Liri's widened eyes took in the Obsidian Cluster homeworld of Wyrimp, filling the Calypso's main viewscreen. "I've read about the destruction the system faced from being over mined, but I didn't expect the planet to look like Swiss cheese."

     "Gotta love big-wig companies and their idea of improving life for everyone," Syd said dryly.

     "It's disturbing how many families were torn apart," Jax's sharp tone cut through the air. "They were forced to mine their planet dry when the Draconian companies took over. Black lung and other nasty diseases associated with the extraction process nearly exterminated the locals."

     Ardon's wings drooped. "The Mantoid's made a strong comeback—as any bug colony can—but not the other species."

     A beep sounded at Jax's console. He stated, "There's an incoming communication, Syd."

     "Pray, this isn't a pirate." She stood from her captains' chair.

     "They're bein' too nice to be um," Luke stated cheekily from underneath yet another console on the bridge.

     "Shut it, Butterfingers," Syd said while straightening her flight jacket. "Put it through to the viewer, Jax."

     Tension seemed to permeate the bridge as unblinking Mantoid eyes filled the viewscreen. A humming screech sounded before the ship's translator said in a husky male tone, "This is Obsidian Cluster Security, transmit your vehicle registration codes and state your business here."

     "I'd have preferred pirates over this guy any day," Jax grumbled quietly.

     "My name is Captain Sydney Flavian of the starship Calypso. I'm here from the core to drop off a shipment to Bazentine Werks in the province of Leechaha."

     "Captain, this sector is restricted due to the ongoing inner-system unrest."

     "We are aware of the dangers, but we are bringing in medical supplies marked as urgent." Syd signaled Jax with a hand movement.

     His burnt-orange fingers flew over the command controls, and the ship's shields powered down.

     Syd spoke again, "Feel free to scan us."

     Blue laser lights safely passed through the Calypso's hull. Liri held her breath as her body was invaded by the harmless, but unsettling scan.

     A few tense moments later, the Mantoid spoke, "A tracking device will be placed on your exterior to ensure you leave within twenty-four hours. Once you are out of our system, it will detach itself and return to us."

     "No problem. We should be there long enough to drop the load, get paid, and be out of your antenna in no time."

     A metallic ping sounded throughout the ship's hull.

     "Why do I get the feeling there's a leech stuck to my ship, sucking the energy out of its systems or some other nasty thing?" Syd lamented quietly.

     "Don't worry, you'll have a new craft soon," Liri said.

     "Right." A smile tugged at the corner of Syd's mouth.

     "We have cleared your shipment with Bazentine Werks, and you may proceed. Follow the flight path to your designated landing zone within their facility," the Mantoid said.

     The screen reverted to the view of Wyrimp along with bright-blue orbs that strung to the planet below. The Calypso coasted along the indicated flightpath and soon landed.

     Down in the cargo bay, all five of the ship's crew members and two guests gathered in front of dozens of pallets full of crates.

     "I wouldn't want to be the fellow that opens these things," a tall Gegeines said as he tapped the side of a crate with one of his six hands. A smirk lit his clean-shaven, lavender-hued face.

     Syd stepped to Liri's side. "Lady Delaney, you haven't met the last two members of my crew. This gentleman is Mauverik. He's the ship's chief when the replicators crash and one of the most proficient tech-slicers I've ever met."

     "A pleasure." The towering man enveloped Liri's hand with his and laid a kiss on it.

     "Hello." Liri gave him a warm smile.

     "And the gray-haired fellow over there is Sasha." Syd nodded her head in the waving man's direction. "He's our resident doctor, but don't touch him or he'll have to wash his hands several times."

     Sasha frowned. "I can't help that everyone, and thing, is covered head-to-toe in diseases."

     Liri waved at the spectacled man. "Good to meet you."

     "Alright, guys." Syd clapped her hands together as she addressed the ragtag crew. "Now that everyone knows each other, let's focus on the mission at hand. You know the drill; we manage to have a few malfunctions with the loading equipment before getting started to give Lady Delaney the time she needs inside the compound. Understood?"

