Both Alex and Jenna were actually speechless after the woman had introduced herself.

Alex managed to look over at Jenna who was looking just as confused. It took him a moment to be able to form a response.

“You were part of the committee that approved the colony program?” he asked incredulously. “Then what the hell are you doing out here in the wilderness alone?”

“I was out here looking for the arriving colonists,” blurted Ellie. “Like I already told you, we’ve been expecting you. We knew you were coming soon and we wanted to make sure you all got back to Vesta.”

Alex gave her a queer look. “Why would you expect us out here? Wouldn’t you expect the Racine to drop us off at the city with everyone else?”

“In a perfect world, yes,” answered Ellie. “But this is hardly my first colony operation. They almost never go to plan. The last one was even worse. Upon entry into our atmosphere, the ship’s hull was ruptured by the extreme heat. You see, that ship was due for decommissioning years ago but it didn’t stop the Alliance from sending it on one last trip to Vesta. Those escape pods went all over to the planet. We spent weeks searching for all the new colonists. We expected that it might happen again, and we wanted people out here to find you if it did.”

Ellie’s words sounded so sure but something wasn’t quite adding up for Alex. Why was Ellie alone for one? Why did she barely have any supplies? Why was she stalking them instead of making her presence known from the beginning? And lastly, why did her story change from the first thing she told him?

Ultimately, there were too many questions to ignore for that moment.

“I don’t believe you,” said Alex, crossing his arms. “Why were you stalking us? If you’re part of the welcome committee, why not introduce yourself right away? Why sneak up on us in the night?”

Ellie shrugged. “For my own safety. We knew the program was composed of criminals and a large man moving with one other woman could easily be a situation where she was your hostage. I knew there was the chance you could overpower me, so I kept my distance until I could make sure you weren’t a threat to me.”

Ellie then gestured at his pistol. “As you can see, my intuition was right.”

“I’m not a threat to you,” growled Alex. “And what you did was incredibly stupid. You almost got yourself killed.”

“Death is everywhere these days in Vesta,” said Ellie after a long sigh. “I’m actually glad to have found you. We need people and we need them desperately.”

“Why is that?” asked Jenna. “Is it because of the bear problem?”

Ellie shuddered. “It’s more than just a problem. It’s a damn catastrophe. How much have they told you of the bears?”

“Just that in recent years, bear attacks have been getting more frequent,” said Alex. “That it was preventing the colony from expanding but that it was something that was getting more under control.”

Ellie actually started to laugh. “That’s what they told you? Jesus, this is worse than I thought.”

“How bad is it?” asked an alarmed Jenna.

“It’s bad,” said Ellie before she turned to look at Alex. “We should get back to Vesta as soon as possible though. Everything will be better when we get there.”

There was something about the way she said it that stuck out to him as odd. Something wasn’t quite right about Ellie, and despite her reasoned explanations, Alex could smell bullshit a mile away.

There was more to her story than this and he was determined to find out.

“Stay here for a second,” he said to Ellie, keeping his pistol trained on her. He gestured for Jenna to follow him, stepping just out of earshot (but close enough that he could keep his eye on the Vestan woman).

“What do you think?” asked Jenna once they were alone. “She seems a little weird.”

“I think she’s lying to us,” said Alex. “I can’t prove it yet but she’s not telling us everything.”

“Like about the bears? Calling it a catastrophe is pretty drastic, don’t you think?”

Alex nodded. “Well, we saw how fast they can be firsthand. A one-on-one fight with a bear for any other person is a likely death sentence.”

Jenna actually smiled. “Except for you, of course.”

“Either way, I don’t trust her. I think it’s a good idea to keep her with us where I can keep an eye on her. If she was really sent out to greet us from Vesta, they can corroborate her story when we get there.”

“What if it’s not that though, Alex? What if it’s something worse?”

Alex thought the question over for a moment. “Then it’s better that she’s with us. And disarmed.”

“Okay,” she said finally. “I trust you. Whatever you want to do.”

They returned to Ellie who was now sitting on the ground near the lean-to.

“Here’s the deal,” said Alex. “You’re going to accompany us back to Vesta. I’ll be keeping your pistol in the interim. You can have your pack but nothing else until we get to the city. If you show any hostile intent, I’m going to tie you up and drag you along behind me. As long as you stay peaceful, we’ll get along just fine. Can you deal with that?”

Surprisingly, Ellie smiled. “Do I have a choice? That’s fine. I accept your terms. I’m not a danger to you though.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” said Alex. “For now, we’re going to tie you up for the rest of the night.”

Alex did the honors, creating a knot around her wrists and ankles with the rope that was in the survival bag from the escape pod. After he was satisfied with that, he tied her to the tree.

“What if a bear comes though?” asked a frightened Ellie once she was secured. “I’ll be a sitting duck here tied up like this.”

Alex shrugged. “It’s a risk we have to take right now.”

Ellie pouted but said no more. It became quickly apparent once she was tied just how tired she was from stalking them for half the night. It wasn’t long before she fell asleep.

Alex was ready for a rest of his own. He curled into his sleeping bag and offered his pistol to Jenna.

“If she does anything that you don’t like, shoot her,” he said to her before offering a smile. “Hopefully she’s not too much of a nuisance.”

Jenna smiled back. “I was really liking when it was just you and me too. It was nice, Alex. I can’t remember the last time I had this much alone time with someone else.”

Alex reached out to grab her hand. For the very first time, Jenna didn’t stiffen at his touch, which was remarkable progress.

“I liked it too,” he said. “I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”

“Okay. Night, Alex.”

