You Have but to Follow

With **** but to follow, you walk closely behind Tracie, or rather, Mistress zh'Thracia. She has her head tilted to the side slightly and her antenna angled toward you to keep you in her peripheral vision. Even in this absurd reality, you can't help but appreciate how well her uniform compliments her skin tone now that there's far less red to cover up the blue. The slender but well-defined contours of her bare arms serve to remind you of how strong she is. Your eyes trail down the exposed muscles of her lower back to the scarlet miniskirt as it swishes back and forth with the sway of her hips. She certainly doesn't walk like your Tracie does, though part of that is probably the leather boots that now come up over her knees and down to a sharp spike at the heel.

Out of the corner of your eye, you spot an open maintenance hatch. For a fleeting moment you consider making a run for it. You could probably make it through the hatch and halfway up the Jeffries tube before she would be able to react, but then what? She would almost certainly catch up to you, and then you would be right back here or worse. No, it's too risky. You'd better play along for now and keep your eyes open for a better opportunity later.

That opportunity may be coming sooner rather than later. As zh'Thracia turns a blind corner, you hear someone lunge out in her direction. A flash of something small and metallic whistles through the air. zh'Thracia dodges as the knife grazes her shoulder and imbeds itself into the bulkhead. Two men in red uniforms stand hunched aggressively on either side of her, blocking the corridor in either direction. One man has a knife in his hand while the other is clearly the one who threw the knife that is now stuck in the wall. Drawing her dagger, zh'Thracia crouches into a defensive posture as the men slowly close in on her.

"You really think you can double-cross the security chief and get away with it?" the one with the knife asks her accusingly.

Your pretty blue ass is gonna pay for that stunt you tried to pull!" the other one threatens.

The ambush has given you the perfect opportunity to escape, but your instincts tell you to help the Lieutenant. Her assailants haven't seen you yet around the blind corner, so it would be easy for you to jump in and even the odds. She glances in your direction and makes eye contact for a fraction of a second. In that moment, you make your decision.