn¡¯t moving. In fact, it looked dead, with the skin sloughing off.  There was a greasy slime forming on the surface of the water, and he decided this may be what he was looking for.


    As he settled the ship down, Olivia piped up from the back.


    ¡°What are we doing here?  I thought we were trying to get off this planet?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re the one who told me that this thing has a self-destruct trigger if we fly too high,¡± he snapped, turning towards her.


    ¡°Oh, yea, sorry.  I forgot.¡±


    He looked at her for a moment, really thinking about laying into her, then shook his head.  ¡°I have work to do, try not to bother me too much.¡±


    She sighed, then, laying the bag of guns on the floor, she stretched out on the bench for a nap.  Dustin got busy, pulling panels off and seeing what went where.  This was way more complicated than the small tech he remembered working on, but that just made it all the more fun.


    Time flew, and when she woke with a start, cursing with tears in her eyes, he had torn the entire interior apart.  She just sat there gaping in surprise.


    ¡°So, I¡¯ve disabled the antennae that lets the shuttle talk with the Josagn, and I think I¡¯ve found the self-destruct trigger.  The bad news is that it¡¯s tied into the life support system.  It¡¯s probably going to take me days to figure out or rewire the ship.¡±


    ¡°Well, I¡¯m starving.  This thing doesn¡¯t happen to have any food in it, does it?¡±


    ¡°Probably not, and I wouldn¡¯t try eating that dead worm outside either.¡±


    ¡°Let me check in the bench,¡± she said, standing up and lifting the seat up.  There were several large bundles that she pulled out.


    Dustin came over to see what they were, because he was starving too.


    There were two sets of armor, similar to what they were already wearing, as well as a couple of laser pistols.


    ¡°This might come in handy,¡± she said, lifting up two rebreathers.


    ¡°I¡¯ve not seen those before, what do they do?¡±


    ¡°They pull breathable air out of the surrounding air, so that in times of emergency, you can survive longer.¡±


    ¡°We could try and use those, if I disabled the life support system for air, but that won¡¯t help us stay warm.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right.  It will get cold fast.¡±


    ¡°I guess there¡¯s nothing for it.  We¡¯re going to have to go hunting.¡±


    ¡°But everything out there wants to kill us!  It¡¯s death to go out there!¡±


    ¡°Yep.  If we try to wait until it¡¯s time to go to the space station, we¡¯ll be too weak from lack of food to be able to fight well.  I don¡¯t intend to get that far, just to have them kill me because those things out there want to kill me.¡±


    She stood up and sighed.  Taking one of the pistols, she threw the other one to him.  Dustin wished he could use his PED to change to something more appropriate, but that wasn¡¯t an option anymore.

 Chapter 44 Recap

    ¡°We could try eating some of that,¡± he said, motioning towards the dead worm in front of them.  They stood outside, in the stench of the dead worm.  It was even worse than he thought it would be from the inside of the shuttle.


    ¡°No, thank you.¡± She made a gagging motion, then gagged for real when the stench got into her mouth.


    ¡°I have a smaller worm you could try?¡± he said, slyly, glancing at her innocently.


    ¡°As if, I couldn¡¯t find that worm with a microscope.¡±


    Glancing down, he feigned horror, then grinned at her, when an honestly alarmed look came over her face.


    ¡°That¡¯s not what you said last time,¡± he said.


    ¡°Wait, what?¡±


    ¡°I could offer you a protein shake?¡±


    ¡°No, seriously, what did you mean by the last time?¡±


    Not really wanting to go into that, he moved closer to the dead worm, stopping just at the edge of the water.  Nothing should be able to survive in that sludge, right?  On second thought, he moved back just in case.  He didn¡¯t want to be wrong, and get pulled into it.


    ¡°The first thing we need to do, is make sure you don¡¯t die, the first time something hits or spits at you.¡±  Dustin pulled off a scale and held it out for her.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think, I¡¯m letting you go without an answer.  You said you would answer all of my questions.  What do you want me to do with this?¡± she asked, moving forward, taking it and holding it up.


    ¡°You know how the PED works,¡± he said, rolling his eyes.


    ¡°Yes, I do.  If this is so important,¡± she said, waving it at him, ¡°Then, why didn¡¯t you give me one before we ran into the shuttle station?¡±


    ¡°I was in a but of a hurry, now do you want to go hunting for something, or not?¡±  He turned around without waiting for a response, but only got a few feet, before a sound filled the silence of the cave around them.


    Other than their voices, it had been completely silent.  Not even the dripping of water off of the shuttle could penetrate the deep silence.  However, as their voices died, a wet popping sound reverberated throughout the darkness around them.


    The sound of one of them swallowing, was almost drowned out, as the sound of a splash was quickly followed by another.


    Turning towards the dead worm behind them, they saw in the dim lights from the shuttle¡¯s exterior lights, white maggots the size of their legs, wiggling across the top of the scum in the water towards them.  Dustin backed up, really fast, almost losing his footing, as he scrambled for the door latch on the shuttle.


    Olivia, half evolved, was right behind him.  It didn¡¯t take long for them to scramble into the shuttle and shut the door.


    ¡°So, we need to get out of here, right now.¡±


    Nodding in agreement, Dustin moved a few things out of the pilot seat, and sat down.  The shuttle shuddered for a moment before lifting off, and he wondered if he did more than just disable the antennae.


    ¡°You can tell me about what you meant, now,¡± she said, strapping herself into her seat, as she stared at the mess around her.


    ¡°Well, you know how I knew your name when you first popped out of the pod?¡± he asked, focusing on flying through the tunnel.  He was looking for anything that might be worth hunting, or maybe a smaller tunnel that might lead to something edible.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    ¡°I remember,¡± she said.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t the first time you¡¯ve been on the planet.  This is actually my twentieth trip, and possibly yours as well.¡±


    ¡°How can that be?¡± she asked confused.


    ¡°They mess with our minds.  While you were with the Josagn, did you notice anything like a survival television show?  Something they would watch for fun?¡±


    ¡°I could see them enjoying something like that¡­wait, maybe?  There was something like that in the works.  I think I remember them asking lots of questions about how our television shows worked, and how our people would test themselves in survival scenarios.  But they didn¡¯t have television, at least, not that I knew of.¡±


    Dustin thought about that a bit.  The prince hadn¡¯t told him about the television show until after they had collected her.  Maybe he had withheld that information because she knew more about it.  There were things that weren¡¯t adding up, and it bugged him.


    Spying a thick crack in the wall, that he had ignored before, he slowed the ship down, and set it gently on the ground.  They were a lot closer to the other worm tunnel, and he didn¡¯t want to draw its attentions.


    ¡°Ok, look.  This is what has happened to me, since I got out of my pod:  I survived on my own for a day or two, escaping monsters and the Josagn hunters that came for me.  I found out about the shuttle station, and decided I wanted to escape instead of waiting a full year.  Then your pod arrived.  However, when I tried to save you, you tried to escape from me, just like you did this time around.¡±


    ¡°But that¡¯s because you were the Lady Killer!¡± she exclaimed.  ¡°You were known to woo them and then kill them after having sex.  It was all over the broadcasts back home!¡±


    ¡°But, when were you home to see them?¡± he asked.


    She paused as that realization came to her.  She shouldn¡¯t have been able to see such broadcasts.  She hadn¡¯t been home since becoming an alien advisor.


    ¡°Once I save you from the monsters, the Josagn showed up again, and tried to kill us.  We escaped to some caves, just above us, actually, that lead to an underground city.  Had I known that the PED¡¯s were being tracked, I wouldn¡¯t have stuck around as much as I had.  The Josagn followed us, and killed all the people who were down there.¡±


    ¡°How many?¡± she asked, quietly.


    ¡°Hundreds.  They must have figured out the truth, because they were forced to give up their PED¡¯s in order to stay there.  I refused, so we went to leave, and they captured us.  I¡¯m still not sure why.  We managed to escape, then hid in a small cave while the Josagn murdered everything.  That¡¯s when we had glorious sex.¡±


    ¡°Was it really that great, knowing that so many people were dying?¡± she asked, turning her head to the side.


    ¡°Totally!  I¡¯m honestly not sure when I had gotten some before then,¡± he confirmed with no hesitation at all.


    ¡°Did you go back and get samples from everyone?¡± she asked, curiously.


    He opened his mouth, then shut it.  The thought may have occurred to him?  Honestly all he had thought about was getting out of there, especially after he encountered the crystal prince.


    The crystal prince!


    ¡°Do you remember a Josagn prince going missing?¡± he asked.  ¡°I think his father¡¯s name was Ath, or something like that?¡±


    ¡°Aioth!  Yes, there was a prince who had gone hunting and disappeared on his first trip.  It was feared he had died, but the royal crystals remain lit until the royal member they are bonded with dies.  His never did.  But that was hundreds of years ago¡­ why do you ask?¡±


    ¡°While we were down in the underground city, we came across a small man who was all crystal.  He claimed to be that prince, had a pretty convincing story, that you believed, and we took him with us when we left the caves.  It wasn¡¯t long after we left, that we got separated fighting a monster, and you were taken by the Josagn.  I found your PED, still bloody, afterwards, but you were gone.  One of the locals, those stick things you saw fighting the Josagn at the shuttle station, told me it was common for us to arrive for a while, then be called back by the Josagn for another trip.¡±


    Her brow scrunched up in thought.


    ¡°I got into a fight with him, and he was knocked out.  I hid and when he woke up, he was talking to the Josagn about me as if he was a spy.  I followed him for a while, in the form of a worm, like the ones who dug these tunnels, just a lot smaller, and every time I got close, I would dream of real memories, instead of the fabricated ones they put in our heads.  It was after I found out he knew I was following him, that I got mad and started running towards the station in the form you had found me.  I¡¯m glad you arrived when you did, though I think they did that in the hopes I would slow down, because it meant we could escape together.¡±


    ¡°How do you know this is your twentieth trip?¡± she asked.


    ¡°Remember the PED¡¯s I was using to upgrade ours with?¡± he asked.


    She nodded.


    ¡°I was the one who upgraded everyone of them.  The same wires were twisted, in the same directions.  There were nineteen, which means this is my twentieth trip.  One of my memories had the human judge who sentenced me to this hellhole, telling the Josagn I should be returned after twenty trips.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s messed up,¡± she said.  ¡°I¡¯m glad the sex was good, I just wish I remembered it.¡±


    ¡°Come on, lets go look for something to eat.¡±


    She admired the crystal scales that covered her arms and nodded.  ¡°I¡¯m starving!¡±

 Chapter 45 Mistress

    A thick slime coated the bottom of the crack, as they descended slowly.  Even though they had clinging in the lizard form, the slime made it very difficult to get a good grip on the stone.


    ¡°I hope this stuff leads us to something edible, and not a giant slug or something,¡± mumbled Olivia.


    Dustin didn¡¯t respond as he was making sure he had a good grip on the rock before taking his next step.  This stuff was worse than ice.


    A rhythmic noise ahead, had them moving even slower and more cautiously.  As they came around a bend, the crevasse opened up to a roundish tunnel.  To their right, it continued pretty much in a straight line, but to their left, they saw the rear end of some creature that was rhythmically digging away.  The crack they had been following continued before them, and the slime seemed to be contained to just the crevasse.


    The creature to their left had skin that strongly resembled the rock around it, and as they stepped onto the rock, and off the slime, it paused.  Turning around, they saw that it had no eyes.  The entire front of its face was made up of a giant mouth.  The teeth inside were rounded, not pointy, and as it turned, they could see that it must eat rocks or minerals.


    Its six legs were broken up into three different functions.  The front two had thick claws that were capable of digging through the tough rock and dirt.  The second two seemed to be solely for moving the creature.  The last two were flat, like shovel, and were obviously used to scoop the extra dirt and rock behind.


    Judging from the lack of extra dirt and rock in the tunnel, it was pretty clear it must be eating it.  Olivia grimaced as Dustin moved towards it, stepping lightly.


    Just behind its jaw, there were short pits and tiny hairs that he was pretty sure could sense tremors in the ground.


    ¡°PED, can you give me my cutting hands?¡±


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    It seemed to be waiting for him to get closer, and he obliged.  He didn¡¯t know if this thing was edible or not, but he was hungry and wanted to get back to work.  If it was edible, it was big enough to feed them both for days.


    Just as he got close enough to strike, it lunged forward, opening its mouth to swallow him whole.  Dustin fell flat on his butt, jumping back, and slashed out with both cutting hands.  They bounced off the things tough skin, causing no damage.  He had to roll to the side, to avoid its huge clawed foot, that slammed down where he had fallen.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    Olivia started jumping up and down, and it paused.  Taking advantage of its confusion, Dustin tried to attack it again, but again, his blades just skittered across its skin.  Whatever it was made from, was too tough for him to cut.


    Olivia stopped, and they both froze for a moment, as the creature seemed to be huffing into the air.  This thing didn¡¯t even have a tongue to bite.  Not wanting to lose a tooth trying to bite it, he backpedaled until he was next to Olivia again.


    ¡°Maybe we need to find something easier to kill?¡± he asked quietly.


    The thing huffed a few more times, before turning back around and continuing with its digging.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think it was very impressed with you,¡± she said, turning to face the slimy crack again.


    ¡°Well, we have two options, then.  We can continue going down the slimy crack, or we can go back along this guy¡¯s tunnel.¡±


    ¡°When you put it that way, I¡¯m for the tunnel.¡±


    ¡°You go that way?¡± he asked with a grin.


    With a grin, she said, ¡°Only when I¡¯m on top.¡±


    ¡°I tend to remember that,¡± he said, thoughtfully, looking up at the ceiling of the tunnel.


    ¡°Oh, really?  What else do you remember?¡± she asked, raising her brow ridge.


    ¡°That you make these awesome little panting noises when I bottom out.¡±


    ¡°Oh, ho!  Now I¡¯m really curious!  I don¡¯t think I remember anyone doing that before.¡±


    ¡°We need to find something to eat fast, if we¡¯re going to squeeze sex in before we escape.¡±


    ¡°Then stop talking and start walking!¡±


    ¡°I am, woman!¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s mistress, to you!¡±


    Chuckling, Dustin turned down the tunnel.  After what seemed forever, they encountered an actual cave.  There were several other tunnels, similar to this one, that led them to believe there were more of those things, digging around, but they opted to stay in the one tunnel, so that they didn¡¯t get too lost.


    As they stepped into the cave, a cold chill swept over them, and they glanced at each other in surprise.  What could cause a wind in a cave this deep?


    Movement to the side caught their attention, and Dustin took in a deep breath to keep from making any noise.  A giant cockroach was perched on top of a fallen stalactite.  Its antennae waved in the dark, mostly in their direction.  It was big enough, that even from this distance, they could tell it had no eyes.


    Taking several steps towards them, its antennae waving like mad, Dustin tried to figure out if his bladed hands would hurt it.  As far as he could tell, it looked like a normal cockroach, only bigger and lacking eyes, so that meant, no weird stingers or claws, and no odd skin or alien appendages.


    Surely, he could take out one giant bug, right?  After all, he¡¯d already killed a lot of them, including that fucking huge crystal one.


    Raising his hands, as he fought to keep his breath under control, Olivia charged with a loud scream.  Startled, he watched as the walls all around them came alive with movement.  Of course.  No cockroach is ever alone.  Why the hell hadn¡¯t he noticed their heat signature?


    Taking off after her, all he could think was, there was no damn way he was eating cockroach!

 Chapter 46 Cockroaches

    Dodging a leg, he sliced off the head of another damn bug.  The worst thing about them, was that even with their heads gone, they still scurried around!  He was tired, hungry, and sore, and still couldn¡¯t find Olivia.


