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This story is meant for those 18 years and older.

7: The Lake

Matt awoke so abruptly that he keeled over from his sleeping position onto the hard ground. His training took over and he grabbed his rifle and brought himself up into a firing position. Once his eyes had adjusted to the bright sunlight he scanned the area and found Feih asleep on her back several meters from him. That was when he noticed several inconsistencies with his surroundings.

When he went to sleep he was lying on Feih's special bedding, but he awoke with his back against a tree. He glanced at the tree and saw that it seemed different than the ones he had seen yesterday and the forest looked thinner. Even the debris on the ground was different. He also noticed that his rifle had been fired three times at full power without his knowledge. Then he remembered parts of his faded "dream".

He felt his face and other parts of his body and experienced no pain except for a slight twinge in his left shoulder, which he attributed to his sleeping position.

He looked back at Feih and noticed that she was sleeping with her mouth open. Something in the back of his mind caused him to move towards her with his rifle at the ready. Once he was within an arm's length of her head he noticed that there was dried blood on her mouth. He looked past her body and saw its source: a Driska skeleton not too far away from her.

He returned his full attention to Feih and peered into her mouth and was fascinated to see that her rear teeth looked almost like human molars. When he felt a twinge of pain in his left shoulder he decided to pursue a nagging suspicion and examined her upper canines using his visor's digital magnifier. When he spied a small hole near the tip of the rear of the closest one, he stood up, used his right hand to feel the back of his left shoulder and found a small puncture through the back of his uniform over an area that was still quite sensitive. Then he remembered the speed at which the Soriss soldier had died when bitten. "No one dies that fast from a punctured lung" he thought.

Matt readied himself for anything when he Feih closed her mouth and opened her eyes. He calmly greeted her with "Good morning Feih" while he made sure that his rifle continued to point harmlessly into the air.

She brought her head up and greeted him in a manner he least expected; she licked the left side of his exposed face. He did not flinch and stood his ground despite how good he felt as she repeated the gesture several times.

His lack of reaction brought a surprised, then worried look to her face. She did not let it affect her verbal greeting; "Good morning Matt. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes I did," he answered as she sat up with her eyes on his weapon "But I did have a weird dream and I was wondering if you could help me remember some of the details since you and I were in it."

"Fascinating that your dream would include me," stated Feih with genuine concern. "It wasn't a nightmare, I hope?"

He chuckled, "No, I don't think so, but it did feature a few spectacular physical acts by you. I would really like to know if you're capable of them."

Their eyes locked for a few seconds and Matt received a feeling of unease. He activated his visor's mirror function and darkened his view of her. He saw that she appeared disappointed by his actions.

She stood up and said; "I'll answer all of your questions, but first we should start moving away from here in case there are any Soriss air patrols in this area." She saw him stare at the remains of the animal and added, "I caught that Driska a few hours ago and would've shared it with you, but I didn't want to disturb your sleep."

He ignored the strange combined feeling of disappointment and intense hunger that came over him and said, "That's all right. I still have a good portion of my rations left and I don't think we'll have to worry about any airborne patrols for quite awhile. They'll probably be too busy preparing for a second attack by the Alliance fleet than to concern themselves with a one human, one Dorzeli commando force."

Feih nodded her head; "You may be correct."

Matt believed that he heard a hint of nervousness in her voice and chose to probe her for information that could confirm what he believed he had experienced during the night. "In my dream you made an amazing leap." He looked at her powerful legs. "How far can you actually jump?"

She turned so that he could see the grin on her face. "When we get to the lake I'll give you a demonstration."

Matt decided to remain silent for the rest of the journey.

He was impressed with the lake's size the moment he and Feih emerged from the tree line and walked onto the beach. The far shore was barely visible on the horizon.

He was about to ask how they were going to cross when she broke into a full run down the southern edge of the beach that reminded him of Earth's extinct velociraptors when she leaned forward to reduce the air resistance on her body. He checked his sensors and was amazed; "She's doing almost ninety kph!" his eyes opened wider when she put on a burst of acceleration and covered almost five times her body length when she jumped into the air.

He kept calm and his rifle slung over his shoulder when she landed and, after a wide arching turn, headed back toward him and looked as if she was not going to stop.

Feih was less than a dozen meters from him when she jumped, passed over his head and landed to a sliding stop to his rear. Surprised and awed by her performance he turned and applauded her.

She was baffled by the sounds he made with his hands, but when she saw the expression on his exposed face she became quite pleased with herself, strutted past him, entered the water and submerged herself until only her head and hips were exposed. She turned her head, smiled at him and laid her tails together at his feet.

He at once understood what she wanted him to do and an ancient memory caused him to shake his head no; "There has to be another way."

