Of course the answer wasobvious. My best friend, Vanessa. We'd been friends since kindergartenand there were no secrets between us. I walked into the ...iving room, notenjoying the way my hips swayed with every step I took. I grabbed thephone and dialed Vanessa's number."Hello?" she answered."Hey, Vanessa." Oh. Hey, Cassie. What are you doing home? I thought you were out of townwith your folks." Uh, she is. This is Kyle." Cassie, are you okay?" I'm not Cassie. And no, I'm not. Will you please. Next spring we could plant a garden, and a big one at that, but this winter we needed a little help from our friends, and they hadn't seemed all that friendly when we left.No matter, we were going to close off the other end of our shelf and then do a couple of days of concentrated gathering. We had horses and travois to help us and while things up here weren't exactly abundant there were some things we could harvest.Back at the cave, supper was on the fire after I made it inside after hobbling. The gathering heat she felt quickly awakened in her body and glowed brightly with a life of its own. His words sounded so true and his voice was like a hypnotic song that made her want to give in to his advance. She felt fear again, but this time she was afraid of what she was beginning to desire. She was only moments away from succumbing to his advance when she finally pushed him away. ‘No! I’m sorry, I can’t! Let me go!’ It took all of her strength to break his spell, but she pushed by him. Then his troops flew out of the suddenly decompressed bow ramps."Close the ramps..." he said.He flew across the deck as his ship took a massive hit to his bow and he saw it burning under a white light. Staggering to his feet Captain Weq looked around, "Hyper out, now," he ordered as he staggered to his feet and looked at the bow of his ship."Head for Hydron. We will pick up the rest of our fleet and come back." Hypering now, Captain, but what about our fighters?" They're on their own. We don't.