Space Relations Pt. 20

"I hope it isn't giant life forms." The timid Cruz said, trailing close behind him.

"No, these readings indicate beings slightly shorter than we are. The strange thing is that they're deliberately keeping away from us and not allowing my scanner to get a good read on them."

"So they're intelligent?" Washington, who was bringing up the rear, caught up with the other two men.

"Not necessarily. Perhaps they are simply frightened of our scent. Whatever they are, they are nimble to be moving through this jungle very quickly."

"Is it a jungle, baby?" Cruz wondered. "I thought we were in a forest. What is the difference between the one and the other, besides the obvious higher temperatures, the greater variety of plants and the tropical location?"

Both the captain and the battle tech glanced at the science officer momentarily. After that, Thor simply shrugged and strode ahead.

"What did I say, baby?" Cruz asked the captain. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Keep your eyes open for any potential danger. And keep making sure nothing in the local atmosphere changes."

"Right." The Hispanic man nodded. "That's a very good idea."

Washington nearly scratched his short afro, while considering how nervous his science officer was. Thor used his scanner to search for warm alien life, while Cruz had his device set to constantly monitor air quality. Both men would pause to make quick recordings of their findings, or to scrape out specimens from soil, bark or leaves. The captain made a few general comments, especially regarding the purple sky above their heads, and how it wasn't as dark as they'd expected, but his role in the expedition was more to supervise and pass on any critical findings to the rest of the crew on the ship.

"I have one life form paused at twenty yards away." Thor spoke up. "I can't get a good fix on it, but I've got an estimate of about five feet long."

"Long?" Washington asked. "I thought you said these forms were upright?"

"They were upright earlier." Thor confirmed. "But this one looks to be moving around on four legs."

"Could it be a different life form altogether, baby?" Cruz questioned.

"No, I don't think it is." Thor shook his head. "They move both upright and on all fours. I guess that helps explain why they move through the brush so much faster than we do."

"What is it doing?"

"Nothing. It's stationary right now."

Washington checked the time on his hand-held. "Give me one. We've been out an hour and a half now. Let me check in with the Space Relations." He tried using the comm function on the phone, only to discover the device wasn't connecting to the ship. He tried a second time with the same result. "I don't know if this is because of all the foliage or because we went into a ravine, but I can't reach the ship any more."

"That's not good." Cruz said. "Should we go back?"

"We have a large alien creature about a stone's throw away from us." Thor said. "I think we should keep tracking it until we see what it is."

Washington deliberated the situation. "We have to be prudent here. By veering away from our original proposed route, we took a lot longer to explore than we'd planned to. I can't reach the ship now. If they come out looking for us, they would be looking in a contrary direction to where we're ending up."

"We can't make it back to the ship in the half hour we have left." Thor said.

"No, but if we start back now we might reach a high spot where we can at least tell the ladies that we're okay." The captain surmised.

"But what about this alien life form?" Thor pointed ahead of them. "We're this close to catching a glimpse of it, Captain!"

"Whatever it is, I hope it isn't dangerous to us." Cruz said. "But I think he's right. In the name of science we should at least take a look at it."

Washington frowned, well understanding that he was in a pickle. "Fine. We'll track this life form another ten minutes, but not a second longer. After that, we have to get back to the ship."

When his two subordinates nodded back in agreement, the group started forward again. Their path was full of short, leafy bushes and fat trees with drooping branches. Closer to the ground, they had snarls of thin vines leading over to thicker trunks the size of their arms and legs. The vegetation was colored in a deep but vibrant shade of green and looked unlike most anything they had seen back on Earth.

At one point, a wall of bushes taller than they were blocked their advance. These bushes were so intertwined that some of their branches had actually fused together. Cruz went to gather berries and leaves from them as samples, while Thor searched for a way to get through the tangle. Behind them, Washington saw their time limit was counting down to less than four minutes.

"Here." Thor motioned toward the ground. "There's a hole here in the bushes. It must how these unknown life forms got through them so fast. If we get down on our hands and knees, we can crawl through this hedge like they did."

