MCGREGOR AND CHEN SPENT THE NEXT two days making whatever preparations they needed to enact their plan to let the sphere steal Stuart from their ship. To get this to work, Chen traded with Stuart and took his designated sleeping partner which made McGregor the young engineer’s new sleeping buddy. They used an excuse that the two didn’t get along to make the trade more believable, but it was all part of their plan. Hours before Stuart was supposed to head for bed alone, McGregor arrived to make a few small modifications, and set some things up before letting the young man get some alone time with his bed. He installed some secret cameras hoping that if Stuart was indeed taken by the sphere, they would be able to record how it happened. They could use the data retrieved to maybe come up with better defenses to protect the crew, which might lighten Jones’ anger when she eventually finds out what they were up to. Once all the changes were made, McGregor shook Stuart’s hand and even gave the young man a small bro hug.

“You ready to get kidnapped by aliens?” McGregor asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Stuart asked, “What should I do once I’m in there?”

“Standard recon protocol,” McGregor answered. “Access your surroundings, find a safe place, and then try to establish communication with the ship.”

“Shouldn’t I look for the others who were taken?” Stuart asked.

“Already ahead of you on that,” McGregor answered, “Your hidden tech is already pre-programmed to look for them. What I’m about to tell you is highly classified, but every member of this crew had a small tracker installed into them during their physical to get approved for space travel.”

“If it’s so secret,” Stuart inquired, “Then how do you know about it?”

“I helped invent it,” McGregor replied, “The whole purpose of it is for situations just like this one. I’ve been trying to use the ships sensors to try to find them, but our machines can’t get through the sphere’s surface. So, once you’re in there, if anyone form the ship is withing a few hundred miles of you… you’ll be able to track them quicky and find them.”

“Sounds good to me,” Stuart said, smiling back at him. “No one wants to be alone inside an alien sphere.”

“You’re a good kid,” McGregor said, “I wouldn’t send you down there if I wasn’t sure you couldn’t take care of yourself. But you’re right; find whoever you can because there is strength in numbers. Once you find a few people, look for a way to get in contact with the ship to let us know you’re alright.”

“Roger that,” Stuart said, as he was excited to get started. “Where are you going to be while I’m sleeping?”

“I’ll be a few decks down in engineering,” McGregor replied, “I can watch your feeds from there and in case I fall asleep myself, there’s always someone there so I won’t be taken too.”

“Sounds good to me,” Stuard replied, “Now get outta here so I can get some beauty rest before the aliens come to get me.”

“Roger that,” McGregor said, as he left Stuart’s quarters and made his way to engineering.

It didn’t take long for him to make it down to engineering, but when he did there was someone waiting for him. Doctor Chen was sitting in his chair and waiting for his partner in crime to join him.

“What are you doing here?” McGregor asked, “Don’t you have a new sleeping partner to watch over, so they don’t get taken too?”

“I assigned someone new to that person so I could work a double shift.” Chen replied, taking his feet off the desk “I was eager to watch the feeds with you to see what happens to our brave volunteer.”

“Fair enough,” McGregor said, as he had a good idea pop into his head. “Stay here and watch the bloke for me, I’m going to hit the mess and get us a second supper so we can have more energy to stay up.”

“Good idea,” Chen said, as he was feeling a bit peckish.

McGregor left the room and started to walk down the halls to make his way towards the mess but bumped into the last person he wanted to see. Commander Jones was also making her way to the mess and almost ran into McGregor.

“Chief McGregor,” Jones said, “What are you down here?”

“I’m working late,” McGregor answered, “Just on my way to the mess to grab a late night snack before getting back to work.”

“Your shift should have ended a few hours ago,” Jones reminded him, “Where is your sleep partner?”

“He’s also in engineering,” McGregor lied, “We’re working on something that might help us track our people… let us know if they’re really in that big sphere.”

“You are?” Jones asked, “Why wasn’t I notified about this?”

“To be honest, it’s a longshot.” McGregor confessed, “I didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up only to have them dashed when things bugger up. I intended to let you in on it if we made any progress. I just assumed you already had enough on your plate dealing with the big wigs and what not.”

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

“I appreciate your candor,” Jones replied, “But in the future you keep me in the loop on any progress you make regarding out people in that sphere. Is that clear?”

“Crystal,” McGregor answered, “That’s all I have so consider yourself up to speed regarding our work.”

“Alright,” Jones said, “Let’s get some food and get back to work.”

McGregor followed his commander to the mess and got the kitchen to give him two platters of grub to go. Jones remained in the mess with night staff on break, while McGregor took his good back to engineering and away from Jones so she wouldn’t know what they were really doing with Stuart. Chen was still there watching the feeds when McGregor returned with their food.

“Any change?” McGregor asked, putting one tray in front of the doctor.

“Not yet,” Chen replied, “He’s still there, snoring up a storm.”

“I hope they take him soon,” McGregor insisted, “I need to find out what parts of the lad they take with him and what parts are left behind.”

“Hopefully they won’t notice his differences,” Chen said, “And that will allow him to smuggle all that contraband we stashed on him.”

“Here’s hoping,” McGregor confirmed, as he looked at the screens. “We won’t know for sure unless the sphere takes him first.”

