A sharp screeching was heard only moments later. The noises were like angry cats snarling at each other, followed by loud hissing. Suddenly, it sounded like a struggle was taking place around the two captive women. Vines loosened up and darted away, while the cat howls were heard from several directions at once.
A soft whine was heard, which Mary instantly recognized as being the sound of a plasma gun being fired. She saw streaks of light flying past her head, striking the dreaded vines and tearing them apart. The vines withdrew all at once, dropping Mary and Margo on the dark soil and leaving both women gasping for breath.
"Cruz, get them out of here!" The captain's strong voice was heard.
The cat noises continued, as if the unseen cats were fighting the plants somehow. The screeches confused Mary because they hadn't seen any cats at all on that planet.
"You picked a bad partner to have an orgy with, I'll tell you that, Mary!" Cruz said, as he pulled the blonde up. "Let's go, ladies! On your feet!"
Mary felt so depleted of energy she almost fell down again. She caught a glimpse of a very large and very hairy person running past her in a blur, which made her shriek.
"We've made some new friends, baby." Cruz informed her. "You're going to have to help me with Margo, because she weighs as much as a full refrigerator!"
"I heard that, you little man." Margo coughed at him.
"Get up, you fat cow!" Cruz admonished her.
"Oh, that's it, buddy." Margo growled back, as she went after Cruz. "I'm going to pound you for that!"
"I was kidding, baby. Here, help me with Mary. She looks like a deer caught in the headlights right now."
"Did you just use reverse psychology on me," Margo asked. "To get me on my feet faster?"
"You'll never know, baby."
"I hate when you do that!"
"You're a woman, baby. Reverse psychology always works on lesbian women like you. Watch this. I bet I can get out of this tunnel faster than you can."
"Oh, hell, no!"
Numb and dazed, Mary simply stood there and listened to the conversation going on around her. Plasma rounds were still being fired, and all these new people with strange shapes were jumping around all over the place. When Margo's strong arm started pulling her away, Mary stumbled away with her.
Just a few minutes later, the scene inside the Space Relations was bedlam. Not only was it crowded with a number of new cat-women, but the excitement and adrenaline of their recent adventure was wearing off, leaving heavier feelings of exhaustion and dread to settle in. Except for the felines, that is. Those beings were still clearly agitated and actively looking for a fight.
Willow made the mistake of staring at one of the cats for a moment too long, causing the feline to bare her teeth and claws, and to issue a harsh screech in the shy woman's direction. Cowed, Willow ran behind Washington for protection, while he and Cruz were dealing with the listless form of Mary.
"Thor, please try to keep the cats to one side of the lounge." The Captain ordered.
"Where did you find these things, Captain?" The timid Willow asked.
"They found us." Washington replied. "They've been following us ever since we, uh, we met them."
All six cat-women were standing apart, giving Thor a dilemma because they didn't want to be too close to each other, but at the same time the felines wanted to be very close to the men.
"I think they've claimed us after what happened between us." Cruz theorized.
"And what happened between you guys exactly?" Willow wondered.
"We'll talk about that later." Washington changed the subject. "Our first priority is to tend to Mary and Margo. After that, all of us that went outside the ship are going to check ourselves thoroughly with the med-scanner."
"We need to hit the humidifiers, Captain." Cruz added. "I haven't smelled this much like ass ever since high school P.E."
"Those cat things don't like us." The dazed Mary said. "They want to hurt us."
"Who do they want to hurt?" Washington asked.
"Us women. Me, Margo and Willow."
"Well, of course they don't like you." Cruz replied. "These cat babes are territorial. They seem to have marked us for themselves ever since we started interacting with them. They naturally see human women as their rivals for male attention."
"Naturally?" Willow made a face at him. "It makes perfect sense to somebody like you, but not to somebody like me. All I know is that one of them has claws the size of fingers and she made like she wanted to eat me!"
"You mean these cat people are real?" Margo asked. She'd been sitting quietly on a couch, wearing a shock blanket. For the last handful of minutes, the big woman had been shaking her head and rubbing her eyes. "I kept thinking they were hallucinations."
"They're real, Margo." Mary confirmed. "They want to pull us away from the men so the men can pay attention to them."
"What kind of attention?" Willow asked.
"The cats want to hump the men." Mary nodded. "Oh, yeah! They think if they hump the men it will stop us from humping them. Humping is their way of life!"
"Captain, have you been naughty with these kitties?" Margo wondered.
"No comment." The man replied. "Cruz, we're getting nowhere fast. You and Mary seem to understand the feline psychology better than the rest of us. Since you're the only clear head at the moment, why don't you give me a plan of action."
"Absolutely, Captain." Cruz agreed. "Mary and Margo are in the worst shape, first off. I want to perform a full bio-scan on both of them. Willow can be my assistant, so that will keep her away from the pussycats. That means you and Thor will have to keep those hussies off our backs. By any means necessary, Captain. The next few minutes might be entirely critical in our medical analysis. This could potentially become a life and death drama, here in the very bowels of our ship!"
"There he goes, spouting off like a drama queen." Margo rolled her eyes.
"Get behind me, lesbian!" Cruz shot back at her. "Willow, help me walk Mary to the far end of the room, where all the medical equipment is. Margo, you big buffalo, you'll have to make the walk all by yourself."
"If I wasn't so tired I'd show you the big buffalo between my legs." Margo quipped half-heartedly.
The bio-scans had accurate templates of what a healthy Mary and Margo looked like. After subjecting the two women to stand before the toaster-size unit, the bio-scan projected an invisible beam of light and scanned the women from the tops of their heads down to their feet. Thankfully, it only registered a few anomalies.
"What is that orange shit in your hair, Mary?" Cruz asked, mortified.
"It's only pollen." The tired blonde replied.
"Oh, no, baby. It isn't only pollen; it is radioactive pollen. Margo has a little of that stuff on her, too. Were you rolling around in it, baby? We need to get both of you into the humidifiers as soon as possible. After that, I'm prescribing iodine tablets and a lot of sports drinks. Both of you ladies are heavily dehydrated."
"It was the plants that boned us." Margo revealed. "They were giving us all these little shocks and spraying fragrance on us. I think they were sucking all the water out of us while they were humping us."
"That's entirely possible." Cruz said. "Willow, since you're the smallest and weakest of us, you'll walk Mary across the hall and over to the ladder. I don't think Mary can make the climb in her condition. I'll drag the lesbian beluga whale."
"Thanks a lot." Willow glared at him.
"For what, baby?"
"For calling me the smallest and the weakest!"