Dustin helped the prince to stand, wondering what in the hell was going on. Every time he seemed to be getting closer to this damn shuttle station, monsters uniquely suited to his evolutions kept popping up, and then this huge lake appeared. Now Olivia was missing, and he wasn’t sure where she had gone. As far as he could tell, she hadn’t just run away in fear, because she would never had left her PED, yet there hadn’t been a sign of a struggle.

  Coughing, the prince finally seemed to be getting better.

  Dustin went to pick him up, so he could start heading around the lake to get to the shuttle station, when a familiar figure appeared. The memory of a hand sticking out of a cocoon had him looking at the stick giant in suspicion.

  It paused, seeing the look on his face, then pointed at the PED. He hesitated. Olivia would need it. It pointed again, and he sighed. Chances were that she was dead. At least the sex was good.

  Handing over the PED, it slipped it onto its arm, and began to evolve. How did it do that without getting any genetic material? Didn’t it need to resync with a new user?

  Looking up at him, he found himself looking into Olivia’s face. The prince looked at her, then at him, then back at her.

  “Is this a joke? How does she have Olivia’s face?” asked the prince in confusion.

  “Yes, that is a good question,” he said, in a low growl.

  “I can explain, but we need to get out of sight. The drones will be back any moment.”

  “Drones? You mean this planet has managed to receive enough ratings to warrant a show broadcast?” asked the prince in astonishment.

  Turning, she ignored him, and with a shrug, Dustin followed her. They stopped at a tree that looked like many others. Dustin tried to see if there was like a hidden door on the bark or something, but instead, the Olivia look-a-like moved a rotten stump off the entrance to a tunnel.

  “Of course, I should have seen that coming,” he said, feeling tired all of a sudden. This whole damn planet was getting on his nerves. Why couldn’t he just leave all ready? Why did this crap keep happening?

  After climbing down, she moved the stump back into place. They descended into a cave for about thirty feet, before coming to a decent sized room. Sitting down in a corner, the prince stretched out and made himself comfortable.

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  “You have survived an incredible amount of time on the surface. My sister was the one who you had encountered before.”

  “Ah, that’s why I thought you were dead,” he said, kind of understanding.

  “Yes, my sister died fighting the carpet bird.”

  “That flying rug thing?”

  “Yes,” she nodded, sitting down as well.

  “The drones watch you, and when you do not die from the creatures, they send harder ones.”

  “Who’re they?”

  “The bird people who fly on machines. They come to hunt the new ones who fall from the sky, but if they fail, they send monsters. I fear what they will do now that you have not died yet. Your survival endangers us all.”

  Dustin was getting a sick feeling in his stomach. His eyes wandered over the warm roots that made up the walls of this cave. He wondered if he had just willingly stepped into a trap.

  “You live here?”

  “Yes, my people have always lived here, long before the bird people came and started bringing such evil things to our home. We have learned from the ones who survive the longest, but we struggle to survive.”

  “You know that killing me, won’t stop them sending people right?”

  “This is understood. We do not kill. We seek to have you kill for us.”

  Rubbing his head, he couldn’t figure this thing out.

  “Why do you look like Olivia?”

  “I requested the form of the last wearer. This is not the first device I have worn. Though this device is far better than any I have worn.”

  “Do you know where Olivia is?”

  “She has returned to the port, with the bird people. As she has many times. I was sent to warn you. They always pull away all those who they do not wish to be harmed right before they start the worst attacks.”

  “Wait, what do you mean she has many times? Are you sure it is the same girl?” Dustin was shocked. How could she be a spy? Thinking about it, she had seemed different from any other girl he had dealt with before. Had the Josagn sent her?

  His mind spun with all the possibilities. That’s when the prince spoke up.

  “The drones are always used on planets with a high entertainment value for my people. When they are not hunting, they watch the shows produced from the hunts on planets like this one. If the people liked her, they may have saved her from some cataclysmic event that is intended to wipe you out. It would not be hard to wipe her mind. I have been on this planet for many years, I am sure, yet she speaks of my crystal back home still glowing. I doubt that is true.”

  “But I remember the videos of her speaking about your culture. She was on talk shows where they would ask questions. She was a favorite, because she was so willing to explain the aliens everyone wanted to know about, the blood-thirsty Josagn.”

  “This is not your first time on this planet either, human-minded one. I have witnessed you also being taken back to the port, when they have wanted to kill off those you traveled with.”

  Dustin was floored. This wasn’t his first time? How was that possible? Licking his lips, he looked around. There had to be an answer to some of these questions, but only more questions came to mind. This whole thing was messed up.

  “Prince, you better tell me what the hell is going on, or I will finish what that giant fish started!”