    She had charged after the lone cockroach, but the cave had exploded with countless more.  Dustin had quickly been overwhelmed by them, but thankfully, they couldn¡¯t bite through his crystal plates.  Because they didn¡¯t stop moving when he cut them into pieces, he couldn¡¯t tell which ones were dead, and which ones were alive.


    Another horrifying part, was that they had stopped attacking him, to eat the fallen cockroaches.  The sound of them scurrying around was deafening in the cave, and he struggled to get to a wall.  Suddenly, he was hit from behind, and went flying, landing heavily on the ground.  His head cracked against the rock, and his vision swam for a moment.


    As it cleared, he saw a flash of heat ahead of him, and he struggled to stand up.  So many bugs were crawling over him, that he wasn¡¯t having much luck.  Every once in a while, one would chomp down on an arm or a leg, but when they couldn¡¯t break through the crystal plates, they gave up and moved on.


    Crawling, he made his way to another section of the cave, where he thought he had seen the heat signature of Olivia.  There were fewer cockroaches here, so he was able to pull himself up the wall, to a standing position.


    Further ahead, he saw that flash of heat.  It was near the ground, so he was worried she might be hurt.  Had she freaked out like he did?  He knew it took him too fucking long to move when they swarmed, and he chewed himself out for that as he made his way around a puddle of water to the cave tunnel.  Maybe she hadn¡¯t charged at all.  Maybe the shout was actually a scream?


    His head hurt from the knock, even though he knew the damage would be healed by now, and his memories of the last couple minutes were kind of blurred.  Not that he really wanted to remember being swarmed by giant bugs.


    The tunnel was clear, but there weren¡¯t any other ways she could have gone, so he proceeded with caution.  As much as he wanted to get laid again, he also wanted to get off this damn rock.  Hunting for food had already taken way longer than he had wanted.  Why did it have to be so fucking hard?


    At the end of the tunnel, he paused.  Spread out before him, was a huge garden.  There were things that looked like rocks, spaced evenly, in rows and columns.  The reason he thought of it as a garden was because each rock looked exactly the same.  It was too perfect not to on purpose.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Crouching in the entrance, he studied the room carefully.  Behind him he could still hear the bugs fighting over the bodies of the fallen, and the clicking of their chewing sent shivers down his spine.


    Focusing on the room in front of him, he didn¡¯t see any heat signatures.  There was movement, though, and he focused on it carefully.  A small creature, probably as tall as the middle of his shin, moved slowly and carefully between the rows of plants.  As it got closer, he was able to see it better.


    Its head was as big as its body, and the black eyes probably took up three-quarters of the face.  The eyelids that swept over the eyes every couple of minutes, were very rigid and thick.  It had a cute little mouth, filled with neat little teeth, smoothed down into nubs.  The tiny rocks embedded into its skin probably served as some form of protection and camouflage.  Four stubby legs ended in digging claws, while two more, resembled arms.


    As he watched it, the creature went up to one of the rocks and rubbed its side in small gentle strokes.  The entire top of the rock opened up, much like a flower, revealing a bright red interior that screamed with heat.  Dustin could barely see that there were small fruits attached to the inside of the rock-like thing.  The creature picked a few, then popped them into its mouth and continued on its calm trundle around the garden.


    It was cute.  This may be the first thing he had seen that was cute on the entire damn planet, and he studied it like a hawk.  There had to be something deadly about it.  Maybe it shot spines from its back if you touched it, or its saliva could dissolve things.  Not taking his chances, he decided to avoid it all costs.


    Directly opposite him, on the other side of the garden, he could see the heat signature again.  How had he missed it?  Even if Olivia was crawling, he should have seen her crawling along.


    He didn¡¯t move immediately.  That heat signature probably wasn¡¯t Olivia, which meant she was back with those god-forsaken bugs.


    Cursing to himself, he couldn¡¯t leave her.  If there were other tunnels, he wasn¡¯t sure she would take the same one he had, and then he might never find her again.  Turning back, he made his way to the cave with the cockroaches.


    It was grisly.  They were scurrying around on the walls and ceiling, and some of them were missing legs and even heads.  Should he try to get some genetic material from them?  His current clinging wouldn¡¯t allow him to move that fast.  Glancing at his PED, he shook his head.  No way was he risking losing the information it already had.  He would have to work on that when he got back to the shuttle.


    A moan off to his left caught his attention, and he made his way through the bugs.  They pushed against him, and he cut swaths through them.  Again, the smell or something, drove them all into a frenzy.  Would he never learn?


    Olivia was leaning against a wall, rubbing her head, as bugs scurried all around and over her.

 Chapter 47 Cave Fish

    They were both crouched, looking down on the rock garden.


    ¡°You¡¯re right, it is cute.  I imagine it¡¯s probably the deadliest thing on the planet.  What do you think it is?  Toxic breath?  Poisonous skin?  Laser beams from its eyes?¡±


    Dustin looked at her as she fought to keep a serious face.


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to be an ass.¡±


    ¡°Oh, yes I do.  You remember us having sex.  I believe I¡¯m entitled to a little payback.¡±


    ¡°You just wait.  You won¡¯t be saying that after the next round.¡±


    Laughing softly, she just shook her head.  ¡°I think we can probably move faster than that thing, whatever it is, and as long as we don¡¯t touch any of the plants, we can probably get past them too.¡±


    She hadn¡¯t believed they were plants until she had seen the cute little creature open one up and eat a fruit.  If they weren¡¯t carnivores, Dustin might have considered trying some of the fruit himself.  The only thing that bothered him was, why weren¡¯t those bugs in here eating them too?


    ¡°Look, maybe there¡¯s a reason the thing is moving slow.  I bet those plants are sensitive to movement.  What if they¡¯re the threat instead of the cute critter?¡±


    She stopped and studied the area for a moment, then nodded.  ¡°That would also explain why none of those things are in here.¡±


    Dustin went to stand up, then stopped and looked behind him.  There was an itch between his shoulder blades, as if something were staring at him.  His heart almost stopped, and he barely managed to tap Olivia on the shoulder.  When she turned to look behind her, she stood much quicker.


    Rising up from the water, was a tall thin creature he could only describe as a blind sea serpent.  There were translucent scales covering the entire length of it, and needle thin teeth protruded outside of the lips like a crocodile¡¯s snout.  He could see the pulsing organs inside of its body as it weaved side to side.


    Opening its mouth wide, it swung back and forth, and he could see jagged teeth sticking out all the way down its throat.  Swallowing, he realized that was to keep its prey from escaping.


    One of the headless cockroaches crawled too close to the water, and the serpent struck so quickly, both Dustin and Olivia jumped.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Turning back into the garden cave, they decided to risk the garden instead of the pool.  With Dustin leading, they took one slow step after another.  They had almost reached the other side, when the cute little creature appeared from around the bend, and they all paused.


    It blinked, slowly, and then stomped.


    The entire garden seemed to explode.  Every plant opened up, not slowly like before, but violently, spewing red mist into the air, as the force of their opening burst the fruits.


    Dustin and Olivia darted towards the exit, dodging as much of the hanging mist as possible.  They didn¡¯t know what it would do, but didn¡¯t want to find out either.


    Panting hard, they paused in the next section of tunnel.


    ¡°This place is a freaking nightmare!¡± growled Olivia.


    Dustin glanced at her, and chuckled.  He couldn¡¯t help it.  After everything he had been through, this was almost on par with what he expected anymore.


    ¡°You think that¡¯s funny?¡± she demanded, jabbing a finger back at the bloody-appearing garden.


    ¡°I just thought how sexy your growl was.¡±  He grinned at her.


    She looked at him for a moment, dumbstruck, then shook her head.  ¡°After all this, and we still don¡¯t have anything to eat!  Not to mention we have to go back past all of that to get back to the ship!¡±


    He glanced down the tunnel, and saw a heat signature again.  With Olivia following close on his heels, they stepped into another open cave.  The further into it they went, the warmer it got.  He knew that soon, he wouldn¡¯t be able to see a heat signature of anything, and was a little worried at what might be baiting them.  Over to the side, he saw another pool, and at first, wanted to avoid it, in case another damn monster popped out, but then he saw there were merely small cave fish swimming around.


    When Olivia saw them, she gasped and dived over to the pool.  For the next several minutes, they caught fish after fish, swallowing them whole.  They were both so hungry by this point, that they didn¡¯t mind at all that they wiggled on the way down.


    A small squeak behind them, had the two spinning around, on guard.  Dustin even went so far, as to jump out of the water, so that if anything was wanting to grab him from the deep end, he might notice and avoid it.


    A small child, about two and a half to three feet tall, was cowering in a small depression.  A large cave spider was trying to fish her out.


    Olivia charged at the spider, kicking it half way across the cave, before Dustin could stop her.  It landed on a sharp stalagmite, sliding down it, wiggling furiously as its internal juices made the spike even more slippery.


    The small girl emerged slowly, staring at them with wide, terrified eyes.  Her skin was covered in blue-white crystalline hairs, that almost looked like soft fur.  Her eyes were glowing a bright purple, and Dustin realized that was what he had been seeing.  All this time he thought it was a heat signature, and it was her eyes.


    ¡°Please don¡¯t kill me,¡± she whispered.


    ¡°We won¡¯t,¡± assured Olivia in a soft voice.  Dustin couldn¡¯t help but think she would make a great mom.


    ¡°Are you alone?¡± asked Dustin, glancing around to see of there was any trace of any other crystal people.


    ¡°No,¡± she said, shaking her head.  ¡°Everyone else is dead.  The top-siders killed them.¡±


    They looked at each other.  The same thought was running through their heads.  The Josagn!

 Chapter 48 Crystal People

    ¡°Would you like to come with us?¡± asked Olivia.


    Dustin looked at her surprised.  They didn¡¯t know the first thing about this kid.  For all he knew it was a trap and she was about to jump at their throats.  Though, when he paused to think about it, she was a crystal person.  The crystal prince had said he traveled to the bottom of the ocean to acquire his crystal skin.  Could that have been a lie?  Could this have been where he actually got it from?


    The little girl shook her head, ¡°I can¡¯t leave!  Everyone would die if I did.¡±


    They both stared at her in confusion.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked Dustin.


    ¡°I¡¯ll show you, if you promise not to hurt them,¡± she said, timidly.  It was obvious she was dying to interact with someone.  Maybe that was why she had been watching them.  If everyone she knew had been killed by outsiders, that also explained why she had been so hesitant to get too close to them.  But what did she mean by everyone would die?


    They followed her as she danced ahead of them, so excited she couldn¡¯t be still.  They avoided all of the monster traps as she pointed them out on the way.


    There were giant ants the size of foxes, who laid traps along the way.  If you kicked any of the rocks, it would alert them to your presence and they would swarm out to attack.


    Strange gelatinous growths grew near steam vents.  She told them if you got too close, they would reach out and tag you with a paralyzing poison.  It even went through the crystals.


    The further they went the less dangerous the creatures.  There were glowing bugs that crawled over the walls, eating the moss-like growth around the vents.  These things wouldn¡¯t bother you, unless you bothered them.  Then they could get really hot and burn you.


    When they finally reached their destination, Olivia and Dustin stopped short.  In front of them, completely encased in stone, was a massive skeleton.  The skull had its mouth open, with razor sharp teeth protruding from both the top and bottom.  Six eye holes stared at them, daring them to step into its mouth.  There was no nose hole, but a deep groove on the surface of the mouth could have served as one.


    ¡°Come, on.  You can¡¯t see them if you don¡¯t come inside!¡±  The little girl stepped through a gap in the teeth, made from two missing ones, and disappeared down a tunnel that looked suspiciously like a throat.


    Dustin sighed.  His stomach was full, he wanted to go back to the shuttle and get to work.  But Olivia was already stepping into the mouth of the beast.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Making his way carefully, he saw that there were glowing plants or stones strategically placed along the way.  Some were actually pretty detailed, with several different colored strains artistically twining around each other.  Olivia paused several times to admire them, but Dustin could have cared less.


    ¡°This is the nursery,¡± the little girl beamed proudly.  ¡°As long as I can keep them safe, they will replace everyone I lost to the top-siders.¡±


    In front of them, stretching for as far as they could see in all directions, were rows and rows of different crystals in the shapes of eggs.  They were all different colors and patterns.  The room was sweltering.  The hottest they¡¯d been since coming down into the caves.


    ¡°How long will that take?¡± asked Olivia, stunned by the sight.


    Dustin crouched next to one, to get a closer look.  If he stared hard enough, he could almost see through the shell.


    ¡°Only a little while longer!  I¡¯ve waited for a long time.¡±


    Something moved under the shell, turning to look at him, and blinked.  He watched as it moved some more, and suddenly he stood up.  He was done here.  Whatever was going to hatch from these eggs, he didn¡¯t want to be here to see it.


    ¡°That¡¯s great!  As fun as it has been to see your new family, we really need to be going.¡±  Dustin moved back towards the tunnel.


    Olivia was frowning at him, but she had seen him looking closely at the egg before standing quickly.  She knew something must be up.


    ¡°But you need to stay!  How will I be able to feed and care for them all alone?¡±  She pouted in such a way, that Dustin was immediately wary.  Sniffing slightly, he realized she was releasing pheromones.  Ones that probably instilled some form of protect me signal.


    Olivia seemed to fall for it for a moment, ¡°Oh, you poor dear!  Of course, we will stay and help you!  Let me talk to my friend for but a moment, and I will be right back, okay?¡±


    The little girl was all smiles again, and let them walk a little way back down the tunnel, watching them the whole way.  Dustin saw her little ears turning to catch any sound they made between them.


    Reaching out, he gently touched the wall next to one of the glowing crystals, and knew immediately, that the walls were alive.  He could feel the vibration of the blood pulsing slowly through the walls.


    ¡°Beautiful,¡± he murmured, to hide his revelation.  ¡°Don¡¯t you think so?¡±


    He took Olivia¡¯s hand, and placed it against the wall, too.  Her eyes widened as she came to the same conclusions he had.


    ¡°The one¡¯s I really liked were over here,¡± she said, leading him closer to the mouth as if she wanted him to see another one.  It was very simple though, and Dustin saw the little girl¡¯s eyes narrow in suspicion; her smile wilting just a little.


    ¡°So, I was thinking, if we stuck around for a day or two, we could help her get going with all of the babies, before we had to leave,¡± Dustin said, wandering even closer to the mouth.


    ¡°I think that¡¯s a wonderful idea.  This place is so lovely and warm, and that poor child would have such a hard time dealing with so many by herself.¡±


    She had started wandering towards them, just as they got to the mouth.  Dustin darted through the row of teeth, just as Olivia jumped out, rolling across the floor.  The missing teeth snapped up, out of the bottom jaw, and the mouth snapped shut.  The cave all around them began to shake, and the little girl screamed inside.


    Without pausing they both turned tail, and ran.

 Chapter 49 Iolite

    She cringed behind the stalagmite as screams rent the air.  Clutching a tiny piece of egg shell, colored in a light electric blue, she listened as her people were slaughtered.


    ¡°Is that all of them?¡± asked one of the top-siders.  Its feathers gleamed in the strange light they brought with them.


    ¡°I believe so, your grace,¡± came an answer, from a small, crystalline person.


    He almost looked like one of them, which was why they didn¡¯t attack immediately.  Iolite knew that anything that approached their caves was normally killed immediately, and brought to the great Dragon Xoannaedainth, as an offering to keep him pleased with them.  It was rumored that the great dragon had saved their people long before, but no one remembered how, or why.


    ¡°Good.  This hunt was worth the effort, but not worth repeating.  Leave the bodies for the other denizens here to feast on.¡±


    Iolite waited, in the small hidden crevasse as the intruders retreated from her home. After hours of being cramped up in the small hole, her body was stiff to respond when she finally left it.  With the last of her eggshell held tightly, she wandered the cave now filled with the bodies of her people.  They had been cut down with strange weapons that went through their crystal hide like butter.


