One sunny day, Anij and Jean-Luc were talking a walk in the woods when they came upon a clearing surrounding a small lake.
"Oh, Jean-Luc, isn't it charming?"
"Uniquely situated as well. I'll bet it's been a very long time since it's been swam in, if ever. It looks very...virginal."
Anij giggled, and Jean-Luc winked at her and began to remove his clothing.
"Jean-Luc!"
"What's the harm? No one will see us." He finished disrobing and dived in. "Come on in! The water's fine!" he called to her.
Anij, who was by now an expert swimmer, quickly removed her clothing and dived in.
Beneath the surface, she felt as if she were in a different world. The water was so clear that she could see the pebbles at the bottom of the lake, and the water on her naked skin felt exhilarating. She and Jean-luc swam back and forth across the lake several times, and she almost kept up with him.
Finally Jean-Luc climbed up onto the bank and lay spread-eagled in the sun, enjoying its rays. He smiled invitingly to Anij, and she emerged from the lake dripping to lie beside him. They began to kiss, and Anij trailed her hand down his abdomen. She found his manhood and began to gently stroke it, and when he was hard, she moved to where she could take him into her mouth. She licked and sucked gently as she fondled him with her hand, and he moved his leg slightly so that she had better access. After some time he gently touched her face. "Enough, now." She lay back, and he gently parted her and began to stimulate her with his tongue. He brought her almost over the edge and then entered her. She climaxed almost immediately, moaning loudly as the waves of pleasure crashed over her. She clung to him tightly as she cried out his name, moving in rhythm with him until she heard him begin to moan and felt him release inside her. Afterwards they lay beside the lake almost motionless, listening to the calm, still quiet of the forest.
"It's really different, making love in the outdoors," Anij commented.
"It's a totally unique experience," Jean-Luc agreed. "I find that the slight danger of being discovered adds a subtle but very real thrill."
She looked at him in shock, and he laughed. After a moment she joined in.
They lay like that for a long time, simply enjoying the quiet and one another's company. Eventually they put their clothes back on and began to walk slowly back the way they had come, hand in hand. Jean-Luc saw movement in the bushes, and a moment later, a rhyl appeared, looking at him inquisitively.
"Hi there, little fellow," Jean-Luc said, reaching to pat its head. The rhyl snarled and bit his finger. Swearing in French, Jean-Luc jerked his hand back quickly.
"Let me see." Anij's voice was soft with concern as she examined Jean-Luc's finger.
"It's just a little nip," Jean-Luc said. He didn't want Anij to worry about him.
"It did draw blood," Anij said quietly.
That night Jean-Luc went to bed early, saying that he didn't feel well. The next morning he was burning with fever and delirious. Alarmed, Anij went to fetch the village healer, a woman named Nona.
Anij told Nona what had happened the previous day as Nona examined the bite on Jean-Luc's finger.
"The rhyl that bit him must have been infected with hydrophobia," Nona told Anij.
Hydrophobia was a disease to which the rhyls of Ba'Ku were susceptible. It caused the normally docile and water-loving creatures to become bad-tempered and avoid water at all costs. It was also universally fatal to them, although to the humanoid residents of Ba'Ku it caused either no symptoms at all or mild cold or flu-like symptoms.
"Although the anatomy of the humans is virtually identical to our own, their body chemistry and biophysics may be very different," Nona explained to Anij. "A disease which is relatively harmless to one of our own may be deadly to a human. We will have to watch him closely."
Nona prepared a poultice to bring Jean-Luc's fever down as Anij kept a vigil beside his bed. Within a few hours he became very agitated, thrashing wildly and salivating copiously. Nona attempted to administer an herbal concoction that was effective as a tranquilizer, but he snatched the cup from her hand and threw it against the wall. Worst of all, when Anij looked into his eyes, she saw that Jean-Luc Picard was no longer there, that in his place was a crazed beast mad with fury and pain.
"We must bind him so that he doesn't hurt himself," Nona told Anij. Her heart breaking, Anij helped Nona to wrap Jean-Luc in a sheet.
Eventually, the thrashing and salivating subsided and Jean-Luc slipped into a coma.
"It seems that hydrophobia runs the same course in humans that it does in rhyls." Nona's voice was heavy with sorrow. "There's nothing more I can do for him. I must return to my home now. Let me know if his condition changes."
Anij became restless. She couldn't just sit and watch the man she loved slip away. Thinking that a walk might clear her mind and help her to think more clearly, she stood up and walked out of the house and toward the road.
Since the toxin which was deadly to humans had little or no effect on those of the Ba'Ku race, she reasoned, the blood of the latter must contain some substance capable of overcoming the toxin.
As she walked along, Anij spied a plant which she knew had a hollow stem, and an idea formed in her mind. She gathered a length of the plant's stem and rushed back to the house.
