Taylor nodded to herself, inspecting her work. She'd got up early, having had only about three hours sleep which seemed enough most of the time these days, and had headed out to the wormhole building to refinish what would end up being a parking lot, the old truck bay behind it. The concrete and brick surface had been in a terrible state, more hole than surface, and landing Dragon's transport aircraft on it hadn't done it any favors either. The VTOL jets had ripped up the ground even more, sending lumps of ancient stone flying for better than fifty feet.

Now, though, it was completely covered in a thick layer of the same material she'd used on the DWU yard, only this time being porous to allow rain through. She'd carefully profiled the entrance to make it meet the road surface so vehicles could drive up without grounding out, put a three-foot wall around it along the sides not open to either the road or the building, and was currently debating adding lines to indicate parking bays.

Deciding that was something that was both not currently necessary and could easily be done later in any case, she called it done and headed for school, fixing a few of the more egregious potholes on the way. As she left the dock area she cloaked and accelerated, not wanting to be late. The overcast day started raining again, the water pouring down heavily. Despite this, she was in a good mood.

It helped that these days the environmental conditions didn't affect her in the slightest, of course. Even so, she was looking forward to spring.

Dean watched Amy and Taylor talking as they headed towards the school, the Hebert girl having apparently waited for Amy to arrive in her truck. They were laughing about something, looking like nothing more than a pair of cheerful high school girls enjoying the day despite the rain. Both of them were holding umbrellas over their heads as they walked. Taylor was a good six inches taller than her friend, making her one of the tallest teenaged girls he'd ever met. Taken just on appearances, you'd never think any secret she could have would be more than a boyfriend her father didn't like or something like that.

Yet, he knew she was… something entirely different. Something he still couldn't wrap his head around.

Their talk the other day had settled his mind on quite a number of things. He was certain that she wasn't a threat, unless someone went quite a long way out of their way to make her one. That part he was fine with, he had no intention at all of seeing how far he could push before something broke, not being an idiot, and keeping quiet about it was best for everyone in his opinion. All three of them had secrets that would cause massive trouble if they got out, the irony of at least part of that being the same in each case not lost on him.

While he was still curious about what her limits really were, and a number of other things that added up to a very strange young woman, he didn't consider her something he should really worry about any more. Not that he could have done much except stir the pot and make things worse anyway.

No, the reason he was still confused, or to be completely honest, more confused, wasn't Taylor herself, it was her 'cousins'. Where the hell had Ianthe and Metis come from?

If Saurial, Kaiju, and Raptaur were all Taylor as he was completely certain they were, who were those two? While he hadn't met Metis yet, he had met Ianthe, and he was sure she was a real living being. Her emotional signature was very weird, not at all human, but distinct and genuine. And, crucially, nothing even close to that of Taylor in any of her guises.

Ianthe was not Taylor Hebert, that much he was sure of. He was also pretty damn convinced she wasn't human. She said as much, of course, but even so it was startling.

The arrival of Metis only a day or two later was even weirder. Both of them had been seen at once, including with Taylor as Raptaur, there were a number of videos and photos posted from DWU workers from yesterday that made that clear. Unless the Hebert girl had somehow figured out how to make copies of herself, which he wouldn't swear was beyond the bounds of possibility considering how many other impossible things she pulled out of her ass now and then, they were entirely different people. Where they came from was beginning to give him a headache.

The girls passed him, both of them smiling at him. "Hi, Dean," Taylor said. "Terrible weather isn't it?"

"It's not nice," he agreed. Her emotions, weak and hard to read as they were, only showed calm happiness mixed with a faint eager curiosity, pretty much normal for her in school. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy learning and meeting her friends. Amy's signature was fairly similar although mixed with a certain amount of dark amusement, again not unusual. There was no trace of the depression and self-hatred that had plagued the girl so much weeks ago, so at least in that area it was a huge improvement.

