This planet is crawling with predators of all shapes and sizes, capable of doing things to its prey that we can only imagine the worst of our nightmares. That's exactly the line of thinking that Jody, Gazelle and Zoda are imagining as they hear footsteps approaching them. They could keep running, but Zoda's worn out from all the running, and while Jody would absolutely entertain the idea of throwing Zoda to the wolves, they would have a better chance of surviving as a full group. They aim their weapons towards the source of the noises, and ready themselves for whatever's coming.

What comes out from behind the tree are the three tiny mapmakers from Dai San Gen Map. This is strange enough on its own, but then one of them appears to walk through a tree as they approach them.

"Well, hello fellow travelers", the one in the green says in a strong Chinese accent without opening her mouth or even changing her facial expression. Instead, the voice sounds like it's talking directly into the racers' minds. "What a coincidence it is to run into you here."

Zoda tries to shake his head in order to 'snap out' of this. "Jeez, my inner demons are starting to manifest themselves in some weird ways."

"Noooooo, I'm pretty sure we can all see them too", Gazelle says as he thinks his optic sensors are malfunctioning from seeing the blue one walk through the tree.

"No, neither of you are mistaken", the blue one says. "I do suppose that an explanation would be helpful. You see, this is our way of mapping these planets. We're not actually here, we're still back home on Shinar. We simply astrally project ourselves to the location we're mapping. A simple flight over the planet is enough to give us a total view of everything on your precious map." There's a slight pause as the blue Shinarian looks around. "Wasn't there a fourth one in your party? The man who paid for the map, is he missing?"

"Yea, he actually is", Jody says. "He was holding the map and got snatched by a giant… snake… bat… thing. (Zoda: "A Warbat.") We tried to follow it, but we lost him above the trees."

"Oh dear", the red one says as a look of worry finally changes their blank expressions. "Perhaps we may offer our services to help again."

"I dunno if we can afford another 300,000 credits", Gazelle says. "I think the money from these missions is still in James's bank account. Maybe if we pool our money together…"

"That will not be necessary", the red one says. "Dai can fly up and spot the beast that took your friend, and with our telepathic…"

"Waitwaitwait…", Zoda says with a smirk. "Did you just say one of your names was Dai?"

The blue-clad one raises his hand. "That is me."

"And would the other two be named 'San' and 'Gen'?"

"Oh lord, help me", Jody says, knowing Zoda's about to be insufferable.

"That is Gen", the green one says as she points to the red-clothed man, "and I am San."

"Did that not translate from the sign in front of the store?", Gen asks.

"THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS, HUH JODY?", Zoda says as he points to her and puffs his chest out like a peacock, acting like he's the smartest man in the galaxies. This boastful display makes San mimic Zoda's cocky dance, while Jody looks like she's on the verge of an aneurysm.

"Is this an appropriate response to this kind of interaction?", San asks.

"Oh yea, you're doing great. I like this one, she's got sass", Zoda says back.

"I'm honored to know that I have sass."

"As I was saying, sister", Gen says, only slightly showing any signs of annoyance. "With our telepathic powers, we can connect to each other, and lead you to where your friend has been taken. We were going to be here anyway for our own enjoyment, so there will not be a charge for this."

"We could… probably charge them a little…", Dai says to Gen.

"Nonsense, we're in no danger, and they need our help."

"Correct, but if the missing one could pay for the premium map…"

Gen sighs in annoyance. "Excuse us, humans", he says as he turns to face Dai. They don't say anything that the racers can hear, and their expression remains fixed. But given their telepathic powers, and the fact that San looks a little awkward watching them, it's safe to assume that they can talk directly into each other's minds, away from anyone eavesdropping on them.

"Disregard what I said", Dai says, while Gen nods. "No charge. We will simply need an object that he was the last one to touch in order to lock on to his location. Do any of you have something like that?"

The three racers look at each other, hoping one of them has something. They're about to consider going all the way back to the ship, when Gazelle scans the area, looking around for something. He quickly turns back into his landspeeder form and zooms off into the forest without a word, leaving everyone else alone in the woods. A few seconds later, he comes back holding the pistol that James had dropped.

"It's still warm from his touch", Gazelle says while barely holding the barrel, trying not to contaminate it, so the Shinarians can do their work on it.

"This will do nicely", Dai says as he takes James's weapon and floats off into the sky. Everyone else piles into Gazelle's seating area, and they all zoom off, hopefully in James's direction.

Back on the ship, Jack wanders through the halls, unable to sleep. He isn't getting a lot of sleep lately, so maybe talking to someone else will help. He remembers that James is able to make calls to his wife from his office, so he figures that he can call someone else for some advice. Even though he knows that he and Monique are the only two people on the ship, he sneakily walks into James's office, puts on his headset, and sends out a call to the GSF.

A lady with a headset answers his call. "Galactic Space Federation front desk, this is Jewel, how may I help you?"

