Morgan sighed as he got ready to tell the story.
"I used to have an honest job," Morgan started. "I was a trader. That's how I had the ship. But one day, I saw something I wasn't supposed to see at a delivery point. Something that revealed the Central Government wasn't as great as they were claiming to be. So, they branded me a rebel and put out a warrant to lock me up. I had an idea what this meant so we were trying to get ready to get on my ship and leave for a remote outer planet that the Central Government tended to ignore. While I was getting the ship ready, one of the CG's bounty hunters...Cavan came. I wasn't there and apparently Andromeda wouldn't cooperate so...Cavan shot her."
Morgan took a deep breath before he could continue.
"When I got to the house, Cavan had left. I found Andromeda...dead, and you were missing. No one knew where you were. I was trying to find you, wouldn't leave without you. That's when Cavan came back. He had orders to bring me back alive. I was kept in a holding center for a year. After that they took me to a secret lab located in a prominent Central Government hospital. This particular lab was dedicated to genetic experimentation. As lab rats they used those branded as rebels."
Morgan paused to take a sip of his drink.
"They injected me with a serum every day for a month. I was chosen for this particular experiment because I was fit and strong. Therefore I was more likely to survive the process. After a week the transformation began, very slowly. Very painfully. It's never pleasant to have bones shift and grow hooves. Or have your face change. Can't imagine I was pleasant to look at during that time. The change took....around another year to complete. They kept me locked up to see how I reacted to the change. Usually when one is branded a rebel they are never seen again."
Morgan took another sip of rum.
"After I had been there for 5 years, Asda, who had been a rising young Doctor at the hospital, was assigned to the experiment lab. Not long out of med school and brilliant. They thought she would be good for the project. It was quite the reverse. Asda was horrified, and even though it would cost her her job and life, she helped release myself and as many others as she could. We got to my ship and took up the only job that was open to people like us...smuggling. Taking any job we could find from anyone who would offer it and pay. I met Gaz a couple years later, and she served on my ship for a few years before she took on her own."
(That was practically a novel. lol.)