Chapter Thirteen
The group of them seemed to have vanished from the planet completely. Jaspar’s crew used their technology to scan for their vital signs, for their communicators, for anything that would indicate where they were.
The Harbingers refused all messages from Jaspar and his clan. Jaspar contacted Orion the Arbitrator and demanded that he force the Harbinger clan to admit to what they’d done.
A couple of days went by as they frantically continued searching, flying their craft over the area where the group had last been seen.
Liza tried to call Marjan dozens of times, and every time the call went straight to her recorded message.
“Hello, this is Marjan of the Silver-Fur Clan. If you do not leave a message, or if your message offends me, I will eviscerate you. Have a pleasant solar cycle.”
“Well, I will eviscerateyoufor getting kidnapped! Damn it! I’m really worried!” Liza yelled, and hung up.
It made no sense. The Christmas Colony was tiny. There was only one habitable continent. Even if they’d all been killed – Liza shuddered at the thought – the Balthazar Clan’s technology would have been able to trace them.
All the while, there was a steady stream of customers, and Liza and her family put on their happy faces, but inside they were sick with worry. La La slumped around glumly, and the other Srilaa patted her and tried to comfort her and cried out shrilly in their odd language.
On the morning of the third day, Fabian sent them a recorded statement, which they received on the Drakkens’ holoscreen in the middle of the living room.
“Your crew is not on our ship. I do not know where they are located.” Fabian’s lips were twisted in a hateful smirk as he signed off.
Liza looked up from a holographic map that she and Sterran had been studying.
“Bullpucky. He’s hiding something,” she said.
“I know.”
Jaspar angrily called up the Arbitrator, who appeared in hologram form, wearing a loincloth wrapped around his waist, holding a drink in his hand, and looking annoyed. There were what appeared to be several love bites on his neck, of different sizes and shapes. Apparently he was on vacation with females of more than one species.
“You should have let me interrogate him directly!” Jaspar snapped. “It is far too easy for him to get away with hiding the truth in a recorded statement. The fact that he doesn’t know where they are right now doesn’t mean that he didn’t take them.”
Orion’s forehead wrinkled. “Unfortunately, the rules of conflict are very specific. You are only allowed to question them once.”
Jaspar’s skin went scaly, and long, cruel claws curved from his fingertips. “I never got to question him at all. You contacted Fabian, not us.”
Orion shrugged. “Well, it doesn’t really matter who questioned him. He answered. The rules are set in stone. I cannot change them.”
Jaspar glared at him. “I am immediately writing up a report of this incident and sending it to our Federation representative.”
The Arbitrator looked worried. “Now, I don’t see any reason to do that,” he said nervously. “I took time out from my vacation to contact the Harbingers. I don’t see what you’re complaining about.”
“You may have cost me the ability to find my clan members, my brother among them. Your actions may have paved the way to another war,” Jaspar snarled, and closed their connection.
Liza was standing there watching, and she shook her head in dismay. “How long will the message take to reach the Galactic Federation?”
“The Drakken representative is at the far end of the galaxy. Several days at best.”
“That can’t be it,” she said, panic clutching at her. “We have to find them.”
“We will never give up,” Jaspar said.
Liza shook her head. This was getting them nowhere. They weren’t anywhere on the surface of the planet. The Harbinger crew had said that they were not on their ship. The Harbinger Starliner had not left the planetoid’s orbit, so they couldn’t have taken them anywhere.
She enlarged the map and stared at the area where the Drakken and Marjan had last been seen.
“There’s the entrance to a cave there, in that small mountain,” she pointed out.
Sterran shook his head. “If they were in that cave, we would be able to pick up their electronic signals. I could trace them under a thousand feet of solid rock.”
