EMBR of the Earth

|FIVE|

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"Tana?"

Soft footsteps thudded across the room before stopping abruptly. Tana lifted her gaze to see Sage standing in the doorway.

"Good, Miles told me you were in here. Anyway, Rachel wanted me to ask you if she could borrow — hey, are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost!" 

Tana sighed, turning the bot around on the table to show it to Sage. "Something happened to my jar. It's missing."

"Hm." Sage plopped down into a chair. "That's odd. Are you sure you remembered to put one in when you sent it out?"

Tana frowned. "Yes. I was cautious during the setup. I couldn't have forgotten."

Sage's face darkened. "So what if it wasn't an accident?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Tana, what if someone's trying to sabotage your project?"

Tana crossed her arms. "Why would they? Or, better question, who? We don't really have neighbors up here, in case you haven't noticed."

"Well, how else would you lose it?"

"Sage, I probably just made a mistake. No one stole data from my bot. If they wanted to throw a wrench in my experiment, they should've taken the first five bots."

"Maybe this one found something they didn't want you to see. Is it damaged, or malfunctioning, or even a little fishy?"

Tana peered closely at the panel, rubbing her thumb along the grooves and edges of the doors. "I mean, it's a little dinged up, but considering all the rocks and everything else floating around out there —"

"Tana —"

"Look, whatever happened, I'm sure it was a mistake," Tana repeated firmly. "No one's going to stumble upon a container of dust and take it for themselves!"

"And the bot's not gonna tip over and drop the jar into space, either," Sage insisted. "At least, not of its own accord."

Tana shook her head, taking a seat next to her friend. "Well, if this is sabotage, then who's calling the hits?"

Sage exhaled deeply. "What about those lunatics down on Earth? I wouldn't be surprised if there were others up here that wanted to cause us even more trouble."

"But wouldn't IAN have picked up on any suspicious activity?"

"IAN had no control over whatever happened out there. You know that as well as I do."

Tana nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I'm going to call Dr. Clay and send this to him. He'll want to run some additional tests."

The door of the lab slid open to reveal Miles standing in the doorway. "Tana?"

"Sorry, Miles," Tana said. "I got distracted with the bot. It's —"

"Emily's here," he interrupted. "With Mom. They both want to see you."

"They do? Why?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Beats me. Something science-y, I bet."

Tana scoffed. "Well, speaking of science-y, since you're here, could you take this to Dr. Clay?" She thrust the bot into his arms. "Sage, go with him, please."

Miles opened his mouth to respond, but Tana was already several strides down the hallway and couldn't hear him. When she entered the living quarters, she found her mother in the kitchen with Emily, murmuring among themselves.