"Yes, sir," Amy said into her cell phone, then paused, listening to the indistinct reply from the man on the other end. "No, sir, she's not answering her phone, but I believe I know where she was headed." Another pause. "Her parents are still in China for the trade expo, sir." More muffled words from the phone's speaker. "About an hour left in my shift, sir, but if you could assign someone else to cover me..." She sighed. "Thank you, sir. Tell Callaghan that I'll make it up to him next week."

The call ended as she pulled the squad car into an empty parking lot.

"Is this where you think your friend went?" Ryan asked, pulling up his area map to search the run-down strip mall they'd arrived at.

The icon representing the stolen Changer didn't appear to be anywhere in the vicinity...

"No. You said we've got at least two hours, right? I'm making a detour to buy you some clothes first."

"Oh." He'd honestly forgotten that he was naked. Unless it was for a mission, the Zorvax weren't too big on providing clothing. After a few years of captivity, you get used to it. "Thanks."

Patting his bare hip, he added, "I'll have to owe you, I left my wallet in my other pants."

Amy's eyes did that thing again, dropping briefly below his waistline before snapping back up to his face. When she realized he'd noticed, a hint of color rose to her lightly-freckled cheeks, and she hurriedly turned away. It was an awfully cute reaction, he decided, smiling at her in what he hoped was a disarming way. If she wanted to take a look, he didn't mind.

"S-sure. Don't, ah... don't worry about it."

Leaving the engine running, she stepped out into the rain, flipping up her hood before making a beeline towards a nearby store labeled TIM'S SPORTING GOODS. Ryan watched her enter, then leaned back in his seat, resisting the urge to fidget impatiently as he waited.

He'd put all of his trust in Amy, choosing to believe her when she said they could track down her friend Syd quickly. Hopefully she was right. If they couldn't get to her in time, her odds of surviving weren't great.

The previous Zorvax attempt to take back their stolen Changers had clearly been thrown together from whatever they happened to have available on short notice. All that chaos he'd caused on the way out, he figured. Next time, though, they'd send a real Enforcer team, led by a Forward-Commander who knew what they were doing.

Next time, they'd send humans.

And if things had played out differently, he thought grimly, it could have been me leading them.

Unbidden, a memory surfaced.

***

Strategist-Major Burlurp slithered into view. The two-and-a-half-foot tall slug stopped just outside Ryan's enclosure, tentacles waving like tree branches in an invisible breeze.

At the time, Ryan's understanding of Zorvax body language had been quite limited. With the benefit of hindsight, he could recognize it as a patronizing display of affection, close to the way a human returning home might greet a well-loved pet.

The amorphous alien let out a series of ululating squeaks, which his remarkable new Implant quickly converted into English.

"Congratulations are in order, Commander-Candidate-Eighteen. Your efficiency rating in the most recent field exercise was once again at the top of your cohort."

Squatting naked at the back of the cell in an attempt to make himself appear as small and non-threatening as possible, Ryan warily accepted the compliment.

"Thank you, Strategist-Major."

"If you maintain this level of performance, your selection as a Forward-Commander seems assured."

"I'll do my best not to disappoint you, Strategist-Major."

"Continue exerting yourself fully, Commander-Candidate-Eighteen, and you will no doubt succeed. Remember, the rewards for loyal service are limitless! Once your world has joined the Zorvax Star Empire, the humans like you whose devotion to our cause made it possible will want for nothing. You shall have all the nutrients you can absorb. And exchanging genetic information, of course! That is so important to you humans. Any humans you wish to exchange genetic information with can be yours."

"Uh... yes, Strategist-Major, I'm... looking forward to it."

The alien let out an oozing, bubbling sound that translated into a braying laugh.

"As well you should be, Commander-Candidate-Eighteen."

Ryan cleared his throat.

"...with your permission, Strategist-Major, I did have a question."

"Oh? How unusual. Very well, you may ask."

