Hugh thought about screaming, but his mouse body didn't let him.

He squeaked instead.

The other mouse, Lula, it was Lula, he reminded himself, was staring at him with big beady eyes.

Is that what he looked like too?

The thought was unbearable. A captain being reduced to a mouse. How was he going to lead the crew?

"Where are we?" he asked Lula, without wanting to know the answer.

He couldn't see properly. He thought it was because of the shock, but he had a suspicion that it wasn't.

The mouse, Lula! It's Lula, answered.

"We're in the lab, captain."

"My lab," she added, with a voice full of regrets.

Hugh felt his stomach drop. Was Lula somehow responsible for the transformation?

"Lula, did you do this? How?"

"No! I don't know how. But I'm sure it's my lab."

Hugh started walking around what he discovered to be a small enclosure. Walking was difficult as he didn't know whether to walk on his hind legs or on all four. He opted for a rather awkward standing shuffle.

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"So, we don't know how we got here."

A thought stopped him right on his tracks, and he turned to face Lula.

"Lula. How long have you been here?"

"I'm not sure, captain, a few days at least."

Lula had been attacked, for lack of a better word, three days ago. She had been in a coma ever since, and Caspar, the Chief Medical Officer, had planned to put her in cryo until the ship's return to earth.

"Does three days sound about right?"

"Yes, It might be that."

Hugh paused.

"Lula, you've been hit three days ago."

"What do you mean, hit?"

Intuition told Hugh that whatever had happened to Lula had happened to him. He had felt a searing pain in his back before collapsing. The memory was painful even though his back wasn't anymore.

"Do you remember a sharp pain, so strong you fell to the ground?"

"I do! And then I woke up."

"In this body?"

She nodded.

"So did I."

Hugh fell deep in thought. He tried to concentrate on the problem at hand, but it was so big that he didn't know where to begin.

"Captain. What happened to me?" asked Lula.

Yes, a good starting point.

"Let's see. A science officer found you collapsed on the floor of the lab. You had a V-shaped mark on your back."

"A mark?"

"Yes. And you were unresponsive."

He hesitated before adding.

"They want to put you in cryo."

"Captain, you can't let them do that!"

He hummed in faint approval.

That all he knew about Lula's condition. It wasn't enough. There must be another way of approaching this terrible situation.

"Lula, are we trapped here?"

"I've tried to escape, Captain, but the cage is only open when they feed us."

"Do you know when it will happen next?"

"In a few hours, I don't know when exactly. They turn on the lights, and a few minutes later, they feed us."

Hugh knew that they had to get out of the enclosure to get help. They had to formulate a foolproof escape plan.

"Let's get to work, Science Officer Lula."

"Yes, Captain," said Lula, her whiskers bristling with hope.