DECOY : WARRIOR LOST

          Roark whirled, his hand with laser in it, coming up to point dead on where the sound had come from, only to freeze, his silver gaze taking in the boy.  He had startled, then frozen, his eyes on the laser pistol Roark held.

          Immediately lowering his pistol as his left hand rose in a consoling manner.  "I'm sorry, it's alright, I won't hurt you.  You just startled me."  He began to move forward, holstering his laser.  

          "That's alright," the boy, who couldn't be any older than Severus' son Sasha, who was ten yahren.  This boy had thick, wavy blond hair, and once he had slid down from his mount, Roark saw in the fading light that he had blue eyes.   "Is that a starship?" he asked excitedly, moving quickly to examine the viper.  "I've never seen a real starship before."

          Roark nearly smiled at his excitement, answering him, "It is.  My name's Roark," a pause, then he asked softly, "Where am I?"

          "My mom's place," came his answer as he turned toward him.

          He did smile then.  "No, the planet.  What planet is this?"

          "Equalous."

          "Puppus!" came the very tense voice of a woman.  "Come over here and light this lamp."

          Following the sound of her voice, Roark saw in the swiftly gathering fall of night a woman holding...his head tilted inquisitively.  'Was that really a rifle?' he wondered.  "He's alright, mom," the boy...Puppus she had called him answered. "If he had wanted to, he could have shot you. You should see how fast he--"

          "NOW, Puppus."

          "Yes, ma'am," he said on a deep sigh, moving past Roark to go to his mother's side.

          Suddenly a light flared, nearly blinding him as his hands came up to block the sudden infusion of brightness.   "Hey!  Is that really necessary?" he called out to her, hearing her, "shut it off."   The light went out, "Thank you," he told her, lowering his hands.

          "You had better just crawl right back into your ship and leave, mister."

          "I'd like nothing better," he told her as she hurried forward, "but I'm out of fuel, so I won't be going anywhere until I can get more."

          "Then we need to hide it.  It AND you."

          Fear.  He went very still, looking from her, to her son, then back again as she lay the rifle she held on the ground and moved to begin pulling at the broken tree branches.  No, came the thought as the boy moved to begin helping her.  Not fear.  Terror.  She was terrified.  "Now hold on just a --"

          "Please," she told him urgently, looking around them, "Please mister, we have to hide it.  Now."

          "Roark," he said, hand coming up to settle on her wrist as she pulled another branch over the wing of his Viper, "Captain Roark Lestrange-Rosier.  What are you so terrified of?"

          She didn't answer, and instead of continuing to ask questions he obviously wasn't going to get answers to at the moment, he moved to begin helping her., effectively covering every inch of his viper in thick tree branches, which his crashing had helped to provide plenty of.