THE RELIANT

STRAYS

Captain Yager stepped out of his quarters one morning and was about to head off for the bridge when all of  a sudden he heard a strange voice behind him.

"Hello," a female voice said.

John stopped where he was and turned around to see this strange green-skinned woman walking along the corridor. She was wearing a top shaped like a brassiere that barely covered her breasts and a dress that had a slit cut all the way up her thigh. John immediately recognized her as being a Narlon. Narlons had green skin similar to Alterians only their skin color was much darker than Alterians.

"Hello," John said suspiciously. "And who might you be?"

"Oh, my name is Raynar."

"Raynar, is it?" She nodded. "Well, Raynar, what pray tell are you doing aboard my ship?"

"Your ship?"

John nodded. "Yes, that's right."

"I thought Zack was the captain?"

"Mr. Renjay?" She nodded again. "No, actually, Zack is the ship's pilot, at least for the time being. No, I am the captain of this chip. I'm John Yager."

"Oh, hi, John."

He bristled at her calling him by his first name instead of Captain.

"So where did you and Mr. Renjay meet?"

"Oh, we met last night at a club on Rinna."

"Is that so?"

"Oh yeah. And then John invited me and my friend to come onboard his ship."

"Friend?"

She nodded once more. "Oh, there's me and my friend Pila."

She giggled, which only annoyed John even more than he already was.

"And where is your friend Pila now?"

"The last time I checked she was still sleeping in Zack's quarters. I was out here trying to find the ladies room."

She giggled again, and John had to force himself to tell her not to do that.

"Well, Raynar, allow me to show you to the ladies room and I'll go have a talk with Mr. Renjay, okay?"

She smiled at him. "Okay, John."

Even though he was beyond pissed off at this point, John quietly turned to show Raynar where their restroom was. After he was finished doing that, he headed straight for the bridge to confront Zack. It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened. Zack had taken his shore leave on the planet Rinna. He was frankly surprised he didn't take it on the sex world Xanu, although Rinna also had a reputation for its own debauchery even to the point of skirting the law at times, which John thought was probably the reason why the government there didn't label Rinna a sex planet so they wouldn't have to abide by all the rules and regulations Xanu did.

John entered the bridge still none too happy about what had just happened as he strode right over to where Zack was sitting.

"Mr. Renjay, just the person I was looking for."

Zack swung around in his seat and faced a clearly unhappy Captain Yager.

"Captain?" he said rather innocently.

"You care to tell me why there are strange green-skinned women aboard my ship without my knowledge or permission?"

"Oh, you met the girls, huh?"

"Well, actually, I've so far just met one of them, the one named Raynar whom I just bumped to run into in the corridor while she was looking for the ladies room, as she put it. But she did tell me all about her friend Pila whom she said you invited onboard, Captain Renjay."