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Athens (Chapter 5)
Posted By: QuickTactical<quicktactical@hotmail.com>
Date: 14 March 2008, 10:35 pm
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Chapter 5
10.22.2520, 12:00 (Athens Time)
Ten Miles Southeast of Settlement One
Anomaly R-23
"Charlie, Nate, you two swing around to the north. We'll move in from the south."
Charlie Finch and Nate McKlosky nodded jogged away, straddling their Assault Rifles.
Michael Hawkins stopped for a moment, watching. When they disappeared he and Sam Langley moved.
The wide, softly sloping hill that they were maneuvering around was officially known as Anomaly R-23. At the summit was a large pile of boulders. The one Michael had noticed several months earlier.
Before, he had dismissed it as speculation and nothing else. It had to be completely natural. But what had happened pointed towards something more cunning.
They reached the south side of the hill and started up. Mike snapped the rifle up, scanning the large rocks. They were all large, probably weighing ten tons each, and were an earthy brown. Spaces between them were filled with smaller rocks, some of them strewn down the hillside. It was all too perfect.
Jennifer Olson, the only female design team member, had disappeared in this area twenty-four hours ago. GPS tracking records showed that her vehicle had actually been fifteen miles east of R-23, on a routine survey assignment. But when she had returned near the end of the day, as it was now with the yellow sun slinking toward the horizon, she had stopped at this hill.
Mike looked to his right and saw Jennifer's Warthog below. They had yet to check it out.
Mike and Sam reached the top of the hill. In a few seconds Nate and Charlie rounded the wide pile of boulders.
"We've seen nothing. Absolutely no trace of her," said Nate. Nate McKlosky, one of the Planet Surface Design Team members, worked with Mike.
"Then what the hell is going on here?" Charlie asked. "She can't possibly be inside this pile," he said, tapping a boulder with his weapon.
"Oh, alright. So she didn't come up the hill at all. She just walked off into nowhere," said Mike sarcastically.
They looked warily at the horizon, miles away. There was no trace of human civilization anywhere to be seen, in any direction. Just miles and miles of tall, wavy, field grass was all there was to see.
Sam looked dubiously at Mike. "Alright, I think we ought to fan out and track her trail then. We should get her by nightfall."
Mike shook his head. Of course Sam was being equally sarcastic, he could tell from being with him for years. But even though, there was nothing they could do.
Mike said, "She's on a routine assignment. She stops here for no reason. No trace of her at all. So what do we do, report that she was abducted by aliens?"
His attempt at humor brought a few smiles, but that seemed the only explanation. A terraformer doesn't simply disappear like Jennifer did. GPS tracking on vehicles was constantly updated at the dispatcher's command post on the Columbus. If anything strange was noted, radio communication was opened immediately. That's what the dispatcher should have done immediately for Jennifer when she stopped here. But the transmitter in the Warthog had been disabled, and as it happened the dispatcher had taken a quick leak in the head.
Now Mike led the team, which had been sent here when the beacon had reactivated an hour ago, to Jennifer's Warthog. There was nothing startling about it. Her compad was on the dash. She had left her pack on the side seat. There was even a half-eaten sandwich still left. It was so ordinary looking Mike expected Jennifer to appear behind them, ready to head back to camp.
But it wasn't so.
"Charlie, Nate, take this 'Hog back to camp. Stromsfield, and the Captain for that matter, is going to want an explanation".
They grimly nodded and climbed into the seats. Charlie powered up the vehicle. Mike and Sam sat in the rear for a minute as Charlie drove them over to the Warthog they had arrived in, and then the two jumped down and got in the other Warthog. Out of a hunch, Mike let Charlie lead so he could keep a visual on Jennifer's Warthog.
They started back down the trail that had been made in the tall grass, going towards Camp One. Mike reflected on the situation, and admitted sourly to himself that even he couldn't conjure any idea of Jennifer had disappeared. It simply didn't happen on a world where there were only 2,000 inhabitants, no wild or dangerous animals to speak of, and calm weather. It was as if she had been wiped from existence.
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