Muthr needs me. She’s just a robot. A robot meant to live in a Sanctuary, and I convinced her to leave. Now, she’s . . . she’s . . .

That high-pitched ring returned, and the condensation evaporated on her cell walls. The taxidermist reentered the lab, pushing a stack of hovering mounting bases. “Okay. Who is next?” he said, and pressed a button on his remote. A holding cell from the far side of the room floated to the middle of the floor. Inside it, a familiar visage peered around, clicking in cadence calls.

A captive sand-sniper filled up most of its cylindrical chamber. Eva pressed her face to her cell wall as she studied the monstrous crustacean in the white light. Its colorful carapace housed a pair of formidable spiked claws.

It’s like the holos I’ve seen of praying mantises, Eva thought. An enormous praying mantis.

It appeared that the captive was only a nymph, much smaller than the giant she had seen the other night with Rovender; however, the creature was still larger than she was. Eva activated Identicapture.

“Are you ready to pose for the queen, my little beauty?” the taxidermist purred, pressing more buttons. Inside the sand-sniper’s cell a rod rose from the bottom.

A clicking sound was emitted from Eva’s cell.

The sand-sniper clicked back in an accelerated tempo.

“What is this?” The taxidermist turned to look at Eva. Inside, she stood with the Omnipod pressed against the glass wall of her cell. The recorded call of the adult sand-sniper she had encountered played at full volume.

A loud crash erupted from the captive sand-sniper’s cell. It had cracked the glass with its claws. The runty taxidermist fled backward, stumbling over the hose that pumped the skin-dissolving solvent. He landed flat upon his back, his various remotes spilling out across the tiled floor.

The now free sand-sniper clicked and snapped as it pounced onto the cowering runt. The sand-sniper’s bowl-like eyes rotated as they took in its alien surroundings. Eva waved the Omnipod around, and the many-legged monster bolted toward her cell. The taxidermist opened the door and scrabbled out of the laboratory. The door slid shut behind him.

“Come on!” Eva yelled as she backed up in her cell. The sand-sniper circled her chamber, probing the glass wall with its many antennae. She replayed the recorded call once more. “Come and get me!”