Ripped Genes

    Daisuke woke in the middle of the night with an uncomfortable feeling. He wasn’t sure what had woken him, but he had one thing on his mind – the full feeling in his bladder. Cursing the wild green Sntarian tea Naysha had introduced them to, he covered his face from the greyness and tried to ignore it. The feeling only worsened, and resignedly he threw off his blanket. Eyes half shut, he headed for the designated latrine in the woods.

            After relieving himself he heard a large twig snap about twenty metres away. He froze, staring off in the direction it had come from. His hand went to his waist for his weapon with integrated quick emergency call, but he heard nothing more in the dark jungle of shadows. His hand hovered over the call button, but then he remembered there were only large predators in the north, and they weren’t there yet. Feeling silly, he imagined Woon’s reaction at being alerted for a snapping twig. He was about to turn back when he heard another loud snap. More suspicious this time, he got out the pistol and took a few steps towards the noise. As soon as he did, he heard a series of crackling noises as something ran off deeper into the bushes. Satisfied, he relaxed and made his way back towards his bedroll. Automatically he did a bed check on the way, even though it wasn’t his shift yet. Something was odd looking about D’Amour’s spot.

“So sorry, Scott,” he mumbled as his groping hands landed squat in the middle of where the man was sleeping – or where he was supposed to be sleeping. “Dr. D’Amour?” His hands anxiously patted the empty blanket roll, though he could see no one was inside it. Fully awake now, he told himself to keep a cool head. The scientist had probably just gone to do what he had just done, and would be back momentarily. Figuring his glowing Pocod made him visible, he nodded in the direction of the duty watch Panther. He stood and watched the perimeter of the clearing a minute before deciding it was time to query the six-foot-two muscular linguist and reservist assigned to watch. He couldn’t see the man in the distant dark, but he headed in his direction.

He was two steps past Scott’s roll towards where Panther should be before noticing there was no upright form in the light his Pocod was starting to cast towards him. Now an alarm bell went off. He adjusted his Pocod to over-ride privacy and trace tracker pins, as all Security Six officers could. It sent an automatic alert and recorded his action. “What in the universe?” he muttered to himself. Cursing, he turned his Pocod on bright spotlight and took a closer look at the camp. Where Scott and Blake should be, there was only the dark of night. Throwing a wide, bright light now, he headed over to alert Woon. The head sixer sat up promptly, waiting for news.

            “Big problem!” Daisuke said, pointing to the empty bed rolls. “Scott and Blake are gone!”