Neon laughed and adjusted her glasses, "You look pretty good dressed up as old imperial gentry!" Jaffa smiled, "Hey! I don't want to look like some bum showing you ladies the sights!" Jaeko coughed in his new warrant officer's uniform. Jaffa waved a hand at him, "Aw, you can see your own sights, you bum!" Toxic ran up to the bay window, overlooking the expanse of the Rymmer Highlands around Shalmiraine. She pouted in the sunlight and complained,"This isn't working! I can't feel the sunshine through this fake skin! It's got too much of that SDF?" Neon said, "S-P-F! It protects your skin from solar radiation, you know from burning?" Toxic said, "I don't feel like myself without my daily dose of radiation! I feel like I'm someone else! Someone save me." She sounded so sorrowful, Neon stepped forward to touch her. Toxic's head dropped in sorrow, and her eyes filled with tears. "I NEED the light, the sun! I'll wither and die without it." Neon gasped in shock and fear and drew back. Toxic blinked and slapped the plexiglass with both hands. Toxic said, "What? I can't hear you! SPEAK UP! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Jaeko looked out the window and at the two fearful girls who seemed riveted. He looked over at Jaffa and asked, "What? What are they looking at?" Neon turned on him. "Can't you see HER? The girl with the horns? Like an Asuran?" She made devil horns and pointed out the window. Jaeko looked. He saw nothing. He said, there's nothing there! Honest. Quit fooling around you two." Toxic said, "She needs my help." Heat radiated from her as steam started raising from her skin. Neon said, "I can feel her terror, but I can't get any coherent thoughts. TOXIC! STOP THAT! This is like an astral projection or something! She's really not outside the window!" The window cracked from where Toxic was touching it. A hot smell of cloth reached them all as Toxic said, "I can save her. It's COMING!" A shadow passed over the sun as Toxic jumped back with a scream. Neon shrieked and jumped back against Jaffa. Jaeko jumped in spite of himself, and looked at the scorched hand-prints Toxic left in the inch thick plexiglass. Toxic was shaking in fear and she gasped out, "It swallowed her up!" Jaeko felt lost and scared himself. He had NEVER seen Toxic scared before. Jaffa asked, "What swallowed WHO?" Neon said, "I don't know. I couldn't make out what it was. Some kind of shadow. It moved so fast!" Toxic said, "It was shadow HER. A darkness that moved by itself in her image. I'm cold. It was drawn to my light. If I hadn't tried to help her...I might have helped her! It almost got me!" She grabbed onto Jaeko and hugged him tight. He noticed that she WAS cold, like ice. Jaeko asked, "Was it some kind of weird alien thing? Like a ghost or something?" Toxic shook her head. "NO. SHE was a ghost. It was ...something else. Old. Smart. Powerful. Not from HERE." Neon's cellphone went off and Neon shrieked again. She then laughed in relief. Everyone swallowed and caught their breath. Neon asked, "Hello?" After a minute she asked the phone, she asked,"Does this concern an Asuran female prisoner?" They heard shouting from the phone loud enough to make out,"WHO TOLD YOU? HOW DID YOU FIND OUT?" She looked over at Toxic and said to the phone,"Capatin Tkarro...someone who looked just like that was just here paying Toxic a visit. It was pretty DAMNED scary. Alright.....We'll be heading back. Bye." Neon said, "Captain Tkarro is sending over a company of Rangers to safeguard us back to the ship. Toxic, her name was Ushas. The Asuran woman we saw, that is." Toxic said, "I'd rather stay here, thank you." Neon said,"I've NEVER known you to chicken out! Was it THAT scary?" Toxic nodded. "When I looked at it...IT LOOKED BACK!" Jaffa said, "'He who looks into the abyss, the abyss also looks back into him.' Old saying from somewhere." Toxic nodded. --TO BE CONTINUED!--