     "What if they wan' a looksie in da boxes?" The blonde mechanic asked. He placed a small hand on the handle of a hover-jack stacked with crates.

     Ardon scrunched his face as if he'd eaten rotten escargot. "Luke, you've done runs like this in dozens of systems...if they want a peek, just make sure they look in the one with the supplies."

     He flicked his head to get his light-blonde locks out of his grey eyes. "Surry, gian' bugs aren' me favor creazures. Dey makes me a wee-bit squeamish."

     "Me too, kid," Jax stated, with a shake of his furry body.

     "Alright, let me go talk to the dock manager," Syd said as she pushed the last of her hair into the hat with a medical logo embroidered on it. The Calypso's captain made her way off the ship, spoke with a Mantoid for a minute, and showed him the shipping papers.

     "Let's get this freight outta here," she hollered loud enough for everyone to hear as she drew back to the Calypso and grabbed a hover-jack.

     Pulling a load of freight into the bay, both Liri and Ardon entered the storage room as directed by the lone worker. Once out of the worker's sight, their holo-shipment vanished into thin air, and they darted out the side door.

     With the holo-map floating above Liri's bracelet, the two quickly slipped down the hall and out the back door into the courtyard.

     Several workers were milling about as the couple walked to the main building like they were employees. Making a break for the door when the coast was clear, the duo pulled it open and moved down the fluorescent-lit, grey, hallway.

     Ardon stopped walking. "What do you think a viable subject viewing room means?"

     "Not the room we are looking for," Liri insisted as she took two steps before realizing Ardon hadn't budged.

     "Liri, you already know they were investing money. Now you need to see what it is being used for, not to look at a bunch of paperwork again, right?"

     She glanced up and down the empty hall before nodding. "Okay, you're right."

     "Of course, I am." Ardon pressed the open button to open the door. When it didn't respond, he pulled out a credit card-sized metal device from inside his long coat. Placing it flat against the keypad, he tapped in a few commands before a beep sounded, and the door slid open. Ardon slipped the metal card back into his jacket, and they were inside the room within moments.

     Empty white walls encompassed a chair that sat at an elevated glass desk in the center of the room.

     "A computer, maybe I can get everything I need from here." Moving quickly, Liri tapped commands on the desk's keyboard. The wall in front of her filled with a long list of names in alphabetical order, and she began scrolling down the screen.

     Ardon crossed his arms over his chest as his eyes flew over the list.

     "I don't see my parents listed anywhere, but I think I know this person." Liri pressed several more keys.

     A recorded video of an expensively dressed, fat, blue-skinned man talking to a Mantoid appeared on the wall.

     Liri pointed a shaky finger. "That's Jacob Sterling. Last I heard he was on his deathbed."

     "Clearly not." Ardon took over the controls and zoomed in closer to the other man's face. "Now, who exactly is this, Jacob Sterling?"

     "He was a senator from Dubrovn that managed to push several unethical lab experiments through the legal system back home." She swallowed hard at the memory of her father severing ties with the unsavory senator. "There was a huge scandal, and he ended up leaving the planet for one of the nearby moons his family owns."

     "Sweet Nebula, are all you people filthy rich?"

     Liri cocked her brow. "What do you mean by, you people?"

     He waved his arm through the air. "Nevermind, we can talk about it later if you insist. Now, let's see if we can hear what the dirty politician is saying to the bug man."

     Ardon hit play. The plump Jacob Sterling said with a sneer across his face, "I don't give two fucks what the side effects are, I want what we paid you for."

     Clicking and buzzing followed by a frazzled males voice from a translator wrapped around the Mantoid's neck, "The results you seek will come in time. However, many of our test subjects have died from physical exhaustion."

     "We believed having your kind run this study would have fast results due to the hive-mind bullshit, but I see there as a miscalculation on our part. I will let the others know we need to find a better-equipped group to continue this project." The fat man started walking away.