"See you later, Dean," Amy smiled, both of them continuing to walk into the school. He watched them for a moment then went back to peering out into the rain, thinking. When the first bell rang he sighed slightly then turned to go to class.

He had no idea what was going on, couldn't think of any way to find out right at that moment, and to be honest, wasn't sure it was worth pushing. Sometimes you just had to roll with it rather than try to figure it out. This was probably one of those times.

Shrugging, he turned his mind towards the upcoming math test and tried to remember how to work a quadratic equation.

Closing her locker, Taylor looked around at a familiar scent to see Amy and Vicky coming towards her. "Hi," she smiled.

"Hi, Taylor," the blonde girl replied, while Amy nodded to her with a smile of her own. "What have you got next?"

"Chemistry," she replied, looking at the books she was holding.

Amy peered at them. "Why do you have a book on aerodynamics and one on the design of high pressure hydraulic systems as well as the chemistry textbook?" she asked with slight suspicion in her voice. "Seems an odd mix."

"Just an idea I had," Taylor replied innocently. "The library has a weird mix of books, some of the stuff in there is really interesting."

"I don't know anyone else who reads dry and dusty books like that other than you," Vicky giggled. "Even Chris draws the line at that sort of thing and he's a massive engineering nerd."

She shrugged. "It's interesting, and in the end almost all of it is just math." Taylor looked at the clock on the wall behind her friends. "Better get on with it, the bell is in two minutes."

"See you at lunch," Amy said, before the sisters walked off with a wave. Left on her own, Taylor headed for the chemistry lab, going over some of the ideas that had been sparked by videos on the internet. She could see some interesting possibilities there with a little work.

"Well, I'd say that proves beyond a doubt that the Endbringers are very unwilling to meet Kaiju or any of the Family," Legend commented, a strange look on his face, as he watched a replay of the tracking system data from the previous night along with Dragon and Colin.

"It sure looks that way," she agreed. "Leviathan took off like he had a rocket up his ass as soon as Raptaur stepped through the first wormhole. He was zipping around out there the entire time we were experimenting with the system. As soon as we stopped he shot back to the original position and just stopped dead. If I didn't know better I'd say he was relieved."

The man smiled faintly, studying the projection on the wall closely, then sighed a little. "It also implies that it was almost certainly not anything that Kaiju did that called him this way, or pushed him, or whatever it was."

"I'm forced to agree," Colin remarked as he also studied the data. "Bearing in mind how reluctant he appears to be to come anywhere close to them, it seems unlikely in the extreme that he'd voluntarily act as he did. So it was something else that triggered the unusual behavior."

"Since his movements correlate almost exactly with the disagreements between Eidolon and Kaiju, and considering that we can see from this that it's unlikely to be Kaiju doing anything..." Dragon spread her hands with a small sigh. "The inevitable conclusion is that it's somehow related to Eidolon. Although I have no idea how."

Legend leaned forward in his chair and propped his elbows on the table, tapping his fingertips together as he stared at the projected image. Eventually he nodded heavily, his face grim.

"I can't see any other conclusion either. Damn. What the hell is the connection?"

Dragon and Colin glanced at each other, then shook their heads. "I'm afraid at this moment I can't offer any suggestion," the armored man said quietly.

"Neither can I," she added. Moving to stand next to the Protectorate leader, she put a hand on his shoulder. "Perhaps we're mistaken. Or there's some innocent explanation we're just missing. Or it's a plot by the Simurgh. It's always a plot by the Simurgh, according to PHO, after all."

"Thanks for the sympathy, Dragon, it's appreciated," he said after a moment, looking up at her with a momentary smile. "But I fear it's misplaced. My gut and my head both agree, somehow this is directly connected to Eidolon. And if this is, we have to assume there is at least the possibility that everything to do with the Endbringers may have one of my best and oldest friends involved. Somehow."

"I very much doubt, knowing the man, that it is any deliberate action on his point," Colin pointed out, taking a seat himself.