The captain didn't see the point, as they probably wouldn't make it through to the other side before it was time to go.

"Come on, Captain." Thor urged. "Whatever that creature is, it isn't moving away any more. It's only ten yards away from us now. It's just sitting there waiting for us!"

Washington relented. "We have three minutes left. After that, we're going back."

So down they went, closer to the ground where their hands and the knees of their pants were getting smudged with that strange clayish dirt. Thor went first, eager to get through the green barrier.

"Don't look at my butt, baby." Cruz told his superior, before he followed suit.

"Why would I want to do that?" Washington asked.

"You might fall in love with it, that's all." Cruz soon slipped out of sight.

The captain checked his timer, seeing they were down to two minutes. He knew there was no point in getting closer to the native creature, because it would probably only run off like the rest of them had been doing earlier. Regardless, the man got down closer to the ground and tried his best not to stare at his science officer's butt.

After they crawled for about a minute, Cruz halted and whispered back, "Captain, Thor just told me that he has the life form in his sights. It's not moving. He said we should move slowly so we won't scare it away."

In a quiet, guarded manner, Cruz got out of the way. Washington crawled the remaining distance to the edge of the hole, seeing that Thor and Cruz were both on their feet and looking in the same direction. Hoping they didn't look threatening to the native creature, the captain slowly got to his feet.

There, only about fifteen feet away and partially hidden by the foliage, was the strange being. It was lying on the ground and nearly the size of a full grown human. The being had short gray fur with black stripes along the sides and back. Washington saw its lower half first. The tail made him apprehensive, as it looked like a feline tail. He thought the animal might be something like a leopard or a panther. As he took in more of its furry form, the Captain saw that the hind legs were clearly shaped like human legs, with thighs, knees and calves. He dared a step closer to see the creature's arms, which were also similar to human arms. There weren't paws at the end of them, but fingers with short claws. But that was impossible, wasn't it? What he was looking at was unnerving, as if humans were crossed with large cats on this small world. Another step forward gave Washington a good look at the creature's face.

The captain expected a furry cat's head with pointed ears. He did not expect the big and beautiful green eyes, or the soft features of a human nose and full lips. The creature was on its side, with furry bulges on the chest that were undoubtedly breasts. Whatever he was looking at, if the fur was discarded, was clearly more human than beast.

"Captain, that thing is hot." Cruz whispered from close behind him.

Its eyes and face were very feminine and captivating, Washington agreed. He wanted a full look at it, taking another stride while pushing leaves and branches out of the way. There was a clear space between them, as if the plants had stopped growing in that one specific area. It wasn't until Washington was standing on that space that he realized it was cleared off intentionally. And then he was falling, with his two companions tumbling down after him. That's when the captain understood that someone had dug out a pit, and the three men were falling into a trap.

On board the Space Relations, Ensign Willow Smith was growing increasingly frantic. On an extremely rare occasion, the woman sat in the captain's chair, but she was in no way, shape or form enjoying the experience. Cook Margo and Science Officer Mary were in the other command chairs, each one staring intently at their monitor displays. The bigger woman was listening for any incoming communications, while the shorter blonde was studying thermal scans of the area directly underneath the moving ship. Willow delegated the duties to her crewmates because she had her hands full with flying the ship and doing visual scans of the ground below using the outside cameras.

"I'm not hearing anything." Margo was shaking her head.

"They've been missing for almost two and a half hours now!" Willow cried out. "We've gone over the Captain's projected route twice, and we have no sign of anyone!"

"Relax, Willow." Mary told her. "You think a lot better when you're calm."

"What if they're dead?" Willow exclaimed.

"They're not dead." Mary replied. "You know how men are. Basically, they're crash dummies. They say one thing and end up doing another. They probably just went off in some other direction without bothering to tell us."

"How am I supposed to account for that?" Willow complained. She glanced at the main monitor, which showed footage of the ground, next to a digital map of the route the captain had given them. A spot was highlighted showing the approximate spot on the map relating to the area she was seeing below them. "The Captain said they would walk out for one hour and walk back for one hour. We've covered that entire route already. We have also covered the territory if they'd walked out in that same direction for the full two hours. How am I supposed to know what to do if they went in a different direction?"

