“They got Alice.”

Scooball’s answer to her question seemed unreal so all Ilise could do was ask, “What do you mean?”

Tony’s hologram flickered into the space beside her, facing the others as well and waiting for an answer instead of providing one.

Charyd opened his com, closed and grabbed Squilla’s tablet, much to her protest and cried again and tossed the tablet in the air. Squilla had no reaction as it clattered down. He again went back to looking at his comm and passed it back and forth between his hands. How did his hands get so slippery? She watched as his hands morphed into having suctions, but then struggled in passing the comm around. They looked like Alice’s limbs. He could morph into anything, and still not know what to do.

He was going to be of no help.

Ilise turned to Scooball first but instead of answering, they were holding their bleeding ear in a pinch and staring off into the distance. Squilla was even worse – the light blue film of her inner eyelids had shuttered over her eyes, and she was completely still, even her antennae were not twitching about. Ilise was startled by Squilla more than the other two since she knew very little of her species, but she knew that the blue film was a sign of hibernation.

“Polo? Any leads yet?” Scooball finally took charge of the situation with a firm tone. They let go of their ear and let the blood flow freely before dropping off the earring at their station.

A moment later, Charyd’s communicator pinged again but the captain ignored it. Scooball grabbed it from the air in the middle of a toss and read Polo’s message.

“You’re having Polo looking for her?” Ilise asked in surprise. “The one with a literal beacon as a head?”

Scooball visibly hesitated, their hand hovering over one of the controls in front of them. A quick glance at Charyd revealed the captain was still not processing all the information.

“Polo. Get back to the ship. Let Mishupeshu take care of scouting for Alice,” Scooball ordered.

A moment later, the communicator pinged again and though Scooball was still tense, there was a minor shift on their face. Scooball looked at where Charyd was staring off into space, now completely still, and reported, “Polo’s returning. Mishupeshu is--”

“I heard,” Charyd interrupted with no inflection in his voice.

Ilise scolded herself for speaking out loud. Alice was captured, their strongest fighter, which meant that Polo could have been caught too. Mishupeshu could easily blend into the crowd at the station and disappear forever, but that would be two crew members down and a bigger chance for Ilise to take back control of the ship. She looked at Tony’s hologram beside her and the young man was fidgeting with a light array of fractal art without looking at it.

“Only Mishupeshu?” Ilise asked again. When Scooball turned to her, the only one responding to her presence, she focused on them. “You’re good at scouting. Mishupeshu is a medic. You used to be--”

“You’ve read my file,” Scooball interrupted with a scowl.

“I’ve read all your files. Both during and after your military service,” Ilise confirmed with a nod. “And I know that you and Mishupeshu usually work as a team.”

Scooball visibly hesitated. Ilise almost got them.

“You should probably join them and--”

“NO!” Charyd’s shout startled all as he jumped out of his seat to look at them both. “You can’t--don’t go.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Captain?” Scooball looked uncertain.

“How did you get out?” Charyd turned to Ilise as he growled out the question.

“Forget that. Look. Clearly, you need Alice to function. Let me just--”

“No!”

“No, what?!” she shouted right back.

“You. You and Tony. You set this up, didn’t you?”

The accusing finger he pointed at her was nothing to the tone in his voice. It was almost hysterical.

“How could I possibly do that?” Ilise scoffed out. “Look. I like Alice. I want to--”

“How did you get out?” Charyd interrupted her, yet again.

Ilise rolled her eyes to the ceiling and noticed Tony’s hologram step forward from her peripheral.

“There is no point in locking us up,” Tony started speaking. “We can help. We didn’t do this. I swear it to you.”

“Swear it? You?!”

She could understand his hesitation to truth Tony and her.

“Charyd.” Tony’s speech slowed down. “Calm down you’re acting strange.”

“I’m acting strange?!”

“Are you just going to repeat everything I say?” Tony accused and finally the softness was gone from his voice. Good. Ilise hated hearing him like that. It reminded her too much of when he was helpless and asking for help, back when they first started working together. It was rare, but Tony knew when to admit to his mistakes.

Ilise ignored the two as they started arguing - Charyd basically only repeating Tony’s questions – and sat down at one of the stations on the dock. She quickly accessed the private connection to the station. Just as she was pulling up the camera feeds, her screen went dark.

“Get out!” Charyd growled from behind the monitor where he held a bunch of ripped wires. He was going to destroy the Darkstorm cable by cable with his tantrum.

Ilise ignored him and moved to another station. He wasn’t fast enough to block her from sitting in the chair so he practically threw himself on top of the station to hide the monitors behind his body.

“What are you doing?!” he asked while trying to shove her hands away.

“Looking into the station feeds to see who, exactly, grabbed Alice.”

Charyd hesitated, his reaching arms hovering in the air above her own. When he didn’t try to stop her again, Ilise typed in a few commands and Tony’s hologram flickered from the middle of the dock to right over her shoulder.

“Move,” Ilise ordered, nudging at Charyd’s arms. He was slow to follow her command but did eventually get off the station. Tony’s image appeared in the corner of one of the screens as he guided her into the station’s internal security system.

A look up revealed Charyd staring at her monitor. Ilise clicked a few random keys and Tony continued the code ignoring her input. She looked at Squilla to confirm she was still hibernating, her senses shut off to the outside world, then at Scooball who was staring at her hands.

“Here, look. I found Polo,” Ilise said and pointed to the monitor. Scooball stopped looking at her and Ilise typed out a command for Tony only. Tony followed her instructions and made the cameras on the screen freeze up as if she commanded it so.

“Play it,” Charyd ordered with that same manic tone as before. Ilise clicked a few keys even though Tony already started the playback.

“They have a CCTV system on the station,” Tony spoke from the station’s speakers. “Record everything for twelve hours before archiving the footage. We follow Polo in reverse to where him and Alice split up and then follow her to see who got her.”

“And then?” Charyd asked.

“And then, you go out and get her,” Ilise answered with a roll of her eyes.

A set of footsteps down the hall preceded the dock door swooshing open again and then Polo was there. He looked stricken, his entire face practically blue, and stopped barely two steps inside. Charyd ignored him.

“You also still need to refuel and resupply,” Ilise added on, pulling her hands back from the keyboard now. She needed to break this down for him in his panicked state. Clear orders for the solider. “Find Alice, grab her, and go. So, you have to be ready to go. Get everyone helping to finish with supplies, be careful, and then go rescue your girl.” And if it meant that there would only be the hibernating Squilla on the ship with Ilise – even better. Awake or not, she could take Squilla on.

In the crowded screen with people going in and out stood out one face. She glanced back at Charyd who was yelling at Polo. Polo pointed at his comm before Charyd snapped it out of his hand and showed an example of putting it to his ear, like it was a phone in those old movies. Still, taking the precaution she tilted the feed away. If Charyd recognized them, he would catch on to her plan and suspect her. Two seconds ago, she was planning to fly off with the Darkstorm, the ship she was the captain of. But without a subordinates, she is no captain, and one of her’s was here in town. Having Gun Officer Boil would make taking the Darkstorm a whole lot easier. She had to figure out how to get him on board with her plan and the ship.

Quietly she typed out, “Back up on the camera on Alice and show me how she got captured. Keep a separate camera on him too." Tony would know that she meant Boil.