The rustling of wings somewhere high above in the jungle canopy woke Efet shortly before dawn. She stirred, reflexively grabbed her knife, then drew a deep breath and went still. It seemed impossibly dark. Even her eyes, adapted for low light, could see nothing in the inky darkness. She listened to the fauna moving about, something six-legged crunching it's way through leaves on the forest floor, and something hunting, swooping here and there on leathery wings, before taking it's leave. She had looked yesterday for large tracks, while she walked to and from the river, but saw nothing. That did not altogether settle her mind, for Efet suspected an apex predator here might be arboreal. For the first time, she wished she'd gone into exo-biology rather than engineering.
Efet occupied herself till sunrise by thinking of ways to escape this valley. There was the mysterious, fourth, open side of this valley, but she knew something had to be wrong. Either the Klingons had a force field preventing escape, or something about it was impossibly dangerous. She had seen water vapor rising in the distance, and she wondered if this valley faced out to an inland sea. The three sheer rock faces were daunting in their size. Efet had never learned to rock climb, and anyway she had no equipment. And even if she scaled those towering rock walls, where would she go? If she had any working equipment, she could rig up a signalling device of some sort, get a message to Cardassian forces, but the only equipment here belonged to those Klingon guards. Efet entertained herself with fantasies of singlehandedly storming the Klingon base, disarming the guards, commandeering their communicators, and escaping this place, never to return. She, who had never been in combat in her life! She, who had barely passed her required self-defense courses!
She emerged from her cocoon, no closer to having a working plan to save herself. She devoured one of her food bars, stored her precious few belongings, then changed into her (thankfully, dry) clothes. Efet decided to explore the river, follow it down and see if it led to anything useful, to follow it up, to its source. It did not escape her that any other prisoners, if there were any, would likely be camped along the only fresh water source. With any luck, she would find other Cardassians. Although she'd seen no signs of any, Efet could not believe the Klingons bothered manning such a remote prison camp, only to hold a single Cardassian non-combative. There had to be other prisoners, she was sure of it. Pocketing her knife, Efet brandished her walking spear and headed back down the path she'd forged the day before, to the river.
She found the same cool pools, and this time headed upriver, trying to find it's source. Efet found it incredible to imagine where this river even came from. Surely it didn't cascade down one of those sheer rock walls? It had to spring from some gash in this planetoid; with any luck, there were tunnels, tunnels that could lead her away from the Klingons.
Following the river upstream was slow going. There was a slight but still noticeable incline. She crept her way across the twisting tree roots as best she could, avoiding the muck that tried to bog her down. Different sorts of foliage grew along the banks; dense vines weighed down under clusters of berries, giant fungi in brilliant colors, and immense flowers that held pools of water in their petals. Efet dearly wished to know which of them were edible. Her food would run out in a few days, and she wouldn't survive for long after that. If the Klingons would have allowed her access to even basic botanical information - Efet sighed with frustration. No, she told herself, I am not starving to death out here! I am making it out of here alive, I vow it!
A particularly thick wall of foliage blocked the next surprise from her view. Efet clambered through the mass of leaves and vines to find, before her astonished eyes, a great pool had formed beneath a waterfall. The river crashed its way along, but some of the water tumbled off to the side, creating a beautiful pool in a depression in the stone, a depression that must have taken millenia for the water to hollow out. The waterfall itself was not high - perhaps six or seven meters - but it was wide, and as Efet approached it, she saw that the pool was so clear that it was deceptive; it seemed at first glance to be shallow enough to be waded into, but when she tossed in a stone, she watched it fall and fall, far down to the sandy bottom. This pool, she estimated, must be more than 10 meters deep. She circled along the edge of the pool to find that a sort of grotto had been carved out behind the waterfall, perhaps worn away long ago, before seismic activity had changed the flowing of water. She carefully picked her way along the slippery rocks, ducking into the grotto and disappearing behind the veil of the waterfall. She slipped off her boots and dug her toes into the black (black!) sand. It was deliciously warm, supporting her assumption that this area was seismically active. The sandy area was not large, perhaps a couple meters wide and about 5 meters in length, dead-ending into rock, and the walls of the grotto were slick with moisture and almost shiny black, with some gleaming little stones to be seen embedded here and there. The crashing water drowned out all other sound.