    What should she do now?


    As she wondered this, she found herself before the mouth of the great Xoannaedainth.  Shivering, she wanted nothing more than to flee, but it seemed to have already sensed her.


    ¡°Come closer, little one.  Your kind don¡¯t normally shiver.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m the only one left,¡± she whispered, drawing closer to the heat emanating from its mouth.


    ¡°What happened?¡± it asked.


    ¡°The top-siders came and killed everyone.  The weapons we had, didn¡¯t work against them.¡±


    ¡°Bring me their bodies, those of your fallen, and I will bless your people again, to live once more.  I did this once, a long time ago, because you are like children to me.  Bring them to my belly, and lay them out for me.  Then I will do this for you.¡±


    Iolite knew that the dragon had always been revered by her people, and she had no reason to disbelieve it now, so she went to work, dragging the bodies, one by one, into the mouth of the great Xoannaedainth.  Yet, no matter how many she brought, there always seemed to be room for more.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Sometimes, she didn¡¯t know what limb went with what body, so she lay it by itself, so the real owner wouldn¡¯t be insulted in the afterlife.  Other times she sat and cried when she found someone who had been a good friend, or greatly kind to her.


    As she worked, her tiny piece of shell crumbled a little more, and a little more, until there was only the barest speck left when she was finally done.  She clung to it tightly, lest it too disappear.


    ¡°Now I need something precious to you, in order to work this great magic,¡± rumbled the voice of the dragon.


    ¡°But you have all of my people, what more could you take from me?¡± she asked in a small, frightened tone.


    ¡°Perhaps, the shell fragment, you have in your hand?  It would be a great help in allowing me to recreate shells for each of the fallen.¡±


    Iolite clung to her shell piece, as tears gathered in her eyes.  The shell was all she had left from her hatching, and she was loath to part with it.  For once the shell was gone, she would be considered an adult, regardless of her actual age, and expected to do whatever was necessary to help the clan.


    Looking down at the tiny blue shell, she sighed.  The tears never fell, as she realized, everyone was gone.  That automatically made her an adult.  Closing her purple glowing eyes tightly, she held out her hand, and felt the figment of a breeze.  When she opened them again, the blue shell was gone, and before her, filling the room, a change had occurred.


    Where every body had lain, filling the entire room, farther than she could see, new eggs of every color lay waiting to hatch.  Even the spots where she had just left an arm or a leg, there was a new egg.  She could almost see the smallest of babies growing in the middle of the lighter colored and translucent eggs.


    Wandering the room in amazement, she lost track of time as she touched their warm surfaces and dreamed of the day when they would all hatch.


    Straightening her shoulders, Iolite knew the hatchlings would have a voracious appetite, and there was only so much to eat, so she would have to work hard to make sure there was enough.  It should only take a few weeks for them to be ready to hatch, and she still had to figure out how to find the right things to eat.


    One of the reasons why she had so little shell left, was because she had eaten some of it, instead of food, when the adults stopped bringing her some.  The food they brought had tasted better, but she had been hungry.


    Remembering the flavor and color of the correct rock was important.  If she brought the wrong minerals, the babies might get sick.  With the memories of what was good and what was not, flowing through her head, she got busy.


    It was almost time, and she had gathered a literal mountain of ore for the babies to eat when they hatched, when she heard the cockroaches go crazy.  They had filled the main living area when everyone died, and she tolerated them only because they gave her warning if anything approached.  Though, with the eggs incubating inside the great Xoannaedainth, she didn¡¯t think anything could bother them.


    Maybe if it was more top-siders, she could lure them back to the dragon, as a type of thank you for helping her.  Maybe she could even trick them into helping her raise the babies for a while.  That would be nice, too.

 Chapter 50 PED Upgrade

    Running back the way they came, they didn¡¯t hesitate passing all of the traps the girl had pointed out to them, the strange flower garden, the serpent pool, and the cave of bugs. They had to slow down climbing back up the slimy crack, but they soon found their way back to the ship.


    Climbing inside, they sat down and rested for a good long while. There was no sign that they had angered a giant underground dragon, and nothing seemed to have followed them out of the crack. It was quiet, and they reveled in it.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to get started working on the ship. Mind helping me?¡±


    ¡°Sure. I don¡¯t have much else to do.¡±


    For the next twenty hours, they tore into things, rewiring them, calibrating it, and then doing it some more, until finally, Dustin held a small bomb in his hands. They were both exhausted and the interior of the ship needed to be put back together, but Dustin was sure he knew everything there was to know, about this ship.


    ¡°I say we get some sleep, then get out of these caves,¡± said Olivia, laying down on the bench.


    ¡°Nope,¡± said Dustin, starting to reattach the panels. He was tired, but if something came to attack them, he didn¡¯t want something to go wrong because he had wires dangling everywhere.


    With a groan Olivia got back up to help. It only took about twenty minutes, and then the inside of the shuttle looked much improved.


    ¡°Now do we get to sleep?¡± she asked, hesitating before sitting down.


    ¡°Yes, but we¡¯re not leaving when we wake,¡± he said.


    ¡°What? Why not? I thought that was all you could think about!¡±


    ¡°It is, but I need to take into consideration that this might be the only calm I get until we¡¯re done with the Josagn. There¡¯s some things I want to look into on our PED¡¯s before we fly off.¡±


    With a sigh of defeat, she threw herself onto the bench and was quickly out. Dustin settled himself into the pilot chair, so that if anything came along, he could react as fast as possible.


    -Dreaming¡­


    -¡°The subject is responding well to the memory adjustments. We should be able to get twenty trips out of it, easily,¡±


    -¡°That¡¯s good. The last one only lasted three trips before it started becoming unstable.¡±If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    -He was able to open his eyes a little, but it was like looking through muddy water. Everything was blurry and indistinct.


    -¡°The female that we acquired with this one, is also looking promising. There has even been some talk between the superiors about breeding them after the hunts are through. It would be exciting to see how that would turn out.¡±


    -¡°You shouldn¡¯t talk about such things.¡±


    -The scene changed and he was being strapped to a table. The monster had eaten his lower half, and he had been in so much pain! But now it was like he was floating. There were Josagn moving about him, poking and prodding, but he couldn¡¯t understand their words.


    -This time, he drowned. His gills didn¡¯t grow fast enough, but the Josagn fished him out. Ironic that one.


    -The carpet monster had wrapped around him, spitting out a cocoon that paralyzed his limbs. A stick person watched from another tree before moving away.


    -¡°We¡¯re going to lose this one if you don¡¯t administer the medicine now!¡±


    -¡°If I administer it too soon after the antivenom, it will kill it for sure!¡±


    -He was shaking, and burning, and he couldn¡¯t breath. It felt like he was dissolving from the inside out, while also melting. How could anything hurt this bad?


    -¡°The stinger is still in it! Get it out! It¡¯s dissolving the medicine as fast as I can put it in!¡±


    -The vision of a stinger, that was streaked yellow and black, crossed his vision, before everything finally, mercifully, went dark.


    Dustin woke with such pain coursing through his body, he was sure he was dying. He couldn¡¯t hardly move, from the pain. Turning his eyes back and forth, he didn¡¯t see any reason for the pain, and finally, it started to fade. Surely that wasn¡¯t a phantom pain from his dream?


    He was sure that was exactly what it was. And he also knew without a doubt that these dreams were not made up trash. These had been real. And it also made him wonder about his desire to have children. Was that created because they wanted him to breed?


    As his limbs finally started responding, he turned to see that Olivia was still out. Licking his lips, he stretched before turning to his PED. He was relatively certain it was upgraded as far as he could with what he had. But he hated the programming. He wanted to hook it up to the shuttle so that he could check out the programs and see what he could do.


    Hooking the PED up to the shuttle computer only took him a few minutes. Then, using the shuttle keypad, he started to investigate.


    Hours later, Olivia woke with a start. She stared at the ceiling for a long time, before rolling over and seeing him typing away furiously on the keypad.


    Dustin ignored her as she came up next to him to see what he was doing. He had figured out how to access the commands and was in the process of changing them. The annoying thing was that whoever wrote them, had them all contingent on each other, so when he changed one, there was a chain reaction that required him to change another and another. He knew that if he stopped at any time, he might lose his place and then everything would be messed up.


    She got bored after only a short while, and moved off. Thankfully she didn¡¯t bother him as he continued to type furiously. There were several times he had to pause to check on something. After six hours, he finally had it figured out.


    ¡°PED, can you contact the cloud to access the genetic material information, without notifying the Josagn and other aliens that you are once again connected to the system?¡±


    (YES)


    ¡°How much information can you store?¡±


    (ALL OF IT)


    Now to fix her PED!

 Chapter 51 Off the Planet

    ¡°Okay, so if this doesn¡¯t work, I¡¯m going to get drowsy and possibly pass out.  Also, the Josagn will know where we are.  I¡¯ll need you to pull this right here, and we¡¯ll have to get out of here as fast as possible.¡±


    Olivia looked at the wire he was holding up.  Dustin knew she wasn¡¯t okay with this plan at all, but he wanted access to all of his evolutions before he had to go fight an entire space station of Josagn.  He had triple checked everything, and was certain that the ship was not communicating in any way with anyone, it would not blow up because of a bomb, and it would easily by able to fly them to the space station.


    He also knew that their PED¡¯s could handle the entire amount of data in the extra storage he had installed at the shuttle station.  The programing on the PED¡¯s had it upload all the data to the cloud, so that if he ever managed to disable the antennae, he wouldn¡¯t be able to evolve.  Which is exactly what happened.  He wasn¡¯t sure they thought he would figure out a way to reprogram them or not.


    Once she nodded in understanding, he sighed and initiated contact.


    Everything went smoothly.  In fact, it worked so much more proficiently now, than it had before, that it had downloaded everything in only a few minutes.  Now that he had all that garbage programming gone, it worked so much more efficiently.  And as soon as it was done, it disconnected, and wouldn¡¯t reconnect until he told it to.


    Once it was done, Olivia sighed in relief.


    ¡°Okay, your turn.¡±


    ¡°But I don¡¯t have any data on the cloud,¡± she said, confused.


    He stopped as he realized she was right.  He hadn¡¯t given her time to really collect any data yet.  She had in previous trips, but he wasn¡¯t sure they kept that data from one trip to another.  It was a new PED so it probably couldn¡¯t handle accessing any other data than its own.


    ¡°Never mind then.  How about we get out of these caves and get off this damn planet?¡±


    ¡°Oh, thank God!¡± she said, moving back to the seat and strapping in.


    Checking over everything, he had the PED grow the plate back over itself so that it would be protected.  That was now an automatic function while he was in this form.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Starting up the shuttle, he was pleased that it ran so much smoother now.  He had completely rewired the entire thing.  Hopefully it didn¡¯t glitch anywhere.


    Heading back up the tunnel, he reached the other worm tunnel that they had first followed.  The giant worm was long gone, having continued digging in search of food.  He turned back towards the monster¡¯s lair, and hoped that getting out would be this easy the whole time.


    Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t.  The giant serpent was waiting for them, poised to strike as they waited just inside the tunnel.  It must have heard them coming, somehow.


    The shuttle didn¡¯t have any weapons, and really could only handle one speed.  He was going to have to use his brain to get out of this problem.  Maybe that would be enough.


    Moving forward, he got the serpent to strike at them, and managed to move back far enough into the tunnel that it couldn¡¯t hit them.  He watched carefully, and saw that the serpent left enough of a gap between its jaws when it hit the wall, that the shuttle could squeeze through.  Taking a breath, he eased forward again.  But this time, when it went to strike, he jerked the controls forward, slipping out of the way.


    This seemed to infuriate the serpent and it went crazy trying to snap at him.


    Olivia made a noise that was halfway between a squeak and a strangled cry, but he ignored her.  Now that he was out, it was a matter of staying ahead of the thing, and he knew that it was faster than his shuttle.  He intentionally flew close to rocky outcroppings to slow it down as he dived into the water.  It didn¡¯t like this any better, hitting a lot of them, and losing a few scales in the process.


    Once under the water, he retraced his route to the outside.  Every time the serpent went to bite, he would change direction, but it was too crafty to be tied in a knot like in the old cartoons.  Dustin was a little disappointed in that.


    A thick curtain of plants, growing at the bottom of the chasm, made an excellent hiding spot, while he tried to evade it on his way to the waterfalls at the end of the chasm where he had entered.


    Flying towards the white froth of water bubbles that he knew had some rocks hiding in them, from the last time he flew through this area, he steered just above them, missing by inches.  That was actually closer than he had intended.  It turned out to be an excellent move, however, as the serpent had grown desperate with the fear of losing him.  It lunged with all of its strength at it, as the shuttle entered the bubbles, and ended up crashing right into the rocks.  The bubbles became tinged with the color of its blood, and Dustin immediately steered them straight out of the water, climbing above the edges of the cliffs, and up into the sky.


    He had turned off all of the lights before leaving the bottom of the chasm, so as not to notify any scouts who may be watching for them.  And since it was currently dark, he was able to squeeze by undetected.


    As Olivia cheered, he had all of the air tanks recycled and filled with breathable air before they climbed too high.  Then they both put on the rebreathers that she had found in the bench storage.


    It was time to get off this planet once and for all.  He was quite pleased to say he wouldn¡¯t miss it at all.

 Chapter 52 Station

    The space station was just ahead of them, and they were both quiet in their nervousness.  There hadn¡¯t been any contact from the station, or movement, to show that they even noticed their presence.


    ¡°Why aren¡¯t they trying to shoot us down?¡± asked Olivia, as they got close enough to see one of the docking ports open and waiting.


    ¡°Maybe they hope to breed us, and are merely waiting to capture us again,¡± Dustin spat angrily.


    ¡°Look, I know you feel that dream was a real memory, but I¡¯ve already told you, I was sterilized when I became an alien advisor.¡±


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± he asked, no longer asking because of a desire for children, but instead wondering if it had something to do with the memory.  ¡°If they can regrow half my body, one or two organs should be nothing.¡±


    She was quiet, because she knew that was true.  They both had memories of technology their people had that could save people almost past saving.  How much farther must the Josagn be, if all of the technology they had thought was theirs had actually come from them?


    Steering the shuttle into the bay, he initiated the locking clamps.  If any Josagn was watching their monitors, they would know without a shadow of a doubt, that they were there.


    Yet, as the doors opened with a whoosh, the halls of the station were dark and empty.


    ¡°Why does this scare me more than if they were standing there with guns?¡± asked Olivia, standing closer to him then she probably needed to.


    ¡°This doesn¡¯t make any sense.  Why would the station be empty?¡± he asked, stepping inside carefully.  It was cold, but not unbearably so.


    ¡°It¡¯s almost like they turned everything off, before leaving.  You know, like how you¡¯re supposed to turn the lights off before leaving the house?¡± said Olivia, following him down the hall.


    They tried to open doors, as they walked, but the activation plates beside the automatic doors wouldn¡¯t work.  There really was no power here.  Looking at each other, with grim looks on their faces, they picked up their pace.  This place was huge and it wouldn¡¯t take it long to cool down to an unbearable temperature if the Josagn really had just left.


    Stopping at an intersection to catch his breath, Dustin looked first one way, then another.  The halls all looked the same.  He couldn¡¯t tell which way led to the bridge or the engine room.  There were no signs on any of the walls telling what was behind the doors, and they hadn¡¯t seen anyone, or anything, to show that there should be anyone here.


    ¡°Maybe we could use our PED to help us out?¡± Olivia wondered, fear in her eyes.


    ¡°Well, I could turn into a monster that might be able to rip a door open, but I¡¯m not sure that would help.  I couldn¡¯t open all of the doors before the temperature got too cold.¡±


    ¡°This is ridiculous!¡± she shouted, angrily.  He couldn¡¯t help but agree.


