Fragments 1: Devolution Landing

Missing

As the sun rose the following morning the camp moved slowly into life. After the arguments during the previous evening, Elveren was pleased that the atmosphere seemed relatively calm.

Professor Androbos was quiet but seemed focussed. He was busy sorting through papers, files and boxes of samples so they had something to look at later. He spent most of the morning in the shade of an open tent as Rymerian workers brought things to him so that he could catalogue them for shipping.

One of the flitters was sent back to the trading post with a selection of boxes which would be piled up ready for their departure later on. She hoped that they would be able to take them all on the shuttle, but suspected there might be a few problems. The Professor would not be happy if they were forced to leave anything behind.

It was only when the sun was high in the sky and her stomach was making hungry noises that she realised that there was no sign of the others in the camp. She paused for a moment and tried to remember if she had seen them at all during the morning.

She swore quietly and did a quick loop of the various tents and excavations. Nothing.

She called up the crash site on the radio. They weren't there either.

She swore again and marched straight the Professor's tent. He was busy with a box of plastic fragments.

"I can't find them," she said bluntly.

He popped a tiny piece of black plastic into a sample bag. It looked like a bit of storage box that had been shaped into a crude knife. He labelled it and then peered at her over the top of his glasses.

"Sorry?" he asked with a puzzled tone. "You can't find who?"

"Moorfier, Babin, Perracheck," she replied. "I can't find them anywhere on site."

"Maybe they've gone back to Site One, or perhaps they're down at the river?"

She shook her head.

"I checked. They're not at the crash site and they're not within the designated area. I called Orobos and he hasn't seen them. Neither have his staff. They weren't on the flitter and they haven't taken one of the trucks. They've gone."

Androbos swore.

He turned to his Rymerian assistant.

"Pretor, could you finish bagging up the samples? I think you've got the idea now, yes?"

The Rymerian nodded and the Professor gave him a brief reassuring smile. He turned back to Elveren and said, "Let's get Orobos on the line. We're going to need some help hunting them down, the idiots!"

The foreman was happy to get their call, but was very worried.

"If they've gone off site, we'll need a flitter to track them down," he said with a serious note of concern in his voice. "But we've only got two. One of them is being repaired at the moment and the other won't be back for another half hour..."

"Not good," Androbos responded. "There's not much we can do though. Tell me when it  gets back."

"Will do!"

It was a long wait for the Rymerian flitter, but the Professor tried to use the time well. He looked very angry, but didn't have anything to say. He went back to his tent and helped with the packing. Elveren sorted out her own things and made sure she was ready to go. It looked like it might be a difficult afternoon...