Tessa’s POV:

  Hours passed painfully slowly. I curled up tighter and draped my wings over my sides like Abby had just shown me via the mindlink, trapping more of my body heat. It was hard to sit still, but there was barely enough room in the cage to turn around, let alone pace.

  “Well, it is a chimera. Not one of the originals though, which is a pity. Possibly second generation.” The Votak’s voice made me jump; he and his parrot friend had been silent for a very long time.

  Apus flew over and landed delicately on the white alien’s shoulder. “That is a very strange DNA chain. I’m not sure how those humans concocted this one, but it looks quite stable.”

  “Look at the binders. I think they were just mixing things and hoping they worked. If even one of those codes were misplaced during the metaforming process, the creature would have died. You’ll probably never see a mutation in this species since it wouldn’t survive.”

  “Wait, wait,” Apus said, his squeaky voice rising in pitch. “Look there! Those shouldn’t be there. I don’t know which one of those labs she came out of, but they clearly missed several steps in the procedures and added the knowledge serum. I’m amazed they had any survivors at all.”

  “Those humans were idiots,” Claas retorted.

  Apus peered at the screen. “I’m not seeing any evidence of the memory retention sequence, although they might not show in the offspring’s DNA.” The parrot creature glanced at me. “This lab clearly took the word experimental to a whole new level.”

  “Considering how carefully we protected the instructions, I’m astonished at how rarely they followed them from start to finish. There are some sicora genes in here, which means the samples we included survived the crash. ”

  Apus snorted. “Humans rarely followed directions well, or they might have purposefully been experimenting.”

  “You learned quickly enough, so other labs might have paid attention. They could have come up with some interesting combinations in a decade or so if that blasted group of Votaks hadn’t bumbled in and destroyed everything. Does your chromosome breakdown match what I’m seeing here?”

  “Yep. It looks like they tossed an entire menagerie into the mixing pot. They used at least twenty animals instead of stopping at five. I’m very glad I wasn’t dragged into that lab. Their chances of survival would have been appallingly low.”

  “I’m not as foolish as those humans. I told you that you would survive the metaforming process.”

  “And I am eternally grateful. Even if it hadn’t worked, the cancer would have killed me within weeks. My life is far more interesting now than it had been when I was human.”

  My breath caught in my throat as I realized the parrot had gone through the same procedure that Mom and Dad had, only he was in league with the Votaks. A light on the wall flashed, and Claas touched it.

  A voice came through the device. “Commander Claas, your meal is ready. Would you like it delivered to your location or your personal quarters?”

  “My personal quarters.”

  The two of them walked out, shutting off the lights and closing the door behind them. Four tiny yellow lights near the ceiling provided very dim illumination. I waited a few minutes to make sure they weren’t coming back, then I began trying to undo the door, hoping Taureen was wrong. Every part of the surface felt smooth. Twisting my arm to reach the middle, I accidentally rocked the cage and immediately stopped. The edge of the counter was far too close, and I really didn’t want to drop that far to the floor.

  “Any update?” I asked Mom hopefully.

  “Nothing yet,” her tired voice replied. “They almost caught a few of them, but, as you know, they blew themselves up. This isn’t the normal type of Votak. From what they’ve recovered of their technology, we’re dealing with a small rogue group.”

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  “That matches what I’ve heard. This one was annoyed with the Votaks who invaded Earth. The parrot thing had been a human! He went through the same procedure as the original dragonets. There were other labs too!”

  She was silent for a long time. “Some of us wondered if there were more labs, but this is the first time we had proof.”

  The door slid open, and my head swung around with a low growl. The faint silhouette ducking through the door was far too large for a Votak. My growl faded into a hopeful whine as I stood on my back legs, sniffing the air.

  The shadow swiftly limped toward me. My wings trembled, and I danced on the spot.

  “Soranto is here!” I exclaimed, updating the group back home.

  “Thank goodness,” Mom replied in relief. “Wait—he’s just walking around?”

  “More like sneaking around,” I said, sharing a glimpse of his swift, furtive movements as he crossed the room.

  “Keep me updated. I’ll keep silent to avoid distracting you.”

  Soranto immediately did something to the panel on the cage, and it clicked. I shoved it open, and with a jump that was rather stilted from stiff muscles, I leapt at his chest.

  He caught me and cradled me in his arms as he checked my arms, legs, and wings for injuries—or rather—he attempted to, but I was squirming around too much in the sheer joy of being reunited with him. He abandoned his inspection and pushed the cage off the counter, making it clatter onto the floor.

  As he jogged to the door, he paused and eyed up all the computers and controls. With a glance at the door, he went back to the computers and quickly stuck something into the machine Claas had been working on. He did the same to two of the other machines before returning to the door.

  After a quick peek down the corridor, he hastily ran one way, his limp far more noticeable with the faster pace. We passed door after door, and Soranto paused at every corner and junction, carefully checking the area before proceeding.

  Voices ahead made my heart pick up speed. Soranto slipped into a room and squeezed past large tubes as he opened another door. He stopped with a faint exhalation of frustration when he saw a handful of dusty boxes in the dead-end room.

  Behind us a deep thrumming noise started, and the tubes began radiating heat. With a bitten-back exclamation, Soranto staggered into the dusty room and shut the door.

  “Well, we aren’t going anywhere until the heating cores switch off.” he said with a sigh, looking down at where I was still cradled in his arm. I lifted my head and trilled at him, which was enough to earn a fond smile from him. “I’m so glad I found you.”

  I whistled in agreement. Gently, he set me on a nearby box and thoroughly checked every inch of my body, right down to each of my scales and toe nails. One of my cracked scales above my shoulders pinched as he spread my wings.

  Reaching around, I grabbed the offending scale in my teeth and jerked the two sections free. It hurt, but just like trimming a splitting nail, it felt better afterwards. I spat the two jagged pieces on the crate.

  Soranto picked them up, looked at them, and tucked them into his belt pouch with a frown. He took a small jar of salve out of his pocket and dabbed some on the sore spot. The throbbing pain immediately dulled to something I could barely feel. With a thankful chirp, I jumped up to his shoulder.

  Soranto turned his attention to the small, battered crates as he opened the lids to check their contents. He picked out a few wires and some electronics, which he tucked into a belt pouch. One crate held clear, round orbs, and he pushed the box to the side.

  “The suspense is killing me. What’s happening?” Mom asked.

  “The heat from a heater core thing has us temporarily trapped in a small room. Soranto is checking old crates.” I sent images to her.

  “Taureen says those orbs hold water. They are often stored in various locations with other emergency supplies.”

  “That explains a lot of strange stuff I’m seeing.”

  “Has he said much? We aren’t sure if he knows his wrist comm isn’t transmitting properly.”

  “No, he’s pretty quiet. Just murmuring reassurances to me, and that he was glad he found me.”

  “I’m glad he found you too.”

  She was quiet for a while, and I waited since she was probably talking with Taureen or Aeria, and finally said, “Getting you two back safe and sound isn’t going to be easy. We likely have to include Soranto in this discussion. As much as I wanted to have Taureen and Aeria around to help break the news to him, you may end up springing this on him without warning. Do you have any thoughts about not keeping Soranto as your handler?”

  “No. What is the best way to do this?”

  “Wait until he settles down a bit more. It won’t take long if there’s only a handful of crates to sift through.”

  I sent my acknowledgement down the mindlink and listened to her advice as I tried to prepare myself for something I hadn’t planned on doing for several months.