to his ears.
"Sorry, that stands for the Galactic Aerospace Tagging System, integrates with CMS. Anyways, it suddenly changed course, speed, and degree. I mean suddenly, normal space flight correction for objects take hours. This...thing changed from positive thirty degrees to a negative fifty degrees in under thirty minutes. Then it increased speed to 90 kilometers per second." He took a drink. "But that's not even the kicker. Cutting the distance from us in half, it just...stopped. Within twenty minutes it had stopped, been hovering at that distance all week."
"Interesting, are you sure it's a natural formation?" She walked back to the table and leaned against it, crossing her hands in front of her. They felt like led weights under her exhaustion, as did her head. "Could be a ship, or mobile colony."
"No, not any ship I've seen. Unless the ship or colony is made from completely natural and porous material. That just goes against everything we know about building technology. Plus, it came from the outer region. The flight pattern suggests there is no way it could've boomeranged around, angle is too severe."
Marie rubbed her eyes, feeling the grit behind her eyelids. Her brain was starting to go fuzzy. "Okay, so what does a missing engineer and a distant weird object have to do with one another?"
Don looked over the group. "Probably nothing, but it begs to question. The fact that within days of that thing hovering near us a colony citizen goes missing is enough evidence to inquire."
Marie's stomach hitched. She knew she'd have to voyage out there and check the object out. She hated space flight. The zero gravity made her sick, the small space put her near panic, and the thrusters sound gave her a huge headache that lasted for days.
She knew she could send two of the others but that wouldn't look good for the new Superior to chuck off responsibility. Plus, this crew lacked real experience and Don would need better back up then three part-time soldiers whose real professions were a science geek, student, and docking data nerd. She stretched her shoulders and stood.
"Okay, Frank, you go ahead and complete your shift tonight. Timothy, notify control to prep a two-seater for twenty-four hours out, then get some sleep before your test tomorrow. Gerry, replace him and cover for Don. Don, you and I will head out after we've gotten some rest."
Everyone nodded and she head back out and down the shaft with Don. "You might want Timothy with you in case there's something off."
She assessed him with a sidelong gaze. The compact frame, fit from a full career as a soldier. His blonde hair cut in the approved military style and his gray eyes took in everything. His skin was still tan from center galaxy living. Even with the apparent lack of confidence, Don exuded soldier. Even with a prosthetic left foot, he walked in a military gait, albeit a slightly limping military gait.
She lightly punched his shoulder. "No, Timothy would piss his pants if something was...off. You're the most qualified to go with me and the one I trust the most."
After only four hours rest, her door buzzer awakened Marie. Stumbling out of bed and into a robe, she shuffled to the door. Opening it, the panicked wailing immediately assaulted her. The wailing came from a thin framed middle-aged woman with blonde hair and shimmering blue eyes. The shimmering was probably from the buckets of tears.
"Oh Lieutenant, you have to help me!" she wailed through the torrent of tears. "She's missing, I can't find her."
Marie became alert, ushering her in she grabbed her handheld from the side table in the entryway. "Okay, calm down. Just sit down here and we'll get this all sorted out."
The woman nodded her head vigorously. Marie had visions of a missing little girl, small and helpless. Panic threatened to overtake her professionalism. "Tell me what happened."
"I was just finishing vacuuming. I had sent her in to bed, got her settled under the covers and turned on some music." She shuddered as more tears fell. "Music helps her fall asleep."
"It's okay; just try to get through it. Any information will help in locating her." The emotions made her nervous and she wasn't sure how to comfort.
"Yes, yes. You're right of course." She gave a wobbly smile. "I finished vacuuming and went in to turn off the music, if she was asleep of course. But when I went in there, she wasn't there. The bed was unmade and empty." She waved her hands uselessly. "I looked all over the quarters, calling for her. Then I called the neighboring spokes and we looked around the core sphere...checked in with other neighbors. Nowhere, so I came straight here."
She cried some more, her nose running freely. Marie retrieved a cloth for her and as she handed it over the woman gripped her arm.
"You have to help me find her, her medication is past due."
