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.)

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.”