"In a way it doesn't matter if it is or not," Legend replied. "If he's somehow connected to them, or even just one of them, we immediately have to wonder which way the connection goes. And why. And, of course, how long it's been going on. A Master effect isn't impossible, I suppose, even an unconscious one. If that's the case he's possibly partly responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people over a period of years." He looked like he'd aged about a decade himself in the last five minutes. "It will destroy him if we're right. Even if we're not, the mere suggestion could tarnish his reputation permanently."

"I think we can't risk telling anyone yet as we simply don't have enough data, for exactly those reasons. We need to either be able to show something stronger than what at the moment is merely an interesting correlation, or find evidence to disprove it," Colin commented after they'd been silent for a while. "More data will allow us to hopefully draw firmer conclusions." He waved at the image. "That is strong evidence for a link but not conclusive evidence."

Legend looked at him, then the screen again, before nodding a little. "True enough. But on the other hand, we can't simply ignore the evidence we do have so far. There is a lot of information which seems to show that Leviathan at least is doing all he can to remain as far away from the family as possible at all times, and on the face of it both the others are as well. When you link that to the way that he was heading directly here when Eidolon and Kaiju were arguing… It doesn't look good."

"Agreed. However, my objections don't change. It's still not enough to risk spreading yet."

"All right." Legend sighed. "I can go along with that. We'll wait and watch. Very carefully. Dragon, if you find anything else that might shed light on… that… please tell me as soon as you do."

"I will," she promised. "It worries me as much as it does you."

"Good enough. Now, on an entirely different subject, we now have a working transportation system and hub to deploy Kaiju and that ridiculously over-sized weapon. I would still like to test the damn thing, though. Any news on a possible test site?"

She nodded. "I have raised a discreet inquiry with the Canadian Minister of National Defense through some contacts in the Canadian government. They were… more than a little taken aback, but not completely against it when I explained some of the details. It will take some time, and they'll want to talk to you directly, but it's distinctly possible we can get permission to test it in one of the northern military weapons ranges. There's one in Quebec which is a very long way from any inhabited area, especially these days, which would be suitable."

"We may not have the time," Colin said, making her glance at him.

"All too true, but we can't do anything about that. We can only wait for either the Endbringer to attack or permission to test the weapon, whichever happens first."

There was another period of silence, before she turned to look at the crated wormhole generator. "I'd better get that over to BBFO. I'll go and check on the transit facility as well to double-check we didn't miss anything last night."

"OK. I'll see you both later, I need to talk to a few people myself," Legend said, standing up and pushing his chair back under the table. "Thank you both for the briefing."

"You're welcome, sir," Colin replied politely. They watched him leave, then her friend turned to her. "He is very worried, I think."

"Yes. Not just about the Endbringers themselves, but about his friend." She shook her head a little. "I have no idea what the link is yet but the more I look at the data the more certain I am that there is one." Picking up the generator in its crate, she headed for the door, which he opened from his control console. "I'll see you later."

Heading for the landing platform, she kept mulling over the information they had on the entire situation.

What was the linkage between Eidolon, the Endbringers, and the Family?

It was definitely something of a puzzle.

"How did your work go last night?" Danny asked as he came into the BBFO office, finding Lisa as Metis poking around on one of the computers and snickering to herself. She looked around, smiled, then joined him at the table. "Based on these overtime forms, you used half the night shift for whatever it was." He dropped a folder on the table.

She picked it up and leafed through it. "I think it went really well," she replied as she scanned the forms. "Wow. That adds up to quite a lot of money."

"Everyone involved will be pretty pleased," he smiled. "The Protectorate is really OK with picking up the tab?"

"That's what Legend said," she told him, putting the folder down again. "He seemed happy enough. Worried about the time until the next attack, like Dragon and Armsmaster were, but pleased with what we managed to do."

"I suppose that's good, then," he replied. "I'm not going to ask what it was. But I'm happy all you guys are having fun and helping out."