    ¡°Use that brain of yours and rewire them.  Use the PED to power the doors.  It recharges if you go through an evolution.¡±


    Nodding, he started taking the plate off of the nearest door with his multitool.  The wires were very simple, taking him only a few moments to get it where his PED could open the door.  He kept a close eye on the power meter, but it never changed. Apparently, opening a door is nothing compared to the energy required to go through an evolution.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    As the door opened, an empty room met their eyes.  It may have been a storage room, or a bedroom.  There was no furniture.  It was actually boring.


    ¡°Well, that was anticlimactic.¡± Stella shook her head, but Dustin moved to the next door.  It took him half the time to open it, and again they were left with an empty room.


    ¡°How could they have emptied everything so quickly?¡± she asked in confusion.


    ¡°This place is huge, maybe they just don¡¯t use this area?¡± Dustin knew it was a long shot, but he had to hope something.


    ¡°Hey, look over there!¡± Olivia pointed down the hall, where the faintest red light could be seen blinking.


    They both took off running, hoping to find something in this forsaken ship.  The light was blinking over another door, completely unremarkable and exactly the same as every other door they had passed.  But it had a light, and that meant it was getting opened.


    As the door slid to the side, it revealed what was once a communications room.  They both recognized the equipment used in sending and receiving messages over long distances of space.  There was a blinking light over one of the monitors, showing that this room at least, had power.


    ¡°Think there¡¯s anything of interest?¡± asked Olivia, moving to one of the two seats in the room.


    ¡°Only one way to find out,¡± said Dustin, sitting down and turning the monitor on with a swipe of his hand across the sensor.


    ¡°Warning!  The president has declared a state of emergency!  Everyone receiving this broadcast is ordered to return home as soon as possible.  I repeat!  The president has declared a state of emergency!  Everyone is to return home now!¡±


    The message repeated several times, before it ended, and the blinking light stopped.


    ¡°Can you find any other messages?  That was kind of vague,¡± complained Olivia.


    ¡°You would think they would at least tell us what was wrong,¡± agreed Dustin.


    He typed some more on the keypad, until he found where there were more messages.


    ¡°It looks like they were fighting a way with some alien race back home, but it¡¯s pretty vague on who.  It doesn¡¯t look good, either way.  Wait, this is odd, the date can¡¯t be right.¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± she asked, moving closer to see what was wrong.


    ¡°The date states this message was sent almost two hundred years ago.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible.¡± She shook her head in disbelief.


    ¡°Well, if no one¡¯s been here in two hundred years, I guess we don¡¯t have to worry about the temperature dropping.  There must be some minimal power keeping things going.¡±


    ¡°Do you think that¡¯s why the Josagn weren¡¯t waiting to shoot us, or take us prisoner? This isn¡¯t the right station, but actually a human station instead?¡±


    Dustin nodded thoughtfully.  ¡°Maybe we can find something they left when they evacuated back to earth.  There may even be a ship we could use!  That way we don¡¯t have to deal with the Josagn at all!¡±


    ¡°Oh! That would be great!  Let¡¯s go!¡±


    As they wandered, opening every third door or so, they were starting to find rooms that did have things left in them.  Some had been offices, with desks left behind, and others had been bedrooms, with beds still made, waiting for the owners to return for a rest.


    After hours of boring halls, they decided that the reason they couldn¡¯t find any signs or directions, were because everything had been electronic.  There were built in displays in the walls that would display what the rooms were, so that if they needed to change the room, it didn¡¯t need a new sign.  They discovered the mess hall, but there wasn¡¯t even a spoon left.  Everything had been taken from here.


    The engine room was an exciting find.  Dustin ran straight to the monitor, and Olivia followed, rolling her eyes.


    ¡°Don¡¯t do anything that might notify the Josagn we¡¯re here.  If they see this old station fire up, they¡¯ll definitely know something was up.¡±


    Dustin paused in mid type, and looked at her a little sheepishly.  He had been right in the middle of starting the main engines up, and felt a little foolish that she had to point out the folly in that.  With a sigh, he canceled out the order, and managed to pull up a schematic of the station.


    ¡°Wow, look!  There seems to be a section still powered over here.  Maybe there¡¯s someone there we could talk to, a person in charge of upkeep or something?¡± Olivia looked excited at the idea of there being someone else to talk to, and Dustin frowned.  He wasn¡¯t sure why the thought of her talking to another man bothered him, but it did.  Probably some more of that damn Josagn programming.


    Maybe it would be a woman!  The thought cheered him up some, and he was able to figure out what route they needed to take, to get there.  There was a security station and the main bridge in that area they could check out too.


    As they turned to leave, two glowing eyes opened from a corner, behind some of the equipment, and followed their forms as they left.  When the door didn¡¯t shut behind them, it moved to follow.

 Chapter 53 Station AI

    A soft sound of something rolling pervaded the hall, and Dustin paused to look at Olivia.  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a small robot pause as well.  It had four legs that ended in balls instead of wheels, and a large head that sat on top of a small body that was really just a control box for the legs.  Its glowing blue eyes shone out starkly against the black finish of its skin.


    ¡°It¡¯s kind of cute, do you think it wants to hurt us?¡± asked Olivia.


    At her words, it started forward again, coming to rest at their feet.


    ¡°Friend or foe, state your reason for boarding this vessel.¡±  Its voice was very mechanical, with no personality to it.


    ¡°We¡¯re friend?  And we¡¯re here, hoping to find some way of getting away from the Josagn,¡± said Dustin, wondering what this little robot was.


    It sat there silent, for a moment, before zooming past them and then stopping.  Turning towards them, it said, ¡°Follow me.  The AI of this ship wishes to speak with you.¡±


    Olivia looked at Dustin and he shrugged.  It seemed to be going in the same direction they were already heading, so they might as well.


    After almost an hour of walking, they reached the powered section of the ship.  The first thing they noticed, was that there were lights everywhere, and names were listed above the doors.  There were monitors built into the walls just like they had thought.  Continuing to follow the small robot, they noticed the security station.


    ¡°Let¡¯s check it out, really quick.  We¡¯re right here anyways, and the AI can wait a few more minutes,¡± said Olivia, heading to the door without waiting for him.  She was very disappointed to find the room empty.


    There were some monitors, probably part of some surveillance system, but it was turned off, so they were all blank.  Other than that, it was empty.


    ¡°Figures,¡± pouted Olivia, as they turned back to follow the robot again.


    It led them to the main bridge, where it was obvious the ship took a lot of people to run normally.  There had to be at least fifteen different stations positioned around a round cylinder.  As they got closer to it, a tiny holographic figure appeared on the cylinder.


    ¡°Hello, your kind are not in my database, so I hope you will forgive me for not greeting you in a proper manner.¡±  The figure was at least very polite.


    ¡°My kind?¡± asked Dustin, then looking down, he chuckled as he remembered he wasn¡¯t human anymore.


    ¡°We used our PED¡¯s to evolve in order to survive the planet below,¡± explained Olivia.  ¡°We were human.¡±


    ¡°I am not familiar with PED, but if you were once human, forgive me for my ignorance.  May I enquire as to why you are here?¡±


    Olivia turned to him, and said, ¡°How could the ship AI not know what a PED is?¡±


    ¡°Well,¡± started Dustin, rubbing his head.  ¡°We were placed on the planet below by the Josagn.  They have been trying to kill us, so, we were hoping to escape.  However, the shuttle we have, cannot support space travel between more than just surface to ship travel.¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°I am familiar with the Josagn.  They are the ones responsible for much in the history of man.  If you are seeking asylum from them, I am afraid there is little I can do to aid you.  When the station was abandoned 207 years ago, nothing was left behind for the Josagn to claim.  Even the vast majority of my databases were taken.  I am left as merely a rudimentary program to ensure the continuation of this station for as long as possible.¡±


    Dustin was excited, and from the look on Olivia¡¯s face, she was too.  It would be nice to get some real answers!


    ¡°Have the Josagn been here?¡± asked Olivia, before Dustin could ask his first question.


    ¡°Yes, they arrived two days after the last ship left.  They only remained on the station for a total of three hours as they did a complete search for something.  I do not believe they found what they were looking for.¡±


    ¡°Could they have messed with you?¡± asked Dustin.


    ¡°No, I was under orders by the last captain of this vessel, to hide myself and to place the station in lockdown mode.  The only thing they could access was a rudimentary program to control the life support, which they shut off.  I was able to turn it back on once they left.¡±


    Dustin knew that the Josagn were more advanced than humans were, and that it was entirely possible that they erased the memory files of the AI for when they had messed with it.


    ¡°Do you have any periods in your memory files that are missing?¡± asked Dustin, moving forward to a console beside the cylinder with the projection.


    ¡°No, I do not.¡±


    As he started typing on the keypad, Olivia spoke up, ¡°Could you tell us about the Josagn?  I remember studying them, but I¡¯m not sure if my memories were messed with.¡±


    ¡°The Josagn first contacted the human race in the year 2536.  The human race was just recovering from the fifth world war, and was enjoying a time of peace while space exploration was becoming popular.  Much trade was initiated between the two races for almost fifty years before tensions suddenly became tense.  The reason for the altercations seemed to stem from fighting with another alien race, the Ogifgar.  While the reasons behind the war with the Ogifgar are classified, it is well known that the humans did not wish to break off relations with the Josagn.  They initiated a bombardment on the home planet of the Ogifgar, decimating eighty percent of the entire population.


    ¡°The Josagn went in after the bombardment, and enslaved the remaining members of the alien race, citing reparations for tensions between the two races.  The human government attempted to reconcile with them until the year 2601, when war broke out between the two races.  It was at that time, that all personnel away from the home base were called home in order to aid in protection.  I have received no new information on the Josagn since.¡±


    ¡°Dustin, what do you think?  Could it have really been two hundred years since we were brought here?¡±


    ¡°I believe the Josagn are capable of a lot, after seeing some of the things they can do now.  But it does seem a little farfetched.  I wonder what happened back home?  Will we get back only to find everyone dead?¡±


    ¡°That would explain why they want to breed us, I suppose,¡± she admitted.


    They both stood there for a moment, lost in thought.


    ¡°What was the purpose of this station?¡± asked Olivia, finally.


    ¡°This station was placed here in an attempt to establish whether or not sentient life lived on the planet below.  It was hoped that if none were found, it might be suitable for colonization.  However, once we arrived, it was discovered that the atmosphere was not suitable after all.  The station was reallocated for scientific use.¡±


    ¡°Regardless of what may have happened back home, or how much time has passed, we still can¡¯t stay here,¡± said Dustin.


    ¡°No, you cannot.  The atmosphere here is not suitable for prolonged life of any living thing.  My air filtration expired 72 days ago.  Also I am receiving reports of incoming vessels approaching the station.¡±


    ¡°Are they Josagn ships?¡± they both asked at the same time.


    A hologram of several similar ships appeared where the figure had been.  They had long tubular bodies with four wing-like fans spread out in the shape of an X near the nose of the ships.  They were black with bright purple lights on the tips of each wing.  Green lights ran down the center of each wing.


    ¡°What are those wing things?¡± asked Dustin.


    ¡°Those are solar wings.  They catch any solar radiation and use it as fuel for the ship,¡± said Olivia.


    ¡°I guess that means they belong to the Josagn?¡±


    ¡°Yep.¡±

 Chapter 54 Station Explosion

    ¡°You realize we¡¯re going to be blown into space, right?¡± asked Dustin, looking at the ships approaching the station.


    ¡°I know.¡±


    Neither one of them was very excited about the idea, and it showed.  Maybe it was low oxygen in the air?  Maybe they were just tired with all of the damn drama.  Couldn¡¯t they get a break?


    With a sigh, Dustin shook himself.  ¡°Okay.  So, the first thing we need to worry about is the explosive decompression.  We need to be able to keep the pressure on our bodies, so our lungs don¡¯t explode.¡±


    ¡°How do we do that?¡± she asked, crossing her arms.


    ¡°What if we programmed the PED to give us pressure tight scales over our entire body?¡±


    ¡°That seems a little farfetched.¡±


    ¡°It may be possible, if you layer them right,¡± he said, turning to his PED and getting started.  ¡°Some of the problems with space, is that there isn¡¯t any pressure because there¡¯s no air to form the pressure, so our lungs want to expand, our moisture evaporates, our tissues swell, and ice starts to form from the cold.  Solar radiation burns us, and there¡¯s no oxygen in space.  So, if we can take all of that into consideration, we would need, about¡­fourteen or fifteen layers.¡±


    Olivia laughed.  ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding.  We would be like marshmallow lizard people trying to wiggle in space.¡±


    ¡°Not if the scales are thin enough,¡± he said, deep in thought.  ¡°If we create that many layers, there may be issues with getting too hot, maybe if I redirect some of our veins near the surface of the skin to cool us, then we would need to minimize our size to the smallest we can be¡­¡±


    ¡°Wait, why do you want us to be small?¡± she asked, seeing that he was honestly serious about this.


    ¡°Well, I was thinking.  Those Josagn probably aren¡¯t going to try and board the ship, they¡¯re probably just going to blow it up.  Maybe this is the first time we¡¯ve made it to the station.  Regardless, the smaller we are, the harder it will be for them to see us in space.  We can use our cling ability to grab ahold of one of their ships and hitchhike back to their station.¡±


    She ducked her head, starting to consider this.


    ¡°PED, I want the evolution that I just programmed into you, at the smallest size possible.¡±


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION.  YOUR SIZE WILL BE LIMITED BY MY SIZE.  FULL CONTACT MUST BE MAINTAINED WITH ME OR I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO IMPLEMENT FUTURE EVOLUTIONS.)


    ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    Dustin watched as the world around him began to grow.  He knew he was shrinking, but that¡¯s not what it seemed.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    He was shorter than the robot, that looked at him puzzled.


    ¡°That was very fascinating,¡± said the AI.  ¡°May I make a request?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± asked Dustin, in a surprisingly high-pitched voice.  Olivia gasped and started laughing.  He shot her a dark look.


    ¡°If I were to upload myself into this robot, would you be willing to allow me to accompany you on your return to home base?  If this station is about to be destroyed, I would very much like to escape my demise.  Also, I could report all of my findings on the planet below to home base and complete my mission!¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    They both knew that the chances of the human home base still being active were pretty slim after 200 years.


    ¡°Help us perfect our new forms, so that we can survive in space for the duration of time needed to travel to the Josagn station, and you can come with us.¡±


    ¡°That is acceptable to me.  Your current form would have a 90% rate of survival for about 5 minutes in space.  In order to lengthen that time, you would need to store more oxygen within your system.¡±


    Messing with his PED again, he found some traits that would allow that from something that could survive deep in the ocean.  He wondered if it came from the crystal prince.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    ¡°Your current form would now have a 95% rate of survival for about 5 hours.¡±


    ¡°Dustin,¡± said Olivia, looking thoughtful, ¡°do you remember, when you said every time you got near the crystal guy, while as a tunnel worm, you had memories?¡±


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    ¡°Why do you think that was?¡±


    He thought about that, then shrugged. ¡°Maybe there was something about the worm?¡±


    ¡°PED can you tell me what was causing the memories to surface at that time?¡±


    (THE BRAIN RHYTHM OF THE TUNNELING WORM WERE INTERUPTED BY SIGNALS FROM THE CRYSTAL INDIVIDUAL.  IT IS BELIEVED, AFTER REVIEWING THE INCIDENT, THAT THE SIGNALS MAY HAVE BEEN COMMON RADIO SIGNALS AS FROM A TALKING DEVICE.)


