I could feel Alverson still vibrating with anger as we walked, or in his case, stomped back to the Wanderlust. I was angry too, but it was a strange oddly contained fury. With every step I took I felt more aware. As if I was coming out of some strange waking dream. I also felt the veneer of human civilization and social mores shattering and falling away. The kaleidoscope of images playing in my mind was almost constant now - so constant that I was able to shove it to the back of my mind. The odd feeling of doom was disappearing too. Replaced by fierce exhilaration. In the Wanderlust's medlab, I extracted the tiny alien in its protective stasis cube for the storage unit. Alverson, who had been muttering under his breath the whole way, looked at me concernedly and asked: "Are you going to be all right Mara? I know that Dragon frightens a lot of people..." "He doesn't frighten me," I interrupted. "I just don't like him. But then there are very few humans I do like." I smiled to let him know he was among that select number. And "like" was not the word I apply to my turbulent, contradictory emotions concerning Commander Nicanor Conte. But I felt a definite possessiveness. And actually, now that I thought about it, I wasn't really all that fond of the Imperium either. No, I was not frightened anymore. I was enraged. I had been manipulated, used and treated like a game or puzzle piece. I was not a meek, docile imperial subject - one of those foolish, naked apes. I was a full-fledged huntress of the Hrrann. My senses told me that the hunt had already begun. As I held out the stasis cube to Alverson, I couldn't keep a small smile from curving my lips. Any human who thought I was a mere pawn was in for a very large and possibly fatal surprise. My claws were still razor sharp. And, for the first time since I'd left Hrrann, so were my wits... ************************************************** Thanks to: Lalverson, RDNA, Sharkey, Wyrmmaster, Ajax, and Jim Burton The Exeter Mystery thus far: http://www.n-link.com/~lalverson/images/exeter/exeter_mission.htm