She chuckled in a deep voice. "I'm having a lot of fun."

"Will you be going to the next attack?" he asked after a moment, sitting down and studying her. Lisa looked at him, then sighed.

"I can't see how I can't," she said quietly. "Like this, I'm tough enough to be very difficult to kill, although obviously it's not impossible. My own abilities could help, the 'Metis' abilities definitely could if only from the healing point of view, and friends of mine would be putting their own lives at risk. The Endbringers are a danger no one can ignore. I think I have a responsibility to do what I can. I'm not expecting my friends to come, aside from Brian I'm not sure they could actually do much except perhaps search and rescue. I don't want to put them at risk. But if they volunteer..." She shrugged. "They can make up their own minds."

He nodded, watching her. Eventually he said, "You're a good person, Lisa. Despite the rocky beginnings, you're a good person. I don't want to see you hurt, so be careful, OK?"

"Trust me, I'm not going to take risks I don't need to," she grinned. "But I can't let Amy and Taylor face an Endbringer on their own. They need the guidance of a more sensible person."

He stared, then burst out laughing, making her glare at him, before she also laughed. "Sorry, that sounded a lot better in my head."

"More sensible," he snickered. "Christ. The three of you as a set are terrifying in your ability to make sense turn and run. I still can't work out if Taylor meeting you and Amy was a good thing or not." He shook his head for a moment. "How there could be three girls who were so similar in such fundamental ways in the same city at the same time is beyond me. Life is already weird as a result, I've stopped trying to predict what will happen next."

"Oh, many things," she smiled. "Many, many things. Most of which will make people look puzzled."

"Or just close their eyes and run," he commented, grinning.

"That could be very dangerous." Lisa smirked. "Running with your eyes shut. You never know what you might run into."

She looked around at the door, adding, "Ah. I was wondering when she'd turn up."

"Who?"

"Dragon. She's delivering a component for the project. I can hear her thrusters approaching."

Danny listened, a moment later picking up a very faint deep rumble. "Your hearing is much better than mine," he noted, "the walls of this place block sound almost completely."

"Amy does good work," Lisa replied as she headed for the door. The rumble peaked, then stopped, a knock coming as she reached it. Pulling it open, she said, "Hello, Dragon. Come in."

"Thank you, Metis," the voice of the cape came, the woman herself entering a moment later. She was carrying a large crate emblazoned with radiation warning symbols. Spotting Danny at the table, she added, "Hello, Danny. How are you today?"

"Very well, Dragon. Yourself?"

"Fine, thanks. I'm just dropping this off."

Lisa took the crate from her, carrying it up the stairs to the top of the workroom, then coming back. "It'll be safe up there."

"OK. There's some documentation in the crate with it which explains the modifications we made and how it operates," Dragon said.

"I'll pass the message on to Raptaur," Lisa assured her.

"Dragon, I've got the final overtime invoice here that I'm told I should send to Legend on the Rig," Danny put in, holding up the folder. "Would you be able to give it to him?"

"Of course, I'd be happy to," she replied, walking over and taking the envelope he pulled from the rear of the folder. A panel popped open on her armor and she put the envelope into the compartment revealed behind it, which then closed again. "No trouble at all. I'll be seeing him later."

"Thank you." He smiled at her. "I assume the building was suitable?"

"Nearly perfect, in fact. It was a lot of work, which without your people would have been very difficult to do so quickly, but it all worked out very well. Please pass on my thanks to everyone involved."

"I will, don't worry." Standing, he turned to Lisa. "I have to get back to work, Metis. Until later."

"Bye, Danny," the large lizard said, smiling. He headed for the door, reflecting on the peculiarities of life when you had Parahumans and demons running around.

If nothing else, it seemed good for business.

Missy leaned her chair back against the wall on two legs, waiting for the bell to ring for the next class, tapping her pencil on her lips as she peered at the latest sketch she'd made. Her notebook was full of them now, she'd found herself idly drawing whenever she had a free moment and had covered a lot of scraps of paper and old assignments until she decided to dedicate a notebook to the sketches.

