"Hey!" Matt yelled to the man up in front of him. "This isn't the way we came in!"

"I know," Finn called back over his shoulder with a devil may care grin, "but my way's faster."

"It better be!" Matt mumbled. He tossed his dark hair out of his eyes and tucked the GPS back into his belt pouch. Their hunting party had been dropped several kilometers from the main shuttle landing and the dirtsiders on the gathering teams weren't expecting any radio contact from them for at least two more days. Which meant their receivers were probably pointed to the ship in orbit and if Matt needed to make radio contact this far out . . . well, they'd better just hope they didn't need to make contact anytime too soon. He'd been feeling uneasy ever since he'd gotten up that morning and found Finn and the team leader in some kind of argument over ammunition. Having Finn decide to storm off into the wilds of an unknown planet hadn't helped matters.

Matt didn't blame the guy for hating LaCroix. The Team Leader was arrogant and rude and Matt almost wished he'd volunteered to pick fruit with the women when he found out he'd been chosen as head of the hunting group. But then Finn had agreed to come dirtside, too, and he figured they'd just make the best of it. And they had. They'd put a bead on some pretty good-sized herd beasts. Once they were all cleaned and dressed, they'd have enough meat to feed all the passengers on board for at least a month. Hell, maybe by then they'd find the right wormhole to take them back to Earth!

Matt kept walking, his eyes on Finn's back. The land they traversed was hilly, with small patches of scrub forest breaking the dusty, desert-like ground. From what Matt could tell, Finn was walking a straight line. 'As the crow flies,' a pilot would say, and that's just how a ship got from point A to point B; taking the shortest distance between two points. How Finn did it, Matt had no idea but he wasn't going to take the time to ask him now. The sooner they got back to the shuttle, the better.

He glanced at the cloudless blue sky and the position of the sun and thought, for the umpteenth time, that they really shouldn't have left the others. If something happened and they had to fend for themselves. . . Shoot! What's going to happen? Matt shook his head.

"Hey, don't you ever rest?" he called out. He was a big guy, but he worked out regularly and considered himself in shape. Unfortunately, his legs and back were beginning to tell a different story.

Finn stopped in the shade at the edge of a stand of trees. He shrugged off his heavy pack and leaned his rifle against a rock.

"Well, don't you?" Matt asked the smaller man again, flopping down, pack and all. He'd met Finn on the ship, after they'd found out they were lost. It had been a crazy ride and if the circumstances had been different, they probably never would have become friends. Finn was an outdoorsman. Nature was his element. Matt was a born pilot. His place was in the sky-- or by the ladies sides. . .

"Yeah I could use a breather," Finn was saying, his blue eyes twinkling as he stared down at Matt laying on the ground. "And I'm hungry, too, but first-- I gotta go." He plowed into the brush returning a moment later with a surprised look on his face. "C'mere and see what I found!"

Matt lurched to his feet, the heavy weight on his shoulders setting him off balance. He swung his rifle down and followed Finn.

"What the--?" Matt said as Finn stopped him short.

The two men stood on the edge of a large circle. Its sides were built up knee high with branches and leaves and brown grasses. It was full of dark yellow, football-sized objects.

Matt whistled. "What kind of bird would make a nest this big?" he wondered out loud.

Finn knelt down and reached for one of the eggs. It felt warm and its shell was soft and leathery. He weighed it between his hands and put it back down. "I thought birds built nests in trees."

"I don't like this," Matt said, looking around at the suddenly still forest.

"Me, either. Let's have something to eat and get out of here." Both men backed away from the nest. They ate their lunch in silence, stealing wary glances across one another's shoulders.

Matt had just shrugged back into his pack and picked up his rifle when a loud shriek reverberated through the air.

Finn was on his feet in an instant. "Criminy!" he exclaimed. "What was that?"

"I dunno, man, let's get outta here!" All the hair on Matt's neck stood straight on end. He watched as Finn grabbed his own pack and rifle and darted forward into the forest. Hope he know's where he's going now, he thought as he scrambled after him.

The noise sounded again, farther in the distance and both men breathed a little easier. Feeling safer now, Matt chuckled. "Sorta sounds like a cross between a donkey and a goose."

"A very large goose!" Finn corrected, still crashing full force ahead.

"Wait up!" Matt cried, charging after him.

After several minutes, they slowed, both out of breath. Matt held his rifle loose and ready in the crook of his arm. He wiped the sweat off his brow and pushed his hair back. That was a close one, he thought, wondering when the forest would thin out and they'd be back on the plain. He didn't like all these trees, not knowing what might be hiding behind them. . .

