609 Labs is a spinoff project started by Neena and Lillian, dissatisfied with the restraints that working for the Cosmos Corps put on their activities. They consult with people who want new bodies and find ways to make what they want happen.

Neena, in the middle, is the lead scientist and the one who knows the most about pushing bodies' limits. She's ambitious but slightly reckless, and has a troubled past as a genuine mad scientist on the run from the law. Even though it was decades ago, the memories still haunt her, but only make her more determined to do right and prove she's got good ideas.

Lillian, on the right, was the Corps agent who captured Neena and brought her in to stand trial. Neena was sentenced to parole and community service, which Lillian volunteered to supervise. The rehabilitation went well enough that the two are now friends and business partners. Lillian is the practical-minded and slightly sarcastic one of the pair, who likes to find ways of making Neena's wild ideas work. She's got a better grasp of the equipment than Neena, though Neena's better with the abstract scientific ideas.

Simka is their latest hire, a 22-year-old red panda woman who also had a brief but not-very-fulfilling career in the Corps. As the junior partner, she spends most of her time doing odd jobs - putting her artistic talent to use designing advertisements and brochures, cleaning up the lab, answering phone calls, and so on. When the doctors need a test subject, though, Simka's talent for adapting to new shapes quickly makes her a perfect test pilot. If Lillian wants to study how a twenty-legged body might move, or if Neena wants to see how insect mandibles might combine with a beak, they ask Simka, who's usually happy to oblige. This is her default shape - two arms, four legs, two tails - and it's meant to be both practical for Simka and eye-catching. If you saw her walking by, wouldn't you stop to ask where her extra limbs came from?