The trip from the planet's surface to the spaceship is a long one. The racers try to keep themselves busy, but they also stay silent the entire way there. None of them want to say anything that could give them away, so they just mimic everyone else on the ship. Some of them are scrolling through a tablet or watching something on a pair of smart glasses, but most of them are just hunched over, ready for this long day to be over.

They all make it into the loading bay and the ship lands inside with a big thud. Everybody's seatbelts unfasten at once, and the crew files out one-by-one. The three racers get in line with them, and try to walk with them all, but as soon as they get to the door, a man with a checklist points to the three of them, and asks them to come to him.

"Names?", he asks them, barely seeming like he's even there.

"Oh, we aren't part of your crew", Monique says, which gets a big eyebrow raise from the staff member. "We're safety inspectors just doing some routine checks on your program. Did Cameron not tell you about us?", she asks as she hands him the visitor pass that Cameron gave her.

He pauses for a second without taking the pass, and puts his finger to his ear. "Hey, Cam. Did you authorize a couple of safety inspectors to come up here?" Silence as he's listening to, presumably, Cameron backing up their story. He nods a little, as the stern look goes away from his face and he relaxes a bit. "Alright, you're good", he says. Monique reattaches the pass to her shirt and waves to him, before the three walk into the hallway system of the spacecraft.

Jody and Clash let out a deep sigh as they're finally away from the eyes of these people, though Monique is still committed to the character. She has the blueprints to the ship as an inlay of her glasses, and is using them like a mini-map. With the tablet tucked away under her arm, she walks down the hallway as professionally looking as she can. "Alright, guys. We just need to find the passcode to the elevator and we should be good to go. Any ideas on how to get it?", she asks the two, but they give her no answer, or even acknowledge she said anything. "Guys?", she asks again as she turns around.

Clash is looking at the elevator that they need to go up, but doesn't find a passcode on it. "You ok there, Doc?", Jody asks, but again, no answer. Clash reaches forward and presses the button to call for the elevator. The two ladies are a little nervous about this, but let him do it, figuring he's got a plan. The elevator doors open, and he walks inside.

"There's nothing in here."

"What?", Jody says as she and Monique hurry inside. Sure enough, there's no number pad for the passcode. The three look at each other, totally perplexed. "Guys, I think this might just be a base, not an 'evil base'", Jody says to the other two, "Everything I've seen so far suggests this place is literally just a worksite that happens to have an evil boss at the top."

Monique replies, "Yea, I'm starting to think these people are just working a job, and don't know anything about Shadow or his…"

"ATTENTION ALL PLANETARY WORKERS", says a voice blaring over the loudspeaker. "AN EMERGENCY MEETING WILL BE HELD IN THE CENTER STAGEROOM IN TEN MINUTES. VICE PRESIDENT FALCON WILL BE DISCUSSING A MAJOR UPDATE. ATTENDANCE IS MANDATORY. THAT IS ALL."

"Niiiiiiice", Clash says. "Now everyone's gonna be at that meeting and we can go to the medical bay unimpeded."

"Nonono, waitwait… we should go to that meeting", Jody says back, leaving both of them very confused.

"Why? This is the perfect chance to get around everyone", Monique says to Jody.

"Not to flex on you guys, but when the GSF has me doing missions like this, they call this 'gathering intel', and any time we can get free intel without worrying about being caught, we take it. Plus, I think they said Falcon, so that's either Captain Falcon, who we can also rescue, or Blood Falcon, who we can maybe arrest."

"Alright, then how do we do that without getting caught?", Clash asks.

Jody smiles and puts a finger to her ear. "Hey guys, you heard all that, right?"

"Loud and clear", Gazelle says back. "I've got eyes on you right now, James is getting us in range, and the other two are looking through the maps you got for a way in there. (Jack: "I'm helping!") Zoda says there's only one way into the meeting room, and it looks like you'll need an ID to get in."

"Interesting, is there a locker room nearby where someone might've left some uniforms and IDs?"

Jack pipes up, "You might not need that, there's a few ventilation shafts that lead right to the conference room. They look kinda small, but Jody might be able to squeeze inside."

"Yea, I saw those shafts on the way in. I might be able to poke my head inside, but not much else."

This makes Clash perk up a bit. "I might have something for that!", he says as he taps the screen of the mini-tablet on his wrist. Suddenly, a robotic arm emerges from underneath his shirt and hands him a little metallic ball, about the size of an orange. "Thank you, Bob", he says as it recedes back into his clothing, trying to stay out of sight so that no one recognizes that part of him.

"What's that?", Monique asks him in a curious tone.

"Just one of the functions of my robotic buddy, Bob. Let's go find that shaft", he says, getting genuinely excited for the first time in this mission, as he's always excited to show off his tech.