Suddenly the bushes in front of Finn parted and a head that appeared to be made solely of bloodstained teeth, materialized out of the shadows. For a split second that felt like an eternity, Matt watched as Finn brought up his weapon and the slobbering creature locked gazes with him over the barrel.

Shoot it! Shoot it! Matt screamed silently. At the last second, he realized Finn was not going to shoot at all. He was frozen in place, his trigger finger as good as stone. With a primal scream, Matt brought up his own rifle and sighted in. Then he let off a barrage of deafening shots as he emptied his chamber, watching the creature's head explode in a gruesome spray of blood and brain.

The animal fell sideways and Matt's fingers fumbled at his belt for his spare clip. He put it in but found it unnecessary; the creature was dead. He turned his attention on Finn who had dropped his weapon and was staring in shock at his blood spattered pants and boots.

"Why didn't you shoot it, man?" Matt cried, cuffing Finn up side the head. "It almost had you! You could be dead right now!" He continued to rant, venting his relief in the only way he could.

Suddenly Finn's head came up, his eyes wide and full of fear. He lurched forward and grabbed Matt's rifle out of his hands, raising it to his shoulder and pointing it directly at him.

"W-what are you doing?!" Matt barely had time to get the words out, to hit the ground as the gun went off, empty shells flying as Finn fired again and again.

There was a loud thud as the creature behind Matt fell, headless, like its mate. He rolled out of the way as Finn stood panting, the gun hanging limp in his hands, watched as the other man's throat constricted and he dropped to his knees and began wretching the lunch they'd shared just minutes ago.

Matt staggered to his feet, pulling Finn up after him. "C'mon, we gotta get back to shuttle landing and warn the others!"

The two men stumbled away.

"May Day! May Day!" A woman's frantic voice blared across Matt's shoulder com. "Hey!" he yelled to Finn. "Wait a minute!"

Finn stopped and bent over, his hands on his thighs. They'd been running steadily since the attack in the forest.

"This is Edwards," Matt said between gasps. " Who the hell is this?"

"Jo, Jolena Carson-- You've gotta help us!"

"Okay, hon, just calm down," Matt said, trying to place the name with a face and deciding she must be one of the women from the fruit gathering group. "Tell me what the problem is."

"It's LaCroix, he called into camp a little while ago. He said they were trapped in a canyon and that they were being attacked by something. I could hear men screaming!" Her own voice rose to a high pitch. "My husband's on that team! You've got to help them!"

"Where are you now, Jo?" Matt asked.

"I'm . . .we're all in the shuttle. LaCroix told us to lock ourselves in here and not to come out no matter what happened." She paused. "There's . . . there's something moving around out there."

Matt looked at Finn, whose face had gone pale.

"Jo, I want you to listen to me very carefully, okay?"

"O-okay," came the trembling reply.

"Good. I'm over an hour away from you and I'm on foot. I'm going to need you to bring me a skimmer. Think you can do that, Jo?"

"Y-yes, yes I can!"

"Good girl. Make sure the rest of the women know to stay in the shuttle. And when you get outside, you fly, do you hear me? Don't stop for anything."

"O-okay."

"Once you're in the air you let me know. I'll give you my coordinates. Okay, Jo? Are you ready?"

"I'm ready," she said. "Melody is opening the hatch now--"

The com cut off and Finn and Matt both waited, holding their breaths, until Jolena's frightened voice crackled in the air again.

"I'm up!" she cried, panting.

"Good, Jo! Good!" Matt said. He gave her their position. "Full throttle ahead, okay? We'll be waiting!"

They heard the skimmer before they saw it. Matt jogged along behind Finn toward the sound of the gentle hum.

Jo over shot them and swung back around, bringing the flat, bun-shaped craft to a hover so they could climb aboard, then she scrambled into the back seat, happy to relinquish the controls to someone more qualified. Finn dropped into the other front seat, his rifle across his knees.

Matt grabbed the stick and within minutes they were closing in on the shuttle's position. Only-- it wasn't there! Matt squinted at where he knew the shuttle was supposed to be. Finally he stood in his seat to see over the dust caked windshield. "No way!" he exclaimed. Finn stood up, too.

Jolena screamed.

The shuttle was swarming with the same creatures that had attacked Matt and Finn in the forest. Their mottled skin was a dusty green-brown that blended in with the surroundings, providing the shuttle with a blanket of living camouflage.

"Hold on," Matt said, "I'm going to buzz them." He looped the little skimmer up and around and up and around again, taking on some height. Then he dived. "Yeeeeeeeeeee!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as the little ship skittered down and over the backs of the creatures, setting them snarling and snapping at air.

A small space cleared momentarily and the white of the shuttle roof could be seen and then it filled in again. Matt circled back, watching as the creatures scratched and pecked at the ceramic surface.