"Medication?" The panic increased with her heart rate. "For what?"
"Heart condition," the woman said. "She's old and if she doesn't take it regularly her heart rate drops and she can have heart failure."
Marie's thoughts stopped at the word old. "She's old?" She set back on the coffee table. "How old is this woman and what is her relationship to you?"
She wiped her nose again with the cloth. "My mother is almost a hundred years old."
She called in her troops again and they headed over to Gene's quarters where her and her mother, Marjorie, lived. They'd been on the colony for generations. Marjorie had moved to Pluto-C seventy years ago with her new husband as scientists, tracking and experimenting with molecules. Gene had been born in the medical ward and had never lived anywhere else. She had taken over the research when her father passed on and her mother retired.
Walking around the room, she noticed a thin layer of dust-like material sprinkled over the bedding. "Hey Gerry, this the same kind of substance as in Bill's place?"
Gerry leaned over and ran a finger along a small section of the dust. "Looks like it. Want me to analyze it?" She nodded and he started the collection process.
Working her handheld she didn't hear Frank enter. "Hey boss, you think maybe we should bring in a more experienced tea?" She looked hard at him until he shuffled. "All I mean is, well Gerry, Tim, and I are smart, but we're not experienced in this kind of thing. We mainly walk around and make the civilians feel comfortable." He shuffled some more as a blush crept up his neck. "I just think you and Don could use more experienced help is all." He ended it with a quiet mumble.
Marie had already thought of it, she'd fought an internal argument over calling her superiors and requesting resources. She just couldn't swallow her pride. It wouldn't let her call in, after only a month on assignment, in a rinky-dink colony, for anything. Her ego buffed her feeling of being in control and able to handle anything that came her way.
"We don't need external resources yet...Officer Frank. Once we've assessed the object I'll re-determine the need to such resources," she said coldly, firmly, and with an edge to her voice.
"Yes sir," he responded meekly.
After an exhaustive investigation, the team's report ended just like Bill's, nothing. She ordered them all to get eight hours of rest. Waking up, still groggy, Marie was reluctantly ready to depart.
Walking around the edge of the core sphere, she watched Hank and Todd bickering over the garden border. Shaking her head, she decided to let them bicker. If it escalated, she would have something to do when she returned. Moving past the garden, she paused to look in on the nature preserve.
Several people walked the narrow paths and enjoyed the intimate feel of the area. Trees, smaller than center galaxy preserves, lined the path, small brush tucked in the tree trunks and meadow grass filled in the gaps between the groupings. Along some of the borders were small flower grouping. Bright blue, yellow, and red petals smiled brightly at those passing them, admiring their beauty.
Passing on from the nature preserve, she reached the vertical tube and headed down two levels arriving at the main docking hanger. This was another kind of art, she thought as she entered the choreographed spectacle. Personnel wore the color of their task. Green were shuttle mechanics, blue were navigators, yellow were
flight directors, red were medical personnel, gray were the supply directors, and so on. The way they moved was like a silent musical. People knew exactly where they were going, what they were doing, and the timing of their task.
Don waved her down from across the platform and she met them halfway. "You ready Lieutenant?" He motioned towards the B-250, nicknamed the Boomerang, as painted on the left arch in bold white lettering with a small kangaroo hopping over the letter, mid jump over the R and the second O.
She snarled at it and then blew out a breath. "Never, but yeah." She looked at the short woman standing with them. "You the pilot for today's tour?"
She beamed a thousand watt smile and stuck out her hands. "Yup, Kenjal at your service." They shook hands. "The mechanics just finished their checklist. Boomerang and I are ready when you two are."
"Better never than now but since that's not an options, let's head out."
The three of them headed up the ladder that shot down from the center part of the u-shape of the ship. Entering the small portal, they worked their way to the seats, which lined up right above and in front of the entrance. The pilot's seat was dead center with the two passenger seats on either side. The cockpit wasn't tall enough to stand up in and the seats were deep set and tilted slightly downward.
After thirty minutes pre-flight preparation Kenjal was set to go. The