Angel placed her hand on the DNA lock and tried not to hiss as the pin prick.

She hated the sight of blood. The fact that this ship forced her to give a sample any time she wanted to enter a restricted area seemed grossly unfair.

“If you think that finger prick hurts, just wait until you bump into an acid-spitting alien,” BFF21 said.

“You’re only saying that because you want me to put my helmet back on,” Angel said.

“I do want you to put your helmet back on,” BFF21 agreed. “But acid-spitting aliens would prefer you to keep it off. It will make it easier to peel strips of your face off when they eat you.”

Angel shuddered again and pulled her helm out of her pack.

She slid it over her head, instantly hating how removed it made her feel from her surroundings. There was an interior holographic display, but it made her feel like she was in a video game instead of real life.

“You would have loved this, Gabriel,” she whispered ruefully to her brother, wishing he were there in real life to agree.

They continued to a door.

“Back there somewhere,” BFF21 said.

“Any clue what it is?” Angel asked. “We’re closer now.”

BFF21 hummed and whirred.

“No,” she replied at length.

Angel placed her hand on the DNA lock to the door.

Another pinprick and it swung open, bumping against the wall.

“Something’s coming our way, fast,” BFF21 cried.

Angel held the baton in front of her, defensively.

Something huge skidded around the corner and rushed at them.

It was one thing to have an electrified baton. It was another to have to use it.

Angel held her weapon, trying to get a sense of the creature beyond the flash of fur and fangs and… feathers?

It eyed her wildly.

It reminded her of something. A monster from a child’s picture book.

She tried to strike it, nearly wrenching out her shoulder with the effort.

It dodged, lightning fast, knocking BFF21 to the ground. It moved way too fast for something so huge and ungainly.

She went for it again, brandishing the baton over her shoulder like she was about to serve up a tennis ball.

Suddenly she was pinned to the ground by her baton arm. The energy coursing through the weapon fizzed out and it hung uselessly in her pinned hand.

The view through the helmet was murky. She couldn’t even properly see what was holding her down.

This isn’t how I’m going down, she thought to herself.

She ripped the helmet off with her free hand.

There was an intake of breath from the thing that held her.

She blinked into the huge yellow eyes of the creature, momentarily transfixed.

It broke eye contact with her and lifted its snout to the air, snuffling softly, as though something else had caught its attention.

Before she had time to register what was happening, the thing leapt off her.

She watched as he darted over to the door and sealed it, just as something huge slammed into it from the other side.

Angel scrambled to her feet and backed away until she felt the cold wall of the antechamber behind her back.

There was loud bang on the door, and then another, but it held steady.

A few seconds passed without another sound from the hall, and the strange creature in the room with her sighed.

No, it wasn’t a sigh. At least it wasn’t only a sigh.

The fur and feathers melted away before Angel’s eyes until she was looking at the very fit and naked backside of a man.

He turned to face her.

Angel nearly gasped out loud. He was beautiful, almost inhumanly so. His eyes were dark and soulful, his body chiseled, like a sculpture of a superhero.

Her mind began to reel at what had happened. She couldn’t have just watched this beautiful man change forms.

Something dangerous might be just outside the door, and she didn’t know if it was more or less dangerous than the man before her.

Her only ally was a two ounce origami robot that lay dazed on the floor beside her.

Worse still, something drew her inexorably to this man, in spite of her every instinct telling her to be wary.

Angel’s mind balanced on the razor’s edge between outright panick and seeking answers.

“What the hell is going on here?” she demanded, determined to come down on the side of reason.

“Shh, you’re going to wake the baby,” he whispered back.