"Can they hurt it?" Finn asked. "Can they get in?"

"They can't get in," Matt said. "But, neither can we."

He spun back around and did another dive, reaching for Finn's gun. "Here, take the stick, I'm gonna see if I can pick a few off."

Before Finn could protest, Matt raised the rifle, sighted in and was rewarded with a loud 'click'.

"What the?" He sighted in again, and again fired an empty chamber. By now they were out of range. Finn pulled the skimmer back around.

Matt opened the rifle and swore, tossing it over the seat as he struggled to pull his own weapon from his back. "No wonder you never shot that first one back there-- you weren't loaded!"

Finn met Matt's gaze and held it.

"You crazy idiot," Matt shouted.

"You know I don't believe in killing . . . anything," Finn said stubbornly.

"Yeah well, at least you found your brain when it was either me or IT!"

Finn jerked the skimmer back around, inadvertently slamming Matt into the console. Matt straightened up and sighted in another time.

"I won't shoot another one," Finn said, his voice lost in the barrage of automatic fire. "I won't!"

"Yes, you will," Matt said quietly. "If you have to." He lowered the rifle. "This isn't working."

"What are we going to do?" Jo asked from the back seat.

"I've got an idea," Matt said. "Who's in there? I need someone with a sensible head on her shoulders."

"Melody," Jo said immediately, leaning forward between the two seats.

Matt nodded. "Keep us circling, Finn," he said. He flipped the switch on the control panel and opened a link to the shuttle com. "Melody! This is Matt Edwards. Come in!"

"Come on, Mel," Jo murmured.

"I'm here!" Melody's voice came through a moment later. Hysterical sobbing and screaming could be heard in the back ground.

"How many woman are in there?" Matt wondered out loud.

"Seven-- no, six now," Jo answered.

"Sounds like a hundred and six." He shook his head. "Mel, my name is Matt-- your handsome shuttle pilot? You remember me, don't you?"

He was met by silence.

"Mel? Are you there?"

"Yes."

"It's okay if you don't remember me right now. We'll talk about that later, okay? I guess I don't have to tell you that we got ourselves a little situation here. . ."

"No, Matt," Melody said, taking a deep breath. "You don't have to tell me. We've got windows, we can see them."

"Pretty ugly, aren't they?" Matt said."But you just hang in there. Tell me where you are right now, will you Mel?"

"I'm standing in the cockpit between the two seats."

"Okay, good. See that seat on your left? That's my chair. I don't let just anyone sit there, Mel, but Jo here tells me you're pretty special. So, I want you to go ahead and make yourself comfortable." He waited. They could hear the sound of snapping buckles.

"Okay," Melody said."I'm in."

"That was good, Melody. You're quick. You haven't, by any chance had any pilot's training have you?"

Melody's nervous laughter came over the com. "I'm a lab tech in the Med-bay."

Matt smiled. "Well, today is your lucky day. See, you're about to have your first pilot's lesson and if you do real good you get a prize, Mel. Right now I want you to put your right hand on the stick. See it? There's a red button on the top. Your thumb fits over that button, nice and snug-- but don't press it just yet. Okay?"

"Right hand on the stick, thumb hovering over the red button." She gave a slightly-hysterical laugh. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure Mel, I'm all ears."

"Um. . . what's the prize you're going to give me?"

Matt grinned. "Oh, don't worry, you'll like it, guaranteed. Now there's a panel to your left with a set of 9 keys. I want you to press in these numbers. Six, one, seven, four, three two, nine."

"Nothing happened," Melody said.

"That's okay. That's just my clearance code. Now, straight ahead there's a circular panel filled with buttons--"

"I don't see any panel-- the dashboard is solid. . ."

"Mel, you're right. That's what I like about you-- you're one smart cookie. I think I'm falling in love here. But look down by your right knee. There should be a green switch and a red one. See them? Pull up the green one."

"Oh! okay, yes, the panel's open now. Oh no!" She groaned. "I can't do this!"

"Easy there, Mel, just relax. I'm gonna walk you through it, don't you worry your pretty little head."

"I'll try not to," Melody answered.

"You're doing just fine. And you know what? I'm going to take you out on Saturday night to celebrate. We can rent a holosuite, have a picnic-- what ever you want to do. You're not busy Saturday are you, Mel?"

"Umm. . . no, I'm not busy."

"It's a date then. Now, I want you to look at that beautiful dashboard. Don't try reading any of the console buttons-- just concentrate on the colors, okay? I'm going to have you press the yellow square at three o'clock. You see that? Press it twice for me, okay, hon?"

"Twice. Right. Did it."