She looked disappointed at his reluctance. "If you try to walk around this lake you'll be several days late in meeting your people and you'll probably be captured and killed by what few Soriss patrols are left in this area." She lifted her arm out of the water and pointed toward the distant shore. "This is the fastest way." She re-submerged her arm and with a smile added, "I'm an excellent swimmer so you'll be safe."

He knew that she was right. If he were to have any chance of making it to the rendezvous on time he would have to trust her and take the shortest route possible; "All right; I'll do it your way."

He took great care when he stepped onto her tails and checked her face for any sign of discomfort. When she nodded for him to continue he proceeded up to her hips then onto her lower back.

She raised her hips out of the water. "You should sit down and relax. This will take some time and I don't want you falling in." She turned her face toward the opposite shore. "This lake's fish can be very aggressive."

He did just that as visions of piranha came to his mind.

Once he was in place Feih pushed off. Her smooth movement through the water validated her claim of her swimming prowess.

Silence marked most of their trip with Feih taking several opportunities to glance back at Matt every few minutes. This made him very uncomfortable. At the two thirds mark of their journey Matt had had enough and asked, "Why do you keep looking back at me?" after he removed the safety from his weapon.

She slowed her forward progress and turned her head. "You've been very quiet since we started our crossing. Is there something wrong?"

He tried to keep his anger over what the few memories that had returned had revealed about the previous night under control as she stared at him. "Yes, there are several things wrong such as; how was my gun fired three times without my knowledge and how we traveled over sixty clicks in one night without my remembering anything about it?" He raised the barrel of his of his rifle. "And I would also like to know exactly how venomous you are."

Feih came to a complete stop and closed her eyes. "All Dorzeli are and we can vary the dosage from inducing a light coma-like state to near instant death. There is no cure, even for other members of the Empire, no matter their size. It can also induce short-term memory loss. That is why you don't remember anything from last night." She opened her eyes and turned halfway back toward the shore of the lake. "The dosage I gave you was too light. You should have stayed out long enough for me to get you back to your people."

Matt tried to keep his anger down when he said, "Keep going."

She resumed swimming and blurted out in a tone of disgust. "I make no apology for what I did. Your pace was too slow and as you observed the delay you caused almost got us killed."

Matt's anger finally got the better of him. "Delay? You were the one that wanted to-to..." He paused and tried to figure out where that memory had come from but his overall anger at her overwhelmed him before more could be recalled. "Well one damned thing for sure you won't be doing that again, because when we hit the beach we are going to separate. And if you try to follow me..."

"You'll shoot me?" she asked in disbelief. He answered her by adjusting his weapon to its highest setting. She frowned and became indignant. "How far do you think you'll get without me? You wouldn't last a day by yourself, but with me you'd at least have an excellent chance of seeing your home again."

"I'll take that chance."

Frustrated, she turned her head to face him. "You must understand that I only did what I felt was right in order to keep you alive. I didn't realize that a side affect of what I did was going to be your sharing all of last night's experiences with me." She paused and started to smile. "Or my finding out about your secret desires and fantasies."

Matt was stunned. How did she find out? Did she know everything? Was that the reason he was still alive? He tried to remember more of the previous night's events but they continued to elude him.

Her real voice became very soft, almost pleasing to his ears when she continued, "When you were inside my mind we shared everything. That's a very rare occurrence with other species. It also means that you're someone very special. I would never do anything to harm you."

The directions their conversation was going in and the manner with which she smiled at him disturbed him and evoke feelings that he had tried to deny since they first met. He decided on a course of action that he hoped would end the conversation.

He tried to sound as calm as possible when he asked, "Before you met me, how did you feel about other sentient species?"

Feih frowned and looked away from him, "I thought of them as I did that pilot: just as another means of survival."

He tried to put as much conviction into his voice as possible, but the return of the memories hampered him; "I thought as much. Well you can forget about any sick fantasies you may have had about me. I am leaving you once I'm on shore and if you try anything before we get there...I won't mind swimming the rest of the way."

Hurt by Matt's words she turned away from him and emitted a low growl.

Matt felt her tense and readied to fire. Then all of his memories of the previous night came flooding back into his conscious mind; that she wanted something from him, something he was willing to give her just before the Soriss fighters attacked. This and his true reasons for joining the military, the ones she had alluded to, and the ones that explained why he was in this system. A scan of his helmet's memory revealed to him an unexpected translated message that she spoke before she swallowed him caused him to hesitate further:

"I, Feih Desslat, of the Dorzeli-ki take full responsibility for what I am about to do in order to complete my mission. Should this not turn out well and Corporal Matthew Thorn not survive I will submit myself for whatever punishment his people wish to impose upon me, including death, without any interference by my clan or any other Dorzeli-Ki."

