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within ten feet of its stasis pod.”
    Samda’s head dropped and the captain ordered, “Bring her up here.”

Questioning the Mission
     
    The holding cell door opened and Samda was subjected to the cleansing process as she made her way down the corridor. Again, Chris noticed just how big she was. She was easily ten feet tall, and proportionate, which meant she was much broader than he was. He sure hoped she wasn’t still upset when she got to the command station.
    The captain asked his first mate, “What does the intel say about her race’s strength, ferocity, agility, and wits?”
    The first mate shook his head and said, “She’ll be hotheaded, but she’s from a reasonably intelligent race that is mostly peaceful. It’s too late to take precautions anyway. She’s already at the door.”
    The captain nodded and told Chris to stand back as he headed for the door.
    As it slid open, the captain reached his armored robotic arm through and grabbed Samda by the throat. He dragged her inside as she struggled in vain.
    Her body was immense. She must have weighe d half a ton and yet she stood no chance against the captain. Her face was contorted with rage and exertion, but it did her no good.
    The captain pushed her into a corner and said, “There’s no one inside this suit except for my consciousness , so you can bet your ass I can do this all day.”
    Her struggles slowed until she finally wilted and submitted.
    The captain released her and said, “It’s fortunate that we found you. You’re only worried about your race, but our worries are broader in scope. We’re worried about the end of the universe. We need you to stop it from happening.”
    Her hairless brow scrunched up and she asked, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
    The captain sighed. “We are going to create a hybrid life form out of the DNA of every intelligent creature in the universe. That creature will be so advanced that it’ll be able to recreate our very existence. It’ll be able to give the universe perpetuity.”
    “ That sounds like bullshit. How can you be so sure it’ll work?”
    “Because we came close once , many years ago.” There was a haunting sadness in the captain’s voice as he recalled the past.
    The first mate looked at the floor and shuffled his feet uncomfortably.
    Chris had assumed this was their first attempt at something of this scale.
    The captain continued : “The problem was that we didn’t have any DNA from outside of our own galaxy. We thought we had more than enough to achieve our goal. We were wrong. The being we created from the relatively small sampling of DNA was limited. It could alter the weather. It could freeze water with a thought. It could rearrange molecules into whatever it wanted. It could predict the future, to a degree. But it could only do those things locally. It was too weak because we didn’t have enough DNA to make it greater. We now have a million times more DNA to work with. We were close before, but this time we’re taking no chances.”
    “What if you need DNA that hasn’t even developed yet?”
    Chris stepped forward and said, “That’s what I said.”
    Samda gave him a quizzical look and asked the captain, “Who’s the little guy?”
    “He’s another specimen, close in biology to your own people. He’s a male from a planet called Earth.”
    “Well , he’s right. How can you know you only need DNA from right now?”
    “We’ve run the numbers and the truth is that we’re pretty sure we already have a large enough sampling to achieve our end s. But like I said, we have to be sure. We can’t afford to fail again.”
    “Ok ay then. You can take a skin scraping and a vial of blood and then you can let me leave.”
    “Sorry. You’re coming with us. You are going to have to go into stasis for now. I’ll revive you when we’re done collecting.”

The Gray
     
    Samda tried to struggle again but it was no use.
    She pointed at Chris and yelled, “Why does he get to