"I want to know why Commander-Candidates aren't given Changers in these exercises, Strategist-Major." Ryan had struggled to phrase his objection in a way the Zorvax officer would accept. "All of us have completed Enforcer training. Wouldn't it be more efficient if we could lead our teams in War-Form, from the front?"

Burlurp let out a gurgling sigh.

"You truly are magnificent, Commander-Candidate-Eighteen. Directing Enforcers in the field is not a sufficiently hazardous duty for you, you wish to continue fighting for us, too? Bliss. If only we had a hundred humans like you..."

Another translucent pseudopod bulged out from Burlurp's central mass, making a dismissive gesture.

"Real power, Commander-Candidate-Eighteen, is a product of foresight and meticulous planning. It is vision that conquers, not strength. Yes, yes, you have been trained for battle, but this is a lesser calling. Fighters we can find anywhere. Your role as a Forward-Commander is far more important."

Ryan bit back a response, resisting the urge to argue his position. As a rule, Zorvax officers tended to react poorly when a human subordinate dared to contradict them.

"In any case, your Change Interface Implant is incompatible with the functions of a Change Matrix. This is by design. Otherwise, highly motivated Forward-Commanders like yourself might forget their primary duty and instead attempt to engage in direct combat. What a misallocation of valuable resources that would be!"

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"But the Implant could be altered to work with a Changer, Strategist-Major? In theory?"

"Of course, of course. Nothing is beyond Zorvax science. But why?" The tentacle waved any further questions away. "Enough indulgence. Pleasurable though these conversations are, there are so many demands on a Strategist-Major's time. Tomorrow, you will be assigned your first team. Rest assured, you will find them quite docile; they have been imported from one of the farming worlds for the purposes of these exercises. This will be your first group combat practice. Do you feel excitement?"

Heart racing with hope, Ryan did his best not to telegraph his true intentions.

"I'm very excited for tomorrow, Strategist-Major. What kind of combat will it be? More non-lethal?"

"Certainly not." Burlurp made another alien chuckling sound. "Without real stakes, the training would be meaningless. From now on, any units under your command will depend upon you for their survival. That way is more fun, is it not?"

***

A few minutes later, Amy dropped back into the driver's seat. Without looking, she tossed him a plastic shopping bag, and he opened it. Piled inside were plain t-shirts, baggy track pants, and a pair of black plastic slides with velcro straps.

"I wasn't sure what size you were," the blonde woman said, "so I grabbed the biggest they had."

For some reason, that innocuous statement made her glance away in embarrassment once more.

Getting into the new clothes without exiting the car required quite a bit of awkward twisting and scooting around, but eventually he was fully dressed and fit to walk around in public.

Still refusing to make eye contact, Amy handed him a plastic water bottle. Seeing it made Ryan realize just how dry his throat was. Hurriedly unscrewing the cap, he took a long drink, and she opened a second one to join him.

"Thank you," she said, after a moment of companionable silence had passed.

"What for?" He was genuinely confused by her gratitude. "You were the one who did all the work."

"We both know that's not true. You saved my life back there, twice at least. If you hadn't been around..."

"The only reason you and your friend were in danger in the first place is because I was around."

Reluctantly, she nodded, acknowledging his point.

"Still... you tried to warn me."

"Repeatedly," he added with a wry grin.

"Repeatedly," she agreed. "And I ignored those warnings. Not in a nice way, either. Any time you wanted, you could have made a run for it and left me to fend for myself."

"No," Ryan said, suddenly growing serious. "No, I couldn't have."

"I understand." She blushed again, but managed a shy smile. "So... thank you."

This time, it was his turn to nod wordlessly in acknowledgment. He held her grey eyes for a moment longer, then as if by mutual agreement they both turned away from one another. She shifted to stare out at the rain through the car's window, and he looked down at his water bottle.

She probably had to get that short, no-nonsense haircut when she became a cop, he mused, discreetly examining her reflected profile. Otherwise, she'd be way too cute for anybody to take her seriously.

Especially that slightly-upturned nose with its faint dusting of freckles across the bridge, which he couldn't help but find adorable. The contrast it created with her tough attitude, and what he remembered seeing of her fit, toned body...