Just as he finished this review of this message he found himself flipped up into the air.

He fell, head first, back toward the water and saw that Feih was now fully upright, with the top half of her body above the surface. She caught and turned him right-side up.

Even though his arms had somehow remained free and he had managed to hold onto his rifle's shoulder strap he made no move to defend himself when she growled, "How dare you threaten me after how I saved your life and helped you get this far" and tightened her grip.

He saw that she was ready to strike or tear him apart and lowered his gaze from her face. "Go ahead," he sighed, "I deserve whatever you want to do with me. I never really expected to get off this planet alive anyway."

He felt Feih's grip loosen when she tried to respond, "Matt, I..."

He was startled when his proximity alarm went off. He accessed his short-range sensors and found no other Dorzeli or aircraft in the vicinity. Then he remembered where he was and checked the water and what he discovered there caused him to swing his weapon to his right.

Feih mistook his actions for an attack and lunged her open mouth forward but was stopped when something impacted her on her left side. The sudden change in angle caused his shot to go wide into the air as he fell into the frigid water.

Matt assumed the worst and struggled to get his weapon ready in case of an attack from either Feih or her assailant. What he saw after his visor had automatically adjusted to under water viewing was beyond anything he could have ever imagined.

Feih was in a life and death struggle with what looked like a large terrestrial shark whose jaws were clamped around her left thigh. Her repeated attacks on its body with her sharp claws had no effect on the creature as it dragged her down into the lake's black depths. The last thing he saw just before he lost sight of her was a plea for help when she looked up at him.

He ignored his increasing need for oxygen and his training against using a beam rifle under water, brought took aim, switched its linked targeting system to infrared, located Feih and a much hotter heat signature next to her. He took careful aim at it and fired.

The water boiled around the beam, and obscured its effectiveness. Seconds later he saw a bright flash then a shockwave hit him.

Matt awoke to a heavy pressure upon his chest. He coughed water out of his mouth, opened his eyes and saw the cause of his discomfort; Feih's massive right hand and fingers were spread across his upper body.

He was overjoyed to see that she had survived the explosion, but when she removed her hand and he saw no such joy on her face he worried that he may had not done the right thing by saving her.

She grinned and showed off all her teeth then said, "It's good to see that you are still alive, although in a few moments you may wish that I'd let you drown back in the lake."

Matt remembered what he thought she was about to do before the shark attacked her. Then it hit him; his helmet with all its displays and enhancements was gone! This and the absence of his auxiliary control armband and his beam rifle lead him to the conclusion that he was now defenseless against anything Feih might try.

His search for an escape route stopped when he noticed the wounds on Feih's left thigh; red stains had formed in the many slits where the shark had bitten through her suit. Feih also looked down at her injury then back up at him.

"Oh yes. I must thank you for saving me from that creature. Or should I say machine."

He was not surprised at this revelation. He had assumed that it was probably an automated sentry device as it had given off too much heat and energy to be a living creature.

"Your shot ruptured its main power core. Luckily I was able to separate myself from it before it exploded. And as far as these scratchjes are concerned: we Dorzeli are fast healers so you needn't worry." When she saw that Matt was still searching the area Feih raised her left hand and opened it. "Looking for these?"

Matt stared at her open hand and saw his missing helmet, pack and wristband.

"Where you're going you won't have any need of these toys of yours," She promptly dropped his helmet and pack to the ground, "Especially this dangerous little item." She closed her hand. When she reopened it all that was revealed was a small crumpled mass of metal and plastic. She smiled when she saw the expression on his face. "I can't have you blowing me up once I'm done with you."

Matt tried to crawl backward up the slope of the beach in an attempt to get away from her, but did not get far due to the loose sand which was slowing him down.

"I can appreciate your not trusting me, but this," she dropped the ruined device to the ground and stood up, "and pointing that weapon of yours at my head along with those threats you made was an insult to my personal honor." She frowned. "I'm afraid that my people will just have to do without your help." She opened her mouth and advanced on him.

Matt closed his eyes and started to pray. That was when he received the message.

"I understand"

A loud explosion caused him to reopen his eyes. He was stunned to see Feih stumble backwards with a look of shock and pain on her face and smoke and fire on her upper left chest. A second powerful blast to that same area sent her flying backward into the lake.

Hundreds of liters of water her body had displaced flowed back over her and boiled away as steam from the residual heat.

Matt was almost brought to tears when he looked at Feih's lifeless tails and feet protrude from the water. The wave of sadness he felt at her death so overwhelmed that he barely heard the approach of footsteps from his rear. When he did he turned and roared, "Why the hell..." He stopped when he saw five Soriss soldiers, backed up by a small armored vehicle. All had their weapons aimed at him.

To be continued...