text: [Themes: sci-fi]
  
  Although it's only been four years since you last saw Dr. Munro, she's aged quite a bit. Her hair is no longer the sandy-colored bob that you remember, but gray and held back in a long ponytail. Not much socializing occurred while you were marooned in that Girian desert, so you did not have a chance to learn much about your fellow survivors. But your sense of Dr. Lori Munro and Ander Dyo at that time was that they were married professionals who enjoyed their work too much to be weighed down by the burdens of raising a family; they were both in their forties, but still youthful in appearance. Now her eyes are more care-worn, as if her time on Folvan has not been easy.
  
  "Let me guess, the Navy sent you here looking for me?" she says. "And after all the time I spent trying to keep them away."
  
  "Yes, we were concerned when we lost contact," you say. "Is there someplace private where we can talk?"
  
  The Folvan standing next to her speaks, and a moment later you hear the translation: "No, you must leave! I tried to warn you. If Skarahk finds you again je will kill you. The only reason je didn't before was because I told jim I would convince you to leave."
  
  "This is Selrahc," Dr. Munro says. "And je is right; you can't stay here. We need to get you out of this settlement before Skarahk returns."
  
  "Skarahk?" you say. "Who's he?"
  
  "Je's most certainly not a 'he'," Dr. Munro says. "There are no hims or hers on Folvan. Remember the accommodations made to CTL in regards to non-binary gender identity. Use je, jim, jer when referring to anyone who doesn't identify as male or female."
  
  You are surprised by her acerbic attitude; she was never that way on Giri Minor. And you feel like you're missing some crucial piece of information here: if Folvans aren't male or female, then what are they?
  
  "OK, then," you say, deciding to go along with her for the moment. "Who is... je?" Your mouth stumbles over the unfamiliar word.
  
  "That's better," Dr. Munro says. "Skarahk is the chief elder of this village. I'm told you met jim this morning outside my old research post."
  
  "Does he... does je wear that flat-topped cap?" you say.
  
  "Yes, that's Skarahk," she says. "Je's been spending all morning tearing that blind apart ever since you left. I think je's upset Selrahc talked jim out of killing you on the spot. The Folvans have taken a very dim view of off-worlders recently."
  
  "Thank you for the grammar lesson and for updating us on the local politics," Dansmith says, "but I think we need to discuss where we should go, if you don't think we can stay here. We've seen a lot of strange things this morning, and we have a few questions we need to ask you."
  
  "I imagine you do," Dr. Munro says.
  
  "Do you think we should go through that thing?" Dansmith says, pointing to the Anywhere Device.
  
  Dr. Munro looks at him as if not sure who he is or how to reply, and then turns back to you. "No, not through there," she says. "There would be no one left behind to point the wormhole somewhere else after we stepped through, so if anyone is looking for us they'd know right where to go."
  
  "So then what do you suggest?" you say.
  
  "Yes, Doctor," Dansmith says. "We've just arrived, and we're new here in town. But you seem to know your way around."
  
  Dr. Munro regards you with a frustrated expression, probably wondering why you are letting Dansmith take the offensive on your behalf. Indeed, the chief has become strangely upset, as if something about the way you found the missing doctor has rubbed him the wrong way. And it does appear that she wasn't missing at all, but directly interacting with the people she claimed to be studying. Hun-Spruk must be experiencing the same reservations, because she has quietly stepped forward too and is now standing at the chief's elbow. There is a strange intensity to her gaze, but it's not in her nature to act on that emotion, so she is letting Dansmith express her dismay for her.
  
  And you have to agree, everything about this situation is wrong. It's like Dr. Munro is trying to put you on the defensive, and therefore maintain control over whatever is going on here. Instead of you assisting her as you assumed would happen when you took on this mission, now she and this Selrahc person have you convinced that you need their urgent assistance to get out of this village. And that bit about chastising you over the pronouns? It was like she was trying to divert your attention from something else.
  
  "We can go up to my post on Mount Kaspoot, about eight kilometers away," Dr. Munro says.
  
  "Isn't there someplace closer we could go?" you ask. "I think we'd collapse on a hike that long in 2.3 Gs."
  
  "Look, I'll help you," she says, "but you need to trust me. There is no place closer, and Skarahk is certain to find you here. Selrahc and I were on our way to the mountain anyway, and my husband is waiting for us there."
  