Now's not the time, he admonished himself. We've already got enough problems on our hands.

"Alright," he said, as much to distract himself as anything else, "I guess now we go after your kleptomaniac friend?"

She checked the clock on the car's dashboard, then shook her head.

"I'm going to give her a few more minutes. If we get there before Syd does, it might make things... complicated."

As she finished her drink, Amy idly ran a finger across the segmented metal belt that she'd left cinched around her waist. The probably-unconscious movement drew his attention.

"...okay then. I guess while we wait I can explain a little more about that Changer you're wearing."

"You did say that you would."

"Yeah. Well, I'll do my best. The Zorvax put me through a whole lot of training, and I asked questions whenever I had the opportunity. I've got to warn you in advance, though, I'm not a scientist, and I don't understand all the technical aspects."

"Fair enough."

"When our distant ancestors were still living in caves, the Zorvax had already cracked the code on manipulating gravity. Almost all their advanced technology is based on it, in some way or another. That portal you saw earlier, for example, or the way time seemed to slow down when you transformed, those are both applications of gravitational physics."

"You're telling me that gravitational physics burned all my clothes off," Amy asked, the skepticism clear in her voice, "spun me around naked, and then put me into a spacesuit with high heels?"

"It's a little more complicated than that," he replied, sounding a bit defensive. "Changers use hybrid technology, including some very esoteric principles that they picked up from other species they conquered. Apparently, it takes a lot of time and scarce resources to manufacture a Change Matrix, because the Zorvax high command is really selective when it comes to handing them out. They don't give one to just anybody."

"Which is why they want to get back the ones you stole so badly, I'm guessing."

He noticed that Amy's hand had returned possessively to the belt as they talked, still seemingly without realizing she was doing it.

"Exactly. Anyway, when a Changer is activated, the user it's been Bonded to goes through what we called a transformation sequence. I don't know all the details... the actual process is supposed to involve space folding, and quantum entanglement, and matter crossing over from parallel dimensions. The important things to know are that you come out of the sequence a lot more powerful than you went in –" He held up one finger. "– and that the transformation is temporary." He raised a second.

"I noticed," she said dryly. "You called it a War-Form earlier, didn't you?"

"That's the Zorvax term, yeah." He frowned, his gaze taking on a faraway look that passed a moment later. "I never liked it."

"You've used a Changer before."

She made it a statement rather than a question.

"Once or twice."

"But you gave this one to me, rather than using it yourself. Why?"

He grinned ruefully at her.

"I can't."

"What?"

"I know, right? It's ridiculous. That's how it works, though. When you get selected as a Forward-Commander, they put a biomechanical Implant into your body. It lets you control the Changers of any Enforcers assigned to you... but it also makes you unable to use one yourself."

"That seems inconvenient."

"To say the least. Like I said, the Zorvax mindset is totally different from ours. It makes sense to them."

"So..." she drew the word out, "I guess that means you still need my help."

"I... look, Amy, picking up a Changer in the middle of a fight was one thing, but now that you've got some idea of what we're up against..." Ryan hesitated, then pressed on before he could second-guess himself. "If you want to walk away from all this once we find Syd, I won't fault you for it. That'd be the smart choice, honestly –"

"Do you really think I'm that kind of person?" Her tone was genuinely upset. "You think you can tell me that the whole planet is in danger, that you can't fight it alone... and then I'll just leave?"

Rather than respond, he simply put a hand over hers. She looked down at his touch, but didn't pull away.

"Sorry," she said in a quieter voice a moment later. "I –"

"No need to apologize." He gave her a gentle squeeze. "Of course I trust you. I just wanted to make sure you understood exactly what it was you were getting yourself into."

"I understand. I'm in."

"Okay. Then the first order of business is to upgrade that Changer you're wearing."

"Upgrade?" She snapped upright in her seat. "Wait, you're saying it can get better?"

He laughed. "Yeah. I think you'll like this part."