This one was the nearest yet to what she could see in her head, but it was still somehow lacking. The girl couldn't work out how to put down on paper what she could visualize but she wasn't going to give up just yet.

Tilting her head to the side she rotated the book the other way, squinting a little. "Nearly," she mumbled. "Hmm. Maybe if I..." She flipped the pencil around and erased some of the drawing, quickly adding a new set of lines. "Better. Not right, but better."

Shaking her head a bit she looked to her left. "Hey, Rachel? What do you think is wrong with this?"

The auburn-haired girl at the desk next to hers looked up from the magazine she was reading, meeting her eyes quizzically, then turned her gaze toward the notebook that she was holding up.

Missy watched in puzzlement as all color fled her friend's face. Her pupils widened until her entire cornea looked black, she sucked in a breath, then turned her head and made retching sounds. Concerned, Missy patted her on the back. The other girl barely managed to avoid puking based on the noises, eventually putting both hands on her face and shaking her head. In a very small voice, she finally said, "Everything."

"What do you mean?" Missy asked, turning the page towards herself again and inspecting it critically. "It's not as good as I'd like but I didn't think it was that bad."

Her friend shuddered. Deliberately not looking around, she raised a hand. "Miss Aaron? Missy is doing it again. Can I sit over there?"

Sighing, the blonde girl decided that there were way too many art critics around these days. If everyone was going to say nasty things about her work, she wasn't going to show them any more of it.

It was annoying, she was sure that another viewpoint would help, if people would only take the time to look properly and not go funny colors for no good reason.

'I have to find one of the Family, I think. I need some advice and they seem to understand this sort of thing.' Grumbling under her breath, she closed the notebook when her teacher gave her a meaningful look, dropping her chair back onto all four legs. Ever since the first class when the Math teacher had gone green and thrown up in a wastebasket, the teachers were being very picky about her new hobby.

She thought this was very unfair. But adults were like that sometimes.

"How did your parents like the videos?" Amy asked Lucy as she sat down at the table, putting her tray down then picking up a fork. The other girl grinned at her.

"They were… surprised," she giggled. "Quite a lot. And asked a lot of questions. But they seemed cool with it in the end. Dad was laughing himself sick at my expression, he said it was the creepiest thing he'd seen in years. It wasn't that bad, was it?"

Amy, Mandy, and both boys nodded at the same time. "It was a bit weird, Lucy," Eric sniggered. "You looked happier than anyone should be without chemical help."

Folding her arms the girl stared at him. "That's mean," she said.

"No, it's just funny," he consoled her, patting her hair. She flicked his hand away with hers, but smiled a little.

"Just because you couldn't take it..."

"That's right, remind me of one of my most embarrassing moments," he sighed. "I nearly threw up on Raptaur! I'd never have lived that down as long as I lived."

"Which might not have been very long," Mandy giggled. He gave her a resigned look.

"That was what was going through my mind, I have to admit," the boy commented, which made everyone chuckle.

"She'd probably just have jumped in the bay to wash it off," Amy grinned. "Mind you, she'd have taken you with her..."

"Oh, great, the water must be about ten degrees at the moment," he replied, looking appalled. "You'd freeze to death in minutes."

"Doesn't seem to affect them," Rich noted as he ate, listening with an expression of good humor on his face.

"Nothing really does," Lucy said. "I'd be interested in knowing what they can really handle, but cold water seems trivial. I guess if they come from the bottom of the sea that makes sense."

"Does anyone really know where they come from yet?" Mandy asked curiously.

"Hell, according to that nutcase on PHO," Eric laughed. "Void Cowboy says another planet. But both of them are crazy."

"I asked Raptaur where they went and she said 'very deep,'" Lucy commented. She shrugged a little. "Your guess is as good as mine what that really means, but underwater seems likely."

