Board Thread:The Mech Bay Bar'n'Grill/@comment-24930445-20140526230330/@comment-24866242-20140602001102

Discoveries

Dylan was concerned. For years, he and his “friend with benefits” Daisy had spent their weekends together. It was an understanding they had from the first night. Neither considered the other “love interest” material, (although they had found themselves mysteriously married on several outposts in direct line with the Midnight Angel’s route near the beginning of their relationship) but they had fun together. She was usually very prompt, sometimes too prompt in her eagerness to get the fun started. Tonight, she was nowhere to be found.

He stopped by her place, but there was no answer. He took a pass by personnel, but they were closed up for the night. Back at his room, he did a scan for her location on the base. That’s when he really became concerned.

There was no such person listed. It was as if she had been wiped from the data banks. He frowned and punched a few more keys. Nothing. No such person now, or at any time by that name had existed on the base.

He had heard stories off and on since they had landed on the moonbase three years previously about people disappearing, but he had never really put much stock in the stories. Ok, admittedly, most of them were from Daisy. Having worked in personnel for years, she had found several employee files completely wiped from the system, but when she remembered to mention them, it was only in passing… as in passing through the living room to the bedroom. By the time the weekend was over, they could barely remember their own names, never mind people who were no longer around.

He punched a few more keys on the comp and located Lauren. She was in her own place instead of Larry’s for a change. Grabbing his portable, he quickly made his way to Daisy and Lauren’s apartment and knocked on the door. The door opened just enough for her to peek through and, seeing Dylan, she blushed then glanced over her shoulder. “Dylan….”

He wasn’t in the mood for niceties. “Lauren. Have you seen Daisy?”

Lauren frowned. “No I thought she had moved in with you.”

Dylan gaped. “What do you mean, moved in with me? Why in the hell would she do that? Wait.. what are you saying?”

Lauren’s frown deepened. “When I got home, her stuff was gone. I just assumed… Where would she go? Lawrence!” She turned and made her way further into the tiny apartment, leaving the door open for Dylan.

He quickly closed the door as he stepped through, but not before checking the hallway to see if anyone had been lurking. Inside, he wasn’t surprised to see Larry exiting the bedroom while hastily tucking his shirt into his pants.

“Larry. Have you seen Daisy?” He didn’t miss the warning look Larry flashed him and he frowned questioningly in response.

“We were under the impression she moved in with you. I wouldn’t be too concerned, she’ll show up eventually. Maybe she got tired of you leading her on and found someone new.” While he spoke, Larry moved around the room, his hand passing over various lamps, comms, and pieces of furniture. He stopped briefly in the corner and lifted a lamp shade before grabbing a scanner from the desk next to it.

Lawrence made another quick pass of the room with the scanner and mimed talking with his free hand, “I know it hurts, Dylan. Maybe you should think of how she felt.”

Dylan nodded in understanding. “What? I didn’t do anything wrong. She knew we weren’t exclusive… Beh.. to hell with her. She wants to go off with someone of lesser quality, he’s welcomed to her.”

Lawrence eventually returned to the lamp and fiddled with the scanner before setting it on the desk next to the lamp. The scanner hummed quietly. Lawrence picked up his jacket and produced a small notebook from the pocket. Lauren and Dylan were surprised to see something so low tech, but he started scribbling a note on a page inside.

“Glad to hear you’re taking it so well,” Lawrence told him and handed him the notebook. ''That’s the only one. Keep talking. The scanner will generate a chatter stream in a minute and we can talk safely.''

Dylan frowned at the note, then looked up at Larry in disbelief, mouthing ‘you shittin me?’ before carrying on the charade. “Geh.. I need a beer. Can I raid the fridge?”

Lauren nodded, reading the notebook over Dylan’s shoulder, “Help yourself.” She managed to sound relaxed but her eyes were worried

Dylan smiled at her in an effort to ease her worry, but, being as he felt just about as stressed as she appeared, he wasn’t sure he had succeeded. He made his way to the fridge and grabbed a beer, popped the cap and slammed the fridge at the same time. “Yeah.. alright.. ta hell with her.” He left the beer untouched.