    ¡°Can you change my brain to be affected by them again?¡±


    (AN ATTEMPT CAN BE MADE IN THE CURRENT FORM, BUT PERMISSION MUST BE GRANTED TO HALT THE ATTEMPT IF DAMAGE OCCURS)


    ¡°You can initiate a change back to the brain I have now, if things go bad.¡±


    (ATTEMPTING EVOLUTION)


    Dustin immediately got dizzy, and fell over.  It only lasted a few moments, then it was gone.


    (EVOLUTION HALTED AND REVERSED.  HOST IS UNABLE TO SURVIVE WITH CURRENT EMISSIONS FROM THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT)


    ¡°What do you mean the emissions from the environment?¡±


    (THE EQUIPMENT AROUND YOU IS EMITTING TOO MANY SIGNALS FOR YOU TO SAFELY HANDLE THAT BRAIN ABILITY.)


    ¡°Ah, thanks.¡± He turned to Olivia.  ¡°I¡¯ll have to try it later, away from all the electronics, they mess with me too much to do it here.¡±


    ¡°Ah, okay.  Mind sharing that form with my PED so I can change too?¡±


    Suddenly the floor beneath their feet shuddered.


    ¡°We have taken damage.  There has been an air breach near where your ship was.  Emergency doors have activated and closed.  I am initiating upload now,¡± said the AI, as the hologram flickered and went out.


    Grabbing her PED, Dustin touched his back to her arm, and held it there while the transfer was going on.


    ¡°Don¡¯t let me lose connection with your PED, or it may not transfer right,¡± he said.


    She picked him up, and help him as the station shuddered again, and red lights lit up all over the place.  Dustin could feel the vibrations in the air, of an air leak.


    ¡°We need to get outside as soon as possible.¡±


    ¡°Okay!  Here I go!¡±


    Dustin fell to the ground, noticing that the gravity in the station was losing its power.  The robot rolled over to him, and he could see the AI show up on the screen.  That was a little weird.


    Turning, he saw Olivia start to shrink, as several layers of scales started growing over her whole body.  The PED migrated to her back, just like his, and another scale layer covered it up.  She was almost done.


    The robot shot out a metal line, that wrapped around both Dustin and her waists, just as there was another explosion.


    Everything happened so fast, Dustin couldn¡¯t remember later what exactly happened.  One moment he was in the station, watching her shrink, the next he was floating in space, looking at the station from outside.


    Olivia¡¯s eyes were open in panic, but she calmed down after only a moment.  Until they returned to a pressured environment, they wouldn¡¯t be able to open their mouths.  Every opening into their body had sealed as soon as they were in space.


    Twisting gently, Dustin spied the alien vessels, and saw that they were floating right towards one.  He only hoped that the shield that surrounded it, wouldn¡¯t hurt when they came in contact with it.  Reaching out, he was able to barely brush the side of the vessel, but it was enough.  His cling kicked in, and he smiled.  It was nothing to pull on the rope to get Olivia next to him.  He wasn¡¯t sure if she was done evolving or not, because her eyes were closed and she seemed to be in pain.


    There was nothing he could do about it now, as the station behind them blew up, showering them with debris.  Thankfully, the ships shield kicked on, and most of the debris bounced away, missing them by inches.  If they had been any larger, it may have cut them or pushed them away from the ship.


    Now they just had to wait for the return to the Josagn station.

 Chapter 55 Space Creatures

    As the ship started moving away from the debris that was the station, the planet he had spent so much time on came to view.


    -¡°It¡¯s so pretty, do we really get to live there?¡± she asked.  (Was that Olivia??)


    Blinking a few times, Dustin looked around.  Why had he had that flashback?  He wasn¡¯t a worm, and the crystal prince wasn¡¯t around¡­was he?


    Dustin swiveled his head around but didn¡¯t see any crystal forms around the outside of the ship.  Glancing out over the debris, he decided, even if the prince was over that way, he¡¯d never see him with all the trash floating around.  A toilet and sink floated by just at that moment, as if to prove his point.


    Olivia, who had been clinging to the ship beside him, suddenly lost her grip, and started floating free, tethered only by the line from the robot AI.  Grabbing her with one hand, he turned her around to see that she had lost consciousness.


    ¡°PED, I want her on my back, covered in several layers of scales!¡± he said, envisioning what he wanted in his head.


    (THAT WILL SEVERELY STRAIN YOU.  I CANNOT GUARENTEE THAT THE SCALES THAT COVER HER WILL BE ABLE STRUCTURALLY SOUND.  IF THERE IS EVEN THE SMALLEST BUMP, SHE MAY BREAK FREE.)


    ¡°I¡¯m okay with that, if she didn¡¯t get her evolution complete, or something went wrong, she only has seconds!¡±


    He was able to slowly maneuver her onto his back, having to twist to keep her from hitting the shield.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    The scales he wanted, started to grow over her arms first, so that he could reach down and get her legs positioned.  As soon as they were positioned, scales began to grow over them as well, holding her to him.  He couldn¡¯t see the rest of the scales that covered the rest of her form.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE.  SHE WILL NOW BE PROTECTED FROM FURTHER HARM FROM EXPOSURE TO SPACE.  THIS WILL NOT PROTECT HER FROM ANY DAMAGE SHE MAY HAVE ALREADY OBTAINED)


    ¡°I¡¯m not worried about that, she has really good healing.¡±


    Suddenly, there was a flash out of the corner of his eye, and before he could turn his head, he was hit by another flashback.


    -¡°How are we going to escape?  The shuttles will blow up if we fly too high!¡±  Her voice sounded desperate and panicked.  There was also a hint of pain in it.


    -¡°I¡¯ll just reprogram it not to blow up!¡±  His voice was self-confident.  (Of course, I could¡­)


    -The beeping was getting louder.  How the hell did he turn it off?  There was the crystal prince in the shuttle with them, telling them they needed to abort the attempt.


    Dustin blinked again.  The crystal guy must be a stooge that they used to manipulate him.  But why was he having these flashbacks?Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    He looked around again, mostly towards the upcoming station, where the flash had been right before the flashback.


    ¡°PED, can you tell me why I¡¯m having these flashbacks?¡±


    (SOMETHING IS AFFECTING YOUR BRAIN, CAUSING YOU TO HALLUCINATE.  I AM UNABLE TO DETERMINE IF THE HALLUCINATIONS ARE INDEED FLASHBACKS OR MANUFACTURED MEMORIES.)


    Dustin paused at that.  He had assumed that the memories he was having now, were real, but now that he thought about it, what if he doesn¡¯t have any real memories?  What if everything has been made up.  If he could have groaned, he would have.


    Thinking quickly, because he wasn¡¯t in a safe place to make a poor decision, he finally came to the conclusion, that it didn¡¯t matter what memories were true or not.  He knew that the Josagn were trying to kill him, thus he wanted to get away from them.  He knew that Olivia was in the same position he was, trying to escape, so he was willing to take her along.  Everything else was unimportant.


    He needed to get into that station, find a ship, and get the two of them away from this place.  Then they could try and figure things out.


    There was that flash again, and he was able to spot it this time.  Some kind of creatures were flying around the station, rather thickly, in space.  Every time one turned belly away from the station, there was a flash.  The reason they were so hard to spot, was because the shield that encircled the station was covered in them.


    Dustin couldn¡¯t tell if they were protecting the station or feeding off of the energy field.  Their skin was bioluminescent, flickering shades of blue and green, and everything in between.  As the ship he was on drew even closer to them, he could see that they had flat bodies, much like flat worms, with long tentacles trailing behind them.  Their head looked very squid-like, with two eyes and ten tentacles of varying length protruding from their mouths.  Four were longer, while six were smaller.  Two of the long tentacles had a flat, spoon-like end, while the other two ended in bright glowing tips.


    -¡°IT HURTS! IT HURTS! IT HURRRTTTSSS!¡±


    Dustin almost lost his grip at that flashback.  The pain still coursed through his body from the memory.  He couldn¡¯t remember anything but the screams and the pain.


    ¡°PED, is there anything you can do, to keep what ever it is from messing with my head?¡±


    (PERHAPS I CAN MODIFY YOUR BRAIN TO PREVENT REM SLEEP AT THE MOMENT?)


    ¡°Will it mess me up?¡±


    (ONLY IF YOU TRY TO SLEEP)


    ¡°Okay, do it!  If anything happens and I need it, then undo it then.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    It couldn¡¯t have finished any sooner.  As the ship got closer to the station, the creatures noticed it and flew over.  Dustin watched curiously, and a little apprehensively.  He really wanted a sample from one.  If he could fly around space like that, he wouldn¡¯t be in this position.


    Suddenly the shield around the ship went down, and the creatures that were flying to the ship, lost interest and headed back to the station, until a few spotted him.


    ¡°PED, I need some way to hurt these things!¡±


    (PERHAPS POISON/VENOM DARTS?  YOU COULD SPIT THEM FROM YOUR MOUTH?)


    ¡°Sounds good!¡±  he clung to the ship harder, bracing for impact, as some of them got closer.


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Dustin felt a tooth wiggle loose and without hesitating, spit it at the nearest creature.  It was a very strange sensation, as his throat was closed off.  The spitting force came from his tongue and lips.  No sooner had the tooth left his mouth, then another, much smaller and thinner tooth fell into place.  As he spit it, again, another fell into place.  He wasn¡¯t sure how it worked, but he wasn¡¯t going to complain.


    As each tooth touched a creature, it spasmed almost immediately, and it didn¡¯t take very long at all for them to decide he wasn¡¯t interesting.


    Reaching out to grab one, as the ship flew by, he jammed the tentacle into his port.


    (NEW GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED.  ANALYZING.  POSSIBLE EVOLUTIONS: SPACE FLIGHT, ENERGY CONSUMPTION, VACCUUM SUPPORT, REDIATION PROTECTION, ENERGY EMISSION-WHICH IS HOW THE CREATURE GOT RID OF WASTE.)

 Chapter 56 Access To The Josagn Station

    ¡°Everything sounds great!  Can I get them all?¡±


    (BASED ON READINGS FROM THE UPCOMING SHIELD, THE RADIATION PROTECTION WILL PREVENT YOU FROM BEING ABLE TO REMAIN ON THE SHIP WHEN IT TRAVELS THROUGH THE SHIELD TO THE STATION.  I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU WAIT UNTIL YOU ARE INSIDE THE SHIELD OF THE STATION BEFORE INITIATING THE EVOLUTIONS.)


    ¡°Alright, initiate them as soon as we¡¯re inside the shields.¡±


    He watched the shields getting closer, and suddenly worried that maybe he wouldn¡¯t be able to get through them anyway.  It looked like the ships were sliding through them without a problem, but the shield was flush on the ship.  Would it hurt when they touched him?  He tightened his grip and tried to make himself as small and flush against the ship as possible.


    The shield slid over him, without any problems.  He didn¡¯t feel a thing, in fact.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    Dustin suddenly felt waves of energy in the space around him, almost like the waves in water.  Letting go of the ship, he was able to swim through the space around him, just like he could in the water down on the planet.  It was the weirdest thing ever.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Flying over to the station, he reached out to touch it, and felt such a pleasant tingle, that he immediately clung to it, soaking up the warmth.  He hadn¡¯t realized how much he craved this, until he found it.


    (HOST, YOU ARE LOSING YOURSELF IN THE SENSATIONS OF THE SPACE WORM.  IF YOU CANNOT PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, I WILL NEED TO REMOVE THE ABILITY TO CONSUME ENERGY.)


    ¡°Can you lessen the ability?¡± he mumbled, too overwhelmed to really care if it could or not.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    Suddenly the desire to kiss the station wall faded and while he still felt a pleasant warmth, he was no longer trying to eat the station itself.


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Shaking his head in embarrassment, he spied a maintenance port off to the side.


    It must be used to make outside repairs, because there was a keypad to get back in.  He studied it for a long time, knowing that once he opened it, there would be someone inside notified.  He didn¡¯t mind the idea of fighting and killing every damn Josagn in this entire station, but he was a little worried about what weapons they might have to use against him.  He still wasn¡¯t full proof against everything, he was sure.


    The keypad was a simple thing to hack, it wouldn¡¯t take him five minutes once he had the face plate off, but he wasn¡¯t sure about the inner pad.  What if it needed someone to open the second door from the inside?  With a sigh, and a shake, he decided it didn¡¯t matter.  They had to get inside if they were going to escape the Josagn.  There was no going back know!


    Peeling the panel off with his fingers, thank you crystal plates, he quickly started messing with the wires.  If Olivia was awake, he was sure she would be sighing in impatience, or checking her weapons in preparation for a fight.  The best thing ever, was when he figured out, he could change the shape of the crystals on his fingers to the tool shape he needed.  SO much easier!Stolen novel; please report.


    The door slid open and he popped inside, pulling the robot with him, before the door shut and amazingly, the chamber started going through the process of compression, and then opened the inner door automatically.


    The hall before him was empty, so he wasted no time getting out of the air-lock.  Looking both ways, he wondered which way to go.  There was an air duct that ran along the ceiling, and he thought about climbing into it, but amusingly, his flight ability didn¡¯t want to work here, on the station.  Shrugging, he went up to the nearest door and checked the handle.  When it opened, he peeked inside, to see it was a storage room with space suits hanging on hooks.


    Once inside, he closed the door, and wedged a piece of one of the suits under the door to keep it shut.  He didn¡¯t want to stay long, because he was sure someone was going to come check out whoever just entered their ship.


    ¡°PED, release Olivia, so I can check on her.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    He lowered her slowly to the floor, and looked her over carefully.  She wasn¡¯t breathing, but technically she shouldn¡¯t need to in that form.  Knowing that she should heal from any damage she had acquired, he debated on what to do.


    ¡°PED, grow me to my six-foot form, and return to my left arm.¡±


    (EVOLUTION INITIATED.)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    He couldn¡¯t connect wires from his PED to hers, because of the layers of crystal plates protecting it.  Scratching his head, he wondered what to do.  Why couldn¡¯t this be as easy as machines?


    Finally, not knowing what else to do, he started prying off one crystal at a time, but it was very labor intensive, and he wasn¡¯t sure how much time he had before anyone showed up.


    ¡°PED, can you remote connect to her PED and see what¡¯s wrong?¡±


    (INITIATING AN ATTEMPT.  ATTEMPT WAS SUCCESSFUL, IT APPEARS AS IF SHE HAS FALLEN INTO A COMA.  HER BRAIN SUFFERED DAMAGE DURING THE EXPLOSION, AND THE PED IS WAITING FOR CONFIRMATION TO INITIATE AN EVOLUTION.  IT ALSO SEEMS TO BE DAMAGED TO SOME EXTENT.)


    ¡°Well, initiate a change, so I can access it and fix it.¡±


    The scales slid away from the PED, but she remained in the small space form.  Dustin wasted no time getting into the PED to try and fix it.  Some of the important components were damaged.  Sitting back on his heels, he realized that if he couldn¡¯t find parts to fix it, she could die.


    Looking around the room, he didn¡¯t see anything that might help.


    ¡°PED, can you hack the system of this station?¡±


    (NO, THE SECURITY IS TOO HIGH.)


    He nodded, glancing over at the robot.  It was busy scanning the suits.  Could there be any parts in it he could use?  But as he thought about it, he had to shake his head.  There was no way.  It turned his way as he thought this.


    ¡°We should probably leave this area.  The security system has sent biobots to investigate the activation of the space port.¡±


    ¡°You can access the system?¡± Dustin asked in surprise, picking up Olivia¡¯s small body.  It wasn¡¯t that heavy.  In fact, it was almost like carrying a child.  Since he had memories of having sex with her, he shook his head hard at the ensuing mental images.  He wanted to scrub his head out with steel wool.  Whatever he may have been like in his life before the Josagn, it definitely was not a pedophile.