"Strange. Oh, well, I can live with it," Mandy smiled. "Especially if we can get rides like that sometimes."

"I'm very jealous," Dennis said suddenly, popping up beside her and making her jump.

"Where the hell did you come from?" she squawked in shock.

"Over there. You weren't paying attention," he grinned, pointing back to his table. "All of you conspiring over here like you were."

"We were hardly conspiring," Amy said. "Just talking about a very interesting evening."

"So I gather," the red-head replied, himself looking very interested. "Lots of stuff on PHO about it. You seem to have had fun."

"Oh, so much fun," Lucy told him with a broad smile. "All over the city. I can still hardly believe what I got to do."

"So very, very jealous," he grumbled, shaking his head with a small smile. "I'm hanging around with the wrong people, I think."

Amy looked at Taylor, who had been silently listening while she ate, looking mildly pleased. Her friend met her eyes and unspoken laughter was shared. "You may well be," she said, grinning at him. "But there are no seats left around this table. Sorry."

"Nasty Dallons, keeping the reptiles for themselves," the boy said, then laughed. "Let me know if you do that again. I'd love to try it."

"I'll ask her if she minds, Dennis," Amy assured him.

"Thanks." He checked the time, then winced. "Shit. Half an hour to finish that essay."

"The one we were assigned a week ago?" she asked.

"That's the one."

"The one I finished the same day?"

"Not making me feel better, Amy."

"Not trying to."

They smirked at each other, bumped fists, then he hurried off. "He always leaves it to the last moment," Amy remarked, going back to eating. "One day that's going to bite him."

"Probably," Taylor said with a slight smile. They exchanged another look, then the discussion moved on to other things.

A moment later Dennis came back, grabbing Amy and giving her a quick hug. "Thanks for saving my Dad," he mumbled into her hair as she yipped in shock. Seconds later he was gone again.

She watched him leave the cafeteria, looked around at her friends, then smiled to herself, feeling pretty happy.

"See you soon," Taylor said to Amy as her friend got into her truck. "Got a couple of errands to run first."

"OK," the other girl said, running the window down and closing the door. "Anything serious?"

"No, I just wanted to get a new phone like yours, and have a quick look around downtown," Taylor replied. "I want something I can use for internet access."

"OK. Try that electronics shop on Sixth and Atlantic, their prices are really good and they're helpful," Amy told her. "It's where I got mine."

"Thanks." She stepped back as her friend started the vehicle, looking over her shoulder and reversing out into the car park. With a wave she was gone. Taylor headed towards the commercial district, via a discreet location to cloak and change to Saurial. Shortly she was bounding over the rooftops of the buildings towards the water and the shopping areas.

Dropping to street level at a familiar location, she reverted to her base form, then picked a good moment to uncloak and join the throngs of shoppers wandering around. A couple of minutes later she entered the shop Amy had mentioned, looking about with interest, then grabbing a salesperson. Ten minutes later she was the owner of a shiny new smartphone. Happy, she explored the shop some more, stopping at a display of cameras like the one she used. There were a number of other models shown but the identical device she had was also there.

Thinking it over for a few seconds, she left the shop, found a suitably unobserved place, changed back to Saurial, then headed back. When she walked into the shop this time she found every eye in the place focused on her instantly. Suppressing a grin she headed for the back and the camera display.

"Ah, may I help you?" the young man at the counter, who looked to be in his mid twenties and very startled, said politely.

"Yes, please," she smiled, which made him twitch a little, but manfully suppress whatever urge had come over him. "I'm interested in these cameras over here. I'd like to buy two of them."

"Of course, Miss Saurial," he replied, unlocking the glass cabinet.

"Just Saurial is fine."

"Certainly. Do you need anything else?"

"No, those will do," she told him, picking up one of the boxes and reading the specifications on the back. "They come with memory cards already fitted, don't they?"

"Yes, those ones do," he nodded. "It's actually a good deal."