"Now over at 9 o'clock, the blue triangle. Press it once."

"Mel?

"Mel?"

A heart pounding five minutes went by with no answer. Finn brought the skimmer to a hover right above the shuttle, the writhing mass of dangerous creatures just a few meters below.

"Where could she be?" Jo asked.

"Hello?" Melody's voice finally came back, breathless.

"Melody!" Matt said. "Where'dya go, girl?"

"Sorry. One of the women panicked and was trying to open the hatch. They're all buckled in now."

"Okay, whew!" Matt said. "Do you know how long it's been since I've had a date? Don't do that to me again, Mel!"

She laughed. "I won't. I promise. What's next? I pressed the blue triangle."

"Okay, look in the center of that circle, you've got four green panels. Starting with the bottom left hand corner, I want you to start pumping them, clockwise, just keep at it and don't stop till I say. It's going to start the engines, and they need to cycle at 462 kpm-- watch the readout-- before you can lift off, okay?"

There was a loud screeching noise as the creatures on the shuttle felt the tremor of the engines and renewed their attempt to gain entry with a devilish fervor.

"Good Melody, nice and steady, pump them evenly, keep a rhythm going, you're almost there, almost there-- Okay, UP!"

"Oh! We moved! We're moving! We're moving!" Melody cried.

The shuttle raised a meter off the ground and suddenly Matt and Finn and Jo found themselves face to face with several heads, filled with very sharp teeth.

Finn quickly jerked the skimmer upward and off to the side, watching as the creatures jumped and snapped, screeching their frustration.

Matt turned back to the com. "Okay, Mel, you're doing GREAT! Now, I want you to swing out that little door you see by your left knee. It sort of pulls down and then up."

"Got it!" Melody's voice was full of nervous exhilaration.

Matt wiped the sweat from his brow. The telling moment had come. Even after a year of simulations, most Jr. Pilots still had a hard time handling a real gyro and stick.

"It's, it's a ball? Kind of just floating there?"

"That's right, Mel. I want you to think about your touch right now."

"My . . . my touch?"

"That's right. Nice and easy, Mel. Put your hand on that ball. Wrap your fingers right around it, not too tight, let it glide beneath your palm. Got it?"

"I've got it."

Matt let out a deep breath and closed his eyes."Okay, this is important. Remember that red button? I want you to grasp the stick with your other hand and put your thumb on that button. Real, real slow, Melody. You've got to depress the button with your thumb at the same time you're other hand is . . . is . . . maneuvering the silver ball. Close your eyes if you have to. Yes, definitely close your eyes. Concentrate on keeping your feet on the floor and the floor flat under your feet. . ."

"Matt?"

"Yes, Mel?"

"I don't think I can do this."

"Sure you can, hon. You're going to be great. Come on now. Nice and easy. Be gentle with me, Mel."

He held his breath, not daring to open his eyes again, knowing he had to. Depressing the red button initiated the anti-grav drive and holding the gyro steady was the only thing that would keep the shuttle level. He'd heard of pilots, freshly pinned, tipping a vessel and sending it crashing to the ground in a fiery ball. . . ."

Slowly, the air shimmering all around it, the shuttle began to move steadily upward. The mottled creatures hanging on the sides of the ship started jumping to the ground.

"Whoa! Look at them drop!" Finn exclaimed, hanging his head over the side of the skimmer.

Matt grinned. "The hull is heating up!" They watched as ten of the creatures at a time leaped to their deaths as the shuttle rose higher.

"Uhhh, Matt--" Finn said. "If she keeps going, how we gonna get in?"

"Oh shoot! Melody? Melody? Hold it right there! Don't move a muscle. You're doing great. Keep it steady. Those nasty things are all gone. It's a beautiful day! Can you see the sun out your window?"

"You mean I can open my eyes now?" Melody squeaked.

Matt laughed and then whooped. "Yes, baby, open them wide!" He took the controls from Finn and maneuvered the skimmer to the roof where he hovered by the hatch. "Mel, under your trigger finger, on the stick, there's an indentation-- do you feel it?"

"I think so..."

"Press it. Then you need to come open the forward hatch-- your prize awaits you!"

Less than two minutes went by before Matt saw the hatch pop open. He helped Jo over the side of the skimmer and lowered her by her arms into the open doorway. Finn jumped down next and Matt dropped the rifles and their packs after him and followed.

The women had gathered around Jo and Finn. Matt saw a tall, slender, blonde standing by the cockpit doorway looking like she'd just run a marathon. In two strides he was by her side, folding her into his arms.

"I don't know how any date can compare to that," she said, her grin wide.

Matt laughed. "Just you wait," he said, and then he kissed her.