    ¡°Affirmative.  Is there something in specific you would like to know?  The system is exactly the same as my own.¡±


    That sent warning bells through his head, and he wondered for a moment if this was all a trap.  How could the Josagn station system be identical to 200-year-old human tech?  That didn¡¯t make sense.


    ¡°Well, we need a safe place to hide from the security, or biobots, whatever those are, and then I need parts to repair Olivia¡¯s PED.¡±


    ¡°I can show you the way, if you open the door.¡±


    Removing the piece of armor, he made sure to put it back where it had been, then grabbing the loose scales he had pried off Olivia¡¯s back, he opened the door.


    Floating in the air, on the other side of the door, was a black spider thing.  Its body was oval, with spikes sticking out in every direction, ranging from six inches to a foot in length.  It didn¡¯t seem to have a face, but Dustin knew it was looking right at him.


    Without thinking, he punched it.

 Chapter 57 Parts Warehouse Storage

    The black spike thing went flying across the hall, hit the wall so hard, that it ended up on the floor by his feet.  Dustin kicked it into the room and shut the door again, to check it out.


    After laying Olivia down, he picked it up and turned it around in his hands.  Grabbing two of the spines at their bases, he pulled the thing apart, and was shocked at what he found.  This thing was both biological and mechanical.  The only organ he recognized, were the venom glands at the base of each spike.


    With a shrug, he shoved some of the goo on his fingers into his PED port.


    (NEW GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED. ANALYZING.  POSSIBLE EVOLUTIONS: RADAR PERCEPTION, AND GRAVITATIONAL MANIPULATION, THIS IS HOW IT HOVERS)


    ¡°You have got to give me these!  Can you get the radar vision to stack with the heat vision?¡±


    (BECAUSE THE RADAR PERCEPTION DOES NOT IMPLEMENT USE OF THE EYES, ACQUISITION OF THIS ABILITY WILL NOT AFFECT YOUR INFRARED VISION.)


    ¡°Sweet!¡±


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    With a huge grin, Dustin practiced moving about the room with his new hover ability, until he spied Olivia still laying on the floor.  With a shake to his head he settled on the ground and picked her up.  He had to stay focused to get her PED fixed.  Once they were away from here, he could play around more.


    Opening the door again, he spied several more of the floating pincushions and prepared to punch them as they got closer.  It was harder when they anticipated his movements, but not impossible.  The hard shell of their skin prevented him from just spitting teeth needles at them, so he had to knock them against the wall hard enough that they would stay down.


    After a dozen or so, he was able to leave the hall, littered with their bodies, for a different section of the station.  Stepping out onto an overview deck, he looked over a large open area filled with the Josagn, hurrying around with their various tasks.  Ducking into a different hall, after the AI, he hoped none of them had seen him.  It didn¡¯t look like they had.


    As he walked down the hall, he started opening doors at random.  Most of them were storage of one thing or another.  The AI waited for him, as he opened each one, before continuing to move forward.


    ¡°Hey, AI, can you direct me to the area where I could fix Olivia¡¯s PED?¡±


    ¡°Do you wish to fix her PED or do you wish to find a safe place to hide with spare parts?¡±


    ¡°Wait, how are those different?¡±


    ¡°Just because you have access to spare parts, does not mean you have the ability to fix the PED, and just because you are in a place to fix the PED does not mean you have the spare parts.  Logic would dictate you need the spare parts before you can fix it, which is where I was taking you.¡±A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°Alright, then lead on.¡±  Dustin stopped opening random doors and picked up his pace.  Anytime one of those biobots showed up, he would hit it against the wall hard enough to disable, or kill.  He wasn¡¯t sure which.


    ¡°Through this door, you will find a section devoted to spare parts specific to the PED modules you speak of.  I find the classification for these devices to be quite interesting,¡± said the AI after they had been walking for almost an hour.  They had ducked into a room whenever he heard someone walking along the hall, and had managed to avoid all encounters with the Josagn so far.


    Opening the door, he was met with the sight of an entire warehouse worth of shelves.  Boxes and containers lined the shelves from the floor to the ceiling.  This place was huge.  He stepped inside, and shut the door as the AI entered as well.


    With a grin, he stepped up to a computer terminal just inside the door and started typing away one handed, as he held Olivia with the other one.  If a Josagn showed up, or some other kind of alien, he wanted to be able to leave quickly without having to stop to pick her up.


    There was so much here, but no weapons that he could see. This place would have been a dream come true at any point in his life, but now he didn¡¯t have the time to play.  Typing in the specifics of what he was looking for, he narrowed down where he needed to go.  With the shelves stretching so high, he was glad he had his flight ability here.


    (I AM RECEIVING SIGNALS ATTEMPTING TO SHUT ME DOWN.  SHOULD I IGNORE THEM?)


    ¡°Of course!  Can you block the signals from being able to detect you?¡±


    (I DO NOT BELIEVE WHO EVER IS SENDING THE SIGNAL KNOWS WHERE I AM, I BELIEVE THE SIGNAL IS BEING SPAMMED THROUGHOUT THE STATION)


    ¡°Then they know we¡¯re here. I¡¯ll need to be quick!¡±


    The parts he needed ended up being on the top shelf, near the ceiling.  He settled Olivia down on an open section, and began making repairs.  The AI robot joined him by using the rope line to pull itself up shelf by shelf, then settled down to wait.


    Noises drew his attention, and he saw that a team of Josagn had entered the storage room.  He used his camouflage and hunkered down as much as possible, only moving his hands, which should have been out of sight of them on the floor.


    ¡°They might have come this way looking for PED parts.  If we don¡¯t find them, team A will remain here to guard the place.  We can¡¯t have them roaming free.  Does everyone understand?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Sir!¡±


    He could see them just below, as they spread out, checking each shelf as they went.  His camouflage seemed to work, as they went right by them, without any problems.


    ¡°The area seems clear, Team A, you will be notified when you can leave, or you will be relieved in two hours.  Is that clear?¡±


    ¡°Yes, sir!¡±


    Dustin finished making his repairs, as quietly as possible, keeping an eye on the two Josagn that were stationed at the door.  They were wearing armor that he didn¡¯t recognize, and had guns similar to the one Olivia had used, a genetic destabilizer? Or something like that.  The armor was pretty, in blues and blacks, but it didn¡¯t go below the waist.  It was like they only cared about the upper torso.


    Shaking his head, he looked down at Olivia.  Her PED was fixed, at least the best he could do without a computer to hook it up to.  The damage had messed up some of his programs and he needed a monitor and keypad in order to fix the coding errors.


    Picking up Olivia in one arm, and the robot AI in the other, he floated near the ceiling until he was almost on top of them.  His only options to successfully avoid them setting off an alarm, or hitting him with those nasty guns, was to get in the first hit on both of them at the same time.  Setting Olivia and the AI down on the top shelf closest to them, he waited until their pacing back and forth had both of them facing away from each other before he landed directly behind them.


    When they turned around to pace back towards each other, they reacted before they thought, shooting towards him.  He jumped up and grinned as they fell for the classic, have the enemy shoot each other tactic.  Their guns fell to the floor as wisps of dust? Or would that be steam? Rose up from where they had been standing.  He retrieved Olivia and the AI from the top shelf, and prepared to head to his next destination.

 Chapter 58 Specimen Lab

    Grabbing the guns, so if anyone checked in the room, they wouldn¡¯t know he had been there, he opened the door carefully.  The AI had pulled up a map for him to examine, and there were several places he wanted to check out.  The first stop was going to be the genetic engineering lab.  It wasn¡¯t too far away, only a couple floors, maybe an hour or two?


    Dustin knew he was going to get into some fights, but he couldn¡¯t stay here.  Entering the hall, he quickly floated up near the ceiling, with the two on his back, and camouflaged.  It wasn¡¯t perfect, but maybe it would let someone just glancing down the hall miss him.


    ¡°I told ya, I don¡¯t care if they checked.  If my PED was broke, I¡¯d go there first.¡±


    The voice was low and gravely.  Dustin prepared one of the guns as two figures turned a corner and continued their conversation, without noticing him at all.  They didn¡¯t even look up.  He took the time to study them, as they headed to the room he had just left.  Both were short, probably five foot, and they had scales, like he had before he turned them crystal.  One was black and white, like the snakes had been, while the other had a bluish gleam to its scales.


    ¡°All I care about is killing him so that we can finally be free,¡± said the bluish one.


    ¡°You think they¡¯re going to actually do that?  I bet they throw us down there and go hunting for us again.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d fry them!¡± growled the blue one, clenching his fist.  Sparks of electricity flashed around his fist, and the white one just shook his head before opening the door.


    ¡°Didn¡¯t they say they left a couple guys here?¡± he said after a few moments with the door still open.


    ¡°Yea, why?¡±


    ¡°This place is empty!  Either they¡¯re hiding inside, or they¡¯ve just left!¡±


    They both glanced up and down the hall, but didn¡¯t seem to see him.  He held still, wondering who they were to be given permission to roam the halls of the station.  He might be able to use that.


    ¡°Where do you think they went?¡±


    ¡°Hmm, maybe the lab?  If their PED¡¯s were damaged and they got parts, I would go to the genetics lab next.  It¡¯s the closest to here that would interest me.¡±


    ¡°I suppose¡­either that, or the specimen lab.¡±


    ¡°If he¡¯s made it this far, with her no less, then it¡¯s probably safe to say he¡¯s going to the genetics lab instead of the specimen lab, he wouldn¡¯t need more genetic material, only the computers to finish fixing his PED.¡±


    ¡°Wish I still had my PED, I¡¯d be out of here in a heartbeat!¡±


    ¡°Hey, remember what they said!  If you try to skip out, they¡¯ll blow your brain!¡±


    ¡°Yea, I know.  I¡¯ve tried to fry it, but it¡¯s got some kind of special coating over it to prevent that.¡±


    ¡°Want to split up?  We could both head in a different direction?¡±


    ¡°No, remember they said they would shoot at any of us that were alone?  I may hate this place, but I¡¯m not about to get myself killed, not at this point in the game.¡±


    ¡°Do you think we¡¯ll ever get away from here?¡± mused the white one, as they still hadn¡¯t moved.  Dustin was starting to think they knew he was there after all, and were trying to give him some info and time to kill them.


    ¡°No,¡± whispered the blue one, looking down.  ¡°I sometimes think it would be nice to let the last one live.  We¡¯ve killed all the others.¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Well, except for number 15.  He¡¯s still locked up in the specimen lab.  They¡¯re still not sure how he was able to deactivate the bomb in his head.¡±


    They were quiet for a moment, then they both turned and glanced at him for the briefest moment, and started heading down the hall.


    ¡°Let¡¯s check the specimen lab.  If he was able to fix his PED, maybe he went to see how 15 deactivated the bomb so he really could escape.¡±


    ¡°It would be nice if someone could.  I wish it was me, but I lost my Olivia¡­¡±


    ¡°Shut it, before they hear you, you sniveling baby!¡±


    Just about then, several Josagn came marching around the corner.  They pointed their guns at the two, but didn¡¯t shoot.


    ¡°Any reports?¡± asked the one in the lead.


    ¡°We haven¡¯t seen him.  We¡¯re still looking.¡±  The white one stepped aside as he answered, to let them go by.


    ¡°Any leads or clues?¡±


    ¡°No, sir,¡± replied the blue one, shaking his head, and joining the white one against the wall.


    ¡°Keep looking!  Reports say they were last spotted near the locking bays where they entered.  They¡¯ve killed a fair number of biobots, but it doesn¡¯t look like they¡¯ve acquired any weapons, so that¡¯s good.¡±


    The rest of the Josagn ignored them, glancing up the hall, but also not noticing him.  He said a silent thank you to his PED who responded warmly.  He liked the new upgrade.


    The two left, turning the corner at the end of the hall, and the Josagn continued their march. They went right under him, and he was sorely tempted to kill them all with his gun, but he didn¡¯t want to risk them setting off an alarm.  Plus, he was very interested in what the two lizard men had said.


    It sounded like there were clones made, that bombs were planted in their brains, and that they were each ¡®given¡¯ an Olivia.  He was pretty sure by this point that those two had known he was there, and were intentionally trying to help him.  Not one to pass down a good chance, he followed after them once the Josagn were gone.


    He followed at a distance for over an hour, pausing to hide whenever Josagn showed up, but his camouflage seemed to work incredibly well.  How was it that they couldn¡¯t see him with all of their tech?


    The two paused outside of a door, after the second hour, and waited for more Josagn to go by.  The Josagn seemed to ignore them on purpose.


    ¡°Inside this room is the specimen lab.  I¡¯m not sure we won¡¯t get in trouble for going in¡­¡± said the white one, holding his hand just over the plate to open the door.


    ¡°But we¡¯re doing our job, looking for them.  We can¡¯t possibly get in trouble for that!¡± said the blue one, hitting his hand down, and opening the door.


    They entered, leaving the door open, and Dustin swooped inside.  The lights were dim, and all around the room, which was pretty large, there were tiny jars.  Dustin quickly flew back up near the ceiling, and saw that beyond the rows of tiny jars, there were more containment units of varying size.


    ¡°Everything they¡¯ve ever hunted is in here.  I wish I had my PED to get some samples of everything.  Sure would be helpful.¡±  The white one moved to the end of the room and looked down at a computer terminal.


    ¡°No use even messing with it, you can¡¯t hack it anymore.¡±


    ¡°I know.  My sample is in the system.  If I access the terminal it would show up as a specimen hacking it.¡±


    Dustin waited for them to move off as they checked each row dutifully, in case he was hiding in any of them, and flew down to check the terminal out.  He was surprised it didn¡¯t have an encrypted code on it, but was just free to access.  Whipping out some cords on his PED, he hooked it up and started downloading data.


    (THERE IS A LOT OF DATA HERE, DO YOU WISH TO ATTEMPT ANY EVOLUTIONS AT THIS TIME?)


    ¡°No, just get as much data as you can hold, and quick!¡±


    (DOWNLOADING EVERYTHING WILL FILL THE AVAILABLE SPACE TO 95% CAPACITY, ASSUMING YOU DO NOT WISH TO ACQUIRE PLANT GENETIC MATERIAL.)


    ¡°No, I don¡¯t want any plant stuff.  Though it would be nice to take it, just in case¡­¡± he thought hard, but just couldn¡¯t figure out how to save the information.  If Olivia¡¯s PED was working, he would save it on hers¡­


    Laying her down, he pulled some wires from her PED, and started to hook it up to the monitor too.  Maybe he could use the screen and keypad here to fix her programming while he waited for the download to be complete.


    Dustin lost time, as he programmed and downloaded.  The other two lizardmen watched him from the shadows off to the side, not bothering him while he worked.  As soon as he was done, he finished her PED and disconnected all of the wires, as his PED was done too.


    ¡°I miss my Olivia,¡± sniffed the blue lizardman, as he stepped out of the shadows.


    ¡°We can¡¯t officially help you, but we can do what we¡¯ve been doing so far.¡± The white one stayed in the shadows, as if afraid to come any closer.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± Dustin asked.


    ¡°We¡¯re clones, just like you, who were released onto the planet to survive as long as possible.  When we managed to get here, we were given the option to survive until you came around, then be freed if we killed you, or be released back onto the planet for another run.¡±


    ¡°One guy went with the second run, convinced he could do it again.  They said they would let him go if he could do it again, that was number 15.  He¡¯s in a containment pod in the back,¡± said blue, jerking his thumb behind him.


    ¡°His bomb didn¡¯t go off, and they freaked when they found out he had removed it somehow.¡±

 Chapter 59 Number 15

    Olivia began to stir, and he knew that she would be alright.


    ¡°What do you mean by your Olivia?¡± he asked Blue.


    ¡°We¡¯re all given the option to take care of a clone of Olivia.  Mine died trying to get up here.¡± His head drooped and if he could cry, he probably would have.


