Six columns of light appeared in the middle of the jungle clearing, solidifying into a team of women with a harmonious warbling. Each wore a short-sleeved tunic, identified by Starfleet as a skant, that fell to mid-thigh, a thick stripe of colour breaking the monotonous black both on the front and back of the outfit. Two of the women, their uniform stripes the same shade as mustard, turned as a pallet of equipment materialized a meter behind the beam-in point, hurrying to it and opening one of the smaller boxes.
The wine-red that adorned her skant marked Lieutenant Commander Miranda Jackson as a member of the command division which, when combined with her rank, established her as the leader of the away team. She watched the two engineers hand out tricorders and hard-shell backpacks, tapping her combadge as she stepped away from her team.
"Away team and supplies are down. Everything accounted for."
From high above her, aboard the comfortable surroundings of the orbiting Constitution-class U.S.S. Trafalgar, came the smooth voice of Lieutenant Mason, the officer assigned as the team's observer.
"Acknowledged LC. Good luck shepherding the boffins."
Jackson smiled as the link was closed, taking a deep breath that thrust out her full breasts.
"Everyone! Fall in!"
The other five officers, the two engineers and three scientists, formed into a line, Jackson pacing up and down in front of them.
"Lieutenant Stewart, you and Ensign Benton will establish the field camp. You three." Jackson had stopped to stare directly at each scientist in turn. "No more than 100 meters in any direction once out of the clearing. No playing hero either."
The scientists, the stripes on their skants a deep shade of blue, slowly nodded and huddled into a circle, rapidly whispering at each other. Benton handed each a phaser when the huddling ended, trying to ignore Jackson's quiet glare, and the lieutenant commander stalked after the junior officer.
"Sir? You'll be making the ensign nervous."
Glancing over at Stewart, rummaging through the crates, Jackson gestured at the one scientist still visible.
"I said no heroics. Giving them phasers will just encourage them."
---
Ensign Yasmin Hussein carefully picked through the jungle undergrowth, violet-hued eyes constantly flicking between where she put her feet and the tricorder. New Amazonia, the planet unimaginatively named after the Earth rainforest, was an unexplored world and as this was her first away mission she was determined to avoid screwing up anything.
Tensing when the tricorder let out a quiet beep Hussein sank into a crouch, brushing a lock of glossy raven hair behind an ear as she peered into the jungle. Her skant clung to her curved figure, plastered there by the humid air, but the ensign was oblivious to the sight she presented.
Rising with a triumphant little exclamation Hussein started trotting forward, eyes darting about in search of the life-sign the tricorder had detected. Confusion furrowed her brow though when the tricorder began emitting a series of beeps, picking up life-signs coming from all around Hussein, and she spun rapidly, the movement causing her skant to flare up and reveal more of her olive skin.
---
Lieutenant Alice Thomas had left the clearing directly opposite Ensign Hussein, the more experienced officer confident and whistling to herself as she walked towards a lake spotted from orbit. Her blonde hair steadily darkened, absorbing the heavy moisture in the atmosphere, the further from the clearing she got and after a few minutes Thomas stopped to partially open her skant, exposing the upper curves of her cleavage.
Glancing down at her tricorder Thomas quickly programmed it to do a continuous wide-area search, reasoning that local wildlife would congregate around the nearby body of water, and snapped it shut before holstering the device. As she orientated herself and began moving again Thomas brushed against a low bush, a sharp thorn tearing through her tights and scratching her skin.
---
The last of the scientists, a statuesque Trill lieutenant called Lenora, wandered off in a third direction. Unlike the others she was distracted, news from home at the front of her mind, and paid little attention to her surroundings. A frown marred the prettiness of her features as Lenora's tricorder went off, the lieutenant pulling it from her slender waist and flipping it open.
The tricorder had registered the existence of a large metallic object nearby, somehow having avoided detection from the Trafalgar's sensors, and Lenora swapped tricorder for phaser as she crept forward, the lessons from the academy filtering through from the back of her brain.
---
The waters of the lake were a glorious blue when Lieutenant Thomas emerged from the treeline, stepping on the ribbon of white sand that was the beach. Making sure there were no animals visible the lieutenant hurried to the water's edge, scooping up a handful of the liquid and gently bathing the scratch on her leg. It had started itching not long after she got it, nearly driving her mad, but the water seemed to help calm the itch.
Straightening Thomas retrieved her tricorder, opening it up and glancing at the readouts. She could make out the life-signs of her colleagues at the beam-in site, discounting them immediately, and pointed the tricorder out over the lake, a happy smile appearing as dozens of significant life-signs were detected.
A sleek chestnut-coloured horse came galloping along the beach towards her, its beauty driving the question of why a horse was on New Amazonia from Thomas' mind, and she took a faltering step towards it. The horse turned its head to regard her, a loud whinny breaking the silence, and Thomas froze when the horse began changing.
---
Reflexively Lieutenant Commander Jackson tapped her combadge when it chirped, perching on the edge of a half-emptied crate.
"Jackson here."
"Sir, I'm not picking up Lieutenant Lenora's combadge."
Jackson shot upright at Lieutenant Mason's words, a scowl on her face and curses flashing through her mind.
"What do you mean? Where was her last position?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I was... away… from my station when whatever happened happened."
"Fine. Try and find her life-sign with the ship's sensors. I'll look for her down here."
Jackson grabbed a phaser, attaching it to her hip, and tapped the combadge to close the link, looking round for either of the engineers.