Efet pondered moving from her little birdcage to this grotto. No one could find her here easily, and she would have access to plenty of fresh water. But the rushing water was very loud, and she did not like the feeling of being trapped, should someone find her little hidey hole, for only one side of the grotto opened out to the riverbank.
It was the rushing water that betrayed her, for she could not hear the approach of the new visitor.
Efet was still sitting in her little grotto, her toes buried in the black sand, when a dark figure passed in front of her, on the other side of the waterfall, and crashed into the pool.
She almost screamed. Embarrassingly, she was in such a rush to stand up that she actually toppled over backwards, landing on her bottom, and embarrassed herself further by scrambling in a ridiculous manner for her spear. It took her some moments to realize that the being who had dived into the pool had no idea that she was there. The waterfall had, again, concealed her.
Shaking from nerves, Efet crept around to the edge of the waterfall, spear at the ready, trying to get a good look.
It was an alien.
At first, all she saw was a humanoid figure swimming through the pool. Then the alien surfaced, and she could clearly make out the back of a dark head of hair, broad shoulders, and skin of a pale hue. The alien dove, then surfaced again, pulling himself up onto the rocky edge of the pool. He was still a ways away, but Efet got a good look at his face. This was not a Klingon or a Cardassian. It was not even a human. For a moment, she thought he might be a Vulcan, when she spotted the pointy ears and arched brows, but then that head swiveled around and he looked right at her-
It was a Romulan!
Overcome with fear, Efet burst from her hiding spot. All she could think was that she'd been spotted. She still had her spear in hand, but she left her shoes behind in the grotto. In those moments, her most primitive instincts of self-preservation had taken over. She dove into the jungle, fighting her away through with mad purpose borne of terror. The Romulan had spotted her! He was sure to be hostile! She slipped in the mud, throwing herself forward desperately, her hands scrabbling for anything at all to hold onto, to pull herself forward and away - there was a sound behind her. Fear once again overtook her, sending her into a near-frenzy. He was gaining on her! She crawled desperately into a tangle of roots, pressing her back to the tree and grasping her spear.
The Romulan was much faster than her. He came flying at her in a leap, his feet smashing into the twisted roots on either side of her, and with a single heave, he broke them both, shattering the base of the tree. Wood shards flew everywhere. The tree collapsed behind her, falling back into the other foliage. Now bereft of her little cage, Efet bravely thrust her spear at him - the Romulan caught it and snapped it, flinging the two sad pieces in opposite directions. He was right on top of her, his hand digging into her jacket, and with no other option, she pulled out her knife.
The Romulan caught her hand and squeezed. Gasping in pain, Efet watched helplessly as he pried her fingers from the knife, which toppled uselessly to the forest floor. The Romulan put both hands on the collar of her jacket, pressing her against what was left of the base of the shattered tree. Efet wrapped her hands around his, pulling as hard as she could.
The Romulan shoved her back, releasing her, with a look on his face that almost resembled disdain. Panting, Efet lay prone over the tree's broken roots, shaking too hard with fear to even lift a hand in defense. He was much stronger than her, she realized. He could probably snap her neck with little trouble. He was naked, and she turned her face from him, ashamed. She had only seen Romulans on holos, and seeing one in the sunlight was bizarre and frightening - his skin was pale, with green undertones, and the sharp features of his face were cruel. He was one of the type who had forehead ridges. Her hand ached from where he'd taken the knife from her - it was a wonder her fingers weren't broken.
"Please," gasped out Efet. "Please, don't kill me."
"Kill you?" The Romulan spat out. "I don't even know you. Why were you spying on me?" He grabbed her by her collar again, pressing in close, and his steely look nearly made her faint with fear.
"I-I wasn't!" Efet cried out, again trying to pry his hands away.
"Ugh, stop doing that!" The Romulan seemed enraged as he, yet again, shoved her to the ground.
"Stop, what?" Efet rolled onto her back, drawing up her legs in an instinctive defensive posture.
"Stop - touching my hands!" The Romulan sounded annoyed. This shocked Efet out of some of her fear. She was on her back in the mud, begging for her life, and this alien was annoyed?!
