[color=red]Failed to initiate quarantine procedures: insufficient power. Error code: 796.[/color]

	The aggravated man of science scoffed at the error given on the terminal. "Do behave yourself, won't you Maji? I'm going to borrow from you for a bit," he said as he typed furiously. At the mention of the Sapishte, Barz cocked his head to the side, cracking his neck.

	"Would you stop calling that [i]thing[/i] by a name, as if it were one of us?" he growled. "If you let that [i]creature[/i] out, I'mma shoot it on sight."

	"I'm not. I'm diverting power from the SS-GEN suppressor. With all this noise, she won't notice, even if she had a sudden change of heart and wanted to escape."

	Barz scoffed at the reply. "You lab rats. Noses against the glass, studying that thing day and night. Feeding it, teaching it new tricks. You ever think that maybe [i]you're[/i] the ones being studied? Your boss can drawl on and on about 'conditioning' and 'training' all she likes. An animal doesn't want to be kept in a cage and fed, it wants to roam free and hunt. It may act cute and timid now, but if I picked you up and tossed you at it like a T-bone steak, how long do you think it'd hesitate?"

	"Your opinion as a hunter will be taken under advisement," the scientist replied, disinterested, as he confirmed the diverting of power.

	Barz shook his head as the vents overhead began loudly closing. "Glonelia shoulda been left to rot. The hookers are bad enough, clinging to every other race's politicians and gaining unearned influence for theirs—but the savages from the bayous are real animals, and that one's a savage among savages. It's already proven it can play the long con: saw a chance to gain power, and stole it. That's the story, innit?"

	"The 'official' story is a crock of shit," came another reply, this one more annoyed. "The company had both legal and financial motivation to call it a theft, knew she was vulnerable due to her lack of family ties, and had the leverage to silence the only witness."

	"Ah, that explains the mental gymnastics. You still think of that thing as a coworker."

	"Why not? She's just as invested in this research as I am. We trust each other. She'll wait for me."

	"All I'm saying is, you're the one who took the shock collar off. When it stops playing coquette, it's your ass."

[hr]

	A shadowy figure emerged out of the door from which the earlier shriek came. Pitch black from head to toe, and quite indistinct, aside from the distinctly feminine features, sharply pronounced by the profile view generously offered by the hallway. For a moment, in the low light, one could have imagined that the Sapishte was merely a "shadow person," conjured by the imagination driven mad by the crisis at hand.

	But she turned, smelling fresh blood in the air, towards the Tulak in the tattered shirt. She showed a gentle-looking face, with eyes wide open, staring transfixed like a fawn in headlights, paying no mind to the other prisoner creeping up behind her back. Innocent and naive; the perfect victim, or so her would-be stalker had sized her up to be. He was wrong. Without so much as turning to face him, the Sapishte gave the man a strong mule kick to the face, complete with hoof. Apparently deciding not to trust the Tulak she'd been staring blankly at for what felt like half a minute, she took off on all fours, with webbed hands and feet, crawling along the walls, her face now completely covered in black aside from her eyes.

		"Yo, fuck that shit, man! What the fuck is that?!" one bug-eyed prisoner screamed, running back into his cell and slamming the door.

	First, she tried the vents. Of course, those were shut tight—airtight, to be precise, though Maji couldn't guess why. Next, she tried the elevator. She could manually force the doors open, but the controls wouldn't respond. However, the maintenance hatch on the roof was easy enough for her to reach, and the lack of ladders outside was not a problem. Finally, after one long, very slimy slide to the bottom of the elevator shaft, she found what she was looking for: some kind of tunnel. The last time she'd taken this elevator, she'd noticed that it appeared as though a couple of buttons had been removed from the elevator panel. Back then, it had only maddened her with curiosity and the desire to explore for a couple of days, before she'd forgotten about it entirely. Now, it was suddenly critical information.

	Hands glued to the rails of the catwalk, she creeped slowly and cautiously down the tunnel, built for unknown purpose, with no particular purpose in mind other than to get as far away from the cacophony of suffering and death behind her as possible. She soon discovered something that would terrify any woman: rats. A cat-like tongue flicked out of her mouth in the blink of an eye, licking up a drop of saliva.

		[color=#B57EDC][i]...Meat.[/i][/color]

	One unthinkable and desperate act later, Maji was happily waddling along, disguised as a big black rat—one of many, deep in the bowels of the ship. Even if someone came looking for her—if they even knew [i]where[/i] to look—their clear inability to control a rat problem on a spaceship made Maji feel pretty safe right about now. She was acting pretty carefree, until she heard something like panicked voices in the distance. At first, her peace of mind disturbed, she made herself at home among a pack of rats fleeing the scene, but then a scent caught her nose. Another Sapishte? Oh! A female one, too! Suddenly, she came to her senses. Was she just going to spend the rest of her life living as a rat?! NO!! Of [i]course[/i], they were going to be best friends—one of them just didn't know it yet.

	As she drew close to what looked like an abandoned tram station, she began to be able to make out the voices. She was reminded, painfully, that she couldn't understand what they were saying. She considered turning around, but her curiosity drew her in. Sneaking quietly aboard the tram and darting underneath a bench, she observed the group cautiously. They seemed to be fleeing whatever crisis was going on, and they seemed to know where they were going. As if that weren't good enough, one of them seemed to be good with technology. With any luck, he'd know how to find Lea. Maybe even open doors without breaking them. The possibilities were endless!