Tabitha Bradley: Enticed

She ran a computer check on the integrity of the craft. It wouldn't do to be trapped inside if the ship wasn't space-worthy or even flight-worthy. And indeed, it certainly wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon. The hydraulics, though, were in decent shape.

"Commander, there appear to be life-signs approximately a mile away, an indeterminate number of them, indistinct."

"Indistinct? How?"

"Damage to computer systems may be responsible for reading error."

Talara sighed. "Okay. Well, perhaps they are friendlies. Aquilans, hopefully."

She leaned back in her chair for a long moment. "It looks like I'm going to need some kind of way off this rock, since the damage to the ship isn't within my abilities to repair."

"No, it is not."

"Activate the distress signal and scramble it if you can. I'll take my tracker and see if I can locate a friendly somewhere out here. If you get a reply, clik me."

"Yes, Commander."

Talara rummaged around in the supply pods a moment and brought out an ammo case, her service pistol and her tracker. She attached these to her equipment belt and flipped open an armory pod. From that, she got a personal signal scrambler, to prevent any hostiles from picking up her life-signal, a small battery cell and her electro-energy whip.

Aquila was currently possessed by the infamous Rysusi Legion, though it hadn't always been so. So she was behind enemy lines. Thus the vicious, barbed, Janassi-built weapon. It only helped that it was one of Talara's personal favorites.

From the last pod, she pulled a survival pack, checked it and added additional rations as well as an extra empty bottle and water purification strips.

Looking herself over, she made sure her flight-suit seal was still completely intact, which it was, the suit slicking over her lithe body like a second skin.

"Okay. I'm going reconnaissance, but I'll check in every half-hour. If I don't check in, step up the emergency signal and at the very least locate me."

"Yes, Commander."

Talara triggered the hydraulic catch to the cockpit canopy and it popped open quietly in the stillness of the forest.

Slightly damp, cool green air rushed in around her and she took a deep breath and pushed the canopy open, standing slowly, a little unsteadily. She climbed out and found her footing on the grass-covered ground after a moment.

Leaning against the ship, Talara assessed her surroundings.

The ship crashed in the deepest forest Talara had ever been in, including those of her heavily forested homeworld, Diranda. It wasn't so much dark as it was green , extremely green, the light taking on a green tone, the ground covered with jade green grass, emerald moss, tiny green plants and clover, so much so that there wasn't a rock that wasn't green with moss, nor even the hint of brown dirt beneath the constant green. The bark of the trees were even a deep, brownish green, intensified by the vines and mosses growing on them.

Talara got out her tracker, activated it and began walking. There was a source of fresh water not far down the small hill she found herself on, so that was where she decided to go, at least to start with. She set the tracker to locate life-signs in the background, hoping that it would give her a little more to go on than the ship-board computer had.

The sound of running water relaxed her, the closer she got to it and as she made her way down the slight rise to the creekbed below, she smiled. It didn't look like there was anyone nearby, she was relieved to be alive and felt certain that no matter what happened here on Aquila, she'd make it out okay.

The creek was clear, sparkling water playing lightly over smooth, gently shaded gray, white and black stones scattered along the bottom of it.

Kneeling, Talara unslung her pack and got out the bottle and the purification slips. Curling the wafer-thin white square into a small straw, she poked it into the canteen bottle and pushed it into the water, watching serenely as the stream filled it.

The tracker, clipped to her belt, gave a soft hum. Talara glanced at it.

Life sign. One. Undetermined.

She frowned.

Twenty-five yards directly to the east.

Carefully, slowly, she turned her attention back to the bottle, capped it, shook it.

Talara watched the purification slip dissolve in the water. Shook it again. White bubbles filled the water.

Perhaps it was only the knowledge from the tracker that made Talara stiffen a bit, feeling as though she were being watched, perhaps it was an actual psionic reaction to the presence of someone unknown nearby.

She shook the bottle again.

Casting a carefully shielded telepathic net out around herself, Talara tried to determine more about her unseen companion.

The white bubbles dispersed into the crystal-clear water.

She opened it and took a sip.

A chill that had nothing to do with the temperature crept down her spine and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

That's not an Aquilan…

She took another sip of water, stiffening a bit more.

Ancestors…

"Dirandan. Woman. Pilot."

A low, wicked, masculine chuckle.

"Mmm. Love that. You must have been the crash we tracked an hour ago.

Excellent."

Talara took another sip of her water, not turning, not acknowledging.

Friggin' Rysusi !

The soft crunch of leaves, steady, getting louder as the chill increased.

"Pretty. Very pretty," that low, sensually wicked voice said, "It's been a long time since I've had a Dirandan."

Talara capped her bottle and clipped it to her belt. One hand found the handle of her whip and rising, she spun, pulling her psionic energy tightly around herself in a shield.

The tall, silver-haired Rysusi man halted in his tracks, a wide grin on his angelically handsome face.

Talara stared at him a very long moment, fingers tight around the handle of her whip, its three barbed tails sparking and snapping, writhing slightly as energy crackled and danced along their lengths.

He laughed slightly. "Ah, you want to fight first, is that it?" Crossing his arms over his chest, he regarded her with sardonic amusement in his jet black eyes. "I Tabitha Bradley Enticed!

suppose I can be convinced to indulge a little, though you do realize you have no chance of winning against me."

Talara's own deep violet eyes narrowed and she snorted at him. "That's what you think, Rysusi. I just survived a crash that technically, I had no business surviving, with only a minor scratch. You won't find me an easy opponent."

His grin widened and Talara found herself shivering, though not entirely from instinctive fear. Something about this man was unnerving, unusual, completely unlike any other Rysusi she'd ever encountered. It conjured a strange heat within her, something that curled, hot and pulsing, deep within her body. She frowned.

"Do you have any idea who I am?"

Talara's frown deepened. What kind of answer was that, anyway? She stared at him harder and he laughed softly.

He wasn't wearing a Rysusi uniform, she suddenly realized.

No, he was dressed in what looked like a hodge-podge of Dirandan and Rysusi uniforms and Aquilan clothing. His tunic was a soft, deep orange color, a basic full-sleeved, open necked Aquilan design, complimenting the warm coppery color of his unusually tanned skin; she'd never seen a Rysusi who was tanned; beneath a clearly Dirandan jacket, an elegantly tailored sable-black Captain's coat trimmed in crimson, falling to mid-thigh. His pants were the only piece of Rysusi uniform that she could recognize, rust colored, tight to powerful thighs and legs, tucked into simple, mid-calf black leather boots that were Aquilan in design and laced with leather thongs.

He chuckled. "Still want to fight me, my sexy Dirandan pilot-woman? It seems we might be on the same side."