  You give her a long look. The truth is you have no idea what's going on here, and Dr. Munro is the only person who can answer your growing list of questions. If you have to go all the way to this Mount Kaspoot place to get those answers, then so be it.
  
  "How big is this mountain?" you say.
  
  "Not very," Dr. Munro says. "The climb is about 250 meters vertical. But you're underestimating yourselves in regard to the gravity here. I've been living on this planet for four years. We're human; we adapt."
  
  "Well, in that case we'll follow you," you say. Both Dansmith and Hun-Spruk seem unsatisfied with your decision, but this isn't the time or place to get their input.
  
  "This way, then," Dr. Munro says. "You'll need your handlights."
  
  She and Selrahc then lead the way toward that tunnel Dr. Wildon pointed out a few minutes ago behind the Anywhere Device. And at that moment you realize you have another crisis—one of a personal nature, one that has the potential to paralyze you and derail your ability to continue leading this mission.
  
  Your teammates wait for you to follow Dr. Munro and Selrahc into the tunnel, but your muscles suddenly refuse to cooperate. You remember the last time you were confronted with a situation like this. It was during your officer candidate training on Star Base Ishtria; your instructor expected you to crawl into a space not unlike this one, long and dark and uncomfortably confining, to inspect what was supposedly a malfunctioning relay. But that was just a simulated event—there was no malfunction—so in the absence of an actual need to do so, you had refused to enter the crawlspace. You nearly flunked the course because of that episode.
  
  "Things have gotten very weird," Dr. Wildon says, apparently reacting to your expression.
  
  "This is not what I was expecting either," Hun-Spruk says, "but I'm starting to think you're right, we just need to see how this situation plays out."
  
  But they both have it wrong; it's not the circumstances of how you found Dr. Munro that has suddenly seized you with apprehension, but something far more fundamental—something that has plagued you as long as you can remember.
  
  "Come," Dr. Munro says from the tunnel entrance, and Selrahc also turns to regard you with its dark eyes. Then they disappear into the dark space, with the beam of Dr. Munro's handlight bouncing down the tunnel, creating silhouettes of her and the Folvan.
  
  You need to take control of yourself and your anxieties, so you force yourself to follow. You reach the entrance and turn on your handlight. Dr. Munro and Selrahc are standing about twenty meters down, waiting for you to catch up.
  
  The tunnel is actually a long corridor, leading to a dimly lit space way up ahead. It is taller and wider than you first thought, so maybe this won't be that bad. You enter the space and slowly make your way forward, feeling as though all eyes are on you. But when you reach Dr. Munro and Selrahc, you find they are standing at the entrance to a branching tunnel—and this one really is dark and narrow.
  
  "This tunnel leads under the prairie," Dr. Munro explains.
  
  "All the way?" Dansmith says. "Eight kilometers?"
  
  "Yes," Dr. Munro says. "Most of the way, anyway. The Folvans are a race of burrowers."
  
  "It is safer under the ground than over the ground," Selrahc says, its natural voice surprisingly soft in this enclosed space, though you haven't yet figured out where the translations are coming from. "My people have been using these tunnels for generations."
  
  "It's safe, I assure you," Dr. Munro says.
  
  She is looking directly at you, concerned by what she sees. The sense of imminent panic you're feeling must be evident to everyone by now.
  
  So it appears that you face a basic, almost existential choice: Do you confront your fear and risk the possibility of experiencing a meltdown in front of your people, somewhere underneath the Folvan prairie? Or is it wiser to admit your limitations and seek an alternate route to Mount Kaspoot?
  
  > If you ask if there is another way to get to Mount Kaspoot, turn to page 203.
  "I can't do this," you say. "Is there another way to get to this mountain?"
  
  "Yes," Dr. Munro says. "By crossing the open prairie. So you're feeling a little claustrophobic down here, huh? Well don't feel bad, you're not the first. You remember my husband Ander, don't you? He refuses to use these things, too."
  
  "I will lead your friend to Mount Kaspoot," Selrahc says to Dr. Munro. "You go through the tunnel."
  
  "Is that all right with you?" Dr. Munro says.
  
  You look at her, you look at the Folvan; you have no way to read his facial expressions or his body language, so how can you judge his intentions?
  
  "Do you really trust him?" you say. "All of the other Folvans want to kill us, but he wants to help?"
  
  Selrahc lets out a sharp bleat that the translator doesn't even register as a word, but the emotion comes across loud and clear.
  