The three of them walk down the corridors of the station, with Gazelle and Jack feeding them instructions. They get to a long hallway with seemingly nothing in it. Halfway down it, Jack stops them. "Ok, guys. The meeting room is on the other side of that wall. Just pop Clash's thing in there and let's see what it can do."

Clash gives the ball a little squeeze and it flashes a faint blue glow. Monique lifts Jody up and she pulls the cover off the shaft. Then she takes Clash's ball, and slides it inside the chamber. "Alright Bob-06, go get 'em", he says to himself as his finger glides along the wrist-tablet and the ball takes off down the tunnel. Monique sets Jody down, and the two ladies watch as the ball moves through the tunnel, trying to fight against the air that's being blown through the vent. The system of metal corridors is filled with bends that the little ball is able to scale or traverse, dust that obscures the camera's vision, and even a filter that the ball is able to smash through. However, with Jack's help, they're able to navigate the tunnels, and find the conference room.

They manage to get the bot in position just in time to see someone walking onto the stage. He's wearing a nice black suit with a red bowtie, and a very friendly face. It isn't until they zoom in on his face and notice a lack of scars. The real Captain's face has been scarred up through years of close calls in the bounty hunting scene, while Blood Falcon was born in a test tube five years ago, so his face is pristine. "Wow, never would've guessed that's what Falcon looked like without his helmet", Jody says to herself.

"Riiiiight?", Monique says in agreement.

"Thank you all for showing up on such short notice", Blood Falcon says. "The Zorok project is ahead of schedule, and is going better than we could have ever imagined. However, I have a favor to ask of each and every one of you." He points to a screen with a bunch of pictures of various racers, including all seven of the ones doing this mission, along with Pico, Octoman… and John Tanaka. He's still out there...

"Quick, get a picture, Doc!", Jody says. He scrambles to take it quickly before asking why. "If that's who he's looking for, we can figure out who he already has."

"These are ten of the most dangerous beings in the galaxy, and we have reason to believe that they may be on their way here to stop our operation. If you look on your tablets, you'll be briefed on what these people have done, and just how dangerous they are. If you see any of these people, let one of your bosses know immediately."

There's a lot of murmuring among the workers. One of them raises their hand, "Excuse me sir, I think I saw a couple of them."

"And with that, it's time to go", Jody says, recognizing that they need to get a move-on. Clash's camera stays in place to continue recording, but the three of them hurry down the hallway back to the elevator and head up to the top floor. Luckily, there's still no one around to catch them, and even if they do run into someone up here, they wouldn't have seen the presentation yet, so they're safe for the moment.

They hurry down to the main doctor's office, and Monique is once again the one doing the talking, taking everyone's visitor's badges before she talks to the receptionist. "Um, hi. My friend here needs to talk to Dr. Stewart, he just had a bit of a heart scare at the meeting and we need to see him right away."

"Oh dear, ok sure no problem, write his name down and he'll be right with you guys", she says as she pushes her a sign-in sheet as Jody and Clash head into the waiting room. Monique tries to think of a believable fake name for him, but before she can, Jody tranqs the receptionist.

"You're getting way too much use out of that", Monique says with a little chuckle as she heads inside with them.

"Hey, clock's ticking. They're gonna be on us soon."

The three of them walk into the doctor's office, and start looking around. The doors don't have any names on them, but luckily with Gazelle's x-ray guidance, he's able to lead them directly to the office that Dr. Stewart is in right now. They open the door… and there he is. He's wearing a long white coat and has his signature red scarf on, but one thing they couldn't see from the ship were his eyes. They're completely blacked out; no whites, no blue irises, nothing but the same inky blackness that the bubbles seem to be made out of. "Oh, good evening guys. I don't know if the receptionist let you in, but I'm still getting ready back here. Just give me a few minutes and…" Stewart's asleep on the floor.

"Alright then, now we just need to get him to the ship. Ideas?", Jody asks her colleagues.

"How many tranq darts do you have left?", Clash asks.

"More than enough, don't you worry about that."

Monique asks Jody, "Can you ask Gazelle how many people are still up here?"

"Gazelle, you hear that question?" There's a pause for a second. "He's saying four…", she replies before she's interrupted by the sound of the door opening, and one of the doctor's assistants walking in.

"Hey Dr. Stewart, Kelly fell asleep again and… *pop, fall*

"Three."

"Yea, I'll go ahead and hide him", Clash says, dragging this doctor into Stewart's office, and putting him in the corner.

"OK, so James mentioned putting Stewart in a body bag earlier. Why don't we tranq the other doctors, dress as them, with masks to hide our faces, and carry him out of here?", Monique asks.

Jody replies, "I don't know, feels suspicious. I've got a slightly different idea, but it's a little risky."