"You're not going to do us any good if you're upset." Mary replied.

"I'm a systems analyst, not a rescue party supervisor!" Willow shouted at her.

Unexpectedly, the interim captain watched as Mary started thinking at Margo. She didn't like that at all, and she liked it even less when Margo got up and started bounding across the bridge after her. Willow had barely vacated her seat when the big lesbian knocked her over and sat on her back.

"Turn her over!" Mary ordered.

Quickly, too quickly for Willow's tastes, the stronger woman rolled her around and sat down on her waist. Willow struggled to push the woman off, but it was near child's play for Margo to capture both her flailing arms.

"Get off me!" Willow demanded.

"You listen to me, Captain Missy." Mary pointed an admonishing finger at her. "We need to find the Captain, but we aren't going to find him if you're flying off the handle like you are right now. Margo, hold her head steady for me."

Oh, no, Willow thought. Mary was getting down on her knees next to her. That meant a dreaded Happy Kiss was coming her way. She tried to turn her head to the side, except Margo's monstrous hand gripped her chin and forced her to pucker up. Willow said something garbled and squeaky.

Mary's lips came down on Willow's, but thanks to Margo's grip on her face, the caught ensign couldn't even shut her mouth. All of these crazy sensations started flowing through Willow's body a second later. Desperately, Willow tried to fight the happiness off because she didn't want it.

"You're going to thank me for that in about ten minutes." Mary said, as she got back up. "Margo, stay sprawled over Willow until she becomes nice again. I'll go put the ship on hover before we crash into something."

Margo's breaths were as heavy as the rest of her. They came crashing down on Willow's face like waves on a rocky beach.

"I hate you." Willow growled at the bigger woman. "I really hate you right now!"

"No you don't." Margo said, smugly. "Mary and I had a talk about you not too long ago. You don't like me because I'm big and you're small. You also don't like me because I act like I have balls, while you're about as tough as toilet paper."

Willow struggled against the bigger woman, up until Mary walked back over and stared down at her. For a second, Willow imagined that both women might jump on her.

"We're not going to do that to you." Mary said.

"Stop reading my mind!" Willow commanded.

"How can I? You're so mad you're broadcasting your thoughts like a billboard. Listen, Captain Missy. If you don't calm down, I'm going to give you a second Happy Kiss, and then you're really going to be floating in the clouds."

"No more kisses." Willow said. "Just get this big cow off of me!"

"If I'm a cow, then you're a mouse!" Margo laughed in her face.

"I'm going to keep an eye on the scanners." Mary said, drifting away. "Margo, stay on top of Willow like I told you to."

Willow watched the blonde step out of sight, before she turned her attention to the leering lesbian on top of her. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"

"Kind of." Margo admitted. "Don't tell me you're not into this just a little bit. I know all about how you and Barbie made out in front of the Captain once."

Willow tried to divert the subject. "Barbie is a hundred times more attractive than you are."

"No, she's not." Mary said, from somewhere out of view. "Barbie has her nice points, but so does Margo. We're all different, Willow."

"Well, thank you Mary." Margo grinned to one side. "I'm giving you a back rub for that compliment later."

"You're on, sister!" Mary quipped.

"Anything on the monitors?" Margo asked.

"No, not yet."

"I need to get back to the command chair." Willow stated.

"No, you don't." Margo shook her head at her captive. "You need to stay right where you are until that Happy Kiss takes effect. Like Mary said, you won't do anybody any good in the frazzled state of mind you're in."

Willow noticed that Margo was gazing into her eyes.

"Stop looking at me like that!" Willow snapped.

"If I kiss you, will you try to bite me?" Margo asked.

"I'll bite your face off!"

The big woman looked to be thinking this over. "That would probably hurt. On second thought, I won't kiss you. I'll just lay my head down and hope you won't bite me on the neck. Be nice, Willow."