  "Mind your language!" Dr. Munro says.
  
  "Why? What did I say?"
  
  "You just called Selrahc a man," she says, "and je doesn't like that." She emphasizes the pronoun with a clenched jaw, as if she almost seems to delight in chastising people on this subject.
  
  "Folvans are an ungendered race," she continues. "Any member of this species, if infused with another's genetic material through a process that more closely resembles pollination than intercourse, can bear offspring."
  
  "Then thanks for setting me straight," you say, but what you really mean is: What happened to that undefeatable optimism you displayed so memorably on Giri Minor?
  
  "But yes, to answer your question, Selrahc can be trusted," she says. "Je possesses much curiosity about the stars, and those of us who come from them. Je has spent more time with us these last couple years than with jer own kind. But the whole male-female concept freaks jim out; je may be curious about humans and our alien ways, but je most certainly does not identify as one of us."
  
  "We need to leave," Selrahc says, speaking quietly in his odd native voice; the translator matches his—you mean, jer whispers.
  
  "I will go with you," Dansmith says. "Truth be told, I'm not one for caves and tunnels and rabbit holes either."
  
  "That's fine," Dr. Munro says. "I'm still taking the tunnel, and you others are welcome to come with me." She looks at Hun-Spruk, Wildon, and Quabiss. "Trust me, you're safer down here. The prairie can be a dangerous place. The Folvans dug these tunnels for a reason."
  
  In the end, only you and Dansmith opt for the above-ground route; the rest follow Dr. Munro into that dark, long, narrow tunnel, with the agreement that you will all reassemble at the base of the mountain, where the tunnel ends.
  
  "Follow me," Selrahc says, and you realize that he is wearing something that looks like a comm unit around the base of his left ear—its left ear—jer left ear. It must be the translator; Selrahc wasn't wearing it when you encountered... jim this morning in the research post, though.
  
  The being leads the way back through the Anywhere Device chamber and up the adobe steps, stopping at the entrance to the mound structure. "No one is here," Selrahc says, and he bounds swiftly on his elongated legs across the short grass into the wilderness beyond.
  
  For you and Dansmith, it feels as though you are running up a steep mountain. You find what looks like a part in the tall grass, recognizing it as the spot where your guide disappeared from view. You find... jim waiting just inside the wild grass.
  
  "Just so you know," you say, "we're not going to be able to sustain that pace."
  
  Selrahc's throat sac lets out a gentle whimper, but the translator says, "I know. Just follow."
  
  From that point forward, Selrahc is more careful about the pace je sets. The course the Folvan leads you on is anything but direct, but soon you begin to detect a pattern. You've assumed all along that the prairie is one big unbroken sea of grass, but by examining Selrahc's zigs and zags you begin to notice the natural lanes je is seeking out and following, like the parts in a thick head of hair. It is like navigating the natural currents of a massive green ocean. By following Selrahc's footsteps, the grass does not resist you our irritate your skin with its sharpness.
  
  However, it is clear you are making Selrahc nervous, because je is constantly checking your proximity to jim, and reining in a tendency to move further ahead. "Normally we do not cross the wild ungrazed lands walking so close together," je explains. "It is not the way of the land. But you are strangers to this land. You do not know the way, and I cannot leave you. I only hope the garda acknowledge your strangeness as well, and give us free passage."
  
  At one point Dansmith draws close to you to speak in private. "What do you think Captain Ynthramanni and Commander Diston are going to say when they find out we were guided across the prairie by a native?" he asks.
  
  "I'm not worried anymore about getting thrown in the brig for violating first contact protocols," you say. "When they drew plasguns on us this morning, that changed the rules, I think."
  
  "Speaking of which," Dansmith says. "Have you seen that bulge under our friend's grass kilt?"
  
  "Now that you mention it," you say.
  
  "Well this is an ungendered species," he says. "So I think we can rule out what that bulge isn't."
  
  As you are talking, you nearly trip over Selrahc, who has stopped and is crouching alertly in the grass. Je gestures with jer left four-fingered hand at you with a pushing motion, which you interpret to mean je wants you to back away. This runs counter to your instinct to move forward and learn what Selrahc knows, or what je thinks je heard.
  
  "I heard it too," Dansmith says. "There's something up ahead. Come here."
  