    ¡°Mine died from a snake bite right after arrival.  That¡¯s why I¡¯m white, in her memory,¡± said White, watching as Olivia stood up shakily.


    ¡°But that doesn¡¯t make any sense, I had an Olivia, who went missing, and then this one showed up,¡± Dustin said, nodding towards her.


    She was looking back and forth between them in confusion.


    ¡°Maybe one of them didn¡¯t get an Olivia, so you got two?¡± whispered Blue, as if it were a miracle.


    ¡°If I¡¯m a clone, then why am I getting memories of past trips?¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t know how they make the clones, or how it works.  You might be able to find out in one of the other labs,¡± said White.


    Dustin shook his head in frustration, and then headed back towards where they said number 15 was.  If a bomb was implanted in each of their brains, then he wanted to know how to remove it.


    The first thing that hit him, when he saw the tank, was that the guy was human, not a hybrid like the rest of them.  He floated there, as if asleep, with his brown hair waving around his face.


    ¡°Is that what you looked like?¡± asked Olivia softly.  She had been strangely quiet from the moment she woke, up, and he had been slightly worried.


    ¡°Yea, don¡¯t you remember from the news headlines of the Lady Killer?¡± he asked, glancing at her.


    She shook her head. ¡°Those memories are faded.  I can¡¯t remember them very well¡­so we have bombs in our brains?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not sure.  But this guy has the answers.  Look, I¡¯ve gotten several upgrades since you passed out.  Do you want them?¡±


    ¡°Of course! I don¡¯t want to stay a munchkin forever!  I can change into my last form, but if yours is better, then of course I want a copy!¡±


    He paused to give it to her, then turned his attention to the man floating before him.  He needed to get him out if he was going to question him.  Setting to guns down, he looked over the monitor.


    ¡°An alarm is probably going to go off if you release him.  We¡¯ll be off, if you don¡¯t mind.  We don¡¯t want to get melted today.¡±Stolen story; please report.


    Dustin waved at them as they faded into the dark, towards the door, already lost in thought on how to get the guy out.  As he leaned forward, to touch the glass, he was hit with a memory.


    -He was strapped to a bed, with electrodes attached to his head.  He was breathing hard, as pain coursed through him.


    -The electricity flowing through his system spiked, and he bowed his back in a scream.


    -Figures, possibly Josagn, were standing around him in white medical coats, with clipboards, watching him.  When he tried to scream at them, he found his mouth full of something, a ball? A mouthguard!


    Dustin jerked back, breathing hard.  Olivia was standing next to him, in the same form as his, looking at him worried.


    ¡°Fuck!¡± he said, shaking his head.  ¡°I don¡¯t know why that keeps happening, but I¡¯m sick of it!  These Josagn are sick bastards!¡±


    Looking over the monitor, he had to shake his hands to get them to stop trembling.


    ¡°When I release him, there will probably be an alarm that goes off.  Your new form can fly, and it can camouflage.  You need to get the AI robot and hide near the ceiling.  I¡¯ll grab him and join you as soon as I can.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll take the guns too,¡± she said, picking them up with the AI robot.


    Dustin started typing, ignoring the alarms that immediately started going off.  He could hear the door lock, but ignored it.  The hiss that started filling the room, caused him to pause though.  If he could have sweated, he was sure he would be, as his attention on the monitor focused to a laser point.  A few minutes later, he had managed to hack it, and the hiss stopped.


    The fluid in the container started to drain, and the man sagged noticeably.  As soon as he could, Dustin smashed the glass and picked him up.  Noise at the door, had him flying straight up, holding the man to his belly, as he sandwiched him between him and the wall, then camouflaged.  No sooner had he finished, then the door opened and Josagn poured in, wearing face masks, waving their guns around.


    The man woke slowly, but seemed to realize something was up, because he didn¡¯t make any noise or movement to give them away.  Dustin was uncomfortable holding him like this, but he valued his life more than his comfort.  He was just glad the shadows helped to hide him.


    ¡°The alarms didn¡¯t lie!  The specimen has escaped!¡±


    ¡°It must be the intruders!  Find them!¡±


    ¡°Scans show nothing in the room!  Even if they were in here, there¡¯s too much interference from the other specimens to pinpoint them!¡±


    ¡°The floor sweep is complete!  They must have escaped somehow!¡±


    ¡°Impossible!  The door didn¡¯t unlock until we punched in the code!¡±


    ¡°Could they have escaped with the specimen before the alarm went off?¡±


    ¡°Possibly, everyone outside, span the entire area!  They can¡¯t have gone far!  We¡¯ll put guards outside the door to catch anyone who comes or goes!  We can¡¯t afford to miss them again!¡±


    As they started filing out of the room, there was a commotion at the door, and Dustin was able to turn his head just enough to see Olivia shooting them as they tried to reenter the doorway.  Because she was still camouflaged, they weren¡¯t able to see to shoot at her before she got them.


    ¡°Idiots, the lot of them.  They¡¯ll all come pouring in to their deaths until not a one is left,¡± whispered the man, 15, watching the scene as well.


    ¡°We need to get out of here before they lock the door again,¡± he added, looking at Dustin.


    Flying towards the door as the last of them died, Olivia joined them and they fled the room.


    ¡°Over there is a small lab they hardly ever use, you can probably hide there for a bit till things calm down again,¡± 15 said, pointing down the hall to a door near the end.


    ¡°How do you know that?¡± asked Olivia, before Dustin could.


    ¡°I know this damn station like the back of my hand.  I explored it in great detail before they were able to catch me.  I was hoping to find a shuttle or ship of some kind to escape in, but never did.¡±

 Chapter 60 Bombs in Brains

    ¡°You didn¡¯t find a single ship? Then how do the Josagn get here?¡± asked Olivia in confusion.  She was checking all of the guns dropped by the Josagn that she had been able to grab, to see how much ammo they had left and positioning herself at the door.


    ¡°The Josagn on this ship were born here.  They have a nursery on the other side of the ship from here, complete with school for the young before they can officially start hunting.  They steal the tech from other races then kill them off using trickery in whatever way they can.  Then they go in and turn the world into a hunting planet while they search for their next prey.¡±


    ¡°That explains why their weapons are so varied and why it¡¯s so easy to kill them.  So, the memory tech and everything didn¡¯t really come from them, it came from some other race?¡±  Dustin shook his head.  It made a lot more sense now, especially since the tech hadn¡¯t seemed to improve over the years.


    ¡°Look, they injected me with a cocktail of drugs, while I was in that tank.  I can feel them starting to leave my system, and without a PED to heal from it, I probably won¡¯t last much longer.  I guess you must be, what 16, 17?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m number 20,¡± said Dustin.


    ¡°Then this whole damn thing is about over.  They¡¯ve finally run out of clones to send down.  Let me help you get that bomb out of your head so you have a chance.  Maybe you can find a ship where I failed.¡±


    He motioned for a table, while picking up a vibrobladed scalpel.


    ¡°Whoa! Wait a minute!  What makes you think I¡¯m stupid enough to just let some stranger cut on my head??  Just because you look like me doesn¡¯t mean that you¡¯re not a Josagn changed with a PED to look like me!¡±


    ¡°Oh, I wouldn¡¯t be a Josagn, they¡¯re honestly purists, just like our fake memories thought.  The slaves, those few left after a purge, are given the option to become their spies for them.  The better the job they do, the longer they get to live.  I¡¯m not sure why they went through this farce yet, but I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find out before you get off this station.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m still not willing to let you just cut into my head!¡± Dustin glared at him, as he set the blade down with a sigh.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯m surprised they haven¡¯t blown your head off yet, with the little bomb in your head, because you made it to the station.  That was the ultimate goal for each of our little clones.  You make it to the station and congratulations, trial over.  You either go to work for them as happy little pawns or you get killed.  I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve noticed some of the lizard clones wandering around?¡±


    Dustin nodded, not liking this guy at all, especially since he seemed to be making so much sense.


    ¡°Unless they have some hidden agenda that I never found, it¡¯s game over for you.  They could get tired of hunting for your ass at any moment and decide to just end you, then look for your body.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    ¡°They don¡¯t have any way to make more clones?¡± asked Olivia, focused on the door.


    ¡°No, when I found the lab where the clones were stored, it looked like they had already been made when the Josagn took this station over.  You should have the memories of what a Josagn station looks like.¡±


    She nodded, ¡°They¡¯re not like this in my memories, but I wasn¡¯t sure, because so many of the memories are fading and proving to be wrong.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s another of their tricks.  Make the enemy doubt himself, and then he¡¯s that much easier to hunt.  I don¡¯t think they had a clue when it came to us humans.  I think, they found themselves overmatched.  I really wish I could make it back home to find out, but it¡¯s not possible anymore.¡±


    ¡°We could find you another PED, there was a warehouse full of parts,¡± said Dustin, awkwardly.


    ¡°The main components necessary are down on the planet, and I¡¯m pretty sure I won¡¯t make it that long.  If you don¡¯t let me cut that thing out of your head, then I¡¯m done talking to you.¡±  He turned and headed for the door.  There was some noticeable sagging to his skin, now that Dustin looked at him.  He couldn¡¯t shake the feeling that this guy was the real thing.  Besides, what did he have to lose anymore?


    ¡°All right, I¡¯ll lay down,¡± grumbled Dustin, noticing Olivia¡¯s surprised face.  The man paused then turned back.  As he lay down on the table, he realized with a jolt, it was the same lab from that memory he had when he touched the glass.  He almost got back up.


    ¡°Flip over.  The bomb is in the back of your skull, next to where the spine connects.  Your healing is probably so high, I¡¯m going to have a hell of a time getting done.¡±


    Dustin flipped over, and grasped the bed in anticipation of the pain.


    ¡°You need to remove those crystal scales off the back of your head, this thing is sharp, but not that sharp.¡±


    The scales receded after a quick order to the PED, and then the first cut came.  It hurt, but not as bad as he had thought.  There were many things that had hurt way worse than this.  Breathing slow and deep, and holding onto the bed for dear life, he felt it when the blade started to cut through the skull.  His teeth vibrated and tears squeezed out of his eyes as he fought for control.


    ¡°Damn! Your bomb is bigger than mine was!¡±  There was a loud thunk, then after several moments, his head had healed enough he could sit back up.


    ¡°Your turn, Olivia,¡± he said, motioning for her to put down her guns.  She shook her head.


    ¡°I can¡¯t just lay there like that!¡± she whispered fiercely.


    ¡°There¡¯re straps on the bed and I can hold your head still,¡± said Dustin.


    ¡°You don¡¯t want to have gone through all that to get to this point, then have them blow your head off!¡± growled 15.


    She moved haltingly, finally being pulled by Dustin to the bed.  She lay down stiffly, and allowed them to tighten the straps around her onto the bed.  In any other situation, Dustin would have thought this kinky, but all he could remember was the feeling of his teeth being vibrated as the knife cut through his skull.


    ¡°Remove the scales from your head, or this whole thing is pointless,¡± whispered 15.  His face was starting to sag, and his hands were starting to tremble.  There wasn¡¯t much time left for him.


    As the scales receded, Dustin watched him first cut through the skin.  It was healing almost as fast as he cut it.  Then he started cutting through the skull.  She muffled a scream against the bed, as it no doubt started vibrating her teeth.


    ¡°There it is, can you grab it?¡± 15 whispered.  His hands were shaking so bad, that he dropped the knife onto the table and moved away.  Dustin plucked the metal ball from her head, then nudged the bone and skin back into place.  He dropped the bomb into the metal bowl that held his.


    Boom!!!

 Chapter 61 Messed Up

    Dustin picked himself up off the floor, with a ringing in his ears that slowly faded.  Looking around, he saw Olivia also picking herself up.  15 was laying on the floor several feet away, not moving, and the robot AI was on its side, attempting to pick itself back up.  The table where they had tools laid out, and where they had put the bombs, was gone.  Most of the equipment in the room was damaged, and Dustin knew that alarms were probably going off somewhere.


    ¡°We have to get out of here.  Now!¡± he said, waving at Olivia and going over to check on 15.  His eyes were open with blood dripping slowly from his nose and ears.  The guy was dead.


    Sorry that he couldn¡¯t get more information from him, Dustin grabbed up guns with Olivia and rushed out the door, ready to shoot whoever they encountered.


    ¡°Follow me, I will lead you to the genetic engineering lab,¡± said the AI, shooting ahead of them at top speed.  They followed at a run.


    Only once did they run into Josagn, and they shot them with the guns as the birds turned in surprise.  Their guns hit the floor, before they could get them up to return fire.


    ¡°Is it only me, or are these guys really not that good at hunting?  All of my memories, had them as big evil hunters that could take you out easy because they were raised to hunt and kill.  These things are a joke.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve never been impressed with them,¡± said Dustin, pausing at a corner the AI just turned.  It was waiting in front of a door, for them to join it, when a whole platoon of Josagn came around the end of the hall.


    Olivia opened fire on them, as they scrambled back around the corner for cover.  Dustin hit the panel so hard to open the door, it cracked, but the door still opened and they all dived inside.


    The Josagn scientists inside, threw up their hands and squawked in alarm when they saw the guns.


    ¡°Don¡¯t shoot!  We¡¯re not hunters!¡± screamed one, almost falling on its butt trying to back into a corner.


    Dustin and Olivia paused in shock at what they saw.  Stretched out on a table, partially covered by a white sheet, was a female form.  The lower belly was opened to expose the internal organs.  As Dustin tried to make sense of what he was seeing, he heard Olivia¡¯s breathing pick up.  She aimed her gun and started firing on the Josagn in the room.


    Dustin moved towards the body, in a kind of daze.  It was like in a nightmare.  Everything was moving in slow motion.  The body was missing its left arm, and it was covered in crystalline scales.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    As his breathing picked up, there was a click in his brain as he finally realized what he was looking at.  They were aborting the fetus of his kid.  This was his Olivia, and they had killed her to harvest his kid!


    With a strangled cry, he looked around to kill the monsters who had done this, but they were all dead.  Without a thought, he moved to the door, but Olivia grabbed his arm.  Turning to her with a scowl, he finally stopped himself.


    ¡°They will all die before we leave here, I promise you!¡± she spat.


    Of course, she had realized what they were doing before him.  Shaking himself, he couldn¡¯t look at the table again.  The rest of the room was full of equipment designed to engineer different creatures.  There were several started that looked horrifying.  He was glad he hadn¡¯t had to fight some of these.  Then he saw something that stopped his breath.


    In a corner, there was a hologram of himself.  There were notes attached to it, and he dove into reading them.


    ¡®Subject shows high levels of intelligence in mechanical areas.  Attempts to narrow this trait down have failed.  A drive to survive seems overwhelming within the subject¡¯s trial runs, and despite numerous failures, the subject seems to learn.  How the subject knows what to do and not do from previous runs is a mystery.  The decision to allow the subject free reign in an attempt to escape has been decided, in order to see how far the subject can be pushed.


    ¡®Genetic sampling will be conducted at the end of each run to see the differences in choices made by the subject based on different obstacles.  Perhaps something will present itself to provide insight into the subject¡¯s race.¡¯


    As Dustin scrolled through the information on his file, he found what had happened to each of the clones.  The first clone died before it could land, due to a miscalculation on the amount of air needed to survive till landfall.  The second died before it could find a sample to evolve in order to breath.  The third died from the venom of the squid.  The fourth was eaten alive by the black bugs.  The fifth and sixth were killed by the scorpion bug he hated so much.


    Seven and eight were the two roaming the halls together.  Nine blew up on his shuttle when he ignored the warnings of the bomb on board.  Ten was killed by the white snake, and eleven drowned.  Twelve was hunted by the Josagn, and thirteen was killed in the underground city.  Fourteen was killed by the spear tree, and fifteen made it to the station twice.  Sixteen died in space when his shuttle failed to keep a tight seal, seventeen was shot by the laser gun at the shuttle port, and eighteen and nineteen were killed by the two on the station.