The scanner suddenly started producing low voices, its AI adapting from what they had already said. The three of them heard their own voices continue, Dylan droning on about how Daisy didn’t deserve him, and Lawrence and Lauren reassuring him. Dylan couldn’t help but feeling a twinge of regret at what was being said. Now that she was gone, he found he had actually cared for Daisy.

Lawrence beckoned them away and gathered them in a small circle on the other side of the room. “We can talk, but keep it down. Jos is cleaning house.”

Dylan frowned. “What do you mean? I haven’t heard anything about transporting personnel out… I mean, nothing concrete anyway.” All the stories of disappearances filtered through his mind and he cursed himself for not having checked into it sooner.

Lawrence shook his head, “Daisy was here because of me. Jos knows who my friends are. You’re all here because of me. If Daisy is gone that’s bad news.”

Dylan gave Larry a bland look. “Pretty cock-sure of your self there, my friend. Why would they take Daisy?”

Lauren sighed. “Because she’s the only one who knows all the specifics. Having worked in personnel… hell, having made up the teams, she knows…” Lauren winced, revising her wording. “knew… everyone involved and their classifications. She was speculating the other night on why the teams were made up as they were. She even complained about unauthorized transfers off the base over the past three years, presumably the disappearances we’ve been hearing rumors about.”

Dylan frowned darkly. “As far as I know, security has not authorized anyone transferring out.”

Lauren shook her head. “That’s what I’m saying. All of the official channels were circumvented. By all appearances, they just simply vanished, belongings and all.”

Lawrence shook his head, “You both know what kind of person we work for. If she’s decided to eliminate us one at a time there’s nothing we can do about it. Maybe Daisy did something that called attention to herself. Maybe she was a message to me. Best I can do now is try and get back into her good graces.”

Dylan and Lauren shook their heads in unison, though Dylan was the one to point out the obvious. “No, something else is going on here. There haven’t been any transports on base for a week. How the hell did she get off base?”

Lawrence shrugged. He was at a loss. He knew Jos. She was having fun with whatever methods she was using, even if she wasn’t doing it herself. It didn’t really matter, but Lauren and Dylan didn’t seem to share his fatalism.

Dylan could see Larry’s hesitation, so he hit where it would hurt hardest. “Who’s next? Lauren?”

Lauren gasped, a hand flying to her mouth as her frantic gaze shifted between Dylan and Larry. “I’m sorry, Lauren, but its a fact. If Larry is right, then you and I are in danger just from being friends with him. I don’t know about you, but I’m not about to lose our friendship to her or anyone else. Daisy’s gone, they’re coming for one of us next.” Dylan frowned, suddenly in thought. “I still don’t see how they got her off base.”

“I’m not sure what difference it makes,” Lawrence said. Lauren had moved next to him and he slipped an arm around her. He was in uncomfortable new ground and he realized that the last ten years had been leading up to this point. Jos had happily let him form these relationships and now she had a new way to control him. Daisy had always been more important to Dylan and Lauren than she had been to him. In his mind it was an obvious message. Any time I want, I can take her away from you. Dylan would be next, he knew. “I think she’s dead, wherever she is.”

Lauren moved closer still, her free hand resting on his chest. “But what if she isn’t. What if… Think about the device, Lawrence. What if the missing have become test subjects?”

Dylan growled as he considered this. “There was an unscheduled transport a few months ago. I was busy, so I didn’t meet it. Later that day I was told to close off section five. No one has been down there since.”

“So you think the disappeared are being taken down there? All we have is a lot of speculation about what the other teams were working on.” Lawrence was still not convinced this was anything more than a message to him from Jos.

“Think about it. Daisy knew the personnel roster. She mentioned once that, given their positions, they could be used to weaponize the device. Besides, who of the disappeared, other than Daisy, do you know? Who else on that list could be used against you?” Dylan was getting annoyed now.

“But what the hell are we supposed to do about it? Rule number one, never lie to Jos. Rule two, never steal from Jos-”

“Yeah, Dylan’s rule one,” he interrupted. “Run like hell and survive. I think we do just that. There’s a supply ship coming in two days. I say we pull together everything we can on the downlow… then take off on that ship. I know the pilots. They can cover our escape for us.”

“Run to where? Jos will hunt us down,” Lawrence insisted.

Dylan’s smirk was familiar “Let me worry about that.”