Lileeta kept glancing round at the strangers, they had odd names and clothing, the way they spoke was odd too, she also got the feeling that one or two of them were not as human as they looked. The man with sun colour on his dark clothing instead of fire colour, he had oddly shaped ears and the way he spoke was toneless. The other man who wore fire colour on his dark clothing had markings on the left side of his face, she'd never met anyone else who had odd markings on their faces. The woman who seemed to be in charge, also wearing the fire-colour, walked beside her, occasionally speaking to her and asking questions, there was one particularly odd question that drew her attention.

"Are there more like you?" she asked

"You are like me." Lileeta answered, thinking that what she meant was their human appearance.

"No, I mean is there anyone else living here? A colony of some sort?"

Lileeta had no idea why this woman used the collective for a group crab-ants to describe who else might live here, "The camp, less than an earth hour's walk from here, at the foot of sea-grass hill."

"Once we've captured the prisoner that was on board that ship, I would very much like to visit your people," she said "meet your chief."

"You mean the captain? Well... we've never met off-worlders before, yes, I suppose you could visit us.

"Why do you say 'captain'?" asked the man with the markings on his face

"It is a title that has been passed down father-to-son since our people settled here."

Martez let out a low growl in annoyance, pacing the large space of his shelter. The shelters were always the last thing to be packed onto the backs of the Giant Dog-Mules. As captain he had a responsibility for the safety of his people, especially as they were re-settling at the Falcon soon, but as much as he didn't like to admit it he couldn't assure their safety without his mate, Lileeta Troja, who had the useful ability of predicting animal behavior.

She'd often fought against him choosing her as his mate, but the women didn't get a decision in the matter. When the season came that it was safe for woman to bare children, she'd hidden quite expertly in the tree tops for the entire season and she simply refused to share his bed any other season, not even at night, when extra body heat was welcomed by most people. He'd chosen her because she was strong and clever, able to talk her way out of any situation and strong enough to hold her all through even snow storms. Troja was the youngest adult to survive the freeze this night, along with the killing bug that many of the children born the previous day had not. Martez had a theory, since Troja was born in the first season of night and survived through the blizzard season, this had maybe made her stronger than the rest of them, but, apart from Angeli Venure, she was the only child born in that season, so it was imposable for him to tell.

Troja was over six earth-hours late, which only left them about sixty earth-hours to travel before first-sun. Where was she? If she wasn't back soon they'd leave without her.

The Voyager team watched as their guide suddenly stopped, dumped her satchel on the ground and expertly jumped and gripped a slender tree branch with her hands, swinging herself upwards into the canopy.

*

Lileeta climbed to the top of the tree, balancing on the highest branch that would hold her weight and standing up to look out over the horizon. The twelve Frenrean mountains were standing prominently against the green glow of the planet Angreea to her right and the smell of salt and heather-crystals was coming in on the wind hitting her full-force in the chest, as if it was trying to knock her from the tree. Though, the small ribbon of smoke that had been curling up from the position of that 'sky ship' had disappeared, and by the looks of it so had the 'sky ship'

Then she drew her eyes up the sky. Something felt wrong, out of place.

*

"What do you think she's doing up there?" asked the captain

"I'm not sure, but I think maybe she's checking our direction." said Chakotay, staring up into the canopy with interest

"What?"

"Centuries ago, back on earth, there were ways of using the stars as a map,"

"And she studies the stars." finished the captain

Without warning, Lileeta jumped down from the canopy, again landing deftly on her toes. She looked slightly distracted as she picked up her satchel, staring confusedly at the ground.

"What is it?" asked the captain

Lileeta looked at her "The sky ship that crashed here, it is gone."

"Gone? What do you mean gone?" questioned Chakotay

"It has disappeared, further pursuit would be unnecessary"

Fighting off the odd realization that Lileeta spoke similarly to Seven of Nine the captain tapped her comm badge "Janeway to the Bridge"

"Captain?" asked Tom

"Scan the planet for the prison ship."

"What?" he questioned

"Just do it" instructed the captain, slightly annoyed, ships didn't just 'disappear'

There was a moment of silence "It's gone captain." responded Tom "It just disappeared"

Before she could question him further, a loud horn was blown in the distance, echoing through the trees. Lileeta looked round, then the confused look on her face deepened, forming a small crease between her eyebrows "They're leaving without me?" she muttered absent mindedly

"Who are leaving without you?" asked the captain,

"The rest of the camp, at the end of night we travel for twelve hours back to the Falcon, where we reside during the day, until night comes again and we travel back to sea-grass hill." she explained

The captain looked confused "A twelve hour journey every night and every day? That's a bit far isn't it?"

"One night here is the equivalent to over four earth-years, it is not far for... us..." she drifted off, the rest of her sentence dieing as it reached her lips, her blue eyes suddenly alight with horror. "He wouldn't..." she muttered, her words barely audible.

"Who wouldn't?"

"Return to your ship, our affairs are none of your worry, your business here is over." as she finished speaking, they simply seemed to stop existing to her, as she pulled a thick roll of aged paper from her satchel, unrolled it and set it on the ground, reading what appeared to be a detailed map.

Janeway pulled her team to the side, debating what to do, this culture was strangely medieval for the delta quadrant, she was for too interested in it now, it would bother her if they didn't learn more about them. In other circumstances she would of returned to Voyager then come back to the planet with a more suitable team, but the interference that had stopped them teleporting directly to the prison ship, also disguised the life signs of the people living here. They wouldn't be able to find their civilization again, so they couldn't leave. Though comm signals were still traceable.

She pulled her team in closer and spoke in hushed tones "Chakotay, Tuvok, I want you to go with her, just so, where ever her people are, we can find them again by tracking your comm signals, I really would like to meet them. I'll return to Voyager and gather a more suitable team before teleporting to the co-ordinates you give us"

Chakotay and Tuvok nodded and Janeway turned back to Lileeta, who was packing up her map.

"Lileeta, please allow two of my crewmen to accompany you, I would still like to..."

Lileeta cut her off "I heard your conversation, there is no need to explain further, although there was little I understood of what you said. I see no problem with two of your 'crewmen' accompanying me, but they must be able to run fast, else I shall not wait for them if they are lost."

Janeway nodded at Chakotay and Tuvok, who stepped forward.

"Try to keep up." she said, before darting off into the trees unexpectedly