“You realize we’re going to be blown into space, right?” asked Dustin, looking at the ships approaching the station.

“I know.”

Neither one of them was very excited about the idea, and it showed. Maybe it was low oxygen in the air? Maybe they were just tired with all of the damn drama. Couldn’t they get a break?

With a sigh, Dustin shook himself. “Okay. So, the first thing we need to worry about is the explosive decompression. We need to be able to keep the pressure on our bodies, so our lungs don’t explode.”

“How do we do that?” she asked, crossing her arms.

“What if we programmed the PED to give us pressure tight scales over our entire body?”

“That seems a little farfetched.”

“It may be possible, if you layer them right,” he said, turning to his PED and getting started. “Some of the problems with space, is that there isn’t any pressure because there’s no air to form the pressure, so our lungs want to expand, our moisture evaporates, our tissues swell, and ice starts to form from the cold. Solar radiation burns us, and there’s no oxygen in space. So, if we can take all of that into consideration, we would need, about…fourteen or fifteen layers.”

Olivia laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding. We would be like marshmallow lizard people trying to wiggle in space.”

“Not if the scales are thin enough,” he said, deep in thought. “If we create that many layers, there may be issues with getting too hot, maybe if I redirect some of our veins near the surface of the skin to cool us, then we would need to minimize our size to the smallest we can be…”

“Wait, why do you want us to be small?” she asked, seeing that he was honestly serious about this.

“Well, I was thinking. Those Josagn probably aren’t going to try and board the ship, they’re probably just going to blow it up. Maybe this is the first time we’ve made it to the station. Regardless, the smaller we are, the harder it will be for them to see us in space. We can use our cling ability to grab ahold of one of their ships and hitchhike back to their station.”

She ducked her head, starting to consider this.

“PED, I want the evolution that I just programmed into you, at the smallest size possible.”

(INITIATING EVOLUTION. YOUR SIZE WILL BE LIMITED BY MY SIZE. FULL CONTACT MUST BE MAINTAINED WITH ME OR I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO IMPLEMENT FUTURE EVOLUTIONS.)

“That’s fine.”

(EVOLUTION INITIATED.)

Dustin watched as the world around him began to grow. He knew he was shrinking, but that’s not what it seemed.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

He was shorter than the robot, that looked at him puzzled.

“That was very fascinating,” said the AI. “May I make a request?”

“What?” asked Dustin, in a surprisingly high-pitched voice. Olivia gasped and started laughing. He shot her a dark look.

“If I were to upload myself into this robot, would you be willing to allow me to accompany you on your return to home base? If this station is about to be destroyed, I would very much like to escape my demise. Also, I could report all of my findings on the planet below to home base and complete my mission!”

They both knew that the chances of the human home base still being active were pretty slim after 200 years.

“Help us perfect our new forms, so that we can survive in space for the duration of time needed to travel to the Josagn station, and you can come with us.”

“That is acceptable to me. Your current form would have a 90% rate of survival for about 5 minutes in space. In order to lengthen that time, you would need to store more oxygen within your system.”

Messing with his PED again, he found some traits that would allow that from something that could survive deep in the ocean. He wondered if it came from the crystal prince.

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

“Your current form would now have a 95% rate of survival for about 5 hours.”

“Dustin,” said Olivia, looking thoughtful, “do you remember, when you said every time you got near the crystal guy, while as a tunnel worm, you had memories?”

“Yes?”

“Why do you think that was?”

He thought about that, then shrugged. “Maybe there was something about the worm?”

“PED can you tell me what was causing the memories to surface at that time?”

(THE BRAIN RHYTHM OF THE TUNNELING WORM WERE INTERUPTED BY SIGNALS FROM THE CRYSTAL INDIVIDUAL. IT IS BELIEVED, AFTER REVIEWING THE INCIDENT, THAT THE SIGNALS MAY HAVE BEEN COMMON RADIO SIGNALS AS FROM A TALKING DEVICE.)

“Can you change my brain to be affected by them again?”

(AN ATTEMPT CAN BE MADE IN THE CURRENT FORM, BUT PERMISSION MUST BE GRANTED TO HALT THE ATTEMPT IF DAMAGE OCCURS)

“You can initiate a change back to the brain I have now, if things go bad.”

(ATTEMPTING EVOLUTION)

Dustin immediately got dizzy, and fell over. It only lasted a few moments, then it was gone.

(EVOLUTION HALTED AND REVERSED. HOST IS UNABLE TO SURVIVE WITH CURRENT EMISSIONS FROM THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT)

“What do you mean the emissions from the environment?”

(THE EQUIPMENT AROUND YOU IS EMITTING TOO MANY SIGNALS FOR YOU TO SAFELY HANDLE THAT BRAIN ABILITY.)

“Ah, thanks.” He turned to Olivia. “I’ll have to try it later, away from all the electronics, they mess with me too much to do it here.”

“Ah, okay. Mind sharing that form with my PED so I can change too?”

Suddenly the floor beneath their feet shuddered.

“We have taken damage. There has been an air breach near where your ship was. Emergency doors have activated and closed. I am initiating upload now,” said the AI, as the hologram flickered and went out.

Grabbing her PED, Dustin touched his back to her arm, and held it there while the transfer was going on.

“Don’t let me lose connection with your PED, or it may not transfer right,” he said.

She picked him up, and help him as the station shuddered again, and red lights lit up all over the place. Dustin could feel the vibrations in the air, of an air leak.

“We need to get outside as soon as possible.”

“Okay! Here I go!”

Dustin fell to the ground, noticing that the gravity in the station was losing its power. The robot rolled over to him, and he could see the AI show up on the screen. That was a little weird.

Turning, he saw Olivia start to shrink, as several layers of scales started growing over her whole body. The PED migrated to her back, just like his, and another scale layer covered it up. She was almost done.

The robot shot out a metal line, that wrapped around both Dustin and her waists, just as there was another explosion.

Everything happened so fast, Dustin couldn’t remember later what exactly happened. One moment he was in the station, watching her shrink, the next he was floating in space, looking at the station from outside.

Olivia’s eyes were open in panic, but she calmed down after only a moment. Until they returned to a pressured environment, they wouldn’t be able to open their mouths. Every opening into their body had sealed as soon as they were in space.

Twisting gently, Dustin spied the alien vessels, and saw that they were floating right towards one. He only hoped that the shield that surrounded it, wouldn’t hurt when they came in contact with it. Reaching out, he was able to barely brush the side of the vessel, but it was enough. His cling kicked in, and he smiled. It was nothing to pull on the rope to get Olivia next to him. He wasn’t sure if she was done evolving or not, because her eyes were closed and she seemed to be in pain.

There was nothing he could do about it now, as the station behind them blew up, showering them with debris. Thankfully, the ships shield kicked on, and most of the debris bounced away, missing them by inches. If they had been any larger, it may have cut them or pushed them away from the ship.

Now they just had to wait for the return to the Josagn station.