"Captain Susan Tanner?" he finally asked, his voice deep and strong.

She wanted to ask who he was, but she couldn't; her thoughts were blocked. There was a unique quality to his voice, a certain hard inflection she had not heard in many years. It actually demanded a response.

"I am Susan Tanner-"

His lips pulled back against sharp-filed teeth and a concentrated bark issued from his diaphragm. He lunged, his right hand flashing out in a vicious karate chop directed at her head.

She snapped her left hand up to deflect the punch, and the man's callused knuckles drove into the white ceramic tiles an inch from her ear. Pulverized tile peppered her body as her right hand shot out to slam into his throat. She felt his larynx collapse beneath her prosthetic hand.

Pain mingled with surprise washed over his dark features, and he staggered back a step, then caught himself and again scanned her body. He had expected neither her speed nor her strength.

"What's this about?" she demanded, putting as much authority as she could muster into her voice. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

As soon as she asked those questions, she wished she hadn't. It couldn't possibly do any good. Even if he wanted to respond, he couldn't. She had seen to that when she crushed his larynx.

But there were those whose job it was to obtain that information. Base Security would get to the bottom of this. They could extract information from any mind; they had the probe.

Before she could act on that thought, the dark man renewed his attack. Spitting blood onto the white tiles at her feet, he came at her again.

This time he half-turned, kicking out and up with his left foot, the side of his boot aimed at her solar plexus. She side-stepped just enough to avoid the kick, then planted her bare feet as firmly as possible on the blood-slicked tiles and shifted her weight. In the same motion, she brought her right elbow crashing down into her attacker's knee.