Season 2 Episode 04: Abductions

Gary's dangerous job

"But people disappear all the time," said Sherry. "Then flying in hyperspace got so easy that it gave some people too many places to hide."

Gary set her plate in front of her and sat down. He showed her a sheet of paper with a graph on it.

"See right there?" He said, pointing to a sudden bend in the curve. "It's gotten worse recently, and the Earth Space Force thinks it's an organized crime ring. They say they've found their base of operations here on Alsephina."

"The Space Force Guardians have well-trained commandos for looking into that sort of thing," said Sherry. "Why did they need to hire a private security team?"

"Because they can only take actions like this in coordination with the Alsephina authorities. We already know that some folks within Alsephina law enforcement and the government are in on it."

Well, that's disturbing, thought Sherry

"So, basically, the private security company that you work for has now become mercenaries working for the military behind the back of a sovereign planetary government."

"Partially corrupt sovereign planetary government," Gary replied with a scowl. "We'll raid the site, bust some heads, gather evidence, and hopefully rescue someone. We'll do it quick and get out before the local authorities arrive."

"Then your investigators will sort through it all, interrogate the people you pick up..."

"Talk to them, yes, then we'll name names to the news media and let the dominoes fall where they may. Then the Space Force will use that as an excuse to come in and roll up everyone involved."

"So you're not just playing police; this sounds like you're involved in a military coup," said Sherry. "You probably shouldn't be telling me any of this. It feels all cloak and daggery. The walls might have ears."

Gary looked around.

"It's dangerous," he said, lowering his voice. "And it involves organized crime. It'll trigger a scandal that'll pull down some powerful people...maybe. It'll get ugly, nasty, and all over the news, but then it'll be over quickly."

Sherry put down her fork and turned her chair to face him.

"You seem awfully eager," she said softly. "Are you sure what happened to me on Feleg isn't making you a bit overzealous about this?"

"Of course it is," Gary admitted, his face reddening a little at the mention of her kidnapping on Feleg 3. "It's one of the reasons they put me on the raid team. They want it to get rough."

"You understand this is different, right?" She looked at him, raising her eyebrows. "The only reason why I wouldn't let you or Helona kill my kidnapper is that I didn't want either of you to have to answer to our child someday for killing her father."

"That was different," he growled. He turned his chair to face hers and scooted it close. He took one of her hands. "I know the pain of their loved ones, and I want to help them. That's all."

Sherry picked up the sheet of paper and looked at it again. She couldn’t find any labels on the graph or clear dates indicating the rate of disappearances. She pointed to the bend in the trendline, where the abductions had suddenly increased.

"Hmm...when was this jump in the trend?" She asked.

"About six months ago."

"Gary," she said, standing up. "That's just a little after they discovered the wormhole network."

"Yeah," he nodded. "They mentioned that. That's part of why the Earth Space Force Guardians are interested. It's also the same time that they rescued us and the other survivors of The Meridian Star from Feleg."

"Gary, of course it is," she said with an eye roll and a sigh. They found an alien map that led them to the wormhole and us."

"Really?" Gary scrunched his eyebrows in that cute way he did whenever he realized that he'd missed something.

"Yeah, don't you see how that's important? This could be much bigger than just a crime ring here in Delta Velorum. If this is about the wormhole, those criminals could smuggle people off to anywhere in the galaxy. The Goultarans or the Eridani might even be involved. Is this happening anywhere else?"

He stared at the graph for a moment and shook his head.

"I don't know."

"Gary, how much do you trust the people you work for?"

"We have to trust each other," he said. "We do dangerous work together."

"Well, please be careful," she said, cupping his face in her hands. "You married me so that when my baby is born, she'd have a father in her life."

"Our baby," he said grim-faced. He stood and put his big, warm hands around her. "I think of her as ours, and I married you because I love you."

She tilted forward around her belly and hugged him. Between her size and his, she had to stretch to get her fingers to touch.

"Just get all this over with and come back to me," she said to his thickly muscled chest. His huge arms pressed against her shoulders, and she melted into him as she listened to his heartbeat. "If it comes down to a choice between one of these kidnappers getting killed and you, please don't hesitate. Your life is worth way more than any of theirs."

"I promise," he said.