*****

Despite the tumultuous night, the next morning actually started off rather boring. Alex woke up just as the sun was rising, and he found that Jenna looked a little worse for wear.

“Tired?” he asked, seeing the bags under her eyes.

She nodded without saying a word.

Alex gestured to his sleeping bag. “Go on and take a nap before we start off this morning. I’m betting you didn’t get much sleep while we were waiting for her visitor.”

Jenna didn’t even try to fight the suggestion. She nodded and crawled into the sleeping bag he just came out of, and she was asleep within seconds.

Just a short distance away, Ellie was also still sleeping, and now that the sun was coming up, he got his first look of Ellie in the light.

It was not an unpleasant look to say the least. Ellie was incredibly attractive. He could see now that her hair was thick and luxurious, even tied back in her ponytail. She had an unmarred (but slightly dirty) face and a very cute button nose.

He also noticed that she wasn’t wearing any breathing apparatus. He knew that the native Vestans who grew up here had long adjusted to the lower levels of oxygen in the Vestan atmosphere. It all seemed to support what she said about living on the planet her entire life.

For some reason, seeing her like this made the thought of the journey to Vesta not as bad as it sounded last night. Especially now that he was in the company of two beautiful women.

It was over an hour later that both Ellie and Jenna finally awoke and they decided to set off for the day. Once again, Jenna was the point person of their trio, and Alex took up the rear with Ellie moving between them so that he could keep an eye on her. Ellie made no threatening movements though, and she seemed content to go along with the plan (for now at least).

It was only once they stopped for their first break that she opened up and began to have a conversation about Vesta which mostly consisted of Alex asking questions.

“How many Vestans are there now?”

“At the last count, about five hundred or so,” she answered. “Most of them are women, about three hundred and fifty. The rest are men. About a quarter of our numbers are older than forty and another quarter are under sixteen.”

“How did Vesta get its name?”

“From the Starfinder Allen Vesta,” said Ellie, who was strangely proud of the fact. “He financed the original colony and brought the first people here from the District of Canada on Earth. He’s a living legend amongst the Vestans. He’s our founding father who kept us together during our many troubled years starting out. Vesta almost failed several times in the first ten years but he kept it all together.”

“What year did he found Vesta?”

“May 6th, 2965,” answered Ellie. “The first colonists here were a group of three hundred settlers comprised of a near equal count of women and men. They traveled here on the ship Juniper which first landed on the spot that the Vestan city now occupies. They built the original biosphere that became their first home on the planet..”

A little while later, Jenna stopped Alex to question him.

“Why are you asking her these questions?” she asked. “You already know the answers. We heard them on the Racine.”

Alex grinned at her. “Just trying to see what she knows. She’s well-informed though, I’ll give her that. She seems to know a lot about the colony.”

Jenna bit her lip. “I still think there’s something off about her. And I don’t like how easygoing she seems. Like she just fell into our group so easily.”

“Another reason to be on our guard,” said Alex. “Just in case she tries something.”

Jenna readily agreed and after a short break, they were on their way again. About midday, the highlands they were moving through finally broke, and the terrain rapidly descended on the other side toward another plain. There still wasn’t much in the way of wildlife, but on this side of the hills, at least the flora seemed more lush than in the valley they landed in.

Finally, they reached the river that afternoon. Calling it a river was a bit of a stretch. It was closer to a large creek than a river but finding it signaled that they were getting closer to Vesta.

Something also happened at the river that Alex didn’t expect, and it all started with a simple request from Ellie.

“Do you mind if we stop for a minute so I can wash myself?” she asked, pointing to the water. “I can feel how dirty I am from all this traveling, and I’d really like the chance to clean up in the water. Can we stop?”

Alex didn’t see any harm in it, and he wouldn’t mind splashing a bit of water on his face either.

“Is there anything that we need to be afraid about in the water?” he asked. “Anything that could harm us?”

Ellie shook her head. “Just like the water on Earth. We don’t have as much of it here on Vesta but it’s harmless. The river doesn’t have much in the way of fish either but the ones that are here are mostly small. I’ll show you just so you believe me.”

“That’s fine, go ahead,” said Alex.

He expected her to wash her hands and maybe her face in the water but what Ellie did next truly surprised him.

She stood on the bank of the river and started removing all of her clothes until she was completely naked.

Both Alex and Jenna shared a look with each other. Alex tried to divert his eyes, which was hard to do after one look at Ellie’s body and her incredibly high and proud breasts.

“Don’t you want to cover up?” asked an embarrassed Jenna, trying to look away as well.

Ellie wanted to do no such thing. In fact, she turned toward them, proudly displaying her nude body. “Why would I do that? Should I be ashamed of my body?”

Jenna turned red with embarrassment. “Well, no, but we don’t even know you. Why would you want us to see you naked?”

Ellie laughed. “You have a lot to learn about Vesta. We don’t have that much modesty when it comes to our people. Nudity is just something you’ll come to accept while living here, as well as our attitudes toward sex. There’s nothing to be ashamed about when it comes to the human body.”

With those words, Ellie turned her back on them and stepped into the water. Jenna turned to look at Alex, who could only offer a brief shrug in response.

This Vesta colony was becoming more intriguing by the day.

Ellie waded into the river until the water was lapping at her nipples (which Alex hadn’t failed to notice were very erect). She didn’t seem to have any problem catching his eye, and she even reveled in the attention that he was giving her body.

Of course, it only took one thing to ruin the moment.

A petrified look appeared on Ellie’s face suddenly. In the next breath, she opened her mouth and yelled at them.

“Help me! Help me, please, Alex!!”