  Rather than backing away, Dansmith leads you to the side, pushing through the grass until you come to a spot that is about even with Selrahc, but a respectable distance away. It is difficult to see anything in all this tall grass, but you can now make out the tops of something large about fifty meters straight ahead, between you and the distant mountain.
  
  Something touches your shoulder and you jump. It's Selrahc.
  
  "Big trouble," je says. "Garda ahead, four of them, maybe six."
  
  "So what do we do?" you ask.
  
  Je reaches down toward the base of a clump of vegetation and uses jer massive yellow fingernails to slice the stems. Je pops some of the plant into jer mouth and begins to munch on it, but then je slices off several of the small green pods that you see growing at the bases of much of the plant life round here. Selrahc's muscular thumb crushes one of the pods, and a yellow fluid oozes out. There is a distinct smell of wet hay.
  
  "Cio oil," je says. "Spread it over your skin, like this." Je rubs the oil like a lotion on jer face and arms, and motions for you and Dansmith to do the same.
  
  "What does this get us?" Dansmith says, holding one of the cio oil pods in his hands.
  
  "It will help mask our scent from the garda," Selrahc says.
  
  You do as your guide suggests, finding more than enough cio oil in just one pod to cover your face, neck, and hands. Dansmith reluctantly does the same.
  
  "Now we must split up," Selrahc says. Je quickly holds up jer hand when Dansmith begins to object.
  
  "Garda will attack when their prey is clustered together," je continues. "They do not attack when their prey is spread out. You have to trust me. You"—pointing to Dansmith—"follow that line, and you"—pointing to you—"follow that line."
  
  The lines Selrahc is pointing to are the subtle natural lanes through the grass of the kind je has been following throughout this entire trek. Your time with Selrahc is proving to be beneficial, because you are starting to for see yourself now these natural "paths" through the vegetation.
  
  "I will head this way." Selrahc points to a third lane. "Agreed?"
  
  The "lines" je has indicated will have each of you walking thirty meters apart from one another. It is much further than your human instincts say are the right way to proceed, but then this isn't a place that plays by the same rules. This is Selrahc's world, and you are dependent upon jer expertise to help you survive it. At some point, you have to be smart enough to accept the advice you've been given.
  
  "Agreed," you say.
  
  "Remember, stay separated," Selrahc says gesturing for you and Dansmith to begin. Je seems to be waiting to make sure you follow jer directions.
  
  You step carefully through the grass, following the natural "lines" in the same manner as your guide. Within minutes you lose sight of your companions, although you can hear the faint rustling as they move forward.
  
  But you have also lost track of where the garda beasts are; it's not that they've gone anywhere, you just can't see them—that is, not until you spot one lurking in the grass just a few meters ahead of you—right in your path!
  
  The garda beast looks mammalian, with grayish-green fur and black stripes, but it crouches on powerful legs that stick out from the side of its body, each as thick as a tree trunk. At first it reminds you of an alligator, until you see the disproportionately long hind legs, like those of a grasshopper. It turns its head—with its massive jaws—in your direction.
  
  You've been seen! Surely Selrahc didn't mean for you to get this close.
  
  > If you try and stun the beast with your plasgun, turn to page 204.
  You figure you'll have a better chance of surviving this encounter if the garda beast is stunned, so you slowly pull your plasgun out and adjust the power setting. The thing is so close that you will effectively be firing at point-blank range, with no possible way of missing.
  
  So you take aim and fire a beam right between the eyes. But the garda beast is not impressed. In fact, it is outraged—and motivated to take a swift and decisive defensive motion by lunging forward and swiping at you with its yellow claws. You are snagged by your shirt and pulled closer to the garda beast.
  
  "No!" you scream, firing again and again at its head. This should have knocked out most creatures its size several times over, but your stun beams are having no effect on the garda, and you have no time to play with the power settings.
  
  You fire and fire, hoping the shots will eventually have a cumulative effect. Then a second beam strikes the garda from behind, a direct hit to the right hind leg. It's Dansmith, who has veered off course and is coming to your rescue.
  
  But rather than being intimidated, the garda seems stimulated. It lets out three loud bleats, and then waits, watching you intently.
  
  When you see two of the other members of the pride approaching on low hops behind Dansmith, you realized you've just made two tactical blunders: you irritated the sleeping beasts with your plasgun blasts, and then you and Dansmith drew near to each other, providing a more tempting target.
  
  Even Selrahc can't save you now.