    Dustin looked at the data for a long time, before shaking his head in disbelief.  What was the point of all of this?  None of it made any sense.


    ¡°There¡¯s info on my too,¡± said Olivia from next to him.  She had found the same thing on herself that he had found on him, except all of them where she had gotten pregnant, ended with the Josagn retrieving her for sample extrusion.  They had killed nine babies so far.


    Gritting his teeth, he turned to her and held his gun tightly.  She was staring at the information blankly.


    ¡°I was sterilized.  I shouldn¡¯t be able to have kids.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re a clone.  Clones don¡¯t come sterilized.¡±

 Chapter 62 The End of The Josagn

    ¡°Let¡¯s kill them all!¡± she growled.


    ¡°We need to make sure those guns of theirs don¡¯t work on us first.¡± Dustin held up his PED and she nodded.


    ¡®PED, can you change the composition of the scales so that they aren¡¯t genetic in nature?  Kind of how some things form rock shells or something like that?¡¯ asked Dustin.


    (ANY CHANGE WOULD HAVE TO BE GENETIC IN NATURE FOR ME TO CONDUCT THE CHANGE, BUT IF YOU ARE SEEKING TO PREVENT DAMAGE FROM THE GENETIC DESTABILIZER WEAPON, YOU COULD TRY FOR AN ENERGY SHIELD?)


    ¡®And how do I do that?¡¯ he asked excitedly.


    (SOME OF THE GENETIC INFORMATION YOU PROVIDED TO ME INCLUDED ENERGY MANIPULATION, POSSIBLY FROM AN AQUATIC CREATURE, BUT COULD BE MANIPULATED TO PROVIDE AN ENERGY BARRIER IN THE CURRENT ATMOSPHERE.)


    ¡®I¡¯m game!¡¯ said Dustin, grinning at Olivia.  This should also prevent them from damage from just about any other type of weapon they tried to use.


    (INITIATING EVOLUTION)


    (EVOLUTION COMPLETE)


    Dustin held up his hand and tried to form the barrier.  It tingled, but a soft glow emanated from his hand.  After a moment of consideration, he was able to fully cover his entire body.


    ¡°Whoa!  What¡¯d you do?¡± asked Olivia, walking around him.


    ¡°It¡¯s an energy barrier.  This should keep the genetic guns everyone¡¯s been using, from hurting us.¡±


    ¡°I want one!¡± she demanded immediately, so he uploaded it to her PED.


    Standing in front of the door, grinning evilly, they opened it, much to the surprise of the Josagn waiting outside.  No matter how many shot at them, the particles from the Josagn guns merely slid off the energy shields that surrounded the two of them.


    Chuckling, they started firing at them, and before you could blink, all of the Josagn were dead.  The hall was filled with nothing but floating dust particles.


    ¡°We¡¯re going to empty this entire damn station of every last Josagn.¡±


    Olivia nodded at him, ¡°And then we¡¯re going to find a way to fly back home, even if we have to fly this damn station.¡±


    Before Dustin could get too caught up in that thought, more Josagn arrived, pausing when they came into view of the carnage in the hall.  They quickly joined their comrades as piles of dust. Throwing her gun to the floor, Olivia grabbed up a fresh one.


    ¡°Were you out?¡± he asked in surprise.


    ¡°No, but I figured I could start with a fresh gun, since there¡¯s so many to choose from.¡±  She picked up as many guns as she could carry, checking to make sure they were full on ammo.  With a shrug he started to do the same thing.  These things were going to die.  If even half of what he had learned was true, then they deserved more than death.Stolen story; please report.


    Moving to the end of the hall, the two lizard men showed up.


    ¡°We were supposed to come help detain and kill you, but do you mind, um, helping us instead?¡± asked White, looking over his shoulder to make sure none of the Josagn were around.


    ¡°No,¡± said Dustin, moving to go around them.


    ¡°What? Why?¡± cried Blue, blocking his path.


    ¡°Knowing what these creeps have done, and choosing to side with them?  You can both go to hell!¡± he spat through his teeth.


    All of the indecision and fear immediately left their faces.  Both of them straightened up and Dustin knew them for what they really were, potential spies.


    ¡°You¡¯ll never manage to succeed!¡± screeched Blue, jumping for him, with electrical arcs flying from his fingers.


    As he came in contact with the energy field, Dustin started to drain him using his energy siphon he had acquired from the space creatures.


    White backed away in panic as Blue collapsed unconscious to the ground, then started to go grey around the edges.  As he finally let him go, Dustin was sure he was dead, but just to make sure, he shot him with the gun and dissolved him.


    ¡°Wait a minute, can¡¯t we¡­¡± Olivia shot him before he could say another word.  ¡°Let¡¯s kill us some aliens.¡±


    They lost track of time as they hunted the Josagn, killing them whenever they found any.  The nursery was disgusting.  The image of clean little baby beds fled from his minds eye when he saw the piles of crap, they laid their eggs in.  The babies would then eat vomit off of the floor until they could walk well enough to leave the room.


    ¡°How did these things even manage to get to the space age?¡± gagged Olivia as they finished off the featherless monsters squawking at them.  There was nothing cute about them.


    ¡°Probably stole it from the first race to contact them,¡± said Dustin, moving to the next room.


    Whenever they started to get a little tired, or hungry, they would lean up against one of the monitors and drain energy directly from the station.  This was great.  He couldn¡¯t figure out how none of the previous guys hadn¡¯t managed to pull this off.


    Neither of them knew how much time had passed, they just knew they had explored the entire station, had killed countless Josagn, and all of their guns were empty.


    ¡°There has to be a ship somewhere, how did the Josagn get here?¡± complained Olivia, kicking a wall after they came to another empty ship hangar.


    ¡°There¡¯s only one place left to look.  Maybe we¡¯ll have some luck there,¡± said Dustin.  He was tired of killing, tired of looking, and tired of everything.  The only ships they had found were shuttles the Josagn used to travel back and forth to the surface of the planet.  None of the ships they had found were long distance space vessels.


    Opening the last door, they were both shocked when the crystal prince turned to look at them.  He was standing in front of a long table covered in food.


    ¡°Ah. About time.  I was wondering when you would get around to coming here.¡±  He set down a plate he had piled high with various foods, vegetables, fruits and other non-meat things.


    ¡°I¡¯d thank you for killing all of those nasty birds, but I¡¯m a bit busy at the moment.  I¡¯ve built up quite an appetite waiting for you, so if you don¡¯t mind,¡± he turned back to his plate and started to eat.


    Olivia looked at him for a moment, then rushed at the crystal man and kicked him, sending him flying against the opposite wall.  He had seen it coming, but made no attempt to stop her, or to get out of her way.  If he had another gun, Dustin would have tested it on him, to see if it would work.


    She was breathing hard as she returned to his side.  ¡°There is no way in hell I was going to listen to that jerk talk down to us.¡±


    Dustin walked past the table of food, past the crystal guys unconscious form, and opened the door to the next room.  The sight that met his eyes caused him to pause, and Olivia gasped.

 Chapter 63 The Original

    A small wizened form lay encased in crystal.  Wires ran from his head to a terminal beside him.


    ¡°Welcome Dustin and Olivia, I have been waiting a very long time to meet you.¡± The voice was mechanical, coming from the terminal.  The robot AI stopped in its tracks and the face on it disappeared.


    ¡°I hope you don¡¯t mind the games I had you go through, but I had to make absolutely sure the two of you could survive the coming trials.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± started Dustin, completely confused.  ¡°What the hell?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m sure you have figured out that I am the original Dustin, by now?¡±


    Shaking his head, ¡°Actually no, you bastard, I didn¡¯t have a fucking clue until this moment.¡±


    ¡°Pity.  Regardless, you are tasked with saving the human race.¡±


    ¡°Like hell we are!¡± shouted Olivia, furiously.


    ¡°Please calm down, I will explain everything to you.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you could explain everything, I think you¡¯re sick and twisted!¡±


    ¡°Olivia,¡± said Dustin, grabbing her arm.  ¡°We don¡¯t have a choice but to listen to his little tirade.  We need to know what¡¯s going on, and then we can kill his sick ass.¡±


    She nodded, hesitantly at first, then turned to lean against the wall.


    ¡°Alright, Original Dustin, let¡¯s hear what you have to say.¡±  He crossed his arms, trying to keep an open mind about all the different ways he wanted to kill this thing.


    ¡°When the humans left, I was ignored in the prison.  I was to be used as a test subject on the new technology, the PED, they had just acquired.  Luckily, the Josagn came and rescued me, or so I thought, until it became clear they were more interested in hunting me, than they were in saving me.  My clones were set to start growing, also left by the humans, in order to have multiple test subjects for the PED.¡±


    ¡°But why make clones?  Isn¡¯t that infinitely more difficult?  Why not just use other people?¡±  This just didn¡¯t make sense to Dustin.


    ¡°The PED was reverse engineered by me, so I was to be the test subject.  Every other human they had tried it on, had died.¡±


    ¡°But what about me?¡± asked Olivia.


    ¡°And all of those people in the underground city?¡± added Dustin.


    ¡°Olivia was in jail with me, and the Josagn had no idea it would kill other humans.  I expected her to do as well, but when they placed one on her, she did fine.  I never questioned it, personally, just saw it as a blessing.  As for the people in the underground city, the PED works just fine on aliens.  Those were never humans, they were other aliens that had been released for the Josagn to hunt.¡±


    That made a bit of sense to Dustin, he had never considered those people to be aliens.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    ¡°The Josagn were tempted to release all of the clones at once, but I convinced them to draw the fun out, make it last, and they saw the wisdom of that.  I was hoping that at least one of my clones would manage to succeed at killing off the Josagn and freeing us all.  And here you are.¡±


    ¡°But I still have so many questions, like why do I have the memories from the other clones, and why were the Josagn taking the babies out of the other Olivias, how were there other Olivia¡¯s if they only cloned you, and how are you still alive after 200 years?¡±


    ¡°The answer to that, is in the PED.  I don¡¯t understand everything about it myself, because it is alien in nature, but what I have been able to deduce, the device stored far more than just genetic information.  I believe, because they are your clones, the device also stored memories, that whenever a suitable electrical shock occurred, you would be able to unlock those memories.  I have been able to study the actions of each of the clones that came before you, and I have been able to watch you make decisions that your clones had made, that you would not have been able to make otherwise.


    ¡°As for the babies, the Josagn have always been interested in our reproduction.  Their gestation, within the body is mere days, then their young is expelled within an egg.  I know they understand the gestation of our kind, but I believe they were conducting experiments to try to understand more.  It could also have been to see what the affects of the PED had on the young.¡±


    ¡°So, in other words, you don¡¯t have a fucking clue,¡± snarled Olivia, unable to remain silent any longer.


    ¡°Yes,¡± even as a mechanical voice, they could both hear the reluctance and sadness, but they were beyond feeling sorry for this guy.


    ¡°Olivia was cloned using a device they had from an alien race they destroyed about a hundred years ago.  It clones much more efficiently than the method used by the humans.  Unfortunately, they were only able to get a certain number of clones from her before her original died.  Cloning from a clone turned out to be¡­disastrous.¡±


    Olivia opened her mouth to say something else, then snapped it shut.  Dustin didn¡¯t know what to tell her.  He was sorry she was the last of herself?  That just didn¡¯t sound right.


    ¡°I have only been able to survive this long because of the semi-stasis the crystal cocoon has placed me in.  My mind can still function at a normal state, but my body is slowed incredibly.  The crystal being you passed to get in here was the one who placed me here.  I believe his entire race was wiped out by the Josagn, and that he is the last of his kind.  He has been an incredibly good friend, but the Josagn greatly enjoyed using him to mislead my clones.¡±


    ¡°I plan to kill him, too,¡± growled Olivia, marching out of the room.


    ¡°What happened to the humans?  Why the nonsense with the clone hunts?  Is there a way to get home?¡±  Dustin couldn¡¯t believe he had gone through all of this just to come to a dead end.  He refused to just roll over and die!


    ¡°There was a war raging with the Josagn when they left, I don¡¯t know what happened on their end.  The Josagn here, have been breeding happily and seemed to have no interest in traveling away from this station.  The clone hunts were their form of entertainment.  Though now that you have killed them all, it would be interesting to see what happens below as everything settles down to try and survive.  There is one ship I know about, that you may be able to use, to return to Earth.  I don¡¯t know its condition, or how long you may live as a clone.  For all I know you may live a long healthy life.  If you do, I would be pleased to know that someone could.¡±


    ¡°Why did they keep you alive?¡±


    ¡°I believe they hoped to clone me some more.  They had so much fun hunting me they wanted to keep it up.


    ¡°Between the two of us, I never wanted any of this.  I wanted nothing more than to escape the Josagn myself and go home.  You probably don¡¯t believe me, and I have lived long enough to be fine with that.  As a show of good faith, I thought it wise to inform you that the station is designed to blow up when the population drops below a certain number.  The Josagn designed it in, and I discovered it shortly after they hooked me up so that I could communicate with them.  It was meant to keep them from being used as slaves if anyone ever came to overthrow them.


    ¡°The ship is on floor twenty-three, near the main engines.  It was designed to be an escape ship for the mechanics who worked there.  I will send the AI from the other station to lead you there.  The count down has just started, so Olivia must have killed the crystal man.  Hurry!¡±

 Chapter 64 Epilogue

    Dustin lay back in the seat and watched the station recede from view.  The old programming in the escape pod had them about to jump back through space to Earth.  Olivia lay beside him, in her own chair, finally calmed down from their flight through the halls of the station.  It had taken everything they had to keep up with the AI robot as it zoomed through the halls to this ship.


    He still wasn¡¯t sure if everything the man in crystal had told him was true, but it was too late now.  The countdown to their jump ended, and the screen in front of them became a blur.  Stars disappeared and he closed his eyes to keep from getting dizzy.  When he opened them again, he was surprised to find himself in a debris field.  Earth loomed before them, large, and beautiful.


    ¡°I never thought I would actually live to see it,¡± whispered Olivia, as Dustin took over the controls.


    ¡°It looks like the station that was in orbit has been blown up.  I wonder if anyone¡¯s still alive down on the surface?¡± he wondered.


    ¡°I hope so.  I miss people.  Not that being with you isn¡¯t great,¡± she turned to look at him, then away in embarrassment.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯re a great lay, but I¡¯m sure other girls will appreciate me more.¡±


    ¡°Wait, what!¡±


    He chuckled at the scandalized look she threw him.


    After a moment of silence, she asked, ¡°Do you think we should return to our human forms, so that when we come out of the ship, people don¡¯t try to shoot us?¡±


    Glancing down at himself, he sighed.  The thought had occurred to him, but he had been holding off on suggesting it.  He greatly enjoyed all of the abilities he had acquired.


    ¡°I suppose it wouldn¡¯t hurt to take the form of a human.  We could still keep our abilities, and with the PED¡¯s we could always just change if we needed to.¡±


    ¡°I plan to keep the crystal plates under my skin so no one can shoot me.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s a great idea!¡± he said, smiling as he started to focus on what he was doing a bit more.


    The cities were leveled in some war.  Green covered everything, and like in those movies of post-apocalyptic times, animals fled their ship.


    ¡°I guess if there were any survivors, we¡¯re going to have to search for them,¡± Dustin said, unstrapping himself.


    ¡°No need, they found us,¡± Olivia said, touching his arm.


    Looking up, Dustin saw a group peering out at them from through some tree branches, holding makeshift weapons and dressed in furs.


    ¡°Well, this aught to be fun.¡±