     The Mantis' shook its head back and forth as high-pitched buzzing filled the air. "There's no need to do that. We can get the results you requested, but we will need more specimens."

     Sterling stopped walking. "Not possible, you have all the ones we were able to acquire."

     "Then it will require us to slow the tests down so they may recover a little. Otherwise, they will all perish, and Delaney's Pharmaceutical Labs will never learn how the shifters manipulate their appearance."

     "No!" Stopping the video, she braced her hands on the desk and took several deep breaths. It felt like the air was knocked out of her.

     "Did that thing say Delaney, or did Earth mess me up worse than I thought it did?"

     "That's my parent's company. The one they co-owned with the people that disappeared." Liri shook her head, took a deep breath, and pressed buttons on the desk. Beeps sounded as she waved her braceleted wrist over the keyboard. "I need to know what specimens those two are referring to."

     "I got a bad feeling about this, Liri."

     Liri nodded. "Ditto."

     The large viewer split into over a hundred circular screens covering the surrounding walls. Each one focused on a humanoid form.

     "Oh, shit," Ardon said as he rubbed his bearded jaw.

     Liri squinted at one of the screens. "What are they?"

     "Shapeshifters."

     Her light-blue skin paled. "I remember Jax saying they were out here, but I was taught they were all killed off during the mining process hundreds of years ago. I've never seen one in their true form before—not even in a video."

     "I knew there were some survivors, but not this many," he said as he studied the screens.

     "Why don't they have distinctive features?"

     "They tend to take on characteristics of those around them. However, shapeshifters are humanoid, so I'm guessing that the bugs are too different from their skeletal structure, so they remain in their natural state here."

     "How do you know that?"

     Ardon shrugged. "It's a guess, and I might have done a job for Nico that involved a shifter."

     "Oh, what kind of job was it?"

     "I was an escort," Ardon said while taking over the keyboard.

     "An escort or a kidnapper?" She asked with a smirk on her face.

     "Hey, just because I ended up doing jobs for a well-known gangster doesn't mean that what I agreed to do was illegal. I'm a man of integrity, after all." His wings ruffled under his jacket.

     "Right." She nodded slowly. "The Mantoid said they were killing them; what do you think they are doing?"

     "I was just looking into that." Ardon pointed at the wall.

     On the screen, a group of Mantoid's surrounded a surgical table. A panting and sweat coated shapeshifter lay naked on the table with several tubes connected to its chest and arms. The shifter was being shown a tablet with a picture of a Draconian on it. Several seconds later, he shifted, becoming a doppelganger of the man in the photo.

     The tablet's image changed, and the shifter morphed into a green-skinned being after his body shuddered and many labored groans of agony. A third humanoid was shown, and the shifter struggled to change once again.

     The Mantoid holding the tablet started shaking it violently. When a few more moments passed and the shifter didn't change, the Mantoid hit a button on the keyboard at its side.

     The shifter screamed and shook violently for several long seconds as if he was being electrocuted.

     "Stop!" Liri bellowed, turning her head away. "I don't need to see any more."

     "I'm sorry, Liri." Ardon's warm hand settled on her shoulder.

     She surprised herself by gripping it harder than she meant to. Appreciating Ardon's kindness, but it did nothing to calm the ache in her heart over what she just witnessed. "My parents must have known that this was happening, and it's why my father broke off ties with Sterling."

     "It's possible." Ardon glanced at his wrist. "I hate to say it, but we need to get back to the ship and get out of here."

     "Ardon." She squeezed his hand. "We can't leave them here to suffer."

     He opened his mouth, and Liri cut him off, "Please, Ardon. I will never forgive myself if I don't at least save some of them."

     He slipped his hand from hers and then ran it through his hair. "Damn it. It's not fair that you can disarm people with your...you."

     "Is that a yes?" A hopeful smile brightened her face.

     He sighed heavily and nodded. "What is your plan, boss?"

     Liri wrapped her arms around the High Draconian's middle. "Thank you, Mister Rowe. I owe you one."