"I've already got one just like them," she said. "I wanted a couple more for some friends."

An older man came over, stepping behind the counter. "I'm the manager. I'm prepared to let you have those at cost if you will allow us to put a notice in the window that you shop here, Saurial," he said with a smile.

Taylor looked at him for a moment, then around at the dozen or so people in the shop, who were still staring at her. Eventually she shrugged. "Sure, why not? It sounds like a good deal."

"Thank you." He turned to the salesman who was listening. "Ring them up at cost, Nigel."

"OK," he said. Soon she was handing over some bills. "Thank you for shopping here. Please come again."

"I'll definitely do that," she grinned. "Thanks very much, both of you."

"No, thank you, Saurial." The manager looked pleased. "I suspect we'll get a lot of business out of this. I can think of a certain Thai restaurant near here that seems to have done pretty well as a result of a slight Family association."

Laughing, she picked up the bag the salesman had put her purchases in. "So I understand. Their food is really nice. Bye." She waved, then left, seeing a crowd outside all peering in the window. Amused, she waved to them as well, before heading off towards the docks.

"What's this?" 'Ianthe' asked curiously as Taylor tossed her a small box, handing 'Metis' another one.

"Little gift. I thought it might come in handy."

She watched as her friends opened the boxes, removing the lipstick cameras and inspecting them. "Oh, cool, that could really be useful," Amy said with glee. "I was thinking about getting one of these."

"Here, let's make you a suitable head harness for them," Taylor announced, walking over and studying her friend's reptilian skull for a few seconds. She produced a set of straps with the same color effect as Amy's scales, handing it over. "This should work. Give it a try."

Two iterations later they had something that fitted perfectly, blending in with the bioconstruct's scales so well it was almost invisible. The camera snapped into the harness with a positive click, only the lens being visible between her eyes. "I'll have to figure out a good way to protect these at extreme depths," she mused as she adjusted it, Amy leaning over to let her. "The lens is the problem, finding something transparent that will handle the pressure is a little awkward. Varga is working on it, though, he says he has some ideas."

"I'll have to remember to take it off before I go swimming until then," Amy remarked. "The instructions say they're good to about three hundred feet, though, so they'll be fine inside the bay, none of it is deeper than that."

"Yep, it bottoms out at about two hundred and seventy five feet as far as I've been able to find out." Taylor stepped back, satisfied. "That should do it. I set it to not show a recording light, like mine. You'll want to charge it before you use it, though."

She turned to Lisa, who had been watching her work. "Put this on," she instructed, handing over an identical harness in the right colors. Lisa did so, smiling to herself. Soon the other girl was also fitted out with her camera. "We should get some interesting footage the next time we go out together," Taylor grinned.

"Lizards at work, first person view," Amy giggled.

"Speaking of which, I have a tanker to slice into little pieces," Taylor said. "I'd better get that done. Once it's finished, I think language lessons are in order." She spoke a short sentence in the hissing alien tongue that the Varga had been teaching her at night for the last couple of days.

Amy and Lisa stared at her.

"What the hell did you say?" Lisa asked curiously.

"I said, 'The Family language is old and powerful, based as it is on concepts that predate human civilization and indeed existence.'" Taylor grinned at them. "More or less."

"You realize we're going to freak the fuck out of people when they hear us speaking that language," Lisa snickered. "It sounds extremely weird and a little scary."

"More or less the point, at least in part," Taylor laughed. "It's also fascinating, it conveys a lot more information more quickly than you'd think."

"I'm looking forward to it. I always wanted to learn a foreign language," Amy said with a grin.

"Ah, but you're not learning a foreign language, you're learning the language of your people, you see." Taylor replied as her friends both looked amused. "Everyone should know where they came from."

"We came from in there," Lisa pointed out, waving at the workroom with a giggle. "But I can go along with that. Go cut up your tanker, I want to see what happens."

"OK." Heading for the rear entrance, Taylor was still grinning even as she dived into the water.