The creature on the display screen strikes Dr. Ben Hill as possibly the queen of all tigers, a dark queen, robed in crimson fur with black stripes. Her resemblance to panthera tigris altaica, the Siberian cat, is perhaps only superficial, for she is truly named bestiaforma mutabilis, shapeshifter. But these technical terms convey nothing of her majesty or power. She is larger than the Siberian cat and more massively muscled. Her eyes glint darkly in catching the light. She lies now at one end of the room reserved for her, head erect, eyes searching the dull gray space before her like a queen surveying the cell of a dungeon, with regal anger and ... something more. A resolve.