[hr][center][h1][color=009496]Tahlia Spade[/color][/h1][/center][hr]

Seemingly out of nowhere, Tahlia heard a set of unknown footsteps enter the cockpit shortly after Owen made his entrance.  She had just enough time to turn around and catch a glimpse of the... robot, thing before something that was actually fleshy (at least, relatively) yanked her hair and threw her out of the seat.  She lost her balance and ended up on the grated floor, hitting her face pretty hard.  [color=009496]"Oww... fuck."[/color]  Her initial surprise and shock of being one of five people to make first contact was replaced with her training as she felt one of their captors subdue her and bind her arms behind her.

[color=009496]"This is what's happening, Owen!"[/color] she spat, not in anger at Owen, just in anger in general.  Where the fuck did they come from?  She turned around and looked out of the cockpit to see the stars and empty space make a transition into the interior of some sort of hangar.  The clever bastards tricked them to catch them off guard.  They had been captured before they even knew it.

The alien that had bound Tahlia forcefully picked her up and began marching her and the others out of the Artemis.  [color=009496]"Do what they say, don't give them an excuse."[/color]  She didn't dare say more lest she provoke the wrath of the creatures they were surrounded by.  She did earn a piercing look from one of them, but no physical retribution, or even a verbal warning.  She got a good look at the thing's face.  It had a vaguely humanoid look to it, with obvious differences of course.  Their bodies were very angular, with several sharp corners and tight curves around what she assumed to be their muscles.  They seemed slightly taller than most people; maybe by a foot or so.  It may have been intimidating were it not for a couple of things.

Firstly, the fact that they simply didn't just tase, or kill them all, and the mention of treason were signs of a structured government and diplomacy, both of which were relatively good signs.  Or bad, depending on the type of government.  Second, they weren't being treated particularly badly as of yet; a sign that there were some rules of engagement that they had for this sort of thing.  All things that Tahlia wasn't unfamiliar with.

It occurred to Tahlia, as they marched through the various hallways, how well she was taking this, considering they had effectively been abducted by aliens.  To be fair, it was likely the manner at which they were taken.  It wasn't dissimilar from a regular cop arresting someone for burglary, or something.  Even Tahlia had done her fair share of takedowns during training.  It felt as though things would have pretty much went the same way if they were found and captured by a group of humans.  She only hoped that by "treason" they hadn't inadvertently committed an act of war, or something.

The hallway opened up to what seemed to be a prison cell, which the women were promptly thrown into.  It took a couple of minutes before Owen showed up, but no sign of Benji.  Was he still on the ship, hiding or something?  Maybe Owen had seen him.  She was about to say something, but felt a pain when she opened her mouth.  She felt her face and remembered the fall she took.  There was a cut across her right cheek.  It wasn't bleeding badly, but it still hurt.  She failed to notice it before, but it wouldn't have been the first time.  Nor the last, probably.

Regardless, Benji was still missing, and God only knew what they did with Rend.  As far as Tahlia cared, they could keep him as a fucking pet or something.  Regardless, they first needed to find out what happened to Benji, then they could worry about how they would get out of this mess.