Abduction! pt 5

Jennifer unclasped her helmet and laid it casually on the table beside her. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she had dark circles under her eyes. She couldn’t even begin to think about sleep right now. Wearily, she looked around the table at those gathered. They were all looking at her expectantly. She was their leader. She would always be their leader, no matter where else each of them went to, and she felt the weight of their eyes on her shoulders firmly. She looked over her shoulder, and motioned for Coco to bring them all a round.

Lauryn “Usia” Sosnowski; Kerrigan “Lyetzor” Sabrewings; Kali “Kaliach” Somani; Denise “Jeanette” Sandine; and Zane “Tharkael” Conmy had all gathered in The Cup in West Athens. This small group made up the core team, individuals she could trust implicitly with the most minor and important of details. There was a great many others that she counted as friends, but these right here she could honestly state she loved. Coco served them all her newest flavor of cappuccino, and Jennifer smiled as warmly as she could to the famous waitress.

“What do I owe you for this, Coco?” Jennifer asked.

“Absolutely nothing, Miss Jennifer. Just find her,” was the answer Coco offered as she calmly wiped the drops she had spilled on the table with a damp cloth, carefully maneuvering around Jennifer’s helmet.

“Find who? Oh…” Jennifer stopped, “You know?”

“Hun, when you work in a coffee shop as long as I have, you quickly learn which rumors to listen to and which ones are false. Miss Jolynn has always been one of my favorite customers, and I miss her,” Coco stated to the gathered group. “Please find her and bring her back safely.” Coco walked away and kept herself busy behind the counter with her typical duties.

“Right,” Lauryn replied to the receding Coco, “We all want to get her back safely.”

Everyone there nodded in agreement, and Jennifer could see the resolve in their eyes. ‘How am I going to do this? I have no idea where to begin, and I’m at a complete loss as to what to do next. I know they want to hear some brilliant plan, and expect it to execute flawlessly and for us to rescue Jolynn and live happily ever after…’ Jennifer sighed, as she took a sip of her drink.

“Jennifer. This isn’t going to be easy, we all know that, and life is never a happily ever after,” Zane spoke up. Her former Vice President had always had the knack of knowing and understanding exactly what was going through her mind, even though he claimed to have absolutely no psychic powers. “We know something really bad has happened, and that Jolynn is in serious, serious trouble. Don’t carry the weight of the universe on your shoulders alone. All of us sitting here are just as worried about her as you are, and we all know that there are some risks ahead of us. So don’t sugarcoat it, don’t hold anything back and let’s get her back.”

Jennifer couldn’t hold back the tears that started flowing out of her eyes at that beautiful speech from Zane, and she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. She looked down into her cappuccino, and set the cup down on the table. She pulled out a larger digi-pad then the one she had given to the Omni-Tek employee, and flipped open its lid.

“Okay, here’s what we have so far: Jolynn was taken by a completely unregistered spacecraft, capable of remote teleportation. It’s possible that it was constructed right here on Rubi-Ka, using salvaged and scavenged alien machine parts. Unfortunately for them, a vessel of that type can not enter and leave the atmosphere without leaving a very big, wide and easily traceable trail behind it,” Jennifer paused in her assessment before continuing, “We also know the exact time and date that Jolynn was taken, and that was over 10 days ago. It took my new…friend a couple days to compile all of the data, but he did come through.” Jennifer had smiled a little bit at the word ‘friend’ only because of the irony of the statement.

“Great,” Kali muttered, “I told you I could have hacked that terminal faster than he could…”

“Kali, knock it off!” Jennifer snapped, “Yes, you might have been able to crack that terminal open like a footlocker, but we would have been left with raw data and needing a system capable of not only decrypting it, but of deciphering it. John was more than happy to help once he realized we weren’t there to kill him, but simply find a friend.”

Kali crossed her arms and sat back in her seat, sufficiently upset and starting to feel the effects of helplessness.

“Right. So, to continue: The vessel did travel into orbit around Rubi-Ka, and due to the alien blockade did not try to make it any further. Either that, or their purpose was just to remain in orbit it’s unclear at this point. The trail ends there for the next four days. John surmises that they must have just shut off their engines and floated in high orbit around Rubi-Ka, to make sure that they weren’t being followed. Fortunately for them, that made them completely invisible and all the tracking stations were unable to find any trace of their engine signature,” Jennifer said.

“Okay, so that’s six days ago. Do we have any idea what has happened during that time?” Lauryn asked.

“Actually Lauryn, we have some very specific places that we can go check. John was able to find two dozen copies of that signature that re-entered Rubi-Ka airspace five days ago,” Jennifer hesitated at this point, and it took a hand on her shoulder from Zane for her to be able to continue. “Here’s where it gets ugly. All of those trails are out over the non-terra formed areas of the planet, and they all hit the ground pretty hard. This is the complete list of coordinates,” Jennifer spun the digi-pad around so the screen faced away from her.

“Wait a minute. How could they have created 23 other copies of that same ship?” Lauryn spoke up again.

“I don’t know. John wasn’t able to give me any answers about that, and I can only guess that maybe Jolynn’s captors did that to try and hide their trail even more. Maybe it’s an error in the telemetry readings, I really don’t know. John’s the expert in this field, and I have no idea,” Jennifer answered. “But at least it gives us somewhere to look, somewhere to start trying to find her, and something to do besides just sit around and sip cappuccino.”

Kerri opened her eyes, and looked out over the room before she opened her mouth to speak, “Cama sends greetings to us all. Jolynn still lives.”

Everyone snapped their heads in Kerri’s direction, and only Jennifer didn’t look confused. She already knew that the enigmatic shade spoke directly with the Redeemed.

“Gilthar has asked Belith to bring her home to us. Her road is going to be long and painful. Her choices will determine her survival,” Kerri finished and then blinked once and looked down at the cup in front of her.

“Huh. I’ve been pretty deep into the Shadowlands and this is the first time I’ve heard anyone besides an Ecclesiast speak of the Redeemed in that manner,” Jeanette said. “In fact, I’ve been pretty blessed by the Redeemed and have their favor but even I can’t speak directly to them.”

Kerri did nothing to answer Denise. She simply sat at the table and looked into the depths of the strange brewed beverage.

“Right. So now we at least have something to go on,” Denise stated. “We have coordinates out in the middle of nowhere, where no one goes and its dangerous as Inferno to travel to with no real possible way of knowing for sure which one is real, if any of them are.” She paused a moment as her brow furrowed, “I’m game. I’m in this for the long haul, and no *one* is going to stop me from trying to find Jolynn. I only have one thing I’m going to be sorry about,” Denise trailed off.

“What’s that, Denise?” Jennifer asked.

“This,” as she reached over and hit Jennifer in the neck with the prepared serum. “You need sleep, and I’m not in the mood to argue with you about it. Sleep tight.”

Jennifer only had time to look slightly surprised before her body started slumping forward, and Zane deftly snatched the half finished cappuccino out from her drooping head.

“This is going to be the adventure of a lifetime, isn’t it?” He asked Denise.

“Yes Zane, it certainly appears that way,” she replied.

“Good. I hate living a boring life,” was his only answer.