"Um, hi. My name's Jack Levin, and I was wondering if I can talk to Dr. Theodore Clash? The guy should be in the engineering or R&D section?"

"One minute, sir. I'll see if we can get you that clearance."

The lady places him on hold while they figure out where Clash is. He's only on hold for a few minutes, but sitting in that chair, doing nothing as the time passes, it feels like hours. As he sits there, Jack starts wondering if Crash will be able to talk from GSF HQ. What if he's holding confidential secrets and can't risk spilling them to any outsiders? What if he's on the verge of some breakthrough and can't spend a second away from his research? What if he's just asleep? Maybe this was all just a bad idea…

"Hello, Jack? Are you there?"

He snaps out of the little daze he's in and straightens out his headset. "Oh, hey Doc. Sorry if I'm disturbing you, I just wanted to see if you had a few minutes to talk?", he says, sure that he's already going to be denied.

"Oh, of course, young Jack. We've been banging our head against the wall for days trying to fix Antonio, so we'll take any kind of break we can get", Clash says while shaking his head and cleaning his glasses.

"That bad, huh?", Jack asks back.

"It's just frustrating, like it feels like we have all the pieces necessary to understand this Shadow Serum stuff. We've got samples, we can control it when it's not in someone' body, we've got knowledge of what it does from someone who felt its effects from Dr. Stewart, we've got the best research department in the solar system, and funding out the wazoo! (Jack: "Bless you.") But, everytime we come close to a breakthrough, it all falls apart on us, and all our work is for naught."

"Sorry to hear that Doc. I'm sure you guys'll figure it out, you're all really smart", Jack says back to him. "Any new… leads you're working on, or however that works?"

"We've got a couple more tests to run that might lead to promising results, but if they don't work out", Clash says as he throws up his hands in frustration, "then I don't know what we're gonna do."

"So I guess you never figured out what snapped Stewart out of it, huh?"

"That's the worst part of it", Clash says as he drinks a big cup of coffee. "When we were in the medbay on the Wyvern, I turned around one second, and then all of a sudden, I heard my name called in a male voice. I turn back, and he's fixed! Like nothing ever happened. It makes no damn sense!", he says as he slams his cup down, spilling a little bit of coffee on his wrist, which he quickly wipes up.

"Wow, that's rough, glad I'm not having to do that, that sounds like the hardest job in the galaxies over there."

"I mean, yea it's not easy, that's for sure. What about you? How're you holding up over there? Better than me, I hope", Clash says with a nervous smile.

"Definitely not", Jack says as he flops down onto James's desk. "The rest of the team is on Porix right now, looking for Beastman, while I'm sitting up here, feeling sorry for myself."

"Jack, I'm no psych, but what happened on Cryton was traumatic as heck, and it's normal to feel traumatized from that."

"I get that, but it still feels like I should be doing more to help these guys out. If I'm just gonna sit here and be sad, I can be sad somewhere where I'm not eating all of James's rations. Except I can't because…"

"Because you feel like Black Shadow will track you down and capture you if you don't have people around you to protect you?"

"Yes! Exactly! Like, what am I supposed to do here? I feel useless, even though the others keep saying I've been helping."

"Mmmmm, maybe I can get you in touch with the on-sight psych they've got here. I've been talking to her about the mission, and she's been quite helpful to me."

"Yea, maybe that'll help. I wish we could've had this conversation earlier", Jack says as he looks up at the screen, feeling like dirt. "Why'd ya have to leave without saying goodbye? I was really looking forward to learning about stuff from you. You're like the first person who ever sounded like he wanted to teach me how stuff worked."

"Yea, I know. That was a bad move on my part, and I shouldn't've done that. I think part of it was that I hate goodbyes in general. Feels too… final, especially under these circumstances. But also, I didn't consider myself to be leaving the mission, just working on it from a different location. But still, that was wrong of me, and I apologize. To you, and Gazelle, and everyone else there."

"Thanks", Jack says in a soft voice. "Maybe if I can call you can show me how that weather stuff works over these calls?"

"Sounds like a great plan, Young Jack", Clash eagerly says, always happy to help a young mind grow. "I gotta get going, Dr. Stewart just finished his break, and we're about to go another 12 rounds with the Shadow Serum. Wish us luck!"

"Good luck, Doc!", Jack says back to him before the camera feed cuts, and Jack is all alone again. He walks out from James's office, and Monique is there to meet him at the door.

"Hey Jack, you alright in there?"

"Oh! Hey, Monique. You're… awake?"

"And you're not as sneaky as you think you are. I'm sure it'll be fine, but you shouldn't go messing around in James's office without asking first."

"Monique, don't take this the wrong way, but you're kinda acting like my mom right now, which is extra weird, since you're only like five or six years older than me."

"Eight, actually, but I digress. Yea, I guess I've just been feeling a little overprotective lately. Come on, let's get you back to your bed."