The big woman loosened her grip somewhat and calmly lay down on top of Willow. The captured ensign felt incredibly inferior right then, as if she was a little kid with a super heavy blanket on top that she couldn't budge. Willow's resolve started crumbling a moment later, when she felt less trapped and more loved. It was that blasted Happy Kiss changing her mood!

Willow wasn't short, but she was slender and not at all like the curvier girls that always got more attention than she did. Besides this, she had been gangly in her teen years, and that had added to her growing, insistent feeling of inferiority. That's why she had manipulated her personnel record at Space Corps, because she'd felt that she was a minor cog in a world full of similar, unremarkable cogs. Even now that she was out in space, she still felt last in line, with Barbie, Cammie, Mary and Margo all ahead of her as far as attractiveness went, and in that specific order. She liked Barbie and Cammie most of all due to their being strong authority figures, with an equally strong maternal instinct just past that public facade. Willow thought that Mary was a slut because Mary could waggle her finger and instantly get most men to follow her. Also, Margo was right; Willow hated the lesbian because she was big and aggressive, both qualities that Willow lacked for her self.

Willow had made some big mistakes in the past, as part of the Space Relations crew. These mistakes took place because she'd never been trained for duties on a spaceship. In her mind, she assumed the rest of the crew would hang those mistakes over her head and bring them up to accuse her with. They hardly ever did, except for Thor who always had a bad temper when things went wrong. Several times, Cruz and Mary had told her to stop worrying so much. The crew had already accepted her, they said, but Willow still had to let go and accept herself.

The feeling that nobody would ever like her, that she made unforgivable mistakes and that she would never be the woman she wanted to become overwhelmed Willow. She started crying, absently putting her arms around big Margo as if the lesbian represented a giant version of the teddy bear Willow had as a little girl.

After a while, Margo sat up and held Willow close to her. "I felt that way too, like nobody would ever like me because I was such a big hard-ass. I thought I had to force people to like me, up until Cappy asked me to be part of this crew. You know how Cruz and Mary want to bone me like every five minutes? At first, I thought, what the hell is wrong with these people? The first guy that nailed me, though, that was good old Cappy. If a smart guy like that, who graduated from the Academy and got commissioned to fly his own ship, could put the moves on a frigging low level cook like me, for crying out loud, then maybe I'm not so bad after all. Do you know that on most of my other jobs on spaceships, I had to hang out with the other lesbians, because the straight people always looked down on me? This is the like the first place in all of Space Corps where I can openly flout who I am and not have somebody sneer at me for it."

"Did Mary show you what I was thinking?" Willow asked, feeling more vulnerable than she'd ever felt before.

"Yeah, she did." Margo softly ran her fingers through Willow's hair. "Don't be mad about it. I just want you to know that you're not so different from me, or from Thor or any of the others. We've all been at the bottom of the shit pile in some way or another, thanks to Space Corps. You've got to let all that shit go sometime, Willow."

Margo got up and brought Willow up with her. At one of the command consoles, they saw Mary poring over digital documents.

"Hey, Mary, what are you looking up now?" Margo called out.

"Protocol for setting up rescue missions." Mary replied. "It's a big file. It says here that we should go to the point the missing party was last seen. First, we trace the original route, which we've already done. After that, we should start looking in a concentric circle from the starting point."

"You can do that, Willow." Margo decided. "You set that up. I'll keep listening to the comm and checking the thermals, while Mary does her thing with the documents."

A quick slap on the ass jostled Willow, before the big woman walked off.

Willow stood there for a long moment, still highly embarrassed because of Mary's psychic prying. At the same time, she knew she had a job to do. Whether Willow liked it or not, the fate of the missing crewmembers now rested squarely in her hands.

"You don't have to be psychic to know we stepped into a trap." Cruz complained, as he and Thor glanced up and out of the large pit they'd fallen into. The two men were looking for some way to pull themselves out of the hole, with no success.

For the last few minutes, Washington had tried calling out to the Space Relations. This was as futile as hoping somebody would throw a ladder into the pit. Either the ship was too far away or the signal was being cut off somehow.

"Be glad they didn't put spikes down here." Thor grunted. "We could have all been skewered."