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.

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?