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"How can it not be?" Drax mutters, cautiously approaching the tube. "I found one of these specimen tubes in another part of the lab when Stacy and I first found our way down here. The tube was shattered on one side. Whatever was inside was long gone."
"I wonder if it was Gruxt," I say, studying the floating specimen. "Like Gruxt, this thing appears more Ziarian than insectoid."
"Have you seen anything like this in the forest, Mordox?" Bruke asks.
"No. Only the creature Gruxt became and the insectoid variety you've already seen. Nothing like this."
"It's hard to believe that used to be one of us." Bruke swallows hard, staring at the creature's misshapen features. Its face twisted and malformed, barely resembling something sentient.
"Now that we can account for all twenty of the miners, let's finish exploring." Drax looks down at the tablet, then moves to the closed door on the opposite side of the room. "There's another hall just through here with more rooms. Maybe we'll find something useful."
"Let's hurry and get it over with." The tip of Rooke's tail flicks in agitation. "This place gives me the creeps."
"Corethian cunts!" Bruke suddenly leaps away, startling us.
We jump back from the specimen tube. I fall into a fighting stance. "What is it?" I swing around, my weapon up and at the ready.
"It moved!" Bruke points at the creature. "I saw its fingers twitch."
"That's your imagination, you stupid fuck!" Slye stalks away, rolling his shoulders. His scales ripple down his back as he shakes off the sudden fright.
"No it wasn't, prick!" Bruke keeps his gaze locked on the creature floating inside the thick liquid. "I know what I saw. Drax said he found a shattered tube, so whatever was in there had broken its way out."
"This thing has been submerged in that goo for years," Rooke reasons. "There's no way it's still alive. No way."
I want to agree with Rooke's logic, but the experiments performed on our people far surpassed anything I could have imagined. At this point, I would believe anything is possible.
"We need those files from the General's mainframe." I turn to Drax. "Our planned trip to the prison needs to happen soon. We need to know everything the scientists did here." I point to the specimen. "We can't discount what Bruke thinks he saw. If that creature is alive inside there and it gets out, the females will be in serious danger. Three of us couldn't stop the creature Gruxt had become. It took the explosion from a confinement collar to stop him."
"And that thing looks worse than Gruxt," Drax nods.
"What do we do with it in the meantime?" Slye wanders back, slinging his hand at the creature.
"Too bad we aren't closer to the prison," Rooke suggests. "We could put it inside a cell pod and behind a luminetric barrier."
"Any chance you two can rig one of those up?" Slye shares an expectant look between Drax and Bruke.
"Not without a transductor and a maginitizer," Bruke answers.
"Where can we get those?" I ask.
"The prison compound." Drax raises glossy brows at Bruke.
"We can dismantle what we need from one of the cell pod's entrances and set it up down here," Bruke adds.
"I'm not staying in this underground tomb as long as that creature is down here." Slye stabs his finger toward the creature. "And neither should the females. We all need to find a safer place until we know more about what went on down here and if that thing is dead or alive."
"Or at least until we have better weapons." Rooke smirks holding his small dagger aloft. "This alope sticker is a joke."
"I agree with the pirate," I say, looking at the other males. "We need to secure the creature and take the females someplace safer."
"As soon as lockdown commences, we can fly the shuttle to the compound and remove a luminetric barrier from around one of the doors," Rooke says.
"It's not as simple as all that," Drax explains. "An active luminetric barrier can't be dismantled. It'd have to be done it while it's off."
"Which is the real trick," Bruke scoffs. "If the prisoners are free to roam, then what? There's more of them than of us. Sneaking in isn't an option."
"And they're going to be pissed Rooke used a key to only disengage mine and Bruke's collars and left them all behind," Slye chimes in. "They'll overtake us and steal the shuttle. We can't go in unless they're in lockdown."
