Later that day, the Muse of Mischief was in one of her favorite spots. With a cup of jasmine tea she had settled into a chaise lounge on the deck overlooking the Schwarth Sea. Even from high above, she could hear the waves crashing against the cliffs. She was reviewing a recent batch of messages that Lelelu had forwarded. Lelelu would sift through the requests for help and forward the legitimate ones. As always, M had her earcom link in and activated. She was a bit startled when it came to life.
“M help! I can’t outrun them.” It was Lelelu and she sounded insane with fear.
“Lelelu where are you?” Nothing, no reply. “Lelelu, can you hear me? Zri, are you on com?”
“Yes M, I’m here. Is Lelelu with you?”
“No she hasn’t made it back from Myaad yet. I need her last known location immediately. Ferocity…” Brzko appeared on the deck with Ferocity at his side.
“Ferocity, can you take off right away, as soon as Zri can get us Lelelu’s last known coordinates?”
“Yes. I can leave now.” He grew silent for a second as he telepathically contacted his ship. They could hear the engines fire from inside the house. He used his Gaznzulian transporter to transport to board his ship as it was taking off. “Zri, do you have the coordinates yet?” he asked via earcom link.
“Yes, I’m sending them now. She was way of course. Why would she have veered off course on the way home?”
Because Ferocity’s ship used a jump drive, unless Zri was already closer he’d be able to get to Lelelu’s ship sooner.
“I found her ship. I’m going aboard.” Ferocity said.
“Ferocity be careful, someone may be on the ship.” Brzko said.
“She may be hurt Lord Brzko, I can’t wait.”
“Show me.” Brzko said.
He closed his eyes and accepted the telepathic images from Ferocity. He was on the bridge of Lelelu’s ship. It was empty and there were signs of a struggle. He silenced the proximity alarms and continued to look around. “She’s not here. Zri, how far away are you?”
“It will take me two hours or more to get that far out in the Zenbliuq Galaxy. If you can get her ship back to Misko before that. I may as well meet you there.”
“Affirmative.”
“Do you need any help Ferocity?” Brzko asked telepathically.
“No. I will be able to transport Lelelu’s ship within my shields. I’ll be there shortly.”
“Shit! What the hell happened? Who would want to harm Lelelu?” M asked Brzko.
“We’ll find her M. Don’t worry. We’ll find her.”
“Hey don’t do that calming thing to me. I’m pissed and I want to stay pissed.”
“OK, I know. As soon as Ferocity gets here we can start trying to piece together what happened from her sensor logs.”
“Until then. I think we should also alert Bartala and Ciic. They both have large networks of ships that could be on the lookout for any information about Lelelu. And there’s a chance that they may be in danger.”
“Good idea. I’ll contact Ciic, you contact Bartala.”
They both decided to deliver the bad news in person, temporarily leaving Ferocity’s butler, Whotov, as the only being on Misko.
The Muse of Mischief 