“Hopefully the sphere won’t be able to resist temptation,” Chen suggested, “And that will prove they’re more human that we anticipated.”

“Let’s not get carried away,” McGregor countered, “There’s no way that sphere was build by someone like us. Whoever created something big enough to take up more than half of an entire solar system is on another level beyond our grasp.”

“Sounds like you admire them,” Chen said.

“I admire their work,” McGregor corrected them, “I don’t know enough about them to judge them on a personal level. Right now, all I can do is draw conclusions from the engineering marvel that lies before us.”

“Fair enough,” Chen said, as his conclusions were sound. “Thanks for the food.”

“No problemo,” McGregor said, digging into his own grub. “We need to keep our energy so we can keep an eye on…”

McGregor stopped talking when he suddenly noticed something. Either the feed was no longer working, or Stuart had been taken as the bed was no empty.

“Shit!” McGregor said, “He’s gone!”

“Already?” Chen said as he stopped eating to look closer, “That’s interesting.”

“Back up the feed,” McGregor ordered, “We need to find out exactly when the lad made his exit from the ship.”

Chen rewound the feed and stopped when Stuart’s body returned to the picture. From there both men watched the screen and wait for the exact moment which came a minute later. There was no bright lights or even flashes, as Stuart’s body just simply faded away and was gone. He just vanished right in front of the camera.

“Hot damn!” McGregor called out, “Elvis has left the building!”

“We need to check his room,” Chen recommended, “Scan the place before any trace left behind fades away.”

“Alright, let’s move!” McGregor said, putting his food down as both men quickly departed engineering and raced to Stuart’s quarters.

Once they were in the quarters, the two men split up to check on different things. Chen took a device to the bed and started to scan the sheets for any trace as it had been less than a few minutes since Stuart made his exit. McGregor went to check the cameras and other tech that was there to scan the room as the young man was sleeping. He had set up several machines to measure the room in various ways such as infrared so they could watch Stuart’s vanishing from multiple perspectives. All the scanners were still working, so they should be able to get the data collected. McGregor was hoping it might provide details on how people were vanishing and if there was anything they could do to block it. After checking the scanners, McGregor walked over to the bed where Chen was still scanning for any trace.

“What’s the story morning glory?” McGregor asked as he walked closer.

“Nothing left behind,” Chen reported, “Just like all the others. There was nothing left behind to suggest what happened.”

“Did our plan work?” McGregor asked, “Did that sphere take all of our lad, and not leave any parts behind?”

“It appears so,” Chen said, smiling back. “I can confirm that the sphere took all of our boy; every damn piece.”

“Alright!” McGregor said, giving the doctor a high five. Just as they did that, the turned around to see that Commander Jones was standing in the doorway, looking at them both with arms crossed.

“Gentlemen,” she started, “What are you two doing in here?”

“Commander,” Chen said, starting to stand back up.

“We’re working on that thing I told you about,” McGregor said.

“That’s not an answer,” Jones reminded them, “What are you doing here?”

“I regret to inform you,” McGregor started, “But Ensign Stuart Charlesworth has been taken by the sphere.”

“What?” Jones said, as losing another crewmember was not what she wanted to hear. “How did this happen?”

“Actually,” Chen answered, “We allowed it to happen.”

“Excuse me?” Jones said, as she didn’t look that impressed, “Why on Earth would you do that?”

“Because we had an idea,” McGregor said, “And if this idea works, it should solve a lot of our problems regarding that sphere. We might even be able to contact our people over there if it goes exactly as we planned.”

“How would you do that?” Jones inquired.

“Stuart is different from everyone else,” McGregor explained, “And we used that difference as a way to smuggle some tech inside the sphere. We’re hoping Stuart, who is one of our brightest, will use that tech to find some of our missing people and even get into contact with the ship.”

“Okay, that sounds promising,” Jones admitted, “But you let that thing take someone else without letting me know!”

“I’m sorry, but we had our reasons!” McGregor replied, “We also fit the room with cameras and scanners, so we could gather more intel about how they were being taken. We got Stuart’s disappearance on video!”

“Alright, that’s progress.” Jones conceded.

“We can also use the data from the scanners to analyze how he left,” Chen continued for his partner in crime. “If possible we could get Carter to use that data to calibrate our shields and that might prevent more people from being taken.”

“Okay, I like the sound of that,” Jones said, looking rather impressed. “We need all the data we can get so that people from the other ships coming to join us don’t lose people like we have. Get back to it and give me a report within the next several hours.”

“Yes, Commander.” Chen said, “We’ll update you as soon as we can.”

Upon hearing that, Jones vacated the room and was gone. McGregor let out a deep sigh as he knew that could have been a lot worse.

“She took that rather well,” Chen observed.

“Not like she had a choice in the matter,” McGregor reminded him.

“We’re lucky she didn’t have us hauled off to the brig,” Chen added.

“She couldn’t do that,” McGregor countered, “There are barely half of us left and she can’t afford to lose her chief engineer and head doctor. Still, she didn’t even chew us out, which is surprising.”

“Not yet at least,” Chen warned him. “We might get that later.”

“Duly noted,” McGregor conceded, “Let’s just hope that wherever he is, our lad is holding his own and doing his mission to the best of his ability.”