---
A mob of monkey-like creatures swarmed Ensign Hussein, knocking the woman about and clawing at her skant, tearing holes in the tunic. In desperation the young woman took hold of her phaser, wildly firing at the gangly creatures. One was hit and limply tumbled to the ground, the others clustering around it for a second before they all glared at Hussein.
She gulped nervously, holding the phaser with both hands trembling in front of her, and fired at the ground between her and the alien simians as a warning. After a second of stalemate though Hussein's bravado faltered, the ensign spinning and sprinting away from the creatures before disappearing as a transporter beam snatched her away.
---
A warble filled the clearing just as Lieutenant Commander Jackson was about to set out, the woman turning to see Ensign Hussein materialize. The other woman's uniform was badly damaged and scratches marred the smoothness of her exposed skin.
"Hussein!"
The olive-skinned ensign glanced around in a panic, notably calming when she spotted Jackson.
"Oh thank God!" Slumping to her knees Hussein shuddered as the burst of adrenaline began fading. "There are monkey-things in the jungle. Vicious little monsters."
After helping Hussein into the field camp's lonely pre-fab Jackson stepped towards the middle of the clearing and tapped her combadge.
"Thank you for the intervention Lieutenant Mason."
"I picked up phaser fire and figured she needed help. Is she alright?"
"She'll be fine. I'm now concerned about her monkeys coming here. Can you get a security team down here?"
There was a pause before Mason's voice returned.
"I'll organize a team and send it down as soon as."
---
Lieutenant Thomas took a step back as the horse finished transforming into a virtually-perfect and clearly male humanoid, her eyes tracing the lines of his unclothed body.
"Don't be afraid."
The shapeshifter's words buried deep into Thomas' subconscious and she relaxed, hand dropping from her phaser.
"Who are you?" She closed the gap between her and the shapeshifter, tongue unknowingly flicking out to moisten her lips. "How'd you get here?"
"I've always been here, just waiting for someone like you."
The shapeshifter matched Thomas' moves and the lieutenant sighed in pleasure as, when there was only the fabric of her skant between them, he kissed her with a bruising passion. Pulling back breathlessly Thomas undid the rest of her uniform fastenings, revealing decidedly non-regulation underwear, and shrugged off the tunic.
"Alice." Her name was whispered but cogs still began whirling inside her skull. "You're beautiful."
"How'd you know my name? I didn't say my name."
The shapeshifter laughed and drew her close, kissing her again, but the hold he had over Thomas was fracturing.
"But of course you did. The way your name rolls off the tongue is part of what drew me to you."
Thomas wriggled out of the shapeshifter's arms, bare chest heaving in anger. Keeping her eyes on the humanoid the lieutenant crouched to retrieve the phaser from under her discarded skant, pointing it at him.
"Stay there or I will shoot."
"No you won't. Let go of what's in your hands and surrender to me. You know you want to."
---
Lieutenant Lenora wore a confused expression, not quite believing what was in front of her. A tall metal tube, resembling a turbolift dock, sat within a large tree trunk and its doors hissed open when she tentatively approached. She tapped her combadge as she stood on the threshold, pausing when the observer failed to respond.
"Lieutenant Mason? Lieutenant Commander Jackson?"
Silence was the response to her second attempt at contacting someone and Lenora backed away from the turbolift at the same time she got out her tricorder, a suspicion forming as she considered her surroundings.
The device stubbornly insisted that everything beyond ten meters didn't exist and the lieutenant cautiously approached the boundary of the scattering field, letting out a quiet sigh when tapping her combadge again produced results.
"Lieutenant! We've been trying to reach you ever since you fell off the sensors."
"There's something generating a scattering field down here, only a few meters to my right."
"Acknowledged Lieutenant. Stand by and we'll beam you back to the field camp."
The clearing was full of activity when Lenora rematerialized, Jackson having requested a security team, and the Trill stepped away from the worn patch of ground designated the beam-in point. The lieutenant commander was standing to one side and she quickly moved to corral Lenora into a pre-fab shack.
"Explain what you found."
Lenora described the turbolift in the core of a tree, outlining the size of the scattering field, and glanced out at the clearing when she finished.
"Where're Lieutenant Thomas and Ensign Hussein?"
"Lieutenant Mason has his eye on us. Hussein is somewhere round here, she didn't seem to get on with some of the locals, and Thomas is still up at the lake."
"You didn't recall them when I went missing?"
Jackson shook her head in physical response.
"As I said, Mason is watching. We're in no danger."
---
After a standard hour had passed Lieutenant Mason was given the order to beam Lieutenant Thomas back to the field camp. The arrival of just her skant, lying in a heap with a thin smattering of sand, had Lieutenant Commander Jackson glare skyward as she tapped her combadge.
"Lieutenant Mason, care to tell me where Lieutenant Thomas is?"
"I beamed her to the camp, just as you ordered."
"Run a scan for her life-sign. The only thing you've beamed here was her uniform."
Jackson had closed the link, not wanting to listen to Mason's next words, and then turned as a ripple of unease ran through the camp. Thomas was striding from the jungle, clad only in tights so damaged they barely qualified as such and sporting a blissed-out expression. It was the man at her side though that had caused the unease, his mere presence rolling across the clearing in waves. Dragging her eyes away from him with difficulty Jackson snapped her fingers at Lieutenant Lenora.
"Take some of the security officers and an engineer to investigate your turbolift." The team selected included the three men who'd beamed down and as Lenora led her little group away Jackson thought she saw a flicker of a smirk on Thomas' companion. "Lieutenant Thomas! Care to introduce us?"
The nude woman stroked her companion's arm lovingly, gazing up at him.
"This is Indig."
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