"Well, stop grabbing my neck!" Efet dared to say back.
The Romulan blew an irritated snort through his nose. He glared down at her for a moment, and Efet glared back up at him. At last he said, "Answer my question, snake! Why were you spying on me?"
Snake! Now Efet was the annoyed one. Why did so many alien races have a slur for Cardassians that referred to some reptile or poisonous serpent? Yes, Cardassians had scales, but she had always hoped for some more compelling and creative slur. She supposed she should just be grateful this thickheaded Romulan didn't call her a 'spoonhead'. "I told you, I was not spying. I was merely enjoying myself in the hot sand of that grotto when you rudely interrupted me."
"So why did you run from me?" The Romulan looked a bit smug, lips pursed as though he'd found some flaw in his story that he was eager to pick apart.
"Why wouldn't I run from a hostile alien! A naked one, might I add, when I myself am a helpless female."
This earned her another furious glare. "I was bathing myself in that pool, not on the prowl to assault some... helpless females. I have never and I would never!" His lip curled. "As though I'd ever sully my bloodline with a - Cardassian!" He spat the word like that was all the proof he needed of why she was so far below him.
"Oh, you flatter yourself!" Efet sat up now, no longer caring about her imminent death or the mud and muck again ruining her clothes and hair. "A Cardassian woman would rather die than let a loathsome Romulan have his way with her. I am a prisoner here, as are you, I presume. Why would I bother spying on you? What could I hope to achieve? Unless my mission was to find the most violent, vicious, cruel Romulan in existence-"
"Enough!" He stomped away from her and then stomped back. It any other situation such a display would've been hilarious. He jabbed a finger at her, started to say something, then seemed to think better of it. He began to stomp back the way he'd come, towards the river.
"Wait!" Efet clambered to her feet. She paused only to grab her knife from where it lay in the mud. "What are you doing?"
The Romulan shot her a look from over his shoulder. "I am still naked! And now I am muddy and all my clothes are back at that waterfall. You are obviously no threat-"
Efet rolled her eyes.
"-but don't dare bother me, Cardassian woman."
"My shoes are also back in that grotto." Efet walked after him. "I need to reclaim them."
He said nothing else, so Efet continued following after him. From behind, she noticed - resolutely keeping her eyes above the small of his back - that his hair was long, falling to his shoulders. Didn't Romulans keep their hair painstakingly trimmed and neat, if not shaved entirely? Efet wondered how long he'd been here, in this jungle prison. It seemed long enough for his hair to grow out of Romulan regulation length. Were there more of his kind here? Efet considered asking him, but she did not want to trigger another raging fight just yet.
They made it back to the pool, each determinedly ignoring the other. The Romulan climbed the side of the waterfall, where it seemed he'd stashed his clothes somewhere. He yanked them on with more force than was strictly necessary. Efet found her boots in the black sand of the grotto, right where she'd left them, but now her clothes and her self were both terribly muddy, again. She wanted to cry. She had always prided herself on her cleanliness and neatness, and here she was, miserable, cold, muddy, and utterly alone except for a nasty Romulan who hated her. She sniffed and rubbed at her nose.
"Where are you going?" The Romulan called down to her as she climbed along the rocks out of the grotto.
"You said not to bother you," Efet snapped at him. "Why should I bother you with my comings and goings? I'm just a snake, after all."
He vaulted down the rocks from the top of the waterfall with terrifying ease and grace. Efet, who had just delicately picked her way across the slick stones, was again reminded of how much stronger he was than her. She stood still and let him approach her. He was dressed now, but in some sort of uniform she didn't recognize. Just black trousers and a pointy-shouldered top, with those curious two-toed Romulan-style boots. She now wished she'd checked to see if he only had two toes on each foot. She'd been trying so hard not to look right at him, she'd squandered the opportunity.
"I can track you through this jungle with ease," the Romulan told her. "Make this easier for yourself, and confess your whereabouts."
Efet grimaced. "Is this how you speak to your own women?"
A strangle look flitted across his face, followed by a scowl. Drawing herself up straight, Efet stepped around him and went on her way with as much dignity as she could muster.