The sound of the Captain’s voice grabbed her attention, and Catherine stepped closer, still feeling apprehensive about the strange extremes and curious lack of life on this world.  Then when he asked Albrecht for some answers, she rolled her eyes at the older engineer’s hesitation, thinking he looked hopelessly inept. However, he was one of the top in his field, so she was relieved to finally see him looking more confident, but did smother a smirk at the way Captain Hunter had to glare the man into showing a little backbone.  He certainly had a way of commanding people and she admired that, especially since she wasn’t on the receiving end of it.<br/><br/>Relieved to hear they would be heading for high ground, she looked at Captain Hunter curiously because of the way he talked about the riverbed, wondering if he had heard her theory and believed her, or if it was a coincidence.  Either way it didn’t matter, she just wanted to get away from the area as soon as possible.  As he moved them into position, with her and Albrecht in the rear, she tried not to take offense at the way he made a point of directing his instructions to be quiet at them, but it did rankle her a bit.  Shaking it off, she realized it wasn’t personal, and focused on thinking like a soldier and just do what he asked.<br/><br/>Once they started moving, the only sound was from dry sand crunching beneath their boots, and Catherine kept her eyes on the wooded area beside them, continuously searching for signs of life.  It just didn’t seem feasible to her that nothing lived here but plants, though certainly there was microscopic life of some kind, she unfortunately didn’t have a microscope to study it.<br/><br/>They were making good time and checking her watch, she figured they should reach the ridgeline within ten minutes, but the wind had picked up considerably, swirling tiny grains of sand all around them. Zipping up her jacket, she pulled the collar up to shield her neck, and checked the sky.  The clouds were moving faster and seemed a bit thicker, but nothing else indicated the weather conditions were changing and she relaxed.  Then a twinkling flash from the trees caught her eye, and her gaze snapped to the left.  Above the thick forest canopy, something was reflecting light, almost like a prism.  Grabbing her binoculars, she tried to get a better look but it suddenly moved and disappeared.<em>Shit! What could it possibly be?</em>Pulse racing, she quietly sped up to move beside Captain Hunter, and held up her hand indicating he needed to stop, then pointed to the trees.  Whispering she said, “I saw something, like a prismatic reflection.” Her expression became urgent and she leaned closer so the others couldn’t hear. “There’s more…it moved. I’m positive, but it was so fast, I couldn’t get a good look at it.  At this point I certainly don’t feel the need to go after it, but it’s clear we aren’t alone here after all.”<br/><br/><br/>