Linda tries to play off the advances

I smiled politely at the Lieutenant before returning my gaze to the console. "I think we should focus on the mission, it's not like we're going to spend the week here anyways."

Greene kept her eyes on me for an uncomfortably long time before she backed off. I couldn't tell if she was disappointed or if this was just the beginning of her moves for this mission. I was hoping it was the former. Fortunately there was no way to tell my body's reaction, hidden under my uniform. I squirmed in my seat, feeling the dampness of my panties and bristled as my stiff nipples brushed against the inside of my undershirt.

We landed with no incident and opened up the shuttle hatch. I took a look outside as Greene took tri-corder scans. We landed on the canopy of a dense rain forest jungle. The trees were like a lush green flying carpet underneath us that bounced and swayed. The computer assured me of the stability of the shuttle on the top of the forest. The trees were massive and took our weight easily, it just rocked gently to the breeze. The meteorological scans didn't indicate any heavy storms in the near future either, so we were safe up here. The mission was inside the forest though, where the scanners couldn't penetrate easily. We set up our traversing gear to drop down into the thick of it.

We were another half hour before reaching the ground. Greene took scans all the way down. As we went down, the sunlight faded away until we were left in almost total darkness. I was about to turn on my flashlight when Lieutenant Greene tapped my shoulder. In the dim lighting I saw her arm shoot out, "Look over there..."

It was a bio-luminescent plant that lined the tree like Christmas decorations. The closer we got, the brighter the glow.

"This type of plant must be feeding off the trees, but why are the illuminating?" Greene asked out loud as she continued to scan.

The plants stretched out, making an illuminated path for us. We followed it down to a waterbed, where Greene scanned sea life and underwater plants. She bent down and gathered a sample of the water while I peered into the murk, making out faint lights in there as well.

"Oh!" Greene exclaimed, attracting my attention.

"What is it?" I asked, seeing her crouched by the waterbed.

"This water isn't water... it's... it's got me!"

I suddenly went alert and switched on my wrist light. She held the water receptacle in her hand, with the liquid contents. The receptacle bubbled and dissolved inside the glob of liquid. Greene reared back and tried to wipe the substance off her hand, but only managed to spread it more. Where she brushed the substance, her clothing began to bubble up.

I immediately tapped my com badge, "Trask to Ishatar! We have an emergency!"