She stared at the panel, trying to control her runaway heart, trying to think.

    Why had she been taken? Why was she here instead of dead? Where was she?

    A shiver skated through her and she wrapped her arms around herself, wondering if the deep cold she felt meant they were in space or if it was the result of shock and the fact that she had nothing but her underwear on.

    And what had happened to the landing crew, she thought abruptly?

    Were they here, too? Where they dead? Or were they on the surface of Venus, wondering what had happened in the orbiter?

    She shook the thought. She didn’t have time to worry about them now. She was on her own and so were they. Not that she could see that that helped her in any way. She couldn’t remember a damned thing after discovering the intruder behind her. Had they docked with the Mars II without her noticing?

    That seemed unlikely, but what other explanation was there?

    The strange sensations she’d felt just before she blacked out surfaced. She felt her throat close with horror, but it seemed indisputable that they must have used something like the particle transporter-on her!

    Was that the reason for the scan? To see if she was still in one piece?

    The thoughts gave rise to a panicked internal evaluation, but she couldn’t tell that she was suffering from anything but the cold and she wasn’t even sure that was because of the temperature around her.

    After a moment, she glanced around uneasily. The room she found herself in was a cube maybe six foot square-make that seven, she decided once she’d looked up at the ceiling and then at the narrow cot attached to one wall.

    It was a prison cell, she realized abruptly. It had to be.

    The door opened while she was studying the cot. There was no sound, no warning beyond a prickling along her skin from the currents of air and a faint scrape along the metal floor. She whirled, prepared to defend herself, but the sight that greeted her swept that instinct right out from under her. This was no little gray creature!

    Sucking in a sharp breath, Sybil retreated to the furthest corner, plastering herself against it. The being stared at her for a long moment and then took a step closer. The door sealed behind him so fast Sybil barely caught the movement.

    She knew the very instant she was trapped inside the tiny cell with the thing though! She would’ve screamed if she could’ve found her voice. Instead, she stared at it with wide-eyed horror.

    “Why are you here?”

    Sybil flinched when it-he-spoke, but she recognized the voice, or thought she did, that she’d heard before. He tilted his head. “You spoke English before.”

    Sybil licked her lips. “I don’t know where I am,” she said finally.

    His lips tightened, drawing her attention. The mouth was surprisingly human-like, thin lipped but then that particular trait wasn’t all that uncommon. She watched it form the next words and caught a glimpse of teeth that looked a bit sharper than she’d ever seen in a human mouth-more predatory.

    Like a cat.

    She blinked as the impression deepened, flicking a quick, assessing look at the face. The shadows cast by the strange light, she decided, had given her the impression of a monster.

    Or maybe she’d just expected a monster?

    He wasn’t human. That much was certain, but he was surprisingly human-like once she managed to throw off her shock and fear enough to actually study the face. The form was certainly human-like, although he seemed exceptionally tall.

    “You know where you were.”

    Sarcasm laced the comment, sparking another flicker of surprise and the realization that he’d already made the comment once.

    “Yes,” she said finally, then added, “orbiting Venus.”

    “Why are you here?”

    Sybil chewed the inside of her cheek, trying to decide whether to answer that or not or, more specifically, what would be best to say. “Taking readings of Venus’ atmosphere,” she replied finally, realizing that it was pointless to try to lie. She was pretty sure they would be able to tell what the instruments on the ship were for.

    “To what purpose?”

    Sybil felt her first flicker of resentment. “Scientific curiosity,” she said, an edge to her voice that stilled the quaver of fear that had laced it before.

    Annoyance, she thought, flickered in his eyes briefly, and then suspicion. “You’re a scientist?”

    Sybil nodded a little jerkily, relieved that that wasn’t a lie. “Yes.”

    “The suit you were wearing looked amazingly military.”

    She felt her cheeks flush with a combination of irritation and embarrassment that he’d caught her in a lie-one of omission, but still a lie. “I am, but I’m attached to the space program.” How much, she wondered, did he/they know about them?

    Probably pretty much everything, she realized in dismay. No one worried too much about security breaches in space… mostly because there was no way to prevent anyone from picking up chatter between the ships and control but also because they hadn’t actually expected anyone to be listening.

    “But this is not a military operation? This scientific expedition to study the atmosphere of Venus?”

    Sybil swallowed convulsively several times. “It wasn’t intended as one-no,” she lied.

    “But that is subject to change very swiftly, yes?”

    She blanched. She certainly wasn’t in any position to be throwing threats around. “I didn’t say that.”

    “You didn’t have to. The ship carries the emblem of the U.S. and you are human. Your species is aggressive and war-like as a whole, and few of the nations of Earth more so than the U.S.”

    Indignation swelled within Sybil despite her fear. “That’s not true! We defend ourselves-ferociously, but we don’t start the wars-hardly ever, anyway! And we certainly didn’t come here with the intention of starting one! We just came to see what was going on!”

    “We?”

    Sybil felt like she might faint for a moment. She’d let her emotions run away with her and given away the others! “I mean they sent me to take some readings.”

    “And the others we captured on the surface?”

    Bastard! He’d just wanted to see if she would lie, damn him! He’d known about the others all along! She swallowed with an effort. “They’re here?”

    Instead of responding, he turned. A hole opened in the wall, he stepped through, and it closed. Feeling abruptly weak after his departure, Sybil slid down the wall and drew her knees up to her chest. She discovered it was impossible to think, though. Her mind kept running back over the interrogation like a hamster on an exercise wheel, examining her responses and his questions until she’d convinced herself that every word out of her mouth had been more damning than the last.

    She should’ve simply refused to answer, but then she hadn’t been able to wrap her mind around the fact that she truly was a captive of hostiles! * * * *

    The woman had almost managed to convince Anka that he’d made a mistake in taking the humans captive-almost. It wouldn’t have mattered, though, if the ship they’d taken had been sent merely out of scientific curiosity. The odds were that they still would’ve seen more than they should and they would’ve raced back to tell their people-and then a military operation would’ve been launched.

    There seemed no solution to their dilemma. It might have bought them time if they had ignored the ship, but he doubted it. The chances were that they would’ve discovered the terra-forming facilities or the base or both.

    Time, he realized finally, was all they could buy. The question was